Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-02-17

| auNcsS sure tnat sui1 this kernel will
grow n stubble OF corn. or n grain of
wheat. barley or buckwheat unless
from this very seed I shall get my
thirty or sixty or hundredfold re-
turn Why. you would laugh such n
farmer to scorn. You would saw ia
| f'n You do not know the first A II q
vi agriculture. A planter can afford
to lose thousand seeds IL he can GET
q harvest from the remaining seeds he
| plants" Yet all through life YOU can
ind meu who estimate their successes
and failures not by the glorsous re-
turns they receive from few good
seeds well planted in good ground. but
py the failure Of the good seed which
has inadvertently fallen in bad soil.
Why Not Help Him.
Why don't you help that young man
who has just landed in town and Is
stranded? | grant that he has been n
hayward boy, that his life is not what
1t ought to be. but in spite of that wbv
don't You help him! You know Won
can gave tim position If you will.
Oh' You answer, what is the use?
nave tried to be friend TO young
men in the past. but am done now
with turning my business house into a
Christian mission. l draw the line
SHARPLY between business and phflan-
thropy. do my Christian work in
church, but not in my store. l run the
latter on business principles. When n
young man comes to me for work he
has to have good recommendations or
I will not employ him. Why. sir. I
have bcfriended four young men in
the pasti / even went so far as to try
10 send one OF those young men through
college because he was the son OF an
old chum OF mine who Is now dead. All
four turned out badly. They were I'M
grateful dogs ut that! You cannot
make something out Of nothing"
A life OF nothings. nothing worth
From that first nothing ere its birth
To that last nothing under earth.
Yes, grant that your good seed In
the case OF these four young men may
have been thrown away. But would It
not be worth while to have four. five
or even ten such good seed paintings
amount to naught If only the eleventh
seed took root in some young mans
heart and saved just one young man?
Void not the satisfaction you get
from having led one young man to be
saved for Christ compensate you for
all your wasted labor upon nineteen
young men who were not saved? God
VIII not reward you according to the
success of your labors, but according
to the efforts you have honestly made.
whether they have succeeded or failed.
Do your duty and leave the result 10
God.
on, missionary worker In the New
YORK Slums, what is the good of yotir
rescue missions and your testimony
meetings night after night? You know
aust as well as 1 know that nine-tenths
Of all your prefessed converts will be.
come backslders. That young woman
who now arises with tears in her ewes
and says. Thank God, 1 have been
saved from sin," may tomorrow be
treading again the old path of wicked.
ness. That man who signs the pledge
tonight may be drunk again next week.
Ihnt penitcnt gambler Is only penitent
until you give him start In life again.
and then he will gamble away his sub.
stance just the same as he has done I'm
the past Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth
lately wrote n book entitled after
Prison. WhatT' After prison for most
ex-convicts is prison again. Two-thir
OF the inmates OF the penitentiary serve
more than one term each. Once n thief
Tor many OF them is always a thief
Labor Not Lost.
"All that you state is true answers
the missionary of the New York slums
"One-third, one-half - ave. perhans
three- fourths-of all our reformed cases
may become backsliders. But If one
out OF every four-aye, II one out of
every ten-be saved, Is not the tenth
man worth oil the effort we have be.
slowed on the other nine? All the seed
the farmer plants does not fall on good
SOIL Shall the farmer cease to plantf
All our labors for Christ may not bring
In n gospel harvest, but are not the 70.
wards we receive Il multipotent bless.
ing Tor our labors. no matter how great
they may bey' The New York mission.
airy is right
1es, some one says, that Is very
| pretty talk. but it does not bear well
the test OF logic. II while 1 sow one
good seed nine other men are sovino
tares, viii not the nine tares increase
L
In time will not the earth. instead of
Deing covered with the glory of God as
the waters cover the sea- be covered
with the blood OF n destroyed world
instead OF the world being better. as
we would wish is 1t not morally and
spiritually becoming more and more
oepravesi.s Have L not right, then. 10
my new year timidities?" No. INV
orother' Mo- no! A thousand times
no! The reports OF the gospel meteorol.
| ogists CO not bear out your theories.
| heteoroiogy is as rational n science
as chemistry. geology. biology, physics
or any other science. Like n skillful
| general. the United States government
guarding against surprise, has organ
izedsits weather bureau and planted
outpost stations everywhere. All these
stations are in direct communication
with ench other and with Washinoton
mus no sooner does a storm start ont
On 1's mission or destruction than the
weather bureau lifts its signals of
warning. The sailors run to cover. and
fruit growers hold back their shin
ments, and railroad officials get ont
their snow plows and anticipate the at
tacks OF the storm. So perfect is this
system Of signals that for the last ten
| years not ship has ever been lost
upon the dangerous inland sea of Lake
Michigan whose captains have Needed
these storm signals. Millions and hill
lions OF dollars worth of property have
been saved both on land and sea.
The Signs of the Times.
4 Whnf the SlnarinfapHaok
weather bureau can do In. reading the
positions OF the atmospheric storm
clouds the gospel meteoroIogist can do
In telling us about the storm clouds of
sin. What Is it we learn from these
Christian meteorological reports? From
| one and another heather land comes
the story OF people turning from idols
to serve the living God. Everywhere
slavery and cruelty and inhumanity
are being gradually suppressed. The