The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1914-07-03
rand conception of manhood and hu-

BrdHu coHCcptloI VI ndHHoou oHu Hu-
manity.
"His father a mechanic, his birth
place shed, his cradle manger, The
foxes of earth have holes, the birds of
the air have nests, he said, but the
son of man hath not where to lay his
head
"Yet He came bringing philosophy
to revolutionize the world, to transform
every civilization, the central sun in
the heavens of human history, by whose
light we read all things both before
and since His day, taught that good
ness is greatness, that character is
power, that right is the only royalty,
real, successive, omnipotent, and eter-
nal. Taught that in the real realm of
being, he who serves his fellowmen is
the only prince and he who serves Him
the only king. Taught that true wis
dom alone is life, that the blood of
peasants, freed from the clamp of
caste is just as rich in potentialities as
that flowing in the veins of emperors.
Taught what you, if you are students
true, believe with all your heart, that
Wisdom giveth life, that thought and
love can never die. They are the two
sweet flowers of Eden's garden that
have survived the fall.
And those two flowers of heavenly
birth are the only immortal class colors
the only immortalnbadges worn by
the individual or the state.
have spoken of our fathers in the
lower realms of existence as to our
temporal lives, where. l have said, we
may learn lesson. But here often
they were at fault. Some of them
lived only here. They did not compre-
hend real life, lived as some men live
today, narrow, selfish existence, and
that was all. They said to their sons
as some men say today in their ignor-
ance. Get money, get property that
you may raise corn to fatten cattle. to
buy more land, etc., kingdom come world
without end. And that alone was their
aspiration and their life and they lived
and they fattened upon their wealth as
the cattle fattened upon their corn,
and they died as the cattle died and as
the cattle, are forgotten, while those
who used money as defense. a shield
against ignorance and poverty-a power
to bless humanity and for the develop
ment of mind and soul-live on with
larger lives today than when they toiled
among us. And they will forever live
to bless the world. All else perishes.
Real life born of wisdom is eternal.
81 speak of our own national life
tonight and before us float our ships
upon the seas, our merchantmen, our
cruisers and our gallant men of war.
speak say of our national life, and
before us come our standing armies,
our cathedrals, our monuments, our
works of art, our great public buildings.
But these are not our national life.
These are only the perishable tools with
which we build republics and establish
civilization. These signify nothing only
as they reveal the life and character of
those that use them.
"The monument of the sculptor will
crumble into dust, the rarest painting
of the artist fade. Within half CEN
tury our standing army to man will
have surrendered to the king of terrors.
Within single hundred years, decayed
or sunk beneath the waves will be the
navy now touching upon every foreign
shore and admired by every nation.
Our buildings, our armies, our fleets
fall. These material things must per-
ish, but this nation, conceived in liberty.
born of freedom and under freedoms
skies, which has given the best blood
of her sons for larger life to the hu-
man race, can never die. We die as we
become slaves to self. We live as we
give ourselves for others. 1t is wis
dom that giveth life-knowledge that
giveth Immortality.
Where tonight is the military glory
of ancient Greece? Where are her
armies? Where are her fleets? Where
are her temples, the Acropolis, Lyceum,
and Parthenon at Athens?
"' Her studious walks and shades?
The Olive grove of the academy?
Plato's retirement where the Attic bird
Trilled her thick warbled notes the sum-
mer long?'
"Her armies are dust, sunk are her
navies. hushed forever are her battle
cries.
"But; is Homer dead? He sings as
swsetly to charm the students on this
glad day of June in this year Of our
Lord, 1914, as when he walked in blind
ness, debating his immortal verse by the
side of the deep sounding sea a thous-
and years before the Christian era.
"Where is the Roman Empire built
by force and Rome the proud mistress
of the world? Only the crumbling
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