One’s Own Taskmaster

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jun 26, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 26.

One’s Own Taskmaster.

WITHOUT some spur to action, we become listless and lazy; but the work done by any man will be of far more value if he is his own taskmaster. A boy was an apprentice in a printing-office. The foreman tried to drive him to work by warning him of the consequences of failure. The results were by no means happy.

But, later on, the foreman realized that it was unnecessary to drive the boy longer. He was driving himself. On his thirteenth birthday he was given a watch. The first day he owned it he timed himself as he set type. Finding that he could set a stickful in twelve minutes, he made this a standard. The watch was placed on the case. Every twelve minutes his stick must be filled, or he would have to account to himself. Day after day he kept to this rule. It was not long before the boy who was his own taskmaster became the speediest and most dependable compositor in the office.—Sunday School Times.