We should learn never to interpret duty by success. The opposition which assails us in the course of obedience is no evidence that we are mistaken.
EARNESTNESS.
This world is given as a prize for the men in earnest; and that which is true of this world is truer still of the world to come.
Without earnestness no man is ever great, or does really great things. He may be the cleverest of men; he may be brilliant, entertaining, popular; but he will want weight. No soul-moving picture was ever painted that had not in it depth of shadow.
The best way for a man to get out of a lowly position is to be conspicuously effective in it.
Rouse to some work of high and holy love,
And thou an angel's happiness shalt know.
Earnestness is the devotion of all the faculties.
Child of earth and earthly sorrows—child of God and immortal hopes—arise from thy sadness, gird up the loins of thy mind, and with unfaltering energy press toward thy rest and reward on high.
