Sentence Sermons (Christian Inspiration) #125 --- Drifting

Each and every one has the capacity to go up or go down; if we do not rise it is not because we may not. Here it is a matter of choice, in the world beyond a matter of destiny. The surest sign of hostility to God is the endeavor of anyone to drag down His creatures to a lower level than the one they should occupy. These instances we see in the social world of those who have fallen from positions of trust and responsibility, much to the surprise of those who have long known them; yet investigation declares the fact that they had been steadily gravitation to this point, but so gradually as to deceive themselves. Whatever condition or place, whether up or down, we gravitate in the world, a corresponding place will be found to receive us in the world to come. Each one should question himself what are his own inward aspirations, and whether they are drifting.

---Owen Street, Lowell Daily Courier, Lowell, Mass., July 9, 1883.

The man who floats lazily down the stream of life in pursuit of something borne along by the same current, will find himself indeed moved forward; but unless he lays his hand to the oar, or increases his speed by his own labor, he must be always at the same distance from that which he is following. In our voyage of life we must not drift but steer.

---Theophile Meerschaert, The Indian Advocate, Sacred Heart, Okla., September 1904.

“Habit is a cable. We weave a thread of it each day and it becomes so strong that we cannot break it.” That quotation has been a source of great damage to humanity. The idea that we cannot change our habits has influenced a great many people to throw up their hands, drift with the current, and go down to destruction. We can change our habits; and if we have any bad ones we ought to change them, must change them. We can cultivate good habits to take the place of old and bad ones. We can root out weeds and plant good seed. It calls for patience, courage and determination, but it can be done.

---Burris A. Jenkins, St. Joseph Gazette, St. Joseph, Mo., Nov. 24, 1929.

Nobody ever dreamed or drifted into a character; this prize comes only by conscious effort. Courageous endeavor is the secret of all conquests worthwhile.

---William T. Ellis, The Daily Argus, Mount Vernon, N.Y., Jan. 16, 1915.

Most people are content to drift along into any sort of life or character that happens to come to them with the years. Only the rare man, so far as to be called great, resolutely achieves for himself the character which he, in his moments of clearest perception, has deemed worthwhile. The courage that wins character must combat the inbred littleness of human nature every day of life. Its enemies are both without and within.

---William T. Ellis, Schenectady Gazette, Schenectady, N.Y., March 29, 1919.

Have some definite aim in life. Don’t drift around and around like a log in a whirlpool.

---Billy Sunday, Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., Dec. 5, 1913.

It is human to drift with the ride; it is Godlike to stand alone.

---Billy Sunday, Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., Dec. 6, 1913.

You drift towards the rocks. You have to row to reach success.

---B.C. Forbes, Washington Herald, Washington, D.C., Dec. 30, 1922.

The man who falls into a lazy state and drifts along is neither cold nor hot, an indifferent thing in the sight of the world. There is no force in indifference.

---John Elward Brown, El Paso Morning Times, El Paso, Texas, April 1, 1918.

The nearer we get to God the more we talk of His glory, and the farther we drift the more we talk of ourselves.

---John Elward Brown, El Paso Morning Times, El Paso, Texas, April 6, 1918.

Drifting men and drifting snow have one thing in common: the destination of both is determined by the winds which blow.

---Chelsea H. “C.H.” Kelley, Williamson Daily News, Williamson, W. Va., April 24, 1950.

It is sincerity of purpose that is creative strength. Personality that remains strong and refuses to drift creates a powerful eddy along its channel of progress, an eddy that sweeps the others along with it.

---Betsy Root, Buffalo Courier-Express, Buffalo, N.Y., July 26, 1937.

Men drift because the engines of the will lie idle.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Duluth Evening Herald, Duluth, Minn., April 15, 1899.

He who drifts to ruin will get there just as surely as he who drives.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Duluth Evening Herald, Duluth, Minn., July 1, 1889.

It is hard not to drift when you have nothing to tie to.

---Elijah Powell Brown, Fulton County News, McConnelsburg, Pa., Jan. 6, 1904.

