The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-12-11
What Shall i Dot


In reply to correspondent who
writes
lam a student and must shortly engage in
some particular calling. How can | be as
Sured what profession II Is rl9ht should
adopt? Am | merely TO be guided by the
conviction that am adapted by nature and
training to ill usefully and ereditably par
ticular one?
the Christian Union says:
In general the well balanced man is
one who finds it most difficult to aScer-
tain where he belongs, because he is
like marble, he will roll east, west,
north or south equally well. Where
this is the case, and the man has no pre-
ponderating wish or taste, but vague
state of mind to which all professions
are alike attractive or alike Indifferent,
he must either adopt the advice of
others or take the first opening that
presents itself The misitting of men
TO their vocations is among the most
mournful incidents of human life. Hun
dreds and thousands of men 90 through
life doing respectfully well that which
piyes them livelihood without finding
in it once in their whole life opportunity
to develop that for which God really
sent them into this world. There is
many man preaching respectfully poor
sermons whom God sent into the world
to be an inventor and mechanician. He
has abandoned that for which he was
built, and is as absurd in that which he
has taken up as a duck waddling along
the ground-being made to swim-Or a
locomotive off the track. There are a
great many men engaged IN farm
ing who are fit to be Judges,
and who are indeed the natural
Judges of the men among
whom they live, and accepted by them
as such. A great many who are born
for fine art and taste suffer deSolating
hunger and thirst all their lives long
while steadily, if not resignedly, per-
forming some mechanical drudgery for
which they are i'll fitted, or not so well
as an ordinary immigrant would be.
Notwithstanding this, man ought to be
sufficiently versatile to follow and bend
to the law of necessity. We once found
the son of the Superintendent of Educa-
ton in Prussia breaking stone on the
road back of Cincinnati. ltwas an hon
orable thing of him to dO-instead of
begging to 90 out an earn his dollar or
dollar and half by stOne-breaking. We
once met with hostler and gardener
studying a geography of such an alb
struse type of instruction that we could
not follow it, though we had college
diploma, and on questioning him found
he both read and spoke Latin and read
Greek, though he, could not speak it.
He was adapted to something higher
than. the work ihl@hich he was engagedi
but it was infinitely more creditable to
him to take it up and do it well than to
90 about the street soliciting charity.
All through society we find men har-
messed to things for which they are I'M
fit, and often under the guidance OF mis-
judgments of devOut friends. A youth
who is the pet of his family, whose
health is little feeble, whose passions
are weak and who lacks impetus, his
mother thinks is apostolic, and tit to be
a St. John of the present time, and must
be minister. He is "goOd boy"
and he is cosseted and goes through
school under her sheltering wing, and
goes through college with no great pow
er but with no ill-repute, and Is very
pious, emerging a sweet, lovely, feeble
man. He slides into a pulpit, if the
Lord does not take him home by con-
sumption, and in few years he gradu-
ally settles down into feeble preacher
of traditional beliefs or mild mOralities.
1t would seem from his moral qualities
that he ought to be a preacher; but
preacher requires something else than
moral Qualities. Spirituality Is excel
! lent powder, but if you have not strong
cannon in which its energies can be
concentrated, and weighty ball to be
propelled by them, what good Is touch
ing off the powder?
Practically there are only three direc-
tons to be given to a young man, or to
any man, asking this most perpleXingo of
questions What shall do?
[. Consult your own tastes and iuclin-
ations, if you have any. Go where
your instincts and nature take you; but
no not mistake the incidental rewards
of profession for its real work and
suppose Yourself called to journalism
because you like to see yourself in print,
or to the ministry because You like to.
declaim before an audience.
| II. Consult parents, guardians, teach
ers, anyone who knows you, who knows
life, and in whose practical judgment
regarding the adaptation OF men to
work you can trust. In other words,
first use your own common sense and
then supplement it by the common sense
of others. 81. r...
Ill In the absence of clear guidance
| from these two sources, follow the Scrip
ture motto: Whatever the hand finds to
do, do it with thy might. Ordinarily
the best thing for any man not driven
by instincts into a calling is TO take up
that which lies next him and put into
its performance, such Judgment and ac-
tivity as shall indicate what he is good
for, and if he can show that he is COM
petent for something higher yet he will
be called up to it. In the selection Of
their vocation in life there are many
men who sit down ut the head of the Ia
bic and when the Master comes in he
starts them clear down to the bottom.
1t is great deal better for a man to
take the first seat that offers itself to
! him, unless he has rational conviction
that he belongs somewhere higher.