Show FALLING AND RISING in the th way of elevating EleT Eleva atIns ones mental and moral blosat standard any body can fall below his average cc standard without an effort no one can rise above his average average stan standard darl without an all effort this suggests the direction in which our ought to be constantly making unless we try to gain we shall never advance unless we try to gain we shall dro drop backward it is just here that so much depends on our ideals in our minds and in ili our models if we have the inspiration sp lation and the incitement of a noble aspiration or of a noble example we are arc likely to be striving to be better than our best if thera there is nothing nothing not hinc I 1 before us which we reco recognize nize as beyond our own hir highest highest 0 hest attainment we are in danger of f failing ailin to keep up with our former mark of pro progress ress one of the bright stories of margaret gatty tells of a schoolboy school boy who had a high reputation tio as a mimic it seemed a 3 though he could be just like any one whom he pleased to imitate but a wiser friend asked him to show how the handsomest boy in ili the school looked and how the best speaker declaimed then as the young mimic found himself quite incompetent to this lie realized that all of his power of imitation lay in ili the direction of lowering his own standard and of mimicking defects which had not net yet become hi his sown own and it would be well if others also realized this truth as to their power of imitation it isso much easier to fall than to rise blessed is he whose inspiring ideal in ili his friendships and in his spiritual life is way above his present possibilities of attainment S S limes |