September 10

Changed into the same image from glory to glory.— II COR. iii, 18.

As one lamp lights another, nor grows less, So nobleness enkindleth nobleness.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

It is significant that the men and women who have influenced their fellows most deeply have spoken directly and unhesitatingly out of their own best natures. They have not waited upon common opinion nor repeated the current phrases; they have not weighed their words against their prospects of ad- vancement, nor fitted their teaching to the prevalent mood. They have said what they believed, frankly and courageously. They have not calculated the chances of acceptance; they have spoken what seemed true to them, and left the result with God. Atmospheric influences are very powerful and per- vasive, and only strong natures overcome them; con- temporary currents are often swift and wide, and only resolute souls breast and baffle them. But no one can really speak to men the words that uplift and invigor- ate, who does not first develop this inward force, this victorious faith in the truth as he sees it. The more sensitive the man is, the more force must he put forth to express what is original in him; but the original words are the only ones that count; all other words are echoes. . . . We hide our best selves as if we were ashamed of them; but when we take courage and speak of our deepest convictions, our highest aspirations, we suddenly find that we have entered into sacred companionship with our fellows, and that the breath of our fervor has stirred the same fire of nobleness in them that burns in us. Never give less than your best, and remember that your best is always yourself.