Do Not Regret It by L. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Aug 10, 1905

Do Not Regret It

By L. A. S.

L. A. S.

How common it is in this age for young people to sigh because they have not money enough to enable them to live a life of idleness and the pursuit of pleasure. They do not stop to think that idleness is one of the worst conditions into which the average young person could be brought,—a condition which in the vast majority of cases proves ruinous to both body and soul. They do not stop to think of the temptations which beset a life of ease. They might see, if they would look into the matter, that idleness, or a life freed from the necessity of working for a living, is one of the curses of the rich. Here is one testimony of many that might be given on this point. On the subject of “Idleness a Cause of Divorce,” a writer in Leslie’s Weekly says:—

“In the shocking cases of perfidy and of unfaithfulness to the marriage vow among our wealthier classes, the root of the matter lies, as in so many other sorts of sin, in idleness. The absence of strenuous, compulsory occupation is in itself a temptation to crime. The idle man or woman whose sole interest in life is the pursuit of pleasure inevitably becomes sated with its different forms. All of the ingenuity which can be expended upon inventions of new sorts of food, new ways of serving, new entertainments, really avails little. After all is said and done, a banquet is only a banquet, a cotillon is only a cotillon, and even operas and theaters after a few years begin to seem strangely and dully alike. A new emotion, a new sensation—something which money can not buy—this becomes the only fresh and desirable thing on earth.”

Do not mourn over the fact that you are compelled to work while other people have time to devote to the pursuit of pleasure. Pursuing pleasure outside the path of duty is one of the world’s greatest delusions. Work is healthy; and it is always work that leads to success. Success in life depends not on what you possess and can surround yourself with, but on what you are; and what you are depends not on how you were born, but on your development since birth. Few persons possess the ability to hold themselves to a life of useful activity by the mere exercise of their will power; and for all save these few there can be nothing better than the seeming misfortune of being obliged, in their youth, to struggle with all the powers they possess to meet the demands of a decent and honorable existence.