Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1916-11-17
LIES PLAN.
(By Mrs. Herbert w. Saunders, Roa-
noke. Yn.l

(By Mrs. Herbert w. Saunders, Roa-
noke, Va.)
Solomon says: "Whore there Is no
vision the people perish" Every great
achievement in this world is the re-
suit of vision. Tho man who builds a
house has before his minds eye tho
vision OF the building in all its beau
ty, and every bit of stone, brick, wood
or metal is placed there for special
purpose. No material is wasted, but
the lack of the stone would leave the
building marred and incomplete. Too
much material would ruin it. In the
same way we should have vision of
life. Early in life we should form n
plan of life and every act of every
day should be such as will help de-
velop this plan. We should form Il
plan-have II vision-of what we de-
sire our mature lives to be and use
our talents us tools with which we
work to make them So We should
think man foolish if he tried to
build II house with hoe or II rake,
but still we often fail to use our tail
cnts, the tools God has given us, to
shape our lives as we desire to have
them be. Let us choose IL calling in
life i'll which our talents will be use
full, and not use our talents for 9TH
er purposes. Each one of us plans
to live noble, useful life, but we Of
ten devote our talents to Sutan's SER
vice, thinking it will do no harm. If
the girl who has II sweet voice sings
only frivolous rag time songs, can
she expect that her voice will add
much to the music of Heavens choir?
None of us desire to live for Sntan's
glory, but still we allow him to use
our talents and he is quietly shaping
our lives with them without our
knowledge.
Our vision should not only reveal
to us the beautiful character we OK
pect to be ours, but the means we
should use to develop our plan. The
architect secs in his vision how stone
for ono part, brick for another, wood
or metal for another, will make the
building more perfect So God, the
architect of our lives, has seen that
certain conditions must be mot to
make our lives what He has planned
them to be, and has put within our
reach everything needed to make
beautiful character. What we ncod is
to study what to use and what to leave
alone.
We are told that God crentcd man
for His own glory. That is His plan
for overy one of us, and we can form
no better. Our great architect has
given us His plan in tho person of
His son, and the perfect life, that can
not end in failure, must be modelled
after that plan.
In the morning of life. our sky is
bright, and life seems very nttrac-
tive. Mature lifo shows us thnt life
is very attractive, but the sky in not
so bright as we had fancied. cold
nge reveals TINT the past was the
| sweetest part OF life, and it's attrac-
tivcness is great or small rs we have
succeeded or failed. How pathetic is
the old age OF one who has failed in
life! have seen old people, forsak-
en- by kindred and friends, standing
alone in the sunset of life, waiting to
he cut down and none to gricve when
death removes them. What brought
them to this pitiful condition? Lack
of vision in early life. We have heard
| nf fhn Nul,A t,laptnI Al, ;,,l
seed and prayed that God would give
him field of corn. That sounds rid
iculous, but how many young men sow
wild oats and expect TO reap beau
tiful, useful life and n joyful old nge
The young man who smokes cigar
cite should catch vision of wasted
energy, weakened muscles, racked
nerves and clouded brain. The
young man who takes his first glass
of liquor should see vision of the
miserable drunkard and decide if he
cares TO be like him. The boy who
steals an apple should catch vision
of the thief behind the bars. These
small beginnings, even though they
| lby hC'Si bS iSpctbSuy hAS pun
ting sticks and trash in the soft NOR
tar of building. They will MARI it rs
long rs it stands. Every such net
makes defect in the character and
usually form habits that cannot be
broken, thus wrccking the life.
So let us have plan of life and
work to carry out that plan. II de-
sire to go to Florida, should be fool
ish to start towards New York, still
many Of US start down the broad way
to destruction when we say we arc
planning to go to pure and beauti
full life in this world and better one
hereafter.
Let US not deceive ourselves, but
realize that we must start right if we
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