Waverly High School - Go Hawk Yearbook (Waverly, IA)

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1918 THE PE RISCOPE 29 vice for others endures. It lives and abides forever. The Good Book says, And ,their works do follow them. And don't you know that God's great call to men and women is the call to service? The call of the country is the call to service, and never more urgent is this call than now during these days of storm and stress and strife with democracy and freedom hanging in the bal- ance. The call of the Church is for service, the call of humanity is for service. You hear it on all sides. It comes to you from all four quarters of the compass. It comes from the great industrial centers of the land. It comes from the battlefronts and the black welter of blood in war-scarred Europe. It comes from the mission fields white unto harvest. It comes to you right here at home in our own com- munity. It comes to every man. It is in- tensely personal. It comes to the group and comes to the individual. It comes to you and it comes to me. Its responsibility cannot be shifted. You cannot take its burden and put it on the shoulders of someone else. It is not a call for a time only nor for a part only. It is a call for nothing less than your very self, your very life. It is the call for a life invest- ment. Did you ever stop to think that to make a life is a far greater thing than only just to make a living? Men there are a plenty who never make more than a living, however sump- tuous and bathed in luxuries that may be. But they never make a life. And men there are who make splendid lives, tho their's at best was never more than a scant and modest liv- ing. Making a life is the thing that counts. It is the thing that glorifies humanity. It is the thing that makes a nation great. It em- bodies God in human character. It gives the hope of a better day for all men. It endures beyond the grave. Men, indeed, love to meas- ure a man's ability by what he leaves when he dies. They say, he was worth so and so much, and they think of stocks and bonds and mort- gages and giltedged paper and dollars and cents. But in heaven they measure a man's ability by what he gave away before he died, by his faith and his conduct and his life. There is the difference. And the thing which we call an education is valuable only as it enables one to discharge this loftiest duty of life, to serve. And its value increases in proportion as it fits man for this purpose, and decreases in the same ratio as it unfits him for this purpose. It must in- spire man, teach him, enable him, put the faculty and power into his hands to do some- thing and to do it properly, to serve. Of course, here, too, as elsewhere when you get down from the mountain tops of theory into the lowlands of actual conditions many of your ideals are shattered. You get men and women whose lives fall far short of their theories, men and women strong in mouth and weak in the knee, men and women possessing every- thing to make a life except the necessary car- bonate of lime to make the back bones stiff. You get men and women who stand like guide posts at the roadside of life: they point the way, but they never go themselves. I do not intend to launch into a lengthy discussion of the meaning and value of what we term an education. Time is too short for a subject so long. But let me say this, that education and culture,-and I love to use these terms as convertible-is not the mere pumping in of facts. It is not simply the acquisition of positive knowledge. And the man who stands before you loaded like a cannon to the muzzle with facts ready to belch forth death and de- struction at any time to any man innocent of the same formidable accomplishment may be a bore but he is not necessarily a cultured man. And again it is not mere versatility, mere ready wit or external polish. And the doubtful faculty of jumping with ease from one subject to an- other and I dare say expressing ten opinions in ten minutes on ten subjects without ever once stopping for breath, or concealing a dearth of thot under a wealth of words may be sufficient evidence to convince even the dullest jury of the presence of a well lubricated tongue-sixty miles an hour-but it does not imply a well disciplined mind nor make much for culture or refinement. It is not a means to enable a man to get out from in under work, nor is it merely a ladder to help him to climb to the top of social preferment or political distinction. You cannot make a greater mistake than to send your boy or girl to school with the idea that if they obtain an education they will not have to toil with their hands. It would be folly to tell them, You go to school and get an education and you will not have to work as your father and your mother did! There is the beginning of the idea of caste. It is hostile to the spirit of Democracy. It breeds the feeling that somehow it is more noble to earn your bread with your brains, or better still to be in a po- sition where you do not have to earn it at all, than to earn it with your hands, and it disqualifies from work which otherwise might have been done and done well. It is a mistake to think manual labor is less noble. It is not the kind of work that is done but the spirit behind it that counts. The man who digs the ditch and does a good job and is hon- est and upright and sincere is a thousand times better citizen and more respectable than the man in the pulpit or the man in the ofiice whose purpose is not right, or the mere profi- teer who lives and preys on the sweat and blood of others, whether he rides in a limou- sine or not. It is a thousand times better and more productive of good to be a competent brick layer or blacksmith, a good shoemaker or tailor, an efficient merchant or farmer, doing his best at his work, than to be a mere genteel dog fancier or a cigaret smoking dude too in- fiated with his own importance to do an honest day's work. And it is a thousand times better and more dignified to rock a cradle or cook a meal that can be eaten with relish or make of home a haven of rest and peace to which hus- band and child and brother and sister turn with delight and where the guest and stranger finds a hearty welcome than to be a mere bundle of tinsel and paint whose sole purpose in the world is to be coddled and pampered, a mere simpering, smirking fashion plate with rufiles and frills, and fritter away life in idle pastime. What kind of manhood does it

