The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-11-14
pY nR. MADISON Q. pETERs

To make the most of life, to seize op- portunities when they come, all your faculties must be trained. Every man Is born into the world with many parts to be utilized along certain lines, but the trouble with most people is that they allow many of these gifts to lie dormant and only think of cultivating those which they imagine absolutely necessary to gain a mere livelihood.
 man may be an adept at the blow, yet have hidden and untrained facul- ties which might enable him to grace the chair of a university or soar to the highest pinnacles of statesman ship and government. Adam Smith has truly said: The philosopher is often hidden in the plowman."
 Most of the great men of the world were poor boys and had they neglected the God given gifts that were theirs would have remained poor and un- known all through life.
 Carlyle was born of humble origin in a little Scotch village and mad scarcely any opportunities. He would nave re- mained a scullion had he not cultivated the faculties which made him the greatest man of letters in this time.
 Elihu Burritt. while yielding the blacksmith's sledge. was cultivating his mental faculties. with the result
  scholars in America and was consulted by savants of two hemispheres.
 Greatest Talents Merely Sleeping.
 Dwight L. Moody was selling shoes in Chicago. but he realized he had other talents besides a salesman. He fostered and nurtured them, and they made him the greatest evangelist since the days of Paul.
 Thomas Upton was a poor Irish lad
 N4 hfaf in hissmind's eye a greater future than weighing soap and sugar. He devel- oped his talent for making bargains. and has become one of the greatest merchants in the world.
 Thousands of cases might be cited of men who commenced life in one di- rection and apparently with only one asset in the way of talent, but who discovered the richness of their birth right in time and utilized 1t to their progress.
 He who only has one faculty to fall back upon in the race of life Is heav- ily Handicapped and the chances are he will lag. behind and fail to reach the desired haven of ambition. Such person Is like a mariner cast adrift on the ocean with but one oar to propel and guide his boat. If he loses that oar he Is tossed about. the prey of winds and waves. with two or more oars he could have reached land safely.
 If you have only one stick to depend upon, the stick may break at any mo- ment and leave you helpless. The millionaire of today may be the pau per of tomorrow. and the Samson who exuIts in his strength may be shorn of his power in the twinkling of an eye.
 Chosen Work often Abandoned.
 Bankers have had to leave their counting houses. merchants their desks. artists their easels. and preachers their pulpits. Of these the ones who had trained all their faculties were at no loss for a living. the ones who had not become derelicts on the human sea and were washed on the shores Of oblivion.
 Gladstone thundered his orations in the halls of Parliament, orations at which the world narveled. and he read the simple lessons fin the tones of a humble parishioner in the little church at Hawarden. While carrying on his shoulders the affairs of earth's mightiest empire. he showed his yer satility by Greek controversies and arr guing minor points of agriculture with the farmers on nis estate. He could