Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-10-26
Memorial SeFmOl--c0

from thence to our own work in the
advancing knowledge. And we must
give some thought and place to the
studies of those who are moving and
living with us. Each and every one
must bring his portion to the great sum
of knowledge, or he has kept back
from his fellow man what that fellow
man was entitled to expect from each
one of u.s. In other words, | mean
that we shall rob our day of what we
can bring to it unless we work for and
with others. To work for them alone
will be to attempt to press upon them
ourselves; to work with them will be
to have them give to us what they
have to give, and by putting the two
together, we shall reach the attain
ment of all that is best in the inter-
course of man with man. How great
this is can best be seen and known
as we watch those who have held the
highest and most prominent places in
the eyes of our day It's not the man
who gets most, but the man who is
giving the most of himself to his fell
low men who is doing the part of a
Just person His life with all its best
attainments will be found expending
itself in teaching or helping in some
way his fellows The one who en-g
riches his day with what he has
learned or observed while he has duel
regard for the teachings of others,
will be more just than the one who at-l
tains alone.
And this giving of self to the needs
of our day will include that which is
far more attractive in the extension
of human sympathy. Hard facts are
cold, and the events which come to us
in our journey through life sometimes
have a tendency to make men cry out
for sympathy Sympathy every one
needs, and unless he have it, he is apt
to despair. The human heart Graves
sympathy. For this we live near each
other. There is in every man some
thing of the savage which would lead
him to live apart from his fellow man,
but the savage is not the strongest
part of our nature, and so what we
call the gregarious prevails over the
savage, and we live. dependent upon
mutual sympathy and help He who
withholds this can never be just. But
he who stands ever ready to reach
out his hand in loving helpfulness
must be considered just. He does
what he can And when this is fur
Their intensified by the deeper love
which our Lord has taught us, then
the just one becomes still more just
AS we recall the warm sympathy of
some one who has ever been ready to
help US over the rough places of life,
we do always call the act justice, but
it is that which has been placed in the
power Of the other, and if he withheld
it, he would be unjust, not to say I'M
feeling. It matters not that there are
a great many who do not extend SYM
pathy to their fellows, the great truth
remains that they are not just.
AS the converse of the unjust,
would insist upon the business of one
who does give himself and his attain
ments to the upbuilding of his fellows.
And so far as he gives his knowledge
to them too, does he give the great
er justice to them. In a sense he be-
comes their teacher at least so far as
his knowledge goes. 1t is his to give,
and he gives it.
II. In so defining the just, | have
only touched the outlines of character
as they appear to us necessary in this
day. AS we cast our eyes back to the
memory of such, there is to be con-
sidered the blessedness of such char
acters. In the text, their memory is
said to be blessed This may be In
two ways. There is a blessedness
which comes to one who recalls just
one who has gone hence. and there is
a fragrance in that memory. 1t will
be found in the history of everyone
who has tried ever so lightly to do his
duty to his God and to his fellow man.
When one stands out prominently
beyond his fellow men for his just
character, his memory is in the hearts
of his fellow men They gladly for
get what was apparently infirm and
weak in him, because the strong and
great are made prominent by the lapse
of years. 1t is one of the compensa-
lions of our life here that the evil and
the weak things of a strong nature are
covered up by the ivy of forgetful-
ness Were it not so, we should dread
the days that are to come after us.
While in one sense, none need care
about his memory after he has left
this sphere of action, he would be less
than human and a great deal less
than Divine who could SO live.
question whether any do now live or
want so to live. Rather is there to
be noted the anxiety to have good
name left behind us.
This name may be one of promin-
ence among his fellow men. In the
examples of our so-called great men, /
the children of to-day are pointed to
them as models which they are to fol- /
low as they would develop their ma
lures OF this nature are those whom
we are fond of calling heroes. The /
heroic age has not disappeared from |
the earth. There are heroes whose
acts are held UP for emulation, as
their single actions are thrust forward
to be shown. In the ordinary daily
life, there Is not much of the heroic
but here and there will be found that
which is beyond the ordinary. Now
to such we give the name of blessed.
| admit that the reasons for calling
them blessed do not always appear.