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Driving with Oil

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Feb 21, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 8.

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Driving with Oil

I WANTED to drive an iron bar through a piece of timber. I bored a hole of the right size, but the bar was rusty, and the hole was rough. I made slow progress, and was beginning to split the wood. Then I thought of the oil-can. I oiled the bar; I poured oil into the hole; a few blows of the hammer sent the iron into its place. The oil had not diminished the size of the bar, or enlarged that of the hole. It had only relieved the friction. A few drops of oil were more effective than many blows of the hammer.
How slow some good people are to learn this. They are intensely in earnest, and even morbidly conscientious. Everybody ought to see it just as they do, and whoever does not is hammered at without mercy. Such zeal excites friction. Men will not appreciate the truth when they are repelled by the spirit in which it is presented. Let the reformer be careful to have plenty of oil. Let him speak the truth in love.—Rest and Reaping.