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diff --git a/32438.txt b/32438.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e25a44 --- /dev/null +++ b/32438.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5188 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Book of Courage, by John Thomson Faris + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Book of Courage + + +Author: John Thomson Faris + + + +Release Date: May 19, 2010 [eBook #32438] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF COURAGE*** + + +E-text prepared by Emmy, Juliet Sutherland, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THE BOOK OF COURAGE + + * * * * * + +_THE SUNRISE INSPIRATIONAL BOOKS_ + + + THE FIRST VOLUME + + THE BOOK OF COURAGE + + By JOHN T. FARIS + + Volumes on other subjects in preparation for this series + + +[Illustration] + + +_OTHER BOOKS_ + + By JOHN T. FARIS + + SEEING PENNSYLVANIA + + Frontispiece in color, 113 illustrations and 2 maps + + THE ROMANCE OF OLD + PHILADELPHIA + + Frontispiece in color and 101 illustrations + + OLD ROADS OUT OF + PHILADELPHIA + + 117 illustrations and a map + +[Illustration] + + By JOHN T. FARIS + and THEODOOR DEBOOY + + THE VIRGIN ISLANDS + OUR NEW POSSESSIONS AND THE + BRITISH ISLANDS + + 97 illustrations and five maps + + * * * * * + + +THE BOOK OF COURAGE + +by + +JOHN T. FARIS + +Author of +"The Victory Life," "Making Good," "Old Roads Out of +Philadelphia," "Seeing Pennsylvania," Etc. + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +Philadelphia & London +J. B. Lippincott Company +1920 + +Copyright, 1920, by J. B. Lippincott Company + +Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company +At the Washington Square Press +Philadelphia, U. S. A. + + + + +_FOREWORD_ + + +A TEACHER has told of the greatest moment of discouragement that ever +came to her. At cost of great labor she had fitted up a room for the use +of children, placing pictures on the walls, plants in the windows, +goldfish on the table, and a canary in a cage. But the night before the +day when she planned to welcome the children to the room there was a +cold snap, and the janitor let the fire go out. In the morning she +looked on broken radiators, frozen goldfish, drooping plants, and what +she feared was a dead bird. In her despair she was about to decide that +she would never make another effort to have things pleasant for the +children, when the bit of fluff in the bird-cage, roused from stupor by +the noise made by the discouraged woman, lifted its voice in song. + +That song told her that she had reached once again the point that comes +to everyone, times without number, the point that separates the life of +conquest from the life of defeat, the life of cowardice from the life of +courage. She was at the crossroads, and she took the turning to the +right. The bird's song marked for her the end of discouragement. + +"I can sing, as well as the bird," she said to herself. And at once she +began to make plans for her charges. + +Everywhere there are people who feel that the odds are against them, +that difficulties in the way are unsurmountable, that it is useless to +make further effort to conquer. The author of "The Book of Courage" +knows by experience how they feel, and he longs to send to them a +message of cheer and death-to-the-blues, a call to go on to the better +things that wait for those who face life in the spirit of the gallant +General Petain, whose watchword, "They shall not pass!" put courage into +his men and hope into the hearts of millions all over the world. + +"Courage!" is the call to these. "Courage" is likewise the word to those +who are already struggling in the conquering spirit of Sir Walter Scott +who, when both domestic calamity and financial misfortune came, said to +a comforter, "The blowing off of my hat on a stormy day has given me +more weariness," who called adversity "a tonic and a bracer." + +The world needs courage--the high courage that shows itself in a life of +daily struggle and conquest, that smiles at obstacles and laughs at +difficulties. + +How is the needed courage to be secured? What are the springs of +courage? What are some of the results of courage? These are questions +"The Book of Courage" seeks to answer by telling of men and women who +have become courageous. + +Glorious provision has been made by the Inspirer of men for giving +courage to all, no matter what their difficulties or their hardships. +Among His provisions are home and friends, work and service, will and +conscience, the world with all its beauty, and Himself as Companion and +Friend. + +Thus we are left absolutely without excuse when we are tempted to let +down the bars to worry and gloom and discouragement. + +Keep up the bars! Don't let the enemies of peace and progress pass! And +always, + + "Like the star, + That shines afar, + Without haste, + And without rest, + Let each man wheel, with steady sway + Round the tasks that rule the day, + And do his best." + J. T. F. + +PHILADELPHIA, 1920 + + + + +_CONTENTS_ + + + CHAPTER PAGE + 1. THE COURAGE OF SELF-CONQUEST 13 + I. RESTRAINING SELF 15 + II. EFFACING SELF 18 + III. FORGIVING INJURIES 22 + IV. FORGETTING WRONGS 25 + V. GETTING RID OF EVIL 29 + VI. LOOKING BEYOND MONEY 32 + + + 2. THE COURAGE THAT FACES OBSTACLES 41 + I. LEARNING 42 + II. DEPENDING ON SELF 47 + III. UNCOMPLAINING 51 + IV. PERSISTING 56 + V. TOILING 63 + VI. CONQUERING INFIRMITY 67 + + + 3. THE COURAGE OF INDUSTRY 78 + I. BEGINNING 79 + II. PURPOSE FORMING 82 + III. USING TIME WISELY 89 + IV. WORKING HARDER 94 + V. ABUSING THE WILL TO WORK 99 + + + 4. THE COURAGE OF FACING CONSEQUENCES 104 + I. VENTURING 105 + II. FORMING CHARACTER 107 + III. TRUTH TELLING 111 + IV. DUTY DOING 117 + V. FINDING HIS LIFE 119 + + + 5. COURAGE FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS 122 + I. IMPARTING COURAGE 123 + II. CONQUERING HAPPINESS 126 + III. MAKING LITTLE THINGS COUNT 129 + IV. DID HE GO TOO FAR? 132 + + + 6. GOLDEN RULE COURAGE 138 + I. LOOKING OUT FOR OTHERS 140 + II. SUCCEEDING BY COURAGEOUS SERVICE 143 + III. SERVICE BY SYMPATHY 146 + IV. DOING BUSINESS FOR OTHERS 150 + V. PRAYING AND HELPING 152 + VI. GIVING THAT COUNTS 155 + VII. EXPENSIVE ECONOMY 157 + + + 7. COURAGE THROUGH COMPANIONSHIP 161 + I. COMPANIONSHIP WITH FRIENDS 162 + II. SUCCESSFUL COMRADES 165 + III. COMPANIONSHIP WITH THE PAST 171 + IV. COMPANIONSHIP WITH NATURE 176 + V. COMPANIONSHIP WITH GOD 183 + VI. A CHAPTER OF--ACCIDENTS? 190 + + + 8. GOD THE SOURCE OF COURAGE 196 + I. THAT'S FOR ME! 197 + II. BANING ON GOD'S PROMISES 201 + III. PRACTICAL PRECEPTS FROM PROVERBS 205 + IV. GETTING CLOSE TO THE BIBLE 210 + V. THE BIBLE AND ONE MAN 213 + VI. OUT OF THE DEPTHS 218 + + + + +THE BOOK OF COURAGE + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + +_THE COURAGE OF SELF-CONQUEST_ + + +THE highest courage is impossible without self-conquest. And +self-conquest is never easy. A man may be a marvel of physical courage, +and be a coward in matters of self-government. Failure here threatens +dire disaster to his entire career. + +Alexander the Great conquered most of the world he knew, but he +permitted his lower nature to conquer his better self, and he died a +disappointed, defeated man. + +Before the days of Alexander there was a man named Nehemiah from whom +the world-conqueror might have learned a few secrets. He was a poor +exile in the service of a foreign ruler. That ruler sent him down to +Jerusalem, the capital city of his own home land, with instructions to +govern the people there. Now, in those days, it was a common thing for +governors of cities to plunder the people unfortunate enough to be in +their charge. Thus Nehemiah would have had ample precedent to fill his +own coffers by injustice, profiteering and worse: he had the power. +Possibly he was tempted to do something of the sort. But he had the +courage to shut up tight all baser passions, and then to sit firmly on +the lid. In the brief record of his service he referred to some of the +self-seeking governors, and told of their rascally deeds. Then he added +the significant words, "_So did not I._" + +That was certainly courage--the courage of self-conquest. + +As a young man Ulysses S. Grant was a brave soldier, but he nearly +wrecked his life because of weak yielding to his appetite. His real +career began only with self-conquest. When he found the courage to fight +himself--and not until then--he became ready for the marvelous life of +high courage that never faltered when he was misunderstood by associates +and maligned by enemies, that pressed steadily onward, in the face of +biting disease, until work was done, until honor was satisfied. + + +I + +RESTRAINING SELF + +A little girl four years old came trembling to her mother and asked for +pencil and paper. Then, teeth set and eyes flashing, she pounced on the +paper and began to make all sorts of vicious marks. Asked what she was +doing, she said she was writing a letter to a sister who had offended +her by an act that had been misunderstood. "She is not a nice girl," the +little critic said, "and I'm telling her so. I don't like her any more, +and I'm saying that." As she wrote her hand trembled; she was carried +away by her unpleasant emotion. After a few moments, unable to go on +with her self-appointed task, she flung herself, sobbing, into her +mother's arms and for half an hour she could not control herself. + +The sight was pitiful. But far more pitiful is the spectacle of one old +enough to know better who yields to vexation and hatred, thereby not +only making himself disagreeable, but robbing himself of power to +perform the duties of the hour. For there is nothing so exhausting as +uncontrolled emotion. There is so much for each one of us to do, and +every ounce of strength is needed by those who would play their part in +the world. Then what spendthrift folly it is to waste needed power on +emotion that is disquieting, disagreeable and disgraceful! + +That lesson was never impressed more forcibly than by a French officer +of whom a visitor from America asked, "Did I understand that you had +lost three sons?" "Yes, sir, and two brothers," was the proud reply. +"How you must hate the Boche," remarked a bystander. "No, no," was the +instant reply, "not hate; just pity, sir; pity, but not hate. Hate, you +know, is an excessive emotion, sir; and no one can do effective work if +he spends his vitality in an excess of emotion. No," he concluded, "we +cannot hate; we cannot work if we burn up ourselves inside. Pity, sir; +pity. 'They know not what they do.' That's the idea. And they don't." + +The same lesson of self-restraint was taught by Marshal Foch in his +words to the soldiers of France. He urged them to keep their eyes and +ears ready and their mouths "in the safety notch"; and he told them they +must obey orders first and kick afterwards if they had been wronged. He +said, "Bear in mind that the enemy is your enemy and the enemy of +humanity until he is killed or captured; then he is your dear brother +or fellow soldier beaten or ashamed, whom you should no further +humiliate." He told them that it was necessary to keep their heads clear +and cool, to be of good cheer, to suffer in silence, to dread defeat, +but not wounds, to fear dishonor, but not death, and to die game. +Because so many of the soldiers under him heeded this wise admonition, +they did not waste their precious strength on useless and harmful +emotions, but they were ever ready to go to their task, with the motto +of their division, "It shall be done." + +What a blessing it will be to the world that millions of young men were +trained in France to repress hurtful emotion, to exercise +self-restraint--which may be defined as the act or process of holding +back or hindering oneself from harmful thoughts or actions. And what a +wonderful thing it will be if the lesson is passed on to us, so that we +shall not be like the torrent that wastes its power by rushing and +brawling over the stones, all to no purpose, but like the harnessed +stream whose energy is made to turn the wheels of factory and mill. For +only guarded and guided strength is useful and safe. + + +II + +EFFACING SELF + +"Every man that falls must understand beforehand that he is a dead man +and nothing can save him. It is useless for him to cry out, and it may, +by giving the alarm, cause the enterprise to fail." + +This was the message to his men of the officer to whom Napoleon +committed the capture of Mt. Cenis. + +The historian tells us that at one point in the ascent of a precipitous +track, three men fell. "Their bodies were heard bounding from crag to +crag, but not a cry was heard, not a moan. The body of one hero was +recovered later. There was a smile on his lips." + +How that record of the silence succeeded by a smile grips the heart, for +it was not the false courage that plays to the grandstand, but the +deeper, truer courage that sinks self for the good of others, and does +this not merely because it is a part of the game, but with the gladness +that transfigures life. + +Such courage does not wait for some great occasion for exhibiting +itself; it is revealed in the midst of the humdrum routine of daily +life--a routine that is especially trying to those who have been +looking forward to some great, perhaps dramatic service. + +A young man of seventeen entered the navy, with his parents' consent, as +an apprentice. When he left home he had dreams of entering at once on a +life of thrilling adventure where there would be numberless +opportunities for the display of high courage. At the end of a month a +friend asked him how he liked life at the navy yard. "Fine!" was the +reply. "What are you doing?" was the next query. "They haven't given me +anything but window washing to do yet," he replied, with a smile that +was an index of character. + +A newspaper writer has told of a college student nineteen years old who +enlisted in the navy. He was sent to one of our naval stations and told +to guard a pile of coal. As the summer passed he still guarded that coal +pile. He wrote home about it: + +"You know, dad, when we were little shavers, you always rubbed it into +us that anything that was worth doing at all was worth doing as well as +it could be done. I've been standing over that coal pile nearly three +months now, and it looks just exactly as small as it did when I first +landed on the job." + +"He was relieved from the coal pile at last and promoted," said the +writer who told of him. "At the same time the government gave him a last +chance to return to his college work. He thought it over carefully. He +realized that America was going to need trained men as never before, but +still, he decided, the best service that he individually could give was +the one that he had chosen. He had a few days of leave before going on +to his next assignment, and he hurried back to his home. He found that +his summer task was a matter of town history, and he had to face a good +deal of affectionate raillery about his coal pile. Of course he did not +mind that. But his answer revealed his spirit: + +"'You may laugh, but that coal pile was all right. I'll admit it got on +my nerves for a bit, but I figured it out that while I was taking care +of that coal pile I was releasing some other fellow who knew things I +didn't know, and who could do things I couldn't do. I'm ready to stand +by a coal pile till the war ends, if that's where I can help the most.'" + +"That is the spirit that will conquer because it is the spirit that +never can be conquered," was the comment made on the incident. "There is +no self in it--only consecration to duty; no seeking for large +things--only for an opportunity to serve whenever the call comes. That +is the spirit that is growing in America to-day--and only through such +spirit can we accomplish our great task in the life of the world." + +The man who really desires to serve his fellows does not think of +declaring that he will not do humble tasks, but he demands that the work +he is asked to do shall be needed. + +A young man who was seeking his life work made known his willingness to +be a shoe-black, if he could be convinced that this was the work God +wanted him to do. An immigrant in New York City read in the morning, +"Lord, my heart is not haughty nor mine eyes lofty." Then he went out to +sweep a store, and he swept it well. It is worthy of note that the young +man who was willing to be a shoe-black became one of the foremost men of +his generation, and that the immigrant became the pastor of a leading +city church. But a far more important fact is that the quality of the +service given counted more in their minds than the character of the +employment. + +The service of the man who would be worth while in the world must +partake of the spirit of the successful figure on the baseball diamond +or the football gridiron: readiness to do everything, or anything--or +to do nothing, if he is so directed--in the interests of the team. It +must take a leaf from the book of General Pershing and his fellow +officers who, in a time of stress for the Allies, were willing and eager +to brigade their troops with the soldiers of France and England, thus +losing the identity of their forces in the interest of the great cause +for which they stood. It must learn the lesson taught by the life of Him +who emptied Himself for the sake of the world--and did it with a smile. + + +III + +FORGIVING INJURIES + +A gifted writer has told the story of a workman in a Bessemer steel +furnace who was jealous of the foreman whom he thought had injured him. +The foreman was making a good record, and the workman did not want to +see him succeed. So he plotted his undoing--he loosened the bolts of the +cable that controlled an important part of the machinery, and so caused +an accident that not only interfered seriously with the day's turn, but +put a section of the plant out of commission for the time being. As a +result the superintendent was discharged. When he left he vowed +vengeance on the man whom he suspected of causing his discharge: "I'll +get you for this some day," he declared. Perhaps he would have been even +more emphatic if he had known the extent of his enemy's culpability. + +Years passed. The workman who had loosened the bolts became +superintendent of the mill. He, too, tried to break a production record, +and was in a fair way to succeed until some mysterious difficulty +developed that interfered seriously with results. And just when the new +superintendent was losing sleep over his problem, the old superintendent +came to town. + +"He's come for his revenge!" was the thought of the new superintendent. + +But the superintendent did not wait for a visit from the man he feared; +he sought him at once. "He must know the extent of my meanness," he +decided. So he told his story. To his surprise the former foreman seemed +more interested in the account of the progress of the mill than in the +sorry tale of past misdeeds. Learning of the mysterious difficulty that +threatened failure in the attempt to break the production record, the +injured man showed real concern. "I can't imagine where the difficulty +is, but I'd like to take a look around for it," he said. Arm in arm, +then, the two men, once bitter enemies, moved toward the mill. The +search was successful, the difficulty was corrected, and the record was +broken. + +Fine story, isn't it? What a pity it is only a story, that such things +don't ever happen in real life! + +Don't they? How about Henry Nasmyth, the English inventor of the steam +piledriver, whose ideas were stolen by French machinists? His first +knowledge of the piracy was when he saw a crude imitation of his +piledriver in a factory in France. Instead of seeking damages and +threatening vengeance, he pointed out mistakes made in construction and +helped his imitators perfect the appliance they had stolen from him. + +Yes, such things do happen in daily life. They are happening every day. +As we read of them or hear of them or meet people who are actors in such +a drama, we are conscious of admiration for the deed, a quickening of +the pulse, and the thankful thought that the world is not such a bad +place after all. + +But are we to stop with quickened heartbeats and gratitude for the +greatness of heart shown by others? How about the bitterness we have +been treasuring against some one who has injured us--or some one we +think has injured us (it is astonishing how many of the slights and +indignities for which vengeance has been vowed are only imaginary, after +all!) How long do we intend to persist in treasuring the grudge that has +perhaps already caused sorrow that cannot be measured? Let's be +courageous enough to own ourselves in the wrong, when we are in the +wrong, and to forgive the evil that has been kept alive by our +persistent efforts to remember it. Let the quickened pulse-beat be ours +not merely because we are hearing about forgiveness, but because we +ourselves are rejoicing in friendship restored. + + +IV + +FORGETTING WRONGS + +There are people whose minds are like a lumber-room, littered with all +sorts of odds and ends. In such a room it is impossible to count on +laying hands promptly on a desired article, and in such a mind confusion +takes the place of order. The mind had better be empty. An empty mind +presents a fine opening for the proper kind of filling, but a confused +mind is hopeless. How is it possible to make the memory a helpful +servant unless nothing is allowed to find lodgment there that is not +worth while? + +An old proverb says, "No one can keep the birds from flying about his +head, but one can keep them from nesting in his hair." That proverb +points the way to saving the mind from becoming a lodging place for +lumbering thoughts and ideas; everything that is certain to hinder +instead of help one to be worth-while to the world must be told that +there is "positively no admittance." + +Among the things one must not afford permission to pass the bars is the +thought that some associate may have said or done something that seemed +like a slight or an injury. No man can afford to injure another, but any +man can better afford to be injured than to allow his thoughts to dwell +on the injury, to brood over it, until he is in a degree unfitted for +his work. Far better is it to be like a father who said to his son when +the latter, years after the commission of the deed, was speaking of his +sorrow that he had grieved his father so: "Son, you must be dreaming; I +don't recall the incident." + +Then one must know when to forget evil things heard of another. +Sometimes it is necessary to remember such facts, but so often the +insinuations made concerning other people are not worth consideration, +because they are not true. Even where there is ground for them, they are +not proper subjects for thought and remembrance. + +It is best to forget past achievements, unless they are made +stepping-stones to greater achievements, spurs to work that could never +be done without them. Yet how often the temptation comes to gloat in +thought over these things, and over the good things said of one because +of them, while opportunities for greater things are passed by. Thus a +school-boy thought with delight of a word of commendation from his +teacher when he ought to have been giving attention to the recitation of +the pupil next to him; the result was a reprimand that stung. A soldier +in the trenches has no time to gaze in admiration at the medal he has +won by valor when at any moment there may sound the call to deeds of +still greater valor. No more should a civilian imperil future success by +failure to forget "the things which are behind." + +The individual who refuses to forget a kindness he has done to someone +else is another cumberer of the ground. A safe rule is, never forget a +kindness received from another, but forget at once a kindness done to +another. It is not difficult to sympathize with the youth who, after +being reminded for the twentieth time by his brother of a trip to New +Orleans for which the brother had paid out of his savings, said, "Yes, +and I wish I had never taken a cent of the money!" + +A thing to be forgotten always is the off-color story with which some +people persist in polluting the atmosphere. Unfortunately there are +always to be found folks like the young man of whom Donald Hankey said +"He talks about things that I won't even think." When such talk is +heard, don't think of it. If you do, you are apt to think of it again +and again, until, perhaps, you will be telling it to some one else. And +no one wants to be remembered as was the business man, proposed for the +presidency of a great concern, of whom one said, "No, don't let's have +him; he has earned a reputation for telling questionable stories." + +If a good memory is to be a good servant, it must be trained to remember +only the things that are helpful. And that takes courage! + + +V + +GETTING RID OF EVIL + +One of the trying disappointments of daily life comes with the discovery +that something on which we have been depending is no longer worthy of +confidence, because a foreign substance, some adulterant, has been mixed +with it, without our knowledge. This seemed to be the case perhaps more +than ever before during the recent days of war when a severe strain was +put on the products of nearly every kind. + +In many parts of the country those who were compelled to replenish their +coal supply during the worst weather of a severe winter complained +because the anthracite then secured gave out little heat; it contained +such a large proportion of culm or other waste product which, in +ordinary times, is carefully removed before shipment, that it could not +do its work properly. + +Disappointed in their anthracite, some turned to bituminous coal, only +to find that at least fifty per cent, of a shipment received during the +days of stress was made up of rock and clay. + +Experience with the coal should have prepared one of the purchasers for +his disappointment in a restaurant where he had been accustomed to be +served with a splendid oyster stew. But he was surprised and displeased +when he found that at least one-third of the milk which should have gone +into the stew had been displaced by water. + +At home that evening the same man was told more of the activity of +dealers who permit impurities to interfere with the comfort of those who +like pure products; the grocer had that day sent a package of soup beans +which contained at least ten per cent. of gravel. + +It is easy to appreciate the disappointment and embarrassment that come +from the failure of the coal dealer, the restaurant keeper or the grocer +to supply us with pure food and fuel. Then isn't it strange that we are +apt to pay so little attention to the adulterants in character that are +the cause of so much of the world's sorrow? That is to say, it seems odd +that we pay so little attention to the things in our own lives that +interfere; we are not apt to find it a difficult matter to rail at +others because they permit evil to mix with good in their lives. Our +vision is so much better when we are looking at motes in others than +when we are looking straight past the beams in our own make-up. + +There is daily need for each one of us to ask God for grace to go on a +hunt for the evil that adulterates his own life, making it a +disappointment to others and a cause of sorrow to God. Those who are +bold enough to scrutinize themselves without flinching will be apt to +find not merely things that are unquestionably evil, but they will be +dismayed to see that even much of the good in which they have been +taking comfort is adulterated with evil--as, for instance, the deed of +helpfulness performed for a friend with the unconscious thought, "Some +day he may be able to do something for me," or the gift made to a needy +cause, accompanied by the assurance that the treasurer of the fund is +one whom we particularly wish to impress with our liberality so that +possibly a future benefit will come from him to us. + +The adulterants of evil mixed with the good in our lives must be +removed. And there is just one way to get rid of them--to submit +ourselves to the sifting of Him who not only knows the good from the +evil, the wheat from the chaff, but will also show the way to retain the +wheat and throw out the chaff. + +Of course one does not have to yield himself to Christ's sifting. But of +one thing we can be sure; there will be a sifting. If Christ is not +invited to do the work, the Devil will take up the task. But his purpose +in sifting is always to retain the evil, and drive out all the good. + +God asks for "pure religion and undefiled." There is no place in his +calculations for adulterants. Be courageous, and get rid of them! + + +VI + +LOOKING BEYOND MONEY + +Money is a good thing, when it is properly secured and properly used. +But there are better things than money. Honor is better, and loving +service, and thoughtful consideration of others. + +This was the lesson taught by the life of a man who was a shareholder in +a mining company that was about to go out of business. The shareholders +would sustain very heavy losses, so a friend who knew the secrets of the +company determined to warn this man, whom everybody liked. The hint was +given that it would be to his advantage to sell quickly. "Why?" asked +Mr. N. "Well, you know, the value of the mines is greatly depreciated." +"When I bought the shares I took the risk." "Yes, but now you should +take the opportunity of selling while you can, so as not to lose +anything." "And supposing I don't sell, what then?" "Then you will +probably lose all you have." "And if I do sell, somebody else will lose +instead of me?" "Yes, I suppose so." "Do you suppose Jesus Christ would +sell out?" "That is hardly a fair question. I suppose he would not." "I +am a Christian," said Mr. N., "and I wish to follow my Master, therefore +I shall not sell." He did not, and soon after lost everything, and had +to begin life again. + +This shareholder would have appreciated Professor A. H. Buchanan, who +was for forty years professor of mathematics in Cumberland University, +Tennessee. After his death it was told of him that at one time he was +offered an appointment in government service to which a $3,000 salary +attached. His income as professor in a church college was $600 a year. +But he saw more chance to make his life count for Christian things in +the professor's place than in public service, so he declined the $3000 +and stayed by the $600. One who spoke of these facts in the professor's +life said, in comment: + +"If he had taken the $3,000, everybody would have regarded him as an +ordinary sort of