Each one of us is to believe that we have a place in the mind of God and in His creation, separate and distinct from every other creature, and that we each have had a place in God's foreknowledge from all eternity, and that He loves us with a private, personal love, and does not confound us with any of His other creatures, and has assigned to each of us a special mission and service which no one else can do in just the way that God wants us to do it. If we do not believe this, then we do not believe that God is the Infinite One which the Bible reveals, and we do not believe in our destiny as revealed in Scripture.

The Bible contains any number of passages proving that each person has a special vocation in the providence of God, and that if that person is yielded in obedient faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, that special vocation will be carried out.

We are told that "the stars in their courses fought against Sisera,"� from which we learn that God appoints to every star a special circuit along which it is to move. Then we read that God appoints every man to his work. (Mark 13:34.) And again, that John the Baptist fulfilled his course. Jesus says, "I have finished the work Thou gavest Me to do."� Paul said he wanted to finish his course with joy. We are each one told "to run the race that is set before us."� When Peter inquired of Christ what John would do, the Lord answered him, "What is that to thee? Follow thou Me."�

The Bible is full of this thought, that for each one of us there is a course, a race, a work, an individual life to be lived, and to this end we have been created and redeemed, and for this purpose there is ample provision of grace and inspiration.

1. Let us look at our personal vocation on the God side. The true light on everything is to find its relation to God, and its place in His will. Our relation to God must come first of all. The reason why we are created, and the significance of all our labor, our trials, our difficulties, our successes, our failures, and in fact everything that belongs to us, must be looked at first of all in our relation to God. It is certain that as He formed us and redeemed us, He must take more interest in us, and have a special regard for us, more than is possible for all creatures combined to have in us.

Again, it is evident that God has given us a special mission to fill in His own mind, which is in proportion to our special make up, our peculiar gifts and capabilities, and that He foresees for each of us possibilities which we do not see, and which our fellow-creatures would never suspect. Most of the lives in the human race are lived in obscurity, and never known beyond a circle of a few acquaintances. Of the millions of earth, only a small per cent, ever come into public notice, or form a part of recorded history, and even of that number the most of them live only for self and sin and amount to almost nothing in the purpose of God, and are total failures, perhaps, on God's side. Of all the drops of water in the ocean, only a few are visible on the surface, and it is likely that the number of human beings who are known in public life and to history, are just as few in proportion as the number of water-drops that are visible in the sea. Hence it is certain God has not made all the human souls as a mere parade, but that they are made for Him, to love and serve Him, to fill a private mission in His love and will which we do not understand.

Then again, even that part of our lives which is visible and recognized by our fellow-creatures, is only a small proportion to that which is hidden, and which we live, as it were, privately in our relation to God. The laws of vision are so constituted that each one of us stands in the exact center of the horizon, and this illustrates how each one of us, so far as we are concerned in our relation to God, stands in the center of His will and the horizon of His plans and providences. This is the secret way in which God wants us to view our lives in relation to Himself. Many think they do nothing in life that is worthy of mention, and many wonder what God gave them an existence for, as they are so obscure, so helpless, so hedged about, but if such souls could only know enough to abandon themselves to God's will, they are capable of living unto God and glorifying Him with a private worship and obedience that will satisfy the divine purpose in their creation, and in the end will see that they filled the very sphere of God's plan for them. If one soul fails to do its part in the purpose of God, He will miss that work from His universe. It is said of a certain great musician that was conducting a musical performance with a great orchestra, that one little instrument failed to strike one note in the program, and the master's keen ear detected the absence of that one note in the performance. God is so infinite that all the countless millions that love and serve Him, if one little soul living in obscurity in some hid-away place fails to fill its mission, God will miss that note in the vast orchestra of the universe, which is perpetually sounding forth His praise. It is not any mere action that God would miss, so much as the love and confidence of some trusting soul. The highest mission that any creature can fill is to love the Lord with all the soul and mind and will. And this secret mission to which we are called takes rank above all outward action, or public history, or splendid performance in the eyes of our fellow-creatures.

