The University of Hard Knocks Part 25

Each day as I go up the mountain I get a larger vision. The miles that seem so great down in the valley, seem so small as I look down upon them from higher up. Each day as I look back I see more clearly the plan of a human life. The rocks, the curves and the struggles fit into a divine engineering plan to soften the steepness of the ascent. The b.u.mps are lifts. The things that seem so important down in the smudgy, stormswept valley, seem so unimportant as we go higher up the mountain to more important things.

Today I look back to the b.u.mp that sent me up Mount Lowe. I did not see how I could live past that b.u.mp. The years have pa.s.sed and I now know it was one of the greatest blessings of my life. It closed one gate, but it opened another gate to a better pathway up the mountain.

Late that day I was clambering down the side of Mount Lowe. Down in the valley below me I saw shadows. Then I looked over into the southwest and I could see the sun going down. I could see him sink lower and lower until his red lips kissed the cheek of the Pacific. The glory of the sunset filled sea and sky with flames of gold and fountains of rainbows. Such a sunset from the mountain-side is a promise of heaven.

The shadows of sunset widened over the valley. Presently all the valley was black with the shadow. It was night down there. The people were saying, "The sun doesn't s.h.i.+ne." But it was not night where I stood. I was farther up the mountain. I turned and looked up to the summit. The beams of the setting sun were yet gilding Mount Lowe's summit. It was night down in the valley, but it was day on the mountain top!

Go on south!

That means, go on up!

Child of humanity, are you in the storm? Go on upward. Are you in the night? Go on upward.

For the peace and the light are always above the storm and the night, and always in our reach.

I am going on upward. Take my hand and let us go together. Mount Lowe showed the way that dark day. There I heard the "sermons in stones."

Some day my night will come. It will spread over all this valley of material things where the storms have raged.

But I shall be on the mountain top. I shall look down upon the night, as I am learning to climb and look down upon the storms. I shall be in the new day of the mountain-top, forever above the night.

I shall find this mountain-top just another shelf on the side of the Mountain of Infinite Unfolding. I shall have risen perhaps only the first mile. I shall have millions of miles yet to rise.

This will be another Commencement Day and Master's Degree. Infinite the number on up. "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which G.o.d hath prepared for them that love Him."

We are not growing old. We are going up to Eternal Life.

Rejoice and Go Upward!

ANOTHER BEGINNING

The Big Business of Life Turning work Into Play

By Ralph Parlette

This book proves that the real big business is that of getting our happiness now in our work, and not tomorrow for our work.

Judge Ben B. Lindsey, the kids' Judge, says: "It is a great big boost for everybody who will read it. People ought to buy them by the gross and send them to their friends."

Dr. J. G. Crabbe, President of the State Teachers College, Greeley, Colo., says: "The Big Business of Life is a real joy to read. It is big and ought to be read today and tomorrow and forevermore every where. It is truly 'A Book of Rejoicing'."

The Augsberg Teacher, a Magazine for Teachers, says: "In The Big Business of Life we have the practical philosophy that it is everyone's business to abolish work and turn this world into a playground. Who will not confess that many mortals take their work too seriously, and that to them it is a joyless, cheerless thing? To be able to find happiness, and to find it when we are bending to our duties is to possess the secret of living to the full. And happiness is to be sought within, and not among the things that lie at our feet. The book before us is wholesome and vivacious. It provokes many a smile, and beneath each one is a bit of wisdom it would do us a world of good to learn. It recalls the saying of the wise man 'A merry heart doeth good like a medicine'."

Many who have read The Big Business of Life write us that they think it is even better than "The University of Hard Knocks," which, they add, is mighty hard to beat.

It's Up To You!

Are You Shaking Up or Rattling Down?

Go On South!

The Best is Yet to Come

The Salvation of a Sucker You Can't Get Something for Nothing

These booklets by Ralph Parlette are short stories adapted from chapters in "The University of Hard Knocks."

John C. Carroll, President of the Hyde Park State Bank of Chicago, bought 1000 copies of the booklet "It's Up to You!" and of it he says, "Parlette's Beans and Nuts is just as good as the Message to Garcia and will be handed around just us much. I have handed the book to business men, to young fellows, bond salesmen and such, to our own vice president, and they all want another copy to send to some friend. I would rather be author of it than president of the bank."

Employers in every line of business are buying quant.i.ties of "It's Up to You!" for their workers.

William Jennings Bryan says of the booklet "Go On South": "It is one of the great stories of the day."

Charles Grilk of Davenport, says: "My two children and I read the Mississippi River story together and we were thoroly delighted."

Instruct us to send one of these booklets to your friends. It will delight them more than any small present you can make.