The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-03-21

!, Every imbuement with power or en-
dowment with grace involves some
sort Of responsibility. That is to say,
having been given the gift, we must be
answerable for its use.
But the most distinctive gift of life
lis sex. And yet everywhere in human
tsociety we see people trying to enjoy
its prerogatives without performing
its duties.
Let us bring the people of the av-
erage American community into court
to answer this charge. .-
: Young men-how many OF you are
trying to fitch the pleasures OF man
hood while you shirk the duties OF
the married state? Husbands and
wives, how many Of you are quatf1ng
the pleasures Of matrimony while re-
fusing to bear the burdens of parent
mood?
Parents, how many of you are i'm
+ mersing yourselves in business and
pleasure while repudiating responsible
ity for the moral and spiritual educa-
tion of your offspring, or at best put
ting it off on the shoulders Of en-
ployees? How many Of you are try
Ing to crawl out from under the re-
sponsibility Of caring for poor or help
less relatives, Of sharing your homes
with fathers-in-law and mothers-in-
law and bachelor uncles and spinster
aunts
wonder If I can feather a few
shafts, draw my bow at a venture and
hit one Of these skulkers on the great
battle field Of life. In the first place
responsibility avoided is not re-
sponsibility evaded! For our neglected
cold storagel We stink away from
them as Jonah did when he fled to
Joppa to take ship for Tarshish. But
that undone duty came "cross lots" to
the very spot where the great fish cast
him on the shore and once more in
sisted on his performance. Who has
not thus met avoided duties, even af-
that they have a way of turning up
again in unexpected times and places
But more than this. Our duties pre-
sent themselves in a twofold aspect, al
first as opportunities for usefulness
and second as avengers of their neg.
lect Now, it is comparatively easy
ito avoid the task presented in the op.
tportunity, but the trouble is to evade
the opportunity when it has beer
transformed into the avenger. The sea
which. engulfed the recreant Jonah
was his duty" become his punish
ment."
No! You have not done with mar.
riage when you have refused to en-.
ter into it. Neither have you done
with the children to whom you re-
fused to give birth; nor with the de-
pendent and helpless whom you re-
fused to support. Hidden behind some
mask in which you may never rec
ognize them these metamorphoset
duties lie in wait along the pathwa!
of your life, all ready to mete out thu
punishment Of your sin! Nature il
organized upon the principle of retrib
utive justice. Her laws are automatic
To every transgression It's own punish
ment is attached. To multitudes o
the people now feeling the coils o
destiny folding around them like
great anaconda it has to be said thes
coils are the duties that you avoided
but could not evade! They vanished
as opportunities, but have returned
to you as judges and executioners.
In the second place, responsibilities
accepted, are weights which turn int
wings! Undoubtedly the obligation
and duties of the married life are bur
dens which are often grievous to b
borne. It is hard to give up our bach
elor or our spinster ways and divid
our incomes and our luxuries with an
other. 1t is hard to bear children an