The Price of Success

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 17, 1858

The Price of Success

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS.—Effort is the price of success in every department of human action. From the attainment of rudimental knowledge, to the salvation of the soul, every step in our progress is made by undaunted toil. The boy who drones over his book a slave to listless laziness, thereby secures a place for himself at the foot of society. The Christian who like Bunyan's Timorous and Mistrust, flees at the voice of lions, is undone. The man that shrinks from difficulty in his business or profession who refuses to climb because the rocks are sharp, and the way steep, must make up his mind to slide back, and to lie in the shadows below, while others use him as a stepping stone for their own rising. For this, such is the constitution of society, there is no help. The poet wrote truly who said:

“Thou must either soar or stoop. Fall or triumph, stand or droop. Thou must either serve or govern; Must, be a slave or must be sovereign; Must in fine, he block or wedge, Must be anvil or be sledges.”

To shake off an indolent sprit, or stir one's self to exertion, to reach constantly upward, to struggle for a firm foot-hold on the most slippery places, to wrestle manfully even when principalities and powers are our foes, or any evils however frowning, are conditions we must either fulfill, or sink to littleness, to uselessness—perhaps to ruin. Therefore, with a brave heart, and unconquerable spirit, every man should address himself to the work of the day, striving with pure views, and religious trust, for an increase of his talents, and for a victory, which will enable him to stand unabashed in the last day. He who thus strives, need fear no failure. His triumph, though delayed for a time, shall come at the last.—Zion's Herald.