578                  A. M. E. REVIEW.

               "The honest heart that's free from all
                Intended fraud or guile
              However Fortune kicks the ball
                Has aye some cause to smile."
  The test of an education is its effectiveness. The properly
educated person will do anything that is honorable to succeed.
Fame and fortune depend upon how well you can do a thing
more than upon what you do. John L. Sullivan was once quite as
famous as William E. Gladstone.  They represented the social
extremes, but each was ahead in his peculiar sphere. A man
may become as famous raising pigs as by raising tunes. A
stock breeder may be just as cultured and influential as a musi-
cian. He that seeks prosperity by digging in the soil is just
as honorable (and vastly more likely to succeed) as he that
seeks an office by digging in politics. A prosperious carpen-
ter is worth more to the community than an impecunious
school teacher. A skilled cook will enjoy more of the good
things of life than an unskilled doctor. I had rather be a
first rate white-washer than a second rate preacher. What we
need now is a diversification of the energies of the race and a
concentration of the purposes of the individuals. Let each
one select some honorable calling and become master of it,
remembering that in winning a mansion on earth as well as
one in heaven, the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the
strong, but to him that holds out to the end.
  When a boy, I saw a strong man fix himself in a ladder and
offer a large sum of money to any man that could pull him out
with a team of horses. He charged a fee for the privilege of
trying.  He made money rapidly; for every man that had a
good team scoffed at the idea of not being able to move him.
However, they all failed.  Finally an old fellow came along
with a rather delapidated-looking horse, poor and blind in one
eye. He paid his money and prepared to try. The strong
man laughed and the people jeered. But the old horse had
been trained to move canal boats and was a past master in the
art of holding on. He did not jump with all his might as the
other horses had done.  He slowly walked up until the chain
was taut and just leaned with all his weight against it. The
strong man didn't flinch.  Neither did the horse.  One minute!




			

OHS/National Afro-American Museum & Cultural Center Serial Collection

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 28, Num. 2

Volume:  28
Issue Number:  02
Date:  10/1911