Cheerfulness.—This is a very essential thing to self-help. If you have a task, and you have somebody to cheer you up, your task feels lighter, and the time passes better. People who are dull, and not cheerful, find the time pass slower, and the work seems heavier. There have been men who have been cheerful even when they have been in great difficulties.
Christ said to the man sick of the palsy, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."
Courage.—Moral courage is one of the most important features in this subject. You will be more likely to succeed if you are bold and courageous. It is right to be courageous in a good cause, but not in a wrong one. It is real courage, when wicked persons try to entice you to drinking, gambling, and other vices, if you boldly answer, "No."
Solomon says, in the Book of Proverbs xxviii. 1—"The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion."
Prudence, or Foresight.—It is wise to consider what the consequences of your actions will be. Some people do not stop to do so, and thus run needlessly into danger. You cannot rightly practise self-help without you are prudent. It is very imprudent to risk life or anything unnecessarily, or to leave things to the last minute or two. If you are imprudent, you will regret it in after life.
In Proverbs xvi. 21, it says, "The wise in heart shall be called prudent."
Self-help is not a spiritual thing, but a temporal one; but you cannot truly succeed in these things without God's help and blessing. May we, in the things of daily life, and especially in spiritual things, be led to say, like David, in Psalm cxxi., "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth," remembering that He does not approve selfish living, but says, "To do good and to communicate, forget not."—(Abridged.)
F. E. H. Andrews
(Aged 13 years 5 months).
1, Tavistock Terrace,
Upper Holloway, London, N.
[Lilly Rush, W. E. Cray (age not given), A. M. Cray, E. B. West, A. Pease, and Margaret Creasey have sent fair Essays, especially the first-named, and we hope they will still persevere.]