The record-union., 1899-03-23
PRESENT DAY THOUGHTS.
by G. Grosvenor Dave.

BY G. Grosvenor Dave.
| To Young Men-Debtors-In the case
OF churches it has been proved a thou
sand times over that church in debt
IS church alive. The burden of all
unites the purpose of all, if not the
methods. The danger of all is the
strength of all through the effort to
lift the burden. The church under
pressure is usually the one that has
the least time for weakening dissen- :
s1ons. The public burning of a church
mortgage is therefore by no means a
promise of future prosperity. 1t may
really bring on the greater danger that
comes when workers lie down in their
tracks and the eye has time to wander
from the old purpose and grow critical
regarding this one idler, that one gos-
| sip, and the other hypocrite. Thus with
| no debt at all = laziness, criticisms,
| jealousies, heart burnings, soul-wrong-
ings, damage.
Yet on the other hand there are ex-
| ceptions; for in some cases the debt
saddled on a church by ambitious Off
Gals in a wild, religious competition
to equal or surpass the edifice, or the
organ, or the ritual of a neighboring
church, proves Sol discouraging that the
greater number of the members give
up in despair Thus with too heavy a
debt-indifference, absence Of principle,
presence of Sheriff shameful comments
| by the worldly.
But one must not dwell too long upon
the details Of the modern complicated
church that has grown up, or away, or
| l. Oh 70
use) from the simple doctrines of a
simple teacher 1 merely want you to
look at the church as a picture Of your
self-one body, many members.
|
For young man it is Better to owe
thousand than to own it. A good,
honest debt imparts a good, honest i'm
pulse; so that the desire for the graft
fication of the stomach at the expense
of the back, or of both at the expense
of your kindly creditor is subordinated
to the one purpose of making full re-
payment and thus being able to hold
the head up in free air again. Easy
come and careless spend do not put the
backbone of good sense into a man,
! nor do they place him in sympathetic
touch with the great struggling mass
of burden bearers who constitute such
a large proportion of the world.
| Yet at the same time it must be con-
ceded that a heavy debt contracted by
a Young man through needless living,
careless thinking, foolish efforts has a
large element of disbursement in 1t
and has driven many a man to the
camp of the tramp where no debts are
paid. no good done, and no service rem
dered to mankind-where, as with the
ravens. food and free air are all that
are asked; here to-day, away to-mor-
row-heedless, careless, foolish, self
gratifying as before.
| Freedom from debt and discourage
ment through debt remind one of the
conditions of life in the tropics and In
the polar regions. The dweller in the
hot. moist regions of the world worries
little about food, and even less about
clothes. Dame Nature, really unkind
| to him, drops food into his open mouth.
much as Mistress Robin will be doing
with her fiedgelings in a few weeks.
Conditions around him are too easy to
bring him to the best that is possible
for human being His NAV may in
deed be distent with food, and his body
we'll nourished, but he is no type of
man to pattern after. Less food found
by lying on the back, and a great deal
ncre effort, would be good for him, and
tend to make his feet move in marching
| time with the real workers of the world
On the other hand, the paralyzing in
| huences of darkness and cold in the
polar regions are just as dangerous
Their effort is all negative = avoiding
a. tlap living
ambition save to have a big piece of
blubber, or, as an occasional treat,
bite from a tallow candle, no care for
the great world. no interest in its bur
Idens, no appreciation of other conditions
of life no care to know more, no more
to care for than mere existence.
1t is the temperate zone of moderate
responsibility that is best for a young
man, where nature is neither too kind
nor too harsh, but decidedly tickle and
hard to compass-where conditions are
not all against nor all for a young man.
but where, if he is for himself and for
the highest, noblest. purest development
Of himself, there is enough Of reward to
his efforts to encourage him.
| Fellow debtors, let us make no mis-
take. We all work best under press
ure. The constant bearing in upon a
wholesome man of the knowledge that
he must put up good fight with the
conditions that confront him makes
him fight and makes him win. The
man of right intentions gets no harm
by being cornered and hedged around.
1t works up his moral muscle, and to
his moral muscle is going to come some
! kind of victory, even if it be but the
victory over indifference and careless
ness and indirectness of aim. In all of
us, placed under the forcing glass of
! ease, there is too apt to develop laziness.
1t is SO easy to lie down and do nothing
Ito idly watch the days go by that
set US back in a moment a thousand
years behind the present ideas of what
it really means to live-that we may
and can and ought to welcome any con-
dition, no matter how seemingly hard
for the time being, that jolts us out
of complacency and puts US where we
must either be up and doing or supinely
lie down like a worthless cur The
young man who complains at hard
ships of a moderate character Will have
much more of it, if there is good mate
riel in him, before his whimpering
ceases. The hammering of ourselves.
like the hammering of brass, has a
molding purpose about it. The more
we are hammered the more shapeiy our
characters become; for who are we to