The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-02
PLEA FOR MODERATE LIFE.
Patience and Serenity Two Qualities
the Modern American Lacks.

Patience and Serenity Two Qualities
the Modern American Lacks.
Senator Beverage, in Epworth. Herald.
Excuses are unnatural. When they are
necessary it is because some wrong has
accumulated which radical action can re-
move. 1t is the sur geon's knife for cancer.
The moderate life prevents those evil con-
ditions which makes excess necessary.
The current of our existence must be
neither damned up nor turbulently swift.
Niagara is magnificent, but crafts Of
commerce can pass over it. The trade
winds blow steadily. We are fond of think
ing of our great American characters as
loftily calm. The picture of Washington
which each of US holds in his, mental gall
lery is the picture of serenity itself. Was
any essay, book, or address on Lincoln ever
written that did not contain the word
''patient?' 1t is universally so. The i'm
ages of Buddha are statues of infinite en-
durance. The Greeks chiseled their gods
with calm eye and with the placid fore
head of real might. The best lines OF
Emerson are these:
The sun set but set not his hope
Stars rose; his faith earlier up;
FIXED on the enormous galaxy.
And matched his suferance sublime
The taciturnity Of time.
he spoke, and words soft than rain
Brought the Age OF Gold again;
His action won such reverence sweet
AS hid all measure OF the feat.
In all this we perceive the universal
acknowledgment of the sovereignty of The
Moderate. We all obey the lofty will now-
ing out OF the heart of righteousness, which
is so confident of itself and it's purposes
that 1T Is quite unvexed by our irritabilities
Ii Is useful to witness the motions of some
vast engine-its silence. its speed, its sure
ness or power. 1t is so strong that 1t ap-
pears careless of its processes.
Take no thought for your life what We
shall eat, or what We shall drink; nor yet
Tor your body, what We shall put on" said
the Master. He meant by that however
no counsel Of improvidence. Consult those
instructed in the wisdom of the Scriptures
ana they Will tell you that the WiSeSt One
meant moderation. He condensed (as was
ms habit). a sermon in phrase He
meant, did he not, that we should do our
work day by day and hour by hour and
moment by moment to its full completion,
and then that we should be satisfied with
the honest performance of that task know
ing that out of it, I'm the nature of things.
springs our opportunity of tomorrow and
the strength wherewith to meet it?
L settle questions as they arise" said
the greatest captain OF industry which
this country has yet produced, and then 1
pass on 10 the next. The first is finished;
1 trouble with it no more" That is a fine
sample Of moderation in action. For the
moderate life does not mean the slothful
Indifferent life. As said before, it means
merely the sane life.
Patience is an element of the moderate
life; And is not patience the very thing
which We Americans lack more than. per-
haps. anything else? Morality we have to
a greater degree than any other people,
and 1t is increasing visibly. Enthusiasm
We have. almost of an intoxicated variety
This grows out of the nature of our eli
mate, which is dry and electrical Ian
Maclaren says that we Americans are so
many charged electrical batteries; that you
may attach one of us to office a pulpit
a desk, a grip sack, pen, or anything
else, and We will perform the service as
There is much truth In the Scotchman's
observation. Our neurosis of activity also
springs from our free institutions, which
AFFORD unlimited opportunity, and therefore
unlimited invitation to do unlimited work
So that, as a people, we are more or less
on strain: And this attitude is one
which loses the proportion of things in ac-
curate work and saving work 1t comes
only when we have our perspective correct
The artist must look to perspective i'm his
picture first of all. And it is a truism of
the nigh school that I'VE all the artists
OF our own careers"
But whatever the cause, the fact cam
of the age of the telephone and the tele-
graph and other instantaneous processes
We are ahead of it. We insist upon imme-
date acton-which is not bad; but we also
insist on immediate results-which is not
sensible. L know a national lawgiver of
great effectiveness, and who purs,Ies a
steady course In the midst of legislative
battle and alarm. who each night in WASH
ington, when the weather is clear takes a
short walk between the White House and
the Monument quite out of the capitals
hurly-burly; and there, surrounded by the
healing silence and beneath the soothing
skies, he repeats these four lines of Emer-
son:
Who climb each night the ancient sky
Leaving on space no shade. no scars
No trace OF age, no fear to die
To q friend who met him ia king this
stroll and asked him the reason of II. he
answered.: Il am taking sort of mental
and moral constitutional. am getting ba ck
my polarity after the days conflicts / am
adjusting myself to the eternal points of
nightly exercise in the moderate life / am
recharging the exhausted batteries of
patience: The vital principle of
moderation Of patience, of conservatism is
throughout the revolution. The words of
Washington on the subject of religion show
his profound realization of the truth of the
divine sentiment in the human breast
wish some scholar would take time to COL
lect the sayings OF Americas great men Mt
tered at critical moments, on the service
ableness of religion to the state. When a
people feel that they are divinely Connected
and guided they will indulge in no ter
rors," no holocausts of passion, no fury or
advocacy of revenge. They will move
steadily. calmly forward. knowing that
their movements are directed by their
communicate his final purposes to each in
dividual, anymore than a general of an
army confers with each private soldier is
nevertheless managing all for the good of
this people and the betterment of all man
kind.