The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1899-08-25

thing is fighter in some form or
another. Out of the mouth of
the most contemplate Of all the
contemplate kings of Israel,
comes up through the centuries
just the very right word for
young men, fighters: "Let not
him that girdeth on his harness.
boast himself as he that putteth
it off,"
Our chief weakness is that we
utter great sounding phrases Of
what we can do and will do, and
then too many of us go out and
do not do. The time for boast,
ing is not when the battle is be.
ing fought, but when the battle
is won. When that time comes.
however, the genuine battle.win,
ner does not care to boast. Truly.
therefore, young men, there is no
time when boasting is timely.
How small the self-cOnfident, self.
prOclaiming man looks when he
is compelled to crawl back de
feated! 1t is true in every rela.
ton of life. The man who boasts
is the weakest man, the man who
swaggers is the most cowardly
man, the man who puffs himself
out is the quickest to give in, the
man who ''gets there" is the one
who says little but thinks much
and then interprets his thoughts
into action.
Young men, fighters; the least
OF all the real testings of life are
the physical battles. In such
battles a certain amount of brute
force and lack of sensitiveness
stand in good stead, but the real
battles wherein the weak and
small can come out strong and
great, are the battles of daily
conduct. They are not won in
one great rushing attack, but
day in and day out your skirmisl
line is kept in constant alertness
by the efforts of lurking foes,
who seem so often, no matter how
great the rebuff, to come back sly
and strong again.
| know it is a fav0rite wa,
among preachers to insist that
the battle of a mans soul keeps
on throughout the whole of life
| believe that this is only partly
true, for when a man has passed
through the slippery years from
eighteen to thirty, the result will
be, II a good fight has been fought
that his mature years will find
him blest with definiteness OF
character and a power of victor
lous resistance. These will grad
ually carry him away from the
gnat-like annOyances of the Skin
mish line and place him where he
is not constantly reminded of the
ememy's approach.
80 young men, fighters, strive
ON few years at least and YOU
will be conscious of a more placid
way. And the enjoyment of that
placid way, when you walk along
the mountain tops of self mastery
and look down upon the darkness
where you have had your strug
giles is ample repayment for every
contested step that led up to it.
No great height is attained at
one leap. No great strength il
gained by one exercise. No great
mind is matured by one effort,
Above all, no great, strong,
precious, enduring character
comes except by buffetings within
and without that make of you,
young men, fighters in the best
sense. Can you remember the
time when you first began to ad
mire muscles How often yor
crooked up your arm to zee
whether your own little biceps Wa
getting hard! 1t did not taks
you long to learn that it onl,
grew by exercise. Well, mora
muscle is the same, and so, though
dangerous yet the constant attack
of varied daily life upon YOU
moral character is the realest
benefit to you; working you for
ward from jelly like weakness tc
strength that is sufficient for YOU
own protection, with enough and
to spare for some neighbor lad
who needs it. Have done will
bOasting and bend to fighting,
No one cares in the great unsym
pathetic world for what you say