The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-12-10

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undertake until you are so positive you
can in earnestness smite your hand on
your pillow handle or your carpenters
bench, or your Blackstone's Com
mentaries." or your medical diction-
airy, or your DR.. Dicks "Didactic The
ology," saying: "For this end was l
born" There are children who early
develop natural affinities for certain
styles of work. When the father of the
Astronomer Forbes was going TO Lon
don he asked his children what present
he should bring each one of them. The
boy who was to be an astronomer cried
out: Bring me telescope!"
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 a
wcrkman's foot on treadle, and you
say to yourself: Here is something
good being done, yet on small scale"
Tut if you go into factory covering
many acres and you find thousands of
lands pulling on thousands of wheels
and shuttles flying and the whole
scene bewildering 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
] 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
e soul with only one capacity, ! should
say not much is expected Of you. But
stand up, oh, man, and let me look you
squarely in the face. Eyes capable of
seeing everything. Ears capable of
bearing everything. Hands capable of
grasping everything. Minds with more
wheels than any factory ever turned,
more power than any Corliss engine
ever moved. A soul that will outlive
all the universe except heaven, and
would outhve all heaven ii the life of
the other immortals were 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 pur-
rose 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, and you ought to know.
\ factory running at an expense OF
100000 year and turning out goods
worth 70 cents year would not be
such an incongruity as you, o man,
with such semi-infnite equipment do
ing nothing, or next to nothing, in the
way of usefulness. What shall do?'
you ask. My brethren, my sisters, dc
not ask me. Ask God. There's some
path of Christian usefulness open. 1t
may be rough path or it may be a
smooth path, a long path or a short
path. 1t may be on the mount of con-
spicuity or in the valley unobserved
but it is path on which you can start
with such faith and such satisfaction
and such certainty that you can cry
out III the face of earth and hell and
heaven: ITO this end was born"
Do not wait for extraordinary quail.
fications. Philip, the conqueror, gained
his greatest victories seated on mule
and if you wait for some caparisoned
Bucephalus to ride into the conflict you
will never get into the worldwide fight
at all. Samson slew the Lords en-
emies with the jawbone of the stupid
est beast created. Shamgar slew 601
of the Lords enemies with an OK goad
Under God spittle cured the blind
mans eyes in the New Testament story
Take all the faculty you have and say
80 Lord, here is what have! Show
me the field, and back me- up by omnipo-
tent power. Anywhere, anyhow, any
time for God"
1t may be helpful if recite my own
experience in this regard. started
for the law without asking any divine
direction. ! consulted my own tastes
1 liked lawyers and courtrooms and
judges and juries, and reveled in hearing
the Frelinghuysens and the Bradleys
of the New Jersey bar, and as assistant
OF the county clerk, at 16 years of age
l searched titles, naturalized foreign
ers, recorded deeds, received the con
fession of judgments, swore witnesses
and juries and grand juries, but after
awhile 1 felt call to the gospel minis
try and entered it, and felt some salts
faction in the work; but one summer
when l was resting at Sharon Springs
and while seated in the park of that vii
lage, l said to myself: "Tf have an es
pecial work to do in the world, i ought
to find it out now" and with that de
termination l prayed asI had never be
fore prayed, and got the divine drec
ton, and wrote it down in my memoran
dun book, and saw my life work ther
as plainly as see it now. Oh, do MOI
be satisfied with general directions!
Get specific directions. Do not Shoot
at random. Take aim and fire.
And now l came to the climacterit
consideration. AS near as I can tell
you were built for happy eternity, al
the disasters which have happened tc
your nature to be overcome by thu