Poverty a Blessing

California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · Oakland, California · Apr 1, 1875

Poverty a Blessing.

POVERTY is the nurse of manly energy, and heaven-climbing thoughts, attended by love, and faith, and hope, around whose steps the mountain breezes blow, and from whose countenance all the virtues gather strength. Look around you upon the distinguished men that in every department of life guide and control the times, and inquire what was their origin and what was their early fortune. Were they, as a general rule, rocked and dandled in the lap of wealth? No; such men emerged from the homes of decent competence or struggling poverty. Necessity sharpens their faculties; and privation and sacrifice brace their moral nature. They learn the great art of renunciation, and enjoy the happiness of having few wants; they know nothing of the indifference of satiety. There is not an idle fiber in their frames; they put the vigor of a resolute purpose into every act. The edge of their mind is always kept sharp; in the school of life, men like these meet softly-nurtured darlings of prosperity as iron meets the vessels of porcelain.