Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-07-16
CHOICE Of WISDOM
MADE KING S0LOMAN
Lesson Comes Opportunely When
Hundreds of College Men Are
Ready to Start Out in Life
The International Sunday School Les
son For July IS Is Solomon
Chooses Wisdom."-I Kings 3:4-15.
(By William T. Ellis)


The choice that one man made,
and how that choice made him, is OPP
portunely studied at time when thou
sands OF young people have finished
their formal education, and are try
ing to decide their life work. An i'm
pressive fact is that most students
leave college and high school without
having their vocations determined. l
am writing this lesson under the trees
at great students conference, where
several hundred syoung men are met
with this issue paramount. The occa-
sion is impressive and even tragic. At
the chivalrous age, equipped for serv-
Ice these young men are eager to
choose the best Dinly they sense
the truth that this time of decision
will have consequences not only for
themselves, but also for their families
and to their posterity. The most mo-
mentous fact about life is its choices.
So these students throng the platform
meetings, the group conferences and
classes, and keep wholly occupied the
time Of the older men who are here
for individual interviews. Solomon's 8
problem is the problem of myriads OF
other young men every year.
In the shop talk of this student con-
| ference, Solomon made the "funda-
mental decision" He elected IAN un-
derstanding heart" or, as one version
has it, pictorially, "a hearing heart"
! Given that as basis, all lesser mat
ters would naturally settle themselves.
These students who are not certain
whether they should be farmers or
preachers or engineers or missionaries
or lawyers or Young Mems Christian
Association secretaries or business
men, are called upon by their leaders
first of all to settle whether they are
willing to do the will of God for their
they have come to the point of being
willing to go anywhere and do any
! thing that God wants of them, then
the more detailed decision as to a
life work becomes simple.
Solomon's choice showed that 4 he
already had the thing he asked for.
Wisdom is needed to choose wisdom.
a wise person perceives that to put
! life into right relationship with God
| Is the matter of supreme importance
I That was what Solomon did, and 1t
was the fundamental decision"
Choosing Long Path
Bishop Mcdowell spoke sagely, the
other evening by the lakeside. as the
boys were gathered at twilight in the
| ''lifework meeting" when he babe
| them remember that it takes a great
work to satisfy man through a long
| life. What is Interesting for a year
y.
Life's choice should be of that which
will not be outgrown easily. and
which has enough in it to satisfy the
ripe judgment of age as we'll as the
| ardor of youth Pity the people who
have grown tired of their life, as chill
| dren tire of toys. This safety with its
! pleasures is perhaps the saddest fact
! about society. We choose after the
/ Solomon fashion when we select the
! qualities and the career which will
not perish in the using.
An old fashion, about which one
! does not hear so much, nowadays, was
for parents to dedicate their children
in infancy to some high calling, as
the ministry of religion. That solemn
purpose hovered over the child's life
| imparting a sense of defniteness and
sacredness and purpose to all his
years. 1t spoke to youth of the su-
premacy of ideals. Life has great
| get this idea of being in the world for
J some holy objective. The talk of the
| table should often center about the
| ideals of character and service A
building principle is that laid down by
the late William c. Russell. There is
one thing greater than making a liv-
ing, and that is making a life"
Life is not to be happened upon, to
be met as a chance adventure. Pur-
| pose alone prevails in true living
Choices, which make us as we make
them, are inevitable along the years.
Sometime, somehow, somewhere, God
comes to every soul and calls for a
decision, which will determine the long
path that is to be followed in the
| journey of life. At least once in his
| experience, every young man must sit
in Solomon's seat
"Our lives are songs; God writes the
words,
And we set them to music at pleasure; |;
And the song grows glad, or sweet, or
sad,
As we choose to fashion the measure.
We must write the music, whatever
the song,
| Whatever its rhyme or meter;
And II 1t be sad, we can make it glad,
| Or If sweet, we can make IT sweeter"
When a Man Feels Small
Norman fishermen cry, 20 God,