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Page 27 text:
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Ability mtb (Opportunity By HARRY LAUDEMAN E must strive in this world if we do not wish to lie down and form a pavement for other men’s cars of triumph. Is ability inherent or required? Men do differ as to the quantity and quality of their morals, intellects and physical powers. Do these degrees of gifts account for the difference of attainments? No! Very few do all that they can do. More lies in willingness and determination than in inherent ability. How often is it said, 1 could do this or that if I wanted to or had the opportunity. The world is full of people who think they can do, or have done great things. Success in this life is not measured by what might be done but rather by what is really accomplished. The success of the great man can usually be traced to small and patient beginnings. If we read biographies of these, we find that the secret of their success depended not so much upon their natural abilities, as their determination to do with their might whatever their minds or hands found to do. We should not wait for Providence to open up a way for us. We are on the earth; we exist. We should make the mast of that and thus conform to the great natural law of cause and effect, it is not so much what we possess in natural requirements as what we make use of and become skilled in. Life is not only a voyage, but a ladder the steps of which should not be retraced. The top cannot l e reached by a single leap but must l e ascended by successive single steps. You may think unfortuitous fate has placed you in an uncongenial position. No matter, do the best you can and you will grow and gain by trying. The young eagle does not soar to the stars in his tirst flight. He gets there eventually, whether his tirst lessons are practiced from the plain or mountain crag. Therefore, fly, climb, strive in whatever position you may be placed. In every human being there are great possibilities. It is all of life to live. Our existence is made up of component elements and he who knows the most of life all the way through can be of most service to the world and in it. How does opportunity or fate, as it would be termed by some, enter into life’s calculation? What part does it play in the voyage of life? What do we mean by such frequent use of this magic word -fate? Is it that when the Divine One created us, He ordained that at this or that time in our lives certain material advantages would be put in our way, by which if we would but embrace them, fortune, reputation and happiness would be ours? A philosopher would tell us to put aside such notions of fatalism and depend upon our own natural shrewdness and foresight. What the Almighty's will respecting us is, we may not know specifically. Hut we may be sure that it ! est pleases Him for us to make the best use of our life in detail. We must not wait for the handwriting on the wall, nor for the voice from the cloud. The History of France would have been written differently if Napoleon had remained in Egypt, waiting for the Directory to call him home. He knew he was the man for the situation, but that knowledge alone did not satisfy him. He waited not for the opportunity or fate, but he made it simply by acting according to his best judgment. The “Star of Aus-terlitz” had not yet arisen. Most if not all of us know’ what we ought and what would be best for us to do, but we lack the inclination. We should not wait for something to turn up nor for that “tide in the affairs of men which taken at its flood leads on to fortune. If destiny so arranged these ebbs and flows of fortune's tides, it would also manage that man should know the time in which to take advantage and embark on these tides. Let us conclude that there are openings, chances or opportunities all along the path of life, not waiting for us but with us every day. It might be a very desirable thing for humanity were there a human genius wise enough to say to this one: “go here ” and to that one, go there.” This or that you should do. “You have wonderful ability for this place or that.” As it is. too many float along this voyage waiting indifferently or wearily, saying to themselves, “God's will be done.” We all have ability: and accompanying nature’s gifts are the necessary opportunities. Let us embrace a few of these opportunities at a time. How many are the examples that show us, that we should labor at the first thing that comes to hand, perform that duty well and so with each day's duties. Others and more congenial and profitable occupations will of necessity grow out of these duties well performed. Lives so filled out need not to wait for manychances. Some men of early promise, whose hopes, purposes and resolves were as radiant as the colors of the rainbow, fail to distinguish themselves, because they are not willing to devote themselves to that toilsome training which is the price of great success. Whatever fitness for particular pursuits Nature may devote to her favorite children, she conducts none but the laborious and the studious to distinction. Behold outlined the picture of two lives. One does nothing but simply waits for the thing that he thinks he is fitted for, to turn up. The other has been in constant' training, making opportunities that lie tills as fast as his own indomitable energy
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Page 28 text:
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brings them to the surface. These are the conditions of success. Give a man power and a field In which to use it and lie must accomplish something, lie may not do and become all that he desires and dreams of. but his life cannot be a failure. You seldom hear of men complain of want of ability. The most unsuccessful think that they could do great things if they only had a chance. Somehow or other something or somebody has been in the way. Providence has hedged them in so that they could not carry out their plans. They knew just how to get rich but they lacked the opportunity. The trutli is, the Almighty has given to all of us ability and opportunities enougti to enable us to be moderately successful. If we fail, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred it is our own fault. We neglect to improve the ability given us or the door that is opened for us. A (though opportunities are continually rising many are put aside and when it is too late we wish we had taken advantage of them. When a person neglects a few of these greatest ones, however small they may seem at the time, lie is like a man who takes the wrong road when several meet, the further he goes the worse he fares. A man’s opportunities usually have some relation to his ability. It is an opening for him to use what he has, faithfully and to the utmost, it requires toil, self-denial and faith. If he says: “I am worthy of a higher position than it offers:” or,“I won’t work as hard and economize as closely as the opportunity demands,” he may in after years, see the folly of his pride and indolence. There are many people all over the world who dream of success and yet they scorn such opportunities as .1. I). Rockefeller and Commodore Vanderbilt improved. They want to begin, not as those men did at the bottom of the ladder, but half way up. They want somebody to give them a lift, or carry them up in an airship, so that they can avoid the early and arduous struggles of the majority of those that have been successful. No wonder that such men fail and then complain of Providence. Grumbling is usually a miserable pastime that people resort to to drown the reproaches of conscience. They know that they have been foolish, but they try to persuade themselves that they have been unfortunate. L»H
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