Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1921-06-16

has been cruel Of late. lie has over
turned the earth fields we had
thought in satisfactory condition.
lie has not shown us always what
seed is 10 he sown. He has not fore
told in lightnings of revelations what
the harvests are to be- He has
ploughed with no apparent satisfac-
ton IN the lawns or civilization and
the parks of our slothful ease. Wild
crnesses We had grown used to have
been cleared and slashings Of wooded
lands have been common. But the
Great ploughman has the broad view.
He knows the seed he will employ, he
sees even TO the end Of the harvest.
Doubters may hastily lament the up
turnings of civilizations fields but
doubt does not belong to the believer
He that believeth shall not make
haste
"ln your individual livevs there
may have been the same upturning.
/ Everywhere sober men worry over the
youth of the day. There is a free
dom of manner that is new. There
is a change in many practices. The
revolutions characteristic of the days
thinking reflect themselves in young
peoples manners and morals. Maya
zines have been full of hasty judg-
ments as to the future promised by
the lives of the young whose future
is the future of the world. Somehow
| cannot altogether agree with the
pessimists. | believe that young peo-
pies manners have changed more
than their morals. Beneath a veneer
of nonchalance, of disregard for ira
dition, Of carelessness of opinion,
/ believe there is body of serious
thinking and Of righteous purpose.
There is belief after all in the God of
our fathers, even though our Ian
guage may not be in the forms and
the staid solemnities of ancient days.
''But | should be in dismal mind if
found that you have imagined that
the God of the Fathers does not have
claim upon your lives. | should be
disturbed if | thought that your faith
in the Great Husbandman's final har-
vest fails because the recent plough
ing and narrowing seem infinitely
cruel.
"The essence of Christian doctrine
is in unselfishness. Nations have re-
Gently shown much selfishness. Indi-
viduals have profiteered even while
sacrifices were the order of the day
Today when the bodies of our sol
diers are coming back from France,
We still hear the cynic Injunction,
Get while the getting's good |
would remind you that not half of
the milIionaires made by the war are
millionaires today. Many who made
haste to get while the getting was
good have lost their gettings. 1t may
be some satisfaction to us to observe
it.
The sacrifices honestly made by
unselfish men are still counting and
to count in the worlds rebuilding. We
have host Of problems left us by the
war. Evils are still ito be uprooted..
And yet the bolshevism that threat
ened the country is weaker than it
was two years ago. The reaction in
philanthropy shows signs of being
met by a broader admission that Civ
ing IS to characterize every Chris
tian. The tides of reaction are ebb-
ing.
"And SO, dare to tell you that
your colleges injunction to serve the
world and not to try to conquer it is
the word for the day as it was years
ago. The surest way to satisfaction,
the surest way to recognition, is still
the same. Your philosophy of life
must still teach you sacrifice, regard
for your fellows, greater desire TO
achieve friends than fortune, greater
determination to serve God by serving
men, than to serve self by exploiting
humanity.
Line upon line, precept upon pre-
cept Mr.. Wells remarks how many
of US there are who think of our in
dividual breakfasts and dinners and
clothes and houses and how few there
are who think humanity. And yet
the few are to make over the world
and the many who attach themselves
to the things of the world will perish
with the things they are tied to.
All great achievements take time.
Emerson said that every institution is
the heightened shadow of man.
would remind you that our institu-
lions take lifetimes or generations
for building.
IF you are normal, you are Won
dering today what is to be your place
IN the world. If your present abili-
ties alone are considered, if the po-