Decision and Promptness
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....
There are men who flatter themselves that they might do something
great and good if they were only circumstanced differently, while they
make no use of the faculties they already have, by working in the
positions where Providence has placed them.... Individual indepen-
dence and individual power are the qualities now needed. Individual
character need not be sacrificed, but it should be modulated, refined,
elevated....
The cause of God demands men who can see quickly and act
instantaneously at the right time and with power. If you wait to measure
every difficulty and balance every perplexity you meet, you will do
but little. You will have obstacles and difficulties to encounter at every
turn, and you must with firm purpose decide to conquer them, or they
will conquer you.
Sometimes various ways and purposes, different modes of opera-
tion in connection with the work of God, are about evenly balanced in
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the mind; and it is at this very point that the nicest discrimination is
necessary. And if anything is accomplished to the purpose, it must be
done at the golden moment. The slightest inclination of the weight in
the balance should be seen, and should determine the matter at once.
Long delays tire the angels. It is even more excusable to make a wrong
decision sometimes than to be continually in a wavering position; to be
hesitating, sometimes inclined in one direction, then in another. More
perplexity and wretchedness result from thus hesitating and doubting
than from sometimes moving too hastily.
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