p. 43 | Two Views of Life

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 29, 1859

Two Views of Life.

A YOUNG man recently committed suicide at Richmond, Virginia, who, before he plunged into the unknown, wrote for the world, that life was a farce, happiness a humbug, and the cares and trials before him only a prolongation of sorrow; and so he rounded the farce with a tragedy, and surrendered a treasure he had not the resolution to keep. Another man once lived whose trials and cares were doubtless greater than any this young man's timid fancy ever suggested; and after he had braved them all with a stout heart and unfaltering faith, and his eye looked beyond the curtain which parted before him, and the full effulgence from the Land of the Blessed poured upon his enraptured vision, left as a legacy to those who should come after him, to inspire them with courage and cheer them onward, these immortal words: "The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing." How utterly despicable the views of the one appear when contrasted with those of the other.