The Choctaw Freedmen Part 34

"When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; When health is lost, something is lost; When character is lost, all is lost."

Character. "Character is not what we think, feel or know; but what we are. Character is being; and it is infinitely n.o.bler to be than to have, or know, or do. The rank, value and dignity of character cannot be overestimated. The confidence of the whole world on which trade, empires, homes and real happiness are built is confidence in character.

Character is the great end; moral and spiritual education is the greatest means to attain that end."--Martin.

Character is personal power, the poor boy's best capital and the success, that makes him greater than his occupation. The weak wait for opportunities, but the strong seize them and make even common occasions great.

The world honors success. G.o.d honors faithfulness. The world commends worldly achievements, but G.o.d rewards character.

Every student should endeavor to build up the community in which he lives commercially, socially and religiously.

Beware of strangers that come to you full of smooth talk and clad in fine clothing. The tree, book, land and other agents sometimes prove helpful. But you will be happier and more prosperous, if you will send for a catalog and get just what you need, and at cost. You will thereby avoid the expensiveness and uncertainty of doing business through a nicely dressed, but irresponsible stranger.

The upright exert a blessed influence long after their departure from the earth. They are remembered in the home, the social circle and the church.

"That man exists, but never lives, Who much receives but nothing gives; But he who marks his busy way, By generous acts from day to day, Treads the same path his Savior trod, The path to glory and to G.o.d."

Education. Everything from a pin to an engine has its cost and someone must pay the price.

In education the material is human and the product is a new and living worker for the world's work. The material and moral progress of the world has been princ.i.p.ally due to the work of educated men and women.

Education has its cost, but the profit of a good christian education is vastly greater than its cost. It pays to educate young people who are christians, that they may become leaders in thought and action.

"A good education enables one to manifest goodness and not badness.

Drawing out all the good qualities of head and heart, it magnifies them and suppresses the bad ones. If this seems hard, it should be remembered that all things of value are obtained only by effort."

"For every evil under the sun There's a remedy, or there's none, If there is one, try and find it; If there is none, never mind it."

"A clear and legible handwriting is one of the best means of giving a stranger an impression of force of character, self-control and capacity for skilled work. It wins favor by making the reading of it easy and a source of pleasure. It is one of the crowning attainments of a well cultured life."--Spencer.

"Success follows those who see and know how to take advantage of their opportunity."

The Lord loves to use "the weak things" and "things that are despised."

He loves to put the treasure of His grace into the feeble, that the world may be compelled to ask, "whence hath this man power?" Rev. J. H.

Jowett.

Self education is accomplished by reading good books, with the aid of a dictionary. Get a Bible dictionary for the Bible, and a Webster or Academic dictionary for other books.

Do all things by rule. A good rule tells the right way to do things. If you do not know the rule ask for it. Never violate a known rule. It never pays to do so; the confidence of someone is sure to be forfeited.

Keep Busy. Keep busy and you will keep happy. Read good books when you cannot work. If you call on a friend and he is busy, do not become an idler or make him one. Either help him or read his best books.

Idleness. Idleness is a sin against G.o.d. "Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work." "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." "If any man will not work, neither let him eat." It is also a sin against our nature; causing a slow movement, which is a serious disappointment; tardiness, which is like a dead fly in precious ointment; and, that loathsome disease, laziness. Like drunkenness it is an inexcusable shame, that dooms one to poverty and clothes him with rags. Shun idleness as you do the sting of a hornet, or the bite of a rattler.

"We are not here to play, to dream, to drift, We have our work to do, and loads to lift.

Shun not the struggle; face it. 'Tis G.o.d's gift."

"They are slaves who fear to speak, For the fallen and the weak.

They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think; They are slaves, who dare not be In the right with two or three." Lowell.

Do your best. Put your best efforts in your work, no matter how simple or difficult the task.

"I am pa.s.sing through this world but once. I will therefore do my best every day, and do all the good to all the people I can."

"I do the very best I know how--the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference." Abraham Lincoln.

Efficiency. Efficiency is the ability to perform work in the shortest and quickest way, by omitting every useless movement.

Faith. Faith rests on facts and realities. It is the basis of home and business. "It swings the rainbow across the dark clouds, makes heroes in life's battles, extracts the poison from Satan's arrows and links us to G.o.d and the good in heaven."

Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty, as we understand it. With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as G.o.d gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish, the work we are in.

Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg.

Gladness. Gladness is sown for the upright. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Manifest your joy and gladness by wearing the smile of contentment and love. It includes a sparkle in the eye, a little ripple on the cheek and the kind word that "never dies."

"Smile and the world smiles with you, Laugh and the world will roar, Growl and the world will leave you, And never come back any more.

All of us could not be handsome, Nor all of us wear good clothes, But a smile is not expensive, And covers a world of woes."

Energy. Energy is power in action. Stagnant water lacks power, but water in action produces steam, the power that moves the world's machinery and traffic. Knowledge in action means power on the farm, in the home and in the church.

"G.o.d bless the man who sows the wheat, Produces milk and fruit and meat; His purse be heavy, his heart be light, His corn and cattle all go right, G.o.d bless the seed his hand lets fall, The farmer produces the food for all."

Knowledge. Knowledge is power, when it is wisely a.s.sorted, a.s.similated and immediately employed; as is the water of a river, when it is used to produce electric power. The knowledge that leads to sovereign power, includes self-knowledge, self-respect and self-control. The man who does well whatsoever he undertakes, cannot be kept down, except by his own indiscretions.

A good character is essential to the soul winner. It is a false notion that one must meet the world on its own level--drink to win a drinker, smoke to win a smoker, and play the world's games in order to win it to Christ. Richard Hobbs.

Thrift. Thrift consists in increasing the value of our possessions every year, by making good investments of our time and money, and by earning more than is spent for living expenses. "A penny saved is two pence earned."

Our Father in heaven sends no man into this world without a work, and a capacity to perform that work.

"Live for those that love you, For those you know are true; For the cause that lacks a.s.sistance, For the wrong that needs resistance; For the future in the distance: And the good that you can do."

"A fool with a gun or an axe can destroy in five minutes, what it took nature years to perfect and perpetuate."

A little house well filled, A little field well tilled, A good wife well willed, are great riches.

Leaders. Be a leader. A leader does his thinking before hand and endeavors to provide for every need. He must be well informed and know how to arouse interest and stimulate activity. He must discover and adopt only the best methods. The rewards of leadership are a continually increasing power to lead others and the ability to conduct your own life most usefully and happily.

"A good farmer's tools are under shelter; But Pete Tumbledown's lie helter-skelter; And when he wants his tools again He finds them rusty from the rain."

"Divide and conquer," was Joshua's rule of strategy in the conquest of Canaan. "Separate for the march, unite for the attack," was a maxim of Napoleon. Both are good rules for the people in all our churches, in their constant conflict with vice and iniquity.

The n.o.blest man does not always uphold his rights, but waives them for his own good and the good of others. A keen sense of honor, that condemns dishonorable conduct, is one of the finest results of a good education. Education is expected to do for the mind, what sculpture does to a block of marble.

"A merry farmer's girl am I, My songs are gay and blithe; For in my humble country home I lead a free, glad life.

Through fertile fields and gardens mine, I love at will to roam, And as I wander gayly sing, This is my own, free home, My own free home."

Genius. There is no genius like a love for hard work. Hard work develops strength, increases usefulness, and tends to length of days. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Labor conquers all things.

"He lives the best who never does complain, Whether the pa.s.sing days be filled with sun or rain.