Talks to Young Men. V: “The Same Is Damned”

TALKS TO YOUNG MEN. V.— "THE SAME IS DAMNED." Men rise the higher as their task is high, The task being well achieved. — George Eliot. Something over a year ago, I read in the Improvement Era that" the young men of this community had, on the whole, lost the vitality of their fathers, that they could not be trusted to do a bit of work requiring skill and brains, and that their places had to be filled by men who were in every essential particular their in- feriors, but who could be depended upon. I must confess that when I read this, I was sorely tempted to fling the magazine across the room, for printing what I considered to be a foul slander. "It is a falsehood," I said; "and there can be no excuse for publishing it. The writer of it is a crank, a pes- simist, an enemy of our young men." From that day on, I deter- mined to find out to what extent it was true. I talked with peo- ple about the question; I enquired of employers; I observed the young men whose capacity I had every day the opportunity of measuring. And the upshot of it all was, that I found more truth in the statement than formerly I could possibly have been made to believe. These strictures applies, of course, only to a certain class of young men among us. But this class is altogether too large, and, for aught I know, is growing. These young men are always on the lookout for "soft snaps." They shun difficulties. They abhor hard wdrk. They swarm our business colleges, studying how to become bookkeepers and stenographers. (Not that I would be un- derstood as implying that all bookkeepers and stenographers are shirkers; for as a class they are honorable enough, when they en-

368 IMPROVEMENT ERA. ter their profession from right motives). And they meantime lie about dreaming of great things to come by and by. If they are attending school, they study just enough to pass the examinations by the skin < f their teeth. If they are tradesmen, they find out only enough about their trade to get along in it. They are con- tent with the shallowest mediocrity. They never exert themselves to the utmost of their power. They never reach out beyond them- selves. They never know the joy of sounding the depths, of trying their strength, of doing things well. They do not look into the future in search of a gauge of their conduct. They take liter- ally the scriptural saying: "Sufficient unto the day." They have a mortal dread of responsibility. "I can't" is ever on their lips and in their hearts. After a time they get into a rut, as the last paper declared, and run down hill. But enough of picking flaws. What can these young men do to help themselves? The best answer to this question is found in the fifty-eighth section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Read it, boys, and get it by heart; it is a marvelous passage: Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged- in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteous- ness; for the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward- But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with a doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned. The lesson here, then, is, court responsibility and independence of character; be earnest and anxi-ous in what you do if it is a good cause. Without responsibility there can be no genuine growth, no development of individual power. Conversely, the greater the individual responsibility, the greater the power. If this needed proving, we would only have to point to our young men who perform foreign missions. Who would be so hazardous as to predict that this youth, who cannot utter five consecutive and in- telligible sentences at his farewell party, would in two years, by any process whatever, be able to interest a large audience for an hour or an hour and a half? And yet we see this wonderful trans- formation on every hand.
Why is it?
Simply because, humanly

TALKS TO
YOUNG MEN. 369 speaking, he has accepted a task that was higher than he thought he could perform, and achieved that task well; that is, exerted his powers to the uttermost. This exertion, repeated, brought strength.
And we see the effect — a miracle of power. But this class of young men want to do something important now; they want to pass over the insignificant steps that lead to greatness. To preside over a small meeting in their ward is too trifling for them; they want to head an army, or to be president of the United States. And what would they do if they were placed in a position of great responsibility? Lose their heads, make themselves ridiculous, and be crushed by its terrible weight. The apprentice at carpentry is not given the highest kind of work to do at first. He must do a multitude of less im- portant things before he can be trusted to do that. The great commander must come up through a variety of "insignificant" de- grees before he is fit to lead. Preside over your small meetings first, then the presidency of big audiences may come; perform well your part on the program now, then you may be able after a while to sway immense throngs by your eloquence; keep your small store, and afterwards you may be given charge of larger concerns, by and by. But if you don't do now the little things well, the time will never come when you will be given the chance to do great things. Never, then, shirk a responsibility. Always do as you are asked, if you sacrifice not your honor. Never mind the future, if you take real care of the present; the future will find a place for you. If the task is hard, so much the better. Performing it well will insure you strength to some higher task, which, "being well achieved," will in time raise you, till in future what once seemed im- possible will be simple. This is the only secret of growth. On the contrary, if you do not improve the opportunity to carry trust and responsibility, you will receive little or no growth. Your powers will remain the same, if they do not actually diminish. For he that is a slothful servant, the same is damned.