The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-11-16
CBy William T. EIlis.)

CBy William T ElliS.)
/ THE man who never make mistakes
never makes anything" Thus. in a
| popular saying. has crystallized a
great truth. Better to blunder ones
way to achievement than never to
! achieve at all The baseball player
who was dominated chiefly by fear of
errors would have little else against his
name, for the short remaining while
that his name would be on the records.
Only the young and the weak are wor-
ried by the possibility of mistakes: the
really strong know that to dare, to do
and to keep face forward is the pro-
gram of success.
Some grave mistakes are so danger
Gus that, like seacoast rocks on which
lighthouses have been placed, they are
conspicuously marked on the chart of
life The young mariner on life's sea
who is not utterly blind to the teach
ingS of the experience of older voy-
ayers should be able to escape certain
serious bIunders which usually spell
shipwreck. To disregard the warnings
of the past is to insure peril in the
present.
Throughout fertile Lancaster county.
Pennsylvania. the traveller notices that
the barns on the well-kept prosperous
farms are vastly bigger than the houses.
The nature of the crops in this region
makes large barns necessary; still the
moral abidess that it is dangerous to
have ones barns greater than ones
home: to have more goods than life. For
true riches are in life, and no material
possessions can compensate for small
ness of life itself. The soul may pos
sess much goods, but it should always
be greater than it's possessions. The
mistake of cultivating soil and neglect
ing soul; of piling up substances and
dwarfing spirit, is by no means con-
fined to thrifty Lancaster county.
To live as If this life were all of
the souPs career is a mistake which
is none the less tragic because it is
almost as old as the race.
He who never forgets a friend and
always forgives a foe is making no
mistake. That is the way the soul
grows.
There are something more than
ten million persons on this continent
who are, apparently, chiefly con-
cerned about how they look. Seem
ingly, they care more for clothes than
their daily solicitude. If half the
attention that is given to things sar-
torial were devoted to things spir-
itual and intellectual the plane of
character would rise higher on this
western continent than anywhere else
in the world. 1t is no mistake to
look well to the cultivation of the
mind and the spirit and the body;
but it is a mistake, a silly, childish,
mistake, to care supremely for
clothes. and complexion.
Love myself last" exhorts a wise
poet Selfishness is not only bad
manners and bad morals, but it is
also bad policy. The surest way to
serve self is to forget self in the
service of others. 1t is a mistake of
the first order for any young per-
son, in the presence of all the urgent
nj ixoc
which we hear on every hand, to
think so much of his personal con-
venience and comfort that he will not
plunge unreservedly into the service
of a great cause.
To be silent when a friend is at
tackled is a mistake that mars man
hood.
The country needs high-minded
patriots. Anybody who is failing to
make his life count for good citi-
zenship in these critical times is
making mistake for which his chill
When there is harvest in sight"
says Carlyle, lit is mistake to be
sparing of the seed corn"
Man is a spirit: he has a body"
That truth runs deep. The conser-
walton of the spiritual life ought to
be the supreme obligation of every
mortal Worldly prosperity means
less than inner peace. A heart at
tuned to the whispers of the divine
spirit is more desirable than that
recognition of the world at large
which we call fame. The reality of
union with Christ. the vividness of
the sense of God, the actually of the
peace that floweth like a river-to
ignore these is a mistake that counts
throughout eternity.
To fail to be kind is always
mistake.
When courage goes all goes. The
habit of bravery may be cultivated.
Thus in common days we may pre-
pare for crises. For to fail to culti-
Vate a stout heart is a more serious
mistake than to miss the usages of
good English and good breeding.
SEVEN SENTENCE SERMONS.
There is nothing. more r1ifff,,l than