THE STREAM OF LIFE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2686, 6 September 1905, Page 88

THE STREAM OF LIFE.

By a Banker.

How varied is the experience of the children of earth of that stream down which all are voyaging! Som«. find it to be a turbulent, .stormy current, ever agitated by contending eddies and swirling rapids, or convulsed by ftaming billows and surging, wind-driven breakers To some it is a dull, leaden stream, inertly flowing ever on, torpid, sluggish, and monotonous, its murky surface doleful, gloomy, and cheerless, without change, dull and joyless. But to multitudes of others it is a joyous stream, ever bright and sparkling, ever splendent in a shimmer of glad sunshine, flowing midst the loveliest of surrounding's through sun-lrt, flower-bedecked glades, ferny banks, and tree-bordered reaches and vistas.

And as we look upon any .great assemblage, young and old, rich and poor, we sometimes give rein to the imagination and conjecture how he or she is travelling down that varying and changeful stream. Here is a man past middle-age whose life- has evidently been a failure. Apparently he understands not the joy of existence, and had* no conception of the zest and ecstasy c-f life, for his brew is furrowed and careworn, and not a ray of hope gleams from those mournful and dc-lesotne eyes. Here and there are couples evidently affianced, who have plighted their troth each to the other, and, full of hope, are about to sail hand in hand together clown the stream of life; some youthful and in the early spring of existence; oth&rs, she in the noontide of her beauty, he "arrived at middle-age, in the very prime of life, when the emotions of the heart arc more fervid and more ardent than

in early youth, and the experience is more matured. " And doubtless they all, as they Took down the long vista of that stream, picture to themselves a prospect of unalloyed, buoyant happiness, each aiding the other in the great contest of the battle of life; each sharing the joys and assuaging the sorrow? of the other.

And here are others; some niart, no doubt, but, jvidgiiig from appearances — which perchance may happily belie^ — living only for pleasure, and, unless they alter, whose departure hence will not leave the world at all the poorer; and others, large-hearted, liberal philanthropists and. benefactors, whose chief pleasure in life is to raise and benefit their fellows.

But these aa*e but a few amongst that vast crowd of all sorts and conditions. And amongst them all, those who will derive the greatest amount of joy and pleasure in their journey down that stream- of life are they who, doing their utmost to live in accordance with the Divine precepts, have with the aid of the Holy Spirit laid their sins upon Him who Himself bore the punishment due for them. For they know for certain thai when they cross over l,hat -other -stream, ths co-Id stream of death, the outstretched hand of the Saviour will welcome them as tEey step on the bright shore of the glory-land, where, for «ver and for ever, will be their joyous inheritance.