Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/113

 It is the one dear object which you will love and hold to through good report and evil report, "midst shine or shower," that you have to prescribe to yourselves even at this*, time of life. There is a humorous but yet suggestive anecdote. A young man and an old man met once; and the old man asked the young man, 'What do you hold as the object of life?' The young man answered, 'Study'.'What then?' 'A Degree.' 'What then?' 'Making money' 'What then?' and thus the queries multiplied, till, feeling utterly teased, the youth exclaimed, "And then I will die." And the old man still coolly asks, 'What then?' There is the final question: 'What then?' We fancy that death is the curtain that at last drops on the stage, and there is an end of the chapter. We fancy that life has to be lived out according to the present pleasure, the immediate entertainment; and there is nothing more to trouble about. I am not here to force upon you any dogmatic theology and say man will be this or man