The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-22

Every time we do a deed of love in
the name of Jesus we take a step to-
ward Him.
When God asks of US a deed is it not
foolish as well as faithless to offer
him instead only an excuse? Excuses
are not substitutes for actions. Not all
the excuses in the world can fill the
place of a duty well done. When we
present ourselves before the Lord it
should be with arms full of sheaves of
labor, not of sheaves of excuses.
Duties enlarge in the doing. By way
of small duties we rise to the greater;
this IS the natural law of progress.
Only they who are faithful in the least
are appointed to have charge over the
most.
The daring do. Capacity is largely
matter of confidence. The plane of
a persons labor and success is largely
determined by his own assurance.
Some young men attempt great things
think in large terms-launch great
ventures. Others, of equal native abili-
ties, moor their life crafts in the quiet
eddies where there is no danger from
rocks. The first may make the whole
world their debtors; the second usually
manage to make a meager living for
themselves, their unused powers grad
ually sloughing off until they reach the
ficiency. 1t is courage that conquers.
Real success comes only by fulfilling
the divine purpose for the Individual
life.
Cannon Farrar said: There is only
one real failure in life possible; and
that is not to be true to the best one
knows"
God means that in every life there
should be a place for each of his gifts
to US and place for the development of
all our possibilities. If our life is
dwarfed and starved and one-sided,
provided time and means; we have
neglected one or both.
The other day I had occasion to
meet, within the hour, two men. The
first was cold, selfish, material. I left
him with a feeling that virtue had
gone out of me. I was not so strong
or so peaceful as I had been a few
minutes before. Then I called upon
friend who is one of Gods noblemen.
It was while entering the tonic at
mosphere of the Colorado uplands.
New enthusiasm, new confidence in
myself and my fellows, new zeal for
the best things, was impaired to me
by that fifteen minute interview.
Neither of these men thought for an
instant of the influence he was ex-
erting upon the visitor; it was the
mans personality unconsciously speak
ing forth. Yet, in similar fashion, for
good or i'll, each one of us is affecting
every person whose life touches us.
There is no gift of grace tEat goes
farther toward making one beloved
than the art of simple kindness. Just
to be kind, in smile and word and
deed, is the shortest, surest road to
power over other lives. 1t is better
to be kind than brilliant; one brings
affection and loyalty; the other usual
ly brings in its train only envy and
bitterness. The adornment of simple
kindness is one within reach of every
body. There is no person so untalent-
ed as to be incapable of habitual kind
any soil, and beneath clouds or sun
shine, snow or rain. 1t has taken
centuries for men to grow into any
thing like an adequate appreciation of
but the humblest peasant by the Lake
of Galilee or upon the hills of Judea
could instantly discern and under
stand this simple kindness, for kind
ness is the universal language.
A skeptic was railing in public
park against the gospel, the church,
the ministry. and Christians. He
scoffed and mimicked and ridiculed
with such cleverness that he carried
the unthinking with him in uproar-
ious approval In that crowd stood an
intelligent, earnest Christian, gifted in
public speech, and confident of his
ability to show the shallowness and
falsity and absurdity of the speakers
sophistries. But he failed to do so.
He did not care for the notoriety; per-
haps his shrinking was sheer coward
ice At any rate he has long carried
with him the sense of failure to ac-
cept that opportunity to prove him
self a soldier on service, and to speak
a good word for Jesus Christ. He
might have brought honor to his
Master: instead he allowed him to
be dishonored. No matter how faith
full that man may be hereafter, he will
never overtake the lost opportunity.