p. 35 | Boosted People

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 27, 1864

Boosted People.

PEOPLE who have been bolstered up and levered up all their lives, are seldom good for anything in a crisis. When misfortune comes, they look around for somebody to cling to, or lean upon. If the prop is not there, down they go. Once down, they are as helpless as capsized turtles, or unhorsed men in armor, and they cannot find their feet again without assistance. Such silken fellows no more resemble self-made men who have fought their way to position, making difficulties their stepping-stones, and deriving determination from their defeat, than vines resemble oaks, or spluttering rush-lights the stars of heaven. Efforts persisted in to achievements train a man to self-reliance; and when he has proven to the world that he can trust himself, the world will trust him. We say, therefore, that it is unwise to deprive young men of the advantages which result from energetic action, by "boosting" them over obstacles which they ought to surmount alone. No one ever swam well who placed his confidence in a cork jacket; and if, when breasting the sea of life, we cannot buoy ourselves up and try to force ourselves ahead by dint of our own energies, we are not worth salvage, and it is of little consequence whether we "sink or swim, survive or perish."