Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-05-09

Again behold in our subject an exhibit
| tfon of true decision of character. Before
Daniel were condemnation and death, If he
continued faithful to his religion. Yet,
| just as before, three times day he prayed
| with his face toward Jerusalem. There is
nothing more fatal for the religious or
worldly advancement than q spirit of in
decision. How often youth is almost gone
before the individual has determined upon
| his profession.
There are those who for thirty or forty
years have accomplished nothing any
| where because they have not felt them
selves settled. They have thought of the
! law, of medicine, of merchandise, of mech
| anism. They have some idea of going
west. Perhaps they will go east Perhaps
they won't. They may go north or south.
Perhaps they will invest their money in
railroads or in real estate Perhaps they
won't. They are like a vessel starting
from New York harbor, which should one
day decide on going to Liverpool, and the
next on New Orleans, and the next on Mar
seilles How many men have for long
while been out on the great sea of life and
they do not know to what port they are
destined2 1t is an everlasting lacking of
ship, but no Roadway.
The man who begins to build house in
| the Corinthian style and when half way up
concludes to make it Doric and then com
pletes i. II. Ionic, will have an unseemly
pile and be cursed of every school of archi-
lecture These men that try everything
get to be nothing. God wrote in your brain
and engraved on your bones what you
ought to be. Then be that, nothing more
or nothing less. In that direction is your
success. Every other road is ruin. Hav-
ing adjusted your compass, go ahead. Set
your teeth together, Small difficulties do
not notice. Great difficulties, by Gods
grace strike them down. Onward Let
towards skulk.
Act you libe sons of God. If you want
to sail to the land of gold you must double
the Cape. To usefulness and strong char
acter there is no overland route Over the
great deeps you must fly Most of the
way 1t is either head wind or tempest.
Character, like the goldfinch of Tonquin,
is magnificent when standing firm, but
loses all its splendor in flight. There is no
such thing as failure to those who trust in
God. Paul got to be an apostle by falling
off his horse. Stephen was stoned into
heaven.
When a young man resolves on re-
ligious life, he does not always find it
smooth sailing. Old companions laugh
and say with sarcastic tone, HE has got
to be pious." They go on excursions, out
do not ask him. They prophesy that his
religion will not hold out. They call him
"long faced" They wonder if he is not
getting wings. They say sharp things
about him for themselves to laugh at.
When he passes they grimace and wink
md oh n1y In nd 60 l.
heard, "There goes saint" If you have
never seen life as it is, you know not what
strength of resolution it often requires for
a young man to be Christian.
VALUE OF SELF DENIAL.
Again, let this story of Daniel teach us
that the way to future success is through
present self denial Not only did Daniel
show his Willingness for self restraint by
refusing the luxuries of the kings table,
but must have denied himself much social
enjoyment and sightseeing in order to have
attained most wonderful proficiency in
study The rush of the chariots under his
window and the sound of mirth that rang
out ON the air of Babylon would have at
tracted most young men into the streets
and to expensive places of amusement.
But Daniel knew that it was only through
severity of application he could attain the
honorable position for which he was in
tended. Indeed, you may carry this truth
into universal application.
The most of those who have succeeded
in any profession or occupation have come
up from the very bottom of the ladder.
The brightest day began with the twilight.
The admirals who commanded the navies
of the world started as cabin boys The
merchant princes, whose messengers are
ships and whose servants the nations Gus
tom houses, once swept the store and kin
died the fires The orator who lifts up the
gate of the soul, as Samson carried off the
gates of Gaza once stammered and
blushed on the stage of country school
house. The young painter, under whose
pencil skies Nlossom and waters CLEAN, I'M
derstands his subject so well because he
has but little to shelter him from the one
and Is obliged to find his only beverage in
| the other.
| Out of the dark, deep mines of want and
suffering has been dug the marble for the
worlds greatest temples of wisdom and
| palaces of power. Vanderlyn, the artist,
must first content himself with a charcoal
sketch. Franklin, before becoming the
renowned philosopher, must be journey
man printer Columbus must weave car
pets before he can weave hemispheres.
David must take care of his fathers sheep
before he rules Israel. Amos must be
herdsman fore he becomes a prophet.
Daniel must be the humble student before
he rises to be the prime minister of Baby
| Ion.
If young man starts in life with large
notions of what he mast Immediately have,
willing to consider no economy, but ex-
| Oh - IL
much sail rs an ocean frigate he win find
himself capsized by the first northeastern,
| IL Is the small sprig that you can carry in
one hand which will thrive best when
planted But if, by levers and huge lum-
Der wagons, you bring down from the
mountain century oak, though you may
plant it, you cannot make it live. So he
who begins life on such grand scale and
with such exorbitant notions, will never
succeed, while some young man who went
to town without means, but having a right
spirit, through his self denial, planted a
| tree which has reached above Wall street
and flung its shadow in one direction over
the granite palaces on the avenues and in
| the other far out over merchant vessels an
chored in the bay.
Men say success in life Is all a matter of
good lucia hut industry and economy aud
self denial put together always make good
luck. There are young men who failed
twice and are getting notes shaved the
third time before they are as old as their
father when he first began business for
himself They started with the idea that
their wit would do as well as capital FoT
awhile it did, but when creditors sent their
duns and banks their protests they found
| that mere shrewdness was greatly below
par. You cannot cross the ocean in o yawl.