man. Now everybody who has heard of Professor +Buchanan's exceptional devotion appreciates that he was a very +extraordinary man. A very cheap person indeed is capable of accepting a +bigger salary." + +At about the time of the death of this professor of mathematics a daily +paper mentioned a civil engineer who was transforming the appearance of +a western city, and said of him: "Two or three times he has had chances +to get three or four times his present salary. Each time he has said: +'No, my work is here; I haven't finished it. The money doesn't count, so +I shall stick here and finish my work.'" + +After the death of a famous minister in St. Louis a story was told of +him that he had not allowed to be known widely during his lifetime. This +was the romantic tale, as related by a writer in The New York _Sun_: + +"When a young man, he found to his amazement among his father's papers a +deed to five thousand eight hundred and eighty-three acres of land, +located in what is known as West Virginia. This deed was a great +surprise to all who saw or heard of it. Putting this deed in his +pocket, young Palmore, the only heir to the property, made a trip to +West Virginia, to look over his vast estate, which was far in the +interior. + +"Starting from the city of Charleston, West Virginia, he drove in a +buggy into the region where his plantation was located. He traced the +boundaries of his property and found that hundreds of families had +settled on it without any right to it, but were living as if secure in +the possession of their separate little patches of territory. He found +that beneath the surface of this land there was almost limitless wealth, +but the multitudes who had built themselves humble homes on the surface +did not know of it, and had been living thus in undisturbed possession +for a number of years. He quietly walked about at night and looked +through the windows at the parents and children living on his estate. +Great lawyers were ready to inaugurate legal proceedings that would have +made him a millionaire, and such legal proceedings would doubtless have +been instituted if the heir in person had not visited the scene of his +great estate. As he dreamed in the nighttime about dispossessing such a +multitude of people of their humble homes, he began to feel that, +instead of such a fortune being a blessing, an estate received at such +an expense would be a burden. + +"After earnest prayer and sleepless hours in the midst of his vast +acres, he was seized with the conviction that each member of this +multitude of families living on his property needed it more than did the +heir, and there and then he made up his mind that he would leave them in +quiet possession of his estate." + +The reporter who related the story said that the man had been called a +fool, and commented, "He was God's fool." + +Then he said that the incident he had related would have been +unbelievable if it had not been so well attested. But why unbelievable? +Is it because of the common idea that "every man has his price," that it +is unthinkable that a sane man would let a fortune that he could claim +honestly slip through his fingers? + +Perhaps it is true that every man has his price. However, if this snarl +of the pessimist is to have universal application, the price must be +understood to be--in many instances--not selfish gratification, but the +opportunity for courageous service. There are men and women who can be +won by such an opportunity who cannot be reached by any argument of mere +private advantage. Such people silence the complaints of the croaker and +command the confidence of those who are struggling to help their +fellows. + +Louis Agassiz, the naturalist, was such a man. "I have no time to make +money," was his remark when urged by a friend to turn aside from the +important work of the moment to an easy, lucrative task. His reason was +thus explained at another time: "I have made it the rule of my life to +abandon any intellectual pursuit the moment it becomes commercially +valuable." It was his idea that there were many who would then be +willing to carry on work he had begun. + +A contrast is presented by the famous inventor who, early in life, made +it a rule never to give himself to any activity in which there was no +prospect of financial gain. His first question was not, "Does the public +need this invention?" but "Is there money in it?" Having answered to his +satisfaction, he was ready to go ahead. + +The world could not well have spared either of these men, for both +rendered valuable service. But, judging from the stories of their +careers, there was more joy in the life of the naturalist, who, +satisfied to earn a living, thought most of serving his fellows, than in +the life of the inventor before whose eyes the dollar continually loomed +large. The counting-house measure of life is not the most satisfying nor +is it the most useful. + +That was the notion of Jacob Riis, of whom a minister who was devoting +his life to the interest of young working men near his church once asked +if such effort was merely thrown away, if he was pocketing himself. +"Pocketing yourself, are you?" Riis replied. "Stick to your pocket. It +is a pretty good pocket to be in. Out of such a pocket, worked in the +way you are working it, will come healing for the ills of the day that +now possess us. I would rather be in such a pocket, working for the +Lord, than in a $1,000,000 church, working for the applause of a +congregation." + +Those who are familiar with inside history at Washington say that the +day after Garfield's election as President, a dispatch was sent to +Milton Wells, a Wisconsin preacher, whose vote in the convention had +kept Garfield's name on the list of candidates to the very last, asking +him if he would become governor of Arizona Territory. Mr. Wells +answered: "I have a better office that I cannot leave. I am preaching +here for $600 per year." + +There was once a man named Paul who might have enjoyed position and +power, if he had wished, but he chose instead a life of courageous +service of which he was able once to write, without boasting: + +"In labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly; in stripes above +measure, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes +save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I +suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; in +journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils +from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, +in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false +brethren; in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and +thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." + +How could Paul bear all these things? They were enough to break down a +dozen strong men. Probably he sometimes felt that he could not bear the +burden any longer, but always there came to him the assurance of Christ, +"My grace is sufficient for thee." Then he could bear anything; yet not +he, but Christ, who lived in him. Thus his glory was not in his own +strength but in his weakness, which made place in his life for the +strength of Christ. + +Until men and women learn how to gain strength in their weakness as Paul +did, their lives will be unsatisfying, their days will be full of +complaint. Their burdens, which seemed like mountains before learning to +trust Christ, will be borne as easily as if they were feathers. + +God does not promise to make us all dollar millionaires if we look at +Him for strength in our weakness, but He does promise to make us all +millionaires of faith and hope and courage. Paul was; we can be, too. + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +_THE COURAGE THAT FACES OBSTACLES_ + + +"YOU may expect to spend the rest of your days tied to your chair." + +Theodore Roosevelt's physician made this disconcerting announcement to +his patient a few weeks before his death. + +How would the courageous man receive an announcement like that? How +would you receive it? + +Let the words spoken in reply by the lion-hearted Roosevelt never be +forgotten by others who struggle with difficulties: + +"All right! I can work and live that way, too!" + +Surely the triumphant words justified the characterization made by +Herman Hagedorn of this colossal worker: + +"He was frail; he made himself a mountain of courage." + +At a dinner given to celebrate the worthy achievement of a public man, a +guest spoke of him to a companion at table. + +"No wonder he has been so well. Everything is in his favor: he is young, +he is brilliant, he is in good health." + +"In good health?" was the answering comment. "Where did you get that? +For years he has been in wretched health; many a night he was unable to +sleep except he knelt on the floor by the bedside and stretched himself +from his waist across the bed. But it is not strange that you did not +know, he has said nothing of his ailments; he is so full of courage +himself that he makes everyone around him courageous." + + +I + +LEARNING + +When the famous Sioux Indian, Charles A. Eastman, was a boy, his father, +who had learned the joys of civilized life, urged his son to secure an +education. "I am glad that my son is brave and strong," he said to him. +"I have come to start you on the White Man's way. I want you to grow to +be a good man." + +Then he urged his son, Ohiyesa, as he was called, to put on the +civilized clothes he had brought with him. The boy rebelled at first; he +had been accustomed to hate white men and everything that belonged to +them. But when he reflected that they had done him no harm, after all, +he decided to try on the curious garments. + +Together father and son traveled toward the haunts of the white man. As +they traveled Ohiyesa listened to tales of the wonderful inventions he +would see. He was especially eager to look on a railroad train. + +But even after he had gone with his father, he was reluctant to enter on +his long training, until his father suggested that he make believe he +was starting on a long war-path, from which there could be no honorable +return until his course was completed. Entering into the spirit of the +proposal, the Indian lad began his schooling at Flandreau Indian Agency, +and persisted for twelve long years. After graduating from college he +devoted himself to his people, and in many years since has accomplished +wonders for them, teaching them the patience he had himself learned, and +enabling them to understand that such patience and persistence always +brings its reward. + +The experience of Isaac Pitman, the inventor of shorthand, was +different, yet, after all, it was much the same. As a boy he had little +education. But soon after he went to work he made up his mind to supply +the lack. The record of how he did this is one of the most remarkable +instances of courageous patience on record. + +The long office hours at his place of employment, from six in the +morning until six at night, made study difficult, but he showed +conclusively that where there is a will there is a way, and that he had +the will. He was accustomed to leave his bed at four, that he might +study two hours before the beginning of the day's work. Two hours in the +evening also were set apart for study. Sometimes it happened that work +at the factory was light, and the young clerk was excused for the +morning. Instead of taking the time for sport, it was his habit to take +a book with him into the fields or under the trees. + +Thomas Allen Reid, in his biography of Pitman says: "One of the books +which he made his companion in morning walks into the country was +Lennie's Grammar. The conjugation of verbs, list of irregular verbs, +adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions, and the thirty-six rules of +syntax, he committed to memory so that he could repeat them in order. +The study of the books gave him a transparent English style." + +His father was a subscriber to the local library. "I went regularly to +the library for fresh supplies of books," Isaac said, in 1863, "and thus +read most of the English classics. I think I was quite as familiar with +Addison, and Sir Roger, and Will Honeycomb, and all the Club, as I was +with my own brothers and sisters ... and when reading The Spectator at +that early age, I wished that I might be able to do something in +letters." + +Before he left school he formed the habit of copying choice pieces of +poetry and prose into a little book which he kept in his pocket. These +bits he would commit to memory when he had leisure. A later pocket +companion contained a neatly written copy of Valpey's Greek Grammar, as +far as the syntax, which he committed to memory. In his morning walks in +1832 he committed to memory the first fourteen chapters of Proverbs. He +would not undertake a fresh chapter until he had repeated the preceding +one without hesitation. + +As most of his knowledge of words was gained from books, he had +difficulty in pronunciation. "His method of overcoming the deficiency +was ingenious," his biographer wrote. "Again and again he read 'Paradise +Lost.' Careful attention to the meter enabled him to correct his faulty +pronunciation of many words. Words not found in the poem he discovered +in the dictionary. With unusual courage he decided to read through +Walker's Dictionary, fixing his mind on words new to him and on the +spelling and pronunciation of familiar terms. On the pages of one of his +pocket-books he copied all words he had been in the habit of +mispronouncing. Although there were more than two thousand of these +words, the plan was carried out before he was seventeen." + +The labor of writing out so many extracts from books led him to study +the imperfect system of shorthand then current, and to develop the +system that was to bear his name. + +So many young people feel that they "simply cannot abide" the long +process of getting an education; they give up when they are only a part +of the way to the goal. But for most of them the day of bitter regret +will come when they will wish that they had been more like Eastman or +Pitman in their determination to be patient and persistent, to allow +nothing to stand in the way of their purpose to fit themselves in the +best possible manner for the serious business of life. + + +II + +DEPENDING ON SELF + +Young men just starting out in life nowadays, who find the path to +success difficult, are more fortunate than some of those who struggled +with hard times a century or more ago, because they are determined to +make a self-respecting fight on their own merits. It was not always so; +once nothing was thought of the effort made by an impecunious young man +to throw himself on the generosity of one who had already achieved +success. Then it was a habit of many authors to seek as a patron a man +of influence and means who would help them live till their books were +ready for the publisher, and then help to get the books before the +public. + +From letters of George Crabbe, a poet of some note in his century, +asking Edmund Burke to become his patron, something of his story may be +known. As a boy he was apprenticed to an apothecary; later he was +proprietor of a small shop of his own. Business, neglected for books and +writing, did not prosper. With his sister, his housekeeper, he "fasted +with much fortitude." Then he went to London, with a capital of nine +pounds, and starved some more. Months were spent in trying to enlist +two patrons. At last, threatened with a prison for debt, he decided to +try a third patron; and this was his procedure, as he himself described +it: + +"I looked as well as I could into every character that offered itself to +my view, and resolved to apply where I found the most shining abilities, +for I had learnt to distrust the humanity of weak people in all +stations." + +So he wrote to Edmund Burke, telling him that he could no longer be +content to live in the home of poor people, who had kept him for nearly +a year, and had lent him money for his current expenses. Describing +himself as "one of those outcasts on the world, who are without a +friend, without employment and without bread," he told of his vain +appeal to another for gold to save him from prison, added that he had +but one week to raise the necessary funds, and made his request. + +"I appeal to you, sir, as a good, and, let me add, a great man. I have +no other pretensions to your favor than that I am an unhappy one. It is +not easy to support thoughts of confinement, and I am coward enough to +dread such an end to my suspense ... I will call upon you, sir, +to-morrow, and if I have not the happiness to obtain credit with you I +must submit to my fate ... I have only to hope a speedy end to a life so +unpromisingly begun ... I can reap some consolation in looking to the +end of it." + +The appeal was successful. Edmund Burke became Crabbe's patron. The poet +was glad to eat the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and +submitted to many unpleasant slights and insinuations while he received +the dole of charity. + +That suing thus for a patron did not always have the effect of +destroying an author's self-respect is shown by a letter written by Dr. +Samuel Johnson to Lord Chesterfield. When, after years of hard labor, +Dr. Johnson's dictionary was known to be ready for publication, Lord +Chesterfield wrote for "The World" two flattering articles about the +author, evidently thinking that the work would be dedicated to him. At +once Dr. Johnson wrote: + +"My Lord: When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your +lordship, I ... could not forbear to wish ... that I might obtain that +regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance +so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to +continue it.... + +"Seven years, my lord, have passed since I waited in your outward room, +or was repulsed from your door, during which time I have been pushing on +my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and +have brought it at last to the verge of publication, without one act of +assistance, one word of encouragement or one smile of favor. Such +treatment I did not expect for I never had a patron before.... The +notice which you have been pleased to take of my labor, had it been +early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and +cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am +known, and do not want it.... I have long awakened from that dream of +hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, my lord, + +"Your lordship's most humble, most obedient servant, + + "Sam Johnson." + +The lapse of a century has brought a change. Self-respecting, courageous +young workers do not seek a patron to help them to fame. To-day they ask +only to fight their own battles, win their own victories. + + +III + +UNCOMPLAINING + +Nor do courageous workers complain when little things go wrong. + +"I don't know what I shall do if the mail does not come to-morrow. Think +of being two days without a morning paper!" + +The complaint was heard when railway traffic had been tied up by +washouts on the railway. The inconvenience suffered by the speaker +seemed to him very great. Though there had been no other interruption to +the many comforts and conveniences to which he had been accustomed, the +single difficulty made him lose his temper and spoiled his day. + +When one is tempted to magnify such a small difficulty into a mountain +it is worth while to look at things from the standpoint of a man whose +life far from the centers of civilization makes him so independent of +circumstances and surroundings that he can be cheerful even in the face +of what seem like bitter privations. + +A company of travelers in the forests of Canada thought that the +knowledge of the most recent news was necessary to happiness. They +learned their mistake when they reached the camp of a man from whom +they expected to learn news more recent than the events reported in the +paper the day they left civilization, seven weeks before. They felt sure +that, as he lived on the trail, he would have seen some traveler who had +left the railroad since their own departure. + +When they asked him for late news from the States, he said he had some +very recent news, and proceeded to tell of events eight months old! "Do +you call that recent?" he was asked, in disgust. + +"What's the matter with that?" was the wondering reply. "It only +happened last fall, and there ain't been nobody through here since." And +he contentedly resumed the task at which he had been engaged when +interrupted by the demand for "recent" news. + +On the same journey the travelers--whose story is told in "Trails in +Western Canada"--showed that they were learning the lesson. Carelessness +in handling a campfire caused a forest fire which threatened their food +supply. They saved this, but lost their only axes. After a long search +they found these in the embers, but the temper had been utterly ruined +by the heat. Only a few hours before they felt that an axe was +absolutely necessary not only to comfort but to life itself, yet when +the ruined tools were found the travelers turned to their tasks without +giving the disaster a second thought. They knew that there is always a +way out of difficulty. They continued their expedition without an axe, +and found that they managed very well. + +The lesson was impressed still more by the attitude of a guide who spent +a few days with them. Like many other people on vacation they allowed +themselves to worry about finances. But their thoughts were set on a new +track by the guide, who, after telling of the success in trapping +grizzly bear and beaver which had enabled him to save a little money, +said: "Life is too short to worry about money. If I lose all I have +to-morrow, I can get a couple of bear traps and by next spring I'll be +on my feet again. The mountains are always here, and I know where there +is a bunch of bear and a colony of beaver, and I can get along out here, +and live like a prince while those poor millionaires are lying awake at +nights, lest someone come and steal their money." + +Two other guides were engaged to pole the travelers' raft down the +Fraser River. Nearly every day the cold rain fell in torrents, but the +men were unmoved. "All day long they would stand in their wet clothes, +their hands numb and blue from the cold as they handled their dripping +poles; yet not a comment indicating discomfort is recalled. Physical +annoyances, which in the city would bring an ambulance, scarcely are +mentioned by them." + +One day one of the men was asked what they did when they were sick. +"Cain't say we ever are sick," was the reply. "The worst thing that ever +happened to us, I reckon, was when Mort here had a bad tooth; but, after +a day or two, we got sick of it, and took it out." That was all he +thought worth saying about it till he was pressed for an account of the +operation. "Oh, I looked through our dunnage bag," he said, "and found +an old railroad spike. Mort held it against the tooth and I hit the head +with a big rock, and knocked her out the first time." + +His companion was unwilling to agree that this was the most trying +experience. He told of a day when the man who had reported the tooth +extraction, cut his foot severely with an axe. "Oh, that didn't bother +us," the victim interrupted. "I just slapped on some spruce gum and +never thought anything more about it." Asked how long he was laid up, +the surprised answer was: "Laid up for that? We weren't laid up at all. +Couldn't travel quite as fast for a day or two, but we didn't lose no +time at that, for we traveled longer to make up." + +Still another guide gave an object lesson in making light of +difficulties when his horse fell on him, bruising one of his knees so +that it swelled to an enormous size. The injured man made no complaint, +though his companions were full of sympathy. He knew he could reduce the +swelling by heroic remedies. + +One day when traveling was unusually difficult, the guide cheered his +employers by telling them of the fine camp he owned just ahead--"a house +like a hotel," he said. And when the camp was reached he pointed proudly +to "a great log with a few great pieces of bark and some cedar slivers +stretched over the top." In this camp the night was spent, without +blankets and in the rain. "But as no one seemed to consider this +anything out of the ordinary, the travelers made no complaint." + +Perhaps a taste of the wilderness is what we need when we become +impatient of trifles and make ourselves miserable because everything +does not go to suit us. + + +IV + +PERSISTING + +Failure camps on the trail of the man who is ready to give up because +difficulties multiply. A representative of a large paper warehouse made +up his mind to add to his list of customers a certain Michigan firm. +Repeated rebuffs did not daunt him. Every sixty days he sent the firm a +letter of invitation to buy his goods. During twenty-seven years one +hundred and sixty-one letters were mailed without result. Then, in reply +to the one hundred and sixty-second letter, the Michigan firm asked for +quotations. These were given promptly, and two carloads of paper were +sold. What if this letter writer had become discouraged before he wrote +this final letter? + +"I thought you were planning to complete your education," a friend said +to a young man whom he had not seen for some time; "yet now you are +clerking in a store. Perhaps, though, you are earning money for next +year's expenses." + +"No, I am earning money for this year's expenses," was the discouraged +reply. "I did want an education, but I found it was too difficult to get +what I sought, so I have decided to settle down." + +Of course it is easier to give up than it is to push on in the face of +difficulty, but the youth who pushes on is fitting himself to fill a +man's place in the world, while the young man who is easily discouraged +is fitting himself for nothing but disappointment. The world has no +place for a quitter. + +There is a tonic for young people who purpose to make the most of +themselves in glimpses of a few college students who had the courage to +face difficulty. One of these was an Italian boy, who was glad to beat +carpets, wash windows, scrub kitchen floors, mow lawns, teach grammar, +arithmetic and vocal exercises at a night school for foreigners. +Then--as if his time was not fully occupied by these occupations--he +made arrangements to care for a furnace and sift the ashes, in exchange +for piano lessons. That student finished his preparatory course with +credit, taking a prize for scholarship. + +A seventeen-year-old boy wanted an education, but he had nine brothers +and sisters at home, and he knew that he could look for no financial +assistance from his parents. So he picked cotton at sixty cents a +hundred pounds, sawed wood, cut weeds and scrubbed floors--and thus paid +his expenses. + +One student could not spare the money to pay his railroad fare to the +school of his choice. But he had a pony. So he rode the pony the entire +distance of five hundred miles, working for his expenses along the way. + +A beginner in college was too full of grit to give up when bills came on +him more heavily than he had expected. During the school year he did +chores, rang the bell for the change of classes, did janitor work, and +waited on table in restaurants. In the summer he found work on farms +near by. + +"No task is too difficult for the man with a purpose," declared a worker +with young men, some of whom were ready to give up. "Two things are +necessary if you would be successful," was another man's message to +those whom he wished to inspire to do purposeful work. "First: know what +you want to do. Second: do it." + +Those who permit obstacles to stand in the way of the performance of +tasks they know they ought to perform if they would make the most of +themselves, need to take to heart the message given by a mother to her +son when he was ready to give up the unequal struggle with poverty and +physical infirmity. "Thou wilt have much to bear, many hardships to +suffer," she said. "But mark what I say, we must not mind the trouble. +During the first part of the night we must prepare the bed on which to +stretch ourselves during the latter part." + +Giving up after failure is always easier than trying again, but the men +and women who count are those who will not be dismayed by failure. When +J. Marion Sims, the famous surgeon, was beginning the practice of +medicine, he proudly tacked an immense tin sign on the front of his +office. Then he lost two patients, and pride and courage both failed +him. "I just took down that long tin signboard from my door," he wrote +in the story of his life. "There was an old well back of the house, +covered over with boards. I went to the well, took that sign with me, +dropped it in there, and covered the old well over again. I was no +longer a doctor in the town." But fortunately he conquered +discouragement, made a fresh beginning, and overcame tremendous +obstacles. After his death a famous man said that if all his discoveries +should be suppressed, it would be found that his own peculiar branch of +surgery had gone backward at least twenty-five years. + +Indomitable perseverance is necessary for the business man as for the +professional man; and it will just as surely bring reward to those who +are engaged in Christian work as to those who are seeking worldly honor. +So when the uphill climb seems too difficult, there must be no +faltering. Remember--as Christina Rossetti said--"We shall escape the +uphill by never turning back." + +In gathering material for a history of Charles V of Spain, a Spanish +historian was painstaking in his researches. Finally he was able to tell +the king's whereabouts on every day of his career, except for two weeks +in 1538. + +Then friends assured him that he had done his best. In all probability +nothing of importance happened during those days. But the historian +believed in being thorough to the end. So he delayed publication. For +fifteen years he sought news of the missing fortnight. Finally, and +reluctantly, when he was seventy-five years old, he published the book. + +At length an American woman, studying in the archives of Spain, having +learned of the lost days, resolved to find them. Among musty documents, +in many libraries, she toiled. Then, by a woman's intuition, she was led +to look for documents of a sort the Spanish historian had never thought +of. And she found where the king was on some of those days. The news was +sent to the historian, just in time for him to make additions to his +inaugural address to be delivered on taking his seat in the Academy of +History. In