The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-07-10

9eOplo Observation-Disclosures Ell
deavor. etc.-for July IL. Making
Life Worth While Luke 12:13-23.
(BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.)
"a deal of talent is lost to the
world for lack of a little courage"
If hearts were stouter life would be
sweeter. Give us the brave attitude
toward things, such as Henly sings, in
his rather pagan poem, "1nvictis":
I'm the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not WINGED, or cried aloud;
Beneath the bludgeoHings of chance,
Ny heart is bloody, but unbowed"
Plain to all of us is the simple truth
that life is never worth while to the
coward Heroic souls have made
even a pitiful remnant of existence
glorious The most popular as we'll as
the most inspiring graduate of this
lege was a man with a broken back,
who is forever doomed to cot or wheel
chair; yet who pursued his studies and
took his examinations while on a bed
of pain. The world is richer for that
noble company of men and women
'who, by a life heroic, conquer fate"
Their testimony is the truth for the
times. Not easier circumstances, but
harder souls, is the days need. We
do not covet world without trouble
so greatly as we covet lives that sur
mount trouble. Margaret Steele An
derSOn has put into verse a prayer OF
the Weak" that rings true:
Lord of all strength-behold, I am but
fraili
Lord of all harvest-few the grapes and
pale
Allotted for my wine press; Thou, o Lord,
Who holdest in Thy gift the tempered
Hast armed me with a sapling! Lest I
Then hear my prayer, make answer to my
cry:
Grant me, I pray, to, tread my grapes
Who hath full vineyards, teeming in the
Let dream valiantly; and undismayed
Then Lord Thy foe san TOR that steei Of
Life is most worth while when all
its detectives are outside of self.
One of the three times that the
Greek word lam bition' is used in the
New Testament is when the Apostle
Paul cries: I'VE are ambitious,
whether at home or absent, to be we'll
pleasing unto Him. Gil Cor. SOD.
That is a great purpose which re-
deems life from smallness and stale
ness. DR.. Charles Sheldon mirrored it
in his book, I'm His Steps," which sold
by millions of copies around the world.
Christian Endeavor glimpsed the same
vision in it's pledge wherein an En-
deavorer promises that Trusting in
the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, 1
promise Him that 1 will strive to do
whatever He would like to have me
do" There you have the clear path
marked out of the wilderness of poor
and petty living. Seek to do the
things that Jesus would like, and life
becomes beautiful and noble and alto
gether worth while.
Edward Everett Hale once told me
of an incident of a pompous man who
kept repeating the tale of his own
grandeur. 1.-The fact is, DIR. Hale, I
simply must have fifteen thousand
dollars a year to live Whereupon
DR.. Hale dryly remarked, cit isn't
worth it, Many a man deserves DR..
Hale's punctuFing comment. His life
does not justify his expenditures. He
is maintaining a pauper's spirit with
princely trappings. Cynical hume rists
have often pictured the apparel of
such an one-"a. five dollar hat on a
ten-cent man." "a thirty-cent dude in
a two thousand dollar automobile"
and so forth. All of which is but a
Jesus that mans life does not con-
sist of food and raiment and outward
circumstances. "As man thinketh
in his heart, so is he.''
Every deed of service to others
makes life worth living.
Life is always worth while for people
only for those who have failed in their
own spirits. Those persons who give
themselves to great and noble goals,
who spend themselves freely in behalf
of causes, never find existence stale or
faded. Their complaint against life is
that the days are scarcely long enough
for the accomplishment of the tasks
they have set themselves.
No man can become good merely by
trying. A deepening character is gem
orally the unconscious result of con-
sciously chosen influences. Find a
Friend, believe in him and love him
see a great Cause and give yourself to
its work; feel the power of a Book
and saturate yourself with it's spirit;
find Brotherhood of spirits like yours
in aspiration and join it; and loving
your Friend, serving your Cause, alb
sorbing your Book, and cooperating
with your Brotherhood, do not think
too much about your own character,
for your character will take care of
itself. You cannot choose to be
Christlike and attain your choice by
trying; but you can choose Christ for
your Friend, His Kingdom for your
Cause, the Bible for your Book, the
Church for your Brotherhood, and
these consciously chosen influences
will unconsciously transform your life.
Harry Emerson Fosdick.
Life is often a discarded toy, but
never wornout tool They who play
with Ire, whose ends are small and
self-centered, grow jaded and weary:
but they who work for the world find
their task an ever increasing Joy. That
is to say, life is worth while when it
is filled with .unselfish purpose. Even
those of US who only lift lame dogs
over Stiles never suffer from ennui
The helpers are the happy We re-
call Ella Wheeler Wilcox's classified
ton of mankind:
There are two kinds of people on earth
today,
Just two kinds of people; no more, say.