The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-06-27
face =. a nation sui yea, . 967ld llll
Beware Of overprudepce.

Se uatIon N4-yed, a WOrIU 1Cl9-
of oDposition.
Beware of Overprudence.
How many there are who give too
much time to watching the weather
vane and studying the barometer!
wake up your mind what you are going
10 90 and then go ahead and do it.
mere always will be hindrances. 1t is
moral disaster if you allow prudence
10 overmaster all the other graces.
| Inc Bible makes more of courage and
lalth and perseverance than it does of
caution. 1t is not once year that the
great ocean steamers fail to sail at the
appointed time because of the storm
signals. Let the weather bureau pro-
phesy what hurricane c. cyclone it
may, next Wednesday, next Thursday,
next Saturday. the steamers will put
out from New York and Philadelphia
and Boston harbors and will reach
Liverpool and Southampton and Glas-
gov and Bremen, their. arrivals as GER
tain as their embarkation. They can
not afford to consult the wind, nor
can you in your life voyage.
The grandest and best things ever
accomplished have been in the teeth
OF hostility. Consider the grandest en-
terprise of the eternities-the salvation
of world. Did the Roman empire
send up invitation to the heavens in
Wiling the Lord to descend amid vo-
alterations Of welcome to come and
take possession of the most capacious
and ornate of the palaces and sail
Gal1lee with richest imperial fotilla
and walk over flowers of Solomon's
gardens, which were still in the out
skirts Of Jerusalem? No. 1t struck
him with insult as soon as it could
reach him. Let the camel drivers in
the Bethlehem caravansary testify. See
the vilest hate pursue him to the bor-
ders of the Nile! Watch his arraign-
ment as criminal in the courts! See
how they belle his every action, mis-
interpret his best words, howl at him
with worst mobs, wear him out with
sleepless nights on cold mountains!
See him hoisted into martyrdom at
which the MONDAY cowled itself with
midnight shadows, and the rocks shook
into cataclysm, and the dead started
out of their sepulcher, feeling it was
no time to sleep when such horrors
were being enacted.
Make Opportunities.
Young man, you have planned what
you are going to be and do in the
world, but you are waiting for
circumstances to become more favor
able. You are like the farmer in the
text. observing the wind. Better start
now. Obstacles will help you if you
conquer them. Cut your way through.
Peter Cooper, the millionaire philan-
thropist, who will bless all succeeding
centuries with the institution he
founded, worked for five years for s25
year and his board. Henry Wilson,
the Christian statesman who COM
manded the United States senate with
the gayel of the vice presidency, wrote
of his early days: Want sat by my
cradle. I know what it is to ask
mother for bread when she has none
to give. left my home at ten years
of age and served an apprenticeship
OF eleven years, receiving months
schooling each year, and at the end of
eleven years of hard york yoke of
oxen and six sheep, which brought
me $S4. In the first month after 1 was
81 years Of age went into the woods,
drove team and cut mill logs.
arose in the morning before daylight
and worked hard till after dark and
received the magnificent sum of Sc for
the months work. Each of those dol
lars looked as large to me as the moon
looks tonight" Wonderful Henry Will
son! But that was not his original
name. He changed his name because
he did not want on him the blight of a
drunken father. AS the vice president
stood in my pulpit in Brooklyn, max
ing the last address he ever made and
commended the religion of Christ to
the young men of that city, thought
to myself, "You yourself are the sub
FINEST spectacle / ever saw of victory
over obstacles" For thirty years the
wind blew the wrong way, yet he did
not observe the wind. but kept right
on sowing.
Defy Your Antagonists.
The Earl of Alsatia, favorite Of
Edward III. of England, had excited
the jealousy Of other courtiers, and
one time, while the king was absent,
they persuaded the queen to turn a
lion loose in the court to test the
earl's courage. The earl, rising at
break of day, as was his custom. came
into the courtyard and met the lion,
and the Jealous courtiers from the
windows watched the scene. The lion,
with bristling hair and a growl. was
ready to spring upon the earl when
he, undaunted, shouted to the monster,
Stand, you dog!" Then the lion
couched, and the earl took it by the
name and turned it back into the cage,
leaving his handkerchief on the neck
of the monster, and, looking up in tri-
umph to the jealous courtiers, who he
knew were watching from the win
dows, cried out, "Let him among you
all that prideth himself on his pedigree
go and fetch that handkerchief" And
you. young man, will find lion in
your way, perhaps turned loose by the
Jealousy Of those who would enjoy
your ruin. But in the strength of God
make that lion couch. By Gods help
you can do it and defy and challenge
your antagonists. The Earl of Alsatia
conquered the lion by stoutness Of
voice and the glare Of eye, but you
may overcome the lion with the prof.
fered strength Of an a1niphtv arm, and