WILL YOU PAY THE PRICE?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 433, 5 September 1908, Page 4

WILL YOU PAY THE PRICE?

With every rising of the sun Think of your life as just begun. The past has shrived and buried deep All yesterdays —there let them sleep, Nor seek to summon back one ghost Of that innumerable host. Concern yourself but with to-day; Woo it and teach it to obey Your wish and will. Since time began To-day has been the friend of man, But in his blindness and his sorrow He looks to yesterday and tomorrow. You and to-day, a soul sublime, And the great, pregnant hour of time, With God between to bind the twain, Go forth, I say. Attain ! Attain ! You want to be healthy and strong, of course, and to keep young. But are you willing to pay the price ? The price is temperate living, carefulness in diet (neither fasting nor feasting), avoidance of stimulants and drugs, enough exercise each day to open the pores, enough sleep each night to refresh the body and mind, control of the passions, optimistic thoughts, cleanliness, correct breathing (deep breathing), which uses the whole lung capacity, and proper altitudes of the body. Persistently carried out, every hour ot the day, these simple rules mean absolute health for the young and restoration to health for the mature. But are you willing to pay the price ? Of course it means continual selfdenial. Rich food, many stimulating beverages, late hours and idleness are all enjoyable for a time ; for a time they do not seem to interfere with the health, but eventually they destroy it. Will you pay the price and be well ? You want to be successful.

But that, too, costs. You can pay on the instalment plan, but it will keep you busy. Concentration is the first payment. It is a word much used, but little understood. It means drawing all your mental forces to one centre and keeping them there when you have any goal in mind. It means quiet, persistent, unswerving devotion to your purpose; continual application and absolute belief in your ultimate success. It means finding your own balance and maintaining it through all sorts of discouragements and overcoming every obstacle by your own personal endeavour. It means rising up and going on after each downfall, and going back and beginning over after each mistake, cheerfully and hopefully. That brings success after many years. Are you willing to pay the price ? Perhaps you are filled with a mad passion for some man or woman, one who is not free to belong to you. Perhaps you say you are Willing to give up the world for that person. But are you ? After you pay the price will you not go whining about and calling the world cold and cruel that it does not accept you and your commonlaw mate? Will you not tire of your associate after the lever abates and want still another ? Can you be satisfied to live on to the end of life with this companion and continually pay the price ? You may be looking forward to what is called “a good time” by many young men. You are going to make a night of it, and eat, and drink, and carouse, with the idea that you are enjoying yourself. Are you willing to pay the price ? It means headache, wasted vitality, lost respect, baggy eyes, a step downward and backward in this life, which is given us for continual progress. Are you willing to pay the price ? You want a good woman’s love and companionship through life in a happy home. Will you pay the price ? A good woman is worth a man’s continual attention ; she is worth a man’s loyalty and love ; she is worth entertaining ; her faults and weaknesses must be patiently borne with, and he must learn how to help her correct them by correcting his own. A satisfactory home must be built from within.

To buy brick and stone and furniture and marry a good woman for love does not ensure a happy life by any means. The price is an eternal effort of each inmate to be worth while, to be unselfish, to be sensible, to be kind in the little things of life. Are you willing to pay the price ? Perhaps you want great riches. You can have them by becoming a grafter, a miser, a schemer, and by shutting away all sympathy, kindness and humanity from your heart. You can acquire wealth enough by such means to make you hated and despised by all rightminded people, and to make you sought after by the brainless spongers of earth, who will want to receive money favours at your hands. It may be that you want to grow mentally and spiritually, and to make yourself the very best specimen of your race possible in your stage of development. You can do it if you are willing to pay the price. The price is concentration, self-control and faith. A half-hour each day given to communion with your best self, and with the invisible Friends who are ever waiting to strengthen those who seek the heights ; a constant aspiration to grow in usefulness and wisdom, a patient weeding out of all that is selfish and petty, and a thorough mastering of the laws of mind. But the work must te perpetual, hour by hour, day by day, and year by year. Are you willing to pay the price ?