The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1892-05-04
GATHER THEM UP.
From the Columbia Record.

Gather what up? It was the Master
himself who said: "Gaiher UP the frag
ments that nothing be lost
In mentally surveying the mass of
young people who blockade, as it were,
our country's thoroughfare, we can but
pause and marvel at the haphazard, list
less, aimless lives SO many of these young
people live. 1t is merely an eXistence
they do not live. We cannot but wish
from the depths of an anxious heart they
would take up, if but the fragments of
their lives, and use them for a defined
purpose.
Is there a boy or girl anywhere who
can say "There is nothing useful for
me to do to help this world along; there
is nothing in my life for which God has
defined purpose" The Respondent,
down-cast and foolish may allow them
selves to think thus, but they won't 90
far on life's journey before seeing and
regrettiug their folly.
First-They will see the fragments of
idle moments, which, had they been use
fully employed, would haveproven ''step-
ping stones to higher life. In read
ing biographical sketches of great and
good men and women, our attention has
been directed to the manner in which
they spent their idle moments. With
few exceptions, if any, they rose to emf
nence by employing them usefully. There
is not girl or boy living but who has
many an idle moment; remember they
all 60 to stamp your destiny. Garner
them in for harvest of golden grain"
Second-When the boys and girls have
grown to man and wOmanhood, and have
scattered from the dear old home, they
see fragments of little kindnesses that
was theirs to bestow on another; little
deeds of love that would have shed Joy
and light and life into the household.
Little charities, words of commentator,
smiles of approval, are only fragments
Of kindness, but if they are in your heart
gather them up and strew them broad
cast. They will be like 'apples of gold
in pictures of silver
Third-Again, when further on in life S
journey you will look back and see the
many little blessings that lay at your
door. Only fragments of blessings per-
chance, and for that very reason you
pass them by. You are like the man
whom an ancient legend says hunted the
world over for a four-leaf clover, believ-
ing it would bring him happiness. After
a fruitless search he returned home, and
there under his own doorsteps, grew the
little four-leaf clover 1t is in human
nature to reach out for what we have
not. And our young people should learn
ere it be too late to gather up the pres
ent blessings and apply them to useful
ness.
Fourth-Again they will see the tai
ents they might have employed buried in
barren soil. Psychologists and physi-
ogomists teach us that everybody was
created with some specific gift which
they say we should cultivate" Not
only the student of human heads and
faces teaches us this lesson, but the stu
dent of nature and the searcher of Gods
word to go to prove to us that there
is nothing created without a purpose in
it.
1t may be a mere fragment of genius,
for ''to him who hath shall be given, and
to him who hath not Shall be taken away
tnat which he seemeth to have" Let
nothing that is "good" within you "be
lost" OF all Bible pictures, to my mind,
there is none more distressing than that
of the "Buried Talent" And yet what
a common, living picture it is. All
around us are boys and girls growing
into man and womanhood without any
fixed purpose in life, without any aim,
any aspiration. They never ask them
selves "What am l good for?''
To sleep, to eat, to gossip, to have a
grand, good time, is the height of many
an ambition. They have talent but it is
buried. They never gather it up into
usefulness, and nothing short of that ter
mble sentence, depart we INFO everlast-
inc darkness will arouse them to a sense
of their slothfulness.
BESSIE STAPLEToN.
Specimen Cases.
= II Clifford Now CaScsl Wis vraS