If a person has ambition to engage in any enterprise, he desires to
succeed in his undertaking. It is generally right that he should
prosper in all that is truly good or great; and the fact that success
is attainable by continued effort, we have all verified so many times
in our pursuit of different objects, that we feel sure we can
accomplish almost any purpose if we with patient perseverance bend all
our energies in the right direction. If there is much to be gained, we
may make apparently slow progress; but if we apply ourselves closely,
and do not let little things discourage us we shall eventually
succeed. There are always plenty of little things in the way of the
accomplishment of any good or great thing. These must be gotten out of
the way; and if, in our first attempt, we fail to win the prize, we
must make another effort, varying the manner of our labor as
circumstances shall suggest.
It takes only a little at a time to accomplish a great deal if we work
long enough. Perhaps most of you have read of the little girl whose
mother was presented with a ton of coal by a charitable neighbor. She
took her little fire-shovel, and began to take up the coal, a
shovelful at a time, and carry it into the cellar. A friend, who was
passing by, said to the child, "Do you expect to get all that coal in
with that little shovel?" "Yes, sir," said the little girl, dipping
her shovel again into the heap, "I'll do it if I work long enough."
She possessed the right spirit.
The true spirit of success is not to look at obstacles, but to keep
the eye on the many ways in which to surmount them. This may be
illustrated by the incident of the little factory girl who had one of
her fingers so badly mangled in the machinery that she was obliged to
have it cut off. Looking at the wounded hand, she said, "That is my
thimble finger; but I must learn to sew with my left hand." She did
not think of her loss, but of what she still possessed with which to
work.
We may prosper in the several schemes in which it is lawful for
Christians to take part, but, if we fail to win the strife for eternal
life, we shall have lived in vain. To make life a success, the glory
of God must be the ruling motive to actuate us in all the walks of
life. If we do really glorify him in our lives, success will surely
crown our efforts--everlasting life will be our reward.
Another instance of perseverance, against apparently insurmountable
difficulties, is given in an anecdote, not generally known out of
Russia, connected with a church spire of St. Petersburg, which place
is remarkable for its spires. The loftiest is the church of St. Peter
and St. Paul.
The spire, which is properly represented in an engraving as fading
away almost into a point in the sky, is in reality terminated by a
globe of considerable dimensions, on which an angel stands supporting
a large cross. This angel fell into disrepair; and some suspicions
were entertained that he designed visiting, uninvoked, the surface of
the earth. The affair caused some uneasiness, and the government at
length became greatly perplexed. To raise a scaffolding to such a
height would cost more money than all the angels of this description
were worth; and in meditating fruitlessly on these circumstances,
without being able to resolve how to act, a considerable time was
suffered to elapse.
Among the crowd of gazers below, who daily turned their eyes and their
thoughts toward the angel, was a mujik called Telouchkine. This man
was a roofer of houses (a slater, as he would be called in countries
where slates are used), and his speculations by degrees assumed a more
practical character than the idle wonders and conjectures of the rest
of the crowd. The spire was entirely covered with sheets of gilded
copper, and presented to the eye a surface as smooth as if it had been
one mass of burnished gold. But Telouchkine knew that the sheets of
copper were not even uniformly closed upon each other; and, above all,
that there were large nails used to fasten them, which projected from
the side of the spire.
Having meditated upon these circumstances till his mind was made up,
the mujik went to the government and offered to repair the angel
without scaffolding, and without assistance, on condition of being
reasonably paid for the time expended in the labor. The offer was
accepted; for it was made in Russia, and by a Russian.
On the day fixed for the adventure, Telouchkine, provided with nothing
more than a coil of ropes, ascended the spire in the interior to the
last window. Here he looked down at the concourse of people below, and
up at the glittering "needle," as it is called, tapering far above his
head. But his heart did not fail him, and stepping gravely out upon
the window, he set about his task.
He cut a portion of the cord in the form of two large stirrups, with a
loop at each end. The upper loops he fastened upon two of the
projecting nails above his head, and placed his feet in the other.
Then digging the fingers of one hand into the interstices of the
sheets of copper, he raised up one of the stirrups with the other
hand, so as to make it catch a nail higher up. The same operation he
performed on behalf of the other leg, and so on alternately. And thus
he climbed, nail by nail, step by step, and stirrup by stirrup, till
his starting-point was undistinguished from the golden surface, and
the spire had dwindled in his embrace till he could clasp it all
around.
But Telouchkine was not dismayed. He was prepared for the difficulty,
and the means by which he essayed to surmount it exhibited the same
astonishing simplicity as the rest of the feat.
Suspending himself in his stirrups, he girded the needle with a cord,
the ends of which he fastened around his waist; and, so supported, he
leaned gradually back, till the soles of his feet were planted against
the spire. In this position, he threw, by a strong effort, a coil of
cord over the ball; and so coolly and accurately was the aim taken,
that at the first trial it fell in the required direction, and he saw
the end hang down on the opposite side.
To draw himself into his original position, to fasten the cord firmly
around the globe, and with the assistance of his auxiliary to climb to
the summit, were now easy portions of his task; and in a few moments
more Telouchkine stood by the side of the angel, and listened to the
shout that burst like sudden thunder from the concourse below, yet
came to his ear only like a faint and hollow murmur.
The cord, which he had an opportunity of fastening properly, enabled
him to descend with comparative facility; and the next day he carried
up with him a ladder of ropes, by means of which he found it easy to
effect the necessary repairs.
This person must have put forth all the energies of his being to
accomplish what he did. If we will strive as hard for the society of
good angels as he did to reach the artificial one, we shall be sure of
their society and a place in the new earth.
The golden sun shone brightly down the world,
Soft shadows gathered on the twilight track;
The day is gone; with all our sighs and tears
We can not call one little moment back.
Ah, soul, what loss is thine! awaken now!
Let not the moments slip unheeded by;
For just such moments make the golden hours
That bring us nearer to eternity.