Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-06-15

but we dislike the difficulties encoun-
tered on the way. And these diff
culties cannot be overcome without
courage of a high order. Too fire.
quently we find young person who Is
expecting to reach a place of profit
and success by means of pull or fami-
ly name or financial backing, but these
are no real substitutes for courage
and are very apt to be disappointing
in the long run. Courage Of the right
sort never fails.
1.-THE third and final cause of Terah's
failure to reach the goal of his efforts
might have been his lack Of real char
acter. Concerning Haran the place of
Terah's death we know very little. A
| number of the famous rulers of an
| tiquity were more or less connected
with it and 1t seems to have been a
| city of importance down to the time
| of the Romans. We cannot press the
! point but it is possible that Haran
was an attractive place. 1t might
have abounded in houses Of amuse-
ment. 1 can at least imagine that
| Terah intended to start off for Pales-
tine most any day but the pleasures
| of Haran were alluring to him-days
death overlook him because he had not
strength of character to turn his back
| on the detracting and sinful pleasures
of the hour.
1T am inclined to believe that today
| more people fail to reach the goal of
life's ambitions because of lack of
| moral and Christian character than
from any other one cause. Your char
acter indicates what kind of person
you really are and differs from reputa-
ton which Is only. what people think
you are. Reputation Is objective;
character is subjective. YOU deter
mime your character; other folks de-
Etermine your reputation. You and
Eyour character are one and insepara-
1 BILE: your reputation is something
apart from you and is conjured up by
your friends or foes. At the mint
small, round. fiat piece of gold is put
into the stamping machine and part
of the machine called the die strikes
it, leaving an impress-as. for exam
pie, the figure of an eagle-and that
impress characterizes the coin, it tells
what 1t stands for and declares it's
worth. Your personal character is the
impress on you that stamps your real
quality and worth. If you have a
good character you are good If you
have a strong character you are brave
If, on the other hand, you have a
tricky, a careless, a cowardly charac-
ter you are of that character. A man
with bad reputation can move out of
town and leave it behind as it is out
side of him, but he takes his charac-
ter, good or bad, with him. Recently
fearful crime was committed in our
county-the guilty man had a bad
character from his youth up, but his
reputation was not always at every
time and place, bad.
Il nope, young people, that you will
remember that character is FORMED.
Its building is the first big job of
every individual and it is basic to
every other job in life. With 1t you
Will succeed; without it failure is in
evitable. From our ancestors we in
herit nature endowed with certain
susceptibilities and tendencies. These
may have to do with our brains or our
bodies but are largely controlled by
what we call our character. If you
inherit ever so brilliant a mind but
weak character directs that mind
what will become of you? Who can
tell. l have known boys who started
life with APPARENTLY every advantage,
but lacked the courage to rightly man.
age life and so they failed-they did
not possess sufficient character to hold
in check or to urge forward all the ad-
vantages with which they were en-
lowed. Day by day as you make life's
choices you are forming character. If
you elect to stay amid the attractions
of Haran day may come when you
VIII not possess the will power to con-
tinue on your journey to the Promise
Land. Disposition and temperament
have much to do with life but strong
character will control and direct them
in helpful ways.
Some one has said the formation.
or character Is much like the work of
an artist in stone. He takes a rough,
unshapen mass Of marble and with
strong, rapid strokes of mallet and
chisel quickly brings into view the
rude outline of his design; but after
the outline appears, then come hours,
days, perhaps even years of patient,
hidden labor. A novice might see no
change in the statue from one day to
another; for though the chisel touches
the stone thousand times, it touches