"THE MAN IN THE OFFICE KNOWS."
By W. D. Westervelt
SOME visitors were passing through a Colorado smelter. Men were wheeling ores of different kinds and colors into the large furnace-sheds. Yellow lead-carbonate, rich, glittering galena, green malachite, blue azurite, and dark iron ores, all combined in different proportions with silver and gold, were crowded in one upon another. The minerals were from all parts of the Rocky Mountains, now brought together in a variegated heap weighing hundreds of tons. The visitors went on to see the furnaces. There the mixed ores were being cast into the yawning mouths of the fire-pits. Limestone and fuel were also thrown in to feed the fire, and to aid in separating the metals from the dross. A laborer was asked the question, "Why do you mix everything in this way?" The reply came, "That we may have the best results. We can do better with mixed ores than we can by smelting them separately." "By what method do you get the best results?" He answered, "The easiest and cheapest ways of separating the metal from the slag." "What will the metal be worth? What will be the real result of the work?" "We cannot tell. The man in the office knows." The visitors passed on. They saw the precious metals drawn from the furnaces and placed in molds. They went into the room where the bullion bricks were taken from the molds and piled up for shipping to a refinery. The men in the bullion room were asked the question, "How much is this bullion worth?" The answer came, with a smile: "We sometimes tell the visitors what we think it is worth; but the man in the office knows." Here is a large smelter, employing many men who carry on their work by faith, not knowing the results any more than those who have served God "not having received the promises [the results], but having seen them afar off." Men are ordered to wheel the ore and dump it on the floor. They unquestioningly obey, not knowing the value of what they handle. Men stand at the mouths of the many furnaces, and throw in fuel and flux and mineral, as they are directed, without asking a question about the worth of the metal that is drawn off in the room beneath them. Other men handle the bullion as they would handle so many bars of pig-iron, simply because they are ordered to do that part of the work. The full knowledge of the processes and results is not among the workmen. "The man in the office knows." It is easy to see the absolute necessity of faith and obedience among the laborers in every machine-shop and foundry, as well as in every smelter of our land; and yet, now and then, one of these same laborers will question about rendering faith and obedience in the Christian life. It seems strange that any person should find difficulty in accepting this common-sense lesson of the Colorado smelter. The steady perseverance in trusting and serving God, must be infinitely more reasonable than the faith and obedience of "smelter men."—W. D. Westervelt.