852 



GLEA^s'l^GS Ih BEE CULTURE. 



JSov. 



and death. Kememberthat ambition is a tire, which, 

 uncontrolled, will burn out your life; but control- 

 led it will keep you warmed lor noble action." 

 Then, " with an egoism which," some one has said, 

 "can be justified only by his consciousness of di- 

 vinity," he ends by holding himself up as the only 

 embodiment of true ambition and genuine great- 

 ness. " Follow in my footsteps," he says, " and you 

 loo shall become truly great." 



(Jenuine greatness, then, is my theme for this 

 morning. And now to specify some lessons herein 

 contained, it is evident: 



1. That the world has its own ideas as to what 

 constitutes greatness. This, Jesus implies when he 

 says, " Ye know that they which are accounted to 

 rule over the gentiles exercise lordship over them; 

 and their great ones exercise authority upon 

 them." This plainly expresses the popular idea of 

 greatness. It is to exercise authority of some kind 

 that is to be held meritorious for some act or word. 

 There is no way of detlning so general a conception 

 as greatness, yet we may say that it "always de- 

 notes pre-eminence of some kind." If you should 

 undertake to give me your ideas as to just what 

 constitutes greatness, no doubt there would be a 

 vast difference of opinion. Some would associate 

 it with the triumph of the warrior, and would hold 

 up such a man as the late General Sheridan as their 

 ideal; others would think of eloquence, or profi- 

 ciency in music or art, and would name such men 

 as Gladstone, Handel, and Raphael; others would 

 mention the thorough scholar of wide research, 

 such as Humboldt; very llKely Goethe or Milton 

 would be the model of true greatness to some one 

 of a poetical turn of mind; and to those who wor- 

 ship at the shrine of wealth, a Rothschild or Van- 

 derbilt would seem to leave nothing to be desired. 

 Few, oh how few! would think of mentioning the 

 lowly Man of Nazareth! Indeed, I have preached to 

 audiences, and have said that Jesus Christ was the 

 greatest man on the historical page, and have seen 

 smiles and heard sneers in reply. A celebrated lit- 

 erary critic has well shown his idea of greatness in 

 saying that Jesus Christ never uttered an original 

 word— as though to be original is to be truly great.* 

 O friends, we are so narrow, so egotistical, so foolish, 

 and unacquainted with every thing that is truly 

 noble and worthy. The rich are only too often full 

 of sneers for the poor, and the college graduate is 



* Until the point embodied in the above, I was not 

 only in perfect accord with the speaker, but I had 

 been fondly thinking he had uttered no thought 

 but I myself had given before; but at the sugges- 

 tionnthat originality is not greatness, T began to ex- 

 amine my own heart. Perhaps some of you may 

 know that I have for years prided myself on my 

 originality. The matter which tills the pages of 

 Gleanings is nearly all original. The title of our 

 bee-journal, our methods of advertising, etc., are 

 almost all unlike those of the rest of the world; but 

 never, until this present moment, d)d it occur to 

 me that I was taking prid*' in all this. 1 had been 

 fondly thinking, that to be original is to be great. 

 May God forgive me if I have been unconsciously 

 using a gift that }ie has ijiven, in a way to give oth- 

 ers pain. Several brothers have of late spoken of 

 our manner of advertising, by saying, at the end of 

 the advertisement, " Nothing patented." It is true, 

 I have a perfect right to give my inventions to the 

 world, without getting patents, if I choose; but I 

 have not a right to advertise that I do this, in a 

 way that will crowd upon any brother. I delight 

 in being a servant; I delight in serving my fellow- 

 men; but I do not want to monopolize in any thing, 

 nor do I want to use any expression that would in- 

 dicate I love power or authority. 



so Likely to look down upon the unlettered man. 

 Ah! we must learn that genuine greatness is some- 

 thing that lies far removed from occupation or po- 

 sition in life. We must come to recognize the fact 

 that ditch-digging and driving railroad spikes, or 

 digging potatoes and peddling milk are just as hon- 

 orable occupations as preaching the gospel, teach- 

 ing Greek in the college, or controlling large bank- 

 ing interests. + 



There is, as some one has said, a continual cry in 

 these days to " rise liiglier;" as though every man 

 could be expected to possess so much money, or, 

 leaving his shovel and pick, to enter the schools and 

 go through to graduation. This cry is becoming a 

 curse in the sense it is used. It is creating a rest- 

 lessness in the world at large. The great solid mass 

 of men that lies at the base of all society feels that 

 it is degraded and looked down upon, and wrongly 

 treated; and with as false conceptions of true 

 greatness as have those who sneer at them, they 

 are breeding dissatisfaction day by day in their en- 

 deavt)rs to gain notoriety or wealth. And yet how 

 foolish it is! All these positions must be occupied. 

 Those in wealthy and intellectual circles can no 

 more live without the under classes that drudge 

 and dig than they can live without air and water. 

 Neither can those who are obliged to carry on man- 

 ual labor live without those capable of directing 

 their efforts and of carrying on the complex and 

 world-wide affairs of commerce. Therefore for 

 the " upper and lower classes," as they are falsely 

 called, to scorn each other is wrong.:? True genu- 

 ine greatness dwells in the valleys as well as on the 

 mountain-top. In the popular sense it is impossi- 

 ble for the vast majority to " rise higher. " There 

 is not " always room at the top." Let us then 

 cease to lay false and rigid requirements on each 

 other, irrespective of station in life. Let the word 



tAt this point I felt strongly that God laid upon 

 my sliouWers a responsibility, and that, if I did not 

 say " amen " 1 shouldn't be doing my duty. It is 

 very seldom if ever that anybody in our church be- 

 sides myself says amen to any point the minister 

 may make, although we frequently have amens in 

 our prayer-meetings. I have sometimes wondered 

 why God should lay this responsibility on me and 

 not on others; but very frequently points in ser- 

 mons come up, whereon I feel that 1 am in duty 

 bound to respond. I have examined my heart, and 

 I am sure that I do not say amen because I take 

 pride in being thought singular or original. There 

 are times when it seems to me it is cowardly to let 

 the speaker feel that he is alone in his opinion, and 

 that he has no backing. Some years ago our pas- 

 tor, in his sermon, declared it was his belief that 

 the saloon that did business only a tew doors away 

 from our church would be banished by public sen- 

 timent inside of two years. I felt then that the 

 time had come for me to second his declaration 

 with a loud amen. The thing that he predicted 

 came to pass, and I am not sure but that my amen 

 helped to bring it about. In the same way 1 feel 

 called upon to say amen to the statement that dig- 

 ging potatoes is just as honorable as preaching the 

 gospel, or controlling large banking interests. May 

 God be praised that it is my privilege to dig pota- 

 toes, at least part of the time. I wonder if we 

 shouldn't hear an amen from brother Terry, if he 

 were near enough by. 



:|: May God help us in this our time of trial with 

 the labor strikes, the anarchists, and the conflict 

 between labor and capital. Lord Jesus, help us all; 

 and help me to remember, through my daily toil, 

 that, without labor, cai>ital would be nothing; and 

 without capital, labor would be nothing; and may 

 his great love so fill all our hearts that he who con- 

 trols the banking interests may feel neighborly and 

 friendly toward the one who digs potatoes or who 

 digs ditches by the sweat of his face. 