this address he rejoiced to give full credit for the +discovery to the American. + +But the woman was not satisfied; there was still a gap to be filled. She +made further trials, and failed. Again intuition led her to documentary +sources that had hardly been touched since they were filed away nearly +three hundred years before. She succeeded, and now that bit of history +is complete. + +A well known writer for young people was also persistent in tracing a +story to its source. When he came to America from his native Holland he +heard for the first time the story of the Dutch hero who stopped the +hole in the dike, a story unknown in Holland. He resolved to prove or +disprove this. The record of his long search was published later. Not +only did he prove the existence of the boy, but he proved that the boy's +sister was a partner in the heroic deed. Thus the helpful story has been +saved for future generations. + +These incidents make interesting reading. But do they not do more? +Surely it is unnecessary to urge the lesson of persistence in a task +seriously undertaken. Often there is temptation to slight some +worth-while task, after one has worked on it painstakingly for a time. +"Why pay so much attention to detail?" is asked. "Surely no real harm +will be done if I give less time to some of these things that seemed so +important at the beginning!" + +Fortunately there are multitudes of workers who are constitutionally +unable to slight a task. The proofreader on a paper of large circulation +is an example. It is a part of her work to prove statements made, to +verify facts and figures, to see that these are altogether accurate. +Once when there was an unusual pressure of work the editor suggested +that she might wish to take certain things for granted, but she showed +her conscientious thoroughness by performing the task to the end, +according to the rules of the office, and in the face of weariness that +was almost exhaustion. + +It may not be given to you to be a historian. You may not be called upon +to prove the story of a hero. It may not be your task to read proof or +to verify manuscripts. But each one has a definite part in the work of +the world and there is no one to whom the example of historian and +proofreader is without value. All need to remember the truth in the +assurance, "There is nothing so hard but search will find it out." + + +V + +TOILING + +Two young people were passing out of a building where they had just +listened to a speaker of note. + +"What a wonderful talk that was!" said one who found it a heavy cross to +make the simplest address in public. "I wish I had such a gift of +speech." + +"It isn't a gift in his case; it is an acquirement," was the response. +"If you had known that man five years ago, you would agree with me. When +I first knew him he could not get up in a public meeting and make the +simplest statement without floundering and stammering in a most pitiful +manner. But he had made up his mind to be a public speaker, and he put +himself through a severe course of discipline. To-day you see the +result." + +The biography of Dr. Herrick Johnson tells of courageous conquest of +difficulties that seemed to block the way to success: "Hamilton College +has always given great attention to public speaking and class orations. +The high standard was set by a remarkably gifted man, Professor +Mandeville, who instituted a system in the study of oratory and public +speaking which has been known ever since, with some modification, as the +'Mandeville System.'" + +"In 1853, Dr. Anson J. Upson was in the Mandevillian chair, and had +lifted up to still greater height the standard of public speaking, and +had awakened a great, inextinguishable enthusiasm for it. Not one of the +boys who entered that year, and who were at that prize-speaking contest, +could fail to be seized with the public-speaking craze. It especially +met Herrick Johnson's taste and trend and gifts, and fired his highest +aim. Probably there was nothing he wanted so much as the prize in his +class at the next commencement. But unfortunately his standards and +ideals of public speaking were just then as far as possible from the +Mandevillian standard. He had acquired what was called a ministerial +tone, and other faults fatal to any success, unless eradicated. The best +speakers of the upper classes were the recognized and accepted +'drillers' of the new boys, who at once put themselves under their care +and criticism. Every spring and fall a certain valley with a grove, +north of the college, was the resort of the aspirants for success at +this time. The woods would ring with their 'exercises' and strenuous +declamation, and I presume it is the same to-day. + +"Herrick Johnson had a magnificent voice, well-nigh ruined by his sins +against the right method of using it. He soon saw that it was going to +be essential for him to go down to the foundation of his wrong methods +and break them all up and absolutely eradicate his 'tone.' It was no +easy thing to do, but the young man was intensely ambitious, and so he +worked with the greatest energy. He failed of an appointment on the +'best four' of his Freshman class. But he worked away throughout his +Sophomore year and failed again. The upperclassmen saw his pluck, they +recognized his grand voice, and they worked with him during his Junior +year, until he had mastered the Mandevillian style, wholly eradicated +his 'tone,' corrected all defects, and got his appointment for one of +the best four speakers of the Junior year; and on the prize-speaking +night of that commencement, he went on the platform conscious of his +power and swept everything before him as the Junior prize speaker. It +set the standard for that young man. Voice, manner, address, were all +masterful and accounted easily for his great success as a public speaker +through all his subsequent prominent and successful career in his +profession." + +A part of the good of "speaking a piece" is to try again, determined to +retrieve failure. Success is not always a good thing for a boy or a +girl, any more than for a man or a woman. The discipline of failure is +sometimes needed. To fail is not always a calamity, if the failure leads +to the correction of the faults that lead to failure. Whether it be +speaking a piece or learning a lesson or facing a trying situation in +business, no matter how many times one has failed, he needs to take to +heart the message of Macbeth: + + We fail! + But screw your courage to the sticking-point, + And we'll not fail. + +Always there is a reward for those who fight against difficulties, who +persist in their struggle even when failure follows failure. Everyday +the glad story of the sequel to such persistent struggles is recorded. +The records of commercial life, of school life, of home life are full of +these. + + +VI + +CONQUERING INFIRMITY + +Of all obstacles that can stand in the way of courageous conquest, one +of the most fatal, in the opinion of many, is blindness. Yet it is not +necessary that the loss of the eyes should be the fatal handicap it is +almost universally considered. It is a mistake to feel that when a +worker has anything seriously and permanently wrong with his eyes he +cannot be expected longer to perform tasks that are normal for one who +has the full use of all his five senses. In fact, when we hear that a +man is going blind we are apt to dismiss with a sigh his chance for +continuing productive labor of any sort; we feel that there is little +left for him but sitting resignedly in a chimney corner and listening to +others read to him or patiently fingering the raised letters provided +for the use of the blind. + +In protest against this error a novelist has taken for his hero a young +man who lost his sight. His friends pitied him, talked dolefully to him, +promised to look after him in the days of incapacity. Of course he sank +lower and lower in the doleful dumps. Then one came into his life who +never seemed to notice his blindness, who talked to him as if he could +see, who encouraged him to do things by taking it for granted that they +would be performed. Her treatment proved effective; before long the +blind man was learning self-reliance, and was well on the road to +achievement. + +The story was true to life for, times without number, blind men and +women have shown their ability to work as effectively as if they could +see. More than two hundred years ago a teacher in London named Richard +Lucas lost his eyesight. Many of his friends thought that he would, of +course, give up all idea of being a useful man; in that day few thought +of the possibility of one so afflicted doing anything worth much. But +the young man thought differently. He listened to others as they read to +him, and completed his studies. He became the author of a dozen volumes, +and was among the leaders of his day. One of his greatest works was the +book "An Enquiry after Happiness." He knew how to be happy, in spite of +his affliction, so he could teach others to follow him. + +A little earlier there lived on the farm of a poor Irishman the boy +Thomas Carolan. When he was five years old, he had smallpox, a disease +that was much more virulent in those days than it is to-day because the +treatment required was not understood. As a result the boy lost his +sight. Soon he showed a taste for music, and he was able to take a few +lessons, in spite of the poverty at home. As a young man he composed +hundreds of pieces of music, and it has been said of him that he +contributed much towards correcting and enriching the style of national +Irish music. + +Another youthful victim of smallpox was Thomas Blacklock, the son of a +bricklayer in Scotland. "He can't be an artisan now," his friends said. +But it did not occur to them that he could be a professional man. His +father read him poetry and essays. When he was only twelve the boy began +to write poetry in imitation of those whose verses he had heard. After +his father's death, when the blind boy was but nineteen, he was more +than ever dependent on himself. By the help of a friend he was enabled +to go to school for a time. Then he became an author, and, later, a +famous preacher. Often, as he walked about, a favorite dog preceded him. +On one occasion he heard the hollow sound of the dog's tread on the +board covering a deep well, and just in time to avoid stepping on the +board himself. The covering was so rotten that he would surely have +fallen into the water. + +As a boy Francis Huber, of Geneva, Switzerland, was a great student. He +insisted on reading by the feeble light of a lamp, or by the light of +the moon, even when he was urged not to do so, and the result was +blindness. A few years later he married one who rejoiced to be "his +companion, his secretary and his observer." He became the greatest +authority of his day on bees, although he knew nothing of the subject +until after his misfortune. The strange thing is that all his +conclusions were based on observation. Among other things he studied the +function of the wax, the construction of their combs, the bees' senses +and their ability to ventilate the hive by means of their wings. In +recognition of his work he was given membership in a number of learned +societies. His name must always be connected with the history of early +bee investigation. + +Not long after the close of the American Revolution James Holman, a +British naval officer, lost his eyesight while in Africa. He was then +about twenty-five years old. Later he became one of the best known +travelers of his day. The world was told of his travels in lectures and +in books, and others were also inspired to travel. "What is the use of +traveling to one who cannot see?" he was asked at one time. "Does every +traveler see all he describes?" he replied. He said that he felt sure he +visited, when on his travels, as many interesting places as others, and +that, by having the things described to him on the spot, he could form +as correct a judgment as his own sight would have enabled him to do. + +In 1779 Richmond, Virginia, gave birth to James Wilson, who lost his +sight when he was four years old, because of smallpox. He was then on +shipboard, and was taken to Belfast, Ireland, where he grew to manhood. +When a boy he delivered newspapers to subscribers who lived as far as +five miles from the city. When fifteen he used part of his earnings to +buy books which he persuaded other boys to read to him. At twenty-one he +entered an institution for the blind, for fuller instruction. Then he +joined with a circle of mechanics in forming a reading society. One +friend promised to read to him every evening such books as he could +procure. The hours for reading were from nine to one every night in +summer and from seven to eleven every night in the winter. "Often I +have traveled three or four miles, in a severe winter night, to be at my +post in time," he said once. "Perished with cold and drenched with rain, +I have many a time sat down and listened for several hours together to +the writings of Plutarch, Rollins, or Clarendon." After seven or eight +years of this training, he was "acquainted with almost every work in the +English language" his biographer says, perhaps a little extravagantly. +His education he used in literary work. + +B. B. Bowen was a Massachusetts boy just a century ago. When a babe he +lost his sight. In 1833 Dr. Howe--husband of Julia Ward Howe--selected +him as one of six blind boys on whom he was to make the first +experiments in the instruction of the blind. Later he wrote a book of +which eighteen thousand copies were sold. + +Another of the men who proved the loss of sight was not a bar to +successful work was Thomas R. Lounsbury, the Yale scholar whose studies +in Chaucer and Shakespeare made him famous. Toward the close of his busy +life he was engaged in a critical study of Tennyson, preparatory to +writing an exhaustive book on the life of the great poet. He did not +live to complete the work, but he left it in such shape that a friend +was able to put it in the hands of the publishers. + +In the Introduction to the biography this friend told of the courageous +manner in which Professor Lounsbury faced threatening blindness and +continued his writing in spite of the danger. We are told that his eyes, +never very good, failed him for close and prolonged work. "At best he +could depend upon them for no more than two or three hours a day. +Sometimes he could not depend upon them at all. That he might not +subject them to undue strain, he acquired the habit of writing in the +dark. Night after night, using a pencil on coarse paper, he would sketch +a series of paragraphs for consideration in the morning. This was almost +invariably his custom in later years. Needless to say, these rough +drafts are difficult reading for an outsider. Though the lines could be +kept reasonably straight, it was impossible for a man enveloped in +darkness to dot an _i_ or to cross a _t_. Moreover, many words were +abbreviated, and numerous sentences were left half written out. Every +detail, however, was perfectly plain to the author himself. With these +detached slips of paper and voluminous notes before him, he composed on +a typewriter his various chapters, putting the paragraphs in logical +sequence." + +Francis Parkman, the historian who made the Indian wars real to +fascinated readers, was a physical wreck on the completion of "The +Oregon Trail," when he was but twenty-five years old. He could not write +even his own name, except with his eyes closed; he was unable to fix his +mind on a subject, except for very brief intervals, and his nervous +system was so exhausted that any effort was a burden. But he would not +give up. During the weary days of darkness he thought out the story of +the conspiracy of Pontiac and decided to write it. Physicians warned him +that the results would be disastrous, yet he felt that nothing could do +him more harm than an idle, purposeless life. + +One of his chief difficulties he solved in an ingenious manner. In a +manuscript, published after his death, his plan was described: + +"He caused a wooden frame to be constructed of the size and shape of a +sheet of letter paper. Stout wires were fixed horizontally across it, +half an inch apart, movable back of thick pasteboard fitted behind +them. The paper for writing was placed between the pasteboard and wires, +guided by which and using a black-lead crayon, he could write not +illegibly with closed eyes." + +This contrivance, with improvements, he used for about forty years of +semi-blindness. + +The documents on which he depended for his facts were read to him, +though sometimes for days he could not listen, and then perhaps only for +half an hour at a time. As he listened to the reading he made notes with +closed eyes. Then he turned over in his mind what he had heard and +laboriously wrote a few lines. For months he penned an average of only +three or four lines a day. Later he was able to work more rapidly and he +completed the book in two years and a half. No publisher was found who +was willing to bear the expense of issuing the volume, and the young man +paid for the plates himself. + +Friends thought that now he would have to give up. His eyes were still +troubling him, he became lame, his head felt as if great bands of iron +were fastened about it, and frequently he did not sleep more than an +hour or two a night. Then came the death of his wife, on whom he had +depended for some years. At one time his physician warned him that he +had not more than six months to live. But when a friend said that he had +nothing more to live for, he made the man understand that he was not +ready to hoist the white flag. + +He lived for forty-five years after it was thought that he could never +use his eyes again, and during all this time he worked steadily and +patiently, accomplishing what would have been a large task for a man who +had the full use of all his powers. + +An Englishman was told by his physician he could never see again. For a +time the news weighed heavily upon him. Afterward he said: "I remained +silent for a moment, thinking seriously, and then, summoning up all the +grit I possessed, I said, 'If God wills it, He knows best. What must be +will be. And,' I added, putting my hand up to a tear that trickled down +my face, 'God helping me, this is the last tear I shall ever shed for my +blindness.'" It was. He secured the degrees of doctor of philosophy and +master of arts. He was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and +the Chemical Society. He made many valuable scientific discoveries and +inventions, saved a millionaire's life, and received the largest fee +ever awarded any doctor--$250,000. + +To these men difficulties were a challenge to courage. They accepted the +challenge and proved themselves superior to circumstances. Thus their +lives became a challenge to the millions of their countrymen who read of +their triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +_THE COURAGE OF INDUSTRY_ + + +ANYBODY can drift, but only the man or woman of courage can breast the +current, can fight on upstream. + +It is so easy to be idle or to work listlessly. Average folks drift +heedlessly into occupations in which they have no special interest and +for which they have as little fitness. Most people waste their evenings +or use them to little profit: it never occurs to them that each day they +waste precious hours. They give more thought to schemes to do less work +than to attempts to increase output. + +And so they show their weakness, their unfitness for bearing +responsibility, their cowardice when the world is calling for courage. + +Worth-while work demands the finest kind of courage, and with perfect +fairness work gives back courage to those who put courage into it. + + +I + +BEGINNING + +"Yes, he's a right good worker, when you once get him started," a +country newspaper editor said to a friend who was inquiring about a boy +who had been in the office three months. "Watch him now; you'll see what +I mean." + +The boy had just brought from the express office the package of "patent +insides," as the papers for the weekly edition of the newspaper, already +half printed in the nearby city, were called. With a sigh he dragged +these up the stairs and laid them on the folding table. With another +sigh he contemplated the pile and thought how much time would be +required to fold the eight hundred papers. After lengthy calculation he +stopped to read a column of jokes from the top paper in the pile. At +least five minutes passed before the first paper was folded. At the end +of ten minutes he had succeeded in folding perhaps twenty-five papers. +When the noon hour arrived not one third of the task was completed. + +While he ate his lunch he was thinking of the dread ordeal of the +afternoon--six hundred more papers to be folded! Would he ever be done? +He was still pitying himself as he walked slowly back to the office. +Just before reaching the doorway into which he must turn, he spied an +acquaintance. He made his way over to the boy who had attracted him, not +because he had anything to say to him, but that he might delay a little +longer the moment of beginning work at the folding table. + +"What are you going to do?" he asked idly of the boy, who had taken off +his coat and was rolling up his sleeves. + +"The boss wants me to sort that lot of old iron," was the reply. + +"What, that huge pile! It will take you a week, won't it? Just think how +much of it there is!" + +"No, there isn't time to think how much of it there is," was the reply. +"And what would be the good? Not a bit of use getting discouraged at the +very start, and that is what would happen if I didn't pitch in hard. The +job is going to be done before night--that is, if I'm not interrupted by +too many loafers coming in to ask fool questions." + +The boy from the printing office was about to resent this speech of the +boy at the iron pile, but he thought better of it. "Perhaps there is +something in what he says," he said to himself, as he went up the +stairs. "Suppose I try to pitch in hard." + +So he surprised the foreman by beginning at the pile of six hundred +papers as if he was to be sent to a ball game when he finished. And he +surprised himself by finishing his task in a little more than an hour. + +The lesson he learned that day stood him in good stead when later he was +taking his first difficult examination in a technical school. His +neighbor stopped to look over the paper from beginning to end, and was +heard to mutter, "How do they expect us to get through ten questions +like these in an hour's time?" The boy from the printing office had no +time for such an inquiry, but began work at once on the first question, +without troubling himself about those that came later until he was ready +for them. + +So it was when, his technical course completed, he was confronted by his +first great railroad task, the clearing up of a wreck that looked to his +assistants like an inextricable tangle. After one good look at it he +pitched in for all he was worth, thus inspiring the men who had felt the +task was impossible, and within a few hours the tracks were clear. + +The ability to pitch in at once on a hard job is one characteristic of +the man who accomplishes tasks that make others sit up and take notice. +John Shaw Billings, the famous librarian, had this ability. To a friend +who praised him for the performance of what others thought to be a most +difficult task, he said: + +"I'll let you into the secret--it is nothing really difficult if you +only begin. Some people contemplate a task until it looks so big it +seems impossible, but I just begin, and it gets done somehow. There +would be no coral islands if the first bug sat down and began to wonder +how the job was to be done." + + +II + +PURPOSE FORMING + +One of the interesting points the fascinated reader of biography comes +to look for is the first hint of the formation of the purpose that later +characterized the life of the subject. There is infinite variety, but in +every case there is apt to be something that takes the purposeful reader +back to the days when his own ambition was taking shape. + +For instance, there is Daniel Boone. One would not be apt to select him +as an example of one whose life was ruled by a purpose deliberately +formed and adhered to for many years. Yet he had his vision of what he +desired to accomplish when, at twenty-one years of age, he was marching +from North Carolina to Pennsylvania to join Braddock's company. On the +way he met John Finley, a hunter who had traveled through Ohio and into +the wild regions to the south. His tale of Kentucky fired Boone's +imagination, and the two men planned to go there just as soon as the +trip to Fort Duquesne was at an end. It proved impossible to carry out +the plan for many years, but Boone never lost sight of his purpose, and +ultimately he carved out the Wilderness Road and opened the way for the +pioneers to seek homes in the Kentucky Wilderness. + +Alexander Hamilton was but twelve years old when he wrote from his home +in St. Croix, in the West Indies, to a friend in America: + +"I contemn the grovelling condition of a clerk, or the like, to which my +fortune condemns me, and would willingly risk my life, though not my +character, to exalt my station. I am confident, Ned, that my youth +excludes me from any hope of immediate preferment, nor do I desire it, +but I mean to prepare the way for futurity." + +Not for a day did he lose sight of his purpose. The opportunity he +sought came years later. He sailed for America, and began the career +that led to usefulness and fame. + +As a boy Robert Fulton was ambitious. He had two dreams. He wished to go +to Europe to study art, and he wished to buy a farm for his widowed +mother. For these objects he saved every dollar he could. On his +twenty-first birthday he took his mother and sister to the home he had +bought for them, and later in the same year he sailed for Europe. + +When Peter Cooper was making his way against odds in New York City he +felt the need of an education. But he had to work by day and there was +no night school. Night after night he studied by the light of a tallow +candle. And while he studied, his life purpose was formed: some day he +would make it easy for apprentice boys to secure an education after +working hours. Many years passed before he was able to carry this +purpose into effect. By this time the apprentice system had been +displaced, but he felt that young people still needed the school he had +in mind. In 1859, nearly fifty years after his own boyhood struggle, he +founded Cooper Union, in which thousands have had the opportunity "to +open the volume of Nature by the light of truth--so unveiling the laws +and methods of Deity that the young may see the beauties of creation, +enjoy its blessings and learn to love the Being from whom cometh every +good and perfect gift." + +As a boy Abraham Lincoln made up his mind "to live like Washington." He +was twenty-two years old when, in New Orleans,--where he had taken a +flatboat loaded with produce--he saw a slave auction and spoke the +never-to-be-forgotten words: "If ever I get a chance to hit that thing, +I'll hit it hard." Thirty-five years later came his chance, and he did +"hit that thing hard" with the Emancipation Proclamation. + +Alexander Graham Bell's life ambition was to teach deaf children how to +articulate. Funds were short. That he might have more funds he engaged +in experiments that led to the invention of the telephone. When the +telephone instrument was given the attention it deserved at the +Philadelphia Centennial of 1876, the inventor wrote triumphantly to his +parents: "Now I shall have the money to promote the teaching of speech +to deaf children." + +James Stewart, the Scotch boy who became a famous missionary in South +Africa, was fifteen years old when, one day while following the plow in +Perthshire, he began to brood over the future. "What was it to be?" The +question flashed across his mind, "Might I not make more of my life than +by remaining here?" Then he said, "God helping me, I will be a +missionary." At another time, while hunting with a cousin, he said "Jim, +I shall never be satisfied till I am in Africa with a Bible in my pocket +and a rifle on my shoulder, to supply my wants." + +James Robertson was a school teacher in Canada when he became a +Christian. On the Sunday he was to take his vows as a follower of +Christ, he walked two miles to church with a friend who has told of his +memories of the day thus: + +"As we went along the Governor's Road there was a bush, 'Light's Woods,' +on the south side of the road. Robertson suggested that we turn aside +into the bush, not saying for what purpose. We penetrated it a short +distance, when, with a rising hill on our right and on comparatively +level ground, the tall maples waving their lovely heads far above us, +and the stillness of the calm, sunny day impressing us with a sense of +the awful, we came to a large stone. Robertson proposed that we engage +in prayer. We knelt down together. He prayed that he might be true to +the vows he was about to take, true to God and ever faithful in his +service." + +From that day the young man's purpose was inflexible. He would be a +minister. He did not dream of conspicuous places in the church. When the +temptations came to seek place and position, he wrote to Miss Cowing, +who had promised to be his wife, "We are no longer our own. The time for +self is gone for us." + +William Duncan likewise was tempted to seek a position of prominence. +When he decided to become a missionary, his employers sought to dissuade +him. "You have one of the keenest brains in England," one of them said. +"Don't you see you are making a fool of yourself?" "Fool or no fool, my +mind is made up, and nothing can change it," was the positive reply. And +he set his face like a flint, and in time began the wonderful work that +has written his name indelibly in the history of the Indians of Western +Canada and Alaska. + +Washington Gladden was a country newspaper man in Owego, New York, when +he united with the church, and began to make definite plans for a larger +future than he had yet dreamed of. First he went to the Academy and +then to college, with the ministry always in view. + +George Grenfell, who became a missionary in Africa, was thirteen years +old when he began to think of devoting his life to work for others. The +reading of Livingstone's first book turned his thoughts to Africa. + +William Waddell was fifteen years old when he became a Christian. At the +time he was working for a ship-joiner at Clydebank, Scotland. The +ambition took possession of him to become a missionary to Africa. +Neither lack of education nor scarcity of funds was allowed to stand in +his way. He kept at his work until he saw an advertisement asking for +men to go to the Orange Free State to assist in building a church. He +volunteered, and, as a layman and a mechanic, began his wonderful career +in Africa. + +David Lloyd-George was an orphan in Wales when he determined to be a +lawyer. So he read, under the guidance of his shoemaker uncle, and when +he was fourteen he was ready for the preliminary examination. For six +years more he continued his preparation. Before he was twenty-one he set +out on the career that has made him the leader to whom King and people +of England alike turned eagerly. + +These men found their place and did their work, not because they sought +great things for themselves, but because they lived in the spirit of the +advice given by a celebrated Canadian to a company of young people: + +"You cannot all attain high positions: there are not enough to go +around. You cannot all be preachers or premiers, but you can all do +thoroughly and well what is set you to do, and so fit yourselves for +some higher duty, and thus by industry and fidelity and kindness you can +fill your sphere in life and at last receive the 'Well done' of your +Lord." + + +III + +USING TIME WISELY + +A remark made by an acquaintance in the street car showed such +familiarity with the work and trials of the busy conductor that inquiry +followed. + +"Yes, I was a conductor once," the man said, "but I had my eye on +something else. At night I took a business course, and soon was able to +take a position with a railroad company." + +"That was fine!" was the answering comment. "How you must have enjoyed +resting on your oars as you reaped the fruits of extra toil." + +"Enjoyment--yes! But rest--no!" came the reply. "I wasn't done. I still +had my evenings, and I kept on studying. The things I learned in these +extra hours came in handy when the Superintendent asked me to become his +secretary." + +Service in the railroad office was interrupted by enlistment in the +army, although the worker was well beyond the age of the draft. "How +could I think of anything but service at the front?" he said, with a +matter-of-fact accent. While in the service the habit of study in spare +hours persisted; becoming familiar with the military manual he attracted +the attention of his officers, and was marked for added responsibility. +At the close of the war he resumed his work for the railroad and entered +a technical school which provides night courses for the ambitious. + +Forty years of age, and still learning! + +An employer has written of an employee who, ten years ago, was securing +fifteen dollars per week. But he was studying, and he soon attracted the +attention of the head of the business, who called him "a rough diamond." +He knew that the ambitious man seemed to lack some of the vital +elements of success. But he watched him as he took evening courses in +business psychology and salesmanship. "This man is paid by me to-day +from $12,500 to $15,000 a year," was the gratifying conclusion of the +employer's story. + +A great executive recently told in a magazine article of a young man in +the office of his employment director who attracted attention because of +an exceptionally pleasing personal appearance. Before the director saw +him the executive asked him what he was studying. "When I left school," +was the reply, made with something of a sneer, "I promised myself I +would never open a book again as long as I lived, and I'm keeping my +promise." + +The executive was about to leave the office for a two weeks' vacation. +First, however, he wrote a few words about the applicant, placed them in +a sealed envelope, and left this with the employment director, to be +kept for him. On his return he asked about the applicant, by name. The +answer came, with prompt disgust: + +"That fellow was the limit! Fired him two days after he was hired. Dead +from the neck up!" + +Then the sealed letter was produced and the message enclosed was read: + +"You will hire A---- H---- on his looks. Within two weeks you will fire +him. He's dead from his neck." + +A writer in _Association Men_ has made a comparison between two men, and +the way they spent their leisure: + +"Here is my friend Chris Hall--that is not his real name, but I assure +you he is a real person. I like Chris, and so does everybody who knows +him. He is honest and kind and clean, but in spite of these splendid +characteristics he never makes progress. Five years ago he was promoted +to his present position, and he draws as salary just about what he did +then. And there is no prospect that he will ever draw much more. Yet he +could make himself worth four times as much in a very short while--$200 +a week instead of $50--if he would only fit himself for the job ahead. +But he lives entirely in the present. Perhaps the best way to describe +him is to give his diary for a week, a record of how he spent his time +when not actually working. And, please notice that everything he did was +perfectly legitimate and honorable; but also notice, that everything was +for immediate personal pleasure: + + _Monday_--Rainy evening; went to bed early after + playing a while with the kids. + + _Tuesday_--Strolled over to see Mollie's brother, + who is just back from France; he looks well but + would not talk much about the fighting; advised + him not to hurry about getting a job, as he + deserved a good long spell of rest after the hard + campaign. + + _Wednesday_--Left office early; first big league + game this year; went around to the club and talked + it all over with the boys after supper. + + _Thursday_--Office closed all day on account of + parade of returning troops; took Mollie and + children to see it; awfully tired and went to bed + early. + + _Friday_--Sold my two Liberty Bonds which I had + bought on installments; Mollie needed summer + dresses and there were several small debts I had + to pay; took Mollie to the movies after supper. + + _Saturday_ (afternoon)--Whole family went to + Seaside Park by steamer--children enjoyed it for a + while but soon got tired and fretful; what with + the heat and the crowds and the late hour of + getting home it really didn't pay. + + _Sunday_--In bed till nearly noon; read the + papers; changed the soil in Mollie's potted + plants; afternoon, Tom and his wife and Charlie + Nichols and his best girl came over and all stayed + to supper; strolled over to Mother's and found + everyone there. + +"Over against that let me put a few lines from the diary of Elihu +Burritt: + + _Monday_--Headache; 40 lines Cuvier's 'Theory of + the Earth'; 64 pages French; 11 hours forging. + + _Tuesday_--60 lines Hebrew; 30 pages French; 10 + pages Cuvier; 8 lines Syriac; 10 lines Danish; 10 + lines Bohemian; 9 lines Polish; 15 names of + stars; 10 hours forging. + + _Wednesday_--25 lines Hebrew; 8 lines Syriac; 11 + hours forging. + +"Who was Elihu Burritt? He was a New England blacksmith who worked on an +average 10 hours a day at his forge; but who studied in his spare +moments until he became known and honored all over the world as 'the +learned blacksmith.' He became great--not by forging--but by the way he +used his afterwork hours." + + +IV + +WORKING HARDER + +"It was the rule of his life to study not how little he could do, but +how much." + +These words were spoken of a great publisher and might have been made +the text of the volume issued to commemorate the centenary of the +business house founded by the man of whom they were spoken. + +The young man was sixteen when his father drove him from their country +home to the city, and apprenticed him to a firm of printers. + +As an apprentice he and another young man were frequently partners in +working an old-fashioned hand press. "One applied the ink with +hand-balls, and the other laid on sheets and did the pulling. They +changed work at regular intervals, one inking and the other pulling." +The biographer who gives this description of the work of the two, adds +that his hero was accustomed to remain at his press after the other men +had quit work whenever he could secure a partner to assist him. + +The young man's fellow worker was often persuaded to assist him in these +extra efforts--usually much against his will. While he often felt like +rebelling because of his partner's ambition to do his utmost for his +employers, he could not restrain his admiration for the man's industry. + +Once the unwilling partner said: "Often, after a good day's work, he +would say to me, 'Let's break the back of another token (two hundred and +fifty impressions)--just break its back.' I would often consent +reluctantly but he would beguile me, or laugh at my complaints, and +never let me off till the token was completed, fair and square. It was a +custom for us in the summer to do a clear half-day's work before the +other boys and men got their breakfast. We would meet by appointment in +the grey of the early morning and go down to the printing-room." + +Fellow workmen made sport of the ambitious young man, not only because +of what they felt was his excessive industry, but because of his +homespun clothes and heavy cow-hide boots. He seldom retorted, but once, +when jests had gone further than usual, he said to a tormentor: "When I +am out of my time and set up for myself, and you need employment, as you +probably will, come to me and I will give you work." The man little +thought the prophecy would be fulfilled, but forty years after, when the +industrious apprentice was mayor of the city and one of the world's +leading publishers, he was reminded of the promise made to the +tormentor, and the promised position was given to him. The workman who +believed in doing more than was expected of him had won his way to fame +and fortune, while his derider had made no progress. + +In 1817 the industrious apprentice asked a brother--who in the meantime +had served his apprenticeship in a printing office--to go into business +with him. Later two other brothers were taken into the firm. All were +believers in the doctrine that had led the oldest member of the firm to +success--the doctrine of doing as much instead of as little as possible. + +Their readiness to work constantly enabled the four brothers, who +started with little capital except their knowledge of their trade, to +build up within a generation one of the world's greatest publishing +houses. They improved every moment. But they were never tempted to work +on Sunday; business was never so pressing that they would break into the +day of rest, or make their men do so. In this they were only living in +accordance with purposes formed during their days of working for others. +It is stated of one of the brothers, whose employer rejoiced in his +readiness to do hard work and plenty of it, that he was expected to work +on Sunday, in order to get ready the catalogue of an auction sale which +was to be held next day. "That I will not do," he said, respectfully but +firmly: "I cannot work on Sunday." He did work till midnight; then--in +spite of the threat that he would be discharged--he laid down his +composing stick on the case. On Monday morning his employer apologized +and asked him to return to work. + +Thirty-six years after the founding of the house, it occupied five +five-story buildings on one street and six on another street. Then a +careless plumber started a fire that--within a few hours--destroyed the +entire property. But the energetic men who knew how to work were not +discouraged at the thought of beginning again. The night after the fire +they met for conference. As they separated one of them remarked that the +evening had seemed more like a time of social festivity than a +consultation over a great calamity. + +Business associates hastened to make offers of loans. Within forty-eight +hours the firm was tendered more than one hundred thousand dollars. +Publishers offered their presses, printing material and office room. +Authors wrote that they were ready to wait indefinitely for pay, while +employees not only made a like suggestion, but said they were willing to +have their pay reduced. While none of these offers were accepted, they +were greatly appreciated, for they told of the place the brothers had +won for themselves by untiring industry and sterling integrity. + +After the fire the house became greater than ever, so that to-day it +stands as an example of what "hard work coupled with high ideals" may +accomplish. And to every young man the thought of it gives inspiration +to follow in the steps of the founder who "made it the rule of his life +to study not how little he could do, but how much." + + +V + +ABUSING THE WILL TO WORK + +There are times when the real test of a worker's courage is not his +readiness to work but his will to curb the temptation to be intemperate +in work. + +When the word "intemperance" is mentioned most people think at once of +strong drink; many people are unwilling to think of anything but strong +drink. As if where there is no temptation to drink there can be no +temptation to intemperance! + +Paul had a different idea. When he wrote to the Corinthians, "Every man +that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things," he must have +had in mind scores of different ways in which intemperance endangers +success. + +If people were to make a list of some of the aspects of intemperance +that are characteristic of modern life, it is quite likely that a large +proportion would omit one of the most serious of all--the intemperance +of the man who lives to work, who drives himself to work, who is never +happy unless he is working, who makes himself and others unhappy because +he labors too long, and too persistently, perhaps with the result that +his own promising career is wrecked and the industry of others is +interfered with seriously. + +One of the most striking illustrations of intemperance in work is +supplied by the life of Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield, +Massachusetts, _Republican_, one of the famous editors of the generation +beginning a few years after the Civil War. + +Mr. Bowles was but eighteen years old when he had his first warning that +his system could not stand the strain of the work to which a strong will +drove him. His mother used to set a rocking chair for him at the table +at meal-time, because, as she said, "Sam has so little time to rest." +But the rocking chair was empty for months, when a breakdown sent him +South for a long period of recuperation. + +When he returned home he plunged into work with all his might. "He +worked late at night; vacations and holidays were unknown; of recreation +and general society he had almost nothing," his biographer says. For +years his office hours began before noon and continued until one or two +in the morning. Finally the strain became too great, and loss of sight +was feared. Still he forced himself to work, and the injury to his brain +was begun that was later to cause his death. He would take a bottle of +cold tea to the office, that by its use he might aid his will to work +when nature said, "Stop!" For a long time his only sleep--and it was +sadly broken sleep--was on a lounge in the office, from two to six or +seven in the morning. Then he would set to work again. "By his unceasing +mental activity he wore himself out," the comment was made on his +career. "For the last twenty years of his life his nerves and stomach +were in chronic rebellion. Heavy clouds of dyspepsia, sciatica, +sleeplessness, exhaustion, came often and staid long." + +The intemperate worker knew what he was doing. Once he wrote to a +friend, "You can't burn the candle at both ends, and make anything by it +in the long run; and it is the long pull that you are to rely on, and +whereby you are to gain glory." Persistent headaches, "nature's sharp +signal that the engine had been overdriven," added to the warning. At +last, when he was thirty-seven, he wrote: "My will has carried me for +years beyond my mental and physical power; that has been the offending +rock. And now, beyond that desirable in keeping my temper, and forcing +me up to proper exercise and cheerfulness through light occupation, I +mean to call upon it not at all, if I can help it, and to do only what +comes freely and spontaneously from the overflow of power and life. This +will make me a light reader, a small worker." + +Well for him if he had kept his resolution. Still he drove himself to +work beyond what his body and brain could stand. Then came paralysis. +"Nothing is the matter with me but thirty-five years of hard work," he +said. At the time of his death he was not fifty-one years old. + +His friends could not but admire him for strength of will, for +achievement in the face of ill health, for triumph, by sheer will-power, +over every obstacle except the will that drove him to his death. He +accomplished much, but how much more he might have accomplished if he +had been temperate in his use of the wonderful powers of mind and body +which God had given him! + +In connection with this glimpse of the life of one who illustrates the +disaster brought by the will to be intemperate, it is helpful to think +of the life of another American man of letters whose will to be +temperate in his treatment of a body weak and frail prolonged life and +usefulness. + +Francis Parkman, the historian, was never a well man after his trip +that resulted in the writing of _The Oregon Trail_. In fact, he was a +physical wreck at twenty-five years of age. He could not even write his +own name, until he first closed his eyes; he was unable to fix his mind +on a subject, except for very brief intervals, and his nervous system +was so exhausted that any effort was a burden. However, in spite of this +limitation, which became worse, if possible, instead of better, he +managed to accomplish an immense amount of the finest literary work by +doing what he could and stopping when this was wise. His will to take +care of himself was given the mastery of his will to work. For +forty-four years after the completion of _The Oregon Trail_ he labored +on, preparing history after history. He was seventy years old when he +died, leaving behind him achievements that would have been a tremendous +task for a man in perfect health. + +To everyone is given the marvelous equipment of body and brain, as well +as the will which makes possible their judicious investment or their +prodigal waste in the struggle to make life count. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +_THE COURAGE OF FACING CONSEQUENCES_ + + +YOUNG people sometimes play the game of "Consequences." The sport +increases in proportion to the strangeness of the results. + +Perhaps the reason the game has so many attractions is the fact that +life is a long story of consequences. + +There are people who do not like to play the game of life seriously +because they say the consequences of self-denial and self-sacrifice are +too uncertain; they prefer the cowardice of inaction to the courage of +purposeful living. + +The folks worth while are those who, refusing to be troubled by what may +or may not be the consequences of their acts, still have the pluck to go +on with what they know is right. Let the results be what they may, they +propose to be straightforward and true. This is the courage that counts. + +There may be uncertainty as to the specific form the results of their +stand may take, yet that result is sure to be pleasing and helpful. + + +I + +VENTURING + +When Washington Irving was about to return to America from Madrid, where +he had been minister of the United States to the court of Spain, the +Philadelphia house that had been publishing his books, discouraged by +the decreasing sales, sent word to him that the public was not able to +appreciate his books, and they would have to allow them to go out of +print. The books had been printed directly from the type, so there were +no plates which another publisher might use to bring out further +editions at small expense. + +The author, who was then sixty-five years of age, sorrowfully accepted +the verdict of his publisher, and planned to take desk-room in the New +York office of his brother, John Treat Irving, where he hoped to make a +living by the practice of law. + +But this was not to be. In New York was a young publisher who believed +that Washington Irving's works were classics, and that the American +public would buy them eagerly if properly approached. Friends told him +that he might make a mistake, but he had the courage to go ahead. So he +wrote to the discouraged author what must have seemed to other +publishers a daring letter; he proposed to publish new editions of all +Irving's old books, on condition that new books, also, be given to him; +and he promised that royalties for the first year should be at least one +thousand dollars, for the second year two thousand dollars, and for the +third year three thousand dollars. + +When Irving received the letter, he kicked over the desk in front of +him, at the same time saying to his brother: + +"There is no necessity, John, for my bothering with the law. Here is a +fool of a publisher going to give me a thousand dollars a year for doing +nothing." + +But the publisher was not so foolish as he seemed. His promises were +more than made good. Sales were large. Other authors were attracted, +until the publishing house became one of the leaders among American +publishers. + +Nine years later Washington Irving had an opportunity to show his +gratitude. Just before the panic of 1857 a young man whom the generous +publisher had taken into partnership, involved him seriously. The +defalcations were not discovered until the accidental death of the +partner. Thus weakened, the firm was unable to survive the panic; its +affairs were put in the hands of a receiver, and all accounts were +sold. At the age of forty-two, the head of the firm bravely faced the +necessity of beginning life over. + +At the receiver's sale Washington Irving bought the plates of all his +books. A number of publishers offered him fancy terms if he would permit +them to bring out new editions, but he turned a deaf ear to their +entreaties and offered the plates to their former owner, to be paid for +in annual installments. Touched by the gratitude of his friend, the +publisher accepted the offer. + +The author never had cause to regret his action. During the years that +elapsed before his death the results of the new venture were more +satisfactory than ever. The courageous action of both publisher and +author had been amply vindicated by results. + + +II + +FORMING CHARACTER + +The best time to learn the courage that proves so effective in the +struggle of life is in youth. More than fifty years ago two boys in +Scotland were hunting rabbits. Tiring of the comparatively easy hunting +on the ground, they looked longingly at a cliff of hard clay several +hundred feet high, in whose precipitous side were many rabbit burrows. +They managed to climb the cliff. At length they were making their way +along an almost perpendicular parapet, cutting their way with their +knives. Then one of the boys fell, with a scream, to the bottom of the +cliff. There was a moment of terror. This was succeeded by a grim +determination to go forward, the only way of escape. Driving his knife +deep in the clay, he rested on this for a moment. That moment, it has +always since seemed to him, marked the first momentous period in his +life, the time when his personality first emerged into consciousness. He +says: "I whispered to myself one word, 'Courage!' Then I went on with my +work." At length he reached the ground. + +The lesson learned at such fearful cost told emphatically on the boy's +character. From that day he showed that there was in him the making of a +man who would not be balked by unfavorable circumstances. He did not +understand how or why, but he felt that new will-power had come to him +with the appeal to himself to take courage in the face of death. + +A few years later he went to Brazil. A Spaniard told him that moral +deterioration within six months was all but certain to come to every +young man who began life there. But he was determined not to give way to +bad habits. When he reached Santos, his companions urged him to give +himself up to all kinds of vice; they told him that it was either this +or death, or perhaps something worse than death. They emphasized their +words by pointing to a young man who had determined to keep straight, +and had been left to himself until he was demented. But the boy who had +learned courage on the precipice made up his mind that he must live as +God wished him to live, and he turned a deaf ear to all entreaties. + +Another book of biography tells of a boy who delighted in playing cards +with his father and mother. But when he united with the Church and +became President of the Christian Endeavor Society he began to wonder if +he was doing right. One night his father took up the cards and called +him to play whist. + +"I don't think I'll play whist any more," he said quietly. "I've been +thinking that perhaps it wasn't right for me to play." + +"Are you setting yourself up to judge your father and mother, young +man?" his father asked, sternly. + +"No, I didn't say it isn't all right for you to play," was the reply. +"But you know I am President of the Christian Endeavor Society and some +of the members don't think it is right to play. So I guess I'd better +not." + +His father looked at him thoughtfully for a minute, then picked up the +cards and threw them back into the drawer. + +"Charlie," he said, "I want you to understand that I think you have done +a manly thing to-night, and I honor you for your courage." + +That was the end of whist in that house. + +Courage showed itself in much the same way in the life of J. Marion +Sims, the great surgeon. He used to tell how, when he was a boy at a +South Carolina School, he was able to take a stand that had its effect +on his whole after-life. Many of his fellow students were sons of +wealthy planters, and their habits were not always the best. On several +occasions they tried to lead him into mischief. They were particularly +anxious to make him a companion in their drinking bouts. Twice he gave +way to their pleas, but after sorrowful experience of the results of his +lapses, he decided to make a brave stand. So he said to his tempters: + +"See here, boys, you can all drink, and I cannot. You like wine and I do +not. I hate it; its taste is disagreeable, its effects are dreadful, +because it makes me drunk. Now, I hope you all will understand my +position. I don't think it is right for you to ask me to drink wine when +I don't want it, and when it produces such a bad effect on me." + +To say this required real courage, but the results were good, not only +in himself, but also, fortunately, in some of his companions. + + +III + +TRUTH TELLING + +Those who, in early life, learn to be courageous in the face of +difficult tasks will be ready for the temptation that is apt to come to +most young people to compromise with what they know to be right and +true, to allow an exception "just this once!" in the straightforward +course they have marked out for themselves. And the worst of it is that +such a temptation is apt to come without the slightest warning and to +present itself in such a light that it is easy to find an excuse for +yielding, and to deem it quixotic and unreasonable not to yield. + +Once a young teacher who later became famous at Harvard, had occasion to +censure a student who had given, as he believed, the wrong solution of +a problem. On thinking the matter over at home, he found that the pupil +was right and the teacher wrong. It was late at night and in the depth +of winter, but he immediately started for the young man's room, at some +distance from his own home, and asked for the man he had wronged. The +delinquent, answering with some trepidation the untimely summons, found +himself the recipient of a frank apology. + +"Why, in the name of reason, do you walk a mile in the rain for a +perfectly unimportant thing?" this man was asked on another occasion. +"Simply because I have discovered that it was a misstatement, and I +could not sleep comfortably till I put it right," was the reply. + +Again the story is told of him that he borrowed a friend's horse to ride +to a town where he expected to take the stage. He promised to leave the +animal at a certain stable in the town. Upon reaching the place he found +that the stage was several miles upon its way. This was a serious +disappointment. A friend urged him to ride to the next town, where he +could come up with the vehicle, promising himself to send after the +borrowed horse and forward it to its owner. The temptation to accept the +offer was great. The roads were ankle deep in mud, and the stage +rapidly rolling on its way. The only obstacle was his promise to leave +the horse at the appointed place. He declined the friendly offer, +delivered the horse as he had promised, and, shouldering his baggage, +set off on foot through the mud to catch the stage. + +At this time he was eighteen years old, but he had learned the lesson +that made him remarkably efficient and dependable through life. + +Dr. W. T. Grenfell has told of a hardy trapper in Labrador, the partner +of a man who was easily discouraged; the arrangement was that they +should share equally the hardships and the rewards of the trapping +expeditions. Both were very poor. The stronger man was most unselfish in +his treatment of his associate. One winter their lives were all but lost +during the severity of a storm which burst on them while they were +setting their traps on an ice-girt island. On reaching the mainland the +timid man insisted on dissolving the partnership; he was unwilling to +repeat the risks, even for the sake of his needy family. In a few days +the hardy trapper revisited the traps on the mainland. To his great joy +he found in one trap a magnificent silver fox, whose skin was worth five +hundred dollars--a fortune to the Labrador trapper, especially welcome +during that hard winter. "How glad I am the partnership has been +dissolved, and that the fox is all mine," was his first thought. But +first thought was not allowed to be last thought. There was a struggle. +At length the decision was made that the needy man who had set the trap +with him should share in the prize; the argument that he had forfeited +all right to a share was not allowed to weigh against the unselfish +arguments for division. + +A friend of young people has told of an incident which occurred in a +great Boston department store where she sought to match some dress +goods. After turning away from several discourteous clerks she showed +her sample to a salesman who gave respectful attention to her. Glancing +at the slits cut in the side of the bit of goods, he remarked: + +"That isn't one of my samples. I will ask the clerk who mailed this +sample to wait on you." + +"But I don't want any other clerk to wait on me," responded the women, +hastily, fearing that the sample might have come originally from one of +the discourteous clerks first encountered; "I want you to have this +sale." + +"If you had asked for goods of that quality, width and price, without +showing me the sample, I could have found it for you at once," replied +the clerk, with a smile, "but now, this sale belongs to the clerk who +sent out the sample." + +"Then I won't give you this sample to hunt it up by," said the woman, +wishing to see if she could carry her point, and she proceeded to tuck +the sample away in her purse. + +"But I know that I have seen it, and my conscience knows it," was the +clerk's comment, as he laughingly laid his hand on his heart and turned +to look for the other salesman. + +The purchaser went on to tell thus of the salesman's unerring loyalty to +his principles: "In a moment he returned. The other clerk was at lunch. +What a sigh of relief I gave! 