Morning journal and courier., 1892-06-27
is the way for the educated man to live

Is the way for the educated man to live
in his minds life and his souls life.
And this thought may well be brought
to our minds at this time in our national
history, when the development of outward
things ID 30 remarkable and when the de-
sire for these things is so largely awakened
everywhere. The safety of tho nations
inward life, it's life of thought and char
acter and manhood, rest in no small meas |
ure upon the estimate which educated men |
place upon what Is within themselves. If |
those who have learned the higher lesson |
and have received the blessings for the |
inward ife-who have been taught in q
manly way what the man himself is, as
compared with his surroundings and pos
sessions-if they are to think Of wealth as
the indispensable thing to make life worth
living; or of Office OF station as the end of
all effort; all hope, or of any external good
power, the highest glory of the nation
must disappear. And we may we'll re-
member that it is the young men of the
universities, above all others, who are to
be the energizing force for the best life of
the coming time. What can become of
that best life if they think more of what
they gain than what they ares
The great gift of education, when viewed
from the manly and Christian standpoint,
is not the knowledge which is acquired, or
the training of the powers for successful
it bestows, but not the chief pa1t
The chief part is the inward life
of the man, just as the chief part of
what religion has in its gift is the same
thing. The educated man, therefore, who
puts success or position or wealth or fame
or power over men, or anything within
the range of what the world calls good,
above the inward life, denies his true self
in the very center of his being. he turns
aside from the lawful pathway, as if he
had never received the gift in manly
way for manly purpose.
You may gain wealth, my friends; you
| may reach high station; you may receive
many rewards which life has to offer you.
Doubtless, many of you will attain to
| these things-and why should you not,
for you have the education which places
you upon the higher plane of the
world, and gives you power to move for
ward on it. But you may Motif you are
to hold forth the life-word-give these
things the frst place in your estimate of
| manly living; and you must show that you
do not by the manner in which you live.
We do not 60 about our daily work: we do
not live from year to year among our fell
low men without bearing witness az to what
our thoughts are. If we are thinking of
outward things only, men will know it.
If we are subordinating them, even while
We put forth our efforts to make them our
own, to the great inward possession, men
will know this also. And as they know it,
we shall have abundant evidence that the
light-power within US is a Hfe-power for
them, and that we by our living, as truly as
by our teaching, are holding forth the word
of life. Our manhood will thus influence
itself into the manhood of others, and we
shall be seen as lights in the world
You are to hold forth the life-word also,
in the third place, by making clear to men
about you the principles of Christian and
manly educated life, on the foundation of
which you act. Those among whom you
live must know the principles of your liv-
ing, and must receive them from you as
teachers, both by reason of your example
and of your words. And what are these
principlesi We may dwell for a few mo-
ments upon two or three of them.
If there be one essential characteristic of
the education which may be fifty called
manly or Christian, it is surely, as we
must all admit, that of truth as contrasted
with pretence or falsehood. To this
characteristic we who are here often lay
claim as especially pertaining to the edu-
cation of this place. Whether We have ii
in its full-measure as individuals or not,
we feel that the pretender who has nc
reality behind him is out of his proper
abides in it, The inheritance coming
down to us from the early days is, like the
motto upon our seal, light and truth; not
light only, but truth also; light for the
world because the truth is in it. The
fundamental principle, therefore, upon
which we move in all our life
as we go forth from this place, is to be
this-and it can be nothing else, if we are
worthy recipients of what has been given
us-that everything in effort, attainment
success or reward must be truthful an6
real. 1t is, indeed, of the essence of learn
ing and knowing that such truthfulnes.
should always be present. The pretenct
of knowing il, in strictness, contradic
, | ton in terms. It is knowing in appear
ance without the reality of knowing, ant
80 soon as the appearance is penetrated TO
the reality within it proves its own moth
ingness. One of the great blessings O.
education for the genuine man is found il
connection with this fact. He is conscious
that there is something within himsel
which has absolute existence as the basil
, of growing and enlarging life. He know
, that he ia man, with no deception, ant
!. his mind and of himself. He knows, there
fore, that so far as his learning and educa
j, ton extend, he must ever abide in tn
: | light and thus be always an illuminating
= power. Now, if you are to fulfill the apos
! ties injunction, my friends, you must b.
such genuine men. The lessons of tru
,, life which you have learned must prov
: fruitful in yourselves, and must NANTES
their fruitfulness to others also. Thu
only can you hold forth the world.
:, The word which is truly held forth, a
1 ohor "a oil of
: | ty spoken word. If it answers to tn
!, life within, it will accordingly, at all Fl
seasons, be declaration of the truth. Th
work will be but half accomplished, if 20,
do not, as opportunity offers, bear witnes
with the living voice of the trnth while, il
the sphere of the mind and soul, you ar
living in it. A message is committed t.
: | you as educated men, and the call upol
you, to which you must always be obedi
ent as faithful messengers, is to deliver i
to all-the message that the life of truth
! fulness is the only worthy life which has
: or can have the permanent and undying re
ward.
A second characteristic of the manly ant
educated life is sincerity in its purpos'
and accompanying raightforwardness il
its action. The man whose education il
after the right manner has no indirectior
in his plans or in his efforts to make then
successful. The apostles words come tx
US here with peculiar emphasis. He de
scribes his readers as children of Goo
without blemish. in the midst of crooked
: and perverse generation, among whom
they are seen as lights in the world holding
forth the word of life. The two word
: which describe the generation of men il
; the midst of whom the readers were living
: set forth, as has been fifty said, "the wan
, of candor and sincerity; public avowal al
variance with secret conviction; one pur
! pose secretly crossed and overlaid with an
: true motive" To be without blemish il
these things, among such surroundings
!, was indeed to be light in the world. II
was indeed to hold forth the life-word.
But who can look out to-day upon the
political world, or the world of wealth
: and its acquisition, or the world where
in any or every department., men are
struggling to get in advance of each other
without recognizing the description which
the apostle gave as fully applicable to this
generation2 Into the midst of multitudef
of such men you are to 60 forth as you
enter upon the work of your man.
hood. Their manner of life, like theil
! life itself, will press upon you on every
side. They will solicit You by their ex'
ample and by their percussion to initiate
and follow them. But they live in the
darkness, In the sense in which the apostle
understood the meaning of that word, and
in which manly and Christian education
understands 1.-THE darkness of the soul
| and the moral life--while you have begun
. l.. L. - f-fH- II