Evening star., 1909-01-24

slider II. Already the battle is lost Sell.
appreciation is one OF the cherubins that
stands before this gate of Eden guarding
us. not only from returning. but guarding
others from returning
or add TO this. il YOU will. the weaken
ing OF the sense OF courage. There Is
crude but homely passage in the Old
Testament that is wonderfully apt. I say
crude because Ii strikes so In our TWEEN
tieth century. but speaking of the tongues
OF certain men the prophet says: He who
sitteth In the heavens shall laugh. One
sometimes thinks that the unpardona bic
sin in the religious life is timdity. We
are such towards, even we dare not
call our souls our own. We dare not think
unless we are sure that our thinking Is
consonant with the great majority. W.
dare not go to church. many of us. until
We have found out that II is perfectly
safe. proper and respectable church He
that sitteth In the heavens shall laugh.
Or. ii We must continue this vivisection
little further. observe lastly that these
overtures come to us when we have lost
our humility, when we have lost the sense
Of personal appraisement when We have
lost the sense of religious courage and
when we have lost our humility. | should
not use the word II could think of a
better one, but 1t Is a word which, by
the way. needs to be redeemed Blessed
the the meek for they shall inherit the
earth. What does it meanr 1t means
that that man is blessed who knows that
there is more in life than he sees. That
is the humble man. The humble man Is
not the man who disparages what he is.
but is the man VINO is open-minded be-
cause he does not know how much there
may be in the world.
I'm proportion, then, as this sense Of
lf-apprecfation. Of courage and of true
meekness is lessened, just In so far our
spiritual vitality is weakened We are open
to all sorts of bargainings which do not
shock us because we have been gradually
prepared for them.
Love of Applause.
"The first bargain that comes TO a man
to sell himself is the native love OF APP
plause. We are all vain and it does no
harm for us to confess it. Pride goeth
before a fall. That is the reason We are
able to fall. Pity the man who has no
pride; he has no height from which 10
fall. The love of applause. the love Of
approval, the fondness for being with the
ma jority right or wrong. the love of per-
sonal comfort and personal ease worldly
things as the old religious teachers call it
these are what the world offers for you.
Are these things, then. entirely wrong?
No. That is exactly where the applica-
tion comes in. Applause. the sense of tie
majority and love of ease are only tie
seamy side of great realities. We are
not so bad as we think we are. What
we really mean when we say love OF ap-
plause, what We mean in our best mo-
mentS Is the approval of the competent.
All, how different that isl Not in the
plaudits of the crowd, but i'm the approval
of your peers and your superiors That
is worth working for. Not simply the de-
sire to be with the majority. counting
numbers. but with the ma jority weighed.
not counted. Not the love of ease but the
love Of peace. These are the real things
of which applause. majorities and per-
sonal ease are only rude counterfets. We
are not entirely mistaken when we mis-
take these for the realities. but the real
ity is the approval of the competent, the
desire to be not with the most numerous
but with the most thoughtful. the desire
not for ease only but for peace.
This is the danger that confronts the
modern man, not that he shall deliberate
ly go over to the enemy, not that he pur-
posely shall lower himself i'm the scale Of
manhood, but by the evaporation of his
sentiment In the struggle for existence
sentiment and idealism shall drop out of
his life. He shall lose the sense of per-
,onal appraisal. Personal comfort will
take the place of personal peace and sat
action: there will be. as was intimated.
a neutral background put behind his life.
Disgusting the most hideous actions. until
before he knows it it may be written of
him. There none like Ahao VINO
did sell himself by doing precisely what
other people did