2. Our vocation on the man side, or in relation to our fellow-creatures. God has arranged countless threads of relationship between each one of us and all other creatures, and so multiplied, so intricate are they as to be beyond all our calculations. In one sense we may say that God is weaving out a vast fabric in human history, and that each soul forms a thread or a stitch in the enormous pattern. To watch the looms in a lace factory is a puzzling enigma, for they look as if thousands of spider legs were reaching out in every direction, picking up threads, and twisting and blending in what seems utmost confusion, and yet out of that countless- bewilderment of motions there comes the beautiful fabric, and so God is using us creatures in our life-work to touch thousands of others, and influence them, as well as to have thousands of others touch us by word or influence or personal presence, and thus creatures are blended with creatures in a tangled maze of ministry for help or for trial, for joy or for sorrow, for happiness or for disappointment, so that our special mission is related to the special mission of others, so as to make one whole, and yet not interfere with each of us filling our appointed place.

Among the things which God uses in our special vocation may be mentioned our place in the world's history, our race, our color, our parentage, our language, our climate, our locality on the earth, the natural scenery which surrounds us, the state of civilization under which we live, the religious faith in which we were brought up, our circumstances of poverty or wealth, of country or city life, of sex, of health or sickness, of conditions, of ignorance or education, of surroundings, of friends or foes, of those who hated or those who loved us. And only think that our God takes into consideration all these facts and many more, and measures and weighs all the elements that are related to our bodies or our souls. He gives us a mission in relation to all the fellow-creatures with whom we come in contact. As every creature that walks or crawls on the earth leaves its print in some form or other, so every responsible soul in passing through life in a thousand ways leaves an imprint on other souls, but that imprint can only fulfil God's will when such souls are yielded to Him, and living under the guidance of His Spirit. In many ways we need the ministry of our fellow-creatures that would not be according to our choice, and God often uses our fellows to wound us, or correct us, or disappoint us, to serve a purpose in our lives; and then again He will use others to encourage, or comfort, or instruct us, so that could we see our life mission in the clear light of faith, we would receive all things that come into our lives as designed for our good, and accept all things as from God to us. It is evident that our life mission must be interwoven with our fellow-creatures for their benefit in many ways unknown to us, and in a certain sense we contribute a portion of ourselves into the lives of others, and yet in such a way as not to interfere with the life mission of other souls. And on the other hand, thousands of our fellow-creatures have contributed something into our lives which becomes a part of ourselves. "No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself,"� is the Word of God.

3. In the next place, we should seek to discover what our life mission is. There are some who from childhood have a strong intuition as to what their vocation is to be, and this applies to people of the world, who are not Christians, as well as to those who are Christians. In the light of history we must believe that God has special missions for souls in the realm of nature, and politics, and war, and art, and discovery, and other departments, even apart from the question of salvation, or the life in the future world. There have been great warriors, statesmen, navigators, and inventors, that have been specially fitted for great works in the world, and have wrought out great missions in history, who were not religious in the Bible sense, and yet were used of God in the affairs of this world, and in many cases they felt sure of their special vocation, and gave themselves up to their life work with all the zeal of their being.

But I speak now with special reference to the children of God, to those who are living^ mainly for the life in the future world, and those who live mostly for the future life are the very ones that live best in the present life, and who best fulfil their vocation in this world. There are multitudes among Christians who seem to have no definite perception of what their special mission is, and there may be some cases in which it is not God's will that they should know their special calling. Still, it is a fact, so far as we can find out, that all souls who live in close fellowship with God have a premonition or a clear conviction of what their special mission from the Lord is. For instance, it does not seem that Lot, living in Sodom, had any premonition of the coming destruction, or of his special vocation, till thrust out by the angel; but on the other hand, God revealed to Abraham the coming doom of Sodom, and also what his special mission was, and also gave him promises for all the future.

We may take those two men as samples of religious people in all generations. It is a whole world of inspiration to any soul when he has a clear view of his special life work, and a sort of an ideal vision of what God wants to accomplish in and by his life. There is a peculiar thrill when we even suspect some special mission God has for us, but when it becomes a settled conviction as to what our work is, then our heart runs out in the work, if we are willing and obedient, and everything in our lives from that time on becomes tributary to that one supreme vocation.

In order to do our life work in the best way, we must have a clear apprehension of it, and then we must love it, and put all our heart in it, and watch God's dealings with us in relation to it. The most significant things in our lives, such as our dreams, our meditations, our inspirations, the peculiar leadings of God's providence, will come to us right along the line of our special vocation. Oftentimes other people will be led to speak to us words of special import or encouragement along the line of our life work. For instance, when God designs a child to be a preacher of the Gospel, that child will have premonitions of it, and along in his life other persons will speak to him upon that matter, and as life goes on the various providences and the various incidents, both in his mind and outer life, will all seem to point in that direction.

