Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1876 — Does It Pay? [ARTICLE]

Does It Pay?

The Rhode Island and New York papers notice the recent death of a clergyman of Westerly, R. 1., caused by his taking an overdose of chloral. The story of his life is a short one. At eight years of age he was received into the church as “ knowing more of the Bible then than many grown-up people.” At twenty-one he had graduated from college with honors, married, and, after teaching and studying a few years, settled as pastor. In college he overworked, and without rest or vacation labored through the next decade, and at the early age of thirty-eight died. For the last five years he found rest and sleep only by the use of chloral. He was talented, esteemed by all, loved by his own church —but on arriving at the very doors of usefulness in life, he found them shut. This is only one case of the many all around us. The case suggests the ouestion—does it pay to live so fast and do all of life’s work in a half of the three score and ten years allotted man ? Will scholars ever learn that a conscientious cessation from labor and taking necessary rest is as manly as conscientious and earnest labor? Do parishioners know what they are asking oftheir pastors when they call tor so many scholarly sermons and brilliant addresses? It hot unfrequently costs the lite of the man whom they most esteem. Will we ever learn that time is as valuable as any other force, and that he lives longest and best who lives by practical methods and never experiments with the fixed and known sources of life.— l oledo Blade.