Gold Nugget 343 - Slipping Through Their Hands

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      Those who have the very fairest chance of attaining to wisdom and usefulness sometimes wantonly throw it away.  The foolish boy, at the best school in the land, will refuse to learn, and comes out a dunce.  The foolish apprentice, with the best sources of technical or professional knowledge at his command, wastes his hours in frivolity, and when his time is up is utterly unfit for the occupation of his life.

      Information of what is happening all over the world may now be had for a penny a day, and, what is far more precious, the knowledge of the will of God as revealed in the life and by the lips of Jesus Christ may be had for twopence; but, with “the price of wisdom” at these figures, there are those who know nothing of the hopes or struggles of mankind, and nothing of the way to eternal life.

      Duty, secular and sacred, is immediately before the eyes of the foolish, but their gaze is fixed upon anything and everything else; they are dreaming, by day and by night, of impossible or of hopelessly improbably fortune, and while they might be patiently and successfully building up a good estate, the chances of life are slipping through their hands. …

      The wise man is he who makes the most and the best he can make of that which is within his reach, that which is “before his face.”  He does not spend time in looking and longing for that which is “at the ends of the earth;” he sets himself to cultivate the patch of ground, however small and poor, that is just outside his door.  He puts out his talents, however mean they may be.  He reads well his books, however limited his library may be.  He tries to serve others, however narrow his sphere may be.  So doing, he is in the way of constant growth and of a large reward. 

 

The Pulpit Commentary, Proverbs p. 346, Proverbs 17: 16, 24, (W. Clarkson)

 

Gold Nugget 343

Slipping Through Their Hands