The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-05-28


The garden Of Eden was a useless morass
compared with what the whole wofId will
be when il blossoms and leaves and
flashes and resounds with its coming
glory. God will save it anyhow, with me
or without me, but / want to do my
share. / have some equipment-not as
much as some others. but what / have I
will use. I have power to frown. and J
will frown upon iniqUity. / have power
70 smile. and ! will smile encouragement
upon all the struggling. I nave n vocab-
ulary not 80 opIlent as the vocabulary Of
son:e others. but ! have n s~torehouse of
good words. and | mean to scatter them
III h~elpfulness. | will ascribe right mo-
tives to others when il is possible. II /
can say anything good about others, l
will say il. II | can say nothing but vile
OF them. | will keep my lips shut as tight
as the lips Of the sphinx. which for 5000
years has looked off upon the sands of
the desert and uttered not one word
about the desolation. The scheme of re-
constructing this world is too great for
me to manage, but l am not expected to
boss this job. | have faith to believe that
49, IA1A ~ < aId Oul aAIu Will nc Z
executed. Give me a brick and a trowel
and l will begin now to help build the
wall. l am not a-soloist, but I can sing
Rock Of Ages to a sick pauper. / can
not write a great book, but / can pick a
cinder out of a child's eye or a splinter
from under his thumb nail. 1 now enlist
in this army that is going to take the
world for God, and I defy all the evil
powers, human and satanic, to discourage
me. Count me into the service. I cannot
play upon a musical instrument, but /
can polish a cornet or string q harp OF
applaud the orchestra"
A Cheerful Faith.
Ali through that mans experience there
runs a faith that will keep him cheerful
and busy and triumphant. l like the
watchword Of Cromwell's Ironsides, the
men who feared nothing and dared every
thing, going into battle with TIE shout:
'The Lord of hosts is with Us. the God
of Jacob is our refuge, S.,ah." No bal
ance that human brain ever planned or
human hand ever constructed is worthy
Of weighing such q spirit. Gold and pre-
cious stones are measured by the carat,
which is four grains. The dealer puts
the diamond or the pearl on one side of
the scales and the carat on the other side
and tells you the weight. But we need
something more delicately constructed to
weigh that wonderful quality of faith
which I am glad to know will be recog-
nized and rewarded for all time and all
eternity. The earthly weighman counter
poises on metallic balances the iron, the
coal, the articles of human food, the
solids of earthly merchandise, but be
cannot test or announce the amount Of
things spiritual. Here is something
which the Attic and Babylonian weigh
ing systems Of the past and the metric
weighing system of the present cannot
manage. The Lord weigheth the spir.
it's"
Put also into those royal scales the am
bilious spirit. Every healthy man and
woman has ambition. The lack of it Is a
sure sign Of idiocy or immortality. The
only question is. What shall be the style
Of our ambition? To stack up a stu
pendous fortune. to acquire a r~esoundine
name. to sweep everything we can reach
into the whirlpool of our own selfshness
that is debasing, ruinous n beautiful.
If in such a spirit we get what we start
for, we only secure gigantic discomfort.
No man was ever made happy by what
he got. 1t all depends upon the spirit
with which we get it. and the spirit with
which we keep it, and the spirit with
which we distribute it Not since the
world stood has there beer any instance
Of complete happiness from the amount
of accumulation. Give the man OF world
iy ambition go years Of brilliant successes.
He sought for renown, and the nations
speak his name. He sought for afluence,
and he is put to his wits end to find out
the best stocks and bonds in which he
may make his investments. He Is direct
or in banks enough and trustee In enough
institutions and president Of enough COM
panies to bring on parssis, Of which he is
now dying. The royal balances are lift
ed to weigh the ambition which has con-
trolled q lifetime. What was the worth
of that ambition? How much did it yield
for usefulness and heaven? Less than a
scruple, less than q grain Of sand, less
than an atom, less than nothing. Have
a funeral a mile long with carriages, let
the richest robes Of ecclesiastics rustic
about the casket, caricature the scene by
choirs which chant blessed are the dead
that die in the Lord" That mans life
is a failure, and if his heirs scuf1e in the
s%urrogate's court about the incapacity Of
the testator to make q last will and tes-
lament it will only be a ~prolongation Of
the failure. The son, through dissipation.
spent his share Of the fortune before the
father died and so was cut off with a dol
lar. The daughter married against his
will, and she is disinherited. Relatives
whom he could never bear the sight of
will put in their claim, and after years Of
litigation so much of the estate as the
lawyers have not appropriated to them
selves will go into hands which the tesla
tor neve once thought Of when, in his
last days, he bade fearful farewells to the
houses and lands and government securi-
ties he could not take along with him into
the sepulcher.
Gods Discipline,
But look into the dream Of that school
boy who, without saying anything about
it, is planning his lifetime career. From
an old book partly written in Hebrew
and partly written in Greek. but both
Hebrew and Greek translated into good
English. he reads of a great farmer like