The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-07-03
The Call to the NObler Life.

IT was a better thing to be the
leader OF the people, to become the
hammer which should SILVER the chains
of slavery, to pioneer herd of serfs
into nationality, than to be a indian
shepherd tending Jethro's flocks. 1t
was to this nobler duty God called
Moses. Moses tried to dodge the
duty through various excuses, but
there was for him the plain call into
higher service.
We are not shepherds in a indian
desert, but | am sure we are all living
lives less noble than we ought. AS
there was higher service and oppor-
tunity for Moses, SO is there for us. l
do not mean higher in the sense of
more conspicuous, but higher in the
meaning of becoming larger, rounder,
more beautiful, more benefcent, more
Christ-like.
We ouhgt to knooo more than aoe do.
Once, on the New England coast, /
asked an old fisherman how many fins
a cod has. He could not tell me. He
had never thought to notice. He had
been catching cod all his life, but the
only thing he knew about them was
that they were cod-how to bait his
hooks for them, the best time and
places to catch them, that they were
cod and were worth so many cents a
pound, was positively all he knew. Yet
in that humble craft of his there was a
wonderful book of God opened before
his eyes, if he would but read it. Fish
are more than something to catch and
feed on. They are thoughts of God,
and it is worth our while to get even a
glimmer of Divine thought. Agassiz
spent large portion of his life in
studying the thoughts of God inlaid
into a tish-scale. And that fish-scale
has been a narrow door into a wide
and many-chambered knowledge. l
fear that more of us are to be charged
with the stupid ignobleness of this fish
erman. Every mans occupation ought
to be for him a door into large knowl-
edge. Each mans work is for him the
best chance and avenue toward the
most useful knowledge. Hugh Muller,
journeyman mason though he was,
found the stones he hewed written all
over with the Divine thoughts, and so
skilled did he become in reading them
that when he read the world listened.
The great truth of God dips down into
every mans occupation, how humble
soever. The clerk who handles goods
ought to find library in them. He
ought never to allow himself to look at
them with dull eyes, as simply SO many
things to sell. Why, the method of their
manufacture, the place and way of the
growth of the rough material, the laws
of political economy presiding over
their production-those goods are sug-
gestive of all these. And thus, before
every mans eyes, God spreads some
open books of knowledge and of cult
ure. But too many of us are like the
misunderstanding our goods, ex-
changing our moneys, making our bar
gains, building our houses, with dull
eyes, careful not that while we work
we learn, but careful only that we catch
the fish, make money, live well, and
dream on through life with eyes shut to
the wonder and the truth of God.
We ought TO be more loving and self
sacrificing than oCe are. During the late
financial crisis in New York was read
ing of most touching incident. She
was washer-woman, living in one of
the northern cross streets; weeks in and
weeks out straining for sixteen hours
day over the wash-tub. She supported
by this hard work decrepid husband
and one child. She lived in little
six-roomed house, four of the rooms of
which she rented, and so, with rent
and washing, she managed to get along
and have q few dollars laid away. Then
the financial crisis struck the rainy
day came, terrible with disastrous
clouds. Every man of the four who
rented her rooms was thrown out of
work. Good, honest fellows, with their
families around them, facing the prob
lem OF livelihood. Every day they
went out with shovel and with basket,