The gold leaf., 1898-09-01
(FrOm The OutlOOk.)

We have the right to expect of
young men the high ideal. the hope
full aspiration transmitted into action
by high and strong and strenuous en-
deavor. And yet all this will go for
nothing without a true and noble
consecration. The man who succeeds
is the man who ventures
Nothing venture, nothing win" is
a wise motto, though the gamblers
have misused it. The man who sue
ceeds is the man who is willing to
hazard something for success, and
the man who is never willing to
hazard anything for success remains
on the dead level of mediocrity.
When Luther went outside the walls
of Nuremburg and burned the Papal
bull, he knew that up to that time
every man who had detied the Pope
of Rome had paid the penalty with
his life and all his friends and fol-
lowers had suffered with him; but
yet he risked, not only his life, but
the peace of Germany and the well
fare of those who gathered about
him; and nothing less than that
would have aroused Europe from its
long sleep. Mcclellan was great
engineer. great captain, great
organizer, but he was not great
soldier, because he was never willin"
to fight until there were no hazards
to be taken; while Grant ran by the
batteries of Vicksburg, cut himself
off from his own supplies, put him
self between two armies, ran the risk
of being ground between the upper
and neither millstones, and won the
great battle which cut the Con-
federacy in two, because he had the
kind of consecraton of one who is
willing to hazard great failure in
order that he may win a great sue
cess. Audiences think oratory very
easy. 1t is nothing but talking. But
the man who really holds the at
tention of his audience always goes
upon the platform with a tremulous
heart, and always is willing to fail if
need be, in order that he may sue
ceed, if he can.
The great achievements of history
have been wrought by men who were
willing to lay down their own lives
that they might win life for others.
Courage, enterprise, force, the quail
ity that make forlorn hope, is
what we want in young men. The
other day steamer was crossing the
Atlantic Ocean; they came upon
wreck with some men on board; the
waves were running SO high that it
was doubtful whether any boat could
live in the sea; the captain would
not order any one into a boat to
rescue those upon the wreck, but he
called for volunteers, and the boat
was instantly filled by sailors who
were willing to be drowned if they
might save others. That is the spirit
that dares hazard itself for the sake
of a high service. Moses has been
the statesman and the leader of the
Children of Israel, the time of his
service expires; he dies; and the voice
of Cod know not whether inter
preted in any other way than the
voice of God may be Interpreted to
you or to me-calls on the servant
who has been attending him to take
up the banner which Moses has laid
own, assume the responsibility that
has been taken by death from Moses,
and become the commander-in-ch chief
of this wandering people; and the
servant takes the responsibility and
runs the hazard of an awful failure
that he may achieve a great success.
This is courage; high ideal,
hope that the ideal may be. realized,
| lx,n 70 n II
and resolve SO strong, sointense, so
deep, so earnest, so thorough, that /
am willing to fail if need be, and let
some one else carry out what l have
tried to do.
Courage may be variously fed. 1t
may be the rashness or mere igno-
rance, or the audacity Of a great self
conceit, or the recklessness of mere
physical strength, like that Of Samp-
son. But the great leaders of man
kind have drawn their courage from
an infinite reservoir; they have lived
in the atmosphere of the invisible
and the eternal. Mohammed believed
in his destiny; Napoleon in his star;
William of Orange, Cromwell, Wash
ington, Grant, in their God. The
courage that carries men through
the perils and perplexities of life is
the courage Of the man who says,
| II am an instrument in the hands Of
| one higher than myself. II he wants
success, he will give it to me; if he
puts me in the front Of the battle,
that may die and that others may
win their success over my corpse,
will be in the forlorn hope willingly.