Choice Of A Calling

Rev. Dr. Eddy, of Detroit, who is temporarily supplying the Presbyterian pulpit in this city, last Sunday evening preached ,n excellent discourse to young men upon tbe subject of choosing a calling for life. His address was so sensible and practical, itiswith pleasure The Reoistsr presents ome of its leading thoughts : In India the san followa the cilling of bis father ; and that is true, to a large extent, in many European countries, but in tbis country every young man is left free, not only by law but by circumstances, to follow his own bent. Thousands of lawjers, physicians, editors, teachers, clergymen, are the sons of farmers and artisans. Every boy educated in our public schools ia at liberty to enter one of the learned professiong. This large liberty of choice is feit by many to carry with it a painful sense of responsibility. A mistake made at the threshold of aotive life ia often fatal to lubsequent ueefulness end peace of mind. After some further introductory remarks Dr. Eddy presented the following suggestions for the carctul consideraron of his young hearers: First - Consider it as fettled that you are really TO DO SOMKTBING ON RARTH, and this world is not a play ground ; this life is not a holiday; you are sent into the world not to sport in the sunshine, not to flit from flower to flower like butterflies, but to do business in great waters, to build up as it wen; with tolt and agony and bloody sweat, stone upon stone, y our morf.1 character, your immortality ; to fight against falsehood tind disorder, and sin and the devil ; to serve your generation and to labor lor the well-being of mankind in all the ages to come. Not enjoyment and not sorrow Is our desüned end or way ; But to act, that each to-morro w Find us farther than to day. I counsel you, then, ñrst of all, to reolve on a Ufe of toil. Find out what your work is, whether that of the hand or the tirain, then work on like a hero till your art stops beating. The man who is net a rorker in such an age, in such a country, n such a world as ours, is equaüy contemptible and unhappy. He is not a stibstacce but a snadow. You can pass your hand through him and find no obstructioa. lf he is in your path you do not regard him any more than you would a spider's web. And he himself knows that he is a cipher. He is without '- respect, shrinking into conscioua little;iess in mere selfcontempt. The maniy worker, on the other hand, makes himgelf feit as a reality. He may be sometimes mistaken, perverse, wrong-headed, but he leaves the mark of a brawny hand on his generation. You cannot, when he dies, shovel him into h3 grave with indifference. Young maD, BE A WORKER, not a dreamer, an idler, a dude, a fashionable do-nothing, but a worker. Choose the calling which will make the largest draft upon your energy, which will bring the sweat from your muscles or your brain all the days of your life. I say not tnat you ought to prefer a life of manual labor ; but I do say that you ought not to shrink from it, mucb less despise it. If there is any prejudice in your mind against labor as ignoble and degrading, dismiss it, I beseech you, as fool.-h and wicked. It is a prejudice equally opposed to the spirit of the age, to the spirit of American institutions and to the spirit of Christianity. Old fendalism and modem slavery conspired to bring labor into contempt; but both have passed away and we have fairly entered upon the Industrial Era, which asserts, or ought to assert, the noblenesa of work, and provides, or ought to provide, for all true work a just remnneration. Second - It is important, however, that jour work should be well directed, that jou should work for high and worthy ends. ♦ Now I am not about to preach that poverty is on the whole to be preferred to wealth. I leave that to Oount Toktoi and his disciples. I would not be undrstood as saying that young men ought not to secure an honest independence; but I protest against letting ihe love of money have the least influence in determming their choice of a calling. lor a youth to sit down and coolly calcúlate whether he can put the most money into his puree by becoming a lawyer, or physician, or a clergyman (though that is too absurd to be often considered), or a kanker, or a merchant, betrays a precocious worldliness which excites other emotions n the thoughtiul on-looker than admiration. It gives promise of anything but a noble and useful life. The beardless rniser Biay succeed in his schemes. He may grow rich as he grows old ; he may even become a Vanderbilt or a Q-ould, but he will not gain the hearty love of a single human being; he will lose his own self-respect and forfeit the favor of God. As ge comes on no generóos emotions, no gO8h of affectionate and refreshing memories will warm his icy heart and light up hi cold eyes with a genial gleam. My youthful friends, DARK TO BK l'OOK. Kany of whom the world was not worthy od who are now enthroned by history among demi-gods, chose poverty rather than riches as their lot in this world. Dr. Eddy then cited as examples the lorious achievements of Luther and Milton, 1 would also wam you against allowing the desire of' worldly diatinct'on to determine your cboice of a calling. Aa the world goes, selfish ambition a eveu more cjrrupting than avarice, though, to teil the truth, both pas-sions are often uaited. That s especially true of the paltry ambitioa of modera politieians, who aeek tor place and power as the means of filling their