The case of Mr. Baldwin.

Nearly a hundred years ago was built in America the first locomotive engine of American design. Everybody knows nowadays what a locomotive is. Nearly every boy and girl in the world has seen one; many boys, particularly, can tell you how the locomotive engine operates; and more than one boy can even operate the locomotive himself. But it was not so one hundred years ago. The locomotive was a rare machine. And all the locomotives that people saw then in America had been made in England. But in 1831, the officers of the Germantown and Norristown Railway commissioned a young mechanical engineer, named Matthias Baldwin, to build for them a locomotive engine. The Germantown and Norristown Railway operated a horse-power line six miles long.

The Cambden and Amboy Railroad Company had only recently imported a locomotive from England. When Mr. Baldwin received his commission, he went immediately to Cambden, where were the parts of the English engine not yet assembled. There he "carefully observed the various parts of the machine, made a few measurements and at last crept under the ponderous boiler. Here he remained in absorbed study for nearly half an hour. As he emerged from his retreat, his face was glowing with enthusiasm, and he exclaimed 'I can do it.'"

{114} Words added to faith.

So far so good. Mr. Baldwin was inspired by a sublime faith in his power to build a locomotive engine. But had he stopped there, he would never have become the builder of the first American locomotive. Mr. Baldwin set determinedly and industriously to work to accomplish the task he had faith he could do. He met countless difficulties; his trials and disappointments were many, and often discouraging. But he kept bravely, manfully on. He did much of the work with his own hands, and personally trained the workmen who assisted him. At length, after six months of unremitting industry and painstaking labor, "Old Ironsides," the first American locomotive was completed. Matthias Baldwin had vindicated his enthusiastic exclamation born of faith, "I can do it."

Now it was the observance of the principle that enabled Matthias Baldwin to make good, which Jesus urged upon the multitudes assembled to hear Him teach during His ministry on the earth. "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord," declared Jesus, "shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven."

The principle of works.

This teaching is so simple that anyone may understand it. And it is true everywhere in life, in every kind of calling. Would you not think Mr. Baldwin foolish, if after exclaiming "I can do it" he had remained inactive and had not tried to build "Old Ironsides?" Can you imagine that a carpenter might ever enjoy the fame of master-builder if he never practiced the trade he had learned? Do you think it would be possible for a sinking ship {115} to send out the signal of distress, if the operator on the ship did not put into practice the laws governing wireless telegraphy? In other words, knowing how to build a locomotive will never construct one; knowing how to build a house will never erect even the smallest structure; knowing how to operate the telegraphic instrument will never send a message. It is only by actually putting into operation the principles underlying these activities, and working in obedience to them, that one can accomplish the desired end. And if this is true of material, earthly things, how much more ought it to be true of spiritual, heavenly things. ............