The  smaller  colleges  are,  nevertheless,  fortunate  in  having  a  less  ratio
of  this  kind  of  grists  sent  to  them  than  the  larger.  While  the  law  of
selection  for  the  latter  is  largely  money,  for  the  former  the  great  struggle
for  existence  and  survival  of  the  fittest  comes  in,  resulting  in  making
the  ratio  of  such  students  as  rely  on  their  own  energies  to  win  their  way
much  greater  in  the  small  rural  colleges,  and  giving  to  them  a  higher
tone  and  atmosphere  of  purposeful  living  and  studying.  The  Faculties  of
some  of  the  larger  schools  are  glad  to  get  a  good  sprinkling  of  such  as
make  up  the  great  body  in  the  rural  schools,  as  leaven  for  their  large
unmotived  masses,  as  salt  to  season  and  savor  the  play  elements.
As  a  natural,  logical  consequence,  the  same  principles  and  laws  obtain


SERMONS.
in  life's  work  and  fierce  conflicts,  as  in  the  preparation.  As  the  majority
of  the  preachers  of  the  gospel  come,  not  from  the  large  and  wealthy
churches,  but  from  the  smaller  and  poor,  so  likewise  the  ratio  of  minis-
ters, missionaries,  heralds  of  reform,  is  much  greater  from  the  graduates
of  the  smaller  than  from  the  large  and  wealthy  colleges.  The  same
holds  true  in  all  the  rugged,  self-forgetting,  self-sacrificing  pursuits  of  life.
The  great  majority  of  the  graduates  from  these  rural  colleges  go  forth
with  all  their  equipments  gathered  in  hand  for  achievement.  Thus  def-
initely purposed,  they  carry  a  wonderful  earnestness  and  vigor  into  life.
They  forge  ahead  wherever  brawn,  and  nerve,  and  self-reliance,  and  energy,
and  sacrifice  are  required..
