God put the oak in the forest, and the pine on its sand and rocks, and says to men, "There are your houses; go hew, saw, frame, build, make. God makes the trees; men must build the houses. God supplies the timbers; men must construct the ship. God buries the iron in the heart of the earth; men must dig it, and smelt it, and fashion it. What is useful for the body, and, still more what is useful for the mind, is to be had only by exertion--exertion that will work men more than iron is wrought--that will shape men more than timber is shaped.

Great men have ever been men of thought, as well as men of action. As the magnificent river, rolling in the pride of its mighty waters, owes it greatness to the hidden springs of the mountain nook, so does the wide sweeping influence of distinguished men date its origins from hours of privacy, resolutely employed in God's Word. The invisible spring of God's Word is the source of every great and meaningful achievement. Revised.