The Advocate. [Established 1888.] [PUBLISHED DAILY.] OLDEST ESTABLISHED PAPER AND GUARANTEED LARGEST CIRCULATION IN THE DISTRICT. FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1912. "THE RIDDLE OF LIFE."

Bush Advocate, Volume XXIV, Issue 25, 19 April 1912, Page 4

The Advocate. [Established 1888.] [PUBLISHED DAILY.] OLDEST ESTABLISHED PAPER AND GUARANTEED LARGEST CIRCULATION IN THE DISTRICT. FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1912. "THE RIDDLE OF LIFE."

From the earliest dawn" of thought and philosophy until now the 20th century of one of the world's eras, the riddle of life has been insoluble. Writers and preachers are every daj r attacking it from various standpoints; hut these attacks only serve to encourage thought and ingenious speculation, and to produce a good deal of mystic and charming literature. The tbeosophists who from time to time come among us with their dreary discourses (which, if at times monotonous and oppressive in their vagueness always tend to purity of life and elevation of thought) conduct us along the paths of philosophy from j the school of Zeno to that of Socrates, from Zoroaster to Confucius. From these the thinker gets mental illumination and delights of imaginative thought, hut he perpetually finds 'himself in a logical cul de sac or an illimitaMe void of speculative thought. ',However:charming such excursions of

the mind may be, they are rather to be admired as a pastime for the leisured and cultured and for the minds of philosophical bent, than to be encouraged as .pursuits for the people of the workaday -world. Philosophy is hardly compatible with active business, and vague speculation is of no value to practical people. We are inclined to fear that speculative dreamy reverie of this sort is as pernicious in its effect on the mind as modern novels of the inferior order, —calculated to weaken it, to make it restless and unfit for the serious drama of life. There can be little use in trying to solve this insoluble riddle, The future is shrouded. The analogy of Nature, the teachings of experience, the promptings of reason, all seem to convey to us the lesson that to be happy in this world, we must live "according to our lights," and take our

chance of what lies beyond the veil. We really know no more than the ancients did of the Great First Cause. We see His works, and from them we deduce an idea of His power and benevolence but we have no scintillation of actual knowledge. He and His ways are "past finding out.-' We are in the hollow of His hand, the sport of His ministers, the elemental forces. Our only resource seems to be to keep ourselves in activity and purity, and to follow the golden rule in our social life—leaving the future in the hands of Him whoso power and justice and benevolence, are manifest in all His works.