o perform, a service to render, or an honor
to win. Many a man waits long for opportunities, wondering why they
never come to him, when really they have been passing by him day after
day, unrecognized and unaccepted.

There is a legend of an artist, who long sought for a piece of
sandal-wood out of which to carve a Madonna. At last he was about to
give up in despair, leaving the vision of his life unrealized, when in
a dream he was bidden to shape the figure from a block of oak-wood,
which was destined for the fire. Obeying the command, he produced from
the log of common firewood a masterpiece.

In like manner many people wait for great and brilliant opportunities
for doing the good things, the beautiful things, of which they dream,
while through all the plain, common days, the very opportunities they
require for such deeds lie close to them, in the simplest and most
familiar passing events, and in the homeliest circumstances. They wait
to find sandal-wood out of which to carve Madonnas, while far more
lovely Madonnas than they dream of, are hidden in the common logs of
oak they burn in their open fire-place, or spurn with their feet in the
wood-yard.

Opportunities come to all. The days of every life are full of them.
But the trouble with too many of us is that we do not make anything out
of them while we have them. Then next moment they are gone. One man
goes through life sighing for opportunities. If only he had this or
that gift, or place, or position, he would do great things, he says;
but with his means, his poor chances, his meagre privileges, his
uncongenial circumstances, his limitations, he can do nothing worthy of
himself. Then another man comes up close beside him, with like means,
chances, circumstances, privileges, and he achieves noble results, does
heroic things, wins for himself honor and renown. The secret is in the
man, not in his environment. Mr. Sill puts this well in his lines:--

"This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream:
There spread a cloud of dust along a plain;
And underneath the cloud, or in it, raged
A furious battle, and men yelled, and swords
Shocked upon swords and shields. A prince's banner
Wavered, then staggered backward, hemmed by foes.
A craven hung along the battle's edge,
And thought, 'Had I a sword of keener steel--
That blue blade that the king's son bears--but this
Blunt thing.'--He snapt and flung it from his hand,
And lowering crept away