The record-union., 1897-06-06
SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
Copyrighted by Memo.

| as far as telling you that you had 10
| struggle with your brains against 9TH
| ers, instead of with deadly weapons
| like the men of former ages. That ar
| ticle had to do with fighting, fair and
| square in the open-just the sort OF
| fighting a strong boy thinks to be hon
est But we are not always able 10
choose the manner of our fighting. We
may be quite willing to stand up and
| test our strength hand to hand with
the enemy, but he may succeed in
shutting us UP in a city or a fortress
in other words, he may besiege us, and
then instead of the beautiful motion of
marching troops deploying into line
of battle and the excitement of aides
de-camp scattering in various direc-
| tons, there is the silent, sullen waiting
| for assault, and the noiselesS work of
| the sappers as they endeavor to get
where they can destroy the walls of
the beSieged with mines of gunpOWder
Many of you ought to be able to re-
member the facts concerning the siege
of Yorktown; how Washington and
! Lafayette carefully made their plans,
threw up earthwOrks and with those
as a means of protection commenced
| to harass the defenders of the town;
then how by watching for the favora-
bic moment they moved forward
again and threw up a second line of
earthworks, Notwithstanding the enc
my's guns were for a little time shoot
ing down the length of the trenches;
and finally how CORVALLIS, cut off on
the water side by the French and sur
rounded hu lo,7 bo
| defense and surrendered over 1000
| men as prisoners. In your histories
you can find numbers of other sieges
described, some of them lasting week
| after week; like that of Sebastopol. in
the Crimean War, which scarcely end
ed in a year. Sieges call for great
courage, both on the part of those
shut in with starvation and thirst and
| death coming nearer and nearer, and
also on the part of the besiegers, who
are sometimes slaughtered in heaps as
they attempt to enter the town
| through some breach in the walls. 7
don't like this idea of an enemy crawl
ing, creeping, burrowing along until
he is ready to spring up suddenly and
strangle power and life out of you I
expect you do not either. But if the
people shut in have plenty of food and
a good supply of water, if their walls
are too thick to be broken by cannon
balls, If they can make a sudden rush
and break up the defenses of the be-
siegers or if they can burrow under
ground and meet the mines of the enc
my with countermines, there is not
much to fear. Yet there remains one
danger with which even strong forces
sometimes have to contend: the dam
ger within from a traitor, who will
tell secrets to the enemy or open the
gates to them.
We can learn from battles of the past
| to look for battles now This week T
want you to remember that sieges have
not come to an end even in our peaceful
country; and that you, small. young.
unknown to me, are in a state of siege:
not with cannons nor with battering
rams, but with temptations.
| If you will follow me a little while
| will show you just how closely YOU
resemble a fortress that has enemies
encamped around it to starve it out and
destroy it. fortress can usually be
attacked in more ways than one. SO
can you-through your brain, your. van
| 1ty, and the appetites of your body.
In a fortress you cannot choose the
manner in which your enemy shall at
| tack you. He will seek the weakest
| point, and the defense must be made
| right there. 1t would be a poor de-
| fender who massed his troops remote
! from the point attacked. So if the en-
emles of your character come tempt
| ing you to cOnceit because you know
more than others it is no use for you
to say In defense that you never eat
too much, because conceit concerning
knowledge has nothing to do with over
loading the stomach. Then, again, if
another time you are tempted to be
| greedy, what defense is it to say that
you are not conceited? If also some
day you are tempted to say vulgar
words to boys or girls it is no defense
| to declare that you stood at the head
of your class, and so on. / could multi
ply the number of temptations that
may assail you from day to day, all
| of them different, and all of them be-
sieging your character
Did we not say something about the
advantage of food and water in the
fortress? The besieged boy. too. can
hold out long if he have the body we'll
stored with strength, and the mind
filled to overlooking with pure thoughts
that vanquish impure
And we must go back to sieges in
order to illustrate a further point to
you. What did we say was the greatest
danger inside strong fortress? A
traitor. So want to tell you that all
the enemies that come against you are
not nearly so dangerous as your own
Will Your character has very little
chance of victory if your will joins with
the temptations, for then you will yield
to naughtiness and find the fortress of
your character taken
I do not intend to seem like preaching
! a sermon to you, so 1 shall close with
| just one more idea that is sure to be un-
derstood by you. How is it with the
young soldiers who go through the
hardship CT a siege and come out victor
ious? Are they not wiser and less likely
to run away? Are they not stronger and
less inclined to doubt their own ability
than they were when they were young.
unframed recruits? Just so it is with
you. When you have resisted and come
off victorious you are stronger at that
point than you We're before. Struggling
with temptation to do wrong is really
the best thing for us in making us pure
and vigorous in character. This 1 want
you to remember the next time that
the impulse comes to do something
that you have learned is wrong.
Sure to Take.
II am going to do something in the
literary line which will take better than
Scotch dialect remarked Mr.. Trench