Excerpt from Messages of Today to the Men of to-Morrow

While it may not be wise to decry the convention idea, the time has certainly arrived to bring up to the high level of its enthusiasm the daily activities of its ardent supporters. The bigness and intensity of the convention call for a corresponding largeness and breadth of thought, and for a suitable intensity in the discharge of duty on the part of all who have enjoyed its privileges. Balance is, of all things, the need Of the hour. The emotional must not be allowed to run away with the intellectual and prae tical. Effusive sentimentality must not be per mitted to deluge the sober endeavors of the young to attain the loftiest heights of enduring usefulness. The dress parade Of a magnificent army is, of course, inspiriting, but its fighting qualities are of pro founder concern. Nor does it acquire its discipline and its drill on these great show-days. It is trained, instructed, and exercised in sections, in regiments, in companies, in squads for only as the individual soldier is developed does the combina tion of soldiers become formidable. So, after all, the vast encampments of young Christians, become so common during the past few years, mean very little to society unless their noble-hearted and em thusiastic rank and file have been taught, armed, tried, in small groups, and, indeed, singly as well.

TO aid them personally in so deserving an under taking, teachers of every order should unite; and perhaps one of the first duties to enjoin on them is the duty Of ascertaining their true descent.

When a fellow-being emerges from Obscurity and wins a great battle, or writes a great book, or makes a stupendous fortune, one Of the first things asked is, Whence came he? Biographical sketches usu ally begin with the ancestry Of the hero and the impression is Often made that the prophecy Of his achievements had long before been written in the characteristics of his forefathers. Indeed, there is a hazy notion prevalent that there must be some genetic connection between a noble and notable career and its parental antecedents, or that, to use proverbial speech, blood will tell and that, if no such connection can be made out, brilliancy in thought and conduct is inexplicable and is extraor dinarily creditable. Hence it was that David's successful attack on the giant aroused the interest of his sovereign to inquire, Whose son art thou And when the Maid Of Orleans appeared, to whom De Quincey likens the hero Of Bethlehem - for they both came out of the quiet, out of the safety, out Of the religious inspiration rooted in deep pas toral solitudes to a station in the van of armies and to the more perilous station at the right hand Of kings - bishops, barons, princes, and priests curi ously demanded, Whose daughter art thou?

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