The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1898-04-22

men began, and you will soon discover
something that will be an eye-opeper.
Men 60 down in the food of business dis
aster and social disorder because they
switched off on the wrong track when
they babe father and mother adieu at
home. 1t was the crossroad where the
tempter came and spoke the reasonable,
damnable!word that made the wreck at
the other end.
But there can be no.real success, mind
you-success that will be lasting and hap.
py-unless the groundwork is in Gods
holy law and anchored to Christ's immu-
table rule. Only one in four thousand
marvelously prosper or reach high honor.
1 believe with all my soul in the senti-
ment of this text; it is repeated over and
over again in that other text, which shall
be my first practical point:
L. Seek first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you.
Mind you, do not say this because l
am in the pulpit; do not say it because
l am minister of the gospel, 1 do not
say it because we have met within the
walls of place of worship; but do say
| it, because it is true and because it is of
the utmost importance and consequence
that you should lay it to heart. That he
only starts right and well who takes God
with him, and dominated by deep and
genuine religion. Spirituality first, tenn
poralities second.
The reason that there are so many
wrecks along our moral seaboards is that
young people get the cart before the
horse, and the result is that men and wo-
men are going to pieces by tens of thous-
ands all around us, and nothing but the
Almighty hand can save the tens of
thousands yet to come.
| IL. A successful man must have a
high sense of christian honor.
There is such thing as commercial
honor, and there are men who would al
most die before they would allow their
names to be tainted as men of ill.repute.
plead tonight for every one starting in
life to feel that they are united by the
the highest and hottest bond of religious
honor, and for that he must have high
ideal. What does this high honor do for
one? In the first place, a man who has a
high ideal of honor is man who accepts
responsibility. The noblest word in our
language is responsibility; its real mean
ing is answerableness. When young
Samuel replied to the vision that came
before his boyish idea, "Here am l." he
had the idea of responsibility, he answer
ed. 1t is only man with white soul
who can 60 out to God and say to God,
"Here am l." when duty demands.
And then there is another thing
that is needed on the part of young
people-courage. If a man has high
ideal of honor, that man is going
to be a man of courage. And if man
has a high ideal OF honor it will knock
the conceit out of him. The great dan
ger that comes to young people when
they have their first opportunity of USE
fitness, is that disease which has been
discovered in-Spain, think-the swell
ed head. 1 don't know its technical
term. And when young man discovers
that he is useful the first temptation is to
over-rate his usefulness, and that mo-
ment he closes his usefulness. 1t is the
humble man only that is serviceable.
| III. The performance of tremendous
hard work. l would have no geniuses
among our young people. am always
afraid of a young man who thinks that he
is genius in the sense that he does not
need to perform hard work, and if find
that his mother agrees with him, have
no hope for either the son or the mother.
What we fondly call genius is often the
child of application. know of no ele-
ment of genius worthy of emphasis ex-
cept willingness and ability to do tre-
mendous hard work. 1t is not work that
kills but worry that rusts and destroys.
God has put work and worth side by side
If you want worth you must work. II
you want pebbles you can go out and
, gather them; if you want diamonds you
must go and dig for them. You have got
to climb the ladder of life-there is no Ell.
evator to take you up. Do you murmur
about the relentless competition? There
is no competition at the top. The crowd
is at the bottom. And when by skill
and industry, faith and fortitude, you
have attained the height you set your
heart on reaching, you will discover that
there is no competition there. You will
then be able to dictate your own terms
and claim the reward of honest, earnest
work. A young man in whose manhood
reason is luminous, and self respect is
positive, and honor and honesty and pure
love are all in all, to such a man all the
world is open. He himself is force
above all other earthly forces, and by and
by he will be luminous son of God in
the city of our God.