"Received in This Condition."
Very often there is placed on my desk some letter of unusual size or shape that is torn at one corner or perhaps at all corners, or split open, or badly soiled, or injured in other ways; and very often such a letter bears upon it a conspicuous legend, stamped by the post-office officials, "Received in this Condition." The managers of the Boston post-office want me to understand that it was not their fault, that they have handled the mail carefully, that my correspondent was at fault, or some unavoidable accident of the transit. At any rate, the Boston post-office men do not want me to blame them.
I think it would be an advantage if a much wider use could be made of such a stamp. It would save a great deal of fault-finding.
Here, for instance, is a girl who breaks down in college. She was just ready to take her final examinations and receive her diploma with honor, but she has to go home on the verge of that dread disease, "nervous prostration"—and a young girl at that.
At once all the wiseacres began to cry down higher education for women.
But that girl was "received in this condition." She was never taught at home to dress wisely, eat properly, sleep regularly, or take care of her health in any way. Her school days have simply continued this home neglect, and the physical breakdown is the penalty. Higher education is not in the least responsible.
Here is a Christian Endeavor society started among the boys and girls of a church whose members care far more for church suppers than for the prayer meeting, and far more for swell receptions than for church suppers.
There are such churches. The young people have the spirit of the church—a spirit diametrically opposed to the spirit of Christian Endeavor. Their pledge-keeping is soon discovered to be a farce, their prayer meetings become weary mockeries, their committee-work is lifeless from the start, they have no guidance from their elders, and the society is either changed to a literary club, or, if it continues, is held up as an awful evidence of the decay of Christian Endeavor.
But the young people were “received in this condition." The Christian Endeavor constitution, pledge, and committee system are tools. They are not transformers, miracle-workers. There are excellent ways—best ways—in which young Christians can do work for the Master; but the young folks must really want to work in those ways first. If they have no heart for the endeavor, Christian Endeavor is not responsible for their failure.
And so I might go on and name the failure of the preacher to make converts at a revival meeting filled with cold-hearted Christians, the failure of a statesman to purify a city when the best citizens take no personal interest in politics, the failure of a teacher to win her scholars' regard and attention when some base slander against her has been sown through the community—and many a similar case. Congregation, city, children, were "received in this condition," and preacher, statesman, and teacher are not to be blamed for their failures.
Hear, then, the conclusion of the whole matter. Never judge a person or an institution for poor results until you know what he or it had to work with.
Why He Was Hunting Work.
A man was arrested in Atlantic City, N. J., charged with begging. To arouse compassion he had made use of a queer card, worded thus:
"I never smile.
"I never close my eyes.
"I never close my lips.
"I am in need of funds until a position can be secured."
That rather picturesque and original vagabond unconsciously epitomized in that document the reasons why many a man is out of work. Let us consider those three particulars:
Item 1. He never smiles. Who wants to employ a perpetual grouch? Who cares to hire a thunder cloud? Heads of any establishment have a right to require cheerfulness from their workers because good cheer is an essential of good work. If a man never smiles, that of itself is a good reason why he never finds a position.
Item 2. He never closes his eyes. That is, he never goes to sleep. He turns night into day. He does not take proper rest, proper recreation. Something like this is considered a virtue by many a man, but not by an employer. The employer knows that a good night's sleep is an essential preliminary to a good day's work. Of course, "I never close my eyes" is a lie; but so far as it is true it explains why the man is out of a job. The worker who always has a job sleeps during the proper time for sleep, and sleeps soundly, so that he may be thoroughly wide awake during the proper time for work.
Item 3. He never closes his lips. Then he talks too much. If there is any nuisance greater than another around a business establishment, it is a worker that does not know when to shut his mouth. Too free talking is always mischievous talking, foolish talking, talking that harms the talker himself and the business with which he is connected. The man that never closes his lips is ever out of a situation.
On the whole, it would be hard to put into so small a space more reasons for beggary than that beggar naively advanced as arguments for contributions. It was a masterly example of how not to do it.