Why Carry the Load Longer?

“The great thing is this world,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes, “is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.” This suggests the importance of doing, of repenting, of improving, and not postponing. “He that waits for repentance,” said William Nevins, “waits for that which cannot be had as long as it is waited for. It is absurd for a man to wait for that which only he himself has to do.” “Repentance, without changing,” observed Lewis W. Dilwyn, “is like continually pumping without mending the leak.” We should make of ourselves a person we can respect. And self-respect would seem to be difficult indeed if we are living the wrong way and doing anything about it. But our resolves to improve should not be so sudden and extreme that they fade away at the first test, the first temptation. “We correct ourselves much better by a calm and steady repentance,” said a wise observer, “than by one that is harsh, turbulent, and passionate.” “Tear your sins away,” said Phillips Brooks. “Starve your tumultuous passions. Resist temptations…Cry out to your self and to your brethren, with every voice that you can rise, ‘Cease to do evil’ but…let there be this other cry also, ‘Learn to do well.’ If you can indeed grow brave and true and pure; then cowardice and falsehood and licentiousness must perish in you … Evil has no right in the world…if good would only lift itself up to its completeness, it might claim the whole world and all of manhood for itself!” Sooner or later everything is counted, every price is paid, and the only way to put mistakes behind is to put them behind. There seems no reason for carrying the load longer or later. “The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but what direction we are moving.” “It is absurd for a man to wait for that which he himself must do.”