ost to the world
because they have not had to wrestle with obstacles, and to struggle
under difficulties sufficient to stimulate into activity their dormant
powers. No effort is too dear which helps us along the line of our
proper career.

Poverty and obscurity of origin may impede our progress, but it is only
like the obstruction of ice or debris in the river temporarily forcing
the water into eddies, where it accumulates strength and a mighty
reserve which ultimately sweeps the obstruction impetuously to the sea.
Poverty and obscurity are not insurmountable obstacles, but they often
act as a stimulus to the naturally indolent, and develop a firmer fibre
of mind, a stronger muscle and stamina of body. If the germ of the
seed has to struggle to push its way up through the stones and hard
sod, to fight its way up to sunlight and air, and then to wrestle with
storm and tempest, with snow and frost, the fibre of its timber will be
all the tougher and stronger.

"Do you wish to live without a trial?" asks a modern teacher. "Then
you wish to die but half a man. Without trial you cannot guess at your
own strength. Men do not learn to swim on a table. They must go into
deep water and buffet the waves. Hardship is the native soil of
manhood and self-reliance. Trials are rough teachers, but rugged
schoolmasters make rugged pupils. A man who goes through life
prosperous, and comes to his grave without a wrinkle, is not half a
man. Difficulties are God's errands. And when we are sent upon them
we should esteem it a proof of God's confidence. We should reach after
the highest good."

"If you wish to rise," said Talleyrand, "make enemies."

There is good philosophy in the injunction to love our enemies, for
they are often our best friends in disguise. They tell us the truth
when friends flatter. Their biting sarcasm and scathing rebuke are
often mirrors which reveal us to ourselves. These unkind stings and
thrusts are spurs which urge us on to grander success and nobler
endeavor. Friends cover our faults and rarely rebuke; enemies drag out
to the light all our weaknesses without mercy. We dread these thrusts
and exposures as we do the surgeon's knife, but are the better for
them. They reach depths before untouched, and we are led to resolve to
redeem ourselves from scorn and inferiority.

We are the victors of our opponents. They have developed in us the
very power by which we overcome them. Without their o