News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-10-08

mathematIcIanS. Ana others making
wheels and strange contrivances, anC
you know they are going to be machin
lists. And others are found experiment
ing with hoe and pillow and sickle, anC
you know they will be farmers. AnC
others are always swapping jackknives
or balls or bats and making something
by the bargain, and they are going tC
be merchants. When Able de Rance
had SO advanced in studying Greek that
he could translate Anacreon at twelve
years of age, there was no doubt left
that he was intended for a scholar
But in almost every lad there comes q
time when he does not know what he
was made for, and his parents do not
know, and it is a crisis that God only
can decide
Then there are those born for some
especial work, and their fitness does
not develop until quite late. When
Philip Doddridge, whose sermons and
books have harvested uncounted souls
for glory, began to study the ministry,
Dr. Calamy, one of the wisest and best
men, advised him to turn his thoughts
to some other work. Isaac Barrow,
the eminent clergyman and Christian
scientist-his books standard now
though he has been dead over two hun
bred years-was the disheartenment OF
his father, who used to say that if it
pleased God to take any of his children
away he hoped it would be his son
Isaac So some of those who have
been characterized for their stupidity
! in boyhood or girlhood have turned
out the mightiest benefactors or bene-
factresses of the human race.
These things being SO, am not right
in saying that in many cases God only
knows what is the most appropriate
thing for you to do, and he is the one
to ask. And let all parents, and all
schools, and all universities, and all
| colleges recognize this, and a large
number of those who spent their best
years in stumbling about among bust
nesses and occupations, now trying
this and now trying that, and failing
in all, would be able to go ahead with
definite, decided and tremendous
purpose, saying, ''To this end was |
born.
WHAT YOU WE'RE MADE FOR.
But my subject now mounts into the
momentous. Let me say that you are
made for usefulness and heaven. l
Judge this from the way you are built.
You go into a shop where there is only
INV hot krr.,
mans foot on treadle, and you say to
yourself, Here is something good being
done, yet on a small SCALE" but if you
go into a factory covering many acres,
and you find thousands of bands pull
ing on thousands of wheels, and shut
ties flying, and the whole scene be-
wildering with activities, driven by
water or steam or electric power, you
conclude that the factory was put up
to do great work and on a vast scale.
Now, l look at you, and if l should
find that you had only one faculty of
body, only one muscle, only one nerve,
if you could see but could not hear, or
could hear and not see, if you had the
use of only one foot or one hand, and,
as to your higher nature, if you had
only one mental faculty, and you had
memory but no judgment, or judgment
but no will, and if you had a soul with
only one capacity, l would say not
much is expected of you.
But stand up, o man, and let Inc
look you squarely in the face. Eyes
capable of seeing everything. Ears
capable of hearing everything. Hands
capable of grasping everything. Mind
with more wheels than any factory
ever turned, more power than Corliss'
engine ever moved. A soul that will
outlive all the universe except heaven,
and would outlive all heaven if the life
of other immortals were a moment
hort of the eternal Now, what has
he world right to expect of your
What has God right to demand of
you? God is the greatest of economists
in the universe, and he makes nothing
uselessly, and for what purpose did he
build your body, mind and soul as they
are built?
There are only two beings in the uni
verse who can answer that question.
The angels do not know. The schools
do not know. Your kindred cannot
certainly know. God knows and you
ought to know. A factory running at
an expense of $780, 900 a year and
turning out goods worth seventy cents
a year would not be such an incon-
gruity as you, o man, with such semi
infinite equipment doing nothing or
next to nothing in the'way of useful
ness. What shall l dol" you ask.
My brethren, my sisters, do not ask me.
Ask God. There's some path of Chris
tan usefulness open. 1t may be a rough
path or it may be a smooth path, long
path or short path. 1t may be on a
mount of conspicuity or in valley I'M
observed, but it is a path on which you
can start with such faith and such sat
isfaction and such certainty that you
can cry out in the face of earth and
hell and heaven, ITO this end was
born"
Do not wait for extraordinary quail
fications. Philip the Conqueror gained
his greatest victories seated on a mule,
and if you wait for some caparisoned
Bucephalus to ride into the conflict you
will never get into the world wide fight
at all. Samson slew the Lords enemies
with the jawbone of the stupidest beast
created. Shamgar slew six hundred of
the Lords enemies with an OK goad.
Under God, spittle cured the blind
mans eyes in the New Testament story.
Take all the faculty you have and say;
80 Lord Here is what / have, show
me the field and back me up by ON
nipotent power. Anywhere, anyhow,
any time for God"
WORDS OF SALVATION.
Two men riding on horseback came |
to trough to water the horses. While |
the horses were drinking, one of the |
men said to the other a few words |
about the value of the soul, and then |
they rode away, and in opposite direc
lions. But the words uttered were the |
salvation of the one to whom they |
were uttered, and he became the Rev. |
Mr.. Champion, one of the most distin-
guished missionaries in heather lands,
for years wondering who did for him
the Christian kindness, and not finding
out until, in a bundle of books sent
him to Africa, he found the biography of
Brainerd Taylor and a picture of him,
and the missionary recognized the face
in that book as the man who, at the
trough for horses, had said
the thing that saved his soul. What
you have had in the past.
What opportunities you have now.