We have only one life to live, only one. Think of this for a moment. Here we are in this world of time making the journey of life. Each day we are farther from the cradle and nearer the grave. Solemn thought. See the mighty concourse of human lives; hear their heavy tread in their onward march. Some are just beginning life's journey; some are midway up the hill, some have reached the top, and some are midway down the western slope. But where are we all going ? Listen, and you will hear one answer—"Eternity."

"Oh, eternity,
Long eternity!
Hear the solemn footsteps
Of eternity."

If you were to start today and ask each person you meet the question, "Where are you going?" and, if possible, you were to travel the world over and ask each one of earth's inhabitants, there could be but one answer— "Eternity."

Only one life to live! Only one life, and then we must face vast, endless eternity. We must pass along the pathway of life but once. Every step we take is a step that can never be taken again. With this fact in mind, who does not feel like calling upon the All-wise to direct his every step ?

 If we had a score of lives to live, how to live this one would not be of such great moment. We should then have nineteen lives in which to correct the errors and sins of this one; but alas! we have but one. What, then, should we seek more earnestly than to know how to live?

 Some one has said that we each day are here building the house we are going to occupy in eternity. If this be true, nothing should concern us so much as how to live. Some men are devoting their time and the power of their intellects to invention; some are studying statesmanship; some are studying the arts, others the sciences, but we have come to learn a little more about how to live. Many are thinking much about how they wish to die, but let us learn how to live. If we live well, we shall die well.

 
Life is not given us to squander nor fritter away, but was given us to accomplish a purpose in the mind of the Creator. If we will set ourselves to live as we should, God will help us and no man can hinder us. We are purchasing treasures for eternity by making a proper use of time.
 

You and I shall always exist somehow, somewhere. One sweet thought to me is that I have time enough to do all that God intends for me to do, and do it well. Then comes another thought—a thought that awes: the good that I do, the sum of my usefulness, will be less than it should be if I spend a moment of time uselessly. God will give us all the time we need to accomplish all he purposes us to accomplish, but he does not give us one moment to trifle away.

The mission of this little volume is to strengthen and energize and help you to spend life as you should. May it please the Great Teacher, who has promised to "show us the path of life," to bless this little work and by it help some one to a pure and noble life and to the accomplishment of all God's design in giving them life.

C. E. Orr