Indiana University - Arbutus Yearbook (Bloomington, IN)

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JI3ineteEn l unDreD jFouttccn THE SONS OF MARY AND THE SONS OF MARTHA MR. KlI ' I.IXi; liAS LATICI.V WKITTICN A POEM EN- title.l, The Sons of Martha. The alhision is to the l ' )il)le story whicli tells how Martha, who was cumbered with iiuich serving, while Mary sat at Tesus feet, came to jesus and said, Lord dost thou not care that my sister hatli left nie to serve alone? I ' .id her therefore that she help me. Whereupon Jesus answered and said, Martha, Martha, thou art trou- bled about many things. I ' .ut one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part whicli sliall not be taken away from her. Mr. Kipling has taken the part of Martha, and her kind — of that great company who he savs, —must wait upon Mary ' s Sons— world without end, re- prieve, or rest. It is their care in all the ages to take the huffet and cushion the shock ; It is their care that tlie gear engages ; it is their care that the switches lock. They finger death at their glove ' s end when they piece and repiece the living wires. He rears against the gates they tend : tliev feed him hungry behind their fires. To these from birtli is Belief forliiddcn ; from these till death is relief afar, — They are concerned with matters hidden, — under the earth line their alters are. Lift ye the stone, or cleave the wood, to make a path more fair or fiat, — Lo I it is black already with blood some Sons of .Martha spilled for that. Meanwhile, he says, the Sons of Mary —sit at the Feet, and they hear The Word— they know how truly the promise runs. They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and— the Lord He lays it on Alartha ' s Sons. My friends, the matter of these lines deeplv concerns vou. For in truth most of you are the children of .Martha. You are to be cumbered with much .serving. Vou are to bear the burden and heat of the days. You are to be weary with the work which ou have chosen. ar:d intolerably weary with the drudgery which vou have not chosen, ' ou are to enter fine fields of enter- prise and to see yourselves grow quickly old with only a little accomplished. You are to begin in the freedom

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PRESIDENT WILLIAM LOWE BRYAN

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SnDiana 2Jnitiersitp arbutus 1)1 ciiuh anil (iu are lu end each in his own prison of habits. Y(jii are to face society bearing its ancient nereiHtary linrden of tasks, of iniquities, of sorrows, and to find presently tliat something of all this has been laid upon you. This, as Kipling sees, is the bitter por- tion of the Children of Martha. Xevertheless, vou can bear all this with patience, with courage, even with deepening happiness — on one ' condition. On one condition not found in Kipling ' s Pagan Psalm of Labor }0u can meet life at its hardest without inner defeat. This one condition of life for the Sons of Martha is some share in the vision of the Sons of Mary. It is, I think, a most certain fact of history that men have not lived bv bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of ( iod. The magic words of the Sons of lary in every generation have done as much ti keep i mr race from perishing as the bread which they have eaten. There is corn every year upon the ISanks of Deer- creek, but none so precious as the song that grew there one day. The Spartans had no poet. They borrowed one. And thev believed that they won battles partly with their spears and partlv with the songs of the crippled Tyrtaeus, ] Ioses led the Israelites forty years through the Wilderness. He fed them with Manna from day to day. But he gave them the law. And the plain fact of his- tory is that their faith in the law has made the Israel- ites a nation which fortv centuries have not been able to ilestroy. The ' oman of Samaria drew water from the city well for the day ' s need. But by that well Jesus spoke wiirds which go home to the deepest thirst of man, the thirst for a life in which he can believe with all his heart. And so I sav to you, oh Children of Martha, you must do the work ; you were made for that. You must meet danger ; it takes risks to make a man. But alas ! If vou must do these things with a silent and darken- ing heart ! It need not be so. You can meet life sing- ing, — as the best men and the great races have always done — songs of cheer, songs of courage, songs of in- destructible hope, the songs of the useless Sons of Marv,