NORTHWESTERN
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
The Gift of
MRS. CHAS. J. MORSE
Wanted
CDe l»an
011)0 Can
and mm
lb
ANTED : The Man
Who Can and Will
A Message to
Young Men, by Jean Frederic
Loba, pastor of the First Con¬
gregational Church, Evanston
Illinois^ Printed by his Friends
TN the Philistine M^azine for March,
Í899, there appeared a homily entitled
**A Message to Garcia,'* from the pen of
Mr, Elbert Hubbard, This essay contained
an account of the errand of Lieut, Rowan
to find Garcia, hidden away in the depths
of Cuba, at the outbreak of the Spanish-
American war. Its chief point, succinctly
stated and vigorously put, was, that when
one has a message to deliver, his only
business is to deliver it, without question,
without faltering, and without fear. The
essay and this incident suggested the fol¬
lowing sermon.
WANTED: THE MAN
WHO CAN AND WILL
" Thy servant tuili go and fight tuith this Philistine "
ist Samuel, XVII: 33
HE youthful and ruddy
David had left his fa-
therms flocks and his
home, and come up to
the army to bring cheer
to his three older broth¬
ers and secure news as to their
welfare. They were older and strong¬
er men than he; they were better
armed, and were presumedly trained
and disciplined men. The foe was
before them ; they as well as their
younger brother heard his taunts.
But they were irresolute; they were
not going to risk their precious necks
by going too close to this boastful,
bellicose giant. They had all the
powers of David, more strength and
better equipment than he. They had
all that he possessed, save only his
sublime faith and courage. He felt in
3
his soul the reproach cast upon his
ted people by the îjoasts and threats of
the Philistine, but he believed and
was bold. Without and within, these
older brethren were commanded by
the same authority to go forth and
do battle with this hereditary foe of
Israel, but they quibbled, they fal¬
tered, they were either afraid or they
did not feel it their duty to take any
risks for their country or people*
And so the whole army of Israel
stood irresolute, confused, and really
already beaten in the conflict. But
how does the coming of one resolute
man clear up the sky and put heart
into the discouraged! The coming
of David from his flocks to the battle-
front, the presence of the waving
plumes of Navarre at Ivry, the dash
of Sheridan at Winchester, illustrate
the influence of one clear head, one
brave heart, one strong hand.
So it has ever been ; every movement
of man is, on examination, found to
revolve about one figure, one man;
the man who can and will. Now,
one of the facts brought out by the
growth of our democracy is, that, in
spite of all our theories, men are not
equal. There will be gradations.
Happy shall we be if we can keep
them from being degradations.
There are always the men who will
and the men who won't; the men
who can and the men who can't;
and the whole of society is split into
these two classes. There is no dis¬
guising the meaning of the effort
that is being made to organize both
labor and capital. It is simply the
effort to protect the weak of one's
own class. The laborer organizes
in order that the incompetent or
weaker man may not be crushed out
either by his stronger fellows or by
the organization of the capitalists.
The little tradesman falls into the
rank of the capitalists because he is
too weak to stand alone against com¬
binations. But when we look at the
gre^ movement more closely we
5
shall find that however humane we
^ are or desire to be, we have always
to reckon with the inefficiencies, the
incompetency of men. Every man
at the head of any great concern is
hindered in the execution of his plan
by the inefficiency of the man he
employs. Every bridge that goes
down, every head-on collision, every
awful holocaust of school or hotel,
every break in bank or trade, may
generally be traced back to the in¬
efficiency or unreliability of watch¬
man, mechanic or constructor, engi¬
neer or manager. The mischief is
that all our efforts depend after all
upon unstable human elements for
their success.
There is a widespread cry of the
over-abundance of men, the desper¬
ate need of employment for an ever-
increasing number. The country is
overrun with the army of the unem¬
ployed, the tramp, the vagabond.
Now, what are the facts? In the
first place, while it is true that com-
petition is great, there never was a
time when skilled and reliable men
and women were more in demand»
In every occupation where men and
women are employed, there is such a
fatal lack of fitness, such a lack of
moral accountability, of responsibil¬
ity, such an utter failure to respond
to confidence reposed in one, that
men are worn out seeking to do
work that is piled up by the careless¬
ness and indifference of an employee.
