The Alaska citizen., 1916-09-04
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ENDURING HESITATION.

't- .'t-b. b.alt'ir 4tI when H' I0 Nl''. he shall focei,e the crown ol life" James liz
 All those yer-,- Gn the Bible that Ee-tn with "bia~~ed, seem to have q peculiar charm attached They aIwag= appear 10 promise good t#a.-. ta .... Ia- ..a oIor Of mothers cooking when We wer" children. they hold oHt h.ga hopes They have a fine charm that abides and yet We have learned that it is Hot nearly SO easy to apply them a. it wa~ 70 memurtze them In every case. We dare say, that We are introduced by the same win some word "hles-ed' 10 the hard est tasks Happy are We if wr can hold the winsomeness and the diff uIty fo-,thar and moi lose sight of the one by reason of the presence of the other.
 The principle of temptation en bodied in this text is along the lina of a most familiar law. that if We want to attain nytHu- worth while in the world w- must work for it, We must suffer for it That which costs uz somethmg counts for some thing That which costs Us nothing counts Tor nothtu- Indeed this truth is an old acquaintance of ours. and no. only well acquainted with il arp W,. but taIN well recon ciled to it tHd the best of us would not accept life on any other t,,m-. if Me could Someone has said Hat "an -reatne-s i~ bulIt ou difficulty daily encountered, daily conquered. The great men are all built on difficulties. When you see great musician -rea painter a great sctouG-t you SC" there a soul that has wre-ued with ease and fudoIeuo~. and has thrown them; and would have speech with noch- ing easier taan thal. one who has welded his will To his hours, and made them yield their utmost" Just such an urterance belongs to the sphere of mans religion as well and he conquer- here as he con quered there
 Assuming that such is the truth, and facts Will proclaim it such, We will have to renounce the prevail. ir4 opuiou that temptation is just another and perhaps the greatest of all. evils with which our life is bound. We will have to with draw from the idea that temptation is just another handi ap, another disadyantage. another grievance to keep man from attaining the high est position possible in his earthly career in character training, How many times has the thought come to you in all seriousness, "Why is is that We like To do the things that ale bad for Us. and We dc not like to do the things that are good far us?" Does this not bear the semblance of complaint-a complaint against the divine regime for us? Such is a serious matter a very serious matter. But there are matters far more serious; name lv. the terrible reality of tempta- tion in mens lives every day. The drunkard the gambler, the Hcen tious, the ayaricious as firmly bound in the power of temptation as if they were held by paLds of steel. But that uoes r1t present the great tragedy of life. The great tragedy of life is presented by those who pass as the strong and yirtuous but yield to the petty temptation, a hundred times daily Did you ever stop to think where the man would be who yields to the little temptations of life if he was con fronted with one of the great temp tations of life? We are bound then to aid that the thing that dis tIuguiahes men as good or bad more often than We realize, is temp tation itself. The bad man, so called. is often the man who has been brought face to face with temptation and has failed, and the character of that temptation others had never known, nor it's over whelming power Victor Hugo has said that four out of every five thefts in the city of London had hunger for their cause The ques- tion does not rise here, is it wrong to steal, but were you ever so hungry that you wanted to steal, and did steal to appease that fright ful gnawing, that gnawing that con tinues until it has grown well nigh irresistible, il not al together so, The strength of the temptation, and the conditions of it's approach, do often distinguish us, rather than the merit or demerit reputed
 We find today that much of the moral effort of good people seems to be spent in keeping away from temptation at all. Of course there is nothing to be said concerning not keeping away from temptation 10 the man who knows his weakness and realizes that he would fall if brought under it's subtle power. To