History and modern life abound in illustrations of what can be
accomplished by the combination of ambition and perseverance.
Cyrus, the king of a little upland province, through a remarkable
series of victories became the undisputed master of south-western
Asia and laid the foundations of the great Persian Empire. Julius
Caesar, who transformed Rome from a republic into an empire, and
Napoleon the Corsican, are the classic illustrations of the power
of great ambition and dauntless persistency. Far nobler is that
quiet, courageous perseverance which led Livingston through the
trackless swamps and forests of Africa and blazed the way for the
conquest of the dark continent. Equally significant is that noble
ambition, coupled with heroic perseverance, that has enabled
settlement workers to bring light to the darkest parts of our great
cities.
Ambition without persistency is but a dream or hope. Observe
Jacob's persistency in the Biblical stories. Does persistency,
which has always been a marked characteristic of the Hebrew race,
largely explain the achievements of the Jews throughout the world?
Note the apparently scientific knowledge regarding breeding of
lambs by Jacob in his dealings with Laban. Is it a fact recognized
by science to-day? If he knew this and Laban did not, can you
justify his acts? Can you justify the act of the director of a
corporation who uses his prior knowledge of the business of his
corporation to make profit from buying or selling its stocks? Who
loses? Is he a trustee for their interests?
What is the meaning of the strange story of Jacob's midnight
struggle with the angel? (_Hist. Bible_ I, 119-20.) What lessons
did Jacob learn from this struggle? Would you call Jacob a truly
religious man, according to his light and training, or were his
religious professions only hypocritical? May he have been sincere,
but have had a wrong conception of religion? What is hypocrisy?
Did Jacob's faith in Jehovah, in the end prove the strongest force
in his life? Is there any trace in his later years, of the selfish
ambition which earlier dominated him? What are his chief interests
in the latter part of his life? Did he become the strong and noble
character that he might have been had he from the first been guided
by a worthy ambition? Were the misfortunes that came to him in his
old age due largely to his own faults reappearing in the characters
of his sons?