The reason so few people get to the top is because you cannot drift up hill.

---Roy L. Smith, Buffalo Courier-Express, Buffalo, N.Y., June 4, 1930.

We seldom climb while drifting.

---Roy L. Smith, Buffalo Courier-Express, Buffalo, N.Y., March 16, 1932.

Ignorance is a menace. It is really a menace to growth to drift along with the tide, ignorant of where we are going.

---Edward Howard Griggs, Geneva Daily Times, Geneva, N.Y., April 23, 1908.

The secret of failure is the lack of definiteness of purpose. Nine-tenths of the human family are live driftwood upon a chopped sea.

--- Len G. Broughton, True Republican, Sycamore, Ill., Oct. 5, 1907.

Drifting indicates a lack of moral stamina and organization because the drifter always goes down stream.

---Robert W. Leazer, El Paso Herald, El Paso, Texas, Dec. 4, 1920.

Few men plunge at once into doubt or deviltry. Men do not become atheists at a leap. For one man who resolutely sets his face against God, there are a hundred who drift from Him. Men do not become dishonest and immoral at once. The great moral shipwrecks brought daily to our notice in the press are all the result of drifting.

---J.F. Carson, The Morning Herald, Baltimore, Md., May 10, 1896.

Life is worth just what our vows, under God, make it to be. A man without vows is not a star, but a meteor; not a mountain range, but a sand dune, drifting now to the shore and now to the sea.

---H.D. Jenkins, Houston Daily Post, Houston, Texas, Feb. 13, 1898.

Drifting is dangerous. In this age it is a common thing for people to drift; unconsciously they are being carried away from their spiritual anchorage in Christ. As to many of us, I am sure our mother’s prayer was that we might attain to ideals, that we might attain unto the things of God. Have we done this or have we been drifting? I find many Christians with good intentions who are indifferent to the claims of Christ. They are not so intentionally, but are just drifting. Little by little they are making compromises and losing their interest in the things of the kingdom. Some have only to go back a few years to recall their former passion for doing things for Christ. Is that passion gone?

The world’s great tragedy is not in those who have never claimed the Christ, but in those who, having claimed Him, have fallen away. If people were only conscious that they are drifting, their danger is they unconsciously drift from Christ, little by little, until they are lost. We are all so intent upon the things of the present, and it is sad to say that so many haven’t time for the best things. But in our best moments we know that is not the way we want to live; in those moments we want to live a life that is two worlds wide. Then let us put more of the things of God into what we do and say. Let us have more soul experience with God. Christ is the anchorage of the soul; when everything else seems unstable, He will be found steadfast. Then let us lay hold upon Him and stop drifting.

---George A. Brewer, Duluth Herald, Duluth, Minn., Jan. 7, 1918.

There is very little in this world that will drift naturally into religion, and very few little that will not drift naturally into politics.

---Frank Hilton Greer, Oklahoma State Capital, Guthrie, Okla., June 6, 1908

If you sit down and wait for your ship to come in, don’t be surprised if nothing but a wreck drifts in with the tide.

---Frank Hilton Greer, Oklahoma State Capital, Guthrie, Okla., Aug. 11, 1909.

It is one of the easiest things to backslide. We drift away before we are conscious of it. We are not saved because we were converted some time ago, or because our names are on the church record. Habits, customs, livings, church-going, singing, praying, are very often veils over our faces, which hide from us our real condition and prevent us from knowing whether or not we are in the enjoyment of God’s favor and have His forgiveness. You cannot tell by the drift of the current upon the surface, where you stand. You may shout and sing and be very greatly moved upon but unless it be the mighty moving of the under current, the gulf stream, we are deceived and the truth is not in us. By God’s help get down in your souls tonight and find out what you love most. If we love God with all our hearts, perfectly, no matter what we feel, then we have within us a hope that is born of Heaven, which the world cannot give or take away. It is the hardest work any man can undertake to bring a sinner to look at himself. I dare you unsaved one to look into your own heart. Get your real status as before God. See what you are like. Have you pleased God? Have you a conscience that does not condemn? Have you not whistled to keep up our courage when the still, small voice pleaded with you? Hearken, the soul that sinneth it shall die! Are your thoughts clean, is your life pure?

