Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-06-07

| Aou HuSl KNOW tHdC your mai QeS
| tiny is in your own keeping.
| IF two courses OF, action are open t,
you, and one that corresponds to YOU
| physical, mental and moral character il
the likeliest one to be chosen The hui
| man body is a chemical Laboratory. tn,
| mind Is the unconscious chemist Tn,
| subtle delicacy and complexity OF thu
chemical transmutations which are evel
| succeeding each other in the physical or
ganism are unparalleled in the most ex
haustive experiments of the best equipped
| external laboratories. This thought chem
list, who does his work sub-consciously
and in secret, at last is known. to all the
world in the finished product of a deyel.
ored life. The moral as well as the phys
ical life is under the control of the accu.
mnlated past of our lives; or in other
words, our inner spiritual lives make our
choice and settle our destiny forever
Thus you see why the supreme purpose
Of our lives compels us to will and pray
by night and by day; to toll and sacrifice:
to fight and contend fiercely for truth and
honor and lofty ideals. The gifts of this
life are secured by willing and praying:
in word by choice that includes all
ones life. ...,-
There are three ways in which to
choose between alternatives. BY chance
by pure reason and character; the last is
something between spure reason and
chance. Chance is rejected and pure
reason is impossible; but characteristic
daily restraints, tempers, judgments and
impulses all focused into one supreme
master passion, all acting with the rapid
1ty of instinct-this makes the decision.
So, inevitably and finally each human
soul by the momentum of its own acts
Will go down to irretrievable defeat or,
mount to glorious victory. The life de-
cides. False ideals and principles once
accepted by the individual will finally
dominate the whole being. They will
make right thinking, feeling and acting
impossible. The selfish, mnprincipled, sin
full life has broken with nature, human
ity and God. To do right, then, be-
GENES as impossible as for fool to
think the thoughts OF Newton; as for a
foam fleck to beat back the giant wave;
or for a speck of dust to defy the power
of the whirlwind.
Are you at the beginning? If YOU de-
eide now to stand for the best, if you will
pray for strength and wealth, for learn
ing, for culture, for political, for COM
merclal power, that you may use these
for those who have tnem not, then there
are no heights to which you may not at
tain; no ambition you may not realize!
Learning in itself is no more true end
of life than commerce or politics or mere
nle3 the iuta1lpctnal
thing, is more to be despised than the
money miser. Acquisition must always be
for the sake of bestowing either of
or things.
young man, young woman, there is
nothing that you and God cannot do;
therefore, see to it that. with all your
determined, constant doing
and choosing the best things of earth,
you also, with as much earnestness
and determination constantly pray for
the gifts of God. He will give you the
strength and motive, the force and the
love that will endow earth's gifts with
a moral content and transform the
things Of earth into things of Heaven;
things of time into things of eternity;
and convert all your possessions into
moral character '+''
~ willed and the sense was given
me- All! that's it. You have begun
your education with the determine
ton to know the truth; you have re-
solved to take the straight and mar
row road and have turned from the
downward way; you have taken the
rough and often rugged way and have
decided to walk it alone by firm and
steadfast willing. Reward has thus
far come to faithful volition. You now
desire for education in the spiritual
world, where your senses are no longer
your teachers, but the Maker of the|
senses. And that teaching you cannot
get by labor alone, but by petition only
Il prayed and the Spirit OF Wisdom
came upon me-
Members of the graduating class,
your city has trained you these four
years to become in your days of great
err strength, each one teacher and a
pattern in religion; declaimer and
doer of Justice in her courts, or a
model of higher citizenship in her
marts Of trade and in her homes of
beauty and love. Under the inspira-
ton of these noble teachers whom you
leave today, the torches of worthy en-.
dcavOr have been kindled which are to
make you lights set upon hilp in
your homes. your city and your state,
the brightest of that pious. the loyal
and the brave. Whatever corruption
blights, worldliness buries or sin pol
lutes, you are sent to destroy by the
purity, gehtleness and might of your
lives