Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-13


| are TO be brought to pass because there Is
leaven of belief which win leaven the
| whole lump.
| THE most contagious ailment from which
| i men suffer is belief. 1t may not spread
so rapidly in the beginning as smallpox or
| the bubonic plague, but when it once gets a
start there is no stopping It. One man who
believes n thing with all his might has been
known to infect whole city or a whole
tlon or all the course Of civilization.
The man who becomes immune to the
bacillus of belief is different from the man
who is rendered proof against any other
affection Vaccination against smallpox pre-
vents the destruction of physical vigor by the
disease, but vaccination against belief destroys
the whole moral and intellectual fibre of a
man.
If this were not so simple and elemental
truth 1t would not be necessary to call 1t to
the attention of the young men and the old
men Of this city. They may not know 1t,
but every successful man in this town has
been stricken with the contagion of belief
Now and then there is who under
stands the situation. Such an one addressed
the statesmen employed by his company few
weeks ago and told them how to achieve sue
cess He found that Webster describes a
salesman engaged in the sale of goods
merchandise. But he was not satisfied
with this, and gave definition of his own in
these pregnant words:
A salesman is a man who causes others
to believe as he believes, and then moves
them to act on that belief.
If he had said that q salesman must first
believe in what he is selling he would have
started at the foundation No great and
permanent success was ever built on fraud
or sham. The propagandist of an idea or
Of a commodity must first have confidence in
1t. Then, as this business man said he must
be able to persuade others to agree with
him, and finally he must compel them to act
on that belief.
Every man is a salesman in the sense
comprised in this definition The preacher
must sell to others his belief in Christianity
by causing them to believe as he does and by
persuading them that the belief is barren
which is not accompanied by action. There
are many failures in the pulpit because
so many preachers have only mild and un-
communicable attack of belief. Their faith
is not contagious. There are SO many law
yers who live hand -to-mouth existence be-
cause they are in such doubt of their ability
to serve their clients that the clients share
the doubt. They cannot communicate to
others faith in themselves which they do
not possess The small business man does
not enlarge his business because he lacks
belief in his ability to master its problems.
Philadelphia, with all it's greatness has |
failed to lift itself into the position which it |
should occupy for the reason that so many |
Philadelphians have not believed in it's possi- |
bilities. There are scores Of Philadelphians |
today, however, who do believe that the best |
is none too good for us. They are not fright
ened by obstacles. for every stumbling block
in their VoV hut tests their r,attla opd rro,ae
their ability to surmount greater barriers.
We are to have an adequate transit system
because there are men here who believe in it
and are causing Others to share that belief
and to act on it.
We are to have piers and railroad termi-
nails on the water front adequate to accommo-
date the commerce of continent because
there are men here who will never rest con-
tent until the port is developed to the extent
Of its possibilities.
We are to have a great public library and
a splendid art gallery for the reason that
those who hold that mans life consisteth
not alone in the abundance of the material
wealth that he possesseth are working for
the development of the towns resources for
training the mind and refining the TASTE
But what is the use of enumerating. all
the projects to which men of faith and
vision are committed? The germ of belief is
At work. The contagion of confidence in the
future is spreading, and those in whom it
has become a passionate intuition are com.
1t daily to others They are not
oalked by the cry that it is impossible for
they have seen many impossbilties come to
pass and are now convinced that the expan-
sion and the political regeneration which
hey foresee is possible because as Tertullian
said the impossible is certain on account Of
is very impossibility