The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1896-05-07
FILL YOUR CIRCLE.


FILL YOUR CIRCLE.
.sss.
Life is the greatest blessing to him
who seeks to get the most out of it.
He who lives within narrow sphere,
circulating day after day among COM
mon things-common because they are
not made stepping-stones to advance
ment-cannot expect that experience
shall be as full nor his life as bright as
is his who ever reaches forth for the
things that make life really worth the
living.
Not that we need be discOntented
with the little sphere in which we must
labor. Far from it. That is our
sphere; we must fill it, for in all the
world there is not another who can fill
it as we'll and completely as we. The
great search-light is most intense at
the focus, but this does not prevent its
beams Illuminating larger area than
that little point. We may do our daily
work, energetically, painstakingly,
thoroughly, but we can, at the same
time, reach forth just beyond that
work for the things that will make us
stronger and more ready, both in our
lives and work. We must do this-if
we grow; and the successful man or
woman must grow or the best cannot
be reached. The person who does not
look beyond the routine of his daily
duties for those things that shall make
him stronger mentally and spiritually,
soon becomes mere machine.
A gentleman saw volume of Epic
tetus on the desk of a friend, the pro-
prietor of a feed-store. "Do you take
time to read that ?" he asked.
II do" said the merchant. II sell
corn and hay, but l cannot live on corn
and hay"
Our work must be done, and done
with all the powers of which we are
capable. But this does not prohibit us
from looking to something besides the
mere mechanical discharging of oul
duties. Even if our labor is not that
of the professions or of bookmen, this
is true. The appliances used in max
ing heavy machinery and in moving
| heavy burdens are not necessarily
rough and carelessly adjusted. The
fact is, the machinery used in making
l monster Krupp gun is as CAREFUL!
7 adjusted and put together as is thu
t machinery utilized in the making of
} watch. Coal is black, heavy and dusty
{ but no greater triumph of mechanica
3 genius is to be found than the ma
e chinery employed in the mining ant
S handling of coal. may be a ditche
s or a wood-sawyer, but 1 need not b.
: just that and nothing else, any NOR
/. than I need be just teacher and moth
o ing beyond that.
j. The earnest workman seeks to b
a greater than the work he is perform
d ing. If he does not, in the end tina
}. work will be the master and the work
man the servant.
S The successful men and women i
l. the world have been those who sough
It for the things that made their live
IL broader and their influence upo
is Others more potent and sincere. I
o attain these, we need to take to ou
q, selves the things that shall keep I
1T ready, earnest and progressive. =
S. good book to illuminate leisure hot
ID with celestial light, an earnest, hell
h, full friend whose word is sincere an
d; inspiring, a beautiful picture th'
n. awakens pure, exalted thoughts,
rt lecture, sermon. poem-these a.
le some of the influences we can tai
IN into our lives to build character th
is shall stand back of our work in life
ce make it enduring, and that shall gi'
es weight to our word and actions. o.
a. duties, from day to day, may keep
at continually revolving within a Giro
,s- but let us see that we fill that circle
ly the circumference.--Y. P. Weekly.