ip would not exist, states and principalities,
kingdoms and powers would exist only as an idea in the brain. There
would be no command to be our brother's keeper, no plighted vow that
"The Lord be between thee and me, and between my seed and thy seed
forever." Man would, as an individual, stand absolutely alone, like an
atom dropped from the abyssmal depths onto this earth of ours. The
little wild flower struggles through leafy mold, endures the
tempestuous blast of winter, that when spring comes it may bloom to
gladden the earth and scatter sweet incense all around. But without
the cementing influence that runs like a thread all through society,
man would not, could not, cast a sweet odor even on his own life, and
dying would leave no benediction on the lives of others. And here the
command comes, "Gather into thy quiver the lives and aspirations of
others, that fitted to thy bow they may go forth scattering blessings
by your help and by your kindly influence." So all great achievements
have been based on great fundamental principles, and each principle has
for its object the betterment of the conditions of mankind.

Truth is said to be eternal. It was just as true at the dawn of
creation that the square described on the hypotenuse of a right-angle
triangle is equal to the square described on the other two sides, as it
was when Pythagoras enunciated the theorem. "Thou shall not kill," is
a law written by the Divine hand amid tempest and fire, but it stands.
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," rings from the portals of
heaven through the gates of humanity and its command will not go
unheeded. They are all great fundamental truths. Do you observe that
they live? Give heed also to the fact that they stand for a better
condition among men, for more helpfulness and higher elevations.
Truths enunciated, whether old or new, that live, only have one
tendency, viz., to raise man to better conditions. Since the dawn of
creation there has been a constant tendency to arise from a lower to a
higher estate. Self-preservation, self-helps, self-culture have been
the trend of thought and action. And this has not been altogether an
effort in the individual for his own personal advancement, but for the
advancement of the race. Men have undergone sacrifices, humbled and
almost debased themselves, that the succeeding generation might live on
a higher plane, physically, morally and spiritually, than they
themselves enj