ONE IDEA by Golden Censer

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 16, 1881

ONE IDEA.

By Golden Censer

It is generally a mark of reproach and a proof of narrowness to speak of a man as being a one-idea man. We hold a man responsible for being well balanced, that is, equally conservative on all subjects. If a man has a natural susceptibility in some directions more than in others, we generally call it a sign of weakness. This is a grand mistake. It is a source of strength to be able, easily, to summon all our faculties on a moment's notice, on any particular subject. Take away John B. Gough's one idea, and he would be weak like other men. The marvelous collection of machinery and product at the centennial exhibition is the gathering of the work of one-idea men. So also with galleries of art, there are grouped the works of men fit for one thing, but for nothing else. The broad-minded, many-sided, varie-gifted men who, like Michael Angelo, excel in all arts, come only once in many ages. Once in an

age there rises a silent soldier, who has equal worth in councils of war or of peace, who can manage a farm, take a battery, or build a railroad. But not so with us all. He is a happy man who has a talent for doing one thing well. Let him use that one talent. The time may come when he will be glad he is not responsible for more.

Nature provides for individualness in all that lives. Flower, stem, and root, may all be perfect in their narrow line. A man whose education and talents prepared him for any forum or any court, turned from earthly honors of every kind saying, "None of these things move me." He defined for himself one unchanging pursuit, "This one thing I do." Few of us are able to accomplish more. There is but one world for a probation, one moment at a time, one object in life, one God to serve, one mission to fill. Singleness of purpose may make our path narrow, but it concentrates our energies. If we would make the most of ourselves, we should do some one thing well. When this is done, it will only be a waste of time to invent other modes of work. Every plant has a seed after his kind, and yet this singleness of quality makes the diversity of nature. The little allotment perfectly filled brings society the nearest to perfection, one whose talent compares with the great ones, as the fern leaf to the forest, yet serves equally well the Infinite One who formed it. Dignity comes not from the great things done, so much as from the great Being who is perfectly served.—Golden Censer.