The Value of Perseverance by Caroline Louise Clough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 1, 1911

The Value of Perseverance

By Caroline Louise Clough

“And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62.

Very few young people appreciate how serious it is to start in Christian service, and then give it up. The one who does this is not only putting himself out of the kingdom of service here, but is also unfitting himself for the kingdom of God hereafter.

A young woman called on me the other day, and said she was unhappy, discouraged, and wanted help. I knew that she had just left school, and I had intended to see her, and learn why she had taken this step. She had started out to build a foundation for a career of usefulness, but had been unconsciously dropping a brick here and there, leaving a weak place in the structure, until finally she discovered that the structure was not worth the building. I persuaded

her to go back, gather up the lost bricks as far as possible, and finish her building. On her knees before God she promised him that with his help she would go through what she had started, and she left me with a new ambition in her soul.

If young men and women could realize the awful blot they are placing upon their characters by quitting everything they undertake, they would carry their tasks through to a successful completion, even though it took their very life-blood.

I once knew a young woman who had a habit of saying, as she dropped one task after another: “Well, that is not in my line. I was never cut out for that work.” And so she let the opportunities pass, until one day she began to wonder if there was anything left that she really could do. Then she made the discovery that perseverance was the quality that she lacked. “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Mark 13:13.

Let us all follow the example of Paul the apostle: “This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 3:13, 14.

CAROLINE LOUISE CLOUGH.