Force and Fuss | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 26, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 45.

Force and Fuss.

THERE is more resemblance in the sound of these two words than in their sense; yet thoughtless people often mistake the latter for the former. Force is power, fuss is noise; the one is work, the other is talk; the one is the moving of the engine, the other is the escape of steam. There may be sound in force; there is nothing but sound in fuss. The one may be quiet and gentle, and yet retain its essential character; the other loses its identity when quietness comes. Force moves steadily onward to the production of the result in view; fuss raves and roars and agitates, yet accomplishes nothing. Force is radical; fuss is superficial.

Force is the concentration of energy on the work in hand; fuss is the scattering of energy in every direction, without touching any special point. Some of the most quiet men have an immense amount of force which they know how to use when the time comes, and which they do use with wonderful results; while others, far more demonstrative and self-asserting, have but little to show as the result of their labor. The duty of every Christian worker is to have a thorough consecration of all his powers to God's service; and thus to seek not to draw attention to himself by an unseemly show of misplaced energy, but rather by the attractive power of a loving heart to draw all to Christ.—Sunday School Journal.