Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-06-29
BATES COLLEGE,
Continued from Page One.)

way to the heights is a hard way and
a stern way over difficulty after diff
| Guilty, nay, not simply over them but
because of them, for if man is to climb,
| he must have something on which to
| tread.
| This is a law just as much as CRAWL
| tation. 1t has been at work in the
world since life began. Science has
| named it adaptation. The history of
| man confirms this law in the case oe
both individuals and nations. Did you
ever hear of a really great man. man
rich in the sterling qualities of man
| hood. who was the child of ease and
| pleasure? Did you ever hear OF a ma
ton that did not have to struggle for
| existence? In the valleys of the Nile
and Euphrates, where appeared the
first great civilizations, life was
struggle with drought and desert.
Greece rose by her Marathon and
Thermopolae: Rome was surrounded by
| warlike people and had to be strong or
perish. In modern times civilization
| leads in the temperate climates, where
it takes brains and will to live. No
more than there could be development
| in bodily strength were it not for CRAWL
tation and movement, can there be a
| gain in any direction without an oppos-
| ing force, either real or supplied, and
an unceasing striving to overcome it.
Where pain ends, gain ends too
Man is naturally indolent. He likes
to linger in the cooling shade or by the
warming fire; and he will NOT nerve
himself to effort except under two con-
| mn oft no 1oI hx,
necessity or drawn by the ideal.
ITO necessity we owe all of the high
things of this world. The flower and
the tree are children of necessity. Man
is man because he had to be more than
beast or die. Necessity is q stern
mother and may kill not a few of her
children, yet it is better that a part
be thus crushed than that all rot. We
know that the pioneer days CT ma
tional greatness are safer for man than
the splendid periods of prosperity. That
boy of eleven that spent the day har-
rowing battle-ground far from sight or
sound of everyone, who could not help
but wine a tear or two on his nome
spun shirt sleeve, as he heard in the
hea. of the day the vail of the white
throated sparrow, he was gaining
soda fountains or dancing parties. We
know that want has proven safer for
man than luxury. We know that a
homely featured boy in patched trou-
sers handed down from seven brothers.
who digs the stumps and rocks and
picks UP learning as he can, Will some
day eclipse that boy in the velvet suit.
Under the lash of necessity he is learn
ing industry, self-control, self-denial
things that count.
"Sut good as necessity is as an in
centive to effort, it is not sufficient to
the attainment of the highest things.
It's possibilities are limited. In the
first place necessity does not develop
the highest powers Of the individual
t. everything that one does for task
master he does as a slave. In the sec
onG place, the powers that are devel-
opcd through necessity diminish the
necessity of effort. The ideal of strv-
ing for development sake is not thus
circumscribcd. les possibilities are as
lmitlesS as the powers of the human
soul. Thus the incentive of necessity
must he supplemented by that OF the
ideal, else at some point development
must cease, decay set in and collapse
result
Has not this been proven time and
, again in history? How is it that great
nations have been wiped from the pages
OF history? 1t is because when pros
pcrity took away the necessity of eff
fort, people failed to supply and keep
before them the superior incentive Of
tie ideal of work and struggle; because
III place of the coarse. hard hand of
the axe, the spade, the sword, came in
the lily hand of luxury; because in
, place of the tanned. scanned face OF
the newer and builder came in the
, powdered face of the cultured idler.
o, it is hard for man not to show the
monkey in him when you give him
rorc."
William r. Redden of Hyde Park,
Mass. spoke on 1.-The Church and the
Masses in part saying:
you remember when Sir Roger De-
, Coverly was asked a question he could
not or would not answer, he would say
with a sober. knowing look, There's
much to be said on both sides" 1 have
found that both churches and masses
: have much to say about each other,
1 and that the churches ave much to say
learn, all authorities are practically
agreed that between the church and
2 the masses there is an ever widening
1 gulf. Both sides can see each other
g clearly enough to criticise the weak
= nesses. but they are not near enough
e to appreciate the strength and good
ness in each other. There is a mutual
e misunderstanding between the two that
e comes from a lack of true, brotherly
t friendship. l shall endeavor to show
t that the masses are not entirely to
l blame for this lack of relationship.
Nov the object of the church is to
= bring the Kingdom of Heaven on earth
by having the will of God done on
earth as it is done in heaven. This is
: to be done by leavening the whole
G lump with the spirit of Christ which
= loves all men, and which connects man
e with God. Man desires to be linked
h with God. for he has that within him
c which reaches out beyond himself to
5 something better. The spirit is born
: in in. So also is the desire to satisfy
| ~;-;+