The Making of a Man

Often, and especially when we are young, we see someone playing a great part, and we wish we could play a great part also, but without much thought as to what goes into the making of a man. We often overlook the years of struggle, of self-denial, and the persistency of purpose that must precede any worth-while achievement. We look where we’d like to be, and become impatient with long preparation. We wish the distance would somehow shorten itself. We see something we suddenly want to become, and look for ways to eliminate the preliminaries and prerequisites. We want our dreams to take substance right now. But it isn’t the nature of things for us suddenly to become something that we are not. A man is what he is because of what he has been and what he has done. We have to live the part we want to play. A life in time or eternity is a composite of all that has gone into its making. Persistent smallness of spirit here and now means smallness of spirit hereafter. Indolence and indifference now mean that we shall realize the rewards of indolence and indifference in times to come. Work and effort in the right direction are the only means by which we move in the right direction. In other words, a man must begin to be what he would like to be—if that’s what he wants to be. He must travel the road that leads where he wants to go—if that’s where he wants to go. Neither here nor hereafter shall we suddenly become something that we are not, with qualities we have not earned, or enjoying a way of life we are not fitted for. In man’s eternal march, what we shall be tomorrow and tomorrow will be the sum of all our past, plus what we do with today.