The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1896-06-05

then advanced to the front of the
stage and sang Gays and Elves"
(Martha) by Flotow. The chorus
showed excellent training by Miss
Holt, the instructress in music, and
made most pleasing impression upon
the audience.
Rev. John Paul Egbert, D. d., of
St. Paul, was then introduced and
gave the address, on Growth: why
stay we on earth unless we grow"
He was not in the best physical con-
dition, but gave fine address, replete
with good thoughts. He said that a
man is not old until he ceases to
grow. The powers which God has
given US have in them all the ele-
ments of boundless growth. This is
the time of growth, when the earth
has power to grow which it has not
later in the season. Like the earth,
human life receives seed at any time,
but has not the same power of growth
later in life. 1t is not what you learn
as students, but what you do with it.
knowledge is power, but nothing
| more, not the direction of power.
Next to the omnipotent power Of God,
the power of growth is the greatest
! thing in all the universe. What
thing is the growth of field of
grain! 1t is the marvellous power of
youthful life.
Every young person ought to be
ashamed if he has done nothing to lift
up universal life because of his life.
The character of growth is dependent
entirely upon the individual life.
Your growth is not in your circum-
stances and the surroundings, but in
your immortal nature. If you want
inspiration, don't always look to
books, but to people and all the OBJ
jects in nature.
He who has the genius to touch the
secret spring of the soul will release
power such as is not known to men.
The character of this growth is not
unto bigness, but unto goodness.
This power is in the least child as in
the greatest man. You are expected to
do more than to live along decent
| life. One of the duties Of genius is to
stand and see above and beyond the
rest of mankind. He will live by and
be inspired by what he sees, and bring
it down to usefulness. He is not to
60 off alone, but to take his place IN
the front rank or in advance, and do
battle. Every genius is disappointed
because his ideas cannot be accom-
plished. If you have not genius, you
have Immortality, which is better.
There is no royal road to wisdom,
no short cut to education. The long
road is the best and safest. If you
look over the history of the worlds
leaders, they stand out as men who
could suffer. They could be martyrs.
The man who fights out his battle
alone is the most successful.
Duty is always larger than ability,
in order to make ability grow. Duty
leads to the completed life,
Is Immortality living forever? 1t
is not only endlessness of
life, but boundlessness of life. How
many immortal, winged souls never
unfold their wings because some lit
tie needless, careless thing destroys
the power of growth? Some never
have thought which lifts their
minds above their business offices.
The words development" and
"heredity" are common words. Some
GO through the earth mortgaged to
Baalam. 1t is heavy burden, due to
the fault of ancestors. The student
of heredity is apt to ask, rs the
struggle utterly hopeless, are we in
the grasp of the serpent?" If we
must ride through the clouds, we can
look to the fullness above. Growth is
the great power of repair, of onward
movement.
| have few practical ideas to sug-
gest. Have a perfect ideal and hold
it up before yourself. The ideal will
grow as you climb. One purpose of
education is to take the children's
minds up to the great society of the
living and the dead, to introduce the
common place mind to Plato. Let
your ideal be as far up as it is possible