Our young graduate is apt to find, at some
early date after Commencement, that his advent into the world
of business, even equipped as he is with a modern education and
brand-new theories of life, has seemingly made no practical difference
to humanity at large. He longs to work, but apparently his services
are not needed. There are, as a youth once declared, for whom
hope of earning a livelihood was long deferred, "more pins
than there are pinholes."
With naive simplicity the would-be laborer has mapped out his
plan of life, believing that people and events will conspire to
give him exactly the work he wishes, in just the place he has
selected. Except in rare cases, nothing of the kind happens.
"Have you had experience?" asks Authority.
"No, none; but I have education and a longing to work."
"Those are very desirable as adjuncts," says Authority,
"but I have a hundred applicants who have proved their ability.
Your ability is yet to be proved."
Finally comes the day when the disappointed candidate cries in
despair,--"But no one will give me even a chance to gain
this necessary experience!" And when patience has become
indeed a virtue, opportunity opens her arms, and the young man
realizes that the chance has come to prove that he has nursed
his zeal, and kept his talents bright through the weary interval
of waiting.
What he needs chiefly to determine then, is that disappointment
shall not transform itself into general discouragement. The dreams
of youth are true; the crystalline ideals of youth are to be trusted,
when aligned with God's Word. Enthusiastic labor is bitterly needed,
though the world may seem for a time to be on the point of rejecting
its offer. Boys and girls in their teens, though they may know
as little of real life as children, are to determine the nation's
future health or sickness, and their manner of taking up responsible
living is of supreme importance. Therefore, though there may for
a time seem to be no niche for them to fill, let them neither
lose heart, nor faith in their early ideals.
