Bethlen Naptár, 1943 (Ligonier)
Charles Papp: To thine own self be true
116 BETHLEN NAPTÁR sweat the future of their children made happier, easier, better for the sacrifices they had brought for them. These very humble parents of ours, who in very few cases had more than six years of schooling, opened the doors of the schools of higher learning before their children. They made it possible for us to take our places in the battle of life on an equality with the children of other peoples and, if today we can hold our own with any man, we owe it all to these humble, faithful, selfsacrificing fathers and mothers who made us what we are, gave us what we have and dared to dream dreams of a happier future for us. This picture, my friends, is true. These admirable quailties of soul are inheritance. I ask you: have we been true to that inheritance, have we measured up to that standard set for us by our parents? Have we been worthy of their sacrifices? Have we been strengthened as they were by the faith that gave them strength? Have we worshipped at the altars they had built? Have we carried the light of their religion 'as a torch for the generations yet to come, by which our own path is lighted to inspire us to journey onward and upword? The older I get, the more I shall learn to appreciate our fathers. I am proud to own them as my own. They were men, unlearned in academic knowledge, but wise in the way of life. They possessed a faith which sustained them and can sustain us in the battle for life. I wish I could instil into you the feeling I have in my heart when I think of the many children of these fathers who have turned away from the faith of their fathers. The children who have become unfaithful to the institutions they founded in this country: the churches, schools, the altars of their faith. I feel very often that we may have gained much in material things, we may have completed courses in schools of higher learning, we may have advanced much on the social ladder, but we have lost much that was our heritage when we permitted the religious fervor to die or grow weak which brought out the best in our fathers. When we deny the church of our fathers, we deny ourselves. When we are untrue to the traditions they perpetuated for us in religious worship, in industrousness for the kingdom of God, we deny the best heritage they gave us. We have a tradition to uphold. A tradition of faithfulness ideals. A tradition of honesty, integrity, love of freedom love of the country which gave us so much to be thankful for.
