Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 125, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1920 — GRADUATES HEAR DR. J. B. FLEMING [ARTICLE]

GRADUATES HEAR DR. J. B. FLEMING

BACCALAUREATE SERVICES HELD AT CHRISTIAN CHURCH SUNDAY EVENING. The baccalaureaute services for the forty young men and women who graduate from Rensselaet high school this week were held at the Christian church Sunday evening. The church was crowded to capacity arid many were unable to attend the services due to the lack of space. Dr. J. Budman Fleming, pastor of the Presbyterian church, delivered the address of the evening and it proved to be one of the finest addresses ever, delivered to a high school graduating class in this city. Dr. Fleming said in part: “CAST THE NET ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BOAT AND YE SHALL FIND”—John 21:5. Nothing will fall on an ambitious man more than idleness. . A man does not need ambition if his purpose is nothing more than to stand on the street corner and watch the I people as they pass. The most non- 1 essential citizen in any community is the man who makes three trips daily from his table down town and then back from town to his bed. Peter had too much ambition to do nothing but at this time he found himself without a job. Be-, tween the crucifiction of Jesus and j the coming of the Holy Spirit at , Pentecost there was nothing doing j in the church. Peter said to some of his followers, “I go a fishing.” | They were ready with their answer and said, “if you are going fishing Peter beat it and we will go with you.” It was their old trade and they knew the business and what was needed in the way of tackle. They fished all night and caught nothing. In the morning Jesus was on the shore and asked them about their luck. Even though they were fishermen they gave a truthful answer. Then Jesus told them to cast the net on the right side and they would find. If he had told them to get a new net or go to a new pond or get a new crew of men, they might have had hope, but he told them to use the same old net in the same old pond and do it themselves and they said, “no use but we will do as you say.” They let down the net and a haul too big to land. There are many purposes of life but whatever the purpose its aim must be success. There are many receipts for success in life but many of them call for an equipment larger’than most people can secure. Jn our text we have a very simple receipt and all the equipment you need is just what you have on hand. This is the last word m the way of advice for .a successful life. If you have old temptations to overcome, old faults to conquer and old failures to face you need not move to - a new community or get a nejw job or change your identity to win but stay where you are and stick to the old job and be yourself, but cast the net on the right

side. , . . x ~ Cast your net on the right side of the question of a calling. There are many failures due to the mixing of men and jobs. But it is not a job that I ask you to consider carefully, but a calling for a job may be non-essential but a calling is something worth while. You should have some taste and some inherent fitness for your calling for that will mean that your heart will be in it and the daily routine will not be a drudgery. There are many callings to choose from and increasingly, vocational instruction is needed in our school curriculum. * . Cast your net on the right side of the question of health. Sixty per cent of all the failures in business are said to be due to ill health. The people who fail do not know the cause and may think they are in good health. Employees who are discharged think it is for ill temper, listlessness or lack of ambition for these are the causes reported. Sixty per cent is a big economical waste and, should be remedied. . The causes of ill health are thought to be ignorance of right living, especially as to diet, lack of sleep and lack of recreation. Correct these and we have gone far toward stopping this waste. Another thing that will mean much in the matter of health is a change in the medical program. 1 mean that we should employ a physician to keep us well and not only to make us well when sick. There are twfi parties to this and such a reform cannot come until both these parties are converted. The people must be converted and demand it and then the doctor must be converted. Go to your physician and tell him that you put yourself under his care to be kept well and see how much interest he will take m your proposition. Your interest in health must reach beyond your own community and no community in n country is safe until every community has health laws and regulations. In fact .the question of health is world-Wide , and as long as there is a pagan country on the globe there will be epidemics and scourges of disease to travel over the world and demand their toll of life. The

religion of Jesus is the only gift to the world that will create ideals out' of which will grow a health program which Ms sane and safe. Cast your net on .the right side of education. Education that will mean scholarship is not enough and can never produce civilization. Civilization is society with ignorance and evil expelled and no education that leaves out the world is enough. Every boy and girl graduating from our high schools should be so clean outside and, inside that they would not soil the most delicate character by coming in contact with them. In a Seattle school bulletin which I received a few days ago I found the following: “A young man approaching the counter in the Vocational Department in quest of an age certificate. As he was very recently a resident of 'Seattle, the customary questions were asked with the following results : “Have you a birth certificate?” “No, ma’am.” “Have you a baptismal certificate?” Noting the bewildered expression on the young fellow’s face, his interlocutor thought to assist him. “Have you ever been baptised?” “Oh! Yes, ma’am. In the arm.” Taking a new tack, the questioner asked, “Were you born in this country?” With all dignity came the reply, “No, ma’am. I was born in Butte.” This would be laughable if it were not lamentable. There are too many pagans in this country, people who do not know the difference between baptism and vaccination and it is up to us to make citizens of them. The task cannot be accomplished without first making them Christians and that is part of the business of our educational system. Cast your net on the right aide of politics. This becomes increas* ingly a larger question as the ballot is extended to women, and the population becomes less rural and more urban. The government must become more paternal, providing insurance and public homes and institutions for the care and protection of the young, the old and the exposed. Every child has a right to the fullest development of personality and every workman has a right to protection from dangerous machinery, occupational diseases and a seven-day week. Cast your net on the right side of the economical question. I mean, the price of a soup bone and the wages of a washer woman. This is the country of the square deal and prices and wages should be so equalized that none need last necessities.

You are a product of the public school and the public has a right to look upon you as an asset. The public school is a big business with an army of teachers, millions of students and a budget running up into billions of dollars. No public fund is administered With less waste, more wisdom and efficiency, but it is administered conservatively. That is safe and sane if the wages paid to the employees is just and equable. The standard for the teacher should be high and the salary should be equal to the standard. To require a high stand and then pay low wages is “penny wise and pound foolish’*; yet it is worse than that, it is an effort to force the teacher to make “brick without straw?’ To keep fresh and up to the last requirement the teacher must take post graduate work, but with prices where they are and the salary where it has been this is an impossibility. The public does not want the teacher to teach for fun—no more than it expects the merchant to run his business for fun. \ . The right side is the Lord’s side, the side of revelation, of religion, of righteousness, of justice and of truth. Build you life on these as foundation- stones and it cannot be a failure.