We may not always agree as to
what is right; but, starting there, we shall be seeking the right,
and seeking we shall find it. Ruin and disaster are at the end of
the road that starts from the slum.
Perhaps it is easy for me to preach contentment. With a mother
who prays, a wife who fills the house with song, and the laughter
of happy children about me, all my dreams come true or coming true,
why should I not be content? In fact, I know of no better equipment
for making them come true: faith in God to make all things possible
that are right; faith in man to get them done; fun enough in between
to keep them from spoiling or running off the track into useless
crankery. An extra good sprinkling of that! The longer I live the
more I think of humor as in truth the saving sense. A civil-service
examination to hit home might well be one to make sure the man
could appreciate a good story. For all editors I would have that
kind made compulsory. Here is one chiding me in his paper,--oh! a
serious paper that calls upon parents to "insist that children's
play shall be play and not loafing" and not be allowed to obscure
"their more serious responsibilities,"--chiding me for encouraging
truancy! "We are quite sure," he writes, "that no really well-brought
up and well-disposed boy ever thinks of such a thing.
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