St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-09-28
MANS TRUE GREATNESS.
BY PROF. j. c. F. KYeER, OF WACO, TEX

Church in Lake Charles, on the I'd inst,
his subject being MANS True Greatness"
Following is not verbatim report, but
report of the substance of the lecture
The lecture tonight will not be what |
expt ed to deliver, but I will endeavor to
make practical talk on this subject. My
speech to night is not cut and dried. never
wrote speech but once, and that time
tried to write sermon. | delivered 1t in
cold, unfealng style, and made fail
ure When | got through / burned the
manuscript, and by that means | got more
heat out Of l. than did when preached it.
| want to notice first that there is de-
sire in the hesrts of all men for greatness.
1t is the passion of the human soul. Am
bition is in thu breast of every man. All
men desire to be greater than they are
low. Just as tha Persans bow to the
eternal fires of the sky, so man bows at
the shrine of fame. And do not know
that there is anything wrong in ambition,
if it is Dot selfish There is music in
every mans soul God intends for every
enc to be something, and | believe that
every man has q lie mission.
Having such burning desire springing
up from halr souls, men may ask, chow
20 men become great?' There are three
ways.
Men may be born CREST. In ancient
times it was thought that this was the only
way by which man could become great
1t was so when kings ruled the world, and
greatness came to man as heritage; a
man in order to be great had to be the son
of prince or king. A man can be a
fool and become great in that way. 1t Is
not the result of what they do, but of what
somebody else does 1t is like my music
am a good musician. can't perform on
tle orgap or piano, but can make ust as
good music on tue hand organ as any body
But there is no true worth in that, because
il is really what some one else does, and
lot the result of my own exertions.
Some men become great because they
have greatness thrust upon them. A great
many men expect to become great in this
way They think it is going to come down
upon them like a cyclone. There are
Young men who are standing around with
folded arms, waiting to become great.
They are like the boy sitting on the rail-
road track waiting, with paper and pencil
in hand, for the train. Some one saw him
and asked him what he was doing. He
said he was waiting fer the train; that he
had put an iron wedge on the track, and
that he knew when tbs train came by there
would be a wreck, and he was going to
write to his mother about it. Some young
men ara doing nothing, trying to do MOTH
Jog, have no energy, and are lounging
srourd waiting on fortune. | don't have
any sympathy fer this class of men.
Lave great sympathy for working men
men who have great difficulties in their way
and are striving to overcome them-but
have 8 perfect contempt for those who are
continually complaining of hard times and
moncpolies, and are doing nothing. They
are c-oakers, cankers, waiting for some
thing to turn up, and expecting to land il
success
Bat while some men expect to have
greatness thrust upon them, there are
others who become great in another way
by achieving greatness. Those men are
| rot waiting for luck. It has been saiC
that Luck is fool Pluck is hero
Persons are generally faint hsarted whc
| trust in luck. They have no courage
| Such men will not succeed but the mar
who realizes that there is God in heaven
and who has courage, perseverance, deter
rination and a purpose will steadily CLINT
the hill of fame until he reaches the top
| from which he can look about him, above
| the heads of his fellow creatures. With
such spirit Of de'ermin alton, he will Ger
talnly achieve some great end.
How are men to achieve greatness? Lee
the earnest young man analyZe success
let him look a. the great men in the world
history, and he will find that at the very
base of all true greatness is moral purity
Unless man starts right, he will Away:
be wrong. If he does not start right OF
his Journey, he will be wrecked man. 4
young man starts in life, and from lack o
morals, goes into the saloon or to thu
gaming table loses his money and goe
down into the gutter.
Education is one of the means of obtain
ing greatness 1t is impossible for maj
to know too much. AS it pays a man Il
} grind his ak before he goes out to work
so it pays him to train his mind by educa
ton before he starts out in life A mai
NAV not be strong physically, but if hi
mind is well developed and trained he will
be success 1t was so in the case of Watt
He was not strong physically, but he wa
enc of the greatest religious poets tina
ever lived. Knowledge is power. 1t give
a man strength. A man could very wei
do without education twenty five year
ago, but now it is fast becoming a neces
sity and l believe in ten years from nov
uneducated people in all stations of lif
will be let behind. knowledge is power
This is p:oven on every page of history
It is seen in the rise and fall of nations
Why was it that the Russian army game
such brilliant victory over the Turks
under such great difficulties? 1t wa
simply the superiority of mind over matter
| want to discuss, while | am on thi
point, the province of our free schools
How far should they go? am frien
of public education | believe that grea
good is accomplished by our free schools
and have no objection to them. But
think their proper province is to educat
our youth. | say this because we canno
teach the Bible in our public schools
Why? One reason is, the Catholics OBJ
ject They say they are taxed to keep u
the public schools, and yet it is contrar
to their religion to have the Bible laugh
to their children. On the same ground
infdelity objects. For these reasons tn
law does not allow us to teach the Bible
public schools. Educating the mind with
out the heart is dangerous. We may teac
the primary branches without the Bibl
all right but when it comes to teachin
the higher branches-astronomy, for in
stance, or botany-we must discuss grea
questions regarding Divinity. When W
teach physiology and discuss the wonder
full construction of the human body, W
involve the great question of Creator
And unless the questions are fully an
point, puAs are likely to become skeptit
, orI SEED RICE.
7 was a DI0thodist, Ia aid support