Leadership
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be coaxed and petted and helped at every turn, for this will not make
men competent for important positions. It is obstacles that make men
strong. It is not helps, but difficulties, conflicts, rebuffs, that make men
of moral sinew. Too much ease and avoiding responsibility have made
weaklings and dwarfs of those who ought to be responsible men of
moral power and strong spiritual muscle.
Men who ought to be as true in every emergency as the needle to the
pole, have become inefficient by their efforts to shield themselves from
censure and by evading responsibilities for fear of failure. Men of giant
intellect are babes in discipline because they are cowardly in regard
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to taking and bearing the burdens they should. They are neglecting
to become efficient. They have too long trusted one man to plan for
them and to do the thinking which they are highly capable of doing
themselves in the interest of the cause of God. Mental deficiencies
meet us at every point. Men who are content to let others plan and do
their thinking for them are not fully developed. If they were left to
plan for themselves they would be found judicious, close-calculating
men. But when brought into connection with God’s cause, it is entirely
another thing to them; they lose this faculty almost altogether. They
are content to remain as incompetent and inefficient as though others
must do the planning and much of the thinking for them. Some men
appear to be utterly unable to hew out a path for themselves. Must
they ever rely upon others to do their planning and their studying, and
to be mind and judgment for them? God is ashamed of such soldiers.
He is not honored by their having any part to act in His work while
they are mere machines.
Independent men of earnest endeavor are needed, not men as im-
pressible as putty. Those who want their work made ready to their
hand, who desire a fixed amount to do and a fixed salary, and who wish
to prove an exact fit without the trouble of adaptation or training, are
not the men whom God calls to work in His cause. A man who cannot
adapt his abilities to almost any place if necessity requires is not the
man for this time. Men whom God will connect with His work are not
limp and fiberless, without muscle or moral force of character. It is
only by continued and persevering labor that men can be disciplined
to bear a part in the work of God. These men should not become dis-
couraged if circumstances and surroundings are the most unfavorable.
They should not give up their purpose as a complete failure until they