There is only one way for those objects to change their place in the can. Lifting them up or putting them down will not do it. But change their size! Equality of position demands quality of size. Let the little one grow bigger and he will shake up. Let the big one grow smaller and he will shake down. The Shaking Barrel of Life O, fellow apples! We are all apples in the barrel of life on the way to the market place of the future. It is a corduroy road and the barrel shakes all the time. In the barrel are big apples, little apples, freckled apples, speckled apples, green apples, and dried apples. A bad boy on the front row shouted the other night, "And rotten apples!" In other words, all the people of the world are in the great barrel of life. That barrel is shaking all the time. Every community is shaking, every place is shaking. The offices, the shops, the stores, the schools, the pulpits, the homes--every place where we live or work is shaking. Life is a constant survival of the fittest. The same law that shakes the little ones down and the big ones up in that can is shaking every person to the place he fits in the barrel of life. It is sending small people down and great people up. And do you not see that we are very foolish when we want to be lifted up to some big place, or when we want some big person to be put down to some little place? We are foolishly trying to overturn the eternal law of life. We shake right back to the places our size determines. We must get ready for places before we can get them and keep them. The very worst thing that can happen to anybody is to be artificially boosted up into some place where he rattles. I hear a good deal about destiny. Some people seem to think destiny is something like a train and if we do not get to the depot in time our train of destiny will run off and leave us, and we will have no destiny. There is destiny--that jar. If we are small we shall have a small destiny. If we are great we shall have a great destiny. We cannot dodge our destiny. Kings and Queens of Destiny The objects in that jar cannot change their size. But thank God, you and I are not helpless victims of blind fate. We are not creatures of chance. We have it in our hands to decide our destiny as we grow or refuse to grow. We shake down if we become small; we shake up if we become great. And when we have reached the place our size determines, we stay there so long as we stay that size. If we wish to change our place, we must first change our size. If we wish to go down, we must grow smaller and we shall shake down. If we wish to go up, we must grow greater, and we shall shake up. Each person is doing one of three things consciously or unconsciously. 1. He is holding his place. 2. He is going down. 3. He is going up.