THAT'S NEAR ENOUGH by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 27, 1878

THAT'S NEAR ENOUGH.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

One of the most common answers we hear to the Lord's requirement to keep the seventh day is that it is not convenient and Sunday ‘will do.’ They acknowledge that, strictly speaking, the seventh day ought to be kept, but they think the other, though not just right, will do. On this they risk their souls for eternity. Let such notice how that kind of work stands the test in worldly affairs.

“‘THAT IS NEAR ENOUGH.’—When we see a piece of work laid down with the remark, ‘That’s near enough,’ we know at once that it is not a first-class job. The employer may say ‘that’s near enough’ because he has taken the work at a price at which he cannot afford to do good work, or it may be a temporary repair in which time is of more consequence than first-class workmanship. If a workman makes use of the remark, we know that he has little pride in the job, and is satisfied to do inferior work; while if an apprentice says ‘that’s near enough,’ we conclude that he is not likely to make any reputation as an expert or good workman.

“Suppose a professor of mathematics were to say twice 2⅔ are 4; it might be near enough for the purpose to which he applied it, but it would not be near enough to maintain, much less to stake, his reputation as a mathematician upon.

“The difference in time necessary to convert the quality of a job from that denoted by ‘that’s near enough’ into that expressed by ‘that is a first-class job’ may be sufficiently worthy of consideration in many cases; but the confidence, expertness, experience, and interest in one’s work the latter gives and leads to, represent the best spent time an apprentice or workman can possibly employ, because such practice soon enables him to turn out first-class work in the same time formerly required to finish the job in a ‘that’s near enough’ style, and therefore converts him from an inferior or ordinary into a superior workman.

“‘That’s near enough’ has led to hundreds of so-called accidents, which have come down to us as mysteries. It makes hot bearings, throws shafting out of line, causes nuts to come loose, bolts to fall out, shafts to break, brings in the plumber to disturb the peace of our homes, leads to scamping, to botch work, and finally to ruin.”

“When the hands can lay down a piece of work and say ‘that’s near enough,’ the spirit of emulation has gone; the very expression is a confession of indifference as to quality without an equivalent or gain as to quantity.”—Scientific American.

That is the way men regard cheap work. Reader, how will the great God regard cheap religion? D. M. CANRIGHT.