The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-27

bet happy and inspiring work and
wearying and e~xhausting and dispErit-
ing work Is the difference between work
behind you and work before yoa- But
always wait until you feel ike it,. wait
until circumstances are more propitiotls,
wait till next week or wait till next
year. and the probability Is the work
win be only half done or never done at
all. Postponement Is the curse Of a vast
population. After awhile all the things
that ought to have been done previously
will rush in Upon you, and. II being too
much for our brain and nerves, you
viii be a fit subject for paralysis or
have been lost because the general did
not strike quick enough and the enemy
had full time TO gather Reinforcement.
You intend some time to write that i'm
portant letter. You intend some time to
make that business call. You intend
som9 time to finish that book. You in
Where is some time? What is some
time? Does 1t walk or does il float about
you? Will it happen to come? No. Some
time is never. There are no s~tragglers
in the days and months and years.
If one day should refuse TO keep step
and become a straggler, ii would wreck
the universe. Promptness. Up to timei
Today. Now. You will get only what
you win. There are accidents. like the
printers mistake, which caused Louis
Napoleon to be called Napoleon III
Napolean by base strategy turned the
republic into a monarchy wrote in de-
rision the word Napoleon" followed by
three exclamation points. These exclama-
ton points the printer mistook for the
letter "I' three times written. and hence
he was called Napoleon Ill" But pro-
motions by accident are not to be de-
pended on. Depend on getting nothing
except that under which God by your
own industry and good sence you acrieve.
That was a good maxim of olden time.
God will send thee fax Especially do
our young men need to get ready. as
within the past few months the world
has unfolded before them opportunities
such as We never dreamed would come
SO soon. Putting aside the political ques-
ton as to what ought to be done
pines, the whole world, for the first time,
is open, and the question now is,
our young men will do with the world.
China, the richest of all lands for metals
and, with 500, O00, 600 of people, is made
our n~eighbor, and the commerce of the
United States is to be Quadrupled in the
advantages commerce advantages me-
chaniciSm and art and literature and the
professions: The American plow, the
American hammer. the American pen,
the American printing press, the Ameri-
can bargain counter, are soon to have
their opportunity in every island of the
sea and every continent; Young men:
You need to be wiser, Drawer, better
men than we have ever been to meet the
crisis.
LIVE ACCORDING TO THE WORD.
Again, if you would be master of the
situation, and / name it last, because it
that which is last mentioned is apt to
be best remembered, l charge you get
into your heart and life, your conversa-
ton and your tanners your body, mind
and soul, the near 6,OOo-year-old reli-
gion of the Bible. Why so? Because the
large majority of people quit this life
ity is that if you do not take possession
Of this religion and religion does not
take possession of you while you are
young you Will never come into allie
our president, said to me at the White
House. Il am living on borrowed time,
for I am over so years of age" My re-
ply to her was the reply I make to you,
'All those who are over 25 years of age
are living on borrowed time, since the
majority Of people go out of the world
before % years of age
Heraclitus, according to Plato, said
that no man bathes twice in the same
river. But suppose you live to be octo-
genarians, do you not see that postpone
muscle and brain. What is the use Of
your pulling a heavy load all your life
when you can have two of the white
horses hat ST. John saw in heaven har-
a great mill wheel to turn. You can put
that mill wheel where it will be turned
by a. mill race of water one foot deep,
poured by a small brook, or you can put
it along the deep and swift st. Law
renee, which will roll through, the mill
race tons of water every second OF time.
Are you going to run your life by the
shallow drippings Of earthly influence or
by the rolling rivers of omnipotent pow
er? Are you going to undertake the
work Of life with nothing but your own
brain or arm, or with your WI brain
and arm backed up by all the terres-
trial and all the celestial foces Of the
Almighty? l make as great an offer as
was ever made by man. l offer you God.
He tells me to make that point blank
proposition. If you want them, you can
have them on your side for the earnest
asking-omniscience, omnipresence, ON
nipotence! Can you imagine a greater
contrast than a young man undertaking
life alone-life, with all its confront
ments of temptation and obstacle-and a
young man undertaking life with every
wing Of angel and every. thunderboit OF
heaven pledged for his defense~and ad-
vancement-the difference between a
young man alone and a young man be-
friended by the Maker and Upholder OF
severe that no young man can afford to
decline any help, and the mightiest help
is God. One night in the year 1141 Count
Lessock went to escort the Princess E,iz-
abeth of Russia to a throne which was
then unoccupied. She halted, she hesl-
tated, she wondered whether she had
better GO to the palace and mount the
throne of all the Russians. Then Count
Lessock drew upon a paper two sketches.
the one of herself and the count in dis
grace and on the scaffold and the other
VI ib a IA IN oAhAN
subjects. When she saw plainly that she
must make a choice. she chose the
throne. L put before the young men OF
Washington and the young men Of Amer
! ica the choice between overthrow and en-
thronement. You may have what you
will. Will you be the slave of passion
and sin and death or a conquerer empal-
aced? The Spanish proverb was right
when it said, "The road of By and BY
leads to the town Of Never
NO COFFIN LID RELIGION.
] More young men would take this ad.
| vantage which / speak of if they die
not have the notion that religion puts
one into depressing process. They have
heard, for instance, the absurd preach.
ment, You ought to live every day as
| though it were your last Such q
| lachrymose man 1 would not want any
| where around me. On the contrary, you
! ought to live as though you We're goins
to live a great while in this world and
to live forever in the next world. There
| is no smell of yarnish of coffin lids in
| our genuine religion. Get in right rela.
ton with God through Jesus Christ and