LIVING WITH A PURPOSE.
Suggestion:—Object: Architect's drawings for the building of a house.
MY DEAR LITTLE MEN AND WOMEN: I have here what the architect calls "plans," or drawings for a house. Unless the carpenter and builder had a copy of the plans he is to follow he would not be able to build successfully. He would not know what kind of material he would need. He would not know where to place the doors, or how large to make the windows, and whether to put the dining room on this side of the house or on the other side of the house; whether the parlor was to be on the first floor or on the second floor. So when a man is going to build, the first thing to be done is to decide what kind of a house he wants, and then to get an architect who is able to draw the plans perfectly, so as to show the size of every door and window and room, and the exact position and place of everything that is to enter into the building of the house. These plans cost a great deal of thought and oftentimes much delay in beginning, but in the end they save both time and expense, and secure the most desirable results.
Plans for Building a House.
Every boy and girl should have a plan, for we are all builders. We build day after day and week after week, and year after year. First of all, you should have some great purpose in life, and then all your other plans and purposes should be made to further and help the great main object which you have in life.
Once there were two boys who were very intimate when they were young. They played together, and came to love each other very much. One was a boy who always had a plan. He had a plan for studying his lessons; he had a plan which showed what time he had resolved to get up in the morning; how many hours he would devote to study; what portions of the day he would give to play, and how much to work. So each and every day he had his plans. At the beginning of the year he had his plans for each month of the year.
The other boy never had any plans. Everything went along just as it happened. The boy who always had the plans had no money; his father was poor. But the boy who had no plans had plenty of money, for his father was rich. These two boys both became merchants, had stores in the same square in a large city. The one who had the plans always knew what he purposed to do, before the season began. He knew just when to purchase his goods for the spring trade; he knew when to sell them; everything was done methodically and with a plan. As the result of his thoughtful plans he soon began to accumulate wealth, obtained a place of confidence in the minds of business men, and eventually became one of the most honored and influential men in the city. With the other boy it was not so. He bought his goods whenever he chanced to see something that he fancied; often bought too much of one thing; had no method in business, and consequently in the course of a few years lost what money he had and died a poor man.
Let me hope that you will always have a plan for everything you do. God is the God of order, and we should also be orderly in all that we do.
Plans for Building a Life.
These plans of the architect, when followed by the builders, will tell the stonemason, the bricklayer, the millman and the carpenter, the plasterer and the painter, just what each is to do, and all will be able to work in harmony, so as to secure a nice, comfortable and desirable home when the work is completed.
Now, we are all laying foundations in this world, and the perfect character cannot be obtained until in eternity. So when you come to plan for life, do not think that your stay in this world is to be all there is of your life. Let your plans take in eternity. If they leave out eternity they leave out the greatest portion of your existence. If you leave out the idea of eternity you will be like the man who simply lays the foundation and then never builds a house on it, and there, year after year, the foundation stands as the monument of his folly.
But you may desire to know where you can get the plans for a good and noble life—a plan that will include eternity. I will tell you: in the Bible. This is the best book in which to find the plans for a perfect and complete life. Just the same as the man who is going to build a house desires to go and examine other houses, so if you desire to be great and good, you should desire to read the biographies, the story of the lives of great men. I do not mean the fancied stories of lives which were never lived, which are so often told in some kinds of books, but I mean the lives of real men. When you see the difficulties which have been overcome by others; when you see how great and good other people have been, it will help you to be great and good. But after you have studied the lives of all the greatest and best men who have ever lived, and then compare them with the life of Jesus Christ, you will eventually come to see very clearly and distinctly, that after all there has never been but one perfect life lived on this earth, and that was the life of Jesus Christ. So you will readily see that if you desire to use a model which is perfect, you will have to take the life of Christ. You will find it fully portrayed in the Bible, especially in the first four books of the New Testament—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This will give you the model of a perfect life and enable you to live so as to make your life glorious while upon the earth, and prepare you for an eternity of happiness and joy beyond this world. Have a plan and live to it, and let your plan include eternity. And may God give you grace to live up to a high ideal, to be noble Christian men and noble Christian women.
Questions.—What are needed before a house is built? Are all boys and girls builders? Builders of what? Do they need plans? Should we all have a main object in life? What must we use all other plans and purposes for? Which boy in the story turned out the better? What does the story illustrate? Should we have a plan for each thing we do? Does God love order? What foundation are we laying in this life? Should our plans concern only this life? What kind of a builder are we like, if we make no plans for the life to come? Where can we get our plans? What perfect model can we follow?