Show i I t What Wh at Are A re You y on Worth W ort h Impressive for forCh Character Plea Flea j I i What hat Are You Worth North was the sub subject su subject of an Impressive sermon in the Uni Unitarian Unitarian tarlan church yesterday esterday by b the Rev Hev Witham Wit Wil William VIl liam ham Thurston Brown the What are you worth inquired preacher What That is your product By virtue of what do you claim the respect r of men and the smile of God 1 What V hat are the things in this life lICe of at ours which h have enduring value This mah mart moves motes so many cubic feet pf of earth a 8 day in the city elt streets That man sells so many ar articles articles tides of merchandise over the counter of ofa ofa ofa a store This woman covers so many pages pases of ledger or daybook with gures much of writes so many letters does so the work That yeoman woman performs the tasks her housekeeping imposes Some of off ofus ofus offus us are hunting up precedents of law or trying cases in court Some of us are experimenting on various forms of SQ so called disease Some of us are carrying out a prescribed course of studies in in the thee belief that we are educating youth We Wo are answering in one one on way wa or an another another another other the demands which society and custom have together created How much does it all mean How much is it all allworth allworth allworth worth How far Car Is it a real fulfilment of our being Is there something to copse come of all this effort which makes it worth worthwhile worthwhile worthwhile while something that commands a worthy verdict in a higher court than fleeting popular opinion or unreasoning custom Lessons of the Past It is not given to us men to part the curtains of the future and read its ver verdict verdict verdict dict upon the deeds and thoughts thought and an products of men But it is given to us to see far back bacle Into the past and that power carries with it almost the power to read real the future What was it that counted back yonder vender What hat are the things that have lived What are the things that have not lived Three thousand years ago and more there t ere were men in Egypt who w o pondered these same questions and yonder yon yonder on onder der In the valley alley of the Nile stands their answer the massive mas silent py pyramids What say these monuments to three four thousand years ears afterward Do they thoy speak of the immortality of the Pharaohs Have Hae they the preserved in any anyway anyWaY anyway way tho lives and hopes or those who caused them to be built That is what the Pharaohs intended And while those stately tombs were rising stone on stone at the cost of the lives of myriads of enslaved men the first prophet of Israel the first man who was remembered In all the after years as a aman aman aman man who w o spoke for God was cherishing a faith in freedom free om and an Ideal of human worth for the very slaves who built those pyramids in comparison with which all the wealth and wisdom of Egypt were and andare andare andare are as a mist before the sun The pyramids pr pyramids are here but they the are a witness to the cruelty and folly of men whose names and nothing more survive The world orld no nowhere nowhere nowhere where contains a stone to mark the spot where the body of Moses returned to to dust but the truth and worth of the ideals he ho cherished and the faith he held and gave his life liCe for are fixed as the stars in the sky sit of human reverence and esteem Not until the human soul is dead and our race has ha reverted to the beasts can Moses cease to be an inspiration to mankind Time and Eternity Of the American merican cities of a hundred years ago very little remains today Of the American cities of today how very little will remain ro maln a few hundred years ears from now It Is not a material monument that any an of us Is building How evanes evanescent evanescent evanescent cent how trivial how shadowy shadow seem the things we do the buildings we erect the whole material output of ot our toil toll in the thelong thelong thelong long perspective of the centuries These things do not stay These do not possess the substance of immortality What is it that does stay What Is It that makes up any an American city so far faras faras faras as it has as any inspiring meaning or en enduring enduring enduring during value What is 18 it that makes America so far as that word Is capable of thrilling the souls sauls of men here or any anywhere an anywhere where with gratitude or hope or joy jO Is Isit Isit Isit it the t e number or size or splendor of our houses Is it the number or size of at our cities the extent ext nt of our territory our commerce our wealth our army and navy Is it not rather our pur character our moral power if It we have any Must It not be some splendor of social or civic ideal some attainment of gentleness and sym sympathy sympathy sympathy pathy and justice that may give meaning and worth to the name of our city or state or nation will make them a real heritage to those who shall come after ts qs Riches of the Soul These These cities cities of ours are nothing under tinder heaven but possible heaps of ruins and not at all such splendid heaps of ruins as Thebes or Memphis or Pompeii or others of the ancient anci nt lime they are mere piles plies of useless debris apart from the moral power they possess Their journey Whether long or short Is to the dumping I ground of the worlds castoff refuse If it their most wealth he be not the riches of the soul They rhey can give she nothing amt be nothing to o our sons sins and daughters that Is not a d sacrilege of If their lives a df dp defeat feat cf of the tho ends of their existence if it they th do not give ge them high ideals Ideal noble ambitions and point the way to worth of character And this America of which we boast whose only use UH or value alue nothing in allour all allour allour our Fourth of July Jub celebrations will in even remotely suggest this America whose very name for nearly a century was wa like the morning star of promise to souls sous In every land to whom every door was shut because it seemed to stand for freedom equality fraternity this America which has cost such a tremendous tr price In blood and treasure has no meaning or worth to any human soul can be only a sham and anda i ia a disappointment will take its place side sideby sideby sideby by side with the discarded and forgot forgotten ten empires of the past unless it has for all men some clear dear sure word of God to speak a word of or life of hope of lib liberty liberty liberty erty of justice of brotherhood Promise of Immortality There Thore is one product of our toll toil that abides the flight ht of time There Is one treasure and only one that grows not old There Is one occupation to which you and andI I and all men are called All others are mere shadows As surely sure 1 as in any day da that ever was so surely sure now your life or mine counts counte only as It speaks some word of eternal truth and goodness only as it makes some moral deposit only as It Itis ItIs itis is capable of inspiring men and women only as lIS it takes on something of the beau beauty beauty beauty ty and virtue of the Power above beneath be ben benl all that makes for neath n nl th and within us righteousness Liberty equality fraternity for these th se seand and for no material thing our hands can touch or our senses know do the tha years and centuries come and go All other things shall not but these shall live and and prosper and he alone has any an grow promise of bf immortality any an hold on the the living life eternal any dear relation to God vho who links his life with these immortal im immortal Immortal mortal things who lives his life as if It these were the universes final law |