Article May 23, 1931 Issue

Steadfastness

ROBERT DICKINSON NORTON

Of all the qualities which are accounted desirable in everyday experience, steadfastness is recognized as having special relation to successful endeavor. Indeed, steadfastness may be regarded as an essential part of any activity making for individual or collective betterment. How often do we see the genuine desire to advance frustrated by the temptation to give up striving because unexpected difficulties present themselves, such a temptation being yielded to because for the moment the difficulties seem stubborn or insuperable!

On the other hand, have we not seen patient endeavor at last rewarded, even when victory seemed as far off as ever? In Jesus' parable of the unjust judge and the importunate widow, as recorded in the eighteenth chapter of Luke, it is seen that the widow at last gained her desire by sheer persistence of purpose. She was not to be hindered or deterred, although her previous applications to the judge had met with no success.

The need for this quality of thought is also indicated in the Gospel of John, which records that Jesus once said, "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Here continuing is doubtless essential the fulfillment of the promise of freedom.

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Subduing the Body
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