The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-10-01

ger of losing the sense of moral pro- portion; of everything achievement as compared with purpose; of overesti- mating the small amount of visible
 work which each of us has done, or fail- ed to do, compared with the vast amount of invisible work that still re- mains to be done There is no success | so great as to be worth much if it leads man to stop working; and no failure so great as to be irreparable unless 1t leads man to- stop trying.
 For the achievements which we can see and feel and measure are not the great ones. The child can see the growth of the house that he builds with his blocks. He cannot see the | growth of the seed which he has plant
 ed in te ground; and in is impadence because he cannot see 1t he often digs up the seed and kills the plant The life of the plaIit, which evades our ob- servation, is aAfar greater thing than the more mechanical putting together l of blocks of wood; and it is just be- cause it is a fan greater thing that it evades our observation. The things
 which are seen are temporal; the things l which are not seen are eternal" There
 Is a world of practical everyday mean ing in this text If you are looking only at concrete results which can be
 measured day by day, you are seeing
 the small side of life and shutting your
 eyes to the large side. You are con- 1 tenting yourself with a low standard of success, and are rejecting the higher
 standards You are imiting your vision of the kingdom of God just as narrowly as the Jews of old limited their vision,
 though in a different way. You are so I narrowing your conception of what is l good that you never can attain togthe
 best.
 During the early years of the civil
 war there were on the northern side a
 number of generals whose interest i'll the struggle was chiefly professional.
 They had been trained to lead their
 countrys armies, and they intended to
 lead them with skill and fidelity; but in
 the vital issues Ever which north and
 south were fighting they had no special concern. Officers of this type wished
 to do their duty creditably. But their
 eye was on the report which would rer cord their deeds and the army lists in
 which they would receive promotion, rather than on the deep issues of the
 struggle One after another these men
 dropped out, and gave place to others
 whose military skill was sometimes less,
 but who were In the field to fight, not
 merely to get the credit of fighting.
 Grant and Sherman, Sheridan and
 Thomas and Hancock, differing in all
 other ways, had this in common-that
 they were not trying to win individual
 battles, but to advance a cause which
 they had at heart. This was why Grant
 succeeded where more brilliant men had
 failed. It was because the brilliant
 men were trying to do tangible things
 that should stand to their credit, while
 the slow and modest man set his hand
 the general result, and was content tc
 let the question of temporary success
 and of personal credit take care of it.
 self. You can see this same experience
 repeated on all other fields. It has be.
 come proverb that no man ever be-
 came president who had made this the
 goal of his political effort Henry Clay
 in the first half of the nineteenth cen
 tury and James G. Blaine in the las
 half both made great names for them
 selves. They built up large following'
 of devoted adherents. They spared nt , pains to do whatever might honorabl!
 be done to further their chances 0 U political advancement. But when tn, time came for nomination or election Y the votes went to men of inferior bril- : liancy or ability who stood for som, e purpose of some principle-men wht s had not been piling up credits to thei > own account, but had put what the! e did into the general account of tn 'I country as whole. The same thini holds true in college life. Highly as WI u value the doing of things here in thi II community, the men who take satisfac tion in reckoning lip the things tha S they have done are not the successful
 ones. The successful man here, a y everywhere else, is the one who is un e conscious of his personal position; wh U is least elated by what he has achieved -' least depressed by what he has failet 7, to achieve; who through apparent sue cess or apparent failure presses on il U the direction toward which his ambition ; leads him. It is not by the doing O . specific things for others, but by reall, . caring for other people in your min, ;, 7 and in your heart and then living ou l. the life that is in you, that you mak ' yourself a vital and necessary part o It the college community.
 You do more than this. You can mak ,4 yourself in large sence independent o ls success or failure. If a man has set hl ! whole heart on the attainment o1 som '5 specific end-office or power or rank
 wealth-he is ever in position ot per il. If he succeeds his success may. SC limit to his ambitionA and make hln T. incapable of larger growth; if he fall It his failure may discourage him toreVe IL from further effort. But II ne mas 'o hGigher and larger purpose m hte' Su y has faith in kingdom of Goa Wnlen ,e not of this world, then neither cai !, earthly success satlate him nor earthl II failure unnerve him. The men VII Il have really done things that last nav been in a large sense men Of talth' me = who did not let the visible things O tn j. (COntinued on Eighth Page),