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But the lesson of these lines is not that you should lie back in inaction, making no effort to overcome your defects because they are inheritances. There is for you a wiser lesson in the theme than that. When Marshall Ney was taunted with the fact that the Imperial nobility had no pedigree he proudly replied, “We are ancestors.”

There is a grand thought for you. If your ancestors did not do the best for you, will you not profit by your knowledge of this fact and do the best for those who shall look back to you as their ancestor? Supposing that your parents in their youth had said: “I will take care of my health so that my children may be born with vigorous bodies; I will make good use of my intellect so that my children will inherit an added capacity for acquiring knowledge; I will obey all laws of morality so that my children will by inheritance tend toward virtue;” and supposing that you to-day, with healthful bodies, keen intellects and upward tending moral natures, were reaping the reward of their forethought, would you not bless them for it?

You have no right to remain listless and discouraged because of your inheritances, whatever they may be. Hear the inspiriting words of Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

There is no thing you cannot overcome.
Say not thy evil instinct is inherited;
Or that some trait inborn, makes thy whole life forlorn,
And calls for punishment that is not merited.

Back of thy parents and grandparents lies,
The great Eternal Will; that, too, is thine
Inheritance––strong, beautiful, divine;
Sure lever of success for one who tries.
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Pry up thy fault with this great lever––will;
However deeply bedded in propensity;
However firmly set, I tell thee firmer yet
Is that great power that comes from truth’s immensity.

There is no noble height thou canst not climb;
All triumphs may be thine in time’s futurity,
If whatsoe’er thy fault, thou dost not faint or halt,
But lean upon the staff of God’s security.

Earth has no claim the soul can not contest.
Know thyself part of the supernal source,
And naught can stand before thy spirit’s force
The soul’s divine inheritance is best.

The youth of to-day have in their own hands the molding of the future, not only of themselves, but of the nation, by the every day habits of their lives. By their thoughts and aspirations, by the moral tendencies which they are cultivating in themselves, they are determining what shall be the characteristics of the nation in a hundred years to come. Shall this be, in a hundred years, a nation of drunkards? The young people of to-day are deciding that question. Shall it be a nation of invalids? This, also, the young people are deciding. Shall it be a nation filled with greed of gain, with a low standard of morals, with dishonest methods in business, or shall it be a nation wherein vigorous health is the rule, unflinching courage, absolute integrity and pure morality shall everywhere reign? What the young people of to-day are making of themselves physically, mentally and morally, is deciding what shall be the future of the country.

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THE WHITE CROSS.

The cross is considered as an emblem of self-denial, the immolating of selfish wishes upon the altar of universal good.