The Crown of Individuality. XIV

and shame to the right and to the left of them, behind and in front of them— then say, if you can, this is not an all-worthy mis- sion you have! How marvelous, how much to be wondered at,is it that so few are led away, or even fall! They come back to you men of expe- rience and character, polished by the contact, but, like the rough granite from the quarry, the native beauty brought out by the polishing: holding aloft the banner of the gospel truths; most all of them with belief transformed into a knowledge of that which they teach. You are producing the world's redeemers. Do you sense the responsibility? Many do— more should. What is the worth of a boy? Where shall we begin to tell of his responsibilities and worth from a savior of souls' standpoint? "What shall we give in exchange for his soul?' ' Humbly, but with all the power behind the right of it, let us ask, demand, the rights of the boy! Confidence, love, companion- ship, consideration— he is worth it all! From the very day you invest, you draw dividends. Happy should he be who has so invested! Providence, R. I. Take Heart Again. (For the Improvement Era.) Waterloo, Utah. Take heart again, think not that all is lost to thee, However great thy burden, rough thy way; The Master knows thy utmost need, and he Will strength and comfort give for every day. Take heart again, the storms may wage a little time, The lowering clouds their shadows dark may cast, And then for thee the golden sun will shine, Thy pathway brighter seem for darkness past. Ah, yes; take heart again, my friend, do not despair! Each life doth broader grow from touch of sorrow, If it accepts and graciously doth bear, Whate'er God sends, and trusts him for the morrow. Grace Ingles Frost.

The Crown of Individuality. BY WILLIAM GEORGE JORDAN. XIV. — Power of Individual Purpose. Purpose gives a new impulse, a new impetus, a new interpre- tation to living. Purpose is the backbone of a life of courage. It shows that the highest justification for living is love — in some form. It may be for a cause, a country, an ideal, a family or an individual. Purpose at its best means our kingship over condi- tions, our mastery over self, our dedication to something higher than self. Fighting for the right, and fighting it to the end. Were we able to follow even a great purpose from its highest flights of effort we might find its nest of inspiration — in the heart of some one of whom the world knew nothing. Purpose makes man his own second creator, and by it he can make himself largely what he will. He can choose his own realm: he can live contentedly in the mud of low desires like a lizard, or sweep boldly high in the pure, inspiring, bracing air of noble ideals, like an eagle rightfully claiming the mountain tops as its own. If our aim be low, mean and selfish, bringing out all that is weakness in our nature, an ambition that betrays its method in the despicable things employed to attain it, it is unworthy of our crown of individuality. Low purpose makes us expert in petty sophistries; it kills natural sweetness and kindness; it raises the moral temperature to a fever heat of "don't care," and lowers the vitality of all our * From The Crown of Individuality. Copyright, 1909, by Fleming H. Re veil Company.

higher living. This is not the purpose of which we speak ; it is individuality at a discount, not at a premium— as we should hold it. Purpose makes a man a crusader— for something. He seems to grow greater before our eyes in his efforts to reach and grasp the cross of some ideal — though it may seem to us unattainable — when the inspiration and glow of the struggle itself means more to him than even a crown of victory. Purpose is conscious, continu- ous concentration to attain an end. Before it can be greatest there must be union and unity — body, mind, heart and soul acting together, as the essence of many flowers may be fused into a sin- gle perfume. To many of us the eagles of purpose of the world's exalted great ones may be impossible to us in our present conditions. We may be bound by duties, cares, burdens, the daily problem of mere living that make great deeds difficult. But we can all have pur- pose, and should have it, and we should live to it at its best. We must finally be judged not by attainments but by the ideals and motives that inspired them. There is one purpose that no one is too humble to live by. It is — "faithfulness in little things." It may be only a new impetus of loyalty, trustfulness and watch- fulness in our daily duties. Employers find great difficulty in getting this very faithful- ness in little things. Many of those paid for services are only eye-servants. They are listless, lazy and irritably languid — except when off duty. They regard the repeated instructions as to how certain simple work should be done with an airy nonchalance that is indifferent, imprudent and impertinent. They forget everything except some trifle of personal interest; this is tatooed into their memory. They collapse under the slightest strain of responsibility, like an intoxicated man leaning against an imaginary post. They are a bundle of excuses— where their own failures, foibles or flaws are under discussion. Workers such as these consider merely getting a maximum pay-envelop at a minimum expense of mental or physical energy. They wonder why some other worker is retained or promoted while they are sure they have worked just as long as he has each day. They forget they have not worked as wide or as deep — they

