The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1868-03-26
From Ihe chronological Journal.
seIr.MeIp:

"God helps them that help them
selves" is an old and good motto. BY
self-help alone can a man make his life
a true success. 1t is not the indOIent
man who sits lazily in his chair, and
thinks that Providence will help him
without the necessity of helping him
self, who succeeds. No. 1t ishe who
goes resolutely out into life's battles,
and strives and struggles manfuIly
against adversely, rising step by step,
beginning at the bottom and working
onward and upward, steadily but sure
ly, until at last he reaches the goal of
his ambition. These are the indiYid-
uals that constitute a nations heart
these are the men who bring nations
prosperity. The nation can not make
the people; but it is the people that
make the nation. And as every indi-
vidual is an atom, wheel, in the great
national lite, it behooys each and every
one to "help himself" and by SO doing
he not only elevates himself in the scale
of humanity, but helps to exalt the ma
ton of which he is unit. Intelligence
must be among the people, or the ma
ton will not be very exalted. To OBJ
tain this, selfhelp is necessary; nation
al help has little to do with it, except
to offer facilities. Sir Robert Peel
says: "Self-heIp alone makes man
succeed. If he has confidence in him
self he may despise the world, because
he is sure to get on by his own deter
mination to succeed" ...
knowledge here is within the reach
of the poorest. Our system of nation-
al education is not for the rich alone
it is offered to all who choose to par
take of its advantages. But we see
daily that boys are untaught and men
are ignorant simply because they have
not helped themselves. r
Surely no encouragement is needed
to study, more than the examples of
the thousands of eminent men who, by
helping themselves, have risen to their
present positions. Instances could be
cited without end in illustration of this
fact. The best men of history have got
their education, not in the college, not
in the common school even, but by the
fickering light of the wood fire of ali
obscure log cabin, or by the pale light
of a candle in the cold, starving garret.
Some of our most useful theologians
have graduated on their saddle-bags;
their best discourses are their thoughts
by the way. When a person seeks for
the truth, and searches diligently until
he find it; if he searches day and night
after wisdom, there must be an inner
impulse which he carefully nourishes
and feeds. All that is beautiful, all
that is delicate, all that is worth having,
all that is honorable, all that is chaste,
ennobling, and enduring in life, must
be won. Wealth can not purchase it,
and once obtained it cannot be alto
gether lost. 1t is no royal gift; kings
and queens are not the exclusive poss-
essors of it, for the humblest may vie
with the greatest in intellectual and
moral attainments. ID"
All our faculties need to be developed
by self-help. Nature may have en-
dowed us with excellent talents, but if
we do not use those talents, if we bury
them, they deteriorate. }
Some men, it is true, have been en-
dowed with finer organizations than
others, but history has proved that they
who win the race of life are they who
have had mos. difficulties to encounter,
and who have fought and mastered
them. One difficulty conquered, the
next becomes far easier to surmount,
and thus the self-helper, rising from
obscurity, has won the foremost rank.
knowledge of a mans weakness is the
only way to inspire extra exertion to
overcome that weakness by self-help.
The history of self-help is the history
of the world. The lives of kings and
queens have no influence on the history
of nations life. This is carried for
ward alone by the talent, genius, and
self-help of the people, II we would
make sour lives sublime, as indiyid-
uals, then we must help ourselves, and
God will help us. We can all do it,
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