Those acts which go to form a person’s influence are little things,
but they are potential for good or bad in the lives of others. Though
they are as fleeting as the breath which gave them, their influence is
as enduring as they reach. But may we strive to scatter loving,
cheering, encouraging words, to soothe the weary, and awaken the
nobler feelings of those with whom we daily come in contact.
The cause of great joys, like those of sorrow, are few and far
between, but every day brings us much good if we will but gather it.
All successful men are remarkable, not only for general vigor, but for
their attention. It is often that in view of these facts men will
often neglect. He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will
never do anything. In the complicated and marvelous machinery of
circumstances it is absolutely impossible to decide what would have
happened to some event if the smallest deviation had taken place in
the march of those who preceded them. The little things in youth
accumulate into character in age and destiny in eternity. Little sins
make up the grand total of life. Each day is brightened or clouded.
Great things come but seldom, and are often unrecognized until passed.
If a man conceives the idea of becoming eminent in learning, and
cannot toil through the many drudgeries necessary to carry him on, his
learning will soon be told. Or if he undertakes to become rich, but
despises the small and gradual advances by which wealth is acquired,
his expectations will be the sum of his riches. The successful
business man at home, surrounded by articles of luxury, is a spectacle
calculated to spur on the toiler.
But the merchant at his office has had to work, yes to toil over
columns of figures to post his ledger; and while you were carelessly
spending a dollar, he has ransacked his books to discover what has
become of a stray shilling. Words may seem to us but little things,
but they possess a power beyond calculation. They swiftly fly from us
to others, and we scarcely give them a passing thought.
Failure a Stepping Stone to Success.
It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much
oftener succeed through failure. There were hours of despondency when
Shakespeare thought himself no poet and Raphael no painter, when the
greatest wits doubted the excellence of their happiest efforts.
Many have to make up their need to encounter failure again and again
before they finally succeed, but if they have pluck the failure will
only serve to arouse their energies, and stimulate them to renewed
efforts. No one can tell how many of the world’s most brilliant
geniuses have succeed because of their first failures. Precept, study,
advice and example could never have taught them so well as failure has
done and this latter is often of more importance than the former.
We have read of our late B. T. Washington, we can realize the fact
that from boyhood even till his death, he sought an opportunity,
though the opportunity sometime seemed to be very small. Dr. B. T.
felt the need of an education yes, he felt there was something he
could do someday for the betterment of his race, so he accepted the
small opportunities and after became a man of fame, integrity, and
honor, he did not have the opportunity that most of the boys and girls
have today, but because of his determination he was able to live and
die a man of fame and honor.
Young Ladies and Gentlemen; a great deal has been done to help improve
to the race, but do you know there is still more to be done, and there
is something that we can do. There is more expected of us today than
it was expected of men years ago; so we must begin work more earlier
in life. Young Ladies and Gentlemen; let us put our whole heart mind
and brains to work to help improve our race; though we may fail but
from this failure we can organize future success.
We may wish ourselves great but unless we do something we shall
forever be a wisher.
We must realize that our ways in this world is like a wall under a row
of trees, checked with light and shade, and because we cannot all walk
along in the sunshine, we therefore, fix upon the darker passages and
so lose all the comfort of the cheering ones. There is no royal road
to success, the road that leads to success lies through fields of
hard, earnest and patient labor, it calls on the young man and woman
put forth all energy, and bids him build well his foundation, go to
success since it will not come to you, and remember even as steel is
tempered by heat, and through much hammering and changing original
form, is at last wrought into useful articles, so in the history of
many men do we find that they were attempered in the furnace of trials
and afflictions.
Let us then strive against despondency, even when the way before us is
both dark and dreary it still is worse than useless to give away to
despondency. Energy and proper afflictions may recover what you have
lost; take heart; pluck up courage; give not over to despondency; by
confronting the evils of life they will lose their force.
We are able to know today that intelligence has awakened and spreaded
out her hands, and from time immemorial intellectual endowment have
been crowned with bays of honor, men have worshiped at the sign of
intellect with almost an eastern idolatry, the world at large has
crowned education with its richest honors, its pathway has been strewn
with flowers, its brow has won the loftiest plume, and now we own
schools, we must prepare ourselves to meet the demand of the world,
rouse ourselves, and do not allow our best years to slip past because
we have not succeeded as we thought we would. Why; because the man who
never failed is a myth. If we fail now and then do not be discouraged.
It is indeed a happy providence that given to mankind the bright
shining sun of hope to dispel the gloom of despondency. We have all
seen the sunburst from behind the clouds and light up a storm swept
landscape.
The trouble is, that many of us when we are under any affliction, are
troubled with certain malicious melancholy, never take notice of the
most benighting ones.
We must bear in mind that it is only the past and experience of every
successful man. The most successful men oftener have the most
failures. These failures which to the feeble are mere stumbling
blocks, to the strong serve to remove the scales from their eyes so
that they now see clearer, and go on their way with a firmer tread and
more determined mien, and compel life to yield to them its most
enduring trophies.
The world is not coming to an end, nor society going to destruction,
because our petty plans have miscarried. The present failure should
only teach us to be more wary in the future and this will gather a
rich harvest as the final outcome of our efforts. The most successful
men oftener has the most failures. So if success were to crown our
efforts now, where would be the great success of our future.