The world has grown larger as well
as smaller. There is more iron and
wood handled, more stuff manufac¬
tured, th^ere are more elements
chained to man's service, than ever
before. Electricity and steam, busi¬
ness and material development, com¬
munication and trades, are all asking
for better men, more fitness, more
responsibility, better equipment, than
they have ever had before. Look at
the men who have made great suc¬
cesses and filled a large space in the
world's eye, and in every case, almost
7
without exception, you will find that
their success depended, not so much
Man greater mental, moral, or physi-
-_j wííí" cal gifts as on the happy combina-
nation of pluck and fidelity. These
did not so much see great things nor
achieve sudden and brilliant suc¬
cesses, but they stood in their places,
and with more distinguished devo¬
tion than others, did the thing en¬
trusted to them. They were sent
with their message, and they went ;
they were appointed to their task,
and they did it, in the face of all
obstacles. The history of man is
the record of this truth. Men will
not learn that the thing that is at
hand is for them the most important
in the world. A simple and undis¬
tinguished naval officer is set the
task of destroying a hostile fleet in
foreign waters. He does not know
the harbors which are bristling with
dangers. He does not know the
strength of his foe ; he simply does
his duty, and the world learns what
a man there is under the name of
George Dewey.
The similes of human life and action
seem never to be exhausted. It is ^nd WíÍr
likened to a race, to a battle, to the
sailing of a ship, to the mastery of
an empire, to the winning of a crown,
to the soldier standing at his post,
to the watchman in the night. But
whatever it may appear to us to be,
there is no question that before every
man stretches some kind of an ave¬
nue, a battle to be fought, an enemy
to be conquered, and that no one
can, without blame, escape the re¬
sponsibility of conflict. He must
stand at his post and win the fight
or be beaten.
Every man comes to this contest
with some aptitudes ; before him are
some duties to be met. The unequal
equipment of men is matched by the
unequal requirements of life. Some
are called to desperate encounters,
some to the calm pursuit of the even
and uneventful vocations of life.
9
Every man has a talent, and no man
has more than he is responsible for,
ïîîf nor is any man responsible for more
and Wiîr likened to
a battle, it is fair to say that each
man has at his disposal some forces
with which to fight his fight. It is
required of a general that he have
his troops well in hand. He may
have more or less; he may be more
or less brilliant, but he must be
master of the forces under him.
Now, every man has his forces, his
brain, his heart, his hand, his mental
and moral equipment. His will is
the general of these troops, set over
these gifts. These soldiers he must
rule, and these men he must muster
for the fight. As the best troops
are worthless without a leader, so
the best natural endowments are
without value unless they are led
and directed by a clear intelligence
and a determined will.
It is interesting to consider the mean¬
ing of the word competent. The
10
competent man is he who marshals
all his powers to the attainment of
one end. His gifts compete, struggle iijf ^ ^
unitedly, for the goal on which his and WíÍf
will is bent. The incompetent man
has gifts ; he may have intelligence.
He has eyes, hands, feet; but his
powers are undirected, undisciplined,
and ungoverned. They are like a
mob in the field, without order and
without a law.
Now, the sad fact of every-day expe¬
rience is that this is the difficulty
with a large part of mankind. Men
fail largely on account of their lack
of preparation for the battle of life.
The great demand, the crying need
of the hour, is for competent men
and women ; men who are not only
trained, but who are determined to
do the thing they find in their hand,
for which they are most fit. Every
man has a Philistine to meet ; every
man has a message to carry to
Garcia; every man has a word to
speak to his age. No matter where
U
or what he is, he has something to
do or say to his generation. To
'¿cifo Can word, to do that thing,
and Will deliver that message, is his one
business. But nine times out of
ten he will not see it, he will not do
it, he prefers some other thing.
There are foes in the bush, a lion in
the way; there are difficulties to be
overcome; it is dark; he does not
know where Garcia is at this time;
he is in doubt if it is his business to
put his neck into a noose or to run
amuck mid Cuban bullets. And
so he excuses himself, and the cause
intrusted to his care is defeated.
