Willmar tribune., 1916-06-07

1TOn HIS 1taOOIS having p1euLy Oh IOOQ
for the winter. Not long after this the
grasshopper came begging for food,
he was cold and hungry and he thot
the ant might take pity on him and
help him, but NO." the ant said,
"since you played and sang all the
summer, giving not thought to the
winter, you will now have to suffer
and take the consequences"
There were also once upon time
ten virgins, five of them were wise
and five foolish. These virgins went
forth to meet the bridegroom taking
their lamps with them, those that
were wise taking oil with them and
those that were foolish taking no oil.
While the bridegroom tarried they
slept, at midnight the cry was made,
"The bridegroom cometh, go ye out
and meet him." And the ten virgins
arose, trimmed their lamps and went
forth to meet him.
Then the foolish virgins said to the
wise ones, "Give us of your oil for our
lamps have gone OUT" but they an
swered, mo, lest there be not enough
for us; go to those who have oil to
SELL" and when they returned the
door was locked, the five wise virgins
having gone in with the BRIDEGROOM.
Then they said Lord open to us?"
but he answered, Il know you not.
Watch therefore for ye know neither
the day nor the hour wherein the Son
of man cometh."
This little fable and parable show
that the subject Of preparedness Is
not new one but g. question which
has come up from time immemorial.
Military preparedness is one of the
burning questions of today In this
country. Much is being written and
much is being spoken on this subject
and am neither going to add to nor
take away ~from the arguments set
forth, but will leave that matter to
our very capable president and his CO.
workers in congress to settle. Neither
am I going to talk of preparedness
with reference to the conservation of
our national resource for future gen.
erations. In fact I am not going to
touch on the preparedness of the ma
ton or state in the least, but I am
going to bring it down to the prepar.
edness Of the individual. And my top
ic will be preparedness of the 1ndivid-
ual or what man can do in order to
be prepared and ready, come what
may.
My topic will be divided into two
parts, the first part taking up what an
individual may do to prepare himself
practically speaking, and the second
part will take up what is most i'm
portant of all, the moral preparedness
Of the individual.
The first point want to bring out
IS that a man can prepare for the
future by taking care in the present,
Of time and money and energy. Ben
jamin Franklin says, "Time and tide
wait for no man and time runs against
the slothful." 81 live but once" says
the fool, so he enjoys himself, wastes
his time in continual idle pleasure
and seeks nothing but to crafty his
own desires.
II live but once," says the wise man,
so will not waste my time in fool
ishness but will use it as we'll as
can in trying to help and benefit 9TH
ers and myself" The man who <is
making the best use of his time is he
who is always studying, noticing,
learning, doing things that are worth
while and storing up knowledge and
experience to meet the practical ques-
tions which come up in later life. He
has gotten into the habit of doing
things worth while when he was
young, and in doing that he has pre-
pared himself so that he is equal to
any occasion, and he becomes respect
ed and leader among men. Now, on
the other hand, take the man who is
wasting his time in continual idle
pleasure never doing today what he
thinks he can do tomorrow. He thinks
like this, Il will have good time now
while am young and when am older
I will get down to work." so he wastes
his time and gets in to the habit of
doing nothing and when he is later on
confronted by the serious problems of
life he is q failure just because that
storehouse of knowledge on which he
should have been able to draw is emp
ty, he having neglected to prepare.
Money has the power to do a great
deal of good in this world If it is used
in the right way. For instance, q
sensible man does not spend it as soon
as he gets little but uses it wisely
in doing good, promoting the general
welfare and helping those who are in
need and in this way he also benefits
himself and feels satisfied.
But, behold the spendthrift, as soon
as he gets little money he spends II
in foolishness and Injuries, he spends
it recklessly, often times yields to
temptation and to evil pleasures which
his money can give, and instead OF
saving it to become source of power