Ministers of the Gospel
377
Take a book with you to read when traveling on the cars or waiting in
the depot. Employ every spare moment in doing something. In this way
an effectual door will be closed against a thousand temptations. Had
King David been engaged in some useful employment, he would not
have been guilty of the murder of Uriah. Satan is ever ready to employ
him who does not employ himself. The mind which is continually
striving to rise to the height of intellectual greatness will find no time
for cheap, foolish thoughts, which are the parent of evil actions. There
are men of good ability among us, who, by proper cultivation, might
become eminently useful; yet they do not love exertion, and, failing
to see the crime of neglecting to put to the best use the faculties with
which they have been endowed by the Creator, they settle down at their
ease, to remain uncultivated in mind. But very few are meeting the
mind of God. Of these slothful servants God will inquire: “What hast
thou done with the talents I gave thee?” Many will be found in that day
who, having had one talent, bound it in a napkin and hid it in the earth.
These unprofitable servants will be cast into outer darkness; while
those who had put out their talents to the exchangers and doubled them
will receive the plaudit: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant:
[413]
thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over
many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
When responsibilities are to be entrusted to an individual, the
question is not asked whether he is eloquent or wealthy, but whether
he is honest, faithful, and industrious; for whatever may be his ac-
complishments, without these qualifications he is utterly unfit for any
position of trust. Many who have begun life with fair prospects fail
of success because they lack industry. Young men who habitually
mingle in the little groups gathered in stores or on the street, ever
engaging in discussion or gossip, will never grow to the proportions
of men of understanding. Continual application will accomplish for
man what nothing else can. Those who are never content without
the consciousness that they are growing every day will truly make a
success of life.
Many have failed, signally failed, where they might have made a
success. They have not felt the burden of the work; they have taken
things as leisurely as though they had a temporal millennium in which
to work for the salvation of souls. Because of this lack of earnestness
and zeal, but few would receive the impression that they really meant