Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1898-03-30

in the chair of a philosopher and
Christian scholar. The soap-boiler Of
London could not keep his son in that
business, for God had decided that
Hawley was to be one of the greatest
astronomers Of England.
On the other hand we may be born
in a sphere a little higher than that
for which God intends us. We may be
born in a castle, and play in a costly
conservatory, and feed high-bred point
ers, and angle for goldfish in artificial
ponds, and be familiar with princes;
yet God may better have fitted us for a
carpenters shop, or DENTISTS forceps,
or a weavers shuttle, or blacksmith's
forge. The great thing Is to find just
the sphere for which God intended us,
and then to occupy that sphere, and &C.
cupy it forever. Here Is a man God
fashioned to make a pillow. There is
man God fashioned to make a consti-
tuition. The man who makes the pillow
is just as honorable as the man who
makes the constitution. There is
WOuldu WIN WAS " loohich a
robe, and yonder is one intended to be
a queen and wear it. 1t seems to me
that in the one case as in the other, God
appoints the sphere, and the needle is
just as respectable in his sight as the
sceptre. | do not know but that the
world would long ago have been saved
if some of the men out of the ministry
were in it, and some of those who are
in it were out of 1t. l really think tnat
one half the world may be divided into
two quarters-those who have not
found their sphere, and those who, hav-
ing found it, are not willing to stay
there. How many are struggling for
position little higher than that which
God intended for them. The bonds
woman wants to be mistress. Hagar
keeps crowding Sarah. The small
wheel of a watch which beautifully
went treading it's golden pathway
wants to be the balance-wheel, and the
sparrow with chagrin drops into the
brook because it cannot, like the eagle
cut a circle under the sun.
In the Lords army we all want to
be rigadier-generals! The sloop says:
More mast, more tonnage, more can
vas. Oh, that / were topsail schoon-
err, or a full-rigged brig, or Cunard
steamer" And so the world Is filled
with cries of discomfort, because we are
not willing to stay in the place where
God put us and intended us to be. My
friends, be not too proud to do any
thing God tells you to do; for the lack
of right disposition in this respect the
world is strewn with wandering Hagars
and Ishmaels. God has given each one
of us a work to do. You carry a
scuttle of coal up that dark alley. You
distribute that Christian tract. You
give $4,000 to the missionary cause.
You for fifteen years sit with chronic
rheumatism, displaying the beauty of
Christian submission. Whatever God
calls you to, whether it win Kissing or
huzza; whether to walk under tri-
umphal arch or lift the sot out Of the
ditch; whether it be to preach on a
Pentecost or tell some wanderer of the
street of the mercy of the Christ of
Mary Magdalene; whether it be to
weave a garland for laughing child
on spring morning and call her a
May Queen, or to comb out the tangled
locks of waif of the street. and cut
up one of your old dresses to fit her
out for the sanctuary-do it. and do 1t
right away. Whether it be a crown
or yoke, do not fidget. Everlasting
honors upon those who do their work,
and dc their whole work, and are con-
tented in the sphere in which God has
put them; while there is wandering,
and exile, and desolation. and wilder
ness for disconnected Hagar and Ish-
mael.
Who is that boy at Sutton Pool, Ply
mouth. England, barefooted, wading
down into the slush and slime, until
his bare foot comes upon a piece of
glass and he lifts it, bleeding and pain
struck? That wound in the foot de-
cides that he be sedentary in his life.
decides that he be student. That
wound by the glass in the foot decides
that he shall be John Kitto, who shall
provide the best religious encyclopedia
the world has ever had provided, and
with his other writings as well, throw
ing light upon the Word of God such
as has come from no other man in this
century. o mother, mother, that little
hand that wanders over your face may
yet be lifted to hurl thunder-bolts of
war or drop benedictions! That little
voice may blaspheme God in the grog-
shop or cry Forward" to the Lords
hosts as they go out for their last VIC
tory. My mind this morning leaps
thirty years ahead, and l see a mer-
chant prince of New York. One stroke
OF his pen brings a ship out of Canton.
Another stroke of his pen brings a
ship into Madras. He is mighty in all
the money markets of the world Who
Is he? He sits on Sabbaths beside you
In church. My mind leaps thirty years
forward from this time and find my
self in relief association. A great
multitude of Christian women have
met together for generous purpose