---S.H. Hoover, Reading Eagle, Reading, Pa., Sept. 24, 1888.

A rudderless ship is at the mercy of the waves. A purposeless life is but human driftwood, floating on the sea of time, cast hither and thither by every whim of wind and wave. The man who succeeds is the man who has the courage and conviction to anchor to one position, one faith; remain with the former until he is its master; be steadfast in the faith until he becomes the willing slave of the author and finisher of our faith, the Holy One of God.

Human nature is a mystery. Most of us desire to be somewhere else than where we are. Here we have too much wind, sand and heat. We go elsewhere, and something there is not what it should be. So we aimlessly drift from place to place.

Our position does not measure up to our expectation. So we journey from city to city, here a little, there a little, and in the end we have accomplished nothing. Still drifting, drifting. Someone with a rare insight into human nature wrote: “A man’s a fool, when it’s hot he wants it cool; when it’s cool he wants it hot, always wanting what is not.” This applies to the spiritual as well the secular. If you have no definite end in view, the inevitable result must be failure. …

Every life should have a purpose. The supreme desire should be to be like Jesus. We should think great thoughts. We should plan grand and glorious achievements, for we are none other than the King’s children.

When God gives me opportunity to serve my fellow man, he intends me to use it. The gift is to be used enlargingly. As far as God is concerned the purpose is for all men to receive and know Him.

We will receive this gift whenever we are ready to accept His word and serve Him. We will consider it an honor to serve others. We will not lose time and valuable opportunity sighing for the heaven that is to be, but the dynamic purpose of our life will be to bring a little heaven just where we are, and do it immediately. By caring for the present, the future will take care for itself and we will obey the divine decree of letting the morrow take care of itself.

Power is the gift of God. Purpose is the application of the gift. Have a purpose. Live for Him now and you shall live forever.

---Arthur C. Harris, El Paso Herald, El Paso, Texas, July 7, 1917.

In life’s work men fail, as a rule, because they are not willing to pay the price of success. This leads me to say that the world may be divided into two classes—those who sail and those who drift. Those who choose their port and sail directly for it, refusing to be turned aside by adverse currents, defying the winds and the storms, and those who drift. The latter class endure all the hardships, encounter all the storms and perhaps more than the former class, and yet they are only drifting—perhaps eventually to be dashed to pieces upon the rocks of some barren shore, forfeiting all hope of reaching a desirable harbor.

It is of vital importance, then, to know. Knowledge is essential to progress. You want to know you to gain the highest and best positions. … Knowledge that is essential does not mean all kinds of knowledge, for certain kinds of knowledge must through all life be a curse to you. Said a passenger to the pilot who had for years guided vessels down the St. Lawrence River, “I suppose you know where all the dangerous rocks are in this river.” The pilot answered, “I do not, but I know where there are no rocks, where the vessel may glide safely down the river.” So may we covet and strive for that knowledge and that knowledge alone which will lead us to the desired end.

We verily believe that the best shall prevail. The closer you walk to the teachings of the Nazarene, the higher and more permanent will be your success. And when at last “your feet are slipping o’er the brink,” only the noble things that you have done and the helpful words that you have spoken can comfort. I have been trying to make clear that success or failure is with you. It is not what you would like to be, but what you WILL be. If you are determined to succeed, the world will stand aside that you may succeed.

How very important, then, that you prepare yourself thoroughly for life’s great work. In this race for the best, you must lay aside every weight. When men are going to run a race they lay aside all unnecessary clothing. They dress for it. So must you decide to carry no unnecessary weight. Take only the necessary equipment, and then call to yourself every aid. Make the best use of habit. Form regular habits. Have method in your work, because in later years the vast majority of all your activity will run along the lines of habits formed in youth.

A large factor in your success will be a proper use of time. Divide time aright. Do not give too much tie developing muscles at the expense of the development of the brain, or necessary labor.

