St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-25
LISTEN, YOUNG MEN
To the Words of Rev. j. P
Egbert, Who Likens the
City
TO A GREAT PAIR OF LUNGS
And Warns Against the Evils
That May Be Lurking
There.
THE CITY is THE HEART
And the Source Of Life Of the
Modern World, He
Says.
TO A GREAT PAIR OF LUNGS
THE CITY is THE HEART


cation last evening to listen to Rev.
Dr.John Paul Egbert upon ga Young
Man in This City"-the second of his
sermons to young men.
He likened the city to great pair
Of lungs, breathing into itself all the
surrounding country. Everything
tends toward the city as if drawn
by a powerful breathing. The city is
the very heart and source of life of
our modern world. In it we find the
highest good and the lowest evil
1t is the best place in the world, and
it is the worst place in the world.
The greatest philanthropy and the
greatest crimes, the noblest righte-
BUSINESS and the foulest evil-they
lie side by side. The palace on the
one street, the howell on the adjoin-
ing-they are inseparable.
There is no independence There
may be freedom. The man who tries
to be independent of his fellow men
cuts himself off from life as well as
from other influences. The closed
shutters that will keep out the storm
will keep out the light. There is no
independence in human life. God
never intended there should be- Free
dom there may be, but freedom
comes only with the truth.
Now, we want our city to be great.
What is greatness? Riches? Enormous
business prosperity? In one sense, yes.
n
city to be rich. We want it to be great
materially. 1t is the method by which
men work and educate themselves and
become great themselves, but richness
is not greatness. Material prosperity
is not greatness, even in a city, 1t is
that which greatness may use, but it
is not itself greatness. What we want
is great manhood, great womanhood,
truth of personal life. And the city is
the most magnificent opportunity in
this world
THE MODERN CITY
is the most magnificent opportunity
God ever gave to the human race
There are no such tests, never have
been such tests, never have been such
influences to inspire as can be found in
a city of today, in this city, if you will
Now, there are three or four things
that a man may settle as fundamental
in all thinking about his own living,
whether in a city or anywhere else;
and one of these is ''To him that hath
shall be given" Ponder it. ITO him
that hath shall be given" What?
THAT which he has. The evil in a
man is a magnet to attract all other
evil. The good in man is magnet
to attract all other good. A man gets
what he is-not what he asks for with
his lips, but what he asks for with his
spirit, with his soul, what he is ready
to receive. And only what man uses
does he keep, good or evil. The evil
that comes to a little child goes off
harmless. Why? The child does not
use it, does not use it in it's thinking,
in its Imagination, in anything The
evil that comes to a man that harms
him is of no harm until it passes
through his use of it. And that is the
way with everything in the world. 1t
is so with things good and things evil
There is no music in the world until it
passes through the man. 1t is mere
sound. Some say not even that, but
merely motion until it's vibrations are
carried through the physical sense and
transformed by the brain of the man to
his hearing. So it is with everything
Whatsoever a man soweth that
shall he reap" is another fundamental
thing. A young man need not think
that he can go out into these streets
and do as he pleases now, and then,
after a while, reap something else.
A man cannot think-ought not to
think-that he can go down into his
business and swindle his neighbor and
then stand right in his own innermost
soul. He cannot do it. whatsoever
man soweth that shall he reap
that and nothing else. And where
does he reap it? He reaps it in
HIS OWN CHARACTER.
That is the garner into which he
gathers the harvest A man may
sWindle his neighbor, a man may lie to
his neighbor, a man may lie to his own
soul and try to lie to God, and never
see the consequence of it in this world
But that consequence has rooted
down into his character, into his i'm
mortal soul, and after a while, when
he can see his soul-he cannot see it
noW-but when he can see his soul, his
character, as it actually is, he will
see the deformity, the paralysis, the
'foulness it may be of some disease.
It is there.
L suggest that a man ought to live
today as he would like to live forever.
DO you expect to go living forever as
you are living now? Do you want to?
No higher? No better? Why do you
dc it then? Don't you know that it is
much easier to keep a car moving than
it is to stop it? Don't you know that
this inertia that is in material things is
also in intellectual and spiritual things.
If you get to going in a certain direc-
ton, it is much easier to keep on going
than to stop or so in another direction.
Why do you live today as you do, if
you don't want to live on and Oh that
way forever? Where is the wisdom
of it? Would you establish in your
schools a system of instruction that
you would not want the children to
have when they grow to be men and
women? What do you do it for in
your own life? Learn wisdom, and
with wisdom get understanding. Ger
tainly get understanding Of the situa-
ton in which your own life is.
Now, we have a young city. All it's
institutions are new. It has had
some hard work to get on as far as it
is. I believe there is some still harder
work ahead before it will go much
further. 1t has had its difficulties. it
has had it's dangers, but it's difficulties
and it's dangers are your difficulties
and your dangers. What is the city?
\ community of individual persons
living together. What is civilization?
The art of living in civil society. The
better the art, the higher the civili-
cation. It is your life, not the life of
some abstract thing. You have dis
tinct and responsible part In 1t.
Now. l want to suggest two or three
things in regard to these difficulties,
these dangers and these helps that are
crowding all around us. You have got
to work out your own life. The city is
not going to do it for you. Nobody
else can do it for you. At best they
can give you a little help, little sug-
gestion. But the man who thinks he