Elmhurst College - Elms Yearbook (Elmhurst, IL)

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2 oim His principles are such as require little or no sacrifice of earthly desire to uphold them ; or of such a nature that he may be able to justify his conduct suitable to the occasion. It is a simple affair to lay down principles such as have just been described. It is about as easily done as the principles are kept and lived. In deciding his guiding principles one must be honest with ones self and stand for the truth, as it is revealed to us in that model life, which was lived by Him, who should always be our pattern. We do not only find truth at the bottom of the religious and moral life, but also at the bottom of our social life; we find it in the scientific and the philosophical world. Truthfulness is what binds men together, so that it is possible, that society may be able to exist. The greatest detriment to society is a dishonest man, the hypocrite, generally known as a two-faced man. If men want to live and associate like human beings, men must be able to trust and believe their neighbors. You will observe, that in an ordinary conversation everybody wishes to hear the trath. Therefore, it is our duty to society, always to speak the truth regardless of the consequences. Let us consider just for a moment the relationship between a child and its parents. The innocent child is ever confident in its parents, because it has never been deceived by them. Supposing now that men know nothing of deceit and every man could look upon his brother without any suspicion whatsoever, what would our world look like? It would be an ideal; we would have true Christian brotherhood. But now it is impossible, because dishonesty has found room in the lives of men. Therefore it is our duty to society, to ever stand for truth and fight falsehood with courage. Dr. Faustus spent his entire life, seeking for wisdom, but when he arrived at old age and looked back upon his past life, he considered it an utter failure. Why? Just because he had spent a life-time in accumulating a large amount of knowledge and yet not the real truth. It is the determination to get the truth that urges men of great thinking capacities to investigate the phenomena of nature through science and phil- osophy. The thinking man wants nothing but the trutli; nothing else will gratify his desires. This proves that there is room in him for nothing but the truth and we should always help him to find it. We have spoken largely of principles and ideals. Truth is to us only an ideal: it is something, that we must strive for, but cannot attain. Man, as perfect as God created him, had no room for dishonesty; but it is said and claimed, that the finest constructed machines are the easiest to be broken. This was the case with man. The lie was the first foreign quality to enter into his heart and the foundation of a perfect character was forever destroyed. Seeing now, that peifection is imi)ossible, and that our ideals cannot be attained, we must turn for mercy to Mini, who alone is the truth. This requires no more than a strong faith in Christ, for Christianity is a religion of faith. This is necessary, because our Redeemer is the personification of truth, and we must accept Him, for what He has sftid of Himself as to Ills l)cing. In order to become His disciples we must follow His example and stand for ■Truth without fear.

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Class Motto: Veritas Sine Timore Edwin J. Koch. These words challenge every inclividual to live a life of principles, based upon the fundamental of a Christian character. It challenges us to lay down all we possess in wealth, happiness and reputation for our conviction of right and wrong. Yes, and if ever we are in such a dilemna, that we must choose between life and truth, it would be our victory to choose truth. For what is life that has been stained with untruthful- ness and deceit? It is like a blossom, which has been separated from its mother plant and it is left to wither and to lose its identity with those blossoms that are still attached to the stem, living and receiving life from their original source. The life that is tainted with a lie, is being severed from the source of life and will soon fade away and cease to be the same as that which was given to us by God. The Bible tell us, God cannot lie, and referring to this quotation Robert E. Speer says, If God could lie. He would no longer be a Godlike God to us. And from this we conclude, that God, who cannot lie, would not provide for falsehood in that being, which he has created after His image. Hence untruthfulness is a foreign quality to us and if we permit it to enter into our life, we are denying our true Father and are becoming children of him, who is the father of lies. Therefore we must be alert and determined to fight this our enemy with great courage and must not retreat; for to retreat is to betray the truth. We must ever charge him without fear. Let us ask ourselves this question, If we are in the right, is there any object to fear? There is but one and that is to do the wrong. There are many things in life that we fear and it requires courage and strength to overcome them. First of all, we find these obstacles in nature or they are made up of those animals, that look upon us as enemies and rivals, but the greatest obstacles are found in our own flesh. One animal fears and begrudges another animal that is of a different species, because instinct tells animals, that there is a constant struggle, between species for the survival of the fittest. In the same way man must fight for his existance and he does it; but this is not his chief problem. The beast merely exists, but man must live. This soul of man, that was given to him by God must be kept as pure as it was given to him and it should above all be used for noble purposes. Our life must be molded into a character and at the bottom of this must lie the truth. We have stated above, that falsehood and all the evils that are associated with it, are foreign to us and tend to desecrate our lives and to defile our bodies. Like the animals that fight another species for their existance, we must fight and destroy all those obstacles, which are detrimental to the development of a noble and Christian character. We must fight courageously for there is a great reward for him, who fights a good fight. The greatest reward is the victory itself, that one has upheld his principles tho the test was severe. Victory will give courage and confidence to the victor to continue to stand for principles and to strive for high ideals. Anyone will readily admit, that it no easy task to uphold the principles under all circumstances, but on the contrary that it is a difficult matter and requires moral courage and moral strength. But there is, it seems to me, a still greater problem, namely that of laying down the principles in life. There are many people, who declare that principle is impractical and cannot be applied. There may be such a thing as an impractical principle, but the criticism in many cases is unjust. The fault lies with the person, because he has not enough courage to adapt himself to any rigorous principles. Pacjc 26

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