Have you ever heard of a picture that was called "Opportunity?" It
represents a person with a great deal of hair on her forehead, but none
on the back of her head. The meaning of the picture is this: When you
catch an opportunity as it _comes_, it is easy to hold; but once you let
it get by you, it is very difficult to catch it again. It is something
like trying to catch a train that has just pulled out of the station.
I used to live near a boy in Canada who did not like to go to school,
and when the snow was deep and the weather was frosty he would find some
excuse by which he got his mother to let him stay at home. When he grew
up he found out what he had missed by not getting an education, and he
tried to make it up, but he could not. He was running after the train.
He soon got discouraged and gave up, and tried to get his living in some
other way than by hard work. The last I heard of him he had just been
arrested for stealing.
I have known other boys and girls who thought of joining the Church,
but they just kept putting it off and putting it off, thinking that any
time would do well enough. And then, as they got older, they felt that
they weren't good enough, or that some of their friends might not
approve, and so they have grown up and have not yet joined, and each
year it keeps growing harder.
The two opportunities that you boys and girls ought to take "by the
forelock," as we say, are, first: in getting all the schooling you can
while you have the chance. You will never have such a good opportunity
again, and if you let it slip you may never, never catch up. And second:
in making as fine a start as you can in your Christian life by learning
all you can about the Bible and by getting Christ's example into your
hearts.