Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-05-27
NO SUBSTITUTE FOR
WORK
REV. RICHARD EVANS SAYS
IN ANNUAL SERMON TO
SCHOOL GRADUATES

/
work; that is the only royal road to
attainment" Rev. Richard Evans told
the class of ninety graduating Wausau
High school students, giving the annual
graduation address, for which he chose
as a subject, "a Plea for the Whet-
stone" at the First M. E. church last
Sunday evening. The class entered the
| church to the strains of Marcia Pom
posa," after which hymn was sung.
scripture was read by the Rev. d. ].
Williams of the First Presbyterian
church, and invocation said by the
Rev. VIM. ]. Taylor, of the First Uni
versaiist church. Several numbers
were beautifully rendered by a girls
octet
Study Brings Success
There are no toll gates, and the
Wayfaring man, though a fool, need not
err therein. 1t is not a royal road;
1t is democratic road. How did
Abraham Lincoln attain his rare facil-
lty in the use of the English language?
By whetting his brain on it through
the earnest study of the few MASTER
pieces he could secure. How did
Demosthenes become the greatest or
ator in the ancient world? By months
and even years of the most assiduous
study and unremitting labor. He
worked on q naturally dull instrument
until 1T became naturally as keen as a
Damascus sword. 1t was Longfellow
who said, Whatever I do, l will put
my whole soul into it; l shall be
eminent in something
If anyone asks the reason that
Stanley became one of the greatest
explorers, he has sufficient answer in
testimony. Put beside it the statement
of Robert Louis Stevenson: "A man
will either get what he wants and dill
igently seeks for, or be changed in the
trying, and there you have the secret
OF worth while Observation-Disclosures
fidelity, hard work
Enlarges Life
ITO develop natural gifts wonderful
ly enlarges life. What is life to the
one who grubs along year in and year
out unSkilled and unsatisfied? Why
are there so many who do that? Be-
cause there are so many young folks
III school and older folks in industry.
who work only when they have to, and
get out of it as often as they can.
They slide through school instead of
sweating through. Later they work
merely for pay, and do as little as
they can for that pay; their chief in
terest ching the sound of the quitting
whistle. And sometimes they wonder
why they do not get ahead. They
blame the boss or the job or the social
order, and never hit ON the funda-
mental cause of their failure-them-
selves. We hear a great deal about
opportunity as if opportunity were
something outside of ourselves and
something that struck by accident, like
lighting. 1t is very rarely an acct
dent: ninety-nine times out of a hun
dred we make it ourselves.
Opportunity falls as mercy falls.
like the gentle rain from heaven
and not like the stray meteor. Even
the Bard of AVIAN was not infallible.
At least we can discover a new light
on his deliverances occasionally.
There is tide in the affairs of men
which, taken at the flood, leads on to
fortune invites a larger interpreta-
ton. That tide is significant not
merely at the flood. 1t is significant
through all its rising; every inch of
elevation is big with opportunity. AS
a rule it rises only for those who are
diligent and faithful, who improve the
passing hours. No rising, no flood;
no worthiness, no rising. To whet
your gifts by diligence, application,
fidelity is to create opportunity all the
way along, and to make your own of it.
1t is to enlarge your life The worker,
the thinker, is ma ster.
What is education for? Service.
Cultivated brains are not for orna-
ment but for operation, not to be
worn as bauble but to be welded as
tool, not to make us conceited but
to make us useful"