THE CRUST OF CHARACTER

Gettysburg Times - Apr 14, 1926

THE CRUST OF CHARACTER
By GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS

Who can tell how a house is furnished by looking at its exterior? Who can tell the manner of a man by looking him over from the outside? Can a soul be translated as the school boy does his Latin? Why is it that people are so misjudged? And why is it that imperfect men and women take such storming pleasure in picking out and glorying in the faults and imperfections of their own kind?

There are hard questions to answer. The outside of a man or woman after all, is but the curtain that hides nobility, beauty and great heroism.

There is nothing more coward in the world than to impugn the motive of a human being or to cast a shadow of reproach upon one whose inner life you know nothing about.

Life is hard enough at the best. Imperfect people in an imperfect world do not make for perfection.

That's why we have God to whom we may all go and open our silent hearts. Into whose perfect heart we may pour all our problems and our griefs.

The crust of character is for the world, but the inner heart that is so often bathed with tears is only for the eye and love of the Great Father of us all.

It takes the courage of a conqueror to pass through some of the byways of this world.

But we know that there are plenty of this sort—else from where do out older friends come?

IT'S JUST HOW

Gettysburg Times - Apr 13, 1926

IT'S JUST HOW
By GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS

The business of life is largely learning just how to live.

And the best way to live is to help others to live. The closer we knit our efforts, our desires and our successes to others, the better we achieve our fondest ambitions.

The late Russell H. Conwell, to my notion, was one of the world's greatest men. He died poor, after having earned and given away millions to others. He left a great university which he founded, and endowed thousands of lives with the new hope, inspiration and education. I heard this man give his famous lecture "Acre of Diamonds" when I was a boy and what he said has given me the great inspiration all through the years.

Conwell knew just how to make people happier and hus geniality, his rare humor and his beautiful unselfishness left this world his debtor far beyond even the millions he so generously gave away.

And just how you take life, too, is a measure of what you get from it.

One tiller of the soil will bring out double what another will. Simply because he just knows how.

The making and keeping of friends is a matter of knowing just how it pays to think, study, observe, plan, and work far in advance—
just so that at the proper moment you may know just how.

You only need a little bit of heaven each day in your heart to make all the people of the earth very much akin to you.

THE NEW

GETTYSBURG TIMES - Apr 12, 1926

THE NEW
By GEORGE MATTHEW ADAMS

RICHARD JEFFERIES in his book “The Story of my Heart,” says many beautiful things. Here is one: “The world would be the gainer if a Nile flood of new thought arose and swept away the past, concentrating the effort of all the races of the earth upon man's body, that it might reach an ideal of shape, and health, and happiness.”

We all live too deeply in traditions, old fancies and conventionalities.

A strong and able body gives forth fine thoughts through its brain, in the same way that a strong and well nourished stalk gives forth a beautiful flower.

And a healthy mind doesn't see decay and disease. It sees youth, freshness, unnumbered years in embryo, full of possible vitality, vibrant life and a happy soul-life budding far ahead in hidden years.

There is a fascination to the new. That is why we should all the time be searching for the new—trying it out, testing it, proving what is good, and holding to it, making it a part of what we leave to others.

A new thought should always prove an event to a man.

The past should stand out only as a picture, something to think over and profit from. Its influence upon human thought should be only as a piece of coloring to guide us in producing a greater picture, a finer work of art in human doing.

It takes courage to attempt the new. But then, what is life without the use of courage?