Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1901-06-07

n our OWN mousse now, nave IN our
memory such a saint. We went to
those old people with all our troubles.
They were perpetual evangelists. by
their soothing words, by their hopeful
ness of spirit. and inexpressible help.
/ cannot see how heaven could make
them any lovelier than they are or
were. But there are exceptions There
is a daughter in that family whose
father is impatient and the mother
querulous. The passage of many years
does not always improve the DISPOSE
ton. and there are a great many dis
agreeable old folks. Some of them
forget that they were ever young
themselves. and they become untidy in
their habits and wonder how, when
their asthma or rheumatism is so bad,
other people can laugh or sing and go
on as they do. The daughter In that
family bears all of the peevishness and
unreasonable behavior of senility
without answering back or making
any kind of complaint If you should
ask her what her five talents are or
that she has no talent at all. Greatly
mistaken is she. Her one talent is %
forbear and treat the childishness of the
old as we'll as she treats the childish
ness of the young. She is no musician.
and besides there may not be piano
in the house She cannot skillfully
swing croquet mallet or golf stick.
Indeed, she seems shut up to see what
she can do with a ladle and a broom
and brush and other household i'm
plements. She is the personification
Of patience and her reward will be as
long as heaven. Indeed, much of her
reward may be given on earth. She is
in rough college, from which she
may after a while graduate into
brightest domesticity. She is hero
inc. though at present she may receive
nothing but scolding and depreciation.
Her one talent of patience under trial
will do more good than many morocco
covered sermons on patience preached
today from the tasseled cushion of the
pulpit. ITO another one"
There is a man in business life
whose one talent is honesty. He has
not the genius or the force to organize
a company or plan what is called a
corner in wheat" or "a corner in
stocks or "a corner" in anything. He
goes to business at a reasonable hour
and returns when it is time to lock up.
He never gave a check for $40, 900 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 thirty years been referred to
as clean. upright industrious, con-
sistent Christian man. Ask him how
many talents he has and he will not
claim even one. He cannot make a
speech, he cannot buy market he
cannot afford an outshining equipage.
but what an example he is to the
young. what an honor to his house
hold. what a pillar to the church of
God, what specimen of truth and in
tegrity and all roundness of character,
Is there any comparison 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" | tell you that the
one man with the one talent will live a
happier life and die a more peaceful
death and go to better place than
his brilliant but reckless contempor-
airy. 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. l have not so much interest in
the one man out of million as | have
in the million. Get the great masses
of the world right and it does not
make much difference about what the
exceptional people are doing. Have
all the people with the one talent en-
listed for God and righteousness, and
let all those with five or ten talents
migrate to the north star or the moon,
and this world would get on splendidly.
The hard working, Industrious classes
of America are all right and would
give no trouble, but it is the genius
who gives up work and on big salary
goes around to excite dissatisfaction
and embroi ment, the genius who quits
work and steps on the stage or politi-
cal platform, eats beefsteak and quail
on toast and causes the common labor
ers. compelled to idleness, to put their
gristle and gnaw bones The world
would be nightly improved if it could
slough off about 5000 geniuses. for
there are more than that on our plan
ct. Then the man or woman of one
talent would take possession of the
world and rule it 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 Talent of Persuasion.
Is your talent that of persuasion?
Make good use of it, We all have it
to some extent. yet none of us thinks
of it as a talent. But it is the
mightiest of talents: Do you know
that this one talent will fetch the
world back to God? Do you know it is
the mightiest talent of the high heav-
ems? 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 youreal-
ize that the rough lumber lifted into a
cross on the hill back of Jerusalem