| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 18 |
Page 4 |
Thus there is a twofold testing going on in all competitions among men – a testing of ability, strength, or skill, as the case may be, and a testing of the man himself. In the way he meets defeat he shows what manner of man he is. Any one can sing and be cheerful when he has been successful. But to be outstripped by another and still to keep sweet, saying no unseemly word, remaining glad and songful, requires far more courage and strength and is a much better proof of fine character.
We are in this world, not merely to get on but to get upward. There are too many people, however, who think of success only as getting on in worldly ways and who have no higher standard. Yet nothing is sadder than to see a man growing richer every day, advancing in his rank, according to the world’s standard, and yet in his real life becoming every day less noble, less worthy. Every experience ought to make us somewhat better, ought to bring out in our character some new shade of beauty, and develop in us some new phase of Christ likeness. The man who cannot endure defeat is not in good condition to meet life’s struggles. Nothing can be better for him than defeat after defeat until he has learned his lesson.
Every pathway has its downs as well as its ups. When a man is climbing toward a mountain top he usually begins far away to make the ascent. First come the foot hills and the lower ranges with valleys between. The upward rising is not continuous. Sometimes he is going upward toward the glittering summit, and then he turns downward into a valley. Again he ascends and then descends. Bt all the while he is really climbing upward, each succeeding hill top being a little higher than the preceding one, until, by and by, he gains the highest, the shining peak, the goal of his long and painful journey.
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