He waits and endures the unpleasant interval, steeled against definite pleasures and evident life of today, and worried into an intoxicated colored belief in the expected happiness of the undefined future.
He refuses to think of definite life of today and spoils the thought of those who do.
He is a blockade to progress, a disagreeable part of life's picture.
He gets no happiness in the today which is in his hands, he loses this opportunity during his definite existence, and lives on future hopes in a future state which no man today knows what it will be.
Both theories as ultimate beliefs are wrong, yet each has some truth in its conclusion.
By taking the words eternity and present and saying both means everything, we avoid extremes and form a truth that is rational, and harmonious to good reason.
The man who says present is all does so because he is an utilitarian. He acts on the definite and refuses to believe in the abstract. Anything that is outside the sphere of his vision and action is of little concern to him.
The man who says eternity is all, wastes opportunity, example and warps himself into a miserable hermit.
Life is irrevocable. Every act in our life is placed, set, and fixed.
Every act goes in the record book of yesterday and it cannot be changed.
Acts that hurt others will rebound and hurt us. Deeds that helped others will rebound and help us. This much is certain.
There is a future, I believe that. There is a God, I believe that.
Just what the future is, and just what God is, I do not know in perfect detail.
Reward for good and punishment for bad, is part of God's plan, and I am conscious of this truth.
I know that justice prevails in this life, and this life is what I am living now.
If I live and act today in what I sincerely believe is in tune with God's purpose, I shall in my future estate benefit by those acts.
If I live and act today, disregarding all around me, selfishly catering to personal purpose, believing that eternity is everything and present is nothing, I am passing definite opportunity to do good now, for a hope of personal reward in an eternity, the which is indefinite as to what it shall be.
I shall therefore strive to do, and to be, right; to be kind, helpful, cheery and smiling now, for the reward such acts bring now.