Reaping Without Sowing.

REV. JAMES W. COLE, B.D.

HERE are some things in the world, the uses of which are

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not yet perhaps discovered, that need no cultivation by us, but grow spontaneously, as, for instance, weeds, thorns, noxious plants, poisonous insects, destructive reptiles, and animals. But useful things, pleasant things, valuable things, must be cultivated. To do this requires opportunity, time, means, and toil. The first three God furnishes bountifully, the last he requires us to supply. He might do it all for us, but, with our present natures, that would be a great misfortune.

In Honduras, and in some other tropical countries, nature is so prolific, that with a fortnight's toil one can get a food supply for a year. But thus, through a lack of stimulus to labor, the natives have become most degraded beings, some of them, both men and women, according to the statement of the late Bishop Simpson, who witnessed the scene, having become so lazy that they lie on their backs under the banana trees, eating the fruit from the branches, too indolent to stand and pluck it. Ten thousand such creatures would not be worth one stirring Yankee. But the Yankee might become such if you took away from him the necessity to toil.

For another to help you to a living makes you a dependent, and by taking away the necessity and stimulus of doing for yourself enfeebles you, and sooner or later unmans you. He who is too weak, or too lazy, or too proud, to help himself to an honest living by doing honest work is doomed to failure. To desire exemption from the necessity of work; to wish for learn

ing without the task of acquiring it; to covet ease with nothing to do but "enjoy yourself," by wealth, however great, or by pleasure, however intense, is to desire corruption, decay, and death. The bodily senses become satiated, palled, sickened, and turn at length into instruments of torture through mere pleasure, as many a glutton and reveler and debauchee have found to their horror, while mere idleness undermines and at length pulls down both soul and body. How inane, and feeble, and vapid are the idlers of the world!

The beginning of all excellency lies in the determination o make the best use of one's self. To help yourself, to earn your own living, to win your own fortune, to make your own way in this world, is the only means possible by which your powers of body and mind can be developed; and, upon their proper development depends your highest, best success, here and hereafter. No other can develop them for you. You alone can do it, and to teach you how to do it is the purpose of this book.

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There are altogether too many persons anxious to live upon the toil and profit by the fortunes of others rather than to earn their own. Do you know what that means? It means to be a thief and a vagabond. Does that sound harsh? Read this testimony from the chaplain of one of the large prisons of to-day: "From my experience of predatory crime, founded upon a careful study of a great variety of prisoners, I conclude that habitual dishonesty is to be referred neither to ignorance, nor to drunkenness, nor to poverty, nor to overcrowding in towns, nor to temptation to surrounding wealth, nor, indeed, to any one of the many indirect causes to which it is sometimes referred; but, mainly, to a disposition to acquire property with a less degree of labor than ordinary industry." If they had been willing to earn their own living, to give honest work for honest dollars, they would not have been there. He who is not willing to do his work well and honorably, save when his employer's eye is on him, is a dishonest man. He who is not willing and does not strive to give a just equivalent for what

he receives is a thief. He wants to get something for nothing in return. He is a first cousin to the "gold-brick," "salted mine," and "doctored oil-well" people. They are only after a little larger something for nothing, perhaps, than he.

To get by unfair means the toil or the wealth of another will never be any other than a misfortune to him who gets it. Even when another gives you a fortune you did not earn, it proves in general a misfortune by arresting the development of your own powers of manhood, that need and must have work in order to grow. Say you that a great fortune is a very desirable and good thing? True, but it is by no means the best thing. The value of a good thing is determined by the length of time it will remain good. If its goodness vanishes in a moment, can he be called wise who gives his life for that moment's gratification? Is it not a large waste of this life to seek only for those things that must end with our present existence, and this life is but a moment? Was Jesus of Nazareth a lunatic or a philosopher when he bade us, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven"?

You must make your own fortune on earth if you would be honest, and honorable, and gain a well-developed manhood. Luck will not bring it to you. Cunning or petty scheming will not secure it for you. Depending upon the patronage of others will not gain it, but your own industry and fidelity to the right will. Even so in heaven. If you would have treasure there you must lay it up. No other can do it for you. It is not there awaiting your coming, else why the command to "lay up for yourselves." There is no reaping there the benefit of another's sowing, but "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap." What kind of seed are you sowing? Will the reaping make you honorable hereafter and well-to-do? Poverty here has many a burden and sorrow, but to be poor hereafter is to be poor indeed.

Counting the Cost.

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R. M. ARMSTRONG, State Secretary Y. M. C. A. of Massachusetts.

O man, as the Great Teacher has told us, enters upon any worldly project, begins to build a tower or to wage war against an enemy, without first sitting down and counting the cost. To do so would imply folly, and invite shame and disgrace. We have been endowed with the power of thought, and to go through this world without exercising this power is to abdicate the throne of reason, and bring ourselves down to the level of the brutes that act only from impulse.

No prudent man will enter any course of conduct without first reckoning what such a course is likely to cost-both to himself and others. This would be both foolish and perilous.

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," and he will reap much more than he sows. Would that young people might have this passage of sacred writ burned into their souls! Almost any day, unless he stop to think, a man may do some act that will cast a blight over his entire life, and perhaps determine his destiny. A man would be almost as safe in midocean on a rudderless ship, or on a flying train that had no engineer, as in living in a world like this, and in an age like the present, without thinking.

If young people would but look about them, they would see in so many families, and certainly in every community, wrecks

men (and women too) who failed to count the cost, and after a few years' of sowing to the flesh, have reaped the whirlwind. Young men and women, think. Take warning from the far too numerous examples all around you.

Youth is proverbially thoughtless. It is full of ardor, energy,

and enthusiasm. All things wear for it the charm of novelty and freshness. It sets out on the voyage of life with "hope at the prow and pleasure at the helm." While all this forms the strength of youth, it at the same time exposes it to many dangers. Just because of its ardor and whole-heartedness, it is liable in a thoughtless moment to enter upon some path, the end of which means ruin and disgrace.

Youth has had no experience in the evils of life, knows not the pitfalls that lie in the way. Many a pathway opens on either hand, which to a young man seems inviting and pleasurable, but which is extremely hazardous. The first steps in the way of sin are always attractive. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Forethought is imperative. Before taking the first step in any path that opens, think of the end. Sit down and count the cost. Act not in haste.

Among the evils into which young men fall are the following:

Social Drinking. It is estimated that more than 60,000 persons in this country annually go down into drunkards' gravesan exceeding great army. Not one of this number ever intended to become a drunkard. The expression, "I can drink, or let it alone," is often heard. Reader, if you are in the habit of drinking moderately, try to do without stimulants for a week, yea, for a day. Many have tried this, and found to their amazement that they were slaves to the drink habit. Every drunkard is a person who tried to be a moderate drinker, and failed. The only safety is in letting the vile stuff alone.

Gambling. This is one of the most fascinating forms of vice, and young men unthinkingly become entangled in its meshes. A social game of cards, with a small stake "just to keep up the interest," is played-and then the larger stake follows. Defaulters and suicides are on every hand as a result of this modern curse. The only safety is-never begin. Count

the costs.

Sensuality. Universal experience proves that sensuality