The record-union., 1897-12-06

Sau-Sauder tnan we can understand
because so many of our fellows are
contented with narrow valley-sight
THE ROAD OF LIFE
The sign-post of our duty
Is pointing uD the hill
Above the valleys beauty
That stretches soft and still
The upward path is dented,
Where heroes feet have trod;
Yet we would lie contented
Upon the fower-strewn sod.
'Tfs i'll to stay repining
Because the way is long;
For vigor comes with climbing
And effort makes US strong.
And though it be not given
To US to reach the skies;
To know how We have striven
May help another rise.
Effort overcOmeth the world for ef-
fort is faith-in oneself, and in the
value of life, and in the right of the
world to the best We can accomplish.
Effort well-sustained and ll-directed
this is the victory! But would you
seek shorter way? Then use Long
ing" as your guide-post. 1t leads by
dream paths to golden glories that
vanish when you awake. 1t woos
you with dazzled eyes out into a dreary
desert, and leaves you to enjoy the
substance of a mirage It weakens
your manliness, for action, not longing.
is life. Far better to toll the path
that has been proved by all the ages.
The strong are those who make the
most of life as it comes to them; who
spurn Incidence as they would
scorpions; who turn the defeats of life
into more certain victories by strug-
Cling on when all seems lost; who yield
to neither difficulties nor disappoint-
ments, not because they stop to argue
out advantages, but because the spirit
of true man despises yielding-cannot
yieldi These are the ones who stand
serene after great resistance, whose
deeds-no matter about mems names!-
are woven into every progress, and
whose freely spent efforts are the Sc
cret of human triumphs They are a
goodly company, whom no perishable
book shall ever fully record, but whose
works live though the hands that
wrought be dead.
Herein is your hope and mine, hum
BILE men Of purpose. Shall we credit
Luther with the Reformation? No,
rather he merely voiced feeling that
was moving resistlessly through the
awakening European giant. Without
that dumb cry for freedom of thought
"a cry that was not solely religious
protest-he might have fingered within
the scholastic walls of Wittenberg.
Shall we paint the signers of our Dec
laration as heroes? Yes. if you will
Vaf
cause there was a public opinion back
of them, and this was made up of those
nameless yet conscientious elements of
a country's life that are the sub
stratum and the very substance also
Of all great forward movements And
On the other hand-shall we credit
Alaric with disrupting the Roman EN-
pire? No! his strength consisted in
the weakness of his enemies, who.
raised to heaven by their privileges,
brought themselves down to destruc-
ton; not by the wickedness of any
one man, but by the general un-
righteousness and consequent feeble
ness of the many.
Alas! the strong and the weak to-
gether make up a nation. and its con-
tinuous power is possibly only by an
increase Of the strong and a decrease
of the weak. The weak are those who
do not utilize life to the full: who,
loving the comfort of the dollhouse. per-
ish at the sincere chidings of the north
wind; who crumble like sand ramparts
at the first touch of the ocean of test
ing that all character must endure IL
they would be true; who seek for them
selves the quiet inches of life. satisfied
to forego the honors if only they can
escape the strivings that precede hon
oTs; who, like tropic savages. are con-
tent with food secured without labor
and much sleep with late awakenings:
who being weak are selfish. and shut
away their compassion from st,ug-
Cling, eager humanity whose efforts
they scorn, but whose shoe-strinrs they
are not worthy to unloose: who have
the forms of men, but the virulent soft
ness OF Jelly-fish: who have the outer
appearance Of manly grandeur, but the
attributes of internal parasites. hidden,
despised. invertebrate, yet ever fed by
others labor.
Choose We this day your class,