We have but one life to live, and consequently have only time for that which is vital and essential. You may find obstacles, but they will disappear before determination. Acquire the habit of conquering. … I wish it might be emphasized ever that we have no time to lose. In the great work set before you there is not one moment to lose. Suppose now you decide to waste no more time. What grand results will be obtained! What a life of wonderful usefulness you may live, and many, when life’s history for you has been closed, will rise up to call you blessed.

If your success is to be the truest and the best, the motive must come from within. The heart must center its affections upon the noblest and highest methods of gaining the desired end. Then you will be strong and heroic for the right. In the storms that sweep the oceans the poorly built and poorly manned vessels are often wrecked, while the strongly built and well-manned vessels defy the force of wind and waves, and majestically speed toward the harbor. So may you defy life’s storms, and ultimately triumph, if only your motive is high and strong.

With you, as with all, the question is simply this: What are you after; what are you seeking? If you desire success, then know that success is within your reach. See your opportunity, put forth the effort. Succeed. Success means readiness for instant action.

---Henry A. Logan, Virginia Enterprise, Virginia, Minn., June 15, 1906.

Things worth having require effort. Have you ever gone along a crowded street on a holiday when all were hurrying in the same direction to witness a performance? Someone decides that he must go in the opposite direction. Everywhere he meets opposition and proceeds with great difficulty. Naturally people drift with the crowd for that is easy. But someone says, “I will go the other way and achieve something.” He is a reformer or a crank, or a conscientious man, according to the point of view. To achieve the positive things of life one must face the crowd. The negative things require no effort. Which are you doing, fighting for a cause because it is right, or drifting with the crowd? If you have never been considered a crank, or a reformer, or conscientious, it is time to check up your life and find out where you are.

The world seldom takes the trouble to criticize the one who has no ideals higher than itself, and who is contented to drift. If not criticizing you and finding fault, you may be fairly sure that it is suited to your standards and that there is something wrong with them. You have chosen the standards of the multitude and not a high ideal.

---Karl Tinsley Waugh, The Citizen, Berea, Ky., May 27, 1920.

There are times in every human experience when the motive power which furnishes buoyancy to the step, clearness to mental vision, and joy to the heart runs so low that ambition to “keep a-goin’” is lost in the desire to tarry by the wayside—times when men and women lose their grip and hope is lost in discouragement and failure. Many a life has been stranded on shoals of this character, and become a derelict, long before the voyage was completed. Somewhere within us … is a faculty familiarly known as the will. ...

Not daring to entertain an opinion, much less to express it, [a person] leads a submissive life. … He agrees with everybody on every conceivable topic. He is a drifter and always will be, because he started life with the best part of the equipment left out. …

Some speakers possess the faculty of never exhausting a topic. After they have talked for an hour you feel as though they had just touched the high places and wish they would go on. That is reserve power, and that is what the will is to the human mechanism. …

When the machinery begins to squeak and run hard, or when the waves of adversity threaten to engulf us, the will brings to the front our reserve forces and we pull out of the dilemma which seemed so alarming.

Physicians tells us that the will has much to do with fighting disease and that many a life has been sacrificed because hope was abandoned by the sufferer. A gentleman who was partially shelved, a time ago, and sat in a cozy corner by an open fire for most of the winter, with his wife for a reader and constant companion, discovered one morning that the life of idleness and leisure had become so fascinating that he could adopt it for a steady diet without difficulty. He had sense enough left to “jar himself loose” and the dormant will, which had been off on a vacation, came to his relief and saved him from becoming a confirmed invalid. There are men and women who have been in bed for years, with no sign of disease, who need the tonic of a fire alarm, close at hand, to put them on their feet.

A still larger class have retired from active service twenty years before their time, and have become spectators when they should be busy workers in the ranks.

The best tonic for many of the ills of life is to “keep a-goin’.” Better to wear out than to rust out, and a lot more fun in the game.

---Lew B. Brown, Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, Fla., Jan. 22, 1912.

