The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-11-26
SATIRDhY NIGHT
~ -s~'ssS-,-=
NSERMoNS
.<zz BY
z !R!EySAMUEL
WpURVISD0
DO THEY COME BACK,-

t., las come into our Won
49, american phraseology, already
ricn with expressions from tho "d,a.
mond," the "gridiron" and the "trrsn
NOW from the Squared circle" comes
ahotner' a SO called Renoism. II ia
STATED positively, like an axiom in
geometry, that "they don't come
oack' That is, he-to quote a certain
famous colored lady-that "brincs
nome the bacon" must be one who
hasn't had defeat or hasn't been too
long out OF the game. To step out Of
5nne, or worse, to be pushed out. mark.
the beginning Of the end. No rabbits
loot talisman can ward off the inevi.
taDle hour. From that time "the paths
OF glory lead but to defeat.
Is 1t True?
Let's face the question brayelv and
sens1bly. After one has reached the
zenith OF his powers and there comes
reverse, more or less serious, can
ne come backT Physically seldom
or only for q time. For the fighter.
the Splinter, the ball player, the ath-
lete' the man who has had q break
down (his friends tell him vertigo"
the doctor says slight stroke'). the
woman with nervous prostration. it's
q mighty SOLDERING thought-but you've
touched your limit. You've caught
sight of the day when you can't come
back." In that vague thing we call
success" can one "come back" after
defeat or failure? Yes, frequently.
Mark Twain did. And the business
world is full of men who went down
In defeat only to rise again to greater
heights. But, mind you, I'm an opti-
mist. Cold blooded statisticians say
20 per cent do not come back" How
ever, 20 do. You may be among them.
In the moral world can one come
back" Thank God, yes. Not al
ways into the society against which
they have sinned, but into regard
Of right minded men and, most of
all, into their own self respect. 1t
Is old fashioned, it seems, to quote
while the lamp holds out to burn,
the viest sinner may return" but it Is
an eternal truth.
Is Defeat Failure?
You cannot always measure a man
by his defeats. You must know what
use he makes Of them. The injured
oyster turns his wound into a pearl.
The young Jew Disraeli sits down
amid bowls of derision at his maiden
speech in the house Of commons. His
answer is. 1.-THE day will come when
you shall hear me~ Carlyle through
many weary years, in poverty and
pain, writes his first volume Of 1.-THE
French Revolution" He lends the
priceless manuscript to Stuart Mil,
and Mills servant lights the fire with
it. In spite of his hardship and de-
SPAR again he wrote the masterpiece
Of today. Milton is blind, Dante and
Hugo exiles, Bunyan, Raleigh and Lu-
Their are in prison, Darwin and R. L.
Stevenson are invalids. Yes, but
they all made good; they came back,
Mr.. Preacher" True. But Robert e.
Lee didn't. He surrenders his sword
and the Army of Northern Virginia.
Yet north and south say he is greater
than if he had triumphed. Some men
fight and win; others fight just as
faithfully and lose. Many splendid
success is built upon heroic failure.
Up in the dungeon ut Machaerus
there's a flash Of steel in the shudder-
ing light, and John the Baptist has
faied-only to succeed. Sunset at
midday on Golgotha. A mangled body
Is hustle6 into borrowed tomb, and
the Man of Nazareth lies among the
failures Of time-only to succeed for
eternity,
The Dial of Ahaz.
Well, when we are all done here, will
there be another chance to come
back?" Is there somewhere in the
spirit world where we have another
opportunity? Can we take up the task
sighted here? VIII God turn back the
universe anu give uS yeotciu"y A'N
one seems to know. otis not SO
in the bond"-that is the
Bible. There's no encouraging word
from "that undiscovered country from
whose bourne no traveller has ever re-
turned" Better not count on it. las
a tree falls so shall it lle." Each new
morning is the surest chance to come
back" Sometimes your day may be
Once upon a time an an
cient king named Hezelliah was SICK,
about to die. Prayer was offered Tor
his recovery. In the courtyard, WIS.,
ible from his palace window, was the
town clock, a great dial, built by King
Ahaz years before. As sign OF fa-
yorable answer the shadow was to go
back ten degrees on the dial. At high
noon some supreme light shone from
the mercy seat, like that shone above
the brightness of the sun" to Saul on
the way to Damascus, rose on the otn-