The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-08-02

given
That it will bear most fruit for earth
and h~eaVen"'
The Savior heard and said, as he
smiled,
PLACE it at once in the hearf OF q
child
The angel whispered the blessed
To a weary teacher of precious
youth.
Her face grew bright with heavenly
light
AS she led their thoughts in the way
of right.
what ShaH I Do?"
If the rich young man had been
drilled in a modern Sunday school
pardon a1lachronism-he would not
have entered the gallery of MINOR
tails in the ~unenviable guise which he
now wears. He would have under
stood that the essence Of religion, as
taught by all the great religions, is
self-denial for the SAFE Of spiritual
progress. The young man wanted TO
do something to gain eternal life.
He could not grasp the conception OF
life as a free gift. He wanted to
pull himself up to heaven by his own
arms. But no nan can do enough
to win all that paradise holds. His
notion exalted himself overmuch and
u~ndervalued God.
Withal, he was a winsome figure.
With the deep spiritual restlessness
of youth eager to make the most Of
himself and to solve the riddle of
two worlds, hungry for better soul
food than he had yet tasted, nObly
morals it any wonder that the
heart Of Jesus warmed to him.? He
had lived an exemplary life, conform
ing to the best standards he knew,
and there was surely no bo~astfulness
in his frank confession of this.
What he needed. like myriads of
conventional correct-living young
men and women of our day, was
some grand, transforming passion,
born of the spirit of self-sacrifice
1t vas for him, as the instant diagno-
sis of Jesus pointed out, to do the
high, hard thing; to break the letters
that bound him to his spirit-starving
conyentialality to sell his all, for
instance, to give the money to the
poor. This suggestion of Jesus
the poor, or of the money, but for
the sake of the young man. The
world needs lives touched with the
fires Of righteousness more nan
it needs doles of gold.
"Preposterous!" instantly cried out
all the inbred sentiments of the young
man. in response to the counsel Of
>oo od1Il q clipping vi lllIilScl1
of his wealth would mean a descent
from his accustomed station in life;
it would make him just like the COM
mon ruck Of people, and all his hered-
ttary aristOcracy revolted from such
an idea. He would no longer be
the model young man, praised and
honored, but merely one of the mass
OF the poor. OF course, he had not
peered into the p~rofoundities Of life
which We're in the mind of the Lord;
nor had he scared to the heights of
the ideals Of Jesus lie did not
even realize tina
Honor and shame from no condition
rise
remember, he was still young,
and in the neophyte stage treasure
tangible as compared with the power
and liberty which money brings here
and now.
A Missed Opportunity.
50 great was the CONSERVATION of
the young man at the radical PROPOSE
It's real point and climax. 'And
come. olloW me- He was SO en-
crossed like many other honest seek
er since, with the things he would
nave to give up that he utterly lost
sight of what he would get. Dante
pictures this young man as wander
ing through the Inferno, searching
for his lost opportunity. To him
mad come the supreme occasion: his
miserable store of gold SO held his
eyes that he missed it.
For was not this an invitation to
join the apostles? Had nor Jesus
offered to the young ruler, to whom
his affection had gone out, a place
among the Twelve? That day he had
the chance to become one of the
most distinguished group of mortals
ever written in fadeless letters on
hlStOryS pages. PerhapS. as Dr
Peloubet suggests, he might have be-
come the business man of the Col
lege, instead of Judas. To think
that he might have eternally served
and influenced the world as one of
the of Jesus, ever as John
and James and Peter have done.
whereas he lives only as a bad ex-
ample!