Nature has blessed a few with
great talents and abilities. These persons often become proud,
self-centered, and feel themselves to be superior, and for that reason
many times they fail to make the proper use of their abilities. How often
are they used in a bad or foolish way, so that what might be a blessing to
the world fails to be such! There are many others who realize they do not
possess these natural gifts. They look upon those who have them, and envy
them. They bemoan their own lack, and say, "If I only had the talents that
person has," and meanwhile they sit in idleness, making no use of what
they have.

"If I could preach like So-and-so, what I would accomplish for the Lord!"
another says; or, "If I had the money So-and-so has, what I could
accomplish for the kingdom!"

"If my circumstances were different, I might hope to do something," comes
from another.

But all these are like the dreamer who says, "Tomorrow I will do great
things," and yet today he does nothing.

Make the Best of Yourself.

You will always be yourself. You can never be any one else. If you ever
accomplish anything, it will be through those powers and abilities you now
possess. It is of no use to lament that you are not as somebody else is;
it is of no use to envy another's talents. You are only yourself. You
might as well face that fact, and endeavor to make the best possible use
of the gifts you have. They may look very small compared with those of
some others, but they are all you have. Time spent in troubling yourself
because you are not greater is worse than wasted. The question is, Shall I
improve and make use of what I have?

Man is capable of great development. Eye, hand, strength, mind, will--in
fact, the whole man may, by proper efforts, be taught and developed, and
expanded until he becomes something very different from what he was at
first. The blessing of God will help us much, but that will not take the
place of our own determined and persevering efforts.

Have you ever attempted to develop yourself? Do not think that because
your abilities now seem small they never can be greater. You were only a
child once. You did not think that you never would be larger. You looked
eagerly forward to the time when you would be as large as grown-up people.
Each day you ate and drank and breathed and exercised--the very things that
would produce the growth that you desired. You used what you had of energy
and strength, and thus increa