Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-02-04
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noon spell Of conversation: "Goodl I
am glad that man has got religion. I
wish had it myself. Let US all go to-
night. Come on. Twill meet you at the
church door at o'clock?' You see, you
would have taken them all to heaven,
and you would have got there yourself
Opportunity lost!
The day I left our country home to
look after myself we rode across the
country, and my father was driving.
Of course l said nothing that implied
how felt But there are hundreds of
men here who from their own experience
know how I felt At such a time a
young man may be hopeful and even
impatient to get into the battle of life
for himself, but to leave the homestead
where everything has been done for
you, your father or older brothers tax
ing your part when you were imposed
on by larger boys, and your mother al
ways around when you got the cold
with mustard applications for the chest
or herb tea to make you sweat off the
lever and sweet mixtures in the cup by
the bed to stop the cough, taking some
times too much of it because it was
pleasant to take, and then to go out,
with no one to stand between you and
the world, gives one choking sensa-
ton at the throat and home sickness
before you have got three miles away
from the old folks. There was OH the
day I spoke of silence for a long while,
and then my father began to tell how
good the Lord had been to him in sick
ness and in health, and when times of
hardship came how Providence had al
ways provided the means Of livelihood
for the large household, and he wound
up by saying, "De Witt, I have always
found it safe to trust the Lord. " My
father has been dead 80 years, but in
all the crises of my life-and there
have been many of them-I have felt
the mighty boost of that lesson in the
farm wagon, de Witt, I have always
found it safe to trust the Lord. " The
fact was my father saw that was his
opportunity, and he improved it.
This is one resaOn why / am an en-
thusiastic friend of all Young Mems
Christian associations. They get hold
of so many young men just arriving
in the city and while they are very i'm
questionable, and it is the best oppor-
tunity. Why, how big the houses looked
to us as we first entered the great city,
and so many people! 1t seemed some
meeting must have just closed to fill the
streets in that way, and then the big
plaoards announcing all styles of amuse-
ments and SO many of them on the Same
night and every night, after our boy
hood had been spent in regions where
only once or twice in a whole year there
had been an entertainment in school
house or church. That is the opportuni
ty Start that innocent young man III
the right direction. Six weeks after will
be too late. Tell me what such young
man does with his first six weeks in the
great city, and I will tell you what he
will be throughout his life on earth and
where he will spend the ages of eterni
ty Opportunity!
Great Opportunities.
We all recognize that commercial and
literary and political successes depend
upon taking advantage of opportunity.
The great surgeons of England feared
to touch the tumor of King George ".
Sir Ashley Cooper looked at it and said
to the king, Il will cut your majesty
as though you were plowman. That
was Sir Astley's opportunity. Lord
Give was his father dismay, climbing
church steeples and doing reckless
things. His father sent him to Madras
India, as a clerk in the service of an
English officer. Give watched his time
and when war broke out came to be the
chief of the host that saved India for
England That was Lord Gives oppor-
tunity. Pauline Lucca. the almost
matchless singer, was but little recog-
nized until in the absence of the soloist
in the German choir she took her place
and began the enchantment of the
world. That day was Lucca's opportuni-
ty. John Scott, who afterward became
Lord Eldon, had stumbled his way
along in the practice of law until tho
case of Ackroyd versus Smithson was
to be tried and his speech that day
opened all avenues Of success. That was
Lord Eldon's opportunity.
William II. Seward was given by his
father 81 900 to get collegiate educa-
ton. That money soon gone, his father
said, Nov you must fight your own
way, and he did, until gUbernatorial
chair and United States senatorial chair
were his, with right to the presiden-
tial chair if the meanness of American
politics had not swindled him out of it.
The day when his father told him to
fight his own way was William e.
Stewards opportunity. John Henry
Newman, becalmed whole week in ali
orange boat in the strait of Bonifacio,
wrote his immortal hymn, LEAD, Kind
~ Light. That was John Henry New
mans opportunity. You know Kirk
Whites immortal hymn, "When Mar
shaded on the Nightly Plain. He wrote
it in boat by lantern on a stormy
night as he was sailing along rocky
coast That was Kirk Whites oppor-