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THE WATCHMAN
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God’s Appointments
Turis thing on which thy heart is sct, this
thing that cannot he,
This weary, disappointing day that dawns, my
friend, for thee —
Be comforted! God knoweth best, the God
whose name is love,
Whose tender care is evermore our passing
lives above;
He sends the disappointments, so take them
from his hand —
Shall God's appointments seem less good than
what thyself had planned?
"I'was in thy mind to go abroad.
thee stay at home —
He bids
|—- EE
Oh, happy home, thrice happy if to it as guest
He come!
“I'was in thy mind thy friend to sce.
Lord says, “ Nay, not yet!”
Be confident. The meeting-time thy Lord
will not forget.
“I'was in thy mind to work for him.
15, “Child, sit still!”
And surely tis thy blessedness to mind thy
Master's will.
Accept thy disappointment,
from God’s own hand.
Shall God's appointments seem less good than
what thyself had planned?
The
His will
friend, thy gift
—Selected.
OME things begin small and
get bigger; others begin big
and get smaller. In the
first class are babies, kittens,
discases, buildings, sins, po-
tatoes, and family squabbles.
also several other
These all begin small and
In the second class are an-
things.
get bigger.
ticipations, plum puddings, enthusiasms,
- resolutions, honeymoons, boastings, and
flannel underclothes.
and get smaller.
There is also a class of things of whicl
vou really cannot tell what they are go-
ing to do-— grow or shrivel, swell or
shrink, increase or diminish. In this
class come men, stocks, bonds, nations,
social schemes, agitations, revolutions.
They may begin small and get bigger,
or begin big and get smaller. Some
start with a whisper and end with a roar
of artillery. Others start with a blare
as of fifteen German bands and end like
the song of a sickly mosquito. Some
start like a snail and finish like an ex-
press train. Others start like a race
horse and end up like a tired mule.
Peter proclaimed his courage and en-
_.PETERING ... | [i
These begin big
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thusiasm with the intrepidity of a Na-
poleon, and in a day or two was chased
from the field by a servant girl.
tered.
Ie pe-
Le petered so everlastingly that
that particular kind of performance has
come to be known by his name wherever
it occurs. And it is of quite frequent
occurrence.
Most men peter more or less. When
they start on a race, they feel a strong
temptation to spurt on the first lap.
Then when the excitement really begins,
they have to lie down and gasp. When
a man starts in public speaking, he us-
ually wants to tell all he knows in his
first speech, and quite often he succeeds.
Then when the crowd hear his next ef-
fusion, they all agree that he has petered.
We lay plans for the biggest cathedral
on earth, and after a few months’ build-
ing we roof over the foundation and hold
a prayer-meeting for the help of heaven
to get us out of debt.
We start for the moon; but when we
get up about one hundred feet, we sit
down on a chimney-top and think. We
soar up toward the sun, and get no far-
then than up a tree. We start to turn
the world upside down, and end by think-
ing ourselves lucky if we get our dinner
cooked the way we want it. We lift
up our two hundred pounds burden like
a feather, but we set it down on the first
milestone. We start with three cheers
and end with an apology. We do our
best work before noon. In short, we
peter.
Now, this is the discouraging thing
about life. And our only hope in life
is based upon those things that do not
peter. lf babies began big and kept
growing smaller, it would certainly make
a hopeless job of it for us all. If our
knowledge was large to start with, and
crew less and less every day we went to
school, we could scarcely blame our
teachers for being discouraged. If our
love for our friends petered out more
and more every time we saw them, our
social intercourse certainly would not be
a joy forever.
Peter never was a success until he
stopped petering ; nor will you and 1 suc-
ceed until we do likewise. The man
who tries to distance his competitors in
the first ten minutes, and leaves his ex-
hausted body in the road for them to
carry the rest of the journey, is in no
sense a success. In taking up a burden
it 1s a mistake to take up one so heavy
that after the first day vou have to drop
it upon another's shoulder. When a man
joins the church, he is not a success if he
is so good the first month that he has to
be a little worse on each succeeding
month. And when a voung man [alls
in love, he makes a mistake to fall in
love so desperately that there is noth-
ing left for him to do but to peter all
the rest of his life, when in its trials and
irritations his love has need to be at its
strongest.
Grow, increase in every-
It does not mat-
Never peter.
thing you undertake.
ter how small you start, but it does mat-
ter how small vou grow. Rather than
lift a three-hundred pound weight the
first day, and then have to come down to
two hundred and fifty the next, and two
hundred the next, it is better to begin by
lifting one potato the first day, and two
the next, and three the next, and so on.
By the end of ten years you would be
able to lift 3.650 potatoes, which might
be more than one thousand pounds.
In everything that you do begin as
small as you please, but see that to-day’s
record is better — a tiny bit better, any-
way — than yesterday's. Be a little