If there are so
many dissatisfied with their state of life it is because they are not
where God had destined them to be. If life is blighted with
deception, fraught with regrets and bitterness, if our fairest hopes
are blasted, if pain and sorrow brood over our existence, it is
because the soul suffers the punishment entailed by her levity or
negligence in a matter on which her weal or woe depends, both for
time and eternity.
Oh, how sadly rare in the world is that sweet and celestial peace,
that interior contentment, that pure and simple joy which in holier
times families prized as their most precious inheritance; and which
they handed down to their posterity as one of their richest gifts:
then the thought of God and eternity presided over all the important
actions of their life; then the light of heaven was invoked when
there was question of any important undertaking; and as grave matters
were considered and weighed in the light of truth and religion, due
attention was paid to the choice of a state of life.
They knew that, while other proceedings might be changed, and
consequently their fatal result averted when foreseen, the step made
in the choice of a state of life is irrevocable and a mistake made in
that step not only involves our happiness or misery for time but also
for eternity.
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