Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1872-12-19

"A chief source Of failure in the various
pursuits of life is the lack ofearnestnesa.
There are those who cannot be accused
OF idleness, or charged with any vice
they are honest, temperate, frugal,
and even industrious, yet they lack that
earnestness of purpose and strength Of
resolution that is necessary TO insure
success Much of the work of the
world is of an essentially inferior char
acter, owing to this cause. 1t is a COM
mon mistake to- suppose manual en-
Payments do not need the assistance of
the mind to perfect them. While some
occupations doubtless call for more
mental vigor than others, all are de-
pendent upon it for largemeasure of
their success, and even. Id the most
mechanical pursuits the execution viii
fail to reach its highest excellence if
the heart Of the workman be not in his
labor. Ruskin says truly, eve are
always in these days, trying to separate
labor and intellect; we want one man to
be always thinking and another to be
always working, and we call one a
gentleman and the other an operative,
whereas the workman ought often to
be thinking, and the thinker often to be
working, and both should be gentleman
in the best sense" And again the
same author urges employers to aim
at inspiring the higher natures of those
who labor for them, and says: ''This
is what we hope to do with our laborers
to look for the thoughtful part Of them,
and get that out of them, whatever we
lose for it, whatever faults and errors
we are obliged to take with it Teach
a carver, for example to think, and ten
to one he makes mistake in the first
touch he give to his work as thinking
being. But you have made man Of
him for all that. He was a machine
| before, an animated tool.
No one who will honestly strive to
cultivate spirit of earnestness in his
labor, and put his whole mind into it;
be it what 1T may, will fail to reap full
reward in the improved quality, of his
work and its appreciation by Others
There is, however, another part of life
! needing the same spirit to inspire and
animate it, and to draw our own best
faculties that by which we embrace and
encourage good,and shun and discounte-
nance evil. The Greek philosophers
designated ''a good man" by term
signitying zone who is in earnest"
With most of US the cause of moral
failure is not that we love evil, but that
we are Indifferent to it. We make,
perhaps, many efforts to repel it but
they are not made with the whole
strength of will and frmness of determf.
nation by which we conquer difficulties,
and carry out purposes in our external
| affairs. 1t is quite possible for the
energies that give. success in our calling
| and in our social intercourse to be ex-
erted to the utmost viii yet those that
should judge of right and wrong, and
choose between good and evil, may be
slumbering on but half aroused. We
may have the interest and activity of
daily life without feeling its RESPONSE
bility. Inclination, however, never
slumbers, and its demands, if not met
by discriminating sense, and controll-
ed by the superior authority of con-
science, will become more and more
imperious and exaeting. ;
The want of earnestness in the moral
nature greatly diminishes the love with
which We regard good, and the abhor-
ence we feel for evil When wrong
doing ceases to affect us with pain, its
irregularity and want of harmony with
all that is good and beautiful often ex-
cites the sense of the ludicrous, .andthus
| triiing follies, and even greater sins; are
too often the subject Of mirth rather
than sorrow. 1t is then but an easy
step to follow the evil that had excited
only levity and not displeasure, and ths
downward road is thus too often trod
simply from lack of earnestness in
avoiding its first approaches If we
would improve as moral and accountable
beings we must intensity our love of
good and our hatred of evil, we must
put the same earnestness into our spiri-
tual life that We, do into our daily
business or our pursuit of pleasure; then
shall We measure things rightly, because
we feel them strongly and SO develop
our best faculties aud highest natures.