Self-Denial

SELF-DENIAL 143 the good and kind, he partakes of their influence and grows up good and kind ; if he is surrounded by the wicked and base, he becomes so imbibed that he is hardly recognizable as the same being. Home is the place where the young people are surrounded either by good or bad environment ; and one reason why so many young people leave home, is because they do not enjoy the environment. A good lawn, trees, flowers, nice fences, music in the home, and above all, sweet smiles and loving words, make home the sweetest and dearest place on earth. If we would succeed we must keep up with the times, advance and improve with the world. No on can succeed who goes at his work in a half-hearted way. Only he who does his best and has shunned the vices, whatsoever their name or nature, can reach the highest success. A man must be master over evil and not the victim or the slave to it, if he would reach the highest success. Yet, in the United States there is spent every year for intoxicating beverages many millions of dollars. Think what vast good this money could do if it were put into useful channels instead of being worse than wasted,— ruining human lives. Remember that the spirit abideth only with the pure in heart. "Abide with me, 'tis eventide." Not only must we shun the evil, but we must do the things that we do well, or to the very best of our ability. Whoever consents to less than his best is neither shrewd nor good. To do things by halves, to put only a part of one's self into a given task, is to add to the general bulk of unrighteousness. A result which one passes for his honest best, and which he knows is not that, is a kind of counterfeit. The genuine man, whether he works by the year or by the day, will not willingly sacrifice quality to quantity. I have found help in the following wise paragraph of Richard C. Trench : "Fit, square, polish thyself. Thy turn will come. Thou wilt not lie in the way. The builders will have need of thee. The wall will have more need of thee than thou hast for the wall." In The Saturday Evening Post, the other day, was a story of a railroad man's rapid rise. It related how he was a common brakeman among hundreds of other brakemen on the road, and was receiving but small wages. He decided that he could not go on in that way, and that he must get out of the common rut oi

144 IMPROVEMENT ERA brakemen. He stated that as long as he was a common radish among a whole field of radishes, no one would notice him, but that if he became a turnip in a radish patch he would soon be seen. He became a turnip by attending to his duties more regularly and better than his fellow brakemen. He was more polite and obliging to the passengers, and soon he became noted as the best brakeman on the road. He was promoted to conductor. Now he was only a common turnip in a turnip patch, so he set about to become a cabbage in the turnip patch. This he did by using all his powers and energy to the interest of the company, by suggesting improvements for the mutual benefit of passengers and company. Soon he was promoted to assistant superintendent. He is receiving good wages and is recognized as an authority on railroad matters and as one who can be trusted with responsibility. Are we common radishes, turnips or cabbages among other fields of the same plants? If so, no one will ever notice us? We must get out of the rut and distinguish ourselves above our fellow-workmen by always doing the best we can, and giving to each task the best there is in us. This will invite the Lord to abide with us, and speak to us as he spoke through the seer of Patmos. "I know thy works," and his "Well done," will be the recognition and reward of all true men ; so that, in the eventide of life we may be able to look back upon a well spent life where, through self-denial, we attained the highest excellence and reward. Then we can say: "Lord, thou didst abide with me continually, and art with me now in my eventide of life ; stay now this night with me, and let me awake in the morning of the resurrection in thy presence." LOGAN, UTAH. "Life should be taken seriously always. Even the boy and the young man should avoid the inessentials. He should grow, and the only way to grow is to make a concentrated effort to learn the things of life that are worth while. Read good books. Read history, philosophy and natural sciences. Knowledge gives depth to life, and, like a picture, life must have depth if it is to be called successful. — Benjamin Ide Wheeler.

Is the Doctrine True — Is the Logic Sound? BY DR. CHARLES L. OLSEN In these days of "scientific" niceties, when nothing is taken for granted, when faith is regarded as sheer fogyism, and intuition, inspiration, "the still, small voice," and all save cold, hard facts, must be submitted to demonstration, many a subject, clearly beyond human ken, is handled and disposed of with apparent ease and precision. So-called scientific premises are taken as starting-points, and conclusions apparently logical and clear follow. These deductions are blindly accepted as being true, sane and safe. They are promulgated as gospel truths, to be accepted as such and further disseminated by others. Such knowledge (?) diffused among the young, the immature and inexperienced may be very harmful — placed before children, it is positively so. The writer refers specifically to the much-discussed subject, the rearing of children. No one subject is more thoroughly threshed out than this one — but always it seems to me from the one side; namely, that all responsibility of the children's conduct is placed on the shoulders of the parents. Examples, proofs and postulates are ingeniously brought forward by lecturers upon the subject, ardent supporters of the theories of heredity and environment. Potent as these last named factors undoubtedly are, for good, or for evil, as regards children, or mankind in general, they are manifestly made to do duty all too often. One need not be, in my opinion, a scientist, a logician, nor an especially deep thinker, to see the fallacy of the proposition that the behavior of children depends absolutely upon the teachings, or even example, of their parents. Yet, this very doctrine is preached long and loud everywhere nowadays. It is the ipse dixit of false "science" and apparently accepted as "law and gospel" by many. This article is inspired by the well-meant but far-fetched remarks of 3 speaker in a public meeting recently, where he — like

146 IMPROVEMENT ERA many others who handle the delicate subject in public — laid all evil to heredity and environment. And this was not in a parents' class, but where it was taught to the young of both sexes, who were necessarily deficient in the ability to weigh and carefully consider matters of such grave importance. A person is naturally led to ask the questions : "Is this doctrine true? Is the logic sound?" If true, let it be known and demonstrated by evidence from a higher source than that obtained by so-called "scientific" calculations. If false, let men and women cease to utter, publicly, at least, a proposition so untenable. Let us for a moment consider heredity, environment, and the proper teaching of children : When man, in his "first primeval childhood," was nurtured by the side of his Heavenly Father and Mother, it is safe to assume, both that these our heavenly parents fully understood the duties and obligations of parenthood and that they duly instructed their offspring as to the course which obedient, dutiful (spiritual) children should pursue. Yet what do we find? Rebellion, when the crucial test came. Will anyone dare to assert that Lucifer. and the host that followed him, when he and they rebelled against the Father, did not, up to that time, and then, share the same heredity and environment as the spirits who proved obedient, faithful and true on that occasion? What about the heredity and environment of Cain and Abel ? Is it not altogether likely that our "first parents," who received instructions first-hand, imparted those instructions to all their children — and not alone to Abel and perhaps a few others ? What about the heredity and environment of Jacob and Esau ? Twins, yet how different in their make-up, though begotten, born, and undoubtedly reared under similar surroundings. Before they were born — their environment was then surely identical — the Lord said to their mother: "Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels^; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people ; and the elder shall serve the younger." There were no ifs and ands about that declaration. So-called "science," today, however, would say, "that depends upon the parents." What about the twelve sons of Jacob? It would be difficult to find twelve brothers more diversified in their behavior than those were.