Self-Dependence | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 8, 1872

Self-Dependence.

NO ALLIANCE with others can ever diminish the necessity for personal endeavor. Friends may counsel, but the ultimate decision in every case is individual. As each tree, though growing in the same soil, watered by the same rains, and warmed by the same sun as many others, obeys its own law of growth, preserves its own physical structure, and produces its own peculiar fruit, so each person, though in the closest communion and intercourse with others, and surrounded by similar influences, must be himself, must do his own duties, contest his own struggles, resist his own temptations, and suffer his own penalties. There is too much dependence placed upon co-operation for security from evil, and too little reliance upon personal watchfulness and exertion. There are some who seem to feel in great measure released from obligation if they do not receive such aid, and some will plead the shortcomings of others as an excuse for their own.

We would by no means disparage the effect of influence, or discourage in the slightest the generous assistance which we all owe to one another, or undervalue the important effect of a worthy example. These are vital elements of growth, and their results can never be fully estimated. But they should not usurp the place of a proper self-reliance, or diminish the exercise of individual powers. Moral force must be a personal possession. It can never be transferred, and while we gladly welcome whatever is good from all sources, it can only be as food which must be digested before it can truly nourish us. Material benefits may be conferred by simple gift, but mental and moral activities can only be sustained by their own exercise. Thoughts may be exchanged, but not thought power; moral help and encouragement may be given, but virtue cannot be transferred; responsibility cannot be shifted.

The most permanent good we can do to others is to nourish this individual strength. To aid the physically destitute most effectively, food, fuel, and clothing, are not nearly so valuable as steady, remunerative employment. To educate a child, it is not half so important to instill large amounts of information as to set his mind to work, to bring out his mental powers, to stimulate his thoughts and quicken his faculties. And in moral life, especially in cities, where masses are crowded together, and men incline to lean upon each other, the best lesson to enforce is, that virtue, to exist at all, must be strictly individual. That which cannot stand alone, but depends on props and supports, which needs the constant spur of fear, and the bribe of reward to insure its activity, is but the semblance of virtue, and will crumble before temptation. A well-developed body ever excites admiration. But a well-developed and self-reliant spirit is a nobler thing. It is calm, modest, and unassuming, yet firm in conscious integrity of purpose and steadiness of aim. Inflated by no vanity, it is at once humble, yet courageous; helpful to the tempted, yet resolute in assailing evil. —Philadelphia Ledger.