Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-07-27

70 Rnowledfe. The question whether
the. earnestness was what determined
IS s' SS Srna pog SSiv Of leadership; II
Let US not deIude Ourselves into max
Tween intellectual and moral Qualities
an excuse for misJudSment, or to tr
70 enter heaven on an imperfect record
OF performance because he didn't know
ms Ali claim 10 leadership in the things
OF nfe that are most essential:
But knowledge, though vitality i'm
portant element In leadership. Is not
everything. man must have personal
qualities that will so influence and in
spire others as to make his knowledge
count. The crowd sees tho maple tree
In the foreground. Tho man who in
sists on the landscape behind is almost
always In minority. For him to feel
| sure OF his standards and ideals under
such conditions requires courage. To
maintain them until others begin to
see that they arc right requires stabil-
ity. 1t is this sort OF courageous sta
bIity that we dignity by the name of
character. Character has been defined
as the habit Of doing the same thing
under different circumstances. There
is no higher praise that can be given
TO good man than to say that you
know where to find him. He is man
who not only secs what is distant. but
shapes his course by what is distant.
and by SO doing makes himself safe
not see II at first, but they will find it
out before long.
Witnessed Gradual Sitting.
In the four years OF our life here
We have witnessed a gradual sitting
out OF men. In freshman year the
were those who we're brilliant or at
tractive. Time alone showed whether
these men were strong or weak of
purpose. II they were weak their in
liant or attractive they had been at the
outset, the stronger was the reaction
against them when their steadiness OF
character was found deficient. In the
long run the thing that made a mans
personality count was the quality Of
courage and stability; the fact that we
knew where to find them. And as class
reunions come. and we meet again here
ten or twenty or thirty years hence,
the increasing Importance OF this ele-
ment OF personality in making knowl-
edge count and giving man the posi-
ton of leadership which he has the
capacity to fill will boone manifest
with cver-increasing force.
And there is yet third element in
Christian leadership besides sense of
values and personality. and that is
self-forgetfulness. Unselfish knowl-
edge and unconscious force of character
count for many times more than that
which is self-centered or self-conscious.
This is not an easy lesson to learn.
think every man Of strong character
must repeat in his own life the lessons
of Christ's temptation in the wilder
ness, and must learn to put behind him
the show Of success as a condition of
obtaining the reality.
How Is this self- forgetfulness
achieved, and how can we use the e%-
periences or college life to help us in
composing 1t?
No man ever learns to forget him
self by conscious act OF forgetting.
He does it by doing things for other
people which absorb his thoughts un-
til they become fixed as by instinct.
on something outside of himself. What
upon his own personal characteristics
achieves seif-forsetfulness through
and feelings of those about him until
their happiness becomes his instructive
goal and drives considerations of his
he Is man of political instinct. an or
ganizcr and leader of men. he achieves
selt,forgetfulness through contact with
coming part Of collective movements
Of feeling and opinion. which he domi-
mates more and more surely a S he sinks
for the public good. II he has the
temperament of the scholar and inves-
tisator he achieves. self-forgetfulncss
much for the truth that his personal
affairs and interests are forgotten in
the face of the eternal veritIes as he
z
very profound sense the Scriptural
promise. "Ye shall know tho truth.
and the truth shall make you free"
worlds great leaders have reached a
measure of selfforgetfulness which
enabled them TO add TO their sense of
the confidence and the life which is
given to him who has lost himself in
the thought OF something larger and
higher and more enduring.
World Cravea High I.eadership.
Gentlemen OF the graduating class:
The world is today craving moral and
spiritual leadership more intensely
Than ever before. The war has brought
with the realities of life. Five years
ago some men worshiped force. The
war has called sudden halt in the
precariousness of money and the things
Ties, TIE lsst ;sw months Brought mas home ae
force defeats Its own end Men are
locking for better God than any of
They do not readily find the object
forms which satisfied the peoples az
Europe hundred years aso Or ffty
years ago no longer meet the needs
OF inc day, The growth OF popular
| science with its mixture of truth md
error. has shaken the hold of creeds.
I The growth of democracy. in Thought
ana teelinR as we'll as in public affairs
has made people impatient OF authority
and It's symbols. They seek leaders
| who shall reveal God TO them in terms
! that they can understand; leaders who
know modern science and modern poli-
| ties, but who have at the same time
an instinct for spiritual truth and a
personality Of undergraduates which
| Will carry others with them.
! Exactly what form the religion and
the Christianity Of the future will take
| no man living can tell. 1t remains 10
| be revealed. and to be revealed through
! men. Christianity was never In It's
| essence set Of creeds or a set OF
| forms. though one age after another
has tried TO mako It So II was con
tinuation OF the personal influence of
Jesus Christ in the lives Of people who
| had heard of him and wanted TO be
like him. Forms change from genera
| ton TO generation. The creed that was
! useful as rallyinG cry one day be-
comes an outworn formula the next
! But the influence OF God as revealed
through the man Jesus Christ remains
In proportion as We share His spirit
| we have 1t In our power to exercise
| the same kind of influence; to be our
| selves. In our own sphere. revelations
| of God 20 men. He who sees farther