The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-13

one must chop the wood and cook and wash the dishes. Some one must carry the water and unload the pack mules or the wagon Some one must take the long, weary journey to find grain and pasture for horses. All these tasks are not easy to perform when your muscles are tired and you have the blood jumping and jabbing and throbbing in your in famed feet. But some one has to do these tasks. If you are not willing to do them some one else must And yet sometimes you will have a man on camping trip who is too lazy and selfish to do anything or to learn to do any thing. He magnfies his own troubles and disparages your labors until he becomes d perfect pest and makes himself niser- able and irritates every one around him. That is the journey of life. Some men are willing to do their share or work and q great deal more than their share of work. If they are mentally incom- petent, then they bravely and conscien- tiously say: q will repair my mental deficiences. I will learn to do my duty. When I am ignorant I will manfully shoulder the burden God has given me to carry" Is that your life, man? Is that your life, woman? What you mentally lack are you by Gods help and by hard labor willing to develop?
 In the Redwood Forests.
 I was nightly impressed with this fact some time ago when travelling among the famous redwood forests of northern Cali fornia. We had been climbing one Of those lofty hills when night overlook us. We slept near a watering trough by the roadside. The tall trees grew taller. The silence of the woods became more still. The presence of God was perceptible as it is to none but those who have been communing with Him in the silent places of nature. The next morning fine. tall. handsome man stopped in camp. He was on his way back to his timber claim lie asked me to accompany him, and take q short cut through the wods to the roao ahead and I went. While we walked along he told me the struggles of his He. He was left fatherless at years or age. At he was driving ap low. Utterly alone he had to work flis way up. Some years ago he came to the redwood forests as a teamster Now he was the owner @of some of the finest sections in that re- zion. Then what do you suppose ne talked about? His success? on, no! About his alack of education. Though a grown man of nearly 90 years of ago, he intended the next winter to go back to Eureka and enter the public school as if he had been a little boy Do you sup pose you could keep down man like that? Never! He worked and he worked hard. but as he worked he said. Ihe educational deficiencies of my youth l must and will rectify.' 1 admired thae mans courage and humility. lthought then what a good thing it would be TOT some of us if we took the same course. At the end of the first days journey we have discovered that we have not the capacity requisite to fulfill the duties we have undertaken. We spent our school and college days in idleness and friVoiity. We are not equipped for the journey or life Is it possible for us to lay aside our pride and go back to obtain the equipment we need?
 Dangers to Be Great.
 But a man in the journey of life needs to be more than mentally equipped. He mnst also be physically and morally pro- tected. AS many dangers confronted the oriental traveller, so when a young man breaks loose from his home surround ings there are many temptations before him. The only way to successfully meet an1 overcome those temptations IS to pre- pare for them before we start. You would not have thought much of the old forty- niner'' who attempted to cross the west ern prairies without first well testing his shooting irons. He may not nave cared how the exterior of his guns looked.
 
 side of his rifles. He always saw to It that no rust was there and there was no indentation of his barrels. Whether those guns shot straight or no was to decide his life or death. The fierce savages. the ugly grizzlies. the hungry partners and the half. starved pack of wolves all demanded that he should be well pro tected. He therefore took care that his gun was in good order and that he had plenty of ammunition.
 Then in oden times the travellers never depended upon their guns alone. They looked for success to their companions guns as well. Thus in the far east as well as in our own country you rarely found men travelling long distances alone. When the old "forty-niners' travelled through the west they met at some out skirt town and made up train. Then when they were passing through the regions infested by hostile savages they travelled as an army. The sentinels kept watch at night. The horses were se curely guarded lest they might be stam- peded in some midnight raid When the camp was attacked the wagons were used as fortresses and the rif1emen deployed. If you and I go camping a few miles from home where we encounter only the gentle sheep and cattle of some friendly rancher, it does not make much diff ference where We sleep. we open our camp cots at any position. But when we are in the woods far away from the near est railroad station, when we he away to the lair of the bear and the treach- erous wildcat. then we hug close to the camp fires and have the magazines of our guns well filled with cartridges, for there is danger lurking on every hand Now, in this journey of life we must meet our moral and spiritual dangers. In our first halting place away from home do we find ourselves prepared to resist those dangers? If not. then had we not better go back where we can supply our spirit ual deficiencies?
 Study the life of your father and mother. How did your father meet the awful troubles and trials and tempta- tions which came to him? When he told you some years ago of some of his struggles and how he had been unjustly