'I will make out the sale and turn it over +to him when he comes in,' he said, displaying the shining black folds of +the goods I desired." + +A real estate dealer in a Texas city was once tempted to be false to his +principles, "just once," when he felt sure a sale depended on it. His +prospective customer was a foreigner, who wished the salesman to drink +with him after a trip to examine the property on Saturday and then to +promise to make an engagement to continue the search next morning. But +the business man was opposed to the use of liquor, and he had never done +business on Sunday. What was he to do on this occasion? Would it hurt +anything if he should make an exception in favor of this customer who +could not be expected to understand his scruples? + +The temptation was acute; but it was conquered. Respectfully but firmly +the buyer was told why the salesman could not join him in taking a +drink, and why he could not go with him again until Monday morning. The +man went away in a rage. + +Next morning the real estate man saw the foreigner in the hands of a +rival. "That sale is gone!" he thought. When three days more passed +without the return of the buyer he decided that he had paid heavily for +being true to his better self. + +But on Thursday evening the foreigner sought the conscientious real +estate dealer and surprised him by saying: + +"Those other fellows showed me lots of farms, but you wouldn't drink +with me, nor show me land on Sunday because you think it wrong. So, +maybe, I think you won't lie to me. I buy my farm of you." + +Many times the reward of being true to one's conscience will not come so +promptly--except in the satisfaction the man has in knowing that he has +done the right thing. But the sure result is to bring him a little +nearer to the great reward that must come to a man whose integrity has +stood the test of years--the appreciation of those who know him and +their confidence in his honor. + + +IV + +DUTY DOING + +It is not always necessary that a man should be aquainted with another +to be able to repose implicit confidence in him. A life of fearless, +straightforward duty-doing will inevitably leave its record in the face. +Sometimes a frank, open countenance that cannot be misread is far better +than any letter of introduction. + +"We are suspicious of strangers," a man said to one who had sought at +his hands a favor that called for trust; then he added, with a smile, +"but some faces are above suspicion," and proceeded, with overwhelming +generosity, to grant far more than had been asked. + +Years ago a business man unexpectedly found himself without sufficient +funds to continue his journey through Europe. As this was before the +days of travelers' checks or the ocean cable, he was at a loss what to +do. In his uncertainty he went to an Italian banking house and asked +them to cash a large draft on his home bank. After an instant's pause +the request was granted. Years later the merchant again saw the +accommodating banker, and asked why a stranger was given such a large +sum. "In plain truth, it was just your honest face, and nothing else," +was the reply. On another trip abroad the merchant had a similar +experience. During a thunderstorm he took refuge with his wife in a +curio shop. The English-speaking woman in charge was so cordial, and her +goods were so pleasing, that the visitor said he would have liked to +make some purchase, but his remaining funds were not more than +sufficient for his journey home. The reply was: "Take whatever you +please, sir. No one could look in your face and distrust you." + +A similar story was told by a Russian Jew who entered New York a +penniless immigrant. After a disheartening period of working in the +sweatshop he saw an opportunity to start in business for himself. But he +had no capital. At a venture he asked a business man to trust him for +the stock in trade. After gazing at him closely the man said, "You have +a credit face, so I will do as you ask." + +It is worth while to have a face that insures confidence. But let it be +remembered that the possession of such a face is not an accident; it +belongs only to those who have the courage to think honestly, deal +fairly and live truly. + + +V + +FINDING HIS LIFE + +During the boyhood of Charles Abraham Hart, who was later the youngest +soldier in the War with Spain, he was on confidential terms with his +mother. One day when they were visiting together, she asked him about +something that had happened the winter before, which she was unable to +understand. His father had given to him and to his brothers two dollars +each to spend for Christmas presents. William spent the entire sum, but +Charles bought cheap presents, and it was evident that he had kept back +a part of the amount. Other members of the family misunderstood him, but +his mother thought she knew him well enough to be sure he had done +nothing selfish. + +The record of the conversation between mother and son is told in the +boy's biography: + +"The presents you bought were very cheap presents," she said to him. "I +don't think they could have cost more than seventy-five cents." + +"They cost sixty-five cents," he told her. + +"And your father asked what you had done with the rest of your money, +and you said you didn't want to tell him." + +"Yes, I remember that father thought I was stingy, too." + +"Do you mind telling me now what you did with the money?" + +The boy did not answer for a few moments. Then he said, quietly: + +"I bought a Bible for Fred Phillips. He didn't have a good Bible, and I +thought he needed one more than you and the boys needed expensive +presents." + +"But why didn't you tell your father?" + +"Because Fred was ashamed not to be able to buy the Bible for himself, +and he wouldn't take mine until I had promised that I wouldn't tell +anybody that I had given it to him. Since Fred has moved to Boston, I +feel he wouldn't care if I told you. I want you to know, for I just +heard to-day that Fred has joined the church. Isn't that good news?" + +"Yes, indeed. Perhaps your giving him the Bible helped him to do it, +too. Charles, when you get to be a man, do you suppose you will always +be so careless of how others may misunderstand you?" + +"I am not careless of that now," he declared. "The desire to be popular +is one of the things I have to fight against all the time." + +What shall we choose? Comfort of service? Ease, or honorable performance +of duty? The desire for popularity, or the purpose to be of use? Service +is the best way to find comfort; honorable performance of duty is the +sure road to the only ease worth while, and thoughtfulness for others is +the open sesame to popularity. + +There is nothing new in this statement. It is only one of the thousand +and one possible applications of the lesson taught by the great Teacher +when He said, "He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it." + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +_COURAGE FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS_ + + +FROM Norway comes a moving tale of a lighthouse keeper. One day he went +to the distant shore for provisions. A storm arose, and he was unable to +return. The time for lighting the lamp came, and Mary, the elder child, +said to her little brother, "We must light the lamp, Willie." "How can +we?" was his question. But the two children climbed the long narrow +stairs to the tower where the lamp was kept. Mary pulled up a chair and +tried to reach the lamp in the great reflector; it was too high. Groping +down the stairs she ascended again with a small oil lamp in her hand. "I +can hold this up," she said. She climbed on the chair again, but still +the reflector was just beyond her reach. "Get down," said Willie, "I +know what we can do." She jumped down and he stretched his little body +across the chair. "Stand on me," he said. And she stood on the little +fellow as he lay across the chair. She raised the lamp high, and its +light shone far out across the water. Holding it first with one hand, +then with the other, to rest her little arms, she called down to her +brother, "Does it hurt you, Willie?" "Of course it hurts," he called +back, "but keep the light burning." + +The boy was wise beyond his years. He would do the important thing, no +matter how it hurt. Here the thing of chief importance was looking out +for the men at sea. To put them first took real courage. But what of it? +That is the attitude toward life of the worker worth while; he does not +stop to ask, "Is this easy?" Instead he asks, "Is this necessary? Will +it be helpful?" Having answered the question he proceeds to do his best. +It may hurt at first, but the time will come when it will hurt so much +to leave the service undone that the inconvenience involved in doing it +is lost sight of. + + +I + +IMPARTING COURAGE + +A young man won local fame as a bicycle long-distance rider. But +over-fatigue, possibly coupled with neglect, caused contraction of +certain muscles. He was unable to stand erect. He walked with bent back, +like an old man. "What useful work can he do, handicapped as he is?" +his friends asked. + +But he did not lose courage. He continued to smile and make cheer for +others. Finally he secured work in the office of the supervisor of a +National Forest. And he made good. Most of his activities were at the +desk; when he sat there his back was normal. + +According to the idea of many, it would have been enough for the +crippled man to look out for himself. What could he do for others? But +he had not been trained in such a school; the cheerfulness that enabled +him to be useful made it impossible for him to see another in need and +not plan to do something for him. + +The man who needed him was at hand--a cripple, whose feet were clumsy, +misshapen. No one else thought that anything could be done for him but +to speak dolefully and to assure him that he was fortunate in having +parents and brothers who would look out for him. + +But the man in the Forestry Service urged the cripple to apply for a +summer appointment on the rocky, windy summit of a mountain nine +thousand feet high. There it would be his duty to keep a vigilant eye on +the forest stretching far away below his lofty eyrie, and to report the +start of a forest fire. At first he laughed at the idea; had he not +been told that he could never hope to do anything useful? Yet as he +listened to his friend his eyes began to sparkle. Finally he dared to +agree to make application for the position. + +During the winter months the forester spent many evenings with his +friend, coaching him in some of the lore of the forests, giving him +books to read, and showing him what his specific duties would be, and +how to perform them. + +In the spring the situation was secured, and when the season of forest +fires came the young man bravely climbed the steep trail over the snow +to his lonely cabin. An able-bodied man is able to make the climb from +the end of the wagon road in much less than an hour; the cripple +required more than five hours to reach the top. Then he took up his +residence there, cooking his own food, making his observations from +morning until night, receiving his mother and his brothers when from +time to time they came to see how he was getting on and to help him in +some of the rougher tasks about the cabin. They thought they would need +to speak words of cheer to a lonely, discouraged man, but they soon +learned their error; not only did he have cheer enough for himself, but +he was able to send his visitors away happier than when they came +because of their contact with the man for whom life had been made over +by the acts of a thoughtful friend, a friend whose own courage had been +increased by his efforts to encourage a friend. + + +II + +CONQUERING HAPPINESS + +In a volume of short stories published some years ago there is included +the vivid narrative of two humble citizens of an Irish village, a +husband and wife, upon whom hard times have come. The husband is too +feeble to make his living as of old at his trade as a road-mender. Their +only hope is a son in America, and not a word comes from him, so they +are compelled to go to the poor house. + +Friends condole with them, and they are sad enough to suit the notions +of those who feel that an awful ending is coming to their lives. One of +the saddest of their friends is their physician who dreads going to see +the unhappy old people in their new home. At last, however, he drives to +the entrance to the poor farm. There he has his first surprise. Instead +of seeing the disreputable place he had been accustomed to, he notices +that the gate is on its hinges, the weeds by the side of the driveway +are no longer in evidence, and an attempt has been made to give the +house itself a more presentable appearance. About the doors are no +discontented-looking old people, quarreling with one another. And when +the wife of the poor farm keeper answers his knock at the door, the +doctor hardly recognizes her; instead of a discouraged-looking slattern +she is actually neat and cheerful looking. + +"You wonder what has happened here, don't you?" the woman remarks. "It's +all because of those blessed old folks you are asking for. They were +disheartened, just at first, but soon they began to do helpful things +for the rest of the folks. That cheered us all up, and it's made a +different place of the farm." + +The doctor's errand that day is to take word to the couple that their +son from America wishes them to spend the remainder of their days with +him. He has expected them to be overjoyed by the news. But, after +talking together of the invitation, they assure him that their place is +where they are. "We be road-mending here, making ways smoother for the +folks that have rough traveling," is the explanation. "We think we ought +to bide at the farm." + +Thus the old people took the way of conquering unhappiness made known so +long ago by Him who set the example of finding joy in caring for other +people, the way taken by a modern follower of His who wrote home from +the army: + +"I cast my lot where I knew the road would be rough, and why should I +complain? It seems to me at times that I must give way to my lower self +and let the work slip off my back on others perhaps more tired than +myself. But I have a tender, kind Father in heaven who tells me that my +way is right. I have very little to uphold me in this work away from my +friends. My happy moments are those which I spend with my Bible during +my night watches, or thinking of happy days gone by, or building me +air-castles for days to come. I am happy, too, when I read the little +verse written in the front of my Testament, and so thankful for the +power to understand it: + + "So nigh is grandeur to our dust, + So near is God to man, + When duty whispers low, 'Thou must,' + The youth replies, 'I can.'" + +Yet there are those who insist that it is the duty of one whose lot is +hard to be morose and sad; that by covering his sadness with the +gladness of service he is making a cheat of himself! In verse a writer +with insight has pilloried such critics: + + "He went so blithely on his way, + The way men call the way of life, + That good folks who had stopped to pray, + Shaking their heads, were wont to say, + It was not right to be so gay + Upon that weary road of strife. + + "He whistled as he went, and still + He bore the young where streams were deep, + He helped the feeble up the hill, + He seemed to go with heart athrill, + Careless of deed and wild of will-- + He whistled, that he might not weep." + + +III + +MAKING LITTLE THINGS COUNT + +There are people who spend so much time looking for the large, +spectacular opportunities for serving others, that they pass by as +unworthy of notice the opportunities for doing what seem to be little +kindnesses. Fortunately, however, there are people who are so taken up +with rendering what they call little services, that they have no time to +worry because the big opportunities do not come their way. + +A magazine writer tells of one of these doers of simple kindnesses: + +"I was the shabbiest girl in the office," she says. "It was no one's +fault and no one's shame that we were poor. I had intelligence enough to +know that. I knew, too, what a sacrifice mother had made to pay for my +tuition at business school. Still, the knowledge of my shabby clothes +forced itself upon me, particularly my old black skirt! Mother had +cleaned it and pressed it and cleaned it, but it seemed bent with age, +and all the office girls looked so fresh and pretty in their trim +business suits. I imagined all the first morning that they were pitying +me and felt them looking at my shabbiness, and during noon hour I was so +miserable; but when I went back next morning, I noticed that one of the +girls had on nearly as old clothes as I did, and she was so nice to me +that I fancied she was glad I had come because of our mutual poverty. +Not until after I earned enough money to buy some suitable, nice clothes +did I realize that the 'poor girl,' as I thought her, had drifted back +into the prettiest, most tasteful clothes worn by any of the girls. She +had only borne me company at a most trying time, and she knew, because +her fellow-workers all admired her, that the little object lesson would +keep them from hurting my feelings. The day has come now when new +clothes are usual, when I may even achieve an appearance that is known +as 'stylish.' But in my office, when a girl comes in shabby, painfully +sensitive, as I was, I 'bear her company' until the better times shall +come." + +From another observer comes the story of the simple deeds of kindness +done by a company of young people in Brooklyn to a young woman married +to an elderly and uncongenial man. She showed symptoms of taking her +life into her own hands. She felt that the world owed her happiness, and +she was tempted to take it anywhere it might be found, especially in one +undesirable direction. She was poor and outside of many ordinary social +pleasures. The word was passed along the line that Mrs. D... needed +especial attention and friendliness shown her. Immediately one girl, +whose notice was in itself a compliment, invited her to attend a concert +with her. Two more volunteered to see her home from Sunday school, and +call for her as well. Books were loaned her, calls made, and in brief, a +rope of warm sturdy hands steadying her over the hard place in the road, +until she found herself and settled down to the duty she was on the +point of leaving forever. + +The widespread hunger for such little kindnesses was shown one day when +a New York man accosted in Central Park a poor foreigner, who could +speak little English. Noting that the man looked dejected, he offered +him his hand. Then he asked the man if he was in need. "No, I don't need +money," was the reply; "I was just hungry for a handshake." Blessings on +those who are not too busy to think of the poor who are hungry for the +little services they can render. + +If they could know the ultimate effect of some of their deeds, these +would not always seem insignificant. The man who is always on the +lookout for little chances for service is more apt to perform services +that are of great importance, than the man who spends his time dreaming +of big things he will do some day. + + +IV + +DID HE GO TOO FAR? + +When an urgent call went out from Washington for physicians to go to +France for hospital work among the men of the American Expeditionary +Force, a specialist in a city of the Middle West decided to respond. Of +course some of his friends told him he was foolish; they urged that he +was needed for service at home. "Let doctors go who can be spared +better than you," they said. "Think of the great work you are +doing--work that will be more than ever necessary because thousands of +others are leaving practices and going to the Front. Think of your +past--how you worked your way through medical college at cost of severe +toil; think of your family and the increasing demands on you; think of +the future--what will become of your lucrative practice?" + +The specialist did think of these things; he had delayed decision +because the arguments had presented themselves forcibly to his own mind. + +At last, however, his mind was made up. He would go to France. He would +leave his patients in charge of two capable friends who would do +everything possible to turn over, on the return of the volunteer, the +lucrative office practice built up through many years. + +He spent six months in camp with the members of the hospital unit of +which he was given charge. Just before he went "over there" a friend +said to him: + +"It is fortunate that your practice is to be cared for so efficiently." + +"What's that?" was the reply. "Oh, you mean the colleagues who took over +my patients? They, too, have enlisted, and will soon be going abroad." + +"But what of your $35,000 income?" was the dismayed rejoinder. "Surely +you haven't the courage to give up all that!" + +The major snapped his fingers, and said, with a smile, "_That_ for the +practice! It is my business to respond to my country's call. Don't talk +of the sacrifice. What if I do have to start all over again when I come +home? Just now I don't have to think about that." + +This incident came to mind when reading in a popular weekly a telling +story, camouflaged as to names, location and business, but recorded as +the experience of a captain of industry. The story made him a +manufacturer of shoes who, in the beginning, was rejoicing that his +plants were running full time, turning out so many shoes for the regular +trade that the profits of the year were bound to be tremendous. With +others, he heard the plea of the Government for shoes for the soldiers. +Carefully he assured himself that he would not need to respond; there +were many manufacturers who would rush headlong for government +contracts. When he learned that there were not enough volunteers he felt +uncomfortable. Then, to his relief, he was asked to take the +chairmanship of the subcommittee on shoes of the State Council of +Defense. + +"I'll do it!" he decided. "That will let me out honorably. As chairman I +shall be criticized if I bid on the contracts myself." + +Of course he learned his mistake. At length he decided to turn over one +of his six plants to government contracts. The decision made him feel +quite virtuous. Content was his only a little while, however. So he +decided to devote another plant. Yet when he made his figures he thought +he would add five cents a pair to his bid, as an extra margin of safety. +Again his calculations were upset when his son told him that he had +enlisted. + +"That wasn't necessary," the father said. "What made you do it?" + +"Why, dad, you know you'd expect me to feel ashamed if you didn't do +just every little thing you could in a business way to help win this +war--if you held back a shoe that would help the Government or charged a +cent more than you ought to. You furnish the shoes and I'll furnish the +shoots!" + +Of course more had to be done after that. Soon half the plants were +enlisted for the country. Surely nothing more could be asked than that +he should go fifty-fifty, half for the country and half for himself. + +The remainder of the story can be imagined--in one form it was lived out +in the experience of millions. "Why don't you have done with that +half-way patriotism?" came a voice that he could not silence. + +The battle between Patriotism and Private Profits was decided +gloriously--in the only possible manner. Away with fifty per cent. +patriotism! Every one of the plants was put on Government orders. + +Naturally there were those who asked, "Was such a sacrifice necessary?" +But the reply was convincing. + +That is the question that has been asked of Christians ever since the +day when Christ said to Peter and Andrew, "Follow me." Our hearts are +stirred by the simple record of what followed: "Straightway they left +their nets,"--their livelihood, their associates, their families, their +position in the world, everything--"and followed Him." The question was +put to Prince Gallitzin when he renounced title and fortune and went to +the mountains of Pennsylvania to make a home for some of his oppressed +Russian countrymen. The words were hurled at the son of a wealthy +English brewer, because he decided that if he would obey Christ fully +he must renounce the source of his wealth as well as the money that had +been made in an unrighteous business. The inquiry was heard many times +by Matthias W. Baldwin, the builder of Old Ironsides and founder of the +Baldwin Locomotive Works, when he gave up the making of jewelry because +he thought that, as a Christian man, he ought to make his talents count +for something more worth-while, and later on when he insisted on +borrowing from the banks in time of financial panic to pay his pledges +to Christian work. + +Still the query persists, as it will persist long as the world stands. + +You have heard it yourself, if you, like Caleb of old, are trying to +follow God wholly. "Was the sacrifice necessary?" + +Beware of the question, for it is a temptation to slack service, though +often spoken by one who would show himself a friend. Necessary? Of +course. Isn't it involved in courageous following of Christ? + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +_GOLDEN RULE COURAGE_ + + "There is so much good in the worst of us, + And so much bad in the best of us, + That it hardly becomes any of us + To talk about the rest of us." + + +THAT popular rhyme hits the nail squarely on the head. We are not to +judge others. The world would be a pleasanter dwelling place if we would +lay aside our critical attitude, and look on the best side of the men +and women about us. Instead, however, it sometimes seems as if we were +determined to forget all the good, and remember only the evil. Our +additions to the comments of others are not praise, but blame. We do not +seek to correct an unfavorable comment by saying, "But think of the good +there is in his life"; we insist on drowning merited praise by saying, +"But think how selfish he is; how careless of the comfort of others!" +That is the cowardly thing to do. And life calls for courage. + +The worst thing about the maker of such comments is that the readier he +is to see--or imagine--faults in another, the more blind he is apt to +become to faults in himself. This inability to see his own shortcomings +would be ludicrous if it were not so pitiful. Yet these shortcomings are +apparent to all who know him. Jesus, who knew human nature, said, "Judge +not, that ye be not judged ... first cast out the beam out of thine own +eye; then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy +brother's eye." + +The courageous task of reforming ourselves seems prodigious when we +think what good opinions we have of ourselves and what poor opinions we +have of others, but the task is not impossible, for God has promised to +give us the help we need, and He will never disappoint us. An earthly +father knows how to give good things to his children; shall not the +Heavenly Father do as much and more? + +Since we have such a Father, it is the least we can do to learn of Him +the true philosophy of life. Listen while He tells us what it is: + +"All things, therefore, whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, +even so do ye also unto them." + +Impossible and impracticable? Let us see. + + +I + +LOOKING OUT FOR OTHERS + +The president of a big manufacturing concern, who is also its active +operating head, is quoted as saying that he finds a growing tendency +among young men to go after business by sharp practice when they cannot +get it any other way. They will "cut the corners of a square deal to +land an order." In applying for positions, he goes on to say, some young +fellows have tried to recommend themselves by telling how they got +orders for former employers by some neat trick. + +"I have had to tell them, square and plain," he adds, "that there wasn't +any recommendation in that kind of talk with me. I have made up my mind +that I am going to write out some plain talks on righteousness and post +them up around the offices and shops where everybody will have a chance +to read them. I have explained my plan about these bulletins to a number +of other manufacturers, and I think several of them are going to do the +same thing. Besides the moral reasons for the policy, it's the only +policy to build up a sound business on. Take even the men who would be +willing to make profit for themselves by shady deals, and they all want +to buy goods for themselves of a firm that they can depend on. I think +our history this past year has proved the wisdom of it; business has +been rolling in from points that we never had an idea of getting +anything from. The Golden Rule works." + +Nathan Strauss was once asked what contributed most to his remarkable +success. "I always looked out for the man at the other end of the +bargain," he said. + +In 1901 the State of Wisconsin struck a beautiful bronze medal in honor +of Professor Stephen Moulton Babcock, the inventor of the milk test +machine. Professor Babcock, so one admirer says, "knew its value to +farmer and dairyman. He also knew its possibilities of fortune for +himself. This invention has 'increased the wealth of nations