AIMLESS LIVING.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 241, 11 October 1880, Page 4

AIMLESS LIVING.

I am a'fraid tb.at.the great majority of men allow their lives, as they do their beliefs, to go anyhow. They have : ue'yer formed a distinct .opinion as to • the shape their life is to take, and they | have never said calmly and strongly to I themselves, " This is the intention which jia to rule my life." They play v the [part of the sculptor who has no v modtl I and no fixed idea* There is the marble; {and they knock a, piece out -here and 1 another there, but no man oan predict ' the final result. Eating and drinking, j working and playing, and all the time., j gliding swiftly on to the grave — this jis the' distracted existence bo .many 'of jus are living.' 'What shall we be, what [shall we do to-rribrrbw. ? We really' I cannot tell. It will depend upon the' i people we meet, the things which are said to us. ."We have no^real rule. If we aie tempted to do wrong, it is possible, it is even probable, thatr we may do.it, unless it m some very bad thing quite out of our way. It is not impossible we may say that which is untrue, that for our own gain we may deceive this person and attack with anger that. Ii opportunity befalls us; we may yield to intemperance, or take the dark road of impurity. - We may be good-natured, or fly off into' fiery passion. We may help someone who is in trouble, or strike a blow, by word or act, at a rival or an enemy. We do not know what we shall do, because we have no plan, no decision. Instead of our lives being like some weil-ordered State, they are more like mob-anarchy, twisted and twined by the last Ir.'ath and the latest appeal — a shapeless jumble of good, bad, and indifferent. Is not ;this a disgraceful state of things, which ought to make sensible men hang down their heads with shame? flow are we. to get rid of it ? This is no mere question of theology. It is a question we ought to settle, even if there be no Q-od at all. To be trundled into a grave by anybody Who will deign to give us a push, is not a very fine business for " the heirs of all the ages." Q-od or no Q-od— this anarchy ought to cease.— Sermon by Page JiobertSg to the University oi Cambridge.

Surveyors' Association. — It isstated by tlic " New Zealand Herald" that tho authorised surveyors of New Zealand contemplate forming an associ- . ation, under the sanction and approval of the Surveyor-General, with a view of placing the profession in a more satisfactory footiDg than at present. It, is proposed that the association shall consist solely of authorised and Government staff surveyors, and the principal objects in view are to put a stop to the employment by the unwary public of nnathorised irresponsible persons styling themselves "surveyors," or more frequently "engineers, architects, and surveyors/ but whose professional knowledge and experience is of so limited a nature that they are unable to pass the requisite examination, and obtain an authorisation from the Survey Department ; and to draw up and obtain the Government sanction to a fixed scale of charges for each survey district in the colony.