Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-06-06

we look back upon them. They take
up more room in our memory than all
the years that succeed them. Perhaps
you have journeyed through some deep
mountain gorge and seen the great
layers of brittle rock warped, bent
moulded as wax in the power of some
gigantic hand You may wonder at the
I possibility till you stop to think that
once those hard flinty substances were
as pliable as the sponge of dough in
the bakers hands, and while thus pill
able natures vast enginnery did Its
momentous work So it is with youth
Then the life is assuming it's shape
physically and mentally, morally Then
must be given those bents to charac.
ter that shall determine the course of
after years.
| LET us speak of some of those tro.
phies of youth you should aim to cap.
ture that will be found invaluable in
the struggle of your manhood. Man,
speak of the Importance of the trophy
! of a splendid manhood, and this means
womanhood as we'll Old John Milton
said: There is nothing that makes
men rich and strong but that which
they carry inside of them. Wealth of
of the heart, not of the hand What
may have passed into your hand from
the hand of another counts for very
little. More youths have been cursed
than have been blessed by inherited
wealth. 1t Is not yourself; it is part
Of someone else, and Is more liable to
be hindrance than help Rather
than straining after the possessions Of
someone else, let us seek to cultivate
that which is within ourselves. The
center Of all great power in life is per
sonality What is needed most is a
cultivation of a selfhood clear in its
identity, distinct in its personality, so
that it may become the magnetic cen
ter of a great field of operation, the
charged battery of tremendous vital
energy. To secure this there must be
suitable physical basis. Paul says:
Not that is first which is spiritual, but
that which is natural A sound mind
in sound body was the ideal of the
ancients. But this healthy heather
philosophy, sad to say, was seriously
obscured by the church of the middle
ages. Instead Of holding to the truth
that the body was the temple of the
holy ghost, there was taught the awful
error that sin some way adheres to
the flesh. Therefore to subdue the sin,
full nature the flesh had to be lacerated
the body outraged by all manner of
seventies. Sawdust buildings, hair
shirts, plank beds. were necessary ad
juncts to sanctifcation. The ideal
scholar was the emaciated, sweezy
book crammed, dyspeptic. weakl;ng,
sicklied ever with the pale cast of
thought. So In the spiritual life sick.
Illness was mistaken for saintliness, the
flush of the hectic cheek the inspira.
ton of heaven, the CLASSY touch of
death in the eye for the lustre of
another world. We are glad this old
idea is almost exploded. The body is
no longer looked upon as the devil
chained to the soul to be mortified by
starvation, to keep the passions down
Among the forces of the day must be
counted the vital forces. So If you are
to carry the power Of an intense life
with you, you must guard the health
Many a poor man has been shorn OF
his spiritual rapture because he be
came depressed in vitality. One of the
greatest Of the worlds painters was
/; working on a masterpiece. Notwith
standing his wonderful powers he
could not attain to the results he
wished. His colors seemed to change
in the night. The rosy flush impaired
to the lips and cheek were lost as often
as they were renewed. The beautiful
flesh lost its rose-leaf tint and became
sallow and unnatural. The painters
art was baffled, and he knew not why
But the secret of it was his work was
spoiled in the night by his enemy
rival painter. Jealous of his
fame, he crept secretly into his
studio and spread with ruinous
| shadow tints the work he could not
initiate. These two painters are work
i ing on the canvas of human life
Health is one who works in the day
and the sunshine and retires early
Disease works late in the night and
spoils the work health has done. Guard
well the safety Of the body.
Wealth Is in the Brain.
/ But fine physical manhood may
mean that you are only a splendid
animal Which may mean low as a
brute Let there be the trophy of an
intellectual equipment as well. Failure
in life is largely the want o. know.
ledge Our work is valuable only as it
is mixed with intelligence. Wealth is
not in things of iron and wood and
stone Wealth is in the brain that
organizes them The ore that is dug
out of the mountain is worth only g
| few dollars a ton Work it into watch
springs and it is worth thousands dol
lars a ton Millet bought yard O.
canvas for franc, paid two francs fol
brush and some colors; upon this
canvas he spread his genius giving
us the Angelus. The original invest
ment in raw materials was sixty cents
his intelligence gave that raw materia
a value Of one hundred thousand dol
lars. Please understand me at this
point. I am not advocating that yol
should leave the ranks Of manua
toilers and Join the company o