The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1896-06-18

called to the ministry, to say that they
wished to attend college for awhile
for the prestige it would give them;
that is, they wanted to say that they
had been to college or to call them
selves college-bred.
"Closely akin to this class is the
class of ancestral worshippers. There
is large difference between a high
esteem for a noble ancestry and a
pornpous parade of pedigree. The
first is full of responsibility and creates
great energy, the last is full of conceit
and makes an advertising card of the
dead. That man has greatly degen-
Grated whose noblest history is in the
grave. have heard much recently
of socalled patriotic sentiment. The
most of it has been a low type Of ora
torical raving over our dead. You
will hear much more Of i, this fall, as
another political campaign is on US.
Your dead heroes will be hauled from
their tombs, and made to do service
in the conflict of demagogues. Young
men, l would not inspire in you con-
tempt for those whose noble deeds
have been wrought into our history,
but l would inspire a love for them
too strong to reduce them to campaign
thunder. No man nor State can meas
ure himself by the past.
$50 David stood alone in that hour
of choosing new king for Israel. Be-
hind him was no regal ancestry. All
depended upon what was in him, and
as the old prophet looked upon him
an empire seemed to rise up out of the
shepherd lad. A voice spoke within
Samuel, Rise and anoint him. 1t
was the intuitive judgment OF God,
operating in conjunction with the in
tuition of the holy prophet. 1t is
never hard to know a real man, one
of personal power. He seems to move
in divine atmosphere, and his silence
is full of authority, and every motion
pregnant with power. Such man
needs no certificates. His personality
is his credentials, and everything makes
way for him. Where was regal power
more potent and glorious than in the
thorn crowned silence of Christ in Pi-
late's hall? 1t was the unfolding of a
personal empire that swept the heavens
and incorporated eternity. He needed
no ancestry; He needed no prestige;
He stood there with no defense; but
rending rock, swaying hills and burst
ing tomb all vowed that He was King
and Lord by virtue of His personality.
"The highest product OF education
is the development of personal re-
sources. If it cannot accomplish this
then it is an immense fraud. This
makes you the measure of yourself. 1t
is the foundation stone of your freedom.
Freedom is the noblest expression of
individualism, and it is built and con-
served, not in constitutions but in per-
sonal force. You have heard much Of
constitutional rights. They are too
insignificant to be mentioned, for the
only freedom guaranteed by the con-
stitution is right to make yourself
free. With all your boasting about
being free and equal America is full
Of slavishness. We have a helpless
type of manhood growing up all
around US. The negro is still helpless,
and a country that boasts so many
tramps and Office seekers, need not
boast of any great freedom. If liberty
means rights, then liberty rests upon
personal power, for no man has any
other right than he finds in the range
of his personality. You have no right
to respect, unless you are respectable;
you have no right to honor unless you
are honorable; you have no right to a
living unless you can make it; you
have no right to Office unless you are
an official. All depends upon you.
All that David had to do when he
became king was to be himself You
would say be natural; would say be
Davidic. As David unfolded his ma
ture the empire grew. He opened it
on the poetic side, and all Israel began
to sing; he opened it on the war-like
side, and all his enemies took to flight;
he opened it on the religious side and
temple was born. Israel was the ira
vail of his personally. 1t was all David
and was golden period only because
it had golden king. Young man,
nothing that you touch will be any
larger than yourself. II there are EN-
pires in you they will come out; i
there are industries in you they will be
born. There is hereditary that run!
through everything and answers to the
law of conformity to type.
"David was the son of poor man
He knew nothing Of the ease and lux
ury Of wealth, but battled with all tn,
problems Of life that are incident to
poverty. In this respect the most o
you are like him, for you are what ths
world calls poor. You will let M
congratulate you upon your poverty
1t is the source of much assuranc
to US.
"The world has somehow come t
regard poverty as a great misfortune
if not disgrace. 'He is poor DO,
who works for his living, or 'he be
longs to the laboring class are phrase
frequently heard and seemingly in
tended fof an apology. l have hear
it said 'he is good boy, but he
poor.
"Again there is class OF spuriou
! charity that is always wanting to d
, something for the poor boy. Poli,ie
ans talk much about helping the poe