LITTLE THINGS BY Charles Robert Morrison

But pass beyond the limits of the immediate future, and note the effect of
eternity upon the things of time. There is a power that sustains and blesses,
that builds up and makes strong this present life that comes to us from
the endless life. If tomorrow we die, and death ends all--then how
different all life would be! The beasts of the field, the birds of the air,
the insects of the day and of the hour, live to better purpose, from
instinct, than would man, with highest possibilities of vigorous
thought, if there comes not to him the knowledge or the assurance, or
even the hope, of a future life. "To eat and drink and be merry," would be
the universal creed and practice if tomorrow death put an end to all.
The merriment of a limited life would be tinged with the sadness of
abandonment, if in this life only we had hope.
So, add the effect upon us of a future life, to the influence of the past, and
the hard lines of the definite and conscious present will be modified, and
we become less and less the helpless creatures of circumstances, and
more and more the creators and modifiers of all that surrounds us.
4. The Inner Life.
How great and how serious life becomes, when we consider the
conflicting forces of the things present, the antagonistic influences of
the things of the past, the uncertainties of future days and years and
realms--all of these little things centering within us, producing another
set of emotions that have so much to do with human life.
The things we think about,
those things we love or hate,
the judgments we form,
the words we speak,
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