Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-01-15
LeCture-ROOm Talk by Henry Ward
Beecher.

living for himself, or for his mere surround
ings, when he desires to enter upon great
field of Christian work. But no person
has been long in that field before he begins
to sigh, and say, & Truly, the harvest is
pIentIOus. hut -~l.a.o ara the laborers ~
After little, when one sees what the work
is that is to be done, and how it transcends
all visible instruments, the sense of help
lessness that comes in is such that, really,
it sometimes leads to dependency, and
men say, Why, the little that [ can do is
of Just no use whatever 1t bears so small
a proportion to what is perishing for lack
of help, that | might as we'll give it up first
as last"
If | were to stand, in spring, and look
out over the hillside, where [ have a little
nook my mountain rest-in the country,
| could see from some points of it, well,
ground enough to make nearly a county.
| have thought, sometimes, q Suppose |
had had one of those old manors given to
men, like, for instance, the Livingston
Manor ," | have now place of a little
over thirty acres, and there is so much to
do on that, and so much to pay, that it
seems as though | never should get through
with the work that needs to be done there;
but if | had all that on the other side of
me, and had all the ploughing to do, all
the stones to clear off, all the walls to lay
all the draining to do, all the trees to plant
and all the fences to build if had be-
yond that, all the swelling hills: if | had
all the beautiful property beyond that, lot
after lot, parcel after parcel, clear up to
la ,aaI-,- lal,ra alaa- 70 Tho oIr,a md
top OF those mountains; and if all the
other side was mine if [ had the care of
the whole of this immense sweep of terri
tory, | declare, L would give up, and would
not do thing. 1t bewilders me to think
what | should do with such vast area
of land.
But | see every year that that territory
is pretty we'll taken care of. [ take care
of mine; and MIR. Fuller, adjoining me,
takes care of his; and Brother Dayton.
Just below me, takes care of his; and
Widow Jacob. Just beyond, takes care of
hers; and all the valley farms are taken
care of. and all the farms ON the hillside
opposite TO me are taken care of. OF
course they are not as we'll taken care of
as mine Everybody thinks what he does
is best done, YOU know. But. on the
whole, our end OF Weschester county is
getting along very we'll think we are
really improving. Agriculture is rising
in that region. The harvests there are
very good. And when look over it all,
l say to myself, Are not YOU rather con-
ceited to think abont taking care of so
much territory The Lord never made
you to be a god and if he had YOU would
have been OF very different pattern from
what you are now And although it is we'll
for YOU to look at all this work, you are to
consider that YOU are but man. and can
do things only on Il small scale. God is
the only one that can work on big pat
tern" Men are so made that each can
take care of but little. Every man ought
to he in sympathy with the whole work
and yet, no man ought 10 feel that every
thing is dependent upon him.
| used to be much amused with tather's
feeling in this matter. He was, you know
hunter OF men, and fisher of men. He
used to hunt squirrels and catch trout
And he carried his venary and piscatory
instincts into the pulpit-as he ought tC
have done.
When DR.. Cornelius, who was Secretary
of the American Board, died, father had q
very dark day. & | cannot understand,
he said, what the Lord means, when hi:
work needs Just such a man as Cornelius
and he takes him away in the prime o
life, at a time he is carrying that work
on successfully, and there is nobody It
take his place" Yes there was. DR.
I D.,+ L., IL -
only few years when he died. | wei
remember the morning when father wa:
) preparing the sermon to preach over DIR
Wisner. The wheels dragged heavily
He was very much cast down. Though
! | was quite young, he said to me, 4" Henry
it is all done it is all done cannot se'
what the Lord means. He is making
breach on breach. There is so much to do
and so few to do it, He is taking tn,
) best of them
/ In his own life he worked as though h'
thought that if he stood from under, ;
part of the heavens at least would com'
down. He used to stand with his shoul
ders straight up, as though he were help
: ing carry the universe. 1t was not fame,
5 it was the instinct of work There wa
2 the sense of work in him clear to the bon
and marrow [ think | love to work a
well as he did but got from my mothe
what he did from his. | have carried al
my life long sense that the work was S
, vast that no man, | did not care who h
was, could do more than very little; tha
He who could raise up children from tn
stones to Abraham, could raise up me
t when he had a mind to, and men of tn
: right kind, and put them in the righ
+ place, that, after all, the Lord was create
a than the work and that it was of no us
: for me to fret myself, and set myself up t
i be wiser than Providence all [ was calle
y upon to do was to work up to the measur
e of my wisdom and strength, and be willln
S to 90 wherever God sent me and ths
G then | was to be content.
e But there is where the weakness OF hl
e man nature will come in For though
: do not feel personally this sense of comes
e tion with the whole of Gods work. Il
e world does open up to my mind so des
y lately, that it really seems hard to live.
IS have such sense of the ignorance of ev'
e the most enlightened men, have such
re sense of the imperfection of even the best al
d most Christian people, have such a sen