p. 13 | LOVE YOUR WORK by C. C. Pierce

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 29, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 35.

LOVE YOUR WORK.

By C. C. Pierce

THE world is big enough, boys, and there is enough in it which needs to be done, for you to find somewhere a work and a place in which you may be supremely happy. You may have to do some things—many things—which you don't like to do, but it will contribute so directly to the great purpose of your life that you will rejoice in it because of its bearing upon that one thing which you love best of all.

And then never forget this, a disagreeable duty bravely done, an unpleasant task resolutely mastered, leaves the imprint of victory. A battle fought out and actually won has rarely to be fought over again.

"I wish I could drop mathematics," said a sophomore to Dr. Dodge years ago at Colgate University. "I hate mathematics, and I don't see the good of it."

"Well, I want to tell you, young man," said the doctor, "if you don't master these things here you will have to do it elsewhere."

The disagreeable things of one stage in life mastered, no doubt strengthen us for the larger activities of what awaits us. Every day bravely lived, broadens the possibilities of enjoyment farther on, and, no doubt, many a soul has been turned aside from some great work in which it might have found supreme happiness, because it feared to master the difficult steps which must be taken before this happiness could be reached.

It is related of Laplace, the great mathematician, that when he had finished his immense work, "Mecanique Celeste," which has shed luster upon his name, he went over his work, purposely striking out long, difficult, and intricate processes, adding in place of them simply "therefore," or "thus it appears," leaving those to follow only who had sufficient love for the science to work out for themselves, step by step, the processes by which the true result was attained.

It is so with life. It is so with the Great Teacher. He leaves apparently gaps along the pathway to life's true results, which must be laboriously and patiently toiled across by those who love what lies beyond enough to pay the price of happiness and success.

The hard things are placed in life not to retard our progress, but to aid us; not to discourage us, but to bar out the unworthy; and any profession, any life, any attainment right of itself, affords the opportunity for the greatest happiness to those who are noble enough to master the steps which lead up to it.—C. C. Pierce, in Christian Work.