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We
all like to feel that what we are doing counts
for something, that is really worthwhile. We
like to see practical results. We know that much
labor is lost. The ordinary things of life seem
to amount so little. They are not spectacular;
no one pays much attention to them; and we
naturally feel that when we do something; we
want it to be something that people can see and
that they will think is worthwhile., and
something that we ourselves can feel is
worthwhile. Some think: " If I could just
preach, I shouldn't mind working for the Lord.
But, oh! I can do so little-nothing worth while
at all, nothing worth the effort. What can my
feeble efforts accomplish anyway?"
Others think that if they
could just go to a foreign land and work among
the heathen, draw people to Christ there, send
back home great reports of what they have
accomplished, have their names published in the
paper and have people talking about them, then
that would be worth while. But since they are
only ordinary people and can do only ordinary
things, it seem to them that it hardly pays to
try. They will just follow the line of at least
resistance and do all the things the easiest
way. Of course they want to do something really
worthwhile.
And
now, dear reader, what is really worthwhile in
life? Is it only those things that make a great
show? Is it only those things that the world
counts great? A sister said to me in a letter,
"I used to think that I could do nothing worth
while, but I have found that just simply living
salvation before people is a great work." Now,
that sister has learned a wonderful lesson. She
has found truth so great that most people do not
recognize it as truth when they do find it. It
is one of those truth that have the peculiarity
of seeming small and insignificant though they
are very fundamentals of truth.
Just
simple living salvation before people-yes that
is what counts, and it counts more than anything
else. That is one of the very great things that
an individual has ever done in this world. Talk
is cheap, and many people can talk all day and
say scarcely anything either. Some people can
sway great crowds by their eloquence, they can
accomplish wonderful things, but still they can
live salvation or, at least, they do not. There
is no power so great in this world as the simple
power of a holy, quiet life. The sister
mentioned can never hope to do great things as
other people might count them. She is in frail
health; she is isolated from other saints and
cannot attend meetings as many others; she has
not the ability to preach or to do anything very
great, as greatness is usually reckoned; but she
has learned the great fact that she is not shut
out from doing a grand work.
If
all God's people could learn this lesson-if they
should learn that it really counts just simply
to live right, just simply to be an ordinary
every-day Christian; if they could once get that
thoroughly fixed in their minds and hearts-it
would glorify their lives, it would exalt the
common service, it would shed a halo over their
lives, and they would not feel discouraged.
When
Moses was at Pharaoh's court, I suppose he
thought that he was doing something really worth
while. He amounted to something there. But when
the Lord let him be driven, or rather
frightened, away from that court and he went out
into the wilderness, I suppose he thought his
occupation there was hardly worth while. Why,
what was he doing, anyway? Just taking care of
the sheep, leading them out in the morning to
the pasture, bringing them back to the fold at
night, seven days in the -just doing this and
nothing more. I suppose it did not look very big
to Moses, but it did to God. God thought it
worth so much that he kept him at that work for
forty years. Then Moses, at the age of eighty
when it looked as if he were about done with
this world was called to go to do something for
the Lord. That forty years in the wilderness
counted now. It had given him experience that
helped to qualify him for the work to which God
had called him. He came out of there worth while
because he had done something worth while in
those years. He had learned about God-oh, so
many things he had learned! And now he was ready
to put that knowledge into practice.
Sometimes we have
wilderness periods in our lives when God let us
be shut up in a corner, as it were, and do
little things that do not seem to count. But
they count on us if they do not count anywhere
else. There is one thing-and just one-that
stands out above all other things in the human
life, and that is faithfulness. No matter what
our life may be, where we may be, now what is
our situation, if we are just faithful it is
sure to count, and to count a great deal. That
is one thing that you can do: you can be
faithful tot the Lord. You can do what he wants
you to do. You can live pure, holy, undefiled,
and keep shining everyday, no matter what the
circumstances maybe. Just remember to keep
shining. That is the thing that counts. Keep
living clean and as God wants you to live. If
you do this, he will know where he can find
somebody who is faithful when he wants something
else done. But ever keep this before you: there
is no greater nor more necessary work in the
world than putting the truth of God into visible
form in the pure and quiet
life…. |
