Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-11-14

/ literatureS. Ask God about what world
! " business you shall undertake until
| you are so positive you can in earnest
ness smite your hand On your pillow han
! die, or your carpenters bench, or your
/ Blackstone's Commentaries, - or your
medical dictionary, or your Dir. Dicks
s'Didactio Theology, saying, 'For this
/ end was | born - There are children
! who early develop natural affinities for
certain styles of work When the father
Of the astronomer Forbes was going to
London, he asked his children what
present he should bring each one Of
them. The boy who was to be an astron-
! omer cried out, "Bring me telescopeP'
Ask Gods Guidance.
And there are children whom you
find all by themselves drawing on their
states, or on paper, ships, Or houses, or
birds, and you know they are to be
craftsmen or architects of some kind.
And you find others ciphering out diff
cult problems with rare interest and
success, and you know they are to be
mathematicianS. And others making
wheels and strange contrivances, and
you know they are going to be machin-
lists. And others are found experiment.
ing with hoe and pillow and sickle, and
you know they will be farmers And
others are always swapping jackknives
or balls or bats, and making something
by the bargain, and they are going to
be merchants. When Able de Rance
had so advanced in studying Greek that
he could translate Anacreon at 10 years
of age, there was no doubt left that he
a. e.
most every lad there comes a time
when he does not know what he was
made for, and his parents do not know,
and it is crisis that God only can de-
eide. 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 for the min
istry, 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 900
years-was the disheartenment of his
father, who used to say that if it pleas
ed God to take any of his children away
he hoped it might be his son Isaac. So
some of those who have been character
lied for their stupidity in boyhoOd Or
girlhood have turned out the mightiest
benefactors or benefactresses Of the hu-
man race. These things being SO am [
not right in saying that in many cases
God only knows what is the most ap-
propriate thing for you to do, and he is
hn 70 ocIzp A,ol LOT oil +c
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 a
definite, decided and tremendous pur-
pose, saying, Ito this end was I born"
Paths of Usefulness.
But my subject now mounts into the
mOmentous. Let me say that you are
made for usefulness and heaven. [
judge this from the way you are built.
You go into a shop where there is only
one wheel turning and that by work
man foot on a treadIe and you say to
yourself ''Here is something good be-
ing done, yet on a small scale, - but if
you go into a factory covering many
acres and you find thousands of bands
pulling on thousands of wheels and
shuttles 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 vast scale.
Now, look at you, and if I SHOULD find
that you had only one faculty of body,
only one muscle, only one nerve, if you
could see but 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, I would say not much is
expected of you. But stand up, O man,
and let me look you squarely in the
face! Eyes capable of seeing every thing.
Ears capable of hearing everything
Hands capable of grasping everything.
Minds with more wheels than any fac
tory ever turned, more power than any
Corliss engine ever moved. A soul that
will outlive all the universe except
heaven, and would outlive all heaven
if the life of the other immortals were
a moment short of the eternal Now,
what has the world right to expect of
you? What has God right to demand
of you? God is the greatest of econo-
mists 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 univerSe who can answer
that question. The angels do not know.
The schools do not know. Your kindred
cannot certainly know. God knows,
L.. l.