Norwich bulletin., 1909-04-24
SUNDAY MORNING TsLK
LIMITING OUR OUTPUT.

What is it that prevents us from being and doing more than we are being and doing at this present mo- ment? Sometimes a man needs to stand outside of himself, as 1t were, and study himself objectively through some such process of Interrogation as this: Am 1 hitting the world as hard as ought to hit it?" Have reached the limit of my capacity for achieve ment?' Will l ever get any higher wages than I am receiving? If so, what measures ought I to initiate in order to obtain the prize?" Am I as gC Cd as l ever shall be-
 Searching questions, these, and if man will only answer them honestly 1t may mark the beginning of a new epoch of achievement and power in his life, For 1t is surprising how many of us have settled down to an igroble sat isfaction with things as they are, We have not formulated our present atti tude in language, but if we should have courage 70 state 1t exactly 1t would be something like this: Well I'm getting along in life and getting on fairly well. doubt If can rise much higher. The competition Is severe. guess I am about as capable and about as success fus as the average man."
 We'll, perhaps you are, but does that really satisfy you? Does 1t tally wltH the fair visions of your far-away youth? Aren't you 8 little ashamed to talk this way to your intimate friends, to the person whose esteem you value moro than anything else on earth You, a red-blooded, we'll endowed ina vidual with 20, 30 or 40 years of liz ahead of you: yoJ who have not begun to exhaust your storehouse of power. Oh. ignoble self-satisfaction! Oh, shameful complacency with the pres ent situation!
 Oh, yes I know all about your limit acic ms from without. You are just the little cog in the wheel. just a pulley or a lever In a complicated machine, just a clerk or a bookkeeper in a great big corcern, with no likelihood of promo tion. Or you are hampered by the situation at home, by an invalid wife or husband, or by fretful and exacting children. The people with whom you work are not congenial and their talk far from elevating; CT luck has always seemed to go against you and some perverse and malign fate seems to be tripping you up just as you thought you had obtained a secure standing in the world.
 Truly, | d. know hew we are all tied up with one another in these modern days and how hard it is to rise above the lGNEI or OTSlH1IN uuIildu tC4l4tFC- ment. But why should one add to these inevitable outward limitations another of an inward character arising from the mood of mind into which we have allowed ourselves to stnk? The apostle Paul had a great deal of hard luck as his strenuous and stormy years came and went But he was honest enough once to own up that 1t wasn't the ston- ings and the imprisonments the fog gil gs and the shlpwrecks that bothered him. T am straitened fin myself" said this honest man. And there IS just where most of us are baffled and burdened. The main trouble is with ourselves We are limiting our own output by tacitly assuming that we can't master this personal weakness or solve that hard problem. We can't be kinder and more decent and more pa- tient than we are.
 But herein We do ourselves and Otl CTS a great wrong None If us has reached the limit of his productivity. The forthputtinss of our best selves are altogether too meager and incon- stant. From this day on we can give out a larger supply of good cheer, hope and inspiration.
 THE PARSON.