^ On the death of General Booth of the Salvation Army, one of his lieutenants was asked what the probable effect would be on the army. The reply was, " I think that probably the departure of the General will mean the consecration afresh of every Salva- tionist to the great work to which the General gave his life. Now that he is gone, I must do more."
III.
Types of Tkaders.
The Apostle speaks of the wise and the foolish, and urges the Ephesians to be among the wise, walking circumspectly, redeeming the time, and looking to see what the will of the Lord is. All men may be divided into two great classes, according as they do or do not perceive that life is an opportunity. To the one class life has a twofold meaning : it means the opportunity of develop- ment ; it means the opportunity of service to God and man. To the other class life has no meaning at all ; they simply drift from day to day ; and whether it is business or amusement of which they see most, there is no real aim or purpose in what they do. The lethargic let chance after chance to do good slip away un- seized, unimproved; the wise and watchful, however, charm by a smile, warn by a word, persuade by an action, prevail by a prayer every hour; they are like the quicksilver that does not permit a particle of gold to escape.
^ H. G. Miller, The E])istle to the Epheaicms, 278
262 THE PURCHASE OF OPPORTUNITY
^ If I were Dr. Nansen and proposed to you to join my North Pole expedition, your option would be momentous ; for this would probably be your only similar opportunity, and your choice now would either exclude you from the North Pole sort of immortality altogether or put at least the chance of it into your hands. He who refuses to embrace a unique opportunity loses the prize as surely as if he tried and failed,^
1. The foolish miss or misuse their opportunity. — There they sit, like Mr. Micawber in David Gopperfield, dreaming that some- thing is going to happen which will place them on the wave of prosperity and sweep them into the harbour of success. They never do anything, because that for which they are looking never happens.
^ Some times are taken from us by force ; some others are stolen from us ; and others slip away. But the most disgraceful loss is that which arises from our own negligence.^
^ Spend not your time in that which profits not ; for your labour and your health, your time and your studies, are very valuable ; and it is a thousand pities to see a diligent and hopeful person spend himself in gathering cockle-shells and little pebbles, in telling sands upon the shores, and making garlands of useless daisies.^
^ Perhaps there stands in modern literature no more pathetic figure than that of Amiel, whose gifts were so high, and whose achievements were so meagre. One of his friends writes, "We found him always kindly and amiable, a nature one might trust and lean upon with perfect security. Yet he wakened in us but one regret. We could never understand how it was a man so richly gifted, produced nothing, or only trivialities." In his own journal one of the last entries, written with trembling hand, ten days before his death, reads thus : " So much promise, to end in so meagre a result ! I shall end like the Ehine — lost among the sands, and the hour is close by, when my thread of water shall have for ever disappeared."
If this befell: At some fair dawning-time,
Ere failed the wistful world its dreams and dew. Sheer from the height of heaven reached down to you
A cloud-piled stair more pure than glistening rime,
^ W. James, The Will to Believe, 4.
* Seneca. ' Jeremy Taylor.
EPHESIANS V. i6 263
And firm as marble wrought, in flights sublime
That pierced the void, whence lights come faint and few. Beyond all starry outposts : toward what new
Wild-wondered shores — ah, would you dare to climb ?
And if, while yet you doubted, lo, too late, You saw it reft past range of fear and hope.
Caught up the vast, and here you needs must wait Mere day's returning ; would not narrow scope Wide earth yield ? Yea, the azure's amplest cope
Enclose your spirit like a dungeon-grate ? ^
2. The wise perceive the value of opportunity and huy it up. — That is to say, they reclaim it by hard toil from misuse, they turn every fraction of it to good account ; they even create occasions to carry out the great ends of life.
^ For all men alike, failure is blindness to the strategic element in events; success is readiness for instant action when the opportune moment arrives. When nature has fully ripened an opportunity man must stretch out his hand and pluck it. In- ventions may be defined as great minds detecting the strategic moment in nature ; Galileo finding a lens in the ox's eye ; Watt witnessing steam lift an iron lid ; Columbus observing an un- known wood drifting upon the shore. To untold multitudes nature offered these opportune moments for discovery, but only Galileo, Watt, and Columbus were ready to seize them. As for the rest, this is our only answer to nature : " While thy servant was busy here and there, the strategic moment was gone." ^