DIAMOND DUST. 1 HERE are wonderful things to be seen in THER a watch factory; plucky little machines that bite off a steel bar with one snap of their jaws, discriminating little machines that handle screws one hundredth of an inch in length, exact little machines that measure the sixteenth of a hair'sbreadth. But the one bit of mechanism that may most stir the thought is the tiny tin saw that cuts the jewels of the watch. Yes, the delicate and difficult work of shaping the garnet and aqua marina, the ruby and sapphire, is done by a piece of tin-that soft, common metal. But notice! Its edge is charged with diamond dust. Only the prince of gems can cut those precious stones. The diamond may not work alone. Its power must be made available through some cheaper agent to which it is joined. Probably the tin holds the diamond dust all the more tenaciously on account of its own weakness. 7 Why may not some noble, discouraged worker learn from the little tin saw how the jeweled pivots are cut, upon which turn the wheels of success in the world's conquest for God? We are none of us content, unless we believe ourselves useful to others; and the broader our usefulness, the deeper and surer our peace. This principle sends delicate Christian women out of their snug homes, and sets them stumbling up into wretched attics, and down into dismal cellars. It sent scholarly Jesuits across the sea to freeze and starve among the North American Indians. Sometimes a rich, full life is poured out unstintedly in unselfish service, and with small result. The note of such a failure might almost send a throb of pain through an angel's song. We all want to be useful. Children hear in a shell the moan of the sea. If we listen well, we can hear in the soul's confidences with itself a ceaseless moan for fellowship with God in his grand schemes of benevolence. This universal bent indicates the divine intention. God uses human agents. He would use each of us to the limit of our powers, if we would meet the conditions of his inworking. When we see those who are specially useful, we demand of ourselves to know why we are not doing more. Might not we accomplish some |