Five years ago a man came to the
speaker and asked for help to get on
his feet. He loaned him money; he
gave him letters of introduction and
commendation; he found places for
him. The other day the speaker
received a letter from that man. He
is still seeking to get on his feet.
What is the matter? He simply
never feels that the work he has to
do is just what he would like. He
never realizes that the work actually
in hand is the most important one Sjf
for him. . It is skimmed over, it is -„4 wi?r
shirked, it is slighted. Anyway, he
does not carry his message, and you
cannot make that man stand on his
own legs, because he has none to
stand on.
Business men will tell you that the
most difficult thing in the world is
to get men who will be respon¬
sible for the trust reposed in them.
Wyckoff tells us that in every shop
there are men on the lookout for
those who show a degree of skill and
devotion to their work, that they
may promote them. A gentleman
in a large concern told the speaker a
few days ago, have just secured
a boy for one of our offices. From
the way he is doing his work I am
absolutely sure that he is bound to
rise from one position to another
until he is at the top.**
The speaker was once looking for a
Í3
stenographer. A young woman was
^ recommended to him. He employed
her to take down a lecture. She was
supposed to be a skilled workman.
She took down, or pretended to take
down, the lecture. It was to be de¬
livered within twenty-four hours,
typewritten. It was delivered to the
lecturer just as he was about to take
his train for a distant city. When
he reached the city where it was to
be given, he found to his dismay, on
his examination of the manuscript,
that it was a crazy pretense of what
had been said; there was absolutely
no sense in it. The spelling was
bad, the punctuation worse; the
words were impossible in their place.
The work was simply worthless.
Now, what possible hope was there
for future employment for this young
woman? I would not employ her
again, and I certainly could not rec¬
ommend her for such work to any
one else.
The other day I met a man who
U
was desirous of entering a pulpit.
On being told that there was no
place of which the speaker knew for XJj®
him, he withdrew, and a week later -nd Wíír
came to him, saying, "Can I not sell
you a few cakes of toilet soap?''
Now, doubtless this man's second
occupation should have been his first.
Not many years ago a young man
was desirous of entering a pulpit.
He was questioned as to his studies
and attainments. He had taken
neither a high school, academic, col¬
lege, nor seminary course. He had
not seriously studied any great book
or master, but he had taken elocu¬
tion. He could not spell, he was
innocent of grammar or rhetoric, but
he was " an orator." Here was one
who had begun his life-building at
the roof, and that the most orna¬
mental part of it. He had laid no
foundation, he had constructed no
walls; but he had gathered all the
decorations for the gables and the
pictured glass for the windows. Is
Í5
it any wonder that such men fail?
^ Can you expect a general to win a
battle when he has no fitness for the
task but his uniform; the epaulets
without the officer, the cover with¬
out the book, the smile without even
the Cheshire cat?
Look over the men who do the busi¬
ness of the world, and you will find
them to be men who have fuUy mas¬
tered their business. They have all
their powers well in hand. It is said
that the strong thing about the late
James G. Blaine is not that he knew
more than others, not that he was
so much more skillful than others,
but whatever he had he held at his
instantaneous command and could
use it at any moment. He was
complete master of his forces. And
these same qualities are the very
ones needed in every field of human
activity and interest. Wherever a
thing needs to be done, it needs to
be well done by the man who can
and will.
16
To-day there sits in the governor's
chair at Albany a man who has no
remarkably brilliant gifts ; there are XJj®
literally thousands of men, yes, tens and Witr
of thousands of them, in this country
more gifted thanTheodore Roosevelt,
but he is a man who, when he has
a task to perform, simply performs
it at any cost. If it is running a
ranch in the West, or writing a book,
or storming the heights of San Juan,
or cleaning up the police of New
York, or governing a state, he sim¬
ply does it, energetically, bravely,
and incorruptibly. The world recog¬
nizes such gifts, and there is nothing
in the power of the people, who
above all things appreciate a gift for
practical service, which they are not
ready to bestow on such a man. I
tell you, my friends, the days may
be dark; the times may be hard; the
avenue of trade, of politics, of scholar¬
ship, of all means of earning a liveli¬
hood, may be crowded ; but there is
room, and more: there is a crying
17
demand for the man and the woman
who can and will.
