Norwich bulletin., 1909-11-27
SUNDAY MORNING TALK
OUT OF WEAKNESS MADE
 STRONG.

In common with many other persons in all parts of this land I have been reading in a popuI<- magazine suc- cessive installments of the frank re- cital by Judge Ben B. Lindsey of Dem yer, Col, of the way in which his ef- forts to protect and save the young life of that city have been opposed and thwarted. It Is the plain, out spoken and apparently indisputable record of the machinations of politi- clans, the venality of state legislators, the corruption and maffeasance of city officials and the devious doings of great public service corporations, as they have sought: year after year, to profit through franchises and other special privileges at the expense of the people. We have had in recent years many fearless exposures of the shame and rottenness of great cities, but no revelations hitherto made sur pass those of Judge Lindsey in what they disclose of the seamy side of American municipal life.
 But Denver is not the worst city in the union. Nor are those who have enriched themselves there through graft and other devices known to the cunning and interruptions, the mean est men in the world. They tried to quiet the remnants of their conscience by saying. "Oh. everybody does more or less of this sort of thing" And while their crimes are not to be con- doned, the general apathy of the cit izens is quite as inexcusable. For American communities can have just as good municipal government as they want to have. In no city do thieves and the sharks outnumber the decent people or begin to approach them in number or caliber.
 The trouble lies in the lack of cour- age on the part of the average citi- zen. And just at this point Judge Lindsey becomes a striking object les son. What has most impressed me in reading his articles Is not so much the vast good he has already accom- plished as the fact that Denver owes it's civic awakening to just this pe- culiar type of man. For what was he at the beginning? A timid, shrinking boy, obliged to make his own way, a lawyers clerk for a time. and, when admitted to the bar. not in any way a commanding figure. Even when he entered politics he was unschooled in the arts and schemes that are the stock in trade of the average boss or ward heeler." But one day Lindsey saw Theodore Roosevelt face a great, hostile, sullen throng of men in Dem yer auditorium and heard him chal- lenge their political views by his open ing sentence. we are for the gold standard" From that moment Lind sey has the courage of lion.
 1t is no discredit to you, my friend, if you feel weak and inadequate to your task But it is to your discredit if you do not aspire for greater strength and expect to get it. Some of the greatest heroes of history, Moses, Isaiah, Paul, shrank from the tasks devolved upon them. But the command had come to them and in due season they girded themselves and went bravely forward.
 My word to timid people today is, Do not underrate your capacities" My message is not now to those who rush in where angels fear to tread, but to the far larger number who draw back where men-not angels ought to tread. The very fact that plain duty is laid upon you in the state, the church, the neighborhood, the home, is primary evidence that you are able to accomplish it. And if you go forward trusting in yourself and your God, you will be able to say that I heard a modest but courageous mother of a large family once say, T have done what I thought l couldn't"
 The best kind of strength is that which Is evolved from weakness. That is one of the differences between real man and an OK
 THE PARSoN.