The story is told of a man who bought a ticket to the old world and journeyed across the country to the port from which he was to embark, but when he stood at the dock and looked out over the vast expanse of water his courage failed and so the trip was abandoned. The roadway of life is lined with failures who never arrived at any destination because they never started. Many of these wrecks belong to the down-and-out class, because they have passed the age of opportunity, and therefore excite but little attention or sympathy. But a larger class are men and women in the prime of life who are simply drifters, because they are attempting to make the journey without chart or compass. They never started with any definite purpose, but went with the crowd.

The habits of life, which control us so completely, are usually formed in the early stage of the journey. That is why it is so difficult for people to change after they reach the age of thirty, and why they are so slow to make a start in a new direction when they approach middle life. If they have failed in one or two ventures, that usually settles it, for with the failure has come loss of confidence, and when self-confidence is destroyed the case is hopeless. Many people never learn the lesson that the school of hard service is the best department in the great university of life, because it tests the fiber of character and develops the fighting qualities so necessary to success in every calling.

---Lew B. Brown, Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, Fla., Nov. 4, 1912.

Drifting down a stream may be very enjoyable and pleasant, but drifting in moral and spiritual things is most dangerous. Resting on our oars does not bring us the desired goal. The Christian’s goal lies upstream. The Bible calls the Christian’s life a fight for a crown, a race that must be won.

Drifting will continue to lead you in the wrong direction, unless it is stopped. We lose ground as soon as we no longer make headway. When did you last pray sincerely? When did you last experience a sincere hunger for God’s word? When did you last find joy in working for your church?

The remedy for drifting is sturdy rowing, that is, diligent use of God’s Word and Sacrament, through which the Holy Spirit leads us to a sincere repentance, a stronger faith, to a full surrender to our Savior and a willingness to live and do as He directs, anchoring our ship of life securely to Christ, the Rock of Ages, so that when days of testing come, we may be found strong Christians. “Hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”

—E.F. Eske, Milwaukee Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., Jan. 2, 1952.

Do you have a plan or are you a drifter? There are many drifters in the world going with the current, wherever it may happen to carry them. They stick to a job simply because it is easy and if it becomes hard they leave it and go on their way looking for some other job that is soft. Honestly, deep down in their hearts, they intend to do something big; but they live only in yesterday and tomorrow. Today, alive with opportunity, has no meaning to them. The way of the drifter is always downstream, so that opportunity is always moving away from him.

Unless you know where you're going and are really rowing as hard as you can to that point, you are drifting. Unless you are willing to accept responsibility and really work you are drifting. Unless you can see each day's work moving ahead in force, strength and efficiency toward your goal, you are drifting. The drifter always goes down--never up. And he finally goes over the falls of failure or lands in some still pond of mediocrity, where he remains all the rest of his life.

Ambition doesn't mean thinking wonderful dreams, while floating with the tide. It means taking off your coat, rolling up your sleeves, and pulling your boat upstream.

---Willard W. Hield, The Vision, Independence, Mo., March 1932.

I drove by a man trudging along on the muddy highway, but my feelings hurt me as I passed him, and the farther I got from him the closer he got to me. Finally I turned, drove up to him and said, "Going far?"

"Don't know," he answered, with little or no concern.

"Where you bound for?"

"No place in particular."

"Well, I can't help you. You are just traveling, not going anywhere."

I drove on with my conscience cleared, but with the remark to myself, "Driftwood! Human driftwood!"

Human driftwood has become a problem. There are evidently two causes behind this pitiable effort. The first contributing cause of human driftwood is a sort of dalliance with aimlessness or ease‑taking until it becomes a habit, and then one becomes the voluntary creature of circumstances instead of the commanding creature of circumstances. The world pushes aside the drifter; it makes way for the man who is going somewhere.

The second cause of human driftwood is discouragement, ... the deadening pressure of discouragement, moving into a state of fatal don't‑care‑ism.

If my tramp was the product of the first cause, as I thought and still think he was, then any interference with his "just going" would have failed to be helpful; but if he was like one to whom I "gave a lift," ... just discouraged, then to have 'taken him on' and encouraged him with visions or objectives and ways of realizing them would have been my duty. The fiber of driftwood made so by discouragement may be renewed, but that produced by habit of aimlessness is beyond reformation‑‑almost. ...

