The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1908-02-21

which he is at last judged in the
community.
There is a little town out in Min
nesota called Rochester. few years
ago when was there IL only had a
few hundred people in ii. IL was
nice little, commonplace, prairie
town. IL is not the capital Of the
State: II is not the seat OF the uni
versity: the penitentiary is not es n
there; nor have they church with
relic working miracles. IL is not
the home Of United States Senator.
nor any politician. And yet IL is the
Mecca Of pilgrim host. From every
State in the Union. from across the
| sea, from every capital and country
! OF civilization men are Journeying
| 10 Rochester, Minnesota.
And those who are going are the
scholars, the authorities, the masters
in surgery.
What takes them there? Simply
this An old doctor by the name OF
Mayo has been practising In that
little town for a generation. His two
sons. now in early maturity, practise
with their father. The fact is that
they have been doing such marvellous
things with the knife, and such fine
| WOTK as surgeons, ludl SItdN
tiers from Paris, Berlin and Vienna.
as we'll as this country, are singing
their praise, and go out 10 that little
town to sit at the feet of these men.
and pay homage 10 the superiority OF
their work.
IL is always so. If You are re-
membered at all il is by the things
YOU have done well-whether you
have raised a field of corn, sewed
a patch on an old garment, made a
pumpkin pie, or written poem.
Work is the great happiness
bringer. You all know what game
of nine pins is. You set up so many
pins, and you roll two balls. and you
make strike" or spare" or else
you don't. The game is to knock
over as many pins AS possible. Men
become very skillful in il and gain
a great deal of pleasure by doing 1t.
That is the philosophy OF all play.
IL Is the erection of artificial Difficult
ties or barriers and learning 10 over
come them with ease and skill. That
makes the exhilaration OF tennis, and
baseball, and bowling and golf.
am t)ld, and | do not know any,
thing about it myself, that therein
lies the mania for making money.
That is a great game. Now, in
reality, work is Just exactly the same
thing. che difficulties To be over
come are not artificial, TO be sure,
but very real But they are there.
and work is the game OF bridging
them ovsr with skill and ease and
JOY.
In its inal analysis, for a healthy
man thee Is no game in the world
so exciting and so eXhilarating as
his work suppose You long
suffering folk who sit in the pews
and are more or less az times tempt
ed 10 sOmnolence, have never real
lied that there was anything exciting
about the preaching business. And
vet ! want to say 10 you that |
know of no keener JOY than when
wen aid ready ! take theme and
look II through and analyZe it, and
illustrate 1t. and mark out the
points 10 be made in its illumina-
ton. and then sit down to write a
sermou. Your fingers will not fly
, fast enough. If 1t turns out well
there Is great exhilaration and
state cf happiness and JOY Making
a sermon is a great game.
Now the reason that there is so
. much happiness in work is because
or this fact All true work is a man
expressing himself We have gener-
ally thought that work is drudgery.
We want to think about work as ex-
pressing a mans message. Stephen
sons engine is Stephenson's thought
dressed up in steel; Tennyson's poem
is TernysOns thought set down in
letters: Watts Hope" is Watts
heart hunger put on canvas; st.
Pauls is Sir Christopher Wren's
praise TO God put into stone. Why.
then. shall not the house builder
make his house declare his thoughts?
Why shall not the blacksmith make
his hammer and anvil express his
hope? Why shall not the farmer pub
lish his secret? Almost any man can
learn the technical part OF any work
from carpentry TO poetry-but no
man hath mastered trade till II be-
comes a language through which he
can express himself TO all men. o.
the drudgery of life lies in the fact
that we bend above our work like
dumb driven cattle with never a
secret of our heart told in our work.
And this shall be the JOY OF our life,
that we make our vocation proclaim
10 ali the world the truth that God
hath put into our hearts!