The Vista Of Life.

days still to come do not appear so bright as they did to the innocent vision of childhood . Insignificant as we are and so perfectly powerless to control any of the events of fate or futurity , there is still concealed

within us the elements of a powerful organization , which must , perforce , wield some influence , or leave behind some mark or rememberance in its passage through this lower sphere . Suddenly created and brought upon the stage of lifeby no will

, or dictation of our own , made subject to all the arbitary laws of an already created race , we find ourselves bound to obey them and start as others have done to make the journey of life . All that passed before the reception of our breathand the

in-, heritance of our existence , is to us wreathed in blackness of chaotic obscurity . We enter the arena of life—and when the brief span of a few short years has transferred us from the days of infancy to a quickly acquired age , we find before us the

undeveloped and clouded atmosphere of an endless and unknown future . Whence come we ! and whither do we go 1 are questions easier asked than answered . Suddenly placed among the bright visions and beauteous scenes which surround us

on every side , in a world so replete with loveliness and grandeur , we find the great tidal wave of life drifting us along with such rapidity that we scarce observe the beauties around us ere they have disappeared from our eager gaze . We seek to know the why and wherefore of so brief

and unsatisfactory an existence , as is too oft had by so vast a multitude of our fellow men , but we can find no satisfactory response . In our search for " more light , " and seeking to discover aught of reason for an

existence apparently so ephemeral , and bringing to our aid all the light of nature and reason , we find ourselves getting more and more in the dark , thick blackness that obscures the beginning of our lives , and the deep gloom of futurity overshadows

the path which we must all travel ere we reach our destined bourne . Life 1 Life 1 Fit subject for the artist to delineate some of its mystic beauties , or for the pen of the student to discover some of the hidden secrets which are concealed b y the surging billows and the vast flowing

tide of the ocean of life . In the vast throng of humanity there ought to be at least an occasional one more gifted than others , who could leave behind him strange and weird chapters culled from the leaves of his eventful existence .

The rainbow—that token of the covenant—following in the footsteps of the storm , and spanning heaven ' s high atmosphere with its ethereal beauty for a few brief moments , and then imperceptibly mingling with the drifting clouds , disappears from before usis but too much

, like the dream of our lives . We are carried on by the realities of life , and each succeeding event apparently obliterates from our visions the lessons which we

should have gleaned from each preceding one . Verily , our life is but as a vapour , which appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away . 'Twere more than vain to search any human authority that will stand our criticism and explain to us the dream or

the reality of our lives , and we are forced to the only real authority when we read in the words of inspiration that He who created all things created man , and we must remember that even if His purpose is unknown to usand He has seen fit to

, conceal them , they nevertheless all stand revealed to Him . And yet , notwithstanding all this , curious thoughts continue to arise within us as we look back through all the dim , shadowy centuries which have elapsed since the day when he who was

destined to be the progenitor of the whole human family was , by the fiat of the Omnipotent , placed in a terrestrial paradise and given dominion over all contained therein , save of the fruit of the tree of life ; and the thought comes up as to whether it was intended that he should

be tried by a temptation to resist or withstand which no power had been given him ; nor was he created an immortal spirit by the breath of the Great Jehovah and placed in a frame of earthern mold expressly to serve some great purpose which He intended in the fullness of time , to carry out ! Was it intended , by a single act of disobedience , in itself apjoarently so slight , but which was still a violation of the

express commands of the Infinite and Incomprehensible " I Am , " that man should be driven from the heritage at first bestowed