, 1873-03-09
EFFECTUAL CALLING.
Some Remarks Concerning
Vocation in Life.

On 1ong-ago occasion thepowers Of our jnVo
nile memory were stalled by tia Westminster
proposition, tho " Pons Asinoru,' Of the AS
sembly's Shorter Catechism, " What is EDTactua
Caning?" We stood up before tho Sunday
achool and made strong send-of in q tone that
seemed to ourselves to come from our boot-hecls,
"Efectual calling is the tcork Of God" There
we broke down. Nor could our ba1ked memory
be induced to start again. Tho statement o.
ours was good as far as it went We have come
to think it went far enough; but it counted for q
fat failure, not to bo helped by the efforts OF a
kindly little girl in blue calico (wo saW hel
years after, broad-bosomed dame, whose mater.
nal calling had been e1fcctual to tho extent of q
pew full Of lads md lasses) to pass ua tho lost
cine from her fresh lips clear across t.e school
room.
The Sunday outfit Of the good little bows o1
that remote epoch was not complete without 8
broad linen collar that rooted their shoulders
lie penthouse. Ours wns up to the standard,
the handlEork Of kind aunt, whose generoaity
In this particular instance came nea1 knowing
no bounds. In fact, our tender feelings had
been once grievously disturbed by q bucolic
classnate from Grow Hill, whose own gn-b gave
no token Of white ycstment without nor within,
bis whole dc1icacy Of sentiment keeping no even
pace with his buoyancy Of disposition, who asked
us whether We did not wear all our shirt out
side. Yet that collar was a11 too small to hide
our chagru as ne sat down beneath both, in the
face Of the Sunday y-school-" EHcctual Calling"
quite too much for US. We had been cooked and
p1imed for ttThe Chief End of Man." aud might
have come off with credit in a scramble through
the commandments, and "the requiringa and
forbiddings." These fell to other small folk
not to US, alas!
Nevertheless, in that epoch so long ago We were
not more rent and torn in our young mind than
have been multitudes OF deep doctors OF divinity,
before and since, over this came subject Of Ef-
fectunl Calling. Unliko them, wo could not
pound up volume Of dust from pulpit -cush-
ion to conceal our human ignorance. Leaving
the edviner aspect Of the inquiry, which: after a,
every man must answer for himself, the ques-
ton, in 4 more material earthly phase, is COZ
tinual1y before the community, What is Effec~
tual Calling7" Upon the answer hang all the
issues Of SUCCESS in life- The moro VIC think Of
1t, the more We approach conviction TINT re were
night in the very assertion Of fact which at the
time seemed so shorn and lamentable. ''Ef2ec-
tual Calling is the work Of God" Pity that men
30 often mar ind defeat it.
The farther our own remove from tho broad
Sunday collar period, the larger our confidence
In the fact Of eIectua1 calling in the sense OF
vocation in life. Every human being is brought
into the world for purpose. One Of the rca-
sonH why We firmly believe in eternity ia because
that duration is none too long for large allare
OF tho human 1nce to rero1ve and answer the
question, what on earth they we're born for.
The really successful men are as truly called and
chosen by their Creator, each for his own Yoca-
hon in the world, are oak treos to bo oaks,
md a1ders to be nothing else than aldera. Don't
borrow from the trees reference to budding
himself, to find that it Is root, and not branch,
that makes tho man.
The line Of life Of him who wins may be |
traced straight back to efectual calling. Tho |
records Of human experience, with all their ex- !
ceptions, do not shake the level bearing of this
rule, even though you push research into the |
long, sad criminal calendar. There is vast |
amount Of brain in every weu-RtocEed peniten-
flary. The actual average among criminals in |
demonstrated fitness for something il far above |
that among the common, honest portion Of the |
community. Vice and crime accomplished |
in the selection and Adjustment OF human TOOLS
Sharp, cutting edges, etaunchness, resoluteross
to 3 purpose, and always along line OF natural |
training school Of rascality. Every vice is some
human virtue turned wrong side up.
Pray note that no rascal ever missed nor went |
Rstray in his vocation. It csmo out Of his na-
ter Of evil is never defeated nor mistaken. Sec |
how the Enayes sort themselves. The mere clod !
could not be burglar it he would. The bur-
glar could not make counterfeit coins. The
horse-thief, the terror Of wide counties never
changes professions with the sly streot-sharper.
Scamps whose skill grows downward to the in-
verted plnnacles Of lnfamy respond to ef-
fectual calling. Of perverted qualities, and
neyer invade each others vocations.
We have a reverence that amounts to awe for |
vocations in lite. Take the manufacturer, lord
Of thousand looms, or the railway king whose
lines network tho continent, the merchant. the
professional man, the solidly pros
porous in any walk in lifo, and you can trace his
cGectual calling back until you find its germ in
the boy,-the same plth and fibre in the aapling
that grew into tho broad, spreading tree. He
Eas e1rectually called, and circumstances favored
he full response. The boy was the pattern Of
curves and lines Of the pattern. With this
'iew, wo fail to give full weight to. the
influence oftentimes ascribed to biographies
II successful men. "There, my boy"
II George Stephenson, and read it. Ny son,
70 like him" And this though the scion has not
mechanical genius enough to make willow
whistle, and always barks his finger in sharpen-
% bis leaa,pencil Read the Life Of Benjamin
Veat. dear little boys By all means, but not with
be expectation OF artist success, unless your
alling Is in you as it wal in him. We imagine
'ur latter-day youth nightly bowildered among
uvenlle book-shelyes at whether they shau take |
Q spanning great c!lasms with bridge marve1s
ike Stephenson, painting for all the centuries.
10 wonder they work out OF the puzzle BY free
lash among the scanpish and scampering tales
+ Oliver Optic and De Mile. These foats they ]
an d. and they long TO be at them; the others !
re- doubtful.
Tho pubIc-school system, too, largely helps
be mudd1e. By insisting that children are, after {
u, merely human clothes pins, to be turned out
= tho dozen, all alike. Witness in Chicago !
le ponderous and costly machinery Of statistics !
nd records, designed to honor the city and re- I
ect undying fame on the Board OF Education I
y the proof, in figures, that Mary and Bobby, q
I'd William and Matilda Jane, as the triumph t
the system, come out even on geography and t
riting, muaic and tho science Of numbers. &
Enectual calling is the work OF Got" VIC put i
yer against the official assertion that He gives 6
sllow youth to modern educators like clay r
alls, all alike, to be machine-molded. | {
i'll, this view, We sometimes wonder II a
10 village-school, with its kindly teacher, i
moving each little head, and fitting tho proper :
urden to each little back, may not in its records
+ highest success shame tho tall publc-school- j
H.. e. - -. l