The Forrest City times., 1891-10-09

y they are to be draughtsmen or artists of some kind. And you find others ciphering out difficult problems with rare interest and success, and you know they will be mathematicians. Others making wheels and strange con- trivances, and you know they are going to be machinists And others are found experimenting with hoe and plough and sickle, and you know they will be farmers. And others are al ways swapping jaclS-knives or balls or bats, and making something by the bargain, and they are going to be mer- chants. When Abbe 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 scholar. But in almost every lad there comes time when he does not know what he was made for, and hls parents do not know, and it is crisis that God only n decide. Then there are those born for some especial work, and their fitness does not develop until quite late. When Phillip Doddridgc, whose sermons and books have harvested ncounted 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 scie books standard now though he has been dead over two hundreds ,years-w the dishearten- ment of his father who used to say that if it pleased God to take any of his children away he hoped 1t might be his son Isaac. So some of those who have been characterized for their stupidity in boyhood or grlhood, have turned out the mightiest benefactors or benefactresses of the human race
 Those things being so, am I not right in saying that in many cases God only knows what is the most appro- priate 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 ot those who spent their best years in stumbling about among businesses and occupations, LOW trying this and now trying that, and failing in all, would be able to go ahead with a definite, decided and tremendous purpose, saying, 'To this end was born
 
 l momentous. Let me say that you are made for usefulness and heaven. judge this from the way you are built. You go into shop where there is only one wheel turning and that by workman's foot on treadle, and you say to yourself: Here Is something good being done, yet on small scale; but If you go into a factory covering many acres. and you find thou sands of bands pulling on thousands of wheels and sh titles flying. and the whole scene bewildering with activi- ties, 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, look at you, and if l should find that you had only one faculty of body. only 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 ut no will. and if you had a soul with enly one capacity. | would say not much is expected of you
 But stand up. oh man. and let me look you squarelv in the face. Eyes capable of seeing everything. Ears capable of hearing everything. Hands capa ole of grasping everything Mind with more wheels than any factory ever turned
 more power than Corliss engine ever moved. X soul that will outlive all the universe except heaven, and wouio outliee all heaven if the life of other immortals were a moment short of the eternal. Now. what has the world d right to expect of you? What has God right to demand of vouf Cod is the greatest of economists in the universe, and he makes nothing uselessly, and for what purpose ald he build your body, mind and soul as they are bnitts There are only two beings in the universe who can answer that question. The angels do not know. The schools do not know. Your kin. dred cannot certainly know. God knows, and you ought to know factory running at an expens SC of Sbo0, 600 year, and turning out goods worth seventy cents year would no: be such an incongruity as you, oh man. with such semi infinite equip. ment doing nothing, or next to moth. ing, in the way of usefulness "What shall do9' you ask. My brethren, my sisterA do not agk me. Ask God
 There's some path of Christian useful. ness open It my he a rough path or it may be smooth path, n long path or a short path. IL may be on mount of conspicutty. or in valley unob served, but it is 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: "To this end was I born Do not wait for extra l ordinary qualifications. Philip the Conqueror gained his great est victories seated on a mule, and if you wait for some capar- isoned Bucephalus to ride into the con fiict you will never get into the world wide fight at all. Samson slew the Lords enemies with the iawbone of the stupidest beast created. Shamgar slew six hundred of the Lords enemies with an ox-goad. Under God. splttle cured ths blind mans eyes in the New Testament story. Take all the fac- 1 ulty you have and say: 70 Lord, Here is what l have. show me the field and back me up by om ipotent power. Anywhere, anyhow. any time for God" Two men riding on horse- back came to trough to water the horses. Whi the horses were drink ing 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 directions. But the words uttered were the salvation of the one to whom they were uttered. and he became the Rev. Mir.