1884.] THINGS WHICH SEEM WORTHLESS. 95 



to bestow a thought upon the difference between what may be 

 called latent value, which turns upon capacity for service, and real- 

 ized value, which depends upon service actually performed. It is 

 not enough to know that a thing can serve us, we must actually 

 enforce that service. That product which is intended for market 

 must be sold, and that designed for use must be used, if they are 

 to be worth anything to us. And with many things the period of 

 service is so brief that we must act promptly if we would secure it. 

 "Delays are dangerous," the proverb says. In practice, I believe 

 very much of value is lost through delay. Where one man sells 

 his product prematurely, ten men delay too long. And we many 

 times lose the value of things by neglecting to use them at the 

 right time. 



Something like this is true also of what we are, as well as of 

 what we possess. "What are we worth, is a question of importance 

 to each one of us. We must point to the service we actually ren- 

 der for an answer. Dormant power, and facilities unemployed 

 will count for nothing, and none of us has any capital of this 

 nature that he can afford to have uncounted. I think, and so 

 thinking prefer to say it outright, that the full value of things can 

 be realized, only when a rehgious element enters into life and 

 work. I do not mean adhesion to any particular creed, or observ- 

 ance of any particular routine of religious exercise, but rather a 

 recognition of the obligations of life and an honest effort to dis- 

 charge them. Religion means right relations everywhere. Look- 

 ing inward, it manifests itself in self knowledge and self-mastery. 

 Looking abroad, it works out in recognition of all rights, and per- 

 formance of all duties. Looking upward, it flowers and fruits in 

 glad obedience to the Good Power which formed us and fixed our 

 place, and ordered all our surroundings. Looking forward, it finds 

 courage to face the mystery in front, with faith and hope, drawn 

 from trust in an all-controlling power which works in love, and 

 sees the end from the beginning. 



To one thus furnished, and thus qualified, all values come. The 

 title deeds to large estates may not be his. Stocks and bonds he 

 may not possess, but he has a hold upon the real use and service 

 of things, which can be acquired in no other way. He has begun 

 at the right point to remove the unbarmony and correct the mal- 

 adjustment which are the main sources of worthlessness. 



The one thing of most inherent worth, in all the universe, is 



