Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-10-10


me read to you from its magnificent
passages:
Master of human destinies arm II
| Fame. love and fortune my footsteps
wait:
Cities and fields walki 1 penetrate
! Deserts and seas remote. and. passing by
Howell and mart and palace. soon or late
i knock unbidden once at every gatei
II sleeping. wake; IL feasting. rise before
| I turn away. II is the hour OF fate.
And they who follow me reach every state
Mortals desire and conquer every foe
Save death. but those who doubt or hest
tate.
| Condemned to failure. perjury and Woe
Seek me I'm vain and uselessy impiore
answer not and ] return no morel
AS John ]. Ingalls, taught that the
great opportunities of temporal sue
cess are the central magnets about
which other great opportunities are
| apt to revolye, so every great spiritual
opportunity. II rightly improved. will
be the forerunner of others. God. from
! one opportunity of Christian useful
ness, rightly served, will lead YOU on
TO another, To another and another,
even as our martyr President William
Mckinley year by year was steadily
promoted for his public services until
ut last he received the highest honor
his countrymen could confer upon him
and won worldwide sympathy by the
tragic close OF life laid down I'm the
service of the American people whom
he loved and so faithfully served.
The Warming of Paul.
But there is a negative side Of warn
| ing in my text as well as u positive
| side or exhortation. John j. ingalls,
I'm his wonderful poem teaches the
| same two lessons i'm a temporal sense
that Paul inculcates in a spiritual
| sense The negative warning which is
implied In my text goes practically
like this: "As we therefore have op-
portunity do good unto all men. for If
you do not neglected opportunity is
an III used opportunity. And an op-
portunity for doing good once gone is
gone forever" My father used to love
TO picture lost opportunities as q flock
II hast years migrating birds. which
when gone cannot be brought back. |
remember well how he once stood In
the Brooklyn tabernacle crying with q
loud voice to the lost opportunities
these words: Come back. o We past
opportunities Come back, Come
back Then In an almost inaudible
whisper ne said; 81 hear no fiutter of
any wings. l fear my voice has not
carried far enougb-yea, 1 fear these
lost opportunities for doing good will
never, never come back" The old Ro-
mans used TO believe that Opportunity
was messenger who had lock Of hair
growing upon her forehead and that
the rest of her head was bald. They
also believed she had wings upon her
feet and that she could fly swifter than
the winds. They believed that IL Op-
portunity was not grasped by the fore
mead she could not be caught again,
because her wings could outspeed even
the flight OF meteor. The Latin SYM
Dol Is a good one. 1t is better than
that OF the flight Of migrating birds.
Sometimes the migrating birds of laet
year do return and nest again in the
old orchards where they once raised
their young. but great opportunities
Tor doing good TO others once gone are
gone forever. Others may come. but
never those that are past; never, never.
neverl
opportunities for doing good will never
come back There is many n man
here who would be willing to cut of
his right arm II he could only bring
back some OF them. once read of
father who In anger drove his son out
or his home. The boy, on account of
the fathers bitterness, plunged into a
Iifc OF sin. a few years later he WINS
dying In one OF the London tenemcnts.
Just before his last breath was drawn
he told the city missionary who he
was and why he was dying. Then he
sent TO his irate parent these farewell
words: Tell father that / could have
oled happy II he only had been willing
TO forgive me. Ask him TO forgive me
even IL i am dead" The missionary.
as soon rs he had closed the dead bows
eyes, went 20 the rich fathers home.
When he first met the parent and said,
nave come from your boy" the IA
shers rage knew no bounds. He ex-
Claimed In anger: Don't talk to me
about my son. ] never want TO see his
face again while he is alive" But
when the missionary said, "You will
never see you boys face again while
he is alive-he is dead" the father
broke down and sobbed like n child.
He then said that he did want his boy
back. And when he heard the diving
message his remorse was greater than
he could bear. All the remainder of
his earthly life that father kept brood
Ing and regretting the severity OF his
treatment of his child But his sorrow
was useless. He could not bring baclx
his dead boy. He could never undo
the past wrong. His opportunity was
gone and gone forever.
The Ever Present Opportunity.
Mr. Moody In one OF his sermons de- |
scribed how Maynard son who had |
broken his mothers heart went back |
one dark night to the homestead. Aft. |
err roaming around the place where he |
had spent his childhood he went out |
to the village graveyard. There. in the |
darkness OF the night, he felt around /
the FAMILY plot until he found n new |
made grave. There he lay fiat upon
the mound OF earth. moaning and call |
Ing to the dead mother that he wanted
her TO forgive him. But her ears could |
not hear nor her lips speak. The way
ward boy, who had killed her, had lost |
his opportunity in this world to receive
her forgiveness. Oh, my friends. as
this Pauline word Opportunity" means
SO much. will you not beware how YOU
misuse It. how you Ill treat 1t, how you
spurn the chances for Christian useful
ness which God is ready to give to all
his children and specially to them who
Will love and OnQV him1
But bethink myself that, as a pas
or, have today an infinite opportu-
iity which may never come to me
again. / have an opportunitv fo nre-