The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1912-06-27
The Five Lamps Of Failure.
BIZ Dr.. FRANK CRANE


In the parable Of the five foolish
virgins, when the bridegroom came,
they found themselves with no Oil
in their lamps.
They stand for all those whomthe
crisis finds unprepared.
| viii explicate to you what are
these five empty lamps, fyon don't
mind a bit of preachment.
Lamp one is religion vithontmor-
atty. Max Mueller says that the
Hindus are the most immoral OF
peoples. And there is no doubt Of
the sad fact that religious emotion
can glow in a heart asa fellow fame
to immortalities. The greatest en-
emics to religion are those who pro-
fess piety but fail to show rectitude.
Theirs is the lamp with no oil.
Why call me Lord, Lord, /" said
the Master and do not the things
Isay?n
Lamp two is sentiment without
habit. Life ismade up Of sentiments.
Life, after all, is the way you feel
about it. 1t is essential, then, that
we acquire a set Of dependable and
permanent feelings. The only way
to deeply root desired emotions in
the soul is to practice them regular
ly THE habit of doing that which
you do not care about when you
would much rather be being some-
thing else, said Huxley, is inval-
liable" It is only they who do thus
who have oil in their loves lamp.
They whose rule is to do as they
please are the foolish virgins, whose
lamp of joy early burns toasmoky
wick.
Lamp three is training without
training the will. OF all our parts
that which needs most and gets
least education is the will. Hap
piness is the product Of strength. A
strong body is good and 50 are a
strong mind and strong emotions,
but none of them is so good as a
strong will. The will is the human
handspring and ought to be OF tenn
pered steel. A soft will that gives
way to the push Of any desire is the
cause of most human Wreckage.
And Facilitating, hesitant will that
cannot move firmly toward a chosen
end is the cause Of most failures.
Lamp four is goodness without
cheerfulness. It is doubtless your
duty to do right, but it is no less
your duty to be pleasant about it as
you can. Goodness may be very
splendid lanapo Of bronze or gold,
fike the lamps Of the temple, or Of
cunningly wrought iron, hard as
as the lamps upon the wall Of the
Strozzi palace at Florence, but with
out cheerfulness it is but dead lamp
and sends out noguiding ray to other
souls. Be good for your own sake
and be cheerful for your wife's sake.
Lamp five is love without loyalty.
Tosay that loyalty is the oil in loves
lamp is a very accurate figure Of
speech, for, as a matter Of fact. the
enduring brightness oflove is wholly
drawn from loyalty. Why do man
and woman at the altar swear they
will love each other till death do
them part2 Simply because, other
things being normal, a man and a
woman cannot live together in the
intimaciea of marriage, remaining
loyal, and not grow more and more
into mutual love. The free lovers,
who lock on marriage as a bondage,
as an unpsychological attempt to
confne to one channel an emotion
that should be free, do not under
stand the human heart. With the
oil of fixed loyalty in the heart the
flame Of true love will not cease to
burn. Without that oil love ceases
to be lambert and clear and is but
an occasional dull coal when the
match Of opportunity is touched to
it, and consumes not the souls oil
of life but the souls verysubstance,
the light of whose burning is no
light and whoee only product is a
most ill-smelling vapor.