Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-07-16
A STATESMAN AND A CRISIS
The international sunday-schooI Les.
son for July 10 is, Samuel
Warns Saul and His Peo-
pie" Sam. IL.
(By WilIiam r. Ellis.)

ple." Sam. II.
(By William T. Ellis.)
A great statesman is a national
treasure. When one dies we fly all
flags at half mast; the burning of a
city is less of a disaster than the loss
Of a single statesman. Everybody sees
that the need of the hour, nationally,
is for fewer wind-blown politicians,
concerned primarily for their own
place at the public crib; and for an in
crease of the number of real states.
men, whose only good is the common
good; men wise in counsel, brave in
rebuke and steadfast in service.
Such a man must be more than a
lawmaker; he should be a teacher, a
prophet, eve as was old Samuel,
whose farewell address to Israel con-
s~titutes the Sunday school les.
son.. The pertinency Of this passage
will be missed except it be applied to
p~resent-day patriotism. Well for the
nation. whose youth catch a glimpse of
the grandeur, and greatness of a life
devoted wholly to the public welfare.
The old pessimist and the young op-
timist are common enough; it is only
occasionally that we see a venerable
figure standing, as Samuel stood, be-
tween two eras, and showing sympa-
thy for both. He was a young old man.
In him the past and the future met.
Clear-eyed to the mistakes of the peo-
pie, he vet also had a vision of the
future possibilities of the nation. He
knew that forms and methods were
merely adventious, the underlying
principle vas the thing. Despite the
political clamor of the day, we know
that it is not parties and policies that
make a nation great, but the funda-
mental principles which reveal char
acter.
An Old Mans Challenge.
Graft is the peculiar temptation of
the of1ce-holder. Great graft or petty
graft, CROOKED" graft or honest"
graft, as a New York politician
phrases it, lures the mar in a public
position. A clerk in one Of the congress
sional committees at Washington said
to me the other day, when found
that I could have writing paper and
pens and pencils and ink and rulers
and penkniyes, and all that sort OF
thing simply by asking for them, l
took a bssketful home. Ny o matt
saw them and said, so you are be-
ginning to graft already, are your
Suddenly I realized that I was nothing
but p CRATER, whatever my technical
right to the articles, and l carried
them all back. That cured me-" In all
such subtle and i%nsiduous ways comes
the temptation to make personal pro-
fit out of Office; and 1t is not every
a. who can lift up clean hands at
the end of an of1ce-holding career.
Samuel could. AS the people were
assembled at Gilgal, tt honor their
new king. Samuel directed attention to
his own life. 1t had been an open book
since childhood. He called on them to
bear witness that he had W receiv-
ed so much as a shoe as a bride. In
the ears of the nation he challenged
them to bring aught against him. But
they could not. A peerless reward 1t
was to stand at the close Of a long life
and to know that it had been clean.
Samuel could appeal to his past.
Many men cannot. A New York
magistrate has lately been figuring in
the newspapers OF the charge of brib-
ing a reporter. There was a chapter
in his past which he wanted the world
never to know; for himself he could
not forget it. 1t haunted him day and
night, and he declared life vas not
life under such a strain. The terror OF
possible exposure kept him in tor.
ment; he would give literally all that
he possessed, as would thousands OF
other men, could that past be wiped
out or lived over again. Little dc
young people dream of the shackles
they are forging for themselves when
they turn to folly and sin; they have
lost the precious privilege Of appeal
ing to their past. Forever their peace
is marred by the knowledge of this
dark closet with its skeleton. That
person is successful who has achiev
ed a clean life; and the day will come
all the millions Of the richest man he
knows.
The Message Of History.
The grand old man of Israel, n o.
the few unspotted characters e II
the bible record, having vindicatec
his right to speak disinterestedly
went on to point out the lesson of his
tory to Israel, and the truth for the
times. They, like us, had been trying
to improve on old fashions. They hat
secured a s%trapping big king, a hand
some, brave and modest fellow. W.
have taken unto us a wonderful
amount of new machinery and new
methods. In worldly wisrom ant
"smartness,' in pomp and circum
, stance and show, in enterprise ant
resourcefulness we are lacking little
But like Israel, we need a fresh gril
upon the old, old truths which alon'
make nations great. The carolina
, principles of personal probity and ma
tional integrity must be stressed tc
day with fresh force. AS Richard Wat
son Glider sings, in a song of present
day patriotism,
do thy part
Here in the living day, as did tn
! great
Who made the old days immortal! S
shall men,
Gazing long back to this far loomin'
hour,
Say: That's the time when men wer
] truly men;
Serving the State new by yirtuou
Z lives;