calling was exempt from an application of this unerring rule that applies to all things in heaven and on earth, but no greater mistake ever entered the head of mortal man. The farmer is engaged in the most important occupation known to the head or hand of man. Upon the products of the soil all rely for their anticipated prosperity. If the farmer does not lay broad and deep the foundation, other structures beside his own must crumble and fall, and to fill the demands that are properly made upon him, he, like the great stars, must be punctual in the orbit allotted to him in nature's economy. He must plow, plant, and cultivate on time, or the burdens imposed upon him at harvest time will be light indeed, and thus will be destroyed one of the main pillars of the edifice that sustains commerce, manufactures, and trade throughout the world. No more important lesson can be taught to the farmer's boy than is found in the everyday life of the successful, practical farmer. Every hour presents an object lesson. Every year many of these are presented to the mind of the close observer, and the central idea of all these is found in the two words, thoroughness and punctuality. Without this virtue, a high permanent success seldom comes to the tiller of the soil. Hence farmers and farmers' sons can learn that they and their business prove to be no exception to the general rule that affects men in all other legitimate occupations. Punctuality for them means not only greater prosperity, but lighter labors, and more leisure, more frequent opportunities for social enjoyments, and intellectual improvement, fewer failures, heavier crops, and frequently better prices.

Boys on the farm, be punctual, and prosperous and happy as a result. A good lesson in punctuality is taught to all men by the news gatherers for daily papers. The fierce competition between publishers, and their keen anxiety to be the first to promulgate and scatter broadcast important events, induce them to employ none as reporters but the most prompt and punctual men in the market. These men will chase a phantom as well as a reality. They will face the winter's cold, and the summer's heat. If a burglary is committed, they are there. If rumors of a murder

reach their ears, no night is so dark, no danger so great, as to deter them from a punctual appearance on the spot, and, as a reward to the one who shall first reach any scene of disaster, a rise in salary is a certainty, while the laggard loses his place. These men in the prosecution of their calling teach lessons that should be indelibly impressed upon the minds of all. Their success as well as failures ought to stimulate to activity all young men everywhere. With them punctuality is an absolute necessity. But how to be punctual is a question that confronts all, and torments many. In response to chiding or prompting, the most common reply or excuse is, "I had no time." The close observer of men and things is impressed with the fact that it is those who perform the greatest tasks who are the most punctual, and it is they who do the least who the most frequently disregard all rules relating to punctuality. The men who do the most seem to have more time to assume new duties. The hardest worker of the present century was Horace Greeley. From 1840 to 1870 he was the great editor of the greatest newspaper of the times. He wrote longer and stronger editorials than any other writer during all these years. Still he was, or always seemed to be, ready to do an unlimited amount of outside work. He traveled abroad, and he compassed our own continent from ocean to ocean. He lectured in scores of places, at home and abroad. He wrote and published a large volume on "What I know about farming," and later he wrote and published two large volumes upon the "American Conflict." All this time

he was discharging the exacting duties that devolved upon the editor of a great metropolitan daily and weekly newspaper. How did he perform all of these herculean tasks is a question that comes home to all of us. The answer is found largely in the fact that he was always punctual. He not only practiced this virtue, but enforced it upon his employees, and others with whom he was associated. Again, he was methodical; this is a twin brother to punctuality. Without this men cannot achieve great victories over obstacles, nor climb high on the ladder of fame, fortune, and honor. In order to be

punctual, one must be methodical. Just so much time must be allotted to a discharge of the various duties assumed. Failure is stamped upon the brow of him who permits his work to chase him during the hours, days, weeks, months, and years of a lifetime. This is especially true of one who undertakes to do much in the world. Just a little may be accomplished without method. We should all be possessed of an ambition to do much, hot a little, with life's opportunities. The misfortunes which arise through want of method and punctuality are recorded on almost every page of the world's history. For the want of it, battles have been lost, and national banners have trailed in the dust. Both history and observation bring to our attention the awful results of being a moment too late. The opportunity comes and passes by, never to return. We may grieve over the fatal consequences that flow from our want of punctuality. We reflect upon the failure of darling objects, but are, when too late, powerless to avert the disaster. Of all the men on earth who should in season and out of season be punctual in the discharge of every duty, it is the men who run the trains over the bands of steel that checker this whole country from ocean to ocean, and from the lakes to the gulf. The remorse and anguish which often follow as a result of being one moment too late in the performance of a duty as engineer on a railroad locomotive are fearful to contemplate. As these words are

penned, there comes back to us fresh recollections of fearful disasters that recently occurred in Michigan and Indiana. It was during the height of travel to and from the Exposition at Chicago, that a train heavily loaded with excursionists from the fair was standing on the main track at Jackson, Mich., when another equally heavily loaded train overtook the first section, wrecked two cars, and killed fourteen human beings. The engineer applied the brakes one moment too late. A fast express was hurrying to Chicago over the Wabash road. freight train was side tracked at a small station in Indiana. The brakeman was thirty seconds too late in turning the switch. The rapidly moving passenger train crashed into the freight,

and precious human lives were lost. Later and sadder was an accident that occurred at Battle Creek, on the Chicago and Grand Trunk railway. The engineer was two minutes too late in stopping his train. As a result twenty-seven valuable lives were lost; communities were shocked; mourning was carried into many a household. The engineer suffers in sadness and sorrow, and all of this because he did not promptly and punctually obey orders. We will not harrow the reader with further recitals. These are only given to emphasize the importance of being punctual. Yet less painful and important results come home to all of us as we review the experiences and observations of a lifetime, and we think if we had been there on time, it might have been different.

Delay Loses Fortune.

REV. H. A. GOBIN, D.D., Dean of De Pauw University, Indiana.

OME virtues seem to be opposed to each other. Energy is quite unlike patience, caution stands over against courage, and independence is not suggestive of humility. But this opposition is more in appearance than in reality. Each of these qualities keeps the other in proper limits. An excellency can easily be perverted into a fault. An excess of courage becomes rashness. An extreme caution is timidity. But where courage is restrained by caution, and caution is quickened by courage, then symmetry and force of character are produced.

Energy, courage, and independence are positive qualities. They incite to activity. They generate and sustain great enterprises. Modern civilization is the product of these characteristics. The passive virtues-humility, patience, and meeknesswould have no value if not associated with the above positive traits. Even justice and equity would have no existence if there were no heroic spirits to define, illustrate, and maintain them.

The absence of positive traits in any life is sure to work disaster. No advantage of birth or position can be a substitute for them. When the Prince of Coburg was engaged in his war with the Turks, he commanded, in person, an army of thirtyseven thousand men. He was defeated by an army of twentyeight thousand. About nine miles distant was his general Suvoroff with an army of twenty-two thousand. When Coburg was defeated, he sent the following sorry message to Suvoroff: "I was attacked this morning by the Turks. I have lost my