March 29, 1907, Children’s Corner: Possibility

Now I suppose we must begin like grown up people, with a little poetry:

I love my home, my happy home
Where mother rules as queen
Where papa’s lord of all around
And everything is clean.

Possibility looks mighty big in children’s corner and I tried hard to find a smaller word that would answer my purpose, but when we know the meaning of the word we will find that it is not a bad word after all. The Dictionary defines it as “the power of being or doing” and that is what we want to talk about. Many children who may read this are capable of being and doing wonderful things; in fact the human when developed possesses capabilities almost beyond limit. When God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul he entered upon a wonderful life. Possessing that spark of Divinity that made him akin to God, himself being created in God’s own image and after His own likeness thenceforth to be a living soul. How wonderful! Someone may say children cannot understand such talk, but in this day of Sunday Schools and early religious training for children they soon acquire a knowledge of the Scripture, and the subject of the creation is familiar to almost every intelligent child. Someone asked a good man how soon children understand the Scriptures. His answer was “so soon as they knew the meaning of words and could understand anything else.” Hence the importance of early training. The children of the present rising generation will soon be called upon to take the places of the older people and to fill the places of honor, trust, and responsibility. No wonder we look with pride and hope to the children of today. The children of today will be the men and women of tomorrow, and so much depends upon the child- life as to what his future may be. The habits and character he forms now will, to a great extent, shape his future destiny for good or bad. Now we live in a wonderful age and in a wonderful country where people can be almost anything they desire to be if they use the means necessary to accomplish that desire. This country furnishes so many opportunities for starting in life one can begin almost any vocation, calling or profession in a little way, and if he proves capable and deserving he can continue to rise in his favorite calling, until he reaches the object of his desire. If he seeks politics, if he can be elected even to some small office, he may hope by faithfulness in the discharge of his duty to succeed to still greater honors. And if better still, he seeks to be useful in his Master’s cause, he may begin in the Sunday School or in some humble church work with unlimited hope. The same may be said of all useful callings, yet we would not have any boy or girl think that success in life can be gained without effort. It requires the same diligent effort on the part of the rich and the poor alike. Success in life cannot be bought with money, but it must be acquired with worthy effort.
C. W. R. (C. W. Ridgway)