Philosophy of Life.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 36, Issue 6, 1 September 1945, Page 15

Philosophy of Life.

I think it is impossible to be very cheerful about life, until we have managed, somehow, to make our peace with death. I agree that our main concern should be with life. But death is so important a factor m life, both as a prospect we all have to face and as a blow, often a shattering blow, when our friends or our loved ones are taken from us, that no study of life, no philosophy of life, can be worth very much which leaves death out of account, as so many modern philosophers do. How often have I seen a man's philosophy of life, nay, his very religion, collapse like a house of cards, when death, striking at a life intertwined with his own, left, him suddenly all alone, the one being taken and the other left. I know that a great philosopher once said, m words that are often quoted and nearly, always misunderstood, that a wise man thinks of nothing less than he does of death. The reply is that fools think of death even less than wise ' men, while the dumb animals do not think of it at all. ' As to St. Paul, there was nothing on which he had thought more deeply, more boldly, more triumphantly. His gospel of liberty, his gospel of joy, his gospel of victory, was the outcome of his thinking about death. It was a death-conquering religion he announced to the world, and lifeconquering just because that last enemy was conquered. — L. P. Jacks.