Norwich bulletin., 1910-01-01
SUNDAY MORNING TALK
THE GROWING MAN.

Now and then l hear the comment passed upon this or that individual, He is a growing man." "She is growing woman" Sometimes it is spoken concerning a subordinate in great industrial concern. Sometimes the wife and mother in large house hold is so characterized. Sometimes it is the compliment paid profess sional man, minister, a doctor or lawyer.
 It is a beautiful thing to say about anyone. It suggests something quite different from what is brought to mind by the conventional appraisals of hu- man kind. It is far from what we mean when we say this man is coming into a fortune and that man is learn ed and that woman is clever.
 And yet 1t is not easy to define ex- actly what is in our thought when we men of the world. A growing animal is a far simpler proposition It is a question then simply of legs and girth. A growing child. too. is perfectly com prehensible, for by the term we signify chiefly increa sing stature and averdu- pois. But what are the marks of the growing man? How many recognize him when we find him in some high position or at some humble post of duty?
 Humility is one of the invariable accompaniments of growth. Phillips Brooks used to say that humility and courage are the two 1unOam enIdl TralLS of a noble life. Certainly no one can be growing who is weighted down by a big bump of self esteem. Growth is the bettering of a past record and the present status. If any man can look into his past searchingly and note it's slips, failures, neglected opportuni- ties and transgressions and be in any sense proud of it, or measurahly con tented with even a fairly credit2ble record. then he has never sounded the depths of his own nature. In order to be humble one need not be constant ly humiliating himself before his God free from the love of the limehght, the constant comparison of himself with others to their disadvanta and his own giorif1cation. Only then is he in the way of growth
 have never seen a growing man who was not teachabie. Abraham Lincoln said he would not give much for man who is not wiser today than yes ferday- But how can he be wiser2 Only by cherishing the spirit of a learn CT. If you have mastered every de- tail of your profession or trade, if you have penetrated to the frontiers of hu- a very superior person and need not that anyone should ever instruct you in anything. But that is not the attl-, tude of the truly growing man.
 For aspiration is the key to progress. What are you looking forward to this winter?" asked one city woman of an- other the other day. You are in the midst of many musical and literary ad- vaptages. What are you planning to accomplish?' ?'' Nothing" was the chill ing reply of a woman with a good huS- band a competence, q well ordered home and no chick or child to care for daily. No one with iota of aspira- tfon in his own or her makeup could be content with such d negative policy. As Browning says:
 Aye, but mans reach must exceed
 his grasp, As~4s-
 Or what's a heaven for?7
 Something ahead to do. to be to bring to pass, that is the spur, and he who responds to 1t grows and only that man grows. Wondrously does Chris tianity fit our thought today. It's pro- gramme First the blade, then the ear then the full corn in the ear" Its greatest injunction is .'Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect" Its dazzling, far-of goal is heaven, with it's possibilities of infinite growth. The rapid flight of time would be unspeak-