The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1874-01-28
EARyESTNESS.

can not be accused of idleness, or
charged with any vice-they are hon
est, temperate, frugal, and even in
dustrious, yet they lack that earnest
ness Of purpose and strength of res
olution that are necessary to insure
success. Much of the work of the
world is of an essentially inferior
character, owing to this cause. It
is a common mistake to suppose
that manual employments do not
need the assistance of the mind to
perfect them. While some occupa-
tions doubtless call for more mental
vigor than others, all ale dependent
upon it for a large measure OF their
success, and even in the most me-
chanical pursuits the execution will
fail to reach it's 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 mali to be always thinking
and another to be always working,
and we call one gentleman and the
otheran operative, whereas the work
man ought often to be thinking, and
the thinker often to be working, and
both should be gentlemen in the best
sense" And again the same author
urges employers to aim at inspiring
the higher natures Of those who Ia
Dor for them, and says: ''This is
what we have to do with ou: labor
ers 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
makesa mistake in the first touch he
gives to his work as a thinking being.
But you have made a man Of him
for all that. he was a machine be-
fore, 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 it may, will ail to
reap full reward in the improved
quality of his work and its appreci-
alton by others. There is, however,
another part of life needing the same
spirit to inspire and animate it, and
to our own best faculties-that by
which we embrace and encourage
good, and shun and discountenance
evil. The Greek philosophers des-
ignated "a good man" by a term
signifying 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
ofdetermination by which we con-
quer difficulties, and carry out pur-
poses in our external affairs. It is
quite possible for the energies that
give success in our daily calling,
and in our social intercourse to be
exerted to the utmost, while 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 in
terest and activity of daily life with
out feelingits responsibility. Incli-
nation, however, never slumbers,
and it's demands, if not met by a
discriminating sense, and controlled
by the superior authority Of consci-
ence, will become more and more
imperious and exacting.
The want Of earnestness in the
moral nature greatly diminishes the
love with which we regard good,
and the adherence we feel for evil.
When wrong-doing ceases to affect
US with pain, its irregulality and
want of harmony with all that is
good and beautiful often excites the
sense of the luGicrous, and thus tri-
fling follies, and even greater sins,
are too often the subject of mirth
rather than sorrow, It is then but
an easy step to follow the evil that
had excited only levity and not dis
pleasure, and the downward road is
thus too often trod simply from q
lack of earnestness in avoiding it's
first approaches. If we would i'm
prove as moral and accountable be-
ings We must intensity our love OF
good and our hatred of evil, we
must put the same earnestness into
or spiritual life that we do into our
daily business or our pursuit OF
pleasure; then shall we measure
things rightly, because wefeel them
strongly, and SO develop our best
faculties and highest natures.
One day. when at st. Helena,
Napoleon was climbing a narrow
mountain-path, with a lady. Half
way up the mountain they met Ia
borer descending, bearing heavy