But this same truth will apply to any other vocation just as truly as to that of preaching. People who have no definite view as to their life work, are apt to beat the air. They work at random; they run like the man in the Scripture, without having a message; they waste a great deal of energy in doing nothing.

You may ask, How shall I find my special vocation? I answer. By a life of prayer. Not by saying our prayers, but by a life of continued talking with God, by a perfect surrender to Him through Jesus, a perfect willingness to give up our own thoughts, our plans, our air castles, our prejudices, and being willing for God to possess us and lead us in the way He chooses for us to go. You are to believe that God loves you with an eternal love, that God has a place for you and a mission for you to fill; and then, on the basis of His Word, plead with Him to open up to your mind your special mission, whether it be in the home or in the field, in the private or public forum, and feel sure from the teachings of Scripture that it is God's will to give you such a sufficient insight into your vocation as will satisfy you, and with that insight there will come a loving ardor and a tireless zeal to accomplish the task. Of course the knowledge of our vocation will bring upon us the greatest responsibility of our lives, for there will come to us the sense of stewardship to be true to our calling. Responsibility is the correct measurement of our lives; to feel I must be true to God in the work He assigns me, that I can not entrust my conscience in the hands of others, that I am responsible both now and forever to God alone for being true to the light He gives me and the mission He assigns me. The sense of responsibility is ever in proportion to the magnitude of the soul and its work. And yet this responsibility in its highest sense does not crush us, but is a sort of spinal column to the soul. It braces us without bruising us. Every man carries the weight of the atmosphere resting upon him to the extent of a dozen tons or more of pressure, and yet this does not bruise any one, because such pressure is perfectly adapted to his nature, and so the most perfect sense of responsibility in filling our life mission is divinely adjusted to the constitution of our moral nature, and is helpful even by its pressure.

4. In the next place, let us notice frustrated vocations, the missing of the mark, and the losing of the crown. There are many Christians, it would seem, who miss their true mission in life, and although they may be saved in the end, yet because of lack of perseverance, or by being influenced by other people's conscience, frustrate the special vocation to which they were called. We see samples of this in the Bible, and also in religious history, as well as in many cases that come under our observation. There are those who are gifted in many ways, in mind, or position, or with money, or with health, or with ability to do various things, and who evidently have been called of God for various kinds of service, or usefulness, or holy character, who have been sidetracked, or have given up their work, or have turned aside to something vain, and thereby frustrated the plan of God.

A sample of this truth is mentioned by Jeremiah, when he went down to the pottery, and saw a vessel that was marred in the hand of the maker, and afterwards it was made into another vessel. There are cases where souls, after being failures for a good while, get thoroughly awake, and God is allowed to make something out of them in the latter part of their lives, but still if God could have His way with all the people, there surely would be no frustrated vocations.

In order to carry out our life mission there must be perfect humility, and perseverance, and longsuffering, to plod on day after day, year after year, through thick and through thin, amid friends or foes, dead to opinions of the flesh, and with an eye single to doing God's will, regardless of all else. So many get tired of God's plain ways and want something new, and run away from the cross to lie down in the shade. When people frustrate their vocation they get all tangled up with all sorts of things, either religiously, or financially, or socially, or politically, and drift into a habit of changeableness, and building air castles, and forming great plans of what they are going to do, and to hear them talk they are always just on the verge of doing something great.

When a soul gets out of the center of God's will it is like a man walking in his sleep, and running dangerous risks, or like a sick man in a fever talking out of his head. Such are the cases that Jesus refers to, when some one else, who may be not half so gifted, comes along and does their neglected work, and gets their crown in the day of rewards. Jesus warns us to see to it that no one else takes our crown. Here is a gifted preacher that God distinctly calls to preach sanctification, but for policy's sake he neglects it, and some other humble soul gets his crown on that special line. Another has light on prophecy, is called to open up the Scriptures on the pre-millennial coming of Jesus, but fails to obey God on that subject, and another with far fewer gifts does that work and gets his crown. And this truth can be applied to many other cases.

To be faithful to our calling in life is the greatest thing in all human character. It is not so much the size of our abilities, or the conspicuousness of our life work, but that hidden, deep, settled obedience to God, that humble faithfulness to His calling day by day, moment by moment, in the place where we are, that will tell in the ages to come, and mark our rank in the kingdom of God when the crowns are distributed.