A want ad in a small Massachusetts paper caught the attention of a lad seeking work. The requirement was for a young man to assist the office manager of a brokerage house in Boston. Applications were to be mailed to Box 1720, Boston.
The young man wrote the best letter of application he knew how to write. When no reply came he wrote a second letter, but still received no reply. Though discouraged, he did not quit. He rewrote his letter, changing the wording, improving the construction. Still he received no reply from his third letter.
This young man knew that success requires three prerequisites:—the first, persistence; the second, persistence; and the third, PERSISTENCE. So he took a train to Boston, went directly to the post office, and asked, "Who rents Box 1720?" The clerk replied that to give out such information was against the law.
The lad hunted for Box 1720, then waited hours until someone came. He followed the person to one of Boston's large brokerage houses. There the manager heard his story and then he said, "My young friend, you are just the type we are looking for. The job is yours." Thus began the career of Roger Babson, one of America's most illustrious statisticians.
Friend, do you ever lose heart in your Christian work? Some of the qualities required not only in secular life, but demanded repeatedly of Christians in the New Testament are perseverance, persistence, fidelity, steadfastness. Paul enjoined us: "Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Gal. 6:9.
This text suggests three phases: well-doing, weariness, waiting for the certain harvest.
Well-doing comes first in the original text which reads, "In well-doing let us not be weary." Though some folks become tired before doing anything, the usual order is well-doing before weariness comes in.
But in well-doing always lurks the danger of weariness.. How easily Paul himself could have been discouraged! In his long, arduous travels he was persecuted, beaten, shipwrecked, weak, ill, rejected by churches he had founded and facing martyrdom constantly. Yet he has given us the secret of an unwearied life in the four chapters of Philippians: Christ our Life, our Object, our Hope, our Strength.
"Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." 2 Cor. 4:10.
"Be Thou the object bright and fair
To fill and satisfy the heart;
My hope to meet Thee in the air,
And nevermore from Thee to part:
That I may undistracted be
To follow, serve, and wait for Thee.”