“I am glad to think
I am not bound to make the world go right,
But only to discover and to do,
With cheerful heart, the work that God appoints.”
Something must be left out; just what it shall be is the question. Many hands beckon continually. We can follow the beck of only one; which shall it be? There are thousands of books standing up in their place in the library, each one crying, “Read me.” But one is all we can read today; which shall it be? We can think in the morning of many things we would like to do and might do – visits of courtesy and kindness, perhaps of helpfulness or sympathy, we might pay; affairs of business, matters of pleasure or self improvement, we might attend to – but we cannot, with our limitations of time and strength, do one in ten of all these possible things. Which of them shall we do? There is a duty of neglecting, of leaving undone, as well as a duty of faithfulness and diligence in doing.
How shall we know what things not to do? Is there any law of selection, any principle which should guide us in deciding what we should leave undone among the many things that invite us?
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