Driftwood! No first class article can be made from it. A bridge made of it may break of its own weight. A fire built of it produces more smoke than flame. Its grain destroyed, it cannot take polish.

-‑‑George H. Brimhall, Long and Short Range Arrows, 1934.

A man adrift will either be carried into the depths or cast with bruises on a strange shore.

---George G. Benedict, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu, Hawaii, Sept. 29, 1936.

When a man is drifting with the stream he is likely to think that the stream has ceased to flow.

---Henry F. Cope, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., March 18, 1906.

He who drifts always goes in the wrong direction.

‑‑‑J. Benjamin Lawrence, Baptist Record, Jackson, Miss., July 20, 1916.

People can usually be classified into two groups‑‑planners or drifters. Here are ways to recognize both:

Planners always think and analyze every situation. They decide and plan on a definite course of action. Then they follow through with determination to succeed.

Drifters seldom take time to think or meditate. They seldom force themselves to make firm decisions. They usually look for an easy way out, rationalize, and make excuses.

Are you drifting through life or is your life a planned, purposeful life? At the end of your life, will you be saying "I wish I had" or "I'm glad I did"?

‑‑‑Larry C. Linton, Westate, Denver, Colo., January 1963.

The striking word “drift” picturesquely describes one of the greatest religious perils of our age. To drift is to gradually lose faith.

The drifter has no design nor deliberate purpose. No man starts with the idea of being bad. He is beguiled with it, drawn on from bad to worse by the drive and drift of the evil currents on which he has embarked. But life is no pleasure excursion to be spent in dawdling about the bays and inlets of the coastline.

It is a serious voyage across a treacherous ocean and we need all our wits about us. The men and women who have won the prize of the high calling in Christ have not been drifters, but swimmers every one.

—Albert E. Ribourg, New York Times, New York, N.Y., March 8, 1926.

In matters which are purely of opinion, each of us is entitled to his own position. Because some strong-minded person has an opinion different from ours is no reason for us to switch over and accept his opinion. He is just as liable to be wrong as we are.

It is excellent mental and spiritual training for us to form our own opinions. In matters of importance we should come to our conclusions carefully and have reasons for them; but once having deliberately reached a conclusion, we should stick to it unless there is some better reason for changing it than that some sturdy personality differs with us.

It has a bad effect on one’s character to drift back and forth from one conclusion to another—like a dead fish in the tide. It is better to be wrong sometimes and hold to it, than to be a dead fish floating here and there. No one is right all the time. The fellow who would make you believe that he is infallible is either trying to fool you or himself.

And don’t make a fetish of long time consistency; don’t be afraid to change your mind and reverse yourself if you are prompted to do so by your own judgment rather than by somebody’s harangue.

The person who never changes his mind has little mind to change. We progress—the whole world progresses—by change. Suppose the world were being run today by the old boys of The Year One; and suppose they had never changed their minds about anything. What kind of world would this be?

As conditions change, as circumstances change, minds must change or become hopelessly closed to things as they are.

---Wickes Wamboldt, Waycross Journal-Herald, Waycross, Ga., Nov. 9, 1939.

Many of us worry because we are drifters. We have no plans in life.

We have cut loose from our moorings and thrown chart and compass overboard.

We are like the fellow who said, "I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on the way."

It doesn't matter so much what your occupation may be‑‑whether it's in the home, the school, the shop, or the store‑‑your life will be immensely relieved from anxiety and the petty worries if you have some big ideal, the striving after which makes every little worry seem like the pebbles on the highway to the traveler who is journeying home. These are mere incidents in his progress and he is unmindful of them, because of the goal just beyond.

Definiteness brings clearness.

The assurance that one is on the way and not merely drifting brings courage in times of storm. With not a ship in sight and no land to be seen anywhere, with nothing but a waste of water all about‑‑the captain of the [ship] is nevertheless calm and serene. His course is worked out. He has a compass which directs him and a chart to show him the way‑‑and he's steering as the compass directs.

