The living in accordance with such creeds will not insure greatness or
distinguished reputation, because after all our efforts, no one can be
sure of worldly and external success. Events which it was impossible
to provide for, or even to foresee, will often confound the best
preparations of humanity, because the providence of God overrules all
the events of life, according to the eternal dictates of infinite
wisdom and mercy,--a wisdom that knows when it is best for us to succeed
and when to fail in our wishes and endeavors, and a mercy which, looking
to our eternal welfare, sometimes makes us sorrowful here that we may
the more rejoice hereafter.
Perhaps the cause which most frequently prevents the adoption of a creed
is the failing to recognize the seriousness of life in this world. Few
persons can be found so senseless or so reckless as not to recognize the
seriousness of death. Probably few could look upon the solemn stillness
of the lifeless human countenance without a feeling of awe at the
thought that ere long their day too must come when the beating of
the busy heart shall cease, and the now quick blood shall stay its
course,--when the hand shall lose its cunning and the brain its power.
Such impressions are too often transitory, passing away with the object
that awoke them, because persons do not stop to consider why it is that
solemnity and awe pervade the presence of death.
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