empty coffers. There is indeed a noble ambition like that of Washington. Lineólo and Garfield, but that is another name for patriotism; oL that ambition you cannot have too much ; of aelfish ambition the least is more than enough. Let me counsel you, then, not only daré to be poor, but DARE TO BE OB-CÜRK. Be content to live and toil and die ODknown. If your name should never be herd of beyond your own native village, your own street, think it no misfortune, no failure ; your life may be all the nobler, all the happier, all the more fruitful. The names of mankind'a greatest benefactors have perished on earth, but they are wellknown in heaven and they shall shine as stars in the firmament forever and ever. "What then," you ask,"ought tobe the controlling motive in choosing a calling ?" I aak in reply, why has God sent you into thi8 world ? What purpose is to bean9weredbyyourexistence here? Very differently is the question answered by the Christian and the unbelieving materialist. The cold creed of the latter that man is the offspring, puppet of blind destiny soon to be engulfed in everlastins; nothingness, you reject with horror. Well, standing on the Christian revelation of life acd immortality - or rather, let me aay, on the great hope oí universal humanity - that the present life is the first preparatory stage of an endleas career, you can not but regard its design as largely educational. This world is evideutly intended as a training school for the next. Whatever calling therefore will contribute most largely to the formation and growth an manly Christian character, ought to be preferred. Your life-work ought to further the great end of man. lt ought to be no only not a hindrance to intellectual anr moral culture, but a positive help. You I am sure, feel no attraction toward a life especially dishonest and mean. But ii would give me less pain to have a son o: mine called a gambler than a rumseller The former only takes his neigbbor's money ; the latter íakes his money, hishealth, his reason, his lite, h3 domestic happiness, his all, for time and eternity. The principies laid down forbid you to engage in any calling simply to amuse Whether a life of manual labor a on its own account to be preferred, is a question which every man must decide for himself It seems to me there is something ennobling in those employmenta which bring one continually into the presence of cature. The farmer is your true king, as he drives his plow afield. Far (rom the pestilential atmo=phere of cities, far from the whirl of social and commercial excitemente, from the intrigues of ambitions, the fascinations of fashion, and the haunta of dissipation, he gets moral as wel as phy8cal health from the sunlight that browns his cheek, from the free winds that blowupon him, trom the bright summer showers that fructify his turro ws. Do you cali this sentimentalism ? So be it ; I cherish it notwithstacding. Dr. Eddy then spoke higbly of mechanic arts, mentioning as noble examples uch men as Franklin, the printer, Roger Sheiman, the shoemaker, Burri'.t and Ediott, the blacksmiths, and others. The profesaions, with one or two exceptnns, are overcrowded. Probablv not one lawyer in four acquires a moderate competente bystrictly piofessional labor. I presume the same is true of the medical profess.oo. There are two professions, however, which though not lucrative and essentially unworthy in their nature, offer great attractions to all generous and noble minds. I mean teaching and the sacred ministry. The speaker then devoted ihe remainder of his discourse to the especial calling of the ministry, and the " exquisito satisíaction of imparting sacred and saving truth to other minds. Besides, the pastor gathera around him troops of large-hearted friends - such friends as, I believe, no other professional man can have. To him the nch and the poor, the young and the aged, the learned and the ignorant, look for the bread of life ; and for him their prayers ascend to God. Oh, it is without any exaggeration a most blessed work." My young friends, I have thus redeemed my promise and given you my views on the great subject of choosing a calLng for life. That choice, by all of you, unless you are speedily cut down by death, will speedily be made. It would be interesting to look forward and trace the path of each of you through life. Some of you will be farmers, some mechanica, some merchants, some physicians, some lawyera and some I feel persuaded will prea.-h the gospel, perhaps in distant lands. But oh, when you shall have grown old and feeble, gray and wrinkled, with what feelings will you look back on that life to which you now look forward with such high and eager hope 1 I feel almost gifted with second sight. Some of you I see lying on your deathbeds, with hands folded in prayer, and the glory on your palhd brows. Hark I I hear you faintly say, " I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I fcave kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for mea crownof righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day." And now Isee many mourrers gather arcund your lifeless remains, which they commit to the grave with many teais, saying the while, " Well done, good and taithlul servantl ' There are others whom I seem to see, though indistinctly, on their dying beds. But the viaion is sad and painful ; and I turn from it, though an awful voice rings in my ears, which I trust will not fall on yours - " Thou wicked and slothful servant."