earnest.--Emerson
says truly that "every great and commanding movement in the annals of
the world is the triumph of enthusiasm." Our civil and religious
liberties we owe to enthusiasts for freedom. The enthusiasm of
Columbus gave us America; the enthusiasm of Knox reformed Scotland; the
enthusiasm of Wesley regenerated English religious life; the enthusiasm
of men like Garibaldi and Cavour and Mazzini has made in our own time a
new Italy. These men were all denounced in their day, cold water was
thrown on all their projects, but their burning earnestness carried
them on to triumph. The scorned enthusiast of one generation is the
hero of the next.

Earnestness is a great element in securing success in life.--A
well-known writer and preacher, Dr. Arnot, tells that he once heard the
following conversation at a railway station between a farmer and the
engineer of a train: "What are you waiting for so long? Have you no
water?" "Oh, yes, we have plenty of water, but it is not boiling." So
there may be abundance of intelligence and splendid machinery, and all
the appliances that help to success, but what is wanted is intense
boiling earnestness. We have a good illustration of the power of
earnestness in speaking. One man may say the right thing, and say it
in a pleasing and cultured manner; every phrase may be well placed,
every sentence polished, every argument in its proper place. Another
man may have no elegance of diction, his words may be unpolished, his
sentences even ungrammatical, and yet he may move a great multitude, as
the leaves of the trees are moved by the wind, through the intense
earnestness and enthusiasm by which he is possessed. We see the same
thing in Christian effort. The organization of a church may be
perfect, its resources may be large, and it may have in its service an
army of able and well-disciplined men; but without enthusiasm and
burning zeal its efforts are powerless and come to nothing. When, as
at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends upon a church in tongues of
fire, then there is quickening, and souls are gathered in. No man has
ever had a supreme influence over others without more or less
enthusiasm in his nature.

There are three directions we may give in regard to earnestness or
enthusiasm.

1. _Respect it in others_.--Do not join with those who regard it as
something that is not respectable. It is always preferable to what is
cold and formal. Life is better than death,