If we enter into a profession, we find ourselves constantly faced by the need of persuading our clients and patients, witnesses, judges, juries, opposing counsel and court officers, our congregations and executive boards of our churches and schools, I Individual members of our parishes, our partners and assistants, and, in fact, people above us, below us, and all around us. The farmer must sell his produce, the manufacturer his manufactured article, the railroad its transportation service, wholesale and retail distributors their merchandise. Politics consists almost wholly in persuasion. A congressman must persuade first his party leaders and perhaps his competitor in the party; then the voters at the primaries; then the voters at the election; then the speaker of the House; then the members of his committee; then the President and many executives in the administration; then, perhaps, the House itself in assembly; then, in turn, his constituents and, perhaps, the entire nation.

Wealth cannot be gained, social position cannot be attained, power is impossible, authority is not conferred, pleasure cannot be purchased, a happy and harmonious human life cannot be realized, spiritual peace cannot be found, and happiness is forever beyond our reach, except through the power of persuasion. By persuasion in prayer, we attempt to move the very mind and heart of God Himself.

So all-inclusive is this power that if you will think the matter out clearly, you will see that the answer to the problem of every human being, diverse as these problems are, the gratification of every human desire, the realization of every human ambition, may be summed up in two brief colloquial injunctions, namely: first, have the goods; second, to be able to sell them. Neither one of these is complete without the other. No man can permanently succeed in any truly desirable way unless he has something tangible or intangible, spiritual, intellectual, or material which he can offer to others as compensation for that which he wishes to receive. And no matter how valuable any man's offering, it must lie unnoticed in the world's markets unless he can sell it, in other words, persuade others to exchange for it that which he desires. The thing he wants may be only an opinion or a conviction may be only of momentary value, or it may be a gold or a silver coin.

The air-brake is probably one of the most valuable inventions ever applied to the railroad industry, and yet George Westinghouse, its inventor, found it impossible even to give it away to railroad presidents until he had learned how to sell it. The telephone, perhaps the greatest convenience, luxury, and time and money saver of modern times, would have remained a scientific toy unless the most astute and vigorous methods of persuasion had been used to insure its almost universal adoption and use. We have seen that Elias Howe built the first sewing machine so well that its fundamentals have never been improved upon, and yet, despite his most strenuous efforts and the efforts of his friends and associates, it remained a mere mechanical curiosity until he had learned how to persuade others to use it.

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