Delay Loses Fortune. REV. H. A. GOBIN, D.D., Dean of De Pauw University, Indiana. OME virtues seem to be opposed to each other. Energy is quite unlike patience, caution stands over against courage, and independence is not suggestive of humility. But this opposition is more in appearance than in reality. Each of these qualities keeps the other in proper limits. An excellency can easily be perverted into a fault. An excess of courage becomes rashness. An extreme caution is timidity. But where courage is restrained by caution, and caution is quickened by courage, then symmetry and force of character are produced. Energy, courage, and independence are positive qualities. They incite to activity. They generate and sustain great enterprises. Modern civilization is the product of these characteristics. The passive virtues-humility, patience, and meekness— would have no value if not associated with the above positive traits. Even justice and equity would have no existence if there were no heroic spirits to define, illustrate, and maintain them. The absence of positive traits in any life is sure to work disaster. No advantage of birth or position can be a substitute for them. When the Prince of Coburg was engaged in his war with the Turks, he commanded, in person, an army of thirtyseven thousand men. He was defeated by an army of twentyeight thousand. About nine miles distant was his general Suvoroff with an army of twenty-two thousand. When Coburg was defeated, he sent the following sorry message to Suvoroff: "I was attacked this morning by the Turks. I have lost my position and my artillery. I send you no instructions what to do. Use your own judgment, only let me know what you have done as soon as you can." Suvoroff immediately sent this stinging reply: "I shall attack the Turks to-morrow morning, drive them from your position, and retake your cannon." Suvoroff kept his word, and before the next night Coburg had his old position and his artillery. Coburg was a prince by heredity, but Suvoroff was more than a prince by achievement. Coburg would have lost everything by his irresolution and delay had it not been for the alertness and vigor of Suvoroff. Human life is an incessant conflict. Hence the constant use of military illustrations to represent the qualities and conditions of a successful life. The Prince of Peace said, "I came not to bring peace but a sword." Peace as an ultimate condition is the result of a victorious conquest. Even divine love meets the resistance of the human cross in coming to the hearts of men. In some cases a crown comes to a brow by the accident of heredity. But the crown represents some preceding conflict. The crown was first worn by a conqueror before it could be transmitted. The world will soon insist that crowns can be worn only by those who achieve them. There will be no transmitted crowns. Heredity is losing all its advantages as a basis of preferment. This is true not only in the political world, but in every walk of life. The supreme question is not, who is his father? or, what is his family? but, who is he? What has he done? What can he do? Fortunes are lost by delay not merely as to acquisition on the part of the low born, but fortunes are lost by delay as to retention on the part of the high born. In our public schools the sons of the richest sit side by side with the sons of the poorest. They study the same lessons; they recite to the same teacher. Their tasks are the same. It will not do to say to the poor boy, "Be spry, my lad. Work quick and fast. No time for delay. You have your fortune to gain, your crown to win," but to the rich boy say, "How happy you are! You don't need to study. Your fortune is made. You are rich by inheritance." All observation shows that as much tact and energy are needed in keeping fortunes as in gaining them. A most conspicuous scene in every community is the decay and wretchedness of rich families. Scarcely a neighborhood but that an example can be found of a fortune lost by the delay to acquire the mental and moral traits necessary in the safe conduct of business affairs. It will not do to charge these misfortunes to "bad luck." Addison wrote in the Spectator his view of this apology respecting the decline of English families: "I may here as well as anywhere impart the secret of what is called good and bad luck. "There are men who, supposing Providence to have an implacable spite against them, bemoan in the poverty of a wretched old age the misfortunes of their lives. Luck forever runs against them and for others. One, with a good profession, lost his luck in the river, where he idled away his time a fishing, when he should have been in the office. Another, with a good trade, perpetually burned up his luck by his hot temper, which provoked all his customers to leave him. Another, with a lucrative business, lost all his luck by amazing diligence at everything but his business. He gave his golden hours to games, races, and yarn-spinning company, and came back to his books and accounts with brains dull and heavy as lead. Another who steadily followed his trade, as steadily followed his battle. Hundreds lose their luck by indorsing, by sanguine speculations, by trusting fraudulent men, and by dishonest gains. I never knew an early-rising, hard-working, prudent man, careful of his earnings and strictly honest, who complained of bad luck. A good character, good habits, and iron industry are impregnable to the assaults of all the ill luck that fools ever dreamed of." This description, written at the beginning of the eighteenth century, is just as appropriate for the close of the nineteenth. "Bad luck" is generally a fool's apology for his incompetency and indolence. The chief reason why more men and women do not make a better success of life is not because they are ignorant of the true conditions of thrift, but because they delay to put these conditions into immediate and constant use. A Spanish proverb says, "The road of by and by' leads to the town of 'never."" The wild boy and frivolous girl say, "Time enough to be sober minded when I get old; now is the time for fun." But the days are flying by; even the years are going too fast, and the unfortunate youth is getting more and more of a dislike for serious work. Fun is a just and delightful relaxation after hours of steady employment. But fun as a business becomes a sorrowful task. Fun is the condiment which gives more relish to solid meats; but who could become healthy and strong on a diet of pepper sauce and bonbons? The first meaning of the word relaxation is a release from tension and confinement. It can only be a luxury when it is the rebound from the girding up in noble toil. If one should ask, "How can I get the sweetest sport, the richest fun, the finest pleasure?" the answer would be, "Put the most of your time to solid labor and then, when you unbend for amusement, you get the full flow of enjoyment unrestrained by a consciousness that you are neglecting important duties." If the evening of life is to be an occasion of rest and congenial society, then the forenoon must be given in a worthy manner to a worthy business. What affliction is more distressing than poverty in old age! When the old are poor, they are generally lonely, or worse than lonely, by the frowns and tones which indicate that they are an incumbrance. But if they have a competency in property and income, they will not need for pleasant friends. It is not worth while to get angry at such a condition of things, and rave and vituperate that none are so deserving of comfort and friends as the aged who are poor. Complaining will only increase the solitude and wretchedness. Instead of attempting to reconstruct society in order to adapt it to your future misfortunes, better construct your life so that you will enjoy good fortune to the end of your days. The best way to do this is to get the best possible wisdom of earth and heaven and without delay put this into your mind and con |