The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1897-12-10
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
BY "NEMo.'

SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
BY MEMO
The strength of muscle comes from
long continued exercise; the strength
of an ideal from years of devotion to it,
strength of mind from patient training;
strength of character from the markings
left by decades of struggle. And there
is no short way!
Would you seek the royal road to the
pinnacle of your life's highest possibili-
ties? Then move forward, watching
for guide-post with the single word
"Effortw Turn in by it and press on,
though it does not lead by flowery
paths through valley fields. Your
highest, like a mountain-top, will never
seem to move toward you until you
move towards it. Ways of life are thus
divided:-to the doubling and timid
ones, the lowly paths that give no wide
outlook; to the fearless and purposeful
ones, ways that climb upward, leading
by many grand experiences to a pros
pect most broad and to an atmosphere
most exhilarating. And what is this
tendencies of our nature, but the coun-
terpart of real mountain climbing, in
which the world ever grows broader
and yet more silent at every forward
step and backward glance. There,
alone with the Highest, our hearts are
filled with mingling emotions, our eyes
glisten with tears and we know not
why; save that we are small,-smaller
in relation to the universe than an in
visible animalcule is to us-great-
greater than all created things if we
unite our force with the Force above,
-weak-weaker than veriest thread if
we forget our union with the great hu-
man family below, sad-sadder than
we can understand because so many Of
our fellows are contented with narrow
valley-sight.
*s*
Effort overcometh the world, for eff
fort is faith-in oneself, and the value
of life, and in the right of the world to
the best we can accomplish. Effort
well-sustained and Notwithstanding
is the victory! But would you seek a
shorter way? Then use "Longing" as
your guide-post 1t leads by dream
paths to golden glories that vanish
4, l.
dazzled eyes out into dreary desert
and leaves you to enjoy the substance
of mirage. 1t weakens your manli-
ness, 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 scor-
pions; who turn the defeats of life into
more certain victories by struggling on
when all seems lost; who yield to neither
difficulties nor ppointments, not be-
cause they stop to argue out advantages
but because the spirit of true man de-
spises yielding cannot yield! These
are the ones who stand serene after
great resistings, whose deedS-arC
woven into every progress, and whose
freely spent efforts are the secret of hui
man triumphs.
Herein is your hope and mine, hum
BILE men of purpose. Shall we credit
Luther with the Reformation? No
rather he merely voiced feeling thai
was moving resistlessly through the
awakening European giant. Without
that dumb cry for freedom of thought
a cry that was not solely a religious
protest-he might well have fingered
within the scholastic walls of Witten
berg. Shall we paint the signers of oul
Declaration as heroes? Yes, ifyou will
Yet surely they came to the front be
cause there was public opinion bach
of them, and this was made up of those
nameless yet conscientious elements Of
a country's life that are the substratun
and the very substance also of all grea
forward movements. And-on thu
other hand-shall we credit Alaric will
disrupting the Roman EmpireP No
his strength consisted in the weakness
of his enemies, who, raised to HEAVIER
by their privileges, brought themselves
down to destruction mot by the wicked
ness of any one man, but by the genera
unrighteousness 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 possible only by an in
crease of the strong and a decrease o
the weak. The weak are those who d.
not utilize life to the full; who, loving
the comfort of the hot house, perish a
the sincere chidings of the north wind
who crumble like sand ramparts at tn
, first touch of the ocean of testing tina
all characters must endure if they woult
, be true; who seek for themselves tn
quiet inches of life, satisfied to foreg
the honors if only they can escape thu
strivings that precede honors; who
like tropic savages, are content wit
food secured without labor and nue.
. sIaan with late a w q kaninps. who hahn