Wasted Power | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 20, 1879

Wasted Power.

A FRUITFUL cause of power wasted is the common error that great successes are the result of native genius, or inherited talent; that prominent people have become so in spite of themselves, and that for ordinary people to try and emulate them, would be simply absurd.

This is a huge mistake, and one that holds hundreds in mental and spiritual bondage.

Enviable reputations are the visible apexes of pyramids built of steady labor, deep thought, and patient study. Roses do not grow without thorns, and nothing worth having comes by chance, except fortunes, and inherited money is oftener a curse than a blessing.

The patience and perseverance that took a snail to Jerusalem, will bring the most ordinary human being to some Jerusalem of honest usefulness. The humblest abilities are susceptible of development; and as the proverb does not tell us how far from Jerusalem the snail was when he set out on his journey, it often happens that we are nearer our Jerusalem than we dream of.

Regular, systematic work is the secret of all success. A well-known artist and teacher used to say, "that a talent for drawing was well enough, but hard work did the business."

We all know that Nature lavishes her richest gifts on people too lazy to use them, and that others blessed with moderate talents reach the highest positions in arts, sciences, and commerce.

The truth is, we see the bright laurels, and hear the victor's praises sung; but of the trials, the struggles, the disappointments and fears, we are ignorant. Success makes up for all his past sufferings, and he is the first to forget the thorns while enjoying the perfume of the open flower.

It is thus the world over, "no cross, no crown." Ours is an elastic nature, and yields to the soft, expanding properties of success.

From the baking of a light cake, to the successful performance of a great scientific experiment, the same qualities—patience, care, and labor—are brought into requisition, and the humble cook is as deserving of praise as the learned professor.

The only contemptible thing in the world is idleness, the idleness that does nothing thoroughly, shirks all responsibility, and in despair of doing great things folds his hands and does nothing.

If each creature born into the world has its peculiar mission to perform, why, the sooner that mission is discovered, the better.

Let it be great or little, it should be undertaken earnestly and conscientiously, and persevered in with ever-increasing knowledge and power. The room for improvement extends into every department of our social fabric; physically, morally, and mentally, we want building up.