The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-06-03

belief would mean either stagnation OF
c lawlessness.
We believe in no evolution that does
not leave man free human soul.
. There is higher duty and response
blity than merely to let God OF Ma
ture find expression through you. In
the second place it is wrong to imag
inc that for the sake of evolution we
are justlned in limitess self assertion.
We have long been familiar with this
principle of perfectly free self-assertion
in business-that life is IL free for all
fight. Whoever gets left gets left.
Whoever gets ahead wins.
But only of late has it risen to the
dignity of an ethical precept Self
ishness is enthroned as the supreme
duty of man. There must be pro.
rcss and freedom of individual nitia-
tive-onc must express and assert him
self freely. Why? Because he too is
part of evolution and Il mode of the
manifestation of the unknowablc.
But the true attitude toward evo-
luton is that of loyal cooperation. Life
can be made real and selfhood attained
only through work, loyalty to some
! cause which we feel to be real adtli-
ton to the sum of being. the only
way to pass from irresponsible boyhood
to manhood is to find some work, be-
come interested in it and do it.
The choice of work must rest freely
with individual conscience and reason
Each man must live his own life and
should be left free to do so.
But the great thing is to chose Il
definite line of work and stick to it.
Lincolns life was an example of this
as witness his reply to Horace Grcely,
who, becoming impatient to see slavery
abolished, wrote to Lincoln asking
when he was going to issue All enamel
patton proclamation.
Il would save the, Union If t.erc
be. those who would not save the
Union unless they could at the same
time save slavery, 1 do not agree with
them. If there be those who would
not save the Union unless they would
.at the same time destroy slavery. | do
not agree with them.
MY paramount object i'm this strug-
gle is to save the Union. and is not
either to save or to destroy slavery.
If | could save the onion without
freeing any slave, would do it; and
if could save it by freeing all the
slaves, | would do it: and if ] could
save it by freeing some and leaving
others alone l would do that What
! do about slavery and the colored
race, | do because | believe it helps to
save the Union; and what forbcar,
| fOrbear because / do not believe it
would help to save the Union | shall
do less whenever / believe that what
| am doing hurts the cause, and [
) shall do more when believe doing
more will help the cause This is the
attitude toward life which means get
ting somewhere
Our life work must touch the life
of others. In life we must have three
sets of loyalties First we must be
loyal to the past. To those from whom
we receive. One way of showing our
loyalty to those who have preceded us
is to take the best out of their lives
and by using that as basis build
a better life for ourself Their lives
are not perfect save in ours.
A father once said to his son: You
must be bigger man than | am be
cause you are standing OH my shout
ders.'
N he MI MI b. Inv
to the future, to those to whom we
must give.
No one should go out of the world
feeling that his life is finished Such
Il life would be 10 contribution to
humanity.
In the third place one must be loyal
to God in helping to work out his
evolution. His work is not perfected
save in us. He has shown his trust
in us by giving us bit of his own
work to do.
1t is here that we see the special
bearing of these considerations upon
the life of teacher.
The teacher is the interpreter OF
the past-molder of the futurc-God's
helper.
Luther has said on teaching: For
my part, if | were compelled to leave
off preaching and to enter some other
vocation. | know 10 work that would
please me better than that of teaching.
For | am convinced that, next to
preaching, this is by far the most
useful, and the best labor in the world,
and, in fact, l am some times in
doubt which of the two is the better.
For YOU cannot teach an old dog new
tricks, and it is hard to reform old
sinners, yet that is what by preaching
we undertake to do, and orr labor is
often spent in vain; but it is easy
to bend and to train young trees"
And for this reason the teacher even
more than the preacher is world
builder
Such a life requires first. confiderc
i'll the reality of our work; seconu.
faith i'll its worth and in the personal
of others, and third, faith
fulness in routine
Forenoon, and afternoon, and night
Forenoon and afternOo' and night.
Forenoon. and-whatg The empty song
repeats itself. No more! Yea, that
is life; make this forenoon sublime.
II,