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28 THE PERISCOPE 1918 :Baccalaureate HbbYC55FFmaVeflQ Ecbool- OPERA HOUSE, MAY 19th, 1918 Dignity and Joy of Service By REV. EMIL H. RAUSCH, Pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran Church It is not a sermon that I am going to preach tonight. Indeed, to call it a sermon would be a misnomer. No, I intend to talk to you simply and plainly, without rhetorical frills and furbelows on a subject that should be of interest to us all. And it seems to me to be peculiarly pertinent and appropriate at this time when thousands and tens of thousands of our young men and women all over the land are graduating from high schools, academies, colleges and universities, custodians and trus- tees of the future as they are. Many of them are, no doubt, seriously considering their life work. Others are merely glad to be thru with the strenuous course of study and are just drifting, like Mr. Micawber in Dicken's im- mortal story, waiting for something to turn up. The goddess of riches, honor, fame, pleasure holds out her enchanting wand and the number of those willing and ready to be led by her is legion. It is the reason for my subject. We Americans have ofttimes been called, more or less as a term of contempt, a nation of shopkeepers and tradesmen. The world at large has been informed that our highest ideal is to make money, that with us success and riches are convertible terms. And indeed, with some people this seems to be the case. The making of money makes up the sum and are substance of their existence. Some there who are ready to violate their consciences and barter their very souls for its possession, tho this type is not limited to our side of the At- lantic by far. But this is true, that we Amer- icans have gloried rather in conquests of peaceful vocation and commercial and indus- trial achievement than in conquests by force of arms. And the hum and buzz of a machine out in the harvest fields or in our factories has been better music in our ears and a love- lier sight to our eyes than the mere glitter of gold braid and the martial rattle of the sabre. This is another reason why my subject ought to appeal to us all. I am going to talk to you about peaceful conquests, about investments, and particularly about one investment that always pays. No, I am not going to discuss the relative merit of stocks and bonds and mortgages and gilt edged paper, the value of which can be reckoned in and cents, nor yet of paper terms of dollars with a gilt edge, indeed, but of value only to the suave and courtly gentleman who is trying to sell it. I have in mind an investment that is giltedged in every way, that never falls be- low par, that ever yields magnificent dividends and returns, that brings joy while men live and soothes them when they die, that no periods of financial depression can depreciate, indeed, that grows greater and more valuable the harder and worse the times. I want to hold this up for your consideration. And whoever we are, and whatever we are, and wherever our place and station in life, and whatever our calling and profession, I want to hold this up to you as that one factor which gives value, real, moral and eternal value to it all. I have in mind the life that is invested in service for God and man, and I wish to speak to you for a little while of the Dignity and Joy of Service. It is told of Thomas a'Kempis, the author of one of the greatest books of devotion, the Imitatio Christi, Imitation of Christ, a book that came out in more editions and has been translated into more languages than any other, the Bible only excepted, that once during his school days his preceptor asked the class, Which passage of Scripture conveys the sweetest description of heaven? One ans- wered, There shall be no more sorrow. Another said, There shall be no more death. A third, They shall see His face. But Thomas, who was the youngest of them all, after a moment of thoughtful reflection, ans- wered, His servant shall serve Him. -There is no greater investment ever come to mo1'tal man, no greater opportunity, whoever and whatever we may be, than this. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, No man liveth to himself alone. He needs the other man, just as the other man needs him. And again, He who would be greatest among you, let him be the servant of all. Did it ever occur to you that the most powerful man in the most powerful empire on the face of the globe, an empire on whose dominions the sun never sets, that the most powerful man in the British Empire is not the king? He not called the Czar, nor the Imperator, nor the Shah, nor the Sultan. He is called the Prime Minister. And min- ister is only another word for servant. Service for God and fellowman, in whatever way you put it, whatever it involves and in- cludes, great things or small things, serving a nation or serving the least of its citizens, is the greatest, the most enduring, the most sat- isfying investment that life knows. Wealth takes wings and flies away and even the wealthiest Croesus cannot, as he dies, take those things with him which he values. He is then only the late So-and-So. He is no longer a personality. He is only just a lump of clay. And those things which his thrift or his success accumulated now only furnish his heirs with an occasion to display another kind of thrift, namely spend-thrift. Honor and fame and popular favor are as fickle as the ocean's wave. Pleasure ofttimes requires a bromide on the day after. And even the strength and power of young manhood loses its grip as the eyes grow dim with advancing years. But ser-

