The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-06-04

~ "a. corner in stocks or "a corner In
anything. He. goes to business=at a req
sonabIe hour and returns when itds time
+ lock up. BE never gave a check for
$4,000 in all his life, but he is known on
the street and in the church and in many
honorable circles as an honest man. His
word is as good as his bond. He has for
30 years been referred to as a clean, ND
right, industrious, consistent Christian
man. Ask him how many talents he has,
and he will not claim even one. He can
not make a speech, he cannot buy a mar
ket, he cannot afford an outshining equi-
page, but what an example he is to the
young, what an honor to his household,
what a pillar to the church Of God, what
a specimen Of truth and integrity and all
roundness Of character! Is there n com
parison in usefulness between that man
with the one talent Of honesty and the
dashing operators of the money market,
who startle the world first with a boom"
and then with a "slump?" l tell you that
the one man with the one talent will live
a happier life and die a more peaceful
death and go to a better place than his
brilliant but reckless contemporary. ITO
another one"
The chief work Of the people with
many talents is to excite wonderment
and to startle and electrify the world.
What use is there in all that? No use
at all. / have not SO much interest in
he n man out Of a million as l have
in the million. Get the great masses Of
the world right and it does not make
much difference about what the excep-
tional people are doing. Have all the
people with the n talent enlisted for
Cd .-I - " 49,
with five or ten talents migrate to the
north star or the moon, and this world
wolld get on splendidly. The hard work
ing, industrious classes of America are
all right and would give no trouble, but
it is the genius who gives up work and
on a big salary goes around to excite
genius who quits work and steps on the
stage or political platform, eats beef
steak and quail on toast and causes the
common laborers, compelled to idleness,
to put their hands into empty pockets and
eat gristle and gnaw bones. The world
would be nightly improved if it COLD
slough off about 5000 %geniuses, for there
are more han that on our planet. Then
the man or woman of one talent would
take possession of the world and rule il
in a common sense and Christian way.
There would be less to amaze and startle,
but more to give ~equipoise to church and
state and world. ITO another one"
The most brilliant and many sided man
that ever trod this world, in my opinion,
was Napoleon Bonaparte, and no man
that ever lived did the world more dam
age. | have read a book advocating him
as a great emancipation and reformer. |
was not surprised at the book, for l have
heard of a pamphlet in defense Of Judas
Iscariot. | suppose it may set forth the
idea that he was out of money and needed
the 80 pieces Of silver, and the money was
not spent for himself, but to open a re-
spectacle graveyard. l would not be sur
prised to find q book in honor Of satan.
the chief miscreant of the universe. We
all admire industry. and there is no more
industrious being than satan. But when
a man tells me Napoleon was n reformer
and emancipation l would like to take him
| out and show him $1,000 corpses in the
| Russian snow banks and ask him if he
| likes that, and | would show him the
| grave trenches of those who fell in the
| year 1899 during the Napoleonic wars.
| Only 10000 men butchered liz four
| months! | would ask him how he likes
that. The country is beautiful. and 1
would ask our friend to cross with me to
Leipsic and examine the grave trenches
| opened there. Only 101. 100 fallen on both
sides! That is all. Come on, my friend,
and see the further work of the great
emancipation Inc reformer at Borodino.
which had an opportunity of looking at
last summer. Only 100000 dead ruen as
a result of the battle. Pass by as hardly
| worth looking at Austerlitz, where the
| work of our reformer left 42.OOO Of the
slain. and come to Waterloo, to find that
only $4,000 dead men were left on the
| field! Alas for the work of this great
emancipation and reformer! He turned
| Europe into a charnel house and filed Eu-
rope with ~widowhood and orphanage and
| childlessness. Though be was the brilliant
| man of the ages. would it not have been
better for the world if he had died in his
cradle six weeks after be was born :!
| Compare that with the man who had one
| talent and that the talent Of invention.
| He was born on a farm in Spencer,
| Mass, in 1919. He went to the district
| school in the winter and never had any
| other literary advantages. He became Il
machinist. In 1916 be came on TO a ha:
tlefield where more women have teen
slain by the needle than IN the. wars |
spoke of men were slain by the sword.
Elias Howe. He could not make an ora
ton. He could not marshal a host. He
could not write a constitution. But he
could contrive a sewing machine. which
said to millions of beggared. c~onsumptive
bent over, half blinded sewing women:
"Go freeI Take back your health! liecov'
er your eyesight! Come down out of thai
garnet! Go free"
The Talent of P~ersua.ion.
Is your talent that Of persuasion? Make
good use Of II. We all have it to some
extent, yet none of Us thinks of it H. Il
talent But it is the mightiest Of talents
Do o know that this one talent W.
fetch the world back to God? Do you
know it is the mightiest talent of the
high heavens? Do you know that it is
the one talent chiefly employed by all the
angels Of God when they descend to our
world-the talent of persuasion! Do you
realize that the rough lumber lifted into
a cross on the hill back of Jerusalem
was in persuasion as well as sacrifice
Il That - <ha onlv oheolnfalu <h1 z-l- 80