When I was a boy I belonged to a baseball team in the village where I
lived, and when we played games with a team from another village we had
a scorer who not only kept tally of the runs, but also told us who was
to be the next at the bat. He would say, "So-and-so is at the bat,
So-and-so is on deck." And when he told a boy he was "on deck," that boy
knew he was to be the next one at the bat.
Boys and girls are always on deck, whether they are playing ball or not,
for a boy or girl never knows when he is going to be called upon to play
some part in the game called Life. And the strange thing about it is,
there is no scorer who tells you that you are on deck. So you never get
any warning, and you may be on deck and not know it, and so miss your
chance.
Samuel, for instance, was a boy who used to close the curtains and put
out the candles at night in the temple away back hundreds of years
before Christ was born. One evening he had put out the lights and closed
the curtains, just the same as he had a hundred times before, and then
lay down to sleep. He little thought that this particular day he was on
deck, and was to be called into the game by God. But that night God
called him, and sent him on a very important errand that was to change
his whole life and the history of his people.
And things like that are happening in America to-day. I read a story the
other day of a young student who was overtaken by a rainstorm, and
borrowed an umbrella of a lawyer. He returned it a few days later with a
note of thanks. Not long afterward he received a letter from the lawyer
offering him a position in his office on account of his good
handwriting. The student took the position, kept on with his studies in
college, and after he graduated from college went right along in that
office till he became a man of influence. He didn't know what it meant
when he wrote that note. He was on deck.
The lesson that I want to draw is this: That you must be on the lookout
and do well the things that come to you each day, for who knows but you
may be on deck that very day, and be called to play some important part?
For only those are called who are on deck; that is, ready to play. The
boy or girl who does not do his work well day by day may miss his chance
of being called to take some larger place in life when the times comes.
Take this motto from the Old Testament: "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do, do it with thy might."