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Show SUPERIOR WORTH f Mill LIFE How Many Things in Our Existence Exist-ence Are, After All, Worth While. WILLIAM THURSTON BROWN AT UNITARIAN CHURCH For Liberty, Equality and Fraternity Fra-ternity Do the Centuries . Conic and fio. At tho Unitarian church Sunday morning William Thurston Brown took for his subject, "What Arc You Wort h?" Ainong-othcr things, he sni'd: What, are you worth? What Is your product? What aro tho Hilars In this life of ours which havo enduring value? This man moves so many cubic feet of earth In tho city streets. That man sells 60 many articles of merchandise over the counter of a store. This woman covers cov-ers so many pages of ledger or day-book with figures or accounts, writes so many letters, does so much office work. That woman performs tho tasks her housekeeping house-keeping imposes. Somo of us aro hunting hunt-ing no procedepte In the law In ordor to win the case of our client In court. Some of us are experimenting-on various forms of so-called disease. Some of us aro carrying out a proscribed pro-scribed course of studies with a view to" the education of children. Wo are answering, an-swering, in one way or another, thu demands de-mands which society and custom havo together to-gether created. How much docs It all mean? How much real value Is there in II all? TIow far Is it a real fulfillment of our life? Is thoro .something to como of all this effort which mokes it worth while, something that fits It into tho eternal eter-nal plan of tilings, somothlng that commands com-mands a worthy verdict in a higher court than that of popular opinion or unreasoning unrea-soning custom? It Is not given to men and womon to part the curtain of the future and rend its verdict upon tho deeds and thoughts and products of men. But it Is given to men to see far back Into the past, and that power carries with It almost tho powor to read the future. What was It that counted In tho past? What aro tho things that havo lived? And what aro tho things whleh havo not lived? Three thousand years ago thoro wero men In Egypt who pondered those samo questions, ques-tions, and yonder in the valley of tho Nile stands their answer the massive, sil?nt. pyramids. What say these monuments monu-ments to tho world three thousand, four thousand years afterward? Do they sneak of tho immortality of tho Phara-oIib? Phara-oIib? Have limy preserved In any way the lives and hopes of those who caused thorn to be built? , That Is what the Pharaohs thought and Intended. And whilo those stately tombs wero rising, stone on stone, at the cost of myriads of enslaved men, tho first prophol of Israol tho first man who was remembered remem-bered in all tho after years ns one who "spoke for God" was cherishing a faith In freedom and an Ideal of human worth for the slaves who built those pyramids, In comparison with which all the wealth and pomp of Egypt wore and arc as floct-Ing floct-Ing footprints In tho shifting sands of the seashore. Tho pyramids are here, but they arc" a wltno.ss to the cruelty and folly of men whose names only survive. The world nowhere contains a stono lo mark the spot where the body of Moses returned to dust, but the truth and worth of the ideals he cherished and the faith ho held and gave his life for nr fixed as the stars in tho skies of human rev-eronco rev-eronco and esteem. Not uYitil the hiimnu soul Is dead and our race has reverted to tho beasts can Moses ccaso to be an inspiration in-spiration to mankind. Very Little Remains. Of the American cities of a hundred years ago very little remains today. Of the American cltlos of today, how little will remain a few hundred years hence! No work of human hands has promise of immortality unless It Is capable of appealing ap-pealing to tho reverence, the admiration, the worship of tho soul. It Is not a material ma-terial monument that any of us Is building. build-ing. How evanescent, how trivial, how shaJowy seem tho things wo do, the buildings wo erect, tho whole material output of our effort, In the long perspective perspec-tive of centuries! These things -lo not stay. These do not possess tho substance sub-stance of Immortality. What Is It that stuys? What is It that makes up any American city, so far as It has any inspiring in-spiring meaning, any lasting worth? What Is it thnt makes America, so far as the word Is capable of thrilling tho souls of men and women with gratitude and hope and -Joy? Is It the number or size or splendor of our houses? 13 It the number or size of our cities, the extent of our territory, our commerce, our wealth, our army and navy? Is it not rather our character, if we have any? MuBt. It not be some superior wortli of moral life, some splendor of social or civic Ideal, some attainment of gentleness gentle-ness and sympathy and justlco that may give worthy meaning to the namo of our city or Stnte or nation will make them a real heritage to those who shall come after us? These cities of ours are nothing under heaven but possible heaps of ruins and not at all such splendid heaps of ruins as Thebes, or Memphis, or Pompeii, or other cities of the ancient time tliey are, mere piles of useless debris, apart from the moral power they possess. Their journey, whether long or short. Is to the dumping ground of tho world's cast-off refuse, if their most cherished wealth bo not the riches of the soul. They can give nothing, be nothing, to our sons and daughters, that is for a moment worthy of their thought, nothing that Is not a sacrilege of their lives, a defeat of tho very ends of their existence, If they do not give them higher Ideals, noble ambitions, ambi-tions, and point the way to worth of character. char-acter. And this America of which we boast, whose only worth or value nothing In all our Fourth-of-July celebrations will even remotely suggest this America, whose very name was for nearly a century cen-tury like tho morning star of promise to souls in every land to whom every door of hope was shut, because It seemed to stand for freedom, equality, fraternity this America which litis cost such a tremendous tre-mendous price in blood and treasure, has no meaning and no worth to any human soul, can be only a disappointment and a sham, will take Its place side by side with the dlscardod and forgotten empires of the past, unless It. has for all men some clear, sure word of God to speak a word of life, of liberty, of Justice, of brotherhood. Abides Plight of Tlmo. There Is one product of humnn toll that abides the flight of time. Thoro Is one treasure, and only ono, that grows not old. There Is ono occupation, and only one. to which you and I and all men are called. All others are mere shadows. shad-ows. Ah surely as in any day that ever was, so surely now, your life and mine count here or anywhere only as It speaks some word of eternal Truth and Goodness, Good-ness, only as it makes some -spiritual deposit, de-posit, only as It erects the fair structure of noble character, only as It takes on something of the grace and bonuty and virtue of tho Power above, beneath, and within us all, that, makes for righteousness. righteous-ness. Liberty, equality fraternity for these, and for no material tiling, our hands can touch or our senses know do the years nnd centuries como and go. All other things will rot but these shall llvo and grow, and he alone has any promlso of immortality, any hold on tho life eternal, who links his being with these immortal things, who lives his life as If these were the universe's final law. |