The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1875-06-26
THE Worlds Claim Upon the World s
Leaders,"

ASouSAcs
An abstract of the address of Rev.
Irving MCGEE, ID. d., before the alumni
of Castleton normal school on Tuesday.
June "a, 1875.
Ladies and gentlemen and the alumni
1t is delightful thing to be permitted TO
stand amid these old mountains glorious in
their summer green, as they left themselves
here, the silent educators of the generations
that flow increasingly at their base. But
to me there is finer inspiration in the fact
that | am permitted to stand to-day amid
the living and vocal teachers, who shall
leave the impress sof their thinking and
doing upon the minds of these passing
generations. In spot where nature
spoaks co olnnnnntly as this spot, there
are many solicitations for us to linger and
listen to her voices, as speaks in field and
forest glen, amid the fragrance of flowers
or IN the ripple of waters and the song of
birds; but the leaders of the race may not
pause. Whoever else may rest they must
struggle gu; they must seek to enter the
vast silences of God, where He speaks to
the soul in the still melodies of thought.
am called here to address the alumni of
the Vermont state normal school. 1t Is
fair to presume that am addressing por-
ton Of the teachers of Vermont, at least
know that am addressing the representa-
tives of the intelligent classes of the state.
With this fact in view propose to discuss
before you this subject
"THE WORLDS CLAIMS UPON TuR WORLDS
LEADERS.
The true worker struggles for what the
future holds, not for what the present has
to give. The mind that is worthy of i'm
mortality sees clearly that the brightest
present reputation is not to be compared
with that which is covered and rendered
venerable by the seal of ages. If your
work has the seal of immortality in it, it
will live. If it has not it is better that it
should die. Speaking of preparation for
responsibilities, he said) no man has a
right to waste himself. No one has right
| to waste a single faculty.
Every one of your powers should be
trained and welded and directed so that
the outcome may be the best and greatest
possible. Society has right to demand
o: every hand, honest toll of every brain
healthful heat. We shall not all work
upon the same plain; we shall not catch
the same shouts of inspiration; we shall
not all be lighted by the same flashes of
hope. Some must work In caves but there
are the seams of gold. Some shall toll
through the darkness of the sea, but pearls
lie beneath the wave, and each is as worthy
as he who climbs for the jewel on the noun
tains nights.
believe that men and women of ordin-
airy gifts moderate their own capabilities.
They are not the first and so they elect to
he the last. That is not argument. Ifyou
mass the race but one will be greatest; and
| Iak 10 H.. h. hall nj ha
selectest. The great man 10 of the worlds
choosing and not his own. He will be the
last to discover it. The star that crowns
the mountain peak wears no heraldry but
/ its own lustre. My heavens, the field in
which you shall toll is as near the fixed
stars as that in which princes have done
well or i'll. There is some one waiting in
Gods good world for your thought OF deed.
There is mute pleading in some heart
for the very sentence you have left unut-
tered. Some soul wants what you can
| give. There is somewhere in the wide
world longing nothing else can satisfy.
The world was arranged upon plan that
took cognizance Of you; you have been
waited for and wanted. The divine hand
has not made one star more than the needs ;
and that hand has not launched single
soul into the illimitabe fields that is not
needed. 1t was meant that the worlds
darkness should be the brighter for the
shining of your soul and mine. Yet the
world is full of possible energy which 10
left like bars of uncoined gold in the mint,
while the world is poor for the want of it.
This ought not to be. Coin it coin 1t!
1t is not only the privilege but the duty OF
each one of you to exert such influence as
you have. Speak. The world is bound to
listen if your thought is better than its,
you become the worlds leader. But how
ever unimpcrtant it may seem to Yourself,
you are bound to think and to express your
thought There is not a single utteraDce,
from the child's prattle to the seraph's song
that the world can afford to lose. Present
insignificance Is no measure of what II may
become in the future. The faintest whs'
per OF your lips may widen and flow until
1t meets You again redolent with blessing
before the great throne.
The world has claim on your thought
but then you are bound to think well
What is expressed should be the final, no
the initial thought. Thought that is val
liable comes as the result OF thinking. i
lies at the end of the process, not the be
ginning. The claim Is for fruit not plant
ing. No man is his best without training
any more than arecruit is veteran. Hence
II is the duty of every one to have cultur
faculties that are trained.
Mental culture is the result OF menta
exercise not the result necessarily OF book
or schools These merely helm and haste