Medina High School - Medinian Yearbook (Medina, OH)

Page 17 text:

Annual 13 one seems ever to have thot of the jitney bus idea before. A profitable business was made where it had never existed before. From Los Angeles the jitney bus idea has spread to all of the great cities of the country, and quite uniformly successful. The point of this illustration is that the most successful are not the ones who take over, or have thrust upon them, some vacant job, but are the ones who make or acquire a place for themselves in the complex economy of modern life. Milton is only partially right when he says : “ To know That which before us lies in daily life Is the prime wisdom.” The prime wisdom, it seems to me, is to be able to place something before ns in daily life when there isn ' t anything there ! That is, not only to find one’s place, but to make one’s place in the world. But we cannot afford to ignore the caution in the word “Whatsoever ” — “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do.” The ranks of the unsuccessful are full of people who believed themselves, either rightly or wrongly, to be peculiarly fitted for a certain kind of work. No opportunity for that particular vocation opened up, therefore they did nothing. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it!” It may not be the job that you would like, but take the best job that offers; it may not be the kind of work for which you believe yourself to be fitted, but take the nearest thing to it that opens up. The men who today stand as the exponents of success are the men who were not ashamed or afraid to tackle the next best thing. The principle of the evangelistic hymn is universal in its application : “ If you are too weak to journey Up the mountain steep and high, You can stand within the valley, While the multitude go by; If you can not speak like angels, if you can not preach like Paul, You can tell the love of Jesus, You can say he died for all.” III. Having agreed that work is the foundation of success, and having found one’s own work, the next essential of success requires that one put into his work the very best that is in him, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” We get out of life in proportion as we put in. The law of compensation is unerring. “ Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” This refers both to the quantity and the quality of effort. So severe is the struggle for existence, so keen is the competition in our modern complex social and economical system, that only he has the ghost of a chance of success who works with all his might. The busy bee-hive of the world has no use for drones. The man who succeeds is the man who puts the whole quantity of his strength, body and soul, into his task. Quality, too, is essential. The successful person does his work well. He believes that whatsoever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. You remember the story of the sculptor who, when he was reprimanded for putting so much care on the back of a statue where it would be hidden by the wall and could never be seen by the eye of man, replied in justification of his painstaking care, “ The gods see everywhere.” “ In the elder days of art, Builders wrought with greatest care Each minute and unseen part; For the gods see everywhere. Let us do our work as well, Both the unseen and the seen, Make the house where God shall dwell, Beautiful, entire, and clean. Else our lives are incomplete, Standing in these walls of time,

Page 16 text:

12 Annual are his ten fingers.” Remember the lesson of the hare and the tortoise — the hare, the genius; the tortoise, the plodder: “ The heights by great men won and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.” II. The second essential of success consists in fitting one’s self into the work for which one is fitted — “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it.” While it is absolutely true that work is the fundamental essential of success, work is not all there is to it. There are thousands of people who work, and work hard, and yet are not successful. Brawn is not all that is required to make success, it also takes some brains. It is not enough that a man find work, he must find his work. While all that we have said about the futility of depending on genius is true, this is also true, that every person has his own peculiar talents and capabilities. One is fit for some kinds of work, and unfit for other kinds. The reason that some hard-working people are nevertheless unsuccessful is not because they do not work hard enough, but because they are not engaged in the right kind of work. There are men trying to preach Christ, and wearing out the saints of the Most High, who would be magnificently successful plant- ing corn. There are attorneys practicing at law, and eking out a precarious and nefarious existence, who would be noble and honorable successes digging ditches. There are doctors peddling pills, and acting as the advance agents for the tombstone business, who would be glorious successes building bridges. There are starving poets writing sonnets and impecuni- ous artists painting sunsets, who would be splendid successes writing life insurance and painting barns. There are young ladies pounding out their sweet young lives on the key- board of ' a grand piano, driving everybody to the distance, who would be simply irresistible in a kitchen apron. Now the reason that these are failures in their chosen vocations is not because they do not work, but because they are not at the right kind of work. They have not found their place. God has put into this world an almost infinite variety of work. He has equipped human nature with an equally infinite variety of talents. Furthermore, He has given to each individual human being the faculties of judgment, reason, and choice. It is left largely to the individual person to choose his own work. It is absolutely essential to success that one find the work for which by nature, experience, or training, one is best fitted. This process of finding one’s own peculiar task in the world’s work is a serious matter. Mazah , of my text, the Hebrew verb for findeth , is not a passive, but an active, alert word. There is no “ happenstance ” about it. It is not find in the sense of “ stumbling upon,” as one might happen to find a horseshoe during a stroll, or a sweetheart at a summer resort. Mazah has in it the element of conscious search, the process of walking the streets from morning until night looking for a job, and not resting until that job is found. A subsidiary meaning of mazah is acquire. Christ said, “ I go to prepare a place for you.” In heaven, therefore, every person steps into a place prepared for him, but we are not yet in heaven, so here we must often make our place for ourselves — if we cannot find our place, we must acquire a place for ourselves. The men who today stand on the top rung of the ladder of success are usually not the men who at some point in their career stumbled upon a vacant pair of shoes and had sense enough to see that they fit their feet and put them on, but they are usually the men who have made the shoes for themselves, soles and uppers both. An interesting example of this is the recent remarkable development of the jitney bus. Last December some one in the city of Los Angeles conceived the idea of running an automobile in competition with the streetcar and charging the same fare as the streetcar. Although the automobile has been with us successfully for quite a number of years, no