Can other practical
anri Witi" conccms of life is also true in the re¬
ligious life. We still believe in the
church and the Lord of life as the
one supreme agency for the regenera¬
tion and uplifting of the world, but
there is no place where so much
need exists for men who can and
will as in the ranks of the ministry.
There is here such a dearth of man¬
ly, capable, aggressive men, that
churches hunt for years before they
find a man to fill their empty pul¬
pits.
Look over the ranks of the younger
men, and it is disheartening to see
the grade of ministers they represent.
They are good, honest fellows, they
are neither ignorant nor vicious, but
they, as a rule, have no ^ip on the
demands of the age. They are
mediocre men. It may be hard to
say it. They may be up to the aver¬
age of men in other professions, but
18
they are not up to the average de¬
mand of the cause and of the world
for men who can and will do the
things that are laid upon them and and WilT
that desperately need to be done»
It is heart-breaking to consider the
crying need of the world to-day and
the splendor of the message intrust¬
ed to us, and the halting hesitancy
with which we deliver it. Here we
have a message for the world ; it is
the cleanest, brightest, most hopeful
message, the most needed message,
in the universe, so far as we know.
The world perishes for the need of
it. Men cry out to know what
they shall do to rise, and stand, and
live, here and now and forever.
There is nothing but the noblest, the
tenderest, the holiest, and the most
heroic note in this message, and
there is nothing the world so much
needs as to hear it ; yet what do we
do ? We hesitate, we halt, we simper
and stumble, we hem and haw, but
we do not tell this message as if we
19
believed it, as if we knew what we
about.
wtfn r^n And do you tell me that the avenues
and Wiîl crowded with ministers? Yes,
with such as they are. But there is
dire and desperate need of such men
as can and will ** deliver a message
to Garcia"; for men who will say,
''Thy servant will go and fight
with this Philistine; will go and do
battle with him who confronts and
defies the forces of light and truth,
of manhood and womanhood."
The other day a man came to Chi¬
cago ; he desired a pulpit. No pul¬
pit was open to him. He sought
out a destitute neighborhood, went
from house to house and from street
to street, he gathered a group of the
needy and the believing; he organ¬
ized his believers and his workers.
To-day he is the pastor of a flock of
his own gathering. He found his
work, and did it. There's a man for
you I
" Oh, yes," you say, "that is so; we
20
do need better pastors and preach¬
ers/' But I say that what is true
of the ministry is true of the mem- Xîîf
bers of the church. Here is a Chris- ^íír
tian man, a professed disciple of the
Son of God. What does he do as a
Christian worker ? He pays his pew
rent. For what does he pray ? For
the means with which to pay his
pew rent. What does he do for the
coming of the kingdom? He sends
his check to the church treasurer
once a quarter, and groans that it is
so much. He is thirty years old, is in
the full tide of business success ; but
he has done his Christian work ; he
he has done his share of religious
service.
Here is a Sunday-school teacher;
he has a class of boys and girls, but
when he is a little indisposed, when
he has been out a little late the night
before, whenever he has anything
else on hand or mind, he simply re¬
mains away, and hopes that some¬
how the superintendent will find
21
some one to take his place. He has
^ message to carry, but it is too dark,
The Man difficult, too inconvenient. He is
anri Witr ^.fraid to land, he dare not take the
risk, he will not take the trouble,
and the class falls to pieces ; the boys
and girls wander away, and fall out
of touch with the religious life for the
want of a woman or a man who can
and will.
Fifty years ago a man was walk¬
ing the streets of Constantinople.
He was an American, a Maine
Yankee, and a graduate of Bowdoin
College. He found that city in con¬
fusion, as it always is, and overrun
with hungry, destitute, and unem¬
ployed Armenians. He was an
American missionary, but he said.
