The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-09-12

- 4 T last" said a middle-aged
~ man the other day, Il am
\ = completely out of debt. My
home is all paid for, my children are
educated. my bills are paid have no
notes maturing, and I do not owe
dollar to any man in the world. ]
am completely out Of debt
Happy, in many respects, the man
who can say and truly, Il am out OF
debt" for while TO some rare souls DEBT
is a spur to greater things, with the
majority il IS a milestone round the
neck. a ball and chain on the ankle
and a misery and a center Of disturb
ance I'm the heart.
There are more than financial Obli-
cations in this world, however. Every
man is a debtor TO the past that has
given him his present day opporruni-
ties and privileges. Men are debtors
10 the past, which debt, by a strange
paradoXical law Of life, can only be paid
by g. sacrifice to pOsterity. The past
rours its wealth Of accomplishments
into the lives OF present day men,
Present day men must send the stream
OF accomp lishment, driven little
higher, made a little broader, down the
rivers Of posterity for the perpetual up
lift Of the race. no man Hvetn 70
himself. no man dieth TO himself
Centuries ago a great man, realizing
his Indebtedness, said: 'I am a debtor
TO the Jew and the Greek, TO the bond
ana the free" In like manner men
twenty centuries removed from him
must say, 1--WE, too, are debtors
Catching the true thought that is wrapt
up in the lines Of J. G. Holland, they
may say:
'.Iife evermore is fed by death; IN
earth and sea and sky,
And that a rose may draw its breath,
something must die
That the rose Of today blooms so
beautifully and fills the air with its per-
fume, the rose Of yesterday died and
PASSED away. That life Of today might
be full Of blessing, wisdom and truth,
privilege and opportunity, yesterday
life gave freely of its strength.
You stand in Lexington Green, or by
the side of Bunker Hill monument, or
in the great cemetery Of unknown dead
at Gettysburg, and from these points
of view study life as il is unrolled and
opened before you. Contrast conditions
of today with conditions with which
these heroic unknown made their great
sacrifice. Ask why the simple mOnu-
at Bunker Hill, and the polished rows
of marble at Gettysburg, and the an
swer comes beating and throbbing into
the heart with resistless insurgence,
''They paid their debt to the past by a
sacrifice for the sake OF the future"
Because they were there, we are here.
Life builds itself upon the growing,
fulfilling and perishing ambitions Of
men. even az coral reefs lift themselves
from the oceans depths by the sacrifice
OF the little life that gives TO the reef
fits name.
What debts men owe to their ances-
torsl A sound physique a splendid
brain, a responsive heart, a spirit
touched with a sympathy for the in
firmities Of others. These things are
rot mems own by right Of conquest;
they are theirs by right Of inheritance.
What debts men owe to their teach
ers in youth! Men and women who
taught the young idea how to shoot,
led them to drink deeply Of the waters
of truth. gave them ideals, purposes
and ambitions, and helped them in their
determine lion to do right. Henry
Ward Beecher said he owed all that he