vocation, the training they have received
will never prove burdensome. On the other hand, the fact of being in
possession of reserve powers will prove a source of pleasure. It will
dispel many a dark cloud and remove positive forebodings of possible
want. The world is strewn with the wrecks of men who inherited fortunes
before they had developed the mental poise or business experience
necessary to estimate money at its true value. If they had earned their
money by honest effort they would not have fallen into habits that led
to unbridled extravagance and ultimate disgrace. The inheritance of
unearned wealth quite frequently proves a curse rather than a blessing.

God never intended, however, that parents should provide a property
inheritance for their children that will deprive them of the natural
advantages which reasonable labor and its restraining influence afford
both body and mind. Parental drudgery and self-denial for the purpose of
relieving children from the necessity of wholesome effort is mistaken
generosity. It makes parent and child alike fall short of the high
purposes for which life is given. For life is intended for more
important purposes than mere money-getting or the pursuit of objects
from which man is utterly divorced at death. Poor indeed must be the
soul if, at death, it must part from all it loved in life. But this
frenzy of excitement in which parents live in order that their children
may be heirs leaves no time for the consideration of higher and better
things. How much more lamentable, too, is such striving in the light of
the fact that those who are to be benefited by these inheritances are in
reality harmed and checked in their development. Said Senator Dolliver:
"If I had a son and $100,000, I would keep the two apart."

Every man owes a duty to God, to his country, to his family and to
himself. To discharge these obligations honestly, fearlessly and with
credit should be his earnest purpose. No ambition should be entertained
that does not embrace these fundamental duties and no career should be
considered worthy that even underrates their sanctity. The fact that men
occasionally become prominent in business, social and political affairs
by subordinating conscience and character to position or gain should not
swerve a young man from the strict path of rectitude. Victories won by
strategy or injustice, whether in business or politics, seldom remain
permanent and never afford substantial enjo