The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-22


 was as a poet that Lowell was destined
 to achieve fame. Thus what God wants
 your boy to do and what you would like
 to have him do may be entirely different.
 And yet. my brother. all the happiness
 and the usefulness of your son are to be
 decided within the next few months. Bet
 ter pray, and pray earnestly, that God
 will help him to choose alright in the SO
 lection of his life vocation. Better not
 let your will run counter to Gods will.
 But after we have asked God to select
 our children's work in life we must not
 stop here in our divine pleadinss. The
 school or the college in which our enil-
 dren prepare for their lfu's work is i'm
 portant Now you had better make
 prayerful selection of the institutions to
 which you send youc children during the
 critical formative periods of their lives.
 You need Gods nep here as you need
 Him in other vital matters. You need to
 plead to Him for guidance just as much
 as the disciples needed to pray for wis
 dom to make a right selection for the
 vacancy in the apostolate.
 Going To College.
 The older grow the more I am amazed
 to see how bllndly and in what a don't
 care spirit most parents allow their chill dren to select the school or college at which they are to be educated. Very slight and trivial reasons weigh with the boy. Do you want to know how l went to a certain military school? There was boy who lived on our block who went there. He came home for his vacations
 dressed in a beautiful uniform. That uniform, with it's silver buttons and shining chevrons, was the envy of all the neghborhood. Like most of the boys on our street. wanted to go to a school | which would let boys dress up in uni l form like that. And, though that school at the time was not what 1t ought to be ii many respects, yet the infnitesimai thing of a little silver button took me ] to that school where I passed four long | years of the most important part of my l educational life. hundreds and thousands | of young folks go to school because l friend goes there or because that col | lege has a fine football team or because | that institution is the largest university 1 i'll the state or because that college IS | situated in the east. And the great es- sentials of the moral and spiritual char l aeteristics of that educational institution 1 are passed over as though they did not 1 amount to anything. | Did you ever realize that university l! or a college has an atmosphere or soul l Are you not aware that just as you nave l certain special characteristics that In | your life stand for something so an edu- 1 eational institution has its distinct person.
  l something is for the benefit or injury l of the students who live within it's walls? I received some time ago letter | from an old and very dear classmate. l He was writing about some of the weak 1 nesses of the college we both love. Then l he wrote this sentence, which l have l often DOT dered over, because it presented 1 truth in way that I had never had . 1t driven into my mind before: Edu- | ca tional institutions are controlled by in l Giyiduals who are merely human, and hu- 1 man actions are vital there, as else l where" Do you grasp that tremendous l fact? Who are the men at the head Of | those institutions to which you intend to 1 se1.d your boys? What is the moral and 1 spiritual status of the members of those 1 faculties? Are they noted for their Chris l tan principles? Are they professors who 1 will instill reverent ideas of God and of 1 the higher life. These are questions which. you should ponder well before you
 let that boy leave your fireside for scho- lastc halls. Better pray over that fact earnestly and long. God alone can di-
 rect you so that you will make no mis- , take.
 l May Make or Break.
 But we cannot always remain at school l We cannot always be preparing for the 1 battle of life. After awhile we must l do something besides talking about what
 we intend to do So from scholastic 1 walls we step forth into the struggle of ] life. Then we must enter into certain l business partnerships and professional af l fflations. Whom shall we trust? With 1 whom shall we go? Who shall we allow | to enter the holy of hoies of our hearts? l These are weighty questions which l am l putting to you today, for a mans sue cess is not more due to what he himself l uoes than to what his business associates lN o1yo hffaa or break him.
 What a lot of trouble you would have saved if you had only known what a rascal your partner was before you 1 hitched up with him in business. Do | you suppose your mother and father would have let you enter into that bus mess partnership if they had known what kind of man he was? "Oh, mo-" you reply. My parents love me too much to let me get into such quicksands of trouble as that" Yes, you are right! But tell me, friend, does not God love you as much as your father your mother? Would He not have guarded you from that trouble if you had only asked Him? Did you ask Gods advice when you en- tered into that business arrangement? Am I making too literal interpretation of the gospel? What do you mean by that sign which is tackled over your office door, Business During Business Hours?" Does that mean that God has no part in your business? No! Then, if that Is not so, why do you not ask God to help. you select your partners and guide you in your great financial deals? Is that sen tence of the Lords prayer a mocl1ery, Give us this day our daily bread?' An. my brother, as a business man you had better get down on your knees and pray for wisdom. God will guide you. Yes, He will. He will answer your prayers in the store just the same as He helped the disciples to choose Matthias for the vacancy in the apostolate. God hears His children pray by the store counter on | Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday | just as much as He hears His ministers l pray on Sunday in the church pulpit But, though our partnership papers at | and more important human relationships | than even this. And this other partner l ship has as much to do with what we I financially make as it has to do with the l home and with the happiness of domestic l life I am alluding to the partnership | of the marriage altar. Some people look upon marriage as a joke. but it is far | from being a joke. The marriage altar l should be the most solemn place this side l of heaven, for if 1t is not the joyful en- slavement of love 1t Is the most awful | tragedy of life, and it is in too many cases the merciless rock upon which the craft of earthly happiness is shipwrecked. The Marriage Contract.
 But, though marriage is one of the vital pivots upon which usefulness, as well as