Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1876 — Making the Best of Things. [ARTICLE]

Making the Best of Things.

Fussy people want everything just so, and expect that the sun, moon and stars are going out of their way to oblige them. The first lesson of wisdom is: Accept cheerfully the inevitable. You can scarcely understand how much sweet and wholesome wisdom lies in simply making the best of things. If we fancy we are going to make circumstances bend to us, we shall be continually run-' ning our heads against a stone wall. The wall will never stir out of our way, but we can easily go round it. We cannot help or hinder that very independent thing, the weather. It will rain or shine, be hot or cold just as it was sent. I have seen foolish people who made themselves quite miserable about the weather. It was never going to rain again, or it would rain forever! The wind blew too strongly, or else they were suffocatingfor a breath of airl Their time was filled with complaints of things they could no> more alter than they could alter the earth’s orbit. There are others I have known completely conquered by dust, flies, or mosquitoes. Such things are troublesome and annoying, to be sure, but can we avoid them by fretting and fuming? Flyspecks are bad enough, but a fretful disposition is a thousand times worse. Let the flies buzz and the mosquitoes bite, if they must, but, try and keep yourself sweet and tranquil. I remember reading of a philosopher, who was so very poor he had everything stripped away from him but a miserable straw bed and one wretched blanket. The weather became intensely cold, and to prevent freezing to death he wrapped himself completely in the blanket, and cut holes for his eyes, nose and mouth. Here, he says, he'not only existed, but. was very happy. You have heard the story, perhaps, of two little street beggars who, on a bitter cold night, crept under an old door. Instead of lamenting over their misery, one says to the other: “Ah, Pete, what do you s’pose the folks do who hain’t got any door?” Such examples of cheerfulness under great evils, should surely help us to meet the little evils of life in the right spirit.— Times of Blessing.