Article May 17, 1947 Issue

The Sure Reward of Persistence

PATRICK J. HAMBROOK

"Success in life depends upon persistent effort, upon the improvement of moments more than upon any other one thing." This observation by Mary Baker Eddy is to be found on page 230 of "Miscellaneous Writings."

Often valuable lessons may be learned from quite commonplace occurrences. While waiting for a train a student of Christian Science watched the demolition of a cast-iron pillar. Three men used sledge hammers, and for three or four minutes directed their blows at the pillar with steady persistence until the resistance of the metal was broken and the pillar collapsed. Some weeks afterwards, when an obstinate, erroneous belief was claiming the student's attention, the operation just described came vividly to his thought and its processes were analyzed.

He recognized that although the pillar collapsed under what may well have been the two hundredth blow, each of the previous one hundred and ninety-nine blows had contributed to its final destruction. Also, the men at work entertained no doubts about the result of their labors. They did not stop after the first twenty or thirty blows to question one another as to why their work had produced no effect, neither did they become discouraged. Had they done so, the final result would have been delayed.

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