These men must have employment,
and they must be fed.*' Near by he
found an abundant supply of the
finest wheat in the world. He sent
to Boston for an engine and for mill
stones ; he borrowed money and paid
for them. They came; there were
22
no wharves in Constantinople. The
idle and shiftless crowd refused to
land the machinery without being ^ "
paid an exorbitant price. He
secured the help of English sailors,
who gladly landed his boilers. He
laid a wooden track, and on the
greased skids his boys drew them up
the hill. He had no mechanics at
hand, he was not an engineer, but
he set up that machinery, he put up
the boilers, and when it was nearly
finished he found a lack of eight or
ten inches of steam-pipe. He found
a smelting-pot and a piece of refuse
iron in the yard. With sledges the
iron was reduced and thrown into
the smelter. He procured the sand,
made his own mould, ran out his
own iron, and made the machinery
he lacked. He set up the stones and
made white flour; he made white
bread, sweet and clean; he gave a
heavier loaf at smaller price than any
of the native bakers about him. And
when the great English hospital was
23
established at Scutari, the British
^ physician sent to procure bread for
the hospital. He was asked to sup-
Wiîr eight thousand loaves per day ;
later twenty thousand loaves for the
camp. And so thoroughly was his
work done, so prompt and accurate
his business methods, that he was
even asked to furnish all the supplies
for the British army on its way to the
Crimea. Thus did he furnish food
and occupation to the needy. That
was Cyrus Hamlin, and a fair type of
the American who can and will.
To-day the world waits for the young
men and the young women who,
with clear eyes and brave words
and ready hands, can and will do the
work that God has assigned them.
The Philistine is always before us,
alas! and the world wants to-day
that soldier in Christian man or
woman who will simply do his work,
and with faith in God say, ''Thy
servant will go and fight with this
Philistine.^*
24
In dosing, there is one quality to
which I desire to call your especial
attention ; viz., the resolute will to do Xtf
the thing required.
A command is sent to George Dewey
to destroy the Spanish fleet, and he
does it. He asks no questions; it
is not for him to make reply or ask
the reason why. He simply does
what he is told to do. He carries
his message to Garcia*^—with a
vengeance.
Lieut. Blue is sent to ascertain if the
Spanish are in the harbor of Santi-
^o. There are foes in the way.
The wild mountains and the jungles
are full of armed Spaniards, but he
goes to work and does what he is
commanded. For him who will there
are no obstacles in the way. He
climbs the mountains, he eludes the
foes, he sees the fleet, and he returns
with his report. Of such stuff are
heroes made.
The harbor must be blocked. It is
perilous, it is difficult, it is dark, it is
25
uncertain, no one has been there be-
fore; no one has ever done such a
The Man thing. But call Hobson and tell him
and Wiîr inust be done, and he does it. He
simply carries his message to
Garcia'' or to Cervera. He meets
the Philistine and slays him. The
work is full of peril, to be sure, but it
has to be done. That is just the
difference between the American and
the Spanish sailor. One can and
will ; the other cannot and will not
unless it is safe and convenient.
But finally, we need not go to the
battle-field and the navy for illustra¬
tions of our theme. It is evident
that there must be skill and courage,
devotion and fidelity, in every field
of labor.
T0-day people feel a little weak-kneed
as to the progress of the Gospel of
Christ. Young men are in doubt as
to entering the ministry. The name
of the church is not in the best odor
in all quarters. But what are the
facts ? Here is the world in need of
26
leadership, in need of hopeful man¬
hood and womanhood; here are
myriads who perish of inanition, Sîf
lack of heart-food, lack of hope and and^ilT
enthusiasm*
The message of unfailing hope and
good cheer is in the hands of the
Christian Church, all we lack is the
man who can and will go forward
to the heart-hungry world, capable
of saying, of doing, of heartening
the world, so disconsolate.
There never was a better time, never
so many wants, never so hearty a
welcome to him who can and is
willing. The world is at the feet of
the capable man. There never was
so much admiration for the soul of
fire, the arm of steel, the brain that
can devise, and the hand that can
execute. Where are the men and
women who can and will? Who
will go out against this Philistine?
That is the question of the hour.
27
Printed by R. R. Donnelley & Sons
Company, at the Lakeside Press,
Chicago, mdcccxcix