The Liberal democrat. [volume] (Liberal, Kan.) 1911-1924, 1921-05-26

your steel. rou nave realized IN q
measure the struggle of existence
and have prepared yourselves so that
you would be the better equipped to
be successful.
Young friends, life's untried high
way is before you. The curtains of
the future kindly exclude it from
view. What sleeps will have to be
climbed, what rough places will have
to be passed over, what valleys will
have to be traversed. God has kindly
shut out from your vision. But we'll
know that you will not
"be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
Whilst others fought to win the
prize
And sailed through bloody seas"
But that "You must fight if you
would win."
So in all the preparation in these
years of study you have been fitting
yourselves for larger, grander, no
bier things, in short, to live more
abundantly.
Life as we see it with our physi-
cal vision seems like play, an illu-
sion, masquerade. Men and women
are rushing hither and thither upon
the earth, busying themselves with
many tasks, pursuing many pleas
ures. They meet in business, society,
and government, soon to separate
and to pursue their respective ways.
They are bound together in families,
in communities, in nations. They en-
ter into various organizations. In
the rivalry of trade, politics and
class interests, they are arrayed
against each other. Like an immense
unending dance the figures are
curiously arranged, intricate and for
ever changing. Now peaceful, now
warlike, now swift, now sluggish
evolving new combinations, tracing
new shapes, it moves on unceaseing-
ly. The performers meet, know each
others masks, and costumes, and
admire or condemn. They exchange
greetings, clasp hands, unite them
selves in wedlock, then turn and pass
another, meeting and parting for
ever. Beneath this wonderful mas
querade, hidden from the casual
glance is the real life. Too often we
give ourselves up to the play and
loose sight of the real face behind
the mask. We forget that We are
living in world of living and dy-
ing men. We forget that life is real
only in so far as it contributes to
the highest welfare of our fellow
men. Too apt are we to make the
mistake of the rich fool, forgetting
that mans life CONSISTENT not in
the abundance of the things which
he posesseth.
Real life does not consist in
amassing great wealth. Money is a
necessity to our civilization. With
cut it the hand on the great dial Of
the worlds progress would have to.
be turned back milleniums. But
how utterly too do we fail to connpre-
bend its real relation to life. In
-stead of using it properly we make 1t
our God. The miser dying in the
midst of his boarded gold has not
lived but only existed. The million
aire who sports his special coach or
his own yacht may be a curse not a
blessing to the race. The mere
possession of yellow dust does not
make character, enoble life, or bless
mankind.
Real life does not consist in ac-
complishing great results.
The Pharaohs' of Egypt who built
those enduring pyramids have long
since been forgotten, but the name
and the life of Joseph still continues
to live on with ever increasing glory
Alexander conquered the world, peo-
pies were his playthings, and kings
were his pawns, yet he died most
ANONYMOUSLY. Napolean whose sell
fish sport was to overthrow dynasties
and set up thrones and bestow crowns
is remembered by all too many as
the scourge Of Europe. One great
gaunt train of rapine and murder
is all that he left behind.
Nor does real life consist in honor