phere, there was material to flood their homes with light.

In Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, and other States, men have lived in poverty and died in utter ignorance of the vast wealth of oil beneath the soil, which had only furnished them a very poor or indifferent living. Many men never discover themselves until they are near, or past, their half-century milestone. Many more never discover themselves, because they never tried to. We do not half know what powers slumber within us until an emergency or a stimulus powerful enough calls them out.

I have known men who were as near down and out as any men could be, who turned about face, and within two years achieved marvelous success. There was no "pull," no mystery or magic in their success. They had simply been aroused, by coming across something which had shown them their possibilities, awakened their slumbering faculties, and unloosed their locked-up ability.

It is a sorry day for any person when he ceases to depend upon himself, when he expects success to come from somewhere outside of him and depends upon somebody's assistance, somebody's pull or influence to boost him. There isn't much of anything ahead of him.

When you give up expecting help from outside; when you realize that the power which is to redeem you from mediocrity or failure is right inside

of you, then you will begin to get hold of the realities of life; then you will begin to see that every effect must have a cause and that if you make no effort there will be no result in your life. It will be negative, unproductive.

One mistake many youths make is in thinking that men who have stepped above the average and accomplished great or unusual things were born with a genius to do the particular thing they did. They have heard of men like Lincoln and Grant being providentially raised to save a nation, and they take it for granted that such men were predestined for greatness. But the fact is that most of the men who have done unusual things, and who have left their mark on the world, were just ordinary boys with ordinary talents like their own. The secret of their greatness lay in their putting their talents out to interest; in making the most of what the Creator had put inside of them.

The secret of your future is all inside of you, my young friends. Of course, you cannot uncoil in your nature what was not coiled up there, you cannot evolve that which was not first involved, but much depends on the kind of effort you put in the evolving process. While you may not have the ability and possibilities of a Lincoln, you undoubtedly have a vast amount of ability which you have not yet uncovered.

If anybody should try to make you believe right now that you had gotten to the end of your ability,

that you had done all that you could with your personal capital, that you had made about all that it is possible for you to make out of your personal assets you would be offended, would you not? You would not, I am sure, like to risk your life's reputation upon your record up to the present moment. You really believe there is something very much bigger in you than anything you have yet brought out. If anyone were to suggest otherwise, you would probably say, "You are very much mistaken. I am going to do something much greater than anything I have done in the years that are past. I feel something very much larger in me struggling for expression than anything I have yet brought out. And I can and I will express the biggest thing possible to me."

There is a real force in a resolution, especially if we constantly reinforce it by action. A firm resolution has turned many a man from the wrong path into the right, and has been the turning point in thousands of careers.

If you have been headed toward failure in the past, turn about now and set your face like a flint toward success. Don't listen to the voices which are trying to discourage you, to turn you back. No matter how dark or discouraging the conditions, keep facing toward your goal. Think success, act like a success, refuse to listen to anything which bears a resemblance to failure.

A biographer says of "Stonewall" Jackson, "He

appeared at West Point, according to a brother cadet, clad in homespun—an awkward, shambling figure, but with a grim face in which one could read, 'I've come to stay.' Mathematics had been his favorite study, yet his progress had been so little that he feared failure at the first examination after entrance, so he studied long after other men were asleep. Just before 'taps'—'lights out' —was to sound, he would pile coal high in the grate; then, after the lamp was extinguished, he would lie on the floor with his head close to the fire and study as long as the coals would give him light. While at West Point he compiled some rules of conduct among which was, 'You may be whatever you resolve to be,' and he lived up to it, regardless of temptations, disappointments, and hindrances."

"Why can't I do it?" Of course you can. Only resolve, and back up your resolution with the saine grim determination that animated "Stonewall" Jackson, and all the other brave souls who have won out, and you can do what you will.

"You may be whatever you resolve to be."

YOU CAN, BUT WILL YOU?

Try to be somebody with all your might.

Find your purpose and fling your life into it.

"The iron will of one stout heart shall make a thousand quail."

"Impossible,' is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools."

"He who has resolved to conquer or die is seldom conquered."

I

AM constantly asked by young men and women whether I think they really have enough in them to make much of a success in life, anything that will be distinctive or worth while, and I answer, "Yes, you have. I know you have the ability to succeed, but I do not know that you will. That rests entirely with you. You can, but will you?"

It is one thing to have the ability to do something distinctive, something individual, but doing it is a very different thing. There is a tremendous amount of unproductive ability in the great failure army to-day. Why did not the men who have it make something of themselves? Many of those men could be prosperous, successful men of standing in their community, instead of mendi