Perseverance by D. E. LINDSEY

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 4, 1908

Perseverance

By D. E. LINDSEY

THERE is nothing more necessary than everlasting stick-to-it-iveness. A friend asked Mr. Lincoln, “Do you really expect to end the war during your administration?” “Can’t say, can’t say, sir.” “But, Mr. Lincoln, what do you mean to do?” “Peg away, sir; peg away; keep pegging away!” The secret of the lives of Columbus, Sir Isaac Newton, Washington, Wellington, Wilberforce, Stephenson, Morse, Grant, and other successful men was their perseverance. “It gives power to weakness, and opens to poverty the world’s wealth; it spreads fertility over the barren landscape, and bids the choicest fruits and flowers spring up and flourish in the desert abode of thorns and briers.”

A despondent man was once forced to take shelter from his enemies in a ruined building, where he sat alone for hours. To divert his mind, he watched an ant trying to carry a grain of corn up a high wall. Sixty-nine times it fell to the ground, but the seventieth it reached the top. The sight forever after served its observer as an object-lesson in perseverance.

An Indian one day came to a missionary and said he had been making some poetry, which he wished to show to the missionary. It was found to be several verses in very “common meter,” and all the verses were exactly alike. They ran as follows:—

“Go on, go on, go on, go on, Go on, go on, go on, Go on, go on, go on, go on, Go on, go on, go on.”

A grand motto for all seeking an education, and especially good for all Christians! “He will never enjoy the sweets of the spring, nor will he obtain the honeycombs of Mt. Hybea, if he dreads his face being stung, or is annoyed by briars. The rose is guarded by its thorn, the honey is defended by the bee.” “By the thorny road and no other is the mount of vision won.”

D. E. LINDSEY.