THE CROWN OF INDIVIDUALITY. 333 overlook these two other dimensions. It is the plus of purpose consecrated to doing daily one's best with a constantly added in- crease of ability that makes the real difference. This simple phase of purpose may change the life of an individual and inspire ever higher purpose. The conquest of a weakness in character, the acquirement of a new language, a concentrated attempt to be of greater useful- ness to others in some way, to prove equal to our possibilities as they progressively grow larger under attainment these may be but purpose in a small way. Purpose unites the separate days of our living by the thread of continuity — as scattered beads from a necklace by the golden strand running through them. A mother may make even the care of her home and her family a real pur- pose if she puts into her labors the best that is in her, ever real- izing she has — her crown of individuality she must never forget. Many men in this life, men of position, power, wealth, and opportunity, are — merely drifting. They are not victors of their course but — victims of the current. They live but have no defi- nite purpose in living. In easy-going, careless, free way they are carried along by the tides of life, with no self-consciousness that they are drifters. Some of them do no defined great evil, but no real good. If they were to do some great evil or fall before some great sorrow or trial it might be the means of startling them into realization, shocking them into vivid consciousness of their lack of purpose. Man does not drift into goodness — the chance port of an aimless voyage. He must fight ever for his destination, ready to battle with calmness and constant courage, against fog, darkness and adverse winds, and dangers that should only inspire to greater efforts. There is hardly any peril of the sea more dreaded by mariners than a — derelict. It carries no lights on bow or stern, no pas- sengers, no rudder, no pilot, no crew. It is bound nowhere, car- rying no cargo to no port. Helpless in itself it is a menace to all others. Human derelicts are those ignored as hopeless by others, but they were first deserted by themselves. Lack of definite, real purpose is the royal road to drifting, desertion and derelict. In seeking material success it may be necessary to grasp a low rung of the ladder; but on the ladder of purpose begin with

334 IMPRO VEMENT ERA . the highest rung your outstretched hand can clasp and hold on til you reach the next. Purpose takes man out of the orchestra of life and puts him on the stage of real action. It makes him part of the real spectacle, not a mere spectator. It gives him a real part to play, one no other could play, in the great drama of humanity. The great thing in life is not in realizing a purpose, but in fighting for it. If we feel the possibilities of a great work loom- ing large before us and impelling us to action it is our duty to con- secrate ourselves to it. Failure in a great work is nobler than success in a petty one that is beneath our maximum of possibility. We have nothing to do with results— they do not belong to us, anyway. It is our duty to do our best bravely and then to rest in the comfort of this fact alone. But be our work great or small let us have real purpose in life and battle for it undaunted to the end. Purpose at its best must be above and beyond us like the polar star that guides and inspires the compass of the mariner. The world needs, more than talent, genius, wealth or power, men of simple, earnest purpose, men consecrated to daily living in the inspiring illumination of an ideal; men who make each day count directly for something real, who face each day's sunset with new harvests of good for those around them and for the world. Being good, merely good in a pale, anemic, temperamental way, is not enough. If the world is not daily better because we have lived, if the little circle of those around is not brightened, strengthened, heartened, helped, and some way made happier, by our direct effort in our conscious living, we are not true to pur- pose or possibilities. We cannot all be Lincolns and save a nation, but we can put the spirit of Lincoln into every trifle of our living — his simplicity, courage, kindness, love, conspcration, justice. The greatest good to the world is not the magnificent power of a few great men manifesting it on a colossal scale, but these same qual- ities in a smaller, humbler way, manifested in millions of simple, unknown lives throughout the world. (The next chapter in this series, "When we Forget the Equity," will appear in the March number of the Era.)