The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1912-06-06


their country out Of the sea, VIII,
stood for eighty years undismaye
in a battle for liberty, exhibitini
the most magnificent calm and en-
during courage that has ever bee
known in the history of the race
All this you would know from thi,
portrait IL you had the insight ant
vision.
Now in all vital work two thing
are necessary, and that is the chal'
lenge of life. Are you ready7" Life
says to us whenever we touch any
piece of work or face any cpportu
nifty. Well, when are we readyP
suppose great many people thinS
that a man is ready when he is
willing. Now man is not ready when
he is willing. There are a thousand
men who are willing to a hundred
who are ready. Willingness is only
the first step but 1t is a necessary
step. You are ready only when you
are competent TO do the work. The
apprentice is willing but the master
only is competent.
No man can answer the challenge
uf life, no man can kindle that little
fame that is within every one o..
us into fire that lights our work
and makes it radiant unless he has
skill, mastery of his tools. mastery
Of his material, not outward dexter
ity, mere routine dexterity of the
hands but the inward skill of the
soul. A man, to do his work honest
ly in his world, must be right-handed
and right-hearted as we'll. So stand
ing here at this time | want 10 say
to you, young men and young women,
that skill is just as much your reli-
ious duty as purity and fidelity and
are your religious du-
ties.
What is skill? Skill is conscienc
applied to a mans work, whether
Is of the brain or the hand, one q,
the greatest obligations Of a man
religion. Slovenly work is slovenly
Any man who does his
work any less well than he can d.
il or a man who does not take every
to get the skill to do
il well is just in that sense dis
honest man. Now skill is the great
from which a mans WORK
rises to become individual and power
Iul, and ii is the tableland from
which a man climbs to the ultimate
The japanese are the most
" onderful artists in modern times,
AID their work is founded upon
which, fear, very few OF
our Americans would be willing TO
undergo. 1t is the greatest mistake
in the world to suppose that the
arts are things in which men pla!
Art is simply work that has passed
On into the stage Of play but Is
based on the foundation OF heroic
.oil. A man may learn to lay brick
within a short time, but no man can
earn the mastery of stone, the
II chitect; no man can learn the mas
cry of color, the painter; no maa
an learn to be the master of any
musical instrument without time
md toll and patience and self-sacri-
ice. There is one family of artists
n Japan who have been at the fore
I ont Of the art OF painting for gener-
ltions. They have trained their own
children and no boy is allowed 10
,aint from life until he has for ten
'nbroken years painted by rule from
he models set before him. That
Gems a frightful drudgery 20 us,
mt it means that the man when he
tarts out to paint for himself is the
master of his tools and his material,
" 10 dlltduy On lHe ldDltltHu from
ghich the ultimate heights rise.
There is another thing which ]
'ant to say to you: the skilled man
) the only man that is free, the skill
4 man and the skilled woman. 1t
) the skilled man who commands
is place. We often speak as if It
'ere our employers who discharged
S. Sometimes it Is true they have
D. But friends, really we employ
I'D discharge ourselves. In every
usiness and occupation there are
zen who are so important by rea-
On Of their skill that they cannot
discharged unless the business
oes TO pieces. No man is free in tha |
Iodern world with its competition /
nd its growing intensity unless he |
a trained man, and no man is free I
ecause no man can use his resour-
IS unless he is a trained man. We /
10 not born free, friends. We can
Ut be made free. It is often said
lat the Car Of Russia freed the
'rfs and that Mr.. Lincoln freed
ia glQNag nttf ,s,,,