by many +millions of dollars and made continual new developments possible in +butter and cheesemaking.' All this Professor Babcock knew it would do +when he announced his discovery in a little bulletin to the farmers of +Wisconsin. But at the bottom of that bulletin he added the brief and +unselfish sentence, 'this test is not patented.' With that sentence he +cheerfully let a fortune go. He wanted his invention to help other +people, rather than make himself rich." + +What a difference it would make if everyone should take the Golden Rule +as the motto for each day, asking Christ's help in living in accordance +with it! What a difference it would make in every home if father and +mother and all the sons and daughters should resolve to make theirs a +Golden-Rule household! The first thing necessary in bringing about such +a change in the home is for one member to make the resolution and to do +his best to live up to it. Others will follow inevitably when they note +his careful, unselfish life and helpful acts. + +There is a Jewish tradition that a Gentile came to Hillel asking to be +taught the law, in a few words, while he stood on one foot. The answer +was given, "Whatsoever thou wouldst that men should not do to thee, that +do not thou to them." This was good, as far as it went, but there was +nothing positive about it. Christ's teaching supplies the lack, showing +what we are to do as well as what we are to leave undone. Christ always +gives the touch required to make old teachings glow with life. + + +II + +SUCCEEDING BY COURAGEOUS SERVICE + +When John E. Clough was a student working his way through college, he +was employed in a menial capacity at a hotel in a western town. His +employer was absent for a season and the student was compelled to take +charge of the hotel. He was successful, for he learned how to handle men +of many sorts, how to provide for their comfort, how to make them feel +that he was doing his best for them. + +Years later, when he was a missionary in India, it became necessary for +him to plan for the temporary entertainment of the men and women who +came to the mission station by hundreds, and even by thousands, seeking +Christian baptism. For days it was necessary to provide for their +comfort. Many men would have been dismayed by the task, but to Dr. +Clough the problem presented was simple; he had only to do on a large +scale the very things which made his boyhood efforts at hotel-keeping +such a pronounced success. + +Experience in a hotel is a good course of preparation for any young man, +whether he plans to be a missionary or to serve in any of the home +callings that demand the Christian's time and thought. However, it is +not possible for more than a very small proportion of young people to +serve a period in a hotel; so it will be helpful to them to read some of +the suggestions that have been made by a successful hotel proprietor. +Those who heed these suggestions are apt to be successful in dealing +with men and women anywhere. + +It is worth while to note some of these rules: + +"The hotel is operated primarily for the benefit and convenience of its +guests. + +"Any member of our force who lacks the intelligence to interpret the +feeling of good will that this hotel holds toward its guests, cannot +stay here very long. + +"Snap judgments of men often are faulty. The unpretentious man with the +soft voice may possess the wealth of Croesus. + +"You cannot afford to be superior or sullen with any patron of the +hotel. + +"At rare intervals some perverse member of our force disagrees with a +guest as to the rightness of this or that.... Either may be right.... In +all discussions between hotel employees and guests, the employee is dead +wrong from the guest's standpoint, and from ours.... + +"Each member of our force is valuable only in proportion to his ability +to serve our guests. + +"Every item of extra courtesy contributes towards a better pleased +guest, and every pleased guest contributes toward a better, bigger +hotel...." + +Yet a young man should not have to go to a hotel to learn these lessons. +They were taught in the Book that every one of us should know better +than any other book in our library. Listen to these messages of the +Book, and compare them with the rules of the hotel: + +"Not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the +things of others.... + +"Be tenderly affectioned one to another, in honor preferring one +another.... + +"Judge not that ye be not judged.... The rich and the poor meet +together: Jehovah is the maker of them all.... + +"Better it is to be of a lowly spirit.... + +"He that is slow in anger appeaseth strife.... + +"I am among you as he that serveth.... + +"Ye are the light of the world...." + +The best book for anyone who is trying to be a success in the world is +the Bible, for the Bible teaches how to serve, and he who has the +courage best to serve his fellows in the name of the great Servant is +the most successful man. + + +III + +SERVICE BY SYMPATHY + +It has been said that, while the word "sympathy" does not occur in the +Bible, the idea is there; it is in bud in the Old Testament, but it is +in full blossom in the New Testament. Christ was always sympathetic. He +felt for the disturbed host at the wedding; His heart went out to +Zaccheus; He wept with Mary and Martha; He listened to the plea of the +blind and the lepers; He was deeply stirred as He saw the funeral +procession of him who was the only son of his mother, a widow. + +An eloquent preacher was talking to his people of this glorious flower +of the Christian life. "Beholding the lily," he said, "sympathy breathes +a prayer that no untimely frost may blight the blossom; beholding the +sparrow, sympathy fills a box with seeds for the birds whose fall 'the +Heavenly Father knoweth'; beholding some youth going forth to make his +fortune, sympathy prays that favorable winds may fill these sails and +waft the boy to fame and fortune. Do the happy youth and maiden stand +before the marriage altar, the Christian breathes a prayer that love's +flowers may never fall, and that 'those who are now young may grow old +together.'" + +One of the pleasing stories told of Richard Harding Davis, the writer +and war correspondent, was of an incident when real sympathy transformed +him. + +In May, 1898, when the Massachusetts troops were about to go from +Florida to Cuba, Mr. Davis entered the encampment as the men were +saddened by the first death in the company. At once his cheerful face +took on a subdued look. The next day proved to be "a broiling dry hot +day which set the blood sizzling inside of one," but Davis tramped for +two hours in the search of flowers. Then he learned that eight miles +away he might secure some. Though no one was abroad who did not have to +be, Mr. Davis started on a sixteen-mile horseback trip. Securing the +flowers, he brought them back and made a cross of laths on which he tied +them. Then came the search for colors to make the flag. Again he tramped +a weary distance, but at last he found red, white and blue ribbon. That +night he laid his tribute on the casket. + +An American author who lived several generations before Davis was noted +for his sympathetic attitude to the suffering. Richard Henry Dana was +compelled when a young man to take a voyage around Cape Horn on a +sailing ship. That classic of the sea, "Two Years Before the Mast," was +one of the results of that experience. Another result was that when the +author became a lawyer in Boston, his knowledge of ships made him a +favorite advocate in nautical cases. His knowledge of the sufferings of +the men before the mast, who were so often abused, was responsible for +his taking their part in many an unprofitable case. He had learned by +bitter experience what the sailors under a brutal captain had to suffer, +and any mistreated seaman had in him a firm friend and a fearless +pleader. + +The truest sympathy comes from those who, like Dana, know what suffering +means. An author in Scotland, who lived in Dana's generation, never +heard of the American friend of seamen, but he had the same spirit, born +of his own suffering. He was not accustomed to complain, and was always +reticent in speaking of himself. Once, however, for the sake of a +friend, he allowed himself to tell of his own life: + +"With all your sorrows I sympathize from my heart," he wrote. "I have +learned to do so through my own sufferings. The same feeling which made +you put your hand into your pocket to search among the crumbs for the +wanting coin for the beggar, leads me to search in my heart for some +consolation for you. The last two years have been fraught to me with +such sorrowful experiences that I would gladly exchange my condition for +a peaceful grave. A bankrupt in health, hope and fortune, my +constitution shattered frightfully, and the almost certain prospect of +being a cripple for life before me, I can offer you as fervent and +unselfish a sympathy as ever one heart offered another. I have lain +awake, alone, and in darkness, suffering severe agony for hours, often +thinking that the slightest aggravation must make my condition +unbearable and finding my only consolation in murmuring to myself the +words patience, courage and submission." + +That, surely, is a part of what Robert Louis Stevenson meant when, as +one element in his statement of the ideal for the perfect life, he named +"to be kind." True kindness is impossible without sympathy. + +So long as there is so much real sympathy in the world there can be no +place for the maunderings of a pessimist. Every sight of a man, a woman +or a child whose life is beautified by the outgoing of sympathy is an +effective message of courage, of cheer, of hope. + + +IV + +DOING BUSINESS FOR OTHERS + +A Boston boy, Samuel Billings Capen, wanted to become a minister. Yet it +did not seem possible to secure the special training which was +essential. Instead of being discouraged, he determined to go into +business. + +But he resolved that he would be a business man of God. From the first +he carried his Christian principles with him into the carpet business. +His faithful work as office boy was a part of his testimony for Christ, +and when--within five years--he became a member of the firm, he was +known as one of the solid Christian men of the city. Always his duty to +Christ came first. In the words of his biographer, "There was not a +moment when he would not have left the firm with which he was associated +had the business demanded any compromise with the best things of +character." + +Once he spoke to young men of these few things essential to vital +living: + +"The first is fidelity--that kind of conscientiousness which performs +the smallest details well. + +"The second condition is earnestness. There is no chance for the idle or +indifferent. + +"The third condition is integrity--not that lower form which refuses to +tell a downright falsehood, but that higher form of conscientiousness +which will not swerve a hair's breadth from the strictest truth, no +matter what the temptation; the courage to lose a sale rather than to do +that which is mean or questionable. + +"The fourth condition I would name is purity of heart and life. I do not +believe it is possible for any man to be true and pure and faithful in +every respect without help from above. We need the personal help of a +personal God." + +Thirteen years after beginning his service as apprentice, Mr. Capen's +health failed. For many months his life was in danger. God used the +sickness to draw the young man nearer to Himself. "Compelled to remain +for months in absolute idleness, unable to talk to his friends except to +a limited extent, he made the solemn resolve with his God that if his +health was restored he would never shirk any work nor complain of any +task that might be presented to him." + +For a generation he was not only a leader in business, but he was as +conspicuous in his service of the State as in his services in the +Church. + +Why did he succeed? He was not a genius. His health was poor. He was +not mentally brilliant. In these respects he was just an average man. +But in other respects he was above the average. He had the courage to +give himself in service of his fellows. "He believed that conscious +fellowship with God is the foundation of every strong life." + +A life like that influenced for good everyone about him. Many men were +drawn by him into the paths of righteousness. Others were held back by +him from ways of evil. Once he presided over a public meeting which +corrupt politicians had planned to capture for their own purpose. But +they made no attempt to carry out their plans. "How could we succeed +with that man watching us?" they asked their friends. + +It is good to be a minister of the gospel. But for every minister the +world needs hundreds of men who are possessed of Samuel B. Capen's +courageous eagerness to live for God in the midst of business cares. + + +V + +PRAYING AND HELPING + +A business man entered the office of a friend just as the friend was +hanging up the receiver of the telephone. There were tears in the eyes +of the man at the desk as he turned from the instrument to take the hand +of his visitor. + +"I'm afraid you have had bad news," the visitor said, deciding that it +was not a propitious time to talk of the matter on which he had come. + +"No bad news--the best of news," was the reply. "Now see if you don't +agree with me. This morning my wife, who is always thinking of other +people, remarked that it was too bad my pastor's wife could not have a +vacation this summer; she shows the need of it because of a severe +strain that had been on her. Yet we knew that she could not look forward +to a vacation. + +"'Let's pray about it,' my wife suggested, just before we knelt at the +family altar. We prayed then; we've been praying since. And the answer +has come quickly. My wife was on the telephone just now; she told me +that the postman had brought a letter from a California friend of whom +we had all but lost sight. Fifteen years ago we lent him a sum of money +which we never expected to see again. Yet the letter contained a check +for the amount of the loan! + +"'What shall we do with the money?' my wife asked. + +"'I wonder if you are not thinking the same thing I am,' I said to her. + +"'Yes, isn't it the answer to our prayer?' she replied. 'I'm going to +take it to our pastor's wife right now.'" + +The business man was thoughtful as he passed from his friend's office. +Just a few hours before he had been told by an acquaintance of his +longing, when on a long trip, to have such a glimpse of the life of one +of the many passengers near him that he would be able to help that +passenger before the end of the journey. The wish was a prayer. Not long +after the making of the prayer he noted a man who was so restless that +he could not sit still. Every moment or two he looked at his watch, then +studied his time table. Evidently he was disturbed because the train was +late. + +"I hope you are not to lose a connection in Chicago?" the observing +traveler said to him. + +"Yes, I'll miss it--and my baby is dying five hours from Chicago," was +the response, given with a sob. + +The time was short, but there was opportunity for the interchange of a +few words, then for a conference with the conductor, who wired asking +that the connecting train--at another station and on another road--be +held for ten minutes. + +A week later came a note from the happy father. His babe was rapidly +recovering. "And I'll never forget the words you spoke to me in my +agony," he wrote. "God is more real to me since our talk as we went into +Chicago. You put heart into me." + + +VI + +GIVING THAT COUNTS + +An old fable tells of a good man to whom the Lord said he would give +whatever he most desired. Besought by friends to ask great things, he +refused. Finally he asked that he might be able to do a great deal of +good without ever knowing it. And so it came about that every time the +good man's shadow fell behind him or at either side, so that he could +not see it, it had the power to cure disease, soothe pain and comfort +sorrow. + +When he walked along, his shadow, thrown on the ground on either side or +behind him, made arid paths green, caused withered plants to bloom, gave +clear water to dried up brooks, fresh color to pale little children, and +joy to unhappy mothers. + +But he simply went about his daily life, diffusing virtue as the star +diffuses light and the flower perfume, without ever being aware of it. +And the people, respecting his humility, followed him silently, never +speaking to him about his miracles. Little by little, they even came to +forget his name, and called him only "The Holy Shadow." + +It would be a splendid thing if all would learn the lesson taught in the +fable--that the man who would do good should have the courage to be +unconscious of the good he is doing, and so as unlike as possible the +rich woman of whom some one has told, who turned a deaf ear to every +petition for help unless there was a subscription paper circulated and +she was given the chance to head the list. "But no poor person came into +her house who said, 'May God reward you!' She never experienced the +pleasure of making a poor woman on the back stairs happy with a cup of +warm coffee, or hungry children with a slice of bread and butter, or an +infirm man with a penny. Perhaps she satisfied her conscience by saying +that she did not believe in indiscriminate charity. Frequently that +excuse is given conscientiously but how often the real meaning is, 'I do +not believe in charity that does not make people talk of my +generosity.'" + +In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught the folly of giving in such a +manner. The lesson was enforced by two pictures--a man standing on the +street, giving alms to the poor, while attention is called to his +generosity by the sounding of a trumpet which everyone must hear, and a +man whose giving is so much a matter of secrecy that he does not think +of it a second time. There is no rolling of it over as a sweetmeat under +his tongue, as if to say, "What a generous man I am!" Nor is there any +motive in the giving but pure desire to glorify God. All this is +properly included in the interpretation of "Let not thy left hand know +what thy right hand doeth." + + +VII + +EXPENSIVE ECONOMY + +A magazine editor offered a prize for the best account by a reader of +the adjustment of income and expenditure made necessary by the vaulting +prices of recent years. The prize was awarded to one whose revised +budget showed the revision downward of many items, and the elimination +of two or three other items. The comparison of the budgets was +interesting and helpful; most readers would be apt to approve heartily +all but one of the changes and eliminations. This was the exception: +the earlier budget allowed five dollars per month for "church and +charity," while the revised budget made no mention of the claims of +others, no provision for the privilege of giving. + +If you had been a judge in that contest, would you have felt like giving +the prize to a paper that suggested such an omission? Suppose you had +the task of cutting your budget, would you feel like revising downward +the provision for giving? What do you think of the statement of a famous +business man who, having insisted in time of financial reverses on +making gifts as usual, said to objecting friends, "Economy should not +begin at the house of God." Why not let economy begin there? + +What answer would have been given to such a query by the poor tenement +dweller in New York City who, though compelled to earn the support of +her family by scrubbing floors in a great office building, set aside a +dollar and a half per week for the care of four orphans in India who but +for her gifts would have starved? + +What answer would have been made by the Polish Jew, long resident in +America, who directed in his will that regular gifts be made at +Christmas and Easter to the Christians as well as to the Jews of his +home town in Europe? That bequest was made in memory of days and nights +of terror when, as a boy, he hid in the house from the fiendish +persecutions of so-called Christians who thought Easter and Christmas +favorable times for the intimidation of the Jews. What would he have +said to the idea of economy that forgets the needs of others and makes +no provision for satisfying the hungry, to help the suffering? + +What would have been the comment of Him who told the parable of the rich +man who built great barns to hold the surplus product of his lands, +thinking that there was nothing better in life than to eat, drink, and +be merry; who compared the gifts of the rich man and the poor widow; who +commended the love of the woman who poured out the costly ointment upon +His head; who promises glorious recognition to those who give, in His +name, to any who are in need? + +A successful manufacturer, whose eyes have been opened to the folly of +attempting to save by cutting off gifts, has written a series of essays +on "The Business Man and His Overflow," his purpose being to show that +happiness is dependent on helpfulness. "Who is the most successful +business man?" he asks. "The man who has the largest bank account? Not +necessarily.... The most successful business man is he who renders the +greatest service to mankind and whose life is most useful." + +Two paths are open to us: we can give, and we can give more, or we can +economize in giving until we give nothing. + +Which is the path of courage? + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +_COURAGE THROUGH COMPANIONSHIP_ + + +THE world is full of lonely people--people who keep to themselves, +turning away from every approach of others, from all invitations to come +out of retirement. They persist in living alone, thinking their own +thoughts, pleasing only themselves. + +"I can have no place in my life for friendship," one of these +unfortunates says. + +"I can't be expected to devote myself to my family; it is all I can do +to make a living," is the complaint of another. + +"I live in the present," says a third; "the past has no interest for me, +and the future holds nothing but worries." + +"Live more out-of-doors, you say!" is the word of a fourth. "Why should +I bother about Nature when Nature does nothing but thwart me?" + +"Make God my friend?" a fifth asks in surprise. "Talk to me in rational +terms. God doesn't bother about me; why should I bother about Him?" + +Is it any wonder that the lives of so many everywhere are empty? It does +not occur to them that by their determination to isolate themselves they +cut themselves off from the surest road to courage, both received and +given--the road of companionship with the people and things most worth +while. + + +I + +COMPANIONSHIP WITH FRIENDS + +There are those who say that friendship is a lost art; that modern life +is too busy for friendship. "Why don't you pause long enough to call on +B----?" a father asked his son; "you used to be such good friends." "Oh, +I haven't time for that now," was the careless reply; "if I am to get +ahead, I feel I must devote myself only to those things that can be a +decided help to my advancement." + +The mistake made by that son is emphasized by the advice of a keen old +man, spoken to a business associate: "If I were asked to give advice to +a group of young men who wanted to get ahead in business, I would simply +say, 'make friends.' As I sat before the fire the other night I let my +mind run back, and it was with surprise that I learned that many of the +things which in my youth I credited to my ability as a business man came +to me because I had made influential friends who did things for me +because they liked me. The man who is right has the right kind of +friends, and the man who is wrong has the kind of friends who are +attracted by his wrongness. A man gets what he is." + +Possibly some will think that advice faulty in expression, for it seems +at first glance to put friendship on a coldly calculating basis, as if +it urged the maker of friends to say before consenting to try for a +man's friendship, "Is there anything I can get out of such a friendship +for myself?" Of course it is unthinkable that anyone should estimate +friendship in that way; friendship that calculates is unworthy the name, +and the calculator ought to be doomed to the loneliest kind of life. +But, evidently, what the adviser had in mind is the spirit that makes +friends because it is worth while to have friends for friendship's sake, +that never counts on advancement through the efforts of others. Such a +spirit is bound to be surprised some day by the realization that for his +success he owed much to the friends whom he made without a thought of +self. + +One beginner in business decided that he must find his friendships in +serving others. There were those who told him he was making a mistake, +but he went calmly on, devoting hours each week to service with an +associate in a boys' club. Nothing seemed to come of this but +satisfaction to himself and joy to a group whose homes were cheerless. +Yet, there was something more--the pleasure of friendship with his +associate. One day he was surprised by an invitation to call on the head +of a large manufacturing concern. "You don't know me," the man said, +"but I know you, for you have been teaching with my son down at the +boys' club. For a long time I have been on the lookout for a young man +who can come into this business with a view to taking up the work with +my son when I must retire. From what I have heard your friend, my son, +tell of you, you are the man I have sought." + +It is impossible to count on a thing like that as a result of +friendship, and the man who is worthy of such a friendship never thinks +of reckoning on anything but giving to his friend the best that is in +him as he enjoys the comfort of association with him. + +Many years ago the author of _The Four Feathers_ wrote of such a +friendship between two men: + +"It was a helpful instrument, which would not wear out, put into their +hands for a hard, lifelong use, but it was not and never had been spoken +of between them. Both men were grateful for it, as for a rare and +undeserved gift; yet both knew that it might entail an obligation of +sacrifice. But the sacrifices, were they needful, would be made, and +they would not be mentioned." + +It has been well said that "Love gives and receives, and keeps no +account on either side," but that is very different from deliberately +using friendship for selfish ends. + + +II + +SUCCESSFUL COMRADES + +For days two men had been together, tramping, driving, boating, eating, +sleeping, talking. And when the time for separation came, one said to +the other: "Will you please give a message to your wife? Tell her for +me, if you will, that she has made her husband into a real comrade." + +That man would have been at a loss to tell what are the elements that go +to the making up of a good comrade. In fact, he intimated as much on the +last day of the excursion. "You can no more tell the things that go to +make up a real comrade than you can explain the things that make a +landscape beautiful; you can only see and rejoice." + +Just so, it is possible to see instances of good comradeship and +rejoice. + +In order that there may be real comradeship between two individuals it +is not at all necessary that they shall belong to the same station in +life. One of those to whom John Muir, the great naturalist, proved +himself a true comrade was a guide who many times went with him into the +fastnesses of the high Sierras of California. "It was great to hear him +talk," the guide has said. "Often we sat together like two men who had +always known each other. It wasn't always necessary to talk; often there +would be no word said for half an hour. But we understood each other in +the silence." + +Nor is it essential that people shall be much together before they can +be real comrades. Theodore Roosevelt and Joel Chandler Harris knew one +another by reputation only until the red letter day when Uncle Remus +entered the door of the White House, in response to an urgent letter of +invitation in which the President wrote: "Presidents may come and +presidents may go, but Uncle Remus stays put. Georgia has done a great +many things for the Union, but she has never done more than when she +gave Joel Chandler Harris to American literature." When the two +animal-lovers finally came together there was real comradeship. That the +reporters understood this was evident from the wire one of them sent to +his paper: "Midnight--Mr. Harris has not returned to his hotel. The +White House is ablaze with light. It is said that Mr. Harris is telling +the story of Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby." But the Georgian's own +colloquial account of the memorable session with his comrade at +Washington was more explicit: + +"There are things about the White House that'll astonish you ef ever you +git there while Teddy is on hand. It's a home; it'll come over you like +a sweet dream the minnit you git in the door.... It's a kind of feelin' +that you kin have in your own house, if you've lived right, but it's the +rarest thing in the world that you kin find it in anybody else's +house.... We mostly talked of little children an' all the pranks they're +up to from mornin' till night, an' how they draw old folks into all +sorts of traps, and make 'em play tricks on themselves. That's the +kinder talk I like, an' I could set up long past my bedtime an' listen +to it. Jest at the right time, the President would chip in wi' some of +his adventures wi' the children.... I felt just like I had been on a +visit to some old friend that I hadn't seen in years." + +When Robert Louis Stevenson and Edward Livingston Trudeau spent days +together at Dr. Trudeau's Adirondack sanitarium--the one as patient, the +other as physician--they proved that true comradeship is possible even +when men's tastes are most unlike. It was possible because they knew how +to ignore differences and to find common ground in the worth-while +things. "My life interests were bound up in the study of facts, and in +the laboratory I bowed duly to the majesty of fact, wherever it might +lead," Dr. Trudeau wrote. "Mr. Stevenson's view was to ignore or avoid +as much as possible unpleasant facts, and live in a beautiful, +extraneous and ideal world of fancy. I got him one day into the +laboratory, from which he escaped at the first opportunity.... On the +other hand, I knew well I could not discuss intelligently with him the +things he lived among and the masterly work he produced, because I was +incompetent to appreciate to the full the wonderful situations his +brilliant mind evolved and the high literary merit of the work in which +he described the flights of his great genius." + +Yet these two men were great companions, for in spite of differences as +to details, their hopes and ambitions and ideals all pointed to the best +things in life. After the author's departure, he sent to the doctor a +splendidly bound set of his works, first writing in each volume a +whimsical bit of rhyme, composed for the occasion. + +Though all of these men were real comrades, there is a higher +manifestation of comradeship than this. This was shown in the relation +of Daniel Coit Gilman, later President of Johns Hopkins University, when +he wrote to a fellow student of the deepest things in his life: + +"I don't wish merely to thank you in a general way for writing as you +did an expression of sympathy, but more especially to respond to the +sentiments on Christian acquaintance which you there bring out. I agree +with you most fully and only regret that I did not know at an earlier +time upon our journey what were your feelings upon a few such topics. I +tell you, Brace, that I hate cant and all that sort of thing as much as +you or anyone else can do. It is not with everyone that I would enjoy a +talk upon religious subjects. I hardly ever wrote a letter on them to +those I know best. But when anyone believes in an inner life of faith +and joy, and is willing to talk about it in an earnest, everyday style +and tone, I do enjoy it most exceedingly." + +Theodore Storrs Lee cultivated the relation of a comrade with his fellow +students that he might talk to them, without cant, on the deepest things +of life. His biographer says: "Many a time did he seek out men in lonely +rooms, bewildered or weakened by the college struggles. Many a quiet +talk did he have as he and his selected companion trod his favorite +walk. No one else in college had so many intimate talks with so many +men.... On one occasion, when he was urging a friend to give his life to +Christian service, he seemed to be unsuccessful--until, on leaving the +man at the close of the walk, he made a genial, large-minded remark that +opened the way to the heart of his friend." ... "It was only natural +that I should try to meet him half-way," the friend said later, in +explanation of his own changed attitude. He had been won by real +comradeliness. "It was this devotion to the men in college that led him +into the holy of holies of many a man's heart," wrote a friend, "causing +many of us to feel in a very real way the sentiment expressed by Mrs. +Browning: + + "The face of all the world is changed, I think + Since first I heard the footsteps of thy soul." + + +III + +COMPANIONSHIP WITH THE PAST + +What, courage from companionship with the past? The pessimist says, +"Impossible! The past was so much better than the present. See how the +country is going to the dogs!" and they point to the revelations of +dishonesty in high places. "There were no such blots on our records when +the country was young." + +A public man gave an effective answer to such croakers when he said: + +"As we go on year by year reading in the newspapers of the dreadful +things that are occurring; wicked rich men, wicked politicians and +wicked men of all kinds, we are apt to feel that we have fallen on very +evil times. But are we any worse than our fathers were? John Adams, in +1776, was Secretary of War. He wrote a letter which is still in +existence, and told of the terrible corruption that prevailed in the +country; he told how everybody was trying to rob the soldiers, rob the +War Department, and he said he was really ashamed of the times in which +he lived. When Jefferson was President of the United States it was +thought that the whole country was going to be given over to French +infidelity. When Jackson was President people thought the country +ruined, because of his action in regard to the United States Bank. And +we know how in Polk's time the Mexican War was an era of rascality and +dishonesty that appalled the whole country." + +It is a mistake to look back a generation or two and say, "The good old +days were better than these." In the address already referred to the +speaker continued: + +"Only thirty years ago, on my first visit to California, I went with a +friend to the mining district in the Sierras. One summer evening we sat +upon the flume looking over the landscape. My friend was a distinguished +man of great ability. In the distance the sun was setting, reflecting +its light on the dome of the Capitol of the state, at Sacramento, twenty +miles off. He turned to me and said suddenly: 'I would like to be you +for one reason, that you are thirty years younger than I am, and they +are going to be thirty of the greatest years the world has ever seen.' +He is dead now, but his words were prophetic. He and I used to talk +about how we could send power down into the mines. An engine would fill +the mine with smoke and gases, and yet we must have power to run the +drills, etc., using compressed air. How easy to-day, just to drop a wire +down and send the power of electricity! At that time there was but a +single railroad running across the continent, which took a single +sleeping car each day. Look at the difference now, with six great trunk +lines sending out more than a dozen trains, and more than a hundred +sleeping cars each day." + +Students of American history know something of the fears of early +adherents of the United States Government lest the republic prove a +failure, and of the threats of doubters and disaffected citizens to do +their best to replace the republic by a monarchy. But comparatively few +realize how great were the fears, and how brazenly the prophecies were +spoken. + +An examination of "The Complete Anas of Thomas Jefferson," the +collection of private memoranda made by the patriot when he was +successively Secretary of State, Vice-President, and President, +discloses the fact that some of the gravest of these fears were held by +those high in authority, and that the prophecies of evil came from men +who were leaders in the nation. + +On April 6, 1792, President Washington, in conversation with Jefferson, +"expressed his fear that there would, ere long, be a separation of the +Union, that the public mind seemed dissatisfied and tending to this." On +October 1, 1792, he spoke to the Secretary of his desire to retire at +the end of his term as President. "Still, however, if his aid was +thought necessary to save the cause to which he had devoted his life +principally, he would make the sacrifice of a longer continuance." + +On April 7, 1793, Tobias Lear, in conversation with Jefferson, spoke +pessimistically of the affairs of the country. The debt, he was sure, +was growing on the country in spite of claims to the contrary. He said +that "the man who vaunted the present government so much on some +occasions was the very man who at other times declared that it was a +poor thing, and such a one as could not stand, and he was sensible they +only esteemed it as a stepping-stone to something else." + +On December 1, 1793, an influential Senator (name given) said to several +of his fellow Senators that things would never go right until there was +a President for life, and a hereditary Senate. + +On December 27, 1797, Jefferson said that Tenche Coxe told him that a +little before Alexander Hamilton went out of office, he said: "For my +part I avow myself a monarchist; I have no objection to a trial being +made of this thing of a republic, but, ... etc." + +On February 6, 1798, it was reported to Jefferson that a man of +influence in the Government had said, "I have made up my mind on this +subject; I would rather the old ship should go down than not." Later he +qualified his words, making his statement hypothetical, by adding, "if +we are to be always kept pumping so." + +On January 24, 1800, it was reported to Jefferson that, at a banquet in +New York, Alexander Hamilton made no remark when the health of the +President was proposed, but that he asked for three cheers when the +health of George III was suggested. + +On March 27, 1800, the Anas record: "Dr. Rush tells me that within a few +days he has heard a member of Congress lament our separation from Great +Britain, and express his sincere wishes that we were again dependent on +her." + +On December 13, 1803, Jefferson told of the coming to President Adams of +a minister from New England who planned to solicit funds in New England +for a college in Green County, Tennessee. He wished to have the +President's endorsement of the project. But "Mr. Adams ... said he saw +no possibility of continuing the union of the States; that their +dissolution must take place; that he therefore saw no propriety in +recommending to New England men to promote a literary institution in the +South; that it was in fact giving strength to those who were to be their +enemies, and, therefore, he would have nothing to do with it." + +One who reads bits like these from Jefferson's private papers +appreciates more fully some of the grave difficulties that confronted +the country's early leaders; he rejoices more than ever before that the +United States emerged so triumphantly from troubled waters until, little +more than a century after those days of dire foreboding, it was showing +other nations the way to democracy; he takes courage in days of present +doubt and uncertainty, assured that the country which has already +weathered so many storms will continue to solve its grave problems, and +will be more than ever a beacon light to the world. + + +IV + +COMPANIONSHIP WITH NATURE + +"Look at the World," is the advice David Grayson gives to those who +follow him in his delightful essays on Great Possessions--possessions +that cannot be measured with a yardstick or entered in the bank book. +This is his cure for all the trials and vexations that come in the +course of a busy life. For how can a man remain unsettled and morose and +distressed when he is gazing at the broad expanse of the sky, studying +the beauty of the trees, or listening to the mellow voices of the birds? +How can the wanderer in field and forest forget that God is love? + +Some people think that to drink in the glories of nature they must go to +the mountains, or seek some other far-away spot. Mistake! The place to +enjoy God's world is just where one is, and the time is that very +moment. This was the lesson taught so impressively by Alice Freeman +Palmer, when she described the little dweller in the tenements who +resolved to see something beautiful each day, and who, one day, when +confined to the house, found her something in watching a rain-soaked +sparrow drinking from the gutter on the tin roof. And this was the +thought in the mind of Mr. Grayson when he said: + +"I love a sprig of white cedar, especially the spicy, sweet inside bark, +or a pine needle, or the tender, sweet, juicy end of a spike of timothy +grass drawn slowly from its sheath, or a twig of the birch that tastes +like wintergreen." + +Hamlin Garland, in "A Son of the Middle Border," has told the story of +his boyhood on an Iowa farm. He knew how to enjoy the sights to which so +many are blind: + +"I am reliving days when the warm sun, falling on radiant slopes of +grass, lit the meadow phlox and tall tiger lilies to flaming torches of +color. I think of blackberry thickets and odorous grapevines, and +cherry-trees and the delicious nuts which grew in profusion throughout +the forest to the north. The forest, which seemed endless and was of +enchanted solemnity, served as our wilderness. We explored it at every +opportunity. We loved every day for the color it brought, each season +for the wealth of its experiences, and we welcomed the thought of +spending all our years in this beautiful home where the wood and the +prairie of our song did actually meet and mingle.... I studied the +clouds. I gnawed the beautiful red skin from the seed vessels which hung +upon the wild rose bushes, and I counted the prairie chickens as they +began to come together in winter flocks, running through the stubble in +search of food. I stopped now and again to examine the lizards unhoused +by the shares, ... and I measured the little granaries of wheat which +the mice and gophers had deposited deep under the ground, storehouses +which the plow had violated. My eyes dwelt enviously on the sailing hawk +and on the passing of ducks.... Often of a warm day I heard the +sovereign cry of the sand-hill crane falling from the azure throne, so +high, so far, his form could not be seen, so close to the sun that my +eyes could not detect his solitary, majestic, circling sweep.... His +brazen, reverberating call will forever remain associated in my mind +with mellow, pulsating earth, spring grass and cloudless glorious +May-time skies." + +Henry Fawcett lived at about the same period in a rural district in +England. He, too, delighted to ramble in the fields. One day, when he +was out hunting with his father, an accidental gunshot deprived him of +his eyesight. But the boy would not think of shutting himself away from +the joys of nature which meant so much to him. "I very soon came to the +resolution to live, as far as possible, just as I had lived before.... +No one can more enjoy catching a salmon in the Tweed of the Spey, or +throwing a fly in some quiet trout stream in Wiltshire or Hampshire." + +In the story of the life of John J. Audubon an incident is told that +shows how the greatest joy can be found in what seems like one of the +most ordinary things in the life of the forest--the nesting of the +birds: + +"He became interested in a bird, not as large as the wren, of such +peculiar grey plumage that it harmonized with the bark of the trees, and +could scarcely be seen. One night he came home greatly excited, saying +he had found a pair that was evidently preparing to make a nest. The +next morning he went into the woods, taking with him a telescopic +microscope. The scientific instrument he erected under the tree that +gave shelter to the literally invisible inhabitants he was searching +for, and, making a pillow of some moss, he lay upon his back, and +looking through the telescope, day after day, noted the progress of the +little birds, and, after three weeks of such patient labor, felt that he +had been amply rewarded for the toil and the sacrifice by the results he +had obtained." + +When a boy David Livingstone laid the foundation for the love of the +open that helped to make his life in Africa a never-ending delight. +"Before he was ten he had wandered all over the Clyde banks about +Blantyre and had begun to collect and wonder at shells and flowers," one +of his biographers says. + +Not far away, also in Scotland, Henry Drummond spent his boyhood. He, +too, knew the pleasure of wandering afield. He liked to go to the rock +on which stands grim Stirling Castle, and look away to the windings of +the crooked Forth, the green Ochil Hills, and, farther away, Ben Lomond, +Ben Venue, and Ben Ledi, the guardians of the beautiful Highland lochs. +He was never weary of feasting his eyes on them. In later years he would +go back to the scenes of his boyhood, climb to the Castle, and, looking +out on the beautiful prospect, would say "Man, there's no place like +this; no place like Scotland." + +Bayard Taylor first made a name for himself by his ability to see the +things that many people pass by, and to describe them sympathetically. +But he, also, in boyhood days learned the lesson that paved the way for +later achievements. He was not six years old when he used to wander to a +fascinating swamp near his Pennsylvania home. If the child was missed +from the house, the first thing that suggested itself was to climb upon +a mound which overlooked the swamp. Once, from the roof of the house, he +discovered unknown forests and fresh fields which he made up his mind to +explore. Later, in company with a Quaker schoolmaster, he took long +walks, and thus learned many things about the trees and plants. When he +was twelve he began to write out the thoughts that came to him in this +intimate study of nature. + +In far-away Norway Ole Bull had a like experience. At an early age he +began to be on familiar terms with the silent things about him. The +quality of his later work was influenced by the grandeur of the scenery +in which he lived. To him trees, rocks, waterfalls, mountains, all spoke +a language which demanded expression through the strings of his violin; +he turned everything into music. His biographer says: + +"When, in early childhood, playing alone in the meadow, he saw a +delicate bluebell moving in the breeze, he fancied he heard the bell +ring, and the grass accompanying it with most exceptionally fine +voices." + +John Muir, who later wrote of the great Sequoias of California and the +glaciers of Alaska, when a boy of ten found delight in scenes of which +he wrote as follows: + +"Oh, that glorious Wisconsin wilderness! Everything new and pure in the +very prime of spring, when nature's pulses were beating highest and +mysteriously keeping tune with our own! Young hearts, young leaves, +flowers, animals, the winds and the streams and the sparkling lake, all +wildly, gladly rejoicing together." + +There is something missing in the life of one who cannot enter into the +feelings of a boy like Muir or Taylor or Drummond. And when such a boy +grows up, the gap in the life will be more conspicuous than ever. + +Think of the poverty of the stranger to whom a traveler, feeling that he +must give expression to his keen delight in the autumn foliage, said, +"What wonderful coloring!" "Where?" came the reply. "Oh, the trees! +Well, I'm not interested in trees. Talk to me about coal. I know coal." + + +V + +COMPANIONSHIP WITH GOD + +Some people insist that it is impractical moonshine to speak of making a +companion of God, that folks who talk about such things are dreamers, +far removed from touch with the cold reality of daily life. + +Then how about the nephew of whom Dr. Alexander MacColl told at +Northfield? He was surely a practical man. For four years he had been in +the thick of the fighting in France. Yet at the close of one of his +letters to his uncle he said: "I hope when the war is over that I may +be able to spend a month somewhere among the hills. I often think that +if more people in the world had lived among such hills as we have in +Scotland there would have been no world war." + +"When I came yesterday afternoon, and saw again the glory of these +hills," was Dr. MacColl's comment, "I found myself sharing very deeply +in that feeling of my good nephew, and wishing that more people in the +world had known what it is to commune with God in the silences." + +That fine young Scotchman would have known how to take a college student +who, while having a country walk with a friend, was explaining the +reason for his belief in God and his trust in Him. As he concluded his +message he pointed to a large tree which they were passing, saying as he +did so, "God is as real to me as that tree." + +He had a right to say such a thing, for he not only believed, but he was +conscious that God was with him, his Companion wherever he went. This +being the case, prayer became for him the simplest and most natural +thing in the world. God was by his side; then why should not he talk to +God, by ejaculation as well as by more formal utterance? Yet his talks +with God never became formal. They were always intimate and +confidential--like the approaches of Principal John Cairns, the famous +Scotch minister. His biographer tells of a time when he was at the manse +of a country minister in whose church he was to preach next day. The +minister's wife withdrew to get a cup of tea for the old man, leaving +her little boy there. By and by she heard a strange, unaccustomed sound, +as it seemed to her under such conditions. And as she listened and +looked, she saw that the old man was kneeling with the boy. It had +seemed to him the most natural thing in the world to speak to his Great +Friend about his little friend. + +Dr. Arthur Smith was like that with God, and his son Henry took after +him. One January day in 1905 the father reached New York from China and +sought his son. They went to a hotel room to bridge the time of absence +by "a tremendous lot of back conversation," as the son wrote to the +mother. But before they had any chance to talk of other matters the +father said, "Come, boy, let's have a prayer." "Wasn't that just like +him?" Henry asked his mother. + +A minister who was spending his vacation in the northern woods was +called in to see a dying lumberman. Before leaving the visitor prayed +with the sick man, and suggested that he pray for himself. The objection +was made that it was useless to pray--God understood a man's trials, and +He knew what was wanted before a request was made. The minister asked +him if he didn't know what his children needed before they asked him, if +he didn't know they were disappointed or troubled; yet didn't he wish to +have them talk over these things with him? + +The man thought a moment. Then he said, "Do you think that would be +prayer--just for me to lie here and tell God what He knows already--how +it hurts, and all my disappointment, and my anxiety for the future of my +children and my wife--and everything--just to tell Him?" + +"I think it would," said the minister. "I think it would be prayer of a +very real kind." + +One who had learned that prayer is not a mere formal exercise, to be +dreaded and postponed, has said: + +"Pray often--in bits, with a persistency of habit that betrays a +childlike eagerness and absorption. Rise up to question God as children +do their earthly parents--at morning, noon and night and between times. +Ask Him about everything. Be with Him more than with all other persons. +Acquire the home habit with Him. Be a child in His hands. Do not fear +lest He be too busy to listen, or too grown up to care or to understand. +Just talk to Him, in broken sentences, half-formed with crude wishes; in +foolish chatter, if need be. Make the Heavenly Father the center of your +life, the source and judge of all your satisfactions. Be sure to let Him +put you to bed, waken you in the morning, wait on you at table, order +your day's doings, protect you from harm, soothe your disquiet, supply +all your daily needs." + +Such a prayer is good, not only when one is sick, but when one is well +and busy with the affairs of daily life. A clergyman has told of a visit +to London during which he called on a merchant whom he had met in +America. At the business house he was told that he could not see the +merchant, as it was steamer day, and orders had been given not to +disturb him. But when the card was taken up, the merchant appeared, his +face beaming with pleasure. After a moment's greeting the visitor +offered to go away, but the merchant took him into his office, and said: + +"I am very glad you have called. I would not have had you fail. I am +very busy, but I always have a moment for my Lord. I have a little +place for private prayer. You must come in with me, and we shall have a +season of prayer together." + +Busy, but not too busy for prayer, longing to see his friend, but eager +to spend the ten minutes of the call in prayer with that other Friend +who made the brief visit worth while! + +In telling this incident, one writer on the subject of prayer has said: + +"Several, perhaps many merchants in one of our large cities have fitted +up for themselves dark, narrow, boxlike closets, whither, each by +himself, they are wont to retire for a few minutes at times, during the +pressure of the day's business, for the refreshment of soul, which they +find they really need in communion with God. One of these men is +reported to have said: 'On some days, if I had not that resort, I +believe I should go mad, so great is the pressure.'" + +Dr. Purves once told an incident of the distinguished scientist, +Professor Joseph Henry, as given him by one of Dr. Henry's students. "I +well remember the wonderful care with which he arranged all his +principal experiments. Then often, when the testing moment came, that +holy as well as great philosopher would raise his hand in adoring +reverence and call upon me to uncover my head and worship in silence, +'because,' he said, 'God is here. I am about to ask God a question.'" + +To Mary Slessor of Calabar, whom the Africans learned to love devotedly, +prayer was as simple and easy as talking to a friend in the room. "Her +religion was a religion of the heart," her biographer says. "Her +communion with her Father was of the most natural, most childlike +character. No rule or habit guided her. She just spoke to Him as a child +to its father when she needed help and strength, or when her heart was +filled with joy and gratitude, at any time, in any place. He was so real +to her, so near, that her words were almost of the nature of +conversation. There was no formality, no self-consciousness, no +stereotyped diction, only the simplest language from a quiet and humble +heart. It is told of her that once, when she was in Scotland, after a +tiresome journey, she sat down at the tea table alone, and, lifting up +her eyes, said, 'Thank you, Father--ye ken I'm tired,' in the most +ordinary way as if she had been addressing her friend. On another +occasion in the country, she lost her spectacles while coming from a +meeting in the dark. She could not do without them, and she prayed +simply and directly, 'O Father, give me back my spectacles!' A lady +asked her how she obtained such intimacy with God. 'Ah, woman,' she +said, 'when I am out there in the bush, I have often no other one to +speak to but my Father, and I just talk to Him....'" + +"I just talk to Him!" There is the secret of getting and keeping close +to the Father, the most worth-while Companion we can possibly have with +us on country walk, on vacation excursion, amid business perplexities, +in the desert or in the thronged city street, when the days are crowded +with burdens, or when the time of rest after work has come. + +Try Him and see if it is not so. + + +VI + +A CHAPTER OF--ACCIDENTS? + +A man had planned a three-day trip with care. On paper everything looked +promising for a combination of business and pleasure that would make +these days stand out in the record of the year. + +In the morning he would go to Washington. There he would have +opportunity to see in one of the Departments a man whose help in an +emergency would prove invaluable. At four in the afternoon he would +leave for Cincinnati. By taking the train he would miss a bit of scenery +at Cumberland, which he had hoped to see. This could not be helped, +however, for by the train he would be set down in Cincinnati in good +season for the important one-day session of a committee, the primary +object of the trip. + +To be sure, he would have to miss another important committee meeting at +home, unless he should forego the Washington stop. But would it not be +worth while to miss one of the meetings when he did not see how he could +well arrange for both? + +The ticket was bought and reservation was made. Then interruption number +one came. Most unexpectedly there was a call from a neighbor to render +such a service as can be given but once in a lifetime. Yet that +difficult service must be rendered at the moment when, according to +program, he would be taking the train for Washington. + +Of course there could be no question as to his course. Instead of going +to Washington and seeing the man with whom conference would mean so +much, he must take train by a route more direct. This would enable him +to reach Cincinnati in season for the committee meeting; and it would +enable him also to attend the committee meeting at home which he had +decided to put aside for the sake of the Washington opportunity. + +After serving his neighbor and attending the home meeting--this turned +out to be so important that to miss it would have been little short of a +calamity--the direct train for Cincinnati was taken, though not without +a sigh for the lost opportunity in Washington. + +Yet the sigh was forgotten when on that train he became acquainted with +three fellow-passengers who gave him some new and needed glimpses of +life. + +A study of time tables showed him that he could return by way of +Washington, and could have two hours for the interview there on which he +had counted so much, before the hour came for completing the homeward +journey. + +After a successful committee meeting in Cincinnati, the importance of +which proved to be even greater than had been anticipated, the train for +Washington was taken at the Cincinnati terminal. At the moment this +train was due to leave, there drew in on an adjoining track cars from +which weary, anxious-looking passengers alighted. "What train is that?" +was the question that came to his lips. + +"Number two, boss," the porter replied. "Left Washington at four +yesterday afternoon. She's ten hours late, 'count of that big wreck down +in the mountains." + +And that was the train he had planned to take after finishing his +business in Washington! If he had taken it, what of his touch with the +Cincinnati meeting? + +In thankful spirit, and with the resolve renewed for the ten thousandth +time that he would cease to question God's wisdom in thwarting his +little plans, he went to his berth. First, however, he included in his +evening prayer a petition that the train might not be late in reaching +Washington, since the time there would be short enough, at best. + +Three hours later he roused with the start that is apt to come with the +intense silence that marks a long night wait of a train between +stations. The delay was so prolonged that soon the time table showed the +loss of three hours. + +There was one consolation, however: he would be able to pass during +hours of daylight through the incomparable mountains of West Virginia. + +The unexpected blessing was forgotten when the train drew into the +Washington station so near the close of the afternoon that the traveler +thought he might as well go home at once. Later on, he might be able to +make a special trip to the Capital. "And I might have finished my +program without all that expense and trouble," he thought. + +But while he was there he decided he would call on the telephone the man +in the department whom he wished to see. He told the man of his late +train and his disappointment. + +"Perhaps it is just as well," was the word from the other end of the +wire. "I have been afraid that the time set aside for our work this +afternoon was altogether too short. What do you say to coming to me the +first thing in the morning? Then we can devote to our program all the +time that proves necessary." + +So he remained overnight. The evening gave him the chance he had sought +for a year to spend an evening consulting authorities at the +Congressional Library. Next morning the real business of the stopover +was attended to. Then he learned why it would have been impossible to +receive the afternoon before the attention he received during the +morning hours. He knew, too, that it would have been out of the question +to seek a second interview on the same business; therefore he would +have had to rest content with the results of the first conference. + +The time came to take the train for the final stage of the journey. On +that train his seat-mate, a man he had never seen before, perhaps never +would see again, gave him a number of bits of vital information on the +very business that had led him to Washington! + +Is it worth while to ask God to look out for the everyday needs of His +people? + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +_GOD THE SOURCE OF COURAGE_ + + +"BE strong and of a good courage!" More than three thousand years ago +the inspiring words were spoken by a great military leader to men about +to undertake a tremendous task. Some of them were dismayed. The +difficulties in the path appeared insurmountable. Their minds were +filled with worries and fears and anxieties, until the present was heavy +with doubt and the future loomed before them dread, angry, portentous. +Their hearts were like water, until Joshua, the leader, with great +confidence gave his message: + + "Be strong and of a good courage-- + "Only be strong and very courageous-- + "Have not I commanded thee? + "Be strong and of a good courage. + "For Jehovah thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." + + +I + +THAT'S FOR ME! + +Two men were going around the marvelous horseshoe curve on the Tyrone +and Clearfield Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad when one called the +attention of his companion to the most picturesque part of the way. + +"I was looking at that precipice when I had my first understanding of +the fact that the Bible is a personal message; that I had the right to +appropriate its words to my own life. + +"It was the summer following the end of my final year in college. A few +months earlier I had reluctantly yielded to the urging, first of my +physician, then of a nerve specialist, by turning my back on college at +the vital portion of the year. They told me that if I persisted in +remaining they would not answer for the consequences; they said I had +applied myself unwisely to my books until my brain was in revolt. 