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:so THE PERISCOPE 1918 betoken to be an elegant idler or an improvi- dent spendthrift wasting his substance in riot- ous living and setting an evil example for others with a thousand places in the world calling for men ? Or what kind of womanhood is it to idle a.nd gossip from pillar to post with a thousand places in the world calling for women? And never has there been a time in the world's history since first the march of ages began when the call for real red blooded men and women came to us with greater ur- gency and more elemental force than todayg never a time in the history of the race when there was more demand for men and women who are willing to serve and to do so in the sweat of their brow and with the muscle of their arms, yes, and ready even to shed their life's blood if need be. No, whatever that may be, it is not educa- tion and it is not culture, nor is it real refine- ment either in manner or in taste. In that sense, education would lack its most essential element. It would be like Hamlet with Ham- let left out. Of course, it is not altogether easy in a few words to state what the real meaning and value of education is. But let me say this, to me it means the drawing out of manhood and womanhood. It is the develop- ment of personality. It calls forth powers of all kinds, of thought, will and affections. It enables men to observe, contrive, reason, dis- criminate, understand, judge and sympathize. It inspires them to adopt good ends freely and pursue them efficiently. It means the power of self control, moderation, inHuence for good. It is mental and moral discipline. It inspires thought. It enables men to think, really to think. You know, so often we only think we think. But at closer analysis we are not thinking at all. We are only running unre- strained over the illimitable expanse of thought. We think that we are storing' our minds with thought but as a matter of fact we have not yet found the key that unlocks the door. It inspires initiative. Its aim is not merely to en1'ich the mind but also to enrich and beautify the soul and the will. It inspires action. It enables men to choose between right and wrong. It has a moral substratum. Rabelais says, Science without conscience is the soul's death. In other words, knowledge without the backing and restraint of morality is the soul's death. Hand and glove with the unfolding of the mind must go the unfolding of the moral nature. As a man progresses in knowledge he must also progress in his ability to put it to better use. Mere mental development does not make men better. It may make them more prudent, more crafty, more efficient in a way, more subtly hypocritical, but it never makes them better. Culture as such is no safe guard against vice. Where is there, for instance, speaking in broad terms, more moral decay than in our socalled cultured classes? It is not usually among washerwomen and toil- ers where you get' the most gambling and drinking. It is not usually the soiled linens of domestic infelicity found in the lives and homes of our socalled common people that are washed by high priced lawyers in the di- vorce courts and hung up before a gaping multitude to dry. True culture, I repeat, al- ways has a moral substratum. Hence, true culture always implies and demands religion. It is a mistake to think that education can take the place of religion. It is not true that all a man needs is a little culture and learning to make him live rightly. Plutarch says, It is easier to rear a building without a foundation than it is to build a people without religion. Pythagoras admonishes his followers, Do not enter a temple merely in passing. The sanc- tuary must never be only an incident or ac- cident in youi life. The ornament of the building may indeed arrest the eye and attract attention and call forth the exclamation of admiration, but it is the lowly fundament on which the building rests that really makes it firm and strong. Morality without religion is like the building without the foundation. Somehow it is built in the air, castle of theory built on banks of fog. It may be ornamental but it won't stand. It is idealized selfishness, sicklied over with a pale cast of doing good. In other words, no system of education is complete which ignores and undervalues the training of the eye to see God, the training of the heart to love God, the training of the will to serve God. We are told that the educational ideal of the ancient Per- sians could be summed up in the one word, obedience The Persian youth was taught to fear and venerate the gods, to obey parents and those in authority, love country and home, and practice the habit of truthfulness. You notice, less mental, more moral training and the whole with religion as a back ground --a good ideal even in the present day. I come back again to my starting point. Education and culture is valuable in propor- tion as it inspires and enables men the better to serve, whatever that service may be, to serve God and fellowman, to make a life and not merely a living. And as the one and won- derful examplc for us all I call your attention to our Lord Jesus Christ. I do not wish to seem irreverent, but I think you will under- stand if I say, that the highest type of the truly cultured man which the world has ever known is the Man from Nazareth. Of course, if cul- ture and education are nothing more than mere knowledge, bookishness, passing thru so and so many years of school work, or what is sometimes called an academic training, then Jesus was neither cultured nor educated. If it is only ready wit and versatility, mere polish and good manners, if it is merely an avenue that leads away from toil and work, or a lad- der to climb to the top of social prestige and political distinction, then Jesus was neither cultured nor educated. But if it implies the de- veloped and perfected personality, the eye that sees God, the heart that loves God, the will that obeys God, if it means a mind ever alert to the truth, a heart that loves the truth, a will that applies truth, if it means the power to reason, discriminate, understand, sympathize, adopt good ends freely, pursue them efficiently, and without fear or favor, if it means to make a life and not merely a livingg in all charity and kindness to apply the truth, that no man liveth to himself alone, and, he that would be greatest among