p. 303 | Top Sawyers

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 13, 1882

Top Sawyers.

"They all want to be top sawyers," said one; and its expression was sufficiently definite to those who are familiar with the saw-pits of olden times, when it was customary to dig a pit, across which a stick of timber was laid, and then, one man standing above it and the other beneath, they pushed and drew the saw up and down, until the timber was split from end to end. One can easily believe that the position of the man who toiled in the pit beneath, amid the dust and gloom, was not very agreeable, while the "top sawyer," standing above in the daylight, had a much more agreeable lot.

The wish to be a top sawyer was not an unreasonable or remarkable desire; but as it was clearly impossible for all to be top sawyers, the only fair way seemed to be to divide the toil, and share the discomforts of the less agreeable positions.

There are many men in various positions in life who are unwilling to do disagreeable things. They like to be top sawyers. No matter how others may toil or suffer, they take good heed to their own ways, and secure for themselves agreeable and comfortable positions. In church and in State, in labor and in business, there are men who are governed by the constant ambition to be top sawyers.

And yet such persons may miss the highest usefulness and the highest honor. One who once knew the depth of earthly humiliation, and has since been exalted above all principalities and powers, and who in the deepest lowliness won the right to sit down on the throne of the universe, has said, "He that will be the greatest among you, let him be the servant of all."—The Armory