'It is +a grave question if you will ever be able to take the professional +course to which you have been looking forward,' the specialist said. +'One thing is certain, however: if you do not do as you are told you +will not do any real brain work the rest of your days.' + +"That scared me, for my heart was wrapped up in my plans for the +future. I felt that life would not be worth while without some sort of +active brain work. So I gave myself to a real bit of vacation. For +months I cut myself loose from all books except the little copy of the +Testament and Psalms which I carried with me more for form's sake than +for any other reason, I fear. Daily as I tramped here and there in the +wilds I read a verse or two, more because I thought I ought to do this +than because I had any idea of receiving help. + +"Toward the close of the summer I submitted myself to a specialist who +shook his head, at the same time declaring that it was doubtful if even +yet I could go on with my plan. He wouldn't say it was impossible for me +to do brain work, but he urged that the probabilities were against me. A +second specialist told me the same thing. + +"So I faced the future as all summer long I had feared to face it. +Finally my mind was made up to turn my back on professional studies. +When the decision was made a suggestion came that I go into the +mountains of Pennsylvania to investigate opportunity for a sort of work +that I might do. + +"The journey was begun. As we left Tyrone to climb the mountains my +spirits sank lower and lower. I rebelled against the idea of taking the +offered opening. How I longed to enter professional school in two weeks! +But I dared not do it. To be sure, the physicians said that they saw no +reason why I should not, though they feared the result. Why not try it? +I had used all available means for restoration of the brain to the +old-time keenness. Yet it would be awful to try and fail. No, I did not +dare. + +"So I was in the depths when my hand touched the pocket Testament and +Psalms. Mechanically the book was opened, probably because of the +unconscious realization that the daily portion had not yet been read. +But listlessness was gone in an instant when my eyes fell on the words +of Psalm 37:5: + +"'Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He will bring it +to pass.' + +"At first the words dazed me. Then I said: 'That's for me, and I'll do +it! I've spent the summer as the doctors said I must. Surely I am +warranted in committing myself unto the Lord in just the way the Psalm +says. Of course I can't be sure that the result of going back to school +will be precisely what I hope; but I can trust, and do my best. Then if +the attempt results in failure, I shall have the satisfaction of +knowing that I am following Him to whom I have committed my way. + +"Some of my friends thought it was folly to begin my professional +course. Can you imagine my joy when, from the day school opened, I had +no recurrence of my trouble? Of course I was very careful until I could +feel sure of my health." + +"How do you explain your ability to go on with your studies?" his +companion asked. + +"I am not trying to explain it," was the reply. "But without question +the assurance that came to me with that text from the Psalm, the +assurance that God is my God and that I have a right to count on Him, +made me strong to face things to which I had been unequal only a few +months before. + +"And is it strange that I have often wondered if there would have been +any breakdown in college, if I had only known a little sooner of the +strength that waits for those who, while putting forth their own utmost +endeavor, at the same time count on God's unfailing strength?" + + +II + +BANKING ON GOD'S PROMISES + +Isn't it strange that so many Christians while believing, theoretically, +in the reality and trustworthiness of God's promises, do not have the +same sort of practical belief in Him which they show in the promise of +their bank to pay them, on demand, the sum written down in their book of +deposit? + +And banks have been known to fail in keeping their very limited +promises, while God has never failed in keeping His unlimited assurances +of blessing. + +For so many the strange delusion that God's promises are not to be +counted on in the same literal sense as the promises of our associates +persists through life, but there are fortunate Christians who have their +eyes opened to the truth. And what a difference the knowledge makes to +them! + +F. B. Meyer told in one of his public addresses of the transformation +wrought for him when his eyes were opened to the truth. As a boy of +thirteen he had been a student at Brighton College. He was timid and +sensitive, and the older students soon learned that they could make his +life a burden to him. With a sigh of relief he went home at the end of +the first week of school. On Sunday, however, the thought that he must +return came to him with oppressing force. How could he stand up against +the older students? He was idly turning the pages of his Bible when he +came to the 121st Psalm. "How voraciously I devoured it!" he said. "How +I read it again and again, and wrapt it round me! How I took it as my +shield! And the next day I walked into the great expanse in front of the +college so serene and strong. It was my first act of appropriating the +promises of God." + +Three years later the student was agonizing because he wanted to be a +minister, yet feared to plan for the work because his voice was weak, +and he feared that he would not have the courage to speak. He had been +asking God to show him His will, and to help him in his difficulty. Then +he found Jeremiah 1:7, and read it for the first time. "With +indescribable feelings I read it again and again, and even now never +come on it without a thrill of emotion," he said of his experience. "It +was the answer to all my perplexing questionings. Yes, I was the child; +I was to go to those to whom He sent me, and speak what He bade me, and +He would be with me and teach my lips." + +Another man, who had learned to accept literally God's promise, "Ask, +and it shall be given unto you," wrote gratefully of his experience: + +"My life is one long, daily, hourly record of answered prayer. For +physical health, for mental overstrain, for guidance given marvelously, +for errors and dangers averted, for enmity to the Gospel subdued, for +food provided at the exact hour needed, for everything that goes to make +up life and my poor service, I can testify with a full and often +wonder-stricken awe that I believe God answers prayer. I know God +answers prayer. Cavillings, logical or physical, are of no avail to me. +It is the very atmosphere in which I live and breathe and have my being, +and it makes life glad and free and a million times worth living." + +A worker among his fellows in India stated the ground of his belief in +God's promise to supply the needs of his people. The sentence was +written while he was at home on furlough: + +"Whatsoever you ask, believe that you have received it, and you shall +have it. The belief is not the denial of a fact, but rather the +assurance that the petition is in accordance with God's will, and that +He is as disposed to give as we to receive; our reception of the gift +depends on our holding on to His will. Now the practical question is, +What is God's will? Am I conforming to it? Through lack of faith am I +failing to receive and appropriate for myself and Satara what I and +Satara need? Is it God's will that I should return and that there should +be better paid work? More of it? More school-houses? New houses for +workers?" + +A few days later he added to these notes the word "Yes." His faith +enabled him to claim God's promise. + +A Christian young man in Japan was accustomed to stand at the entrance +to the park in Tokyo, offering Bibles and preaching the Gospel. Years +passed, and he saw no results of his work. Yet he believed in Him who +had promised that His name should be exalted among the heathen. At +length a Testament was bought by a young man to whom the words of John +3:16 brought life and joy. He went back to the old man from whose hand +he had received the book, and told him that he had become a Christian. +The man was overcome with joy. + +"Ten years," he said, "I have been selling New Testaments here at the +park gates, and you are the first who has ever come to tell me you were +helped." + +But throughout those ten years the faithful worker was sustained by his +belief in the faithfulness of Him who had promised to bless him in his +work. He knew that God would not fail him. + + +III + +PRACTICAL PRECEPTS FROM PROVERBS + +There is nothing like the Bible to put heart into a man. This is not +strange, for the Book was written for this purpose by men of God's +choosing whose business it was to strengthen their fellows. + +One of the most vivid parts of the Bible is the book of Proverbs. + +"Would that our young men were saturated with its thought," Albert J. +Beveridge said of it, while he was a member of the United States Senate. +"It is rich in practical wisdom for the minute affairs of practical +life. It abounds in apt and pointed suggestions and pungent warnings +concerning our companionship, our personal habits, our employments, our +management of finance, our speech, the government of tongue and temper, +and many other such things, which daily perplex the earnest soul, and +daily occasion harm to the thoughtless and misguided." + +Years earlier, another eminent American, Washington Irving, used what is +the keynote of the book in an earnest talk with George Bancroft, later +the historian of his country, then a student in Europe. The two were +taking a walking excursion, when the older man said something the +student remembered all his life. It was natural, then, that Bancroft's +biographer should give this in his subject's own words, in "Life and +Letters of George Bancroft:" + +"At my time of life, he tells me, I ought to lay aside all care, and +only be bent on laying in a stock of knowledge for future application. +If I have not pecuniary resources enough to get at what I would wish +for, as calculated to be useful to my mind, I must still not give up the +pursuit. Still follow it; scramble to it; get at it as you can, but be +sure to get at it. If you need books, buy them; if you are in want of +instruction in anything take it. The time will soon come when it will be +too late for all these things." + +More than a century ago an immigrant from Scotland landed in New York. +In the story of his life he later told how the book of Proverbs became +his rock. The first night he slept in an old frame building with a +shingle roof. During the night he was aroused by a storm of rain +accompanied by thunder and lightning such as he had never experienced in +Scotland. Homesick, terrified, unable to sleep, he rose and took from +his chest the Bible his father had carefully packed with his clothes. He +wrote later that as the book was opened, "My eyes fell on the words, 'My +Son.' I was thinking of my father. I read on with delight. Having +finished the last verse I found I had been reading the third chapter of +the Proverbs of Solomon. Get a Bible and read the chapter. Then suppose +yourself in my situation--sore in body, sick at heart, and commencing +life among a world of strangers, and see if words more suitable could be +put together to fit my case. I looked upon it as a chart from heaven, +directing my course among the rocks, shoals and storms of life.... I +went forth with a light heart to work my way through the world, resolved +to keep this chapter as a pilot by my side." + +The importance for to-day of the message in Proverbs 30:8, "Remove far +from me vanity and lies," is illustrated by several incidents told by +Lucy Elliot Keeler, in "If I Were a Boy:" + +"The son of a distinguished American recently entered business in New +York, beginning, at his father's request, at the foot of the ladder, and +receiving the princely salary of $20 a month. At a time when his +father's name was in everybody's mouth the editor of a yellow journal +sent for the son and invited him to join the staff. 'You need not write +any articles,' he said, with a smile, 'nor do any reporting. Just sign +your name to an article which I will furnish you each day, and I will +pay you $200 a month....' The young man's reply was too emphatic to be +accurately reported here, but it was to the effect that he would rather +starve than pick untold dollars out of the gutter. + +"A few years ago an American commissioner occupying a house in the West +Indies hired a man to wash the windows and another to scrub the floors. +The bills submitted were for $12 and $7, respectively. 'What does this +mean?' was the astonished query. '$12 for a day's work? Man, you are +crazy!' 'Oh,' came the soft reply, 'of course, I only expect a dollar +and a half for myself, but that was the way we always made out bills for +the Spanish officers.' 'Take back your bills,' was the American's +emphatic reply, 'and make them out honestly.'" + +The wisdom of the warning in Proverbs 27:2, "Let another man praise +thee, and not thine own mouth," has seldom been more strikingly +illustrated than at a large convention when several thousand people +listened attentively as a speaker of reputation was introduced to them. +He talked fluently for several minutes, then began to ramble. He made +several attempts to regain his lost hold on his hearers, then took his +seat. + +"I can't imagine what was wrong to-day," he said to his neighbor on the +platform. "I had all ready what I felt sure would be a telling address, +but somehow I couldn't say what I wanted." A sympathetic answer was +given by the man to whom he had spoken, but if he had said all that was +in his heart this would have been his message: "I know you had a telling +argument to present, for I read your manuscript. But you spent the first +three minutes in talking about yourself. It was there you lost the +attention of the people; they did not come to hear about you, but to +learn of your Master. And when you had put yourself in the foreground, +it was impossible for you to present Him with power." + +The speaker's mistake is repeated every day, not merely by men on the +platform, but by everyday people in the home, in the school, and at +work. It is fatal to usefulness to put ourselves in the foreground; but +those who forget self and remember others are welcome wherever they go. + + +IV + +GETTING CLOSE TO THE BIBLE + +One of the blessings that came to the world out of the anguish of the +Great War was a new appreciation of God's Word on the part of many who +had never paid much attention to the inspired Book, and the formation of +the habit of Bible reading by tens of thousands of those who were once +heedless of God's Word. + +Absence from home in hours of danger, privation and suffering, opened +the way for testing Him who reveals his power to give infinite blessing +by saying tenderly, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I +comfort you." The sense of absolute powerlessness in the face of +barbarism led to dependence upon God who holds the worlds in His hands. +Realization of the uncertainty of life and familiarity with death made +easy and natural the approach to the Lord of life and death. + +Probably there were soldiers who laughed at the words of Field Marshal +Lord Roberts, spoken when the first British troops were crossing the +Channel: + +"You will find in this little Book (the Bible) guidance when you are in +health, comfort when you are in sickness, and strength when you are in +adversity," but the day came when one of the soldiers themselves, Arthur +Guy Empey, wrote: + +"How about the poor boy lying wounded, perhaps dying, in a shell hole, +his mother far away? Perhaps to him even God seems to have forgotten; he +feels for his first-aid packet, binds up his wounds, and then +waits--years, it seems to him--for the stretcher-bearers. Then he gets +out his Testament; the feel of it gives him comfort and hope. He reads. +That boy gets religion, even though when he enlisted he was an atheist." + +A Young Men's Christian Association secretary told of an incident when +the soldiers were just leaving for the trenches. "He saw a young lad +nervously making his way up to the counter. He knew the boy wanted +something, and was afraid to ask or was timid about it. He said, 'Want +something, lad?' 'Yes, sir, I have got a Bible and I don't know much +about it. I'd like you to mark some passages in it. I am going out to +the trenches to-night.' 'Sure!' said the secretary. 'Mark some good +ones, now,' said the lad. + +"While he was marking the first lad's book half a dozen other boys came +up and said, 'Mark mine, too, sir!' And for half an hour this secretary +was busy marking verses in the Bibles of those boys. An interested +observer asked him what he marked, and he said, 'Matthew 10:23; 11:28; +6:19, 20; John 3:16; Romans 8:35-39.'" + +"Fighting" Pat O'Brian, of the Royal Fighting Corps, whose marvelous +escape from his German captors thrilled multitudes, said: + +"I haven't been given to talking much about religion, but when, after +two months of flight through an enemy country as an escaped prisoner, +going without food except such as I could pick up in the fields and eat +raw, and time and again coming within a hair's breadth of being caught, +I finally got through the lines on to the neutral soil of Holland, I was +mighty glad to get down on my knees and thank God that He had got me +through. A lot of men who have never thought much about religion are +thinking about it now. I believe they will read those little khaki +Testaments, and I am sure they will get help from them." + +That "those little khaki Testaments" were going into the hands of the +soldiers pleased General Pershing, who said, "Its teachings will fortify +us for our great task." And Secretary of the Navy Daniels rejoiced that +the books were going to the sailors, for he said, "The Bible is the one +book from which men can find help and inspiration and encouragement for +whatever conditions may arise." + + +V + +THE BIBLE AND ONE MAN + +In June, 1862, John E. Clough was graduated from an Iowa college. He had +been eager to make a name for himself. Many promising avenues of secular +work had opened to him, and he had tried to take one or another of them. +But always he knew that it was not right for him to plan for anything +but the ministry. The impression was deepened when the president of the +college took for the text of his baccalaureate sermon, "For none of us +liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." So the young graduate +left the college feeling that he was no longer free to go out and use +his education for the career he had dreamed of. + +But he did decide to teach for a year. With Mrs. Clough, he made an +engagement to teach a public school one year. But he did not dare stay +for a second year, because the people were so good to the new teacher, +and there was so much evidence of this popularity, that the Bible words +kept ringing in his ears, "Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of +you." He knew he was not in the right place. In later life, when +opposition came to him because he was doing faithful Christian work, he +was strengthened by the memory of this text that had once been anything +but a comfort to him. + +At last came the beginning of the work in India that made the name of +John E. Clough famous. His success was due, in large measure, to the +fact that he emphasized God's Word. One of his first acts was to prepare +a tract in Scripture language, telling the things necessary for +salvation, and this proved useful throughout his services. + +Everywhere he went he quoted Scripture to the people. He felt that +whatever else he might say to them, this would be most effective. One +text was used more than any other, in private conversation and in +sermons, the invitation of Jesus, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and +are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." This, he said, was always +new, and the people received his explanations gladly. Once, during a +time of grievous famine, when about them millions of the natives died of +want and disease, these words proved especially effective. + +As a measure of famine relief the missionary took the contract for a +section of the great Buckingham Canal. Under his leadership the natives +were set to work on this. Native evangelists as well as white +missionaries toiled day after day, and this gave a splendid chance for +preaching the gospel. "The name of Jesus was spoken all day long from +one end of our line to the other," Mr. Clough wrote in his +autobiography. "The preachers carried a New Testament in their pockets. +It comforted the people to see the holy book of the Christians amid all +their distress. They said, when they sat down for a short rest, 'Read us +again out of your holy book about the weary and heavy laden.' That +verse, 'Come unto me all ye that labor,' was often all I had to give the +people by way of comfort. The preachers were saying it all day long. It +carried us through the famine. We all needed it, for even the strongest +among us sometimes felt our courage sinking." + +All through Dr. Clough's missionary career there was one verse in +particular that carried him far. When he was out on tour among the +people, often many miles distant from home, Mrs. Clough was accustomed +to send after him a messenger who would take to him, for his +encouragement, the message she felt he needed. Knowing his fondness for +the text, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the +heathen," she sent the words to him on more than one occasion. In the +story of his life he told of a day when the text came to him with +special force: + +"I was tempted to shake the dust off my feet and go. My helpers and I +had camped in a new place, and had been trying hard to get the people to +come and listen to the gospel, but they would not. I concluded that it +was a hard place, and told my staff of workers that we were justified in +leaving it alone and moving on elsewhere. Toward noon I went into my +tent, closed down the sides, let the little tent flap swing over my +head, and rested, preparatory to starting off for the next place. Just +then a basket of supplies was brought to my feet by a coolie, who had +walked seventy miles with the basket on his head. In the accompanying +letter Mrs. Clough quoted my favorite verse to me. While reading this, +some of the preachers put their heads into the tent and said, 'Sir, +there is a big crowd out here; the grove is full; all are waiting for +you. Please come out.'" + +Once the two verses that were the keynote of the missionary's life were +especially prominent. For a long time he had been discouraged because +results seemed slow and difficulties were great. But the day came when +he stood before thousands and preached to them the Word, strong in the +assurance of the presence of Him who said, "Be still, and know that I am +God: I will be exalted among the heathen." The text that day, as so +often before, was "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden." +For an hour the people listened to his words. Then they began to plead +for baptism, and would not be denied. At length, after rigid +examination, baptism was administered to 3,536 within three days. And he +had not baptized one soul in fifteen months before this time! + +God's Word gave courage to Clough; it enabled him to give courage to +others; and it will give courage to you. + + +VI + +OUT OF THE DEPTHS + +During the year 1538 an Italian spent long weeks in a noisome +underground prison cell, where he was kept on account of religious +differences. For a precious hour and a half of each day, when the light +struggled in through a tiny window, he read the Bible, especially the +Psalms. Among the Psalms that meant most to him was the one hundred and +thirtieth, whose beginning "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O +Lord," expressed the longings of his heart for companionship and +comfort. + +Exactly two hundred years later, on May 24, 1738, John Wesley, then in +the midst of the greatest anxiety and longing for God, heard the choir +at St. Paul's Cathedral sing, "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, +O Lord." The words brought joy to him. From the depths in which he found +himself that afternoon he cried unto God, and that evening there came to +him the knowledge of God's presence that gave him strength to begin the +wonderful work that built up the great Methodist Church. + +These same words meant much to Josiah Royce, the American teacher of +philosophy, who died in 1916. In one of his later books, he wrote: + +"We come to such deep places that we can only cry. We are astonished +that we can cry. And then we become aware that our cry is heard. And he +who hears is God. And so God is often defined for the plain man as 'He +who hears man's cry from the depths.'" + +One who knew Professor Royce well wondered if he did not enter the +depths from which he cried to God and received such satisfying response, +after the death of his only son. In the same way those who delight in +the message of Psalm 130 wonder what could have been the experience of +depression that opened the way for his reception of God's blessing. + +We can only speculate about these things. But there is one thing of +which we can be absolutely sure: there is no depth so low that the cry +of one of God's children will not reach from it to the heart of the +Father; no sorrow so crushing, no anxiety so overwhelming, no pain so +intense, no difficulty seemingly so unsolvable, no sin so awful, that +eager, earnest prayer will not bring God to the relief of the sufferer. + +"If out of the depths we cry, we shall cry ourselves out of the depths," +one has said who has written of the words that Professor Royce found so +helpful. Then he asks: "What can a man do who finds himself at the foot +of a beetling cliff, the sea in front, the wall of rock at his back, +without foothold for a mouse, between the tide at the bottom and the +grass at the top? He can do but one thing, he can shout, and, perhaps, +may be heard, and a rope may come dangling down that he can spring at +and catch. For sinful men in the miry pit the rope is already let down, +and their grasping it is the same as the psalmist's cry. God has let +down His forgiving love in Christ, and we need but the faith which +accepts it while it asks, and then we are swung up into the light, and +our feet set on a rock." + +Each one has depths peculiarly his own, and longs to be out of them. +Then why not call to Him who hears men's cry from the depths, with the +quiet confidence of quaint old Herbert, who wrote: + + Of what an easie quick accesse, + My blessed Lord, art Thou! how suddenly + May our requests thine ears invade! + If I but lift mine eyes my suit is made; + Thou canst no more not heare than Thou canst die. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Obvious punctuation errors were corrected. + +Page 44, "conjuctions" changed to "conjunctions" (prepositions, and +conjunctions) + +Page 56, "year'sexpenses" changed to "year's expenses" (next year's +expenses) + +Page 62, "throughness" changed to "thoroughness" (thoroughness by +performing) + +Page 96, "then" changed to "than" (further than usual) + +Page 98, "begining" changed to "beginning" (thought of beginning) + +Page 138 "mments" changed to "comments" (comments is that the) + +Page 153, "be-because" changed to "because" (need of it because) + +Page 164, "Yes" changed to "Yet" (Yet, there was something) + +Page 214, "woud" changed to "would" (would be most effective) + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF COURAGE*** + + +******* This file should be named 32438.txt or 32438.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/4/3/32438 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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