APPRENTICESHIP

APPRENTICESHIP

I am sure you are quite right in desiring to have a suitable occupation. The higher one is conventionally, the more ought one to prove that he or she is high morally, and therefore to set an example of ability to support yourself ^[p. 168] is commendable. It is the highest duty of man or woman, nothing so small as to eat the bread of idleness. If a man work not neither shall be eat. I entirely commend your desire and purpose to seek employment and not to be a trespass upon others when you can support yourself. This purpose is unquestionably right. The next thing is, What is the employment you are fit for? This comprehends a great deal. A tradesman can tell what he is fit for because he has served his time to it. I admit a genius may pick up a trade, etc, but the true and sober way of ascertaining what you are fit for is by serving your time, being first an apprentice, really learning your trade. If you cannot submit to the drudgery of learning the trade you will never succeed in it. The good apprentice will be the good tradesman. I believe that in a large family like yours, taking all the circumstances into account, that, were you to wait simply on the Lord, without any suggestion of your own, He would prepare you for the post which would meet your true desire and purpose. He has each of us at some apprenticeship or another, and as I have said, we prove whether we are fit or not for the line He is educating us for, by the way we behave in the time of probation. David little knew that he was being prepared to feed Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance, when he was following the ewes great with young. Had he shewn himself then a negligent, unfeeling herdsman, he would have been disqualified and unfit for the post for which the Lord was preparing him. It is the way we behave in the circumstances in which we are, which proves whether we are qualified for a definite position of service. The Lord tests our ability by the way we endure. It is the patience which I have in the probationary period which in His eye qualifies me for rule, etc. I believe many a one with a very sincere purpose is detained in the school because he has not patience enough for the place of authority or leadership. Joseph’s patience was tested in the prison, David’s finally at Ziklag. Neither knew the eminence that was before him. Each had a good purpose, but the Lord prepared them, not by making trial of them in a small way, but by subjecting them to great pressure in their surroundings and then deciding from the way ^[p. 169] they comported themselves, their fitness for distinct official position. The Lord knows what you are fit for, and He is preparing you for it, but the way He judges of your fitness, is not by your ability to teach or to rule, but by the measure of patience you have under the most trying circumstances. Do you think you are qualified? Are you out of your apprenticeship?