312 BOARD OF AUKICULTURE. 



Taking no exception to that common form of expression, that 

 the religious teacher must be a man called from God, we only ask, 

 believing it would be an important step towards true success, that 

 something'of this same sacredness be attached to all the pursuits 

 of life. 



Through the operations of this law one man may be called to the 

 ministerial office, another to be a tiller of the soil, one to be a 

 mechanic, another a statesman or an artist, and the tastes and 

 talents which the Creator has bestowed upon them is their call to 

 the work, and the instruments with which they are to win success, 

 which, viewed in this light, becomes a duty. And the complete 

 success of a life harmonious in all its parts, is only to be obtained 

 by reverently listening to that call, and yielding implicit obedi- 

 ence to [jits commands. If with no uncertain sound it calls the 

 young man to cultivate the soil, do not divert tiie order of nature 

 by making ^him a religious teacher. If he possesses mechanical 

 skiil, develop and give it a practical direction instead of burying 

 it in a counting house. If he has an aptness and love fur the quiet 

 duties of teaching, it will be useless to seek for him the stirring 

 and more exciting pursuits of life. If love for poetry, music and 

 art are his leading characteristics, you cannot reasonably expect 

 that he will attain to marked success in physics and mathematics. 



Every man is called with sufficient distinctness, to give a prac- 

 tical direction as to what shall be his pursuits in life. It was 

 intended, and is necessary, that there should be a diversity of gifts 

 as well as of form and feature, and each is to engage in his work, 

 as of the ability of which God giveth ; and the divine wisdom is 

 beautifully manifested in the adaptation of this law to the demands 

 .made upon it and the work to be accomplished. There is no more 

 cause for apprehension that a greater number of persons will be 

 called to be farmers, mechanics, ministers or statesmen, than their 

 several interests require, or than there is in the law which governs 

 the proportion of the sexes. The great difficulty we have to con- 

 tend with is, that some departments are over-crowded by those 

 whom God and nature intended for other spheres. It is be regret- 

 ted that so many cherish the idea that they have a genius which 

 will enable them to successfully engage in any and every depart- 

 ment of life's callings. The partial success which is sometimes 

 obtained in violation of this law, can only be regarded as an 

 earnest, or prophecy, of what they might have been had they been 

 true to themselves in obeying this law of their being. 





