St. Paul tidende. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1902-1928, 1918-03-01

ing sur. America, the name that
for most Of US meant opportunity.
And as | came, so thousands and
Of other emiigrants have
come, and America has freely OPP
ened its doors, has given US an OPP.
%portunity to earn our living in a.
fuller measure than most Of us
could have earned it in the land
from which we came.
And for this we should be truly
grateful grateful to God, who
created this vast storehouse for you
and for me, for every man and.
woman who is ready to comply
with Gods terms for drawing from
this storchouse, and his terms are:
to work and let others
work.
The emigrant has complied with
these terms. He has helped with
his brain and his muscle to clear the
forests, break the virgin soil of the
prairie, open the mines, and build
our cities; so that it can truthfully
be said that by the aid Of the emf
grant the wilderness has been made
to blossom like a rose.
In this he has done nothing more
than his duty; if he had done less,
he would not now have been worthy
to be called an American citizen.
But the emigrant should be CRATE
|ful not only to God but also to
man, to the men who founded this
Republic, and to the thousands of
men and women who gave their
lives to maintain it.
Gratitude to God and to man
for this precious inheritance should
be cherished by every American
citizen, n%aturalized as we'll as ma
tive.
How can we best show this graft
tude and be worthy to claim this
inheritance?
By giving the best that is in us
to develop and maintain the land
and the freedom, for which men
and women in times past have Civ
en- their lives.
But to do this we must call forth
and develop the best that is in us
and Jul children. With this as one
of the objects in view we are build
ing homes, churches, and schools,
and here you will find the Danish
American in the front rank.
But" some one may. say, why
do you also have schools in which
the Danish language is taught to
your American-born children. and
used as a medium of instruction,
and churches in which they are
brought up to worship God in the
Danish language?"
This is a legitimate question,
and to briefly answer it is the OBJ
|ject of this writing.
The language which you learned
on your mothers knee, the language
in which she lulled you to sleep
and taught you to pray, and which
tor generations has been the langu-
age OF your ancestors is by reason
OF its intimate connection with your
inner nature of much more impor-
lance to you than some of YOU, it
seems, are aware of.
The human heart has an inner
chamber in which mans best ener-
gies, his strongest and hottest feel
lngs and impulses, his emblems of
royalty, are securely locked. The
spiritual life which through genera
lions has formed the inner nature
of the people from which you have
sprung, and thereby also formed
your inherited nature, is the key to
unlock that inner chamber in your
heart.
You may derive great benefit
from the spiritual life of others,
but the life of the people to which
you by nature belong is, by reason
|of your close relation to it, the
power that more than any other
can call forth an develop in you the
best qualities and latent energies
you have inherited from your fore
fathers.
No man eyer had brought forth
the best, that avas in him, if he
tailed to drink of the fountain, that
sprung from the spiritual life of
the people to avhich he BY nature
belonged.