Page 18 text:

14 Annual Broken stairways where the feet Stumble as they climb. Build today, then, strong and sure, With a firm and ample base, And ascending and secure, Shall tomorrow find its place.” IV. In its closing clause our text links success with eternity: “ for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, whither thou goest.” Our fourth essential of success, therefore, demands that we view our life’s work from the perspective of eternity. In the divine scheme of world evolution each particular generation has its own peculiar task, and only he can be said to be really successful who fits his individual work into the collective task of his generation. I wish to congratulate you young people on the terrific difficulty of the task of the generation to which you belong. Since the last class of this high school graduated, there has developed in this world a situation which a year ago we dreamed not of. The world war now being waged puts a new aspect upon everything. The social, political, religious, moral, intellectual and spiritual problems of this generation have been peculiarly affected by this war. A veteran of our Civil War said to me not long ago that the war in Europe will put America back in every way at least a hundred years, and 1 am afraid that he did not much overstate it. Altho the war is beyond our own borders, and we hope and pray that it will stay there, nevertheless when it is over, there will remain in our country for the next generation a mighty problem of reconstruction. Not only is there this particular lask of reconstruction thrust upon your generation, but tlieie are also the hoary and bearded evils with which every generation has wrestled, but which are still unconquered: “ The whips and scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes.” Yes, young people, the generation to which you belong confronts some mighty prob- lems! God, in His wisdom, has honored your generation by giving to it tasks of peculiar difficulty. Never forget that although as an individual you may achieve material or social or professional success, your life can not be counted really successful unless you have contributed substantially to the accomplishment of your generation’s God-given task. It is essential to true success that you view your life-work from the perspective of eternity, which means that you fit your individual task into the collective task of your generation. l.et me close with my text’s note of urgency — “ Sheol, whither thou goest.” Sheol is soon and the task is so great ! The Laymen’s Missionary Movement has for its slogan, “ The world for Christ in this generation,” and as a subsidiary motto, “ This is the only generation that we can reach.” There is in this a universal truth. Young people, this is the only generation that you can reach, and if you are to leave this old world a little better than you found it, you must do it now! Now is the accepted time! Now is the only time ! “ To each man’s life there comes a time supreme; One day, one night, one morning, or one noon, One freighted hour, one moment opportune, One rift through which sublime fulfilments gleam, One space when fate goes tiding with the stream, One Once, in balance ’twixt Too Late, Too Soon, And ready for the passing instant’s boo n To tip in favor the uncertain beam. Ah, happy he who, knowing how to wait, Knows also how to watch and work and wrnit, On life’s broad deck alert, and at the prow To seize the passing moment, big with fate. From Opportunity’s extended hand, When the great clock of destiny strikes Now!