Sunday Column.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 18 January 1913, Page 4

Sunday Column.

U-il ~J.u; i A.SV i'Li/IJDKHi}.

luicvzily, a.m mil ui onttuisiaisui. nie acnoiiiui' uiiereu llie oiuce of tilt p.odder, and greeting lum pityingly, utteily heedless of every i-sign tuat work was pressing. "Still on P the same old job, 1 see; nose on tho grindstone. Say, I've struck the finest scheme you ever heard of. .il 1 can get it started before anybody else docs, it's ready money. At the very least 1 am sure of twenty thousand the first year"—and ho on, with argument and proof to sweep away all doubt. The next week he drops into the office again to borrow a dollar. lie is working on a new scheme. Oh, no: the other is "all right," perhaps, but tho new ne is better. Schemes and scheming may easily become the bane and ruin of an otherwise steady and useful life Inventive genius, originality, initiative, are most excellent qualities and strong aids to Miccess, but the passion for scheming is a thing apart from these. Usually the habitual ; sche'iier is lacking in. real creative genius or effective initiative. He sees part of a plan, but only the seductive. part. The (laws he does not see, or he (iocs not rightly estimate. He cpcetK someone else to remedy the faults and carry the plan through with the necessary brains, energy and capital. He is surprised and offended when the lui I'd-headed man of experience fails to enthuse and puts his linger instaMtly on the weak points of the Usually the schemer is cat cied iiwav with the thought that he has discovered a way to get large returns lor little effort or expendi-ture-an miMMiml proposition in business or personal life. Any habit or any plan which makes "how much can T make and how little can I give " the rule of life is injurious, wherever it is applied. With this false relationship comes, as a natural .accompaniment, the temptation to trickery and exaggeration. Scheming and schemers are seldom free from two characteristics. Fictitious exchange values, with unsound principles and methods of operation, render most schemes insecure and temporary. No .solfd or permanent success can he built upon such foundation. The schemer is always starting things, hut never finishing them. Very ofter he has left someone else "holding the hag" while lie chases on after another will-o'-the-wisp. Often I have watched a man pounding— swinging heavy blows with his sledge-hammer —on a rock and seemingly making no impression. He doesn't appear to mind that. One blow follows another on fhe same spot, again and again rhythmically. All of a sudden, on< Mow, just like the rest, Palls, and the rock is split through to the heart. Tf wasn't the last blow that did it, but all the blows. Hov eas il\ the mau might been discouraged when the first blow, and the second, and even the tenth, produced no visible result! It takes faith and courageous persistence to be a plodder, faithful from moment to moni'-nt and day to day in effort? which seem to be profitless, but which we believe will bring the cumulated results in due season. The plodder need not wait, for all hj s profit, however. He may gather from his daily task increase of strength, a-; the man with the sledge-hammer glows muscle with each swing of his arms. 'Iho plodder gains in the very qualities he uses. He makes his own power while lie expends it. In certainty of achievement he has fhe advantage over the schemer, hecause he is building steadily upon a foundation of knowledge and experience which will hold up whatever superstructure of success ho I may erect. Men o| modest, inconspicuous abilities often outstrip their more lirillant and versatile rivals in the race of life. 'I here is a law of compel) sation in all things. Wi* find if in fhe more delicate s'ense of touch in blind persons, an 1 often in (.lie greaier persistence, th" more steady, unyielding purpose in men who lack inventive genius or superior intellect. Students in .col lege, the s:;ns of poor parents, working the'r wav toilfullv, but eagerly, through their course, -have made for themselves places of (tower and in flu ence in the world, while their better-lavoiired fellows have failed to grasp anv prize worth while. The greatest achievements of man have been won, not by strength, nor by great cleverness, but by persistent, heroic plodding. The engineer does not scheme to send the express train by a single leap over the mountain chain, but by slow, plodding toil he bores tunnels and builds bridges, inch by inch, until the giant ' task is done. The scientist doc., not wipe out disease by the wave of a magic wand or the sudden com ( pounding of a medicine. He stud- s ies and experiments through toil- $ some years, with countless substances, and organisms, and agents, while I the world knows him not, until at length he gains his victory and humanity hails another saviour of the v sick. " e Man is very little and he is very I great. The mightiest tasks are his, li but he must be satisfied to do them C slowly, patiently, bit by bit. He I was commanded by his Creator to have dominion over the world and s .subdue it, 'bill, his conquest must be ( gained through the centuries, as he I feels his way on and on into the 1 ,r eat mysteries of creation. Not by a single stroke of the first will the door of fortune open to the average man, but there is no door that man has any right to open huf will yield to the persistent knocking or the determined applicant. There ' may he drought, there . may he • blight, tliere may he flood/hut we have the promise, and we are content to work on as sure as dawn fn'lows night, faithful plodding will earn its reward, and, we shall reap in due season if we fainfc not.— "Christian Herald." *