It's a mighty good thing, once in a while, to stop and ask yourself, "What is the purpose of my life? Is there anything toward which I am working? Or is life merely a succession of daily jobs?" ...

The fact is, in spite of what some men may think of us, God gauges a man's life by its general tendencies, rather than by its occasional failings and sins.

But it's necessary to have a goal‑‑because then there's a chance to make progress. It is possible to make the blows count.

If life is merely a succession of single, isolated acts, having no relationship one toward the other‑‑then the chances are about even that you're getting nowhere, even ignorantly. ...

Paul said, "Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before--I press on."

What he meant was that he would not be hindered by the past‑‑that he would forget his mistakes and failures, and rise by "stepping on his dead self."

No man can make progress by completely forgetting his past‑‑it's what he does with it that determines whether he will slip back or press on.

Every picture should have some kind of a background‑‑so must every life.

But the past is of value only as it is used to make today worthwhile. It must not make us slaves‑‑in this sense we may say with Paul, "Forgetting those things which are behind."

If evil is to attack you tomorrow, or sin or sickness, or any other force that might weaken you‑‑the way to meet it is to live so today that you'll be strong for tomorrow's battle.

But always think in terms of "today"‑‑"sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof"‑‑don't bother about the troubles of tomorrow. They'll probably never come.

‑‑‑Charles Stelzle, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, May 21, 1922.

Drifting is easy. The line of least resistance is often a pleasant one. There is no pressure from obligation. The voice of duty is silent. The motion of the currents is soporific. The toil is easy or it is reduced to a minimum. One seems to be a part of the rhythmic order of things. There is no flighting necessary. You do not have to struggle; things are done for you. Drifting with the tide or the currents, life is passive, inactive, pleasant, but never successful.

Drifting may go on almost unconsciously. The current is so gentle, the movement so charming. There is nothing in the immediate surroundings that indicates the drifting is going on. A prayer is forgotten, a service neglected, a duty unperformed. A trivial thing is allowed to intervene between the soul and its obligation to some high thing. Easy to drift! And when one is forced to lift up his eyes from the surroundings and behold the distant landscape, a jutting peak accentuated by the white surf line around it, it is seen that almost unconsciously one has drifted beyond safety.

Drifting is one of the common things of experience. ... There is a sort of an easy-as-you-please way affecting us all. ... So men who, in a more staid and conventional environment, would not drift, find themselves caught up with the great current of affairs, with its temptations, its storms, its pleasures and follies and being unable to wage an incessant battle for their own souls find it easy to drift.

It is dangerous to drift. The night will come. The stars will be obliterated. The gray mist will settle down around you. The storm will drive fast against you. The currents run subtle and rapid. The rocks loom up. Back away, back away! You may drift to ruin. The difference between drifting and sailing is the difference between heaven and hell.

---Benjamin Young, Inter-Mountain Republican, Salt Lake City, Utah, Aug. 6, 1906.

If you are content to drift lazily, you'll by and by find yourself at sea.

‑‑‑B.C. Forbes, Forbes Magazine, New York, N.Y., April 16, 1921.

To travel to new places you must build new roads. If you stay in the same ruts you have been in for the past year, you will go no further than before. New objectives should be set up after studying your possibilities for growth and more effective work. ... Goals prevent drifting.

‑‑‑Ralph E. Longshore, The Sunday School Builder, Nashville, Tenn., October 1952.

The drifter seldom lands.

---Billings Gazette, Billings, Mont., Aug. 7, 1924.

Some people are content to drift through life at the pace at which other people push them along.

---Humboldt Star, Winnemucca, Nev., Aug. 3, 1921.

When you're satisfied to rest on your oars, goodness knows where you'll drift.

---Humboldt Star, Winnemucca, Nev., March 28, 1946.

He who drifts with the tide is apt to go broke on the rocks.

---Wheeling Intelligencer, Wheeling, W. Va., Sept. 25, 1909.

It is better to go down fighting the storm, than to go on forever drifting aimlessly with the tide.

---Zion's Herald, Boston, Mass., Sept. 3, 1902.