dence to the North that the rebellion was doomed.
At last Lincoln had a general who had the power of decision, and the
North breathed easy for the first time.

The man who would forge to the front in this competitive age must be a
man of prompt and determined decision; like Caesar, he must burn his
ships behind him, and make retreat forever impossible. When he draws
his sword he must throw the scabbard away, lest in a moment of
discouragement and irresolution he be tempted to sheathe it. He must
nail his colors to the mast as Nelson did in battle, determined to sink
with his ship if he can not conquer. Prompt decision and sublime
audacity have carried many a successful man over perilous crises where
deliberation would have been ruin.

"_Hoc age_."

CHAPTER XXIX

OBSERVATION AS A SUCCESS FACTOR

Henry Ward Beecher was not so foolish as to think that he could get on
without systematic study, and a thorough-going knowledge of the world
of books. "When I first went to Brooklyn," he said, "men doubted
whether I could sustain myself. I replied, 'Give me uninterrupted time
till nine o'clock every morning, and I do not care what comes after.'"

He was a hard student during four hours every morning; those who saw
him after that imagined that he picked up the material for his sermons
on the street.

Yet having said so much, it is true that much that was most vital in
his preaching he did pick up on the street.

"Where does Mr. Beecher get his sermons?" every ambitious young
clergyman in the country was asking, and upon one occasion he answered:
"I keep my eyes open and ask questions."

This is the secret of many a man's success,--keeping his eyes open and
asking questions. Although Beecher was an omnivorous reader he did not
care much for the writings of the theologians; the Christ was his great
model, and he knew that He did not search the writings of the Sanhedrin
for His sermons, but picked them up as He walked along the banks of the
Jordan and over the hills and through the meadows and villages of
Galilee. He saw that the strength of this great Master's sermons was
in their utter simplicity, their naturalness.

Beecher's sermons were very simple, healthy, and strong. They pulsated
with life; they had the vigor of bright red blood in them, because,
like Christ's, they grew out of doors. He got them everywhere from
life and nature. He picked them up in the marketplace, on Wall Street,
in the stores.