| Week-Day Religion |
Chapter 13 |
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We may be tempted also to grow weary of doing good to others. There are things to discourage if we look no farther than the present. Attainments come slowly. The buds of spiritual growth open out languidly in the chill of climate of this world. Men’s faults cling tenaciously. Battles are tedious and victories come painfully, and only after long and fierce struggle. Everything about Christian life is difficult of attainment. In the ardor of his youthful zeal and the glow of his yet untried and unbaffled hope, the young Christian is apt to feel that everything is going to yield at once to his strokes. He expects to see every touch of his tell on men. He looks for immediate results in every case. He has large hopes and enthusiasm, but has not strong faith. He begins, and soon discovers his mistake. People are pleased with his earnestness, but their stubborn hearts do not yield. He finds himself beating against stone walls. Results do not appear. To him this is strange and discouraging, but it has always been so. Many people reject the blessing God is sending to their doors. We come to them laden with rich spiritual things, and they turn away to chase some vanishing illusion. We tell them of Christ, and they turn to listen to the siren song that would lure them on the rocks of ruin. That this is disheartening cannot be denied.
But does not God behold our work? Does he not see our toil and our tears? Does he not witness our faithfulness in his service? Suppose the seed does fall partly on the hard trodden roadway and yield no fruit; will the sower fail of his reward? Will he be forgotten in that day when God remembers his faithful ones? No! Though men may reject your message, if you have given it faithfully and with true motive, you shall be blessed.
“But men are ungrateful.” Very true. You minister to those who are in need, taking the bread from your own plate to feed their hunger, denying yourself necessary things to give to them; you visit and care for them in sickness; you spend time and money to relieve them. Then, as soon as the trouble is past and they need your money or help no longer, they turn away from you as if you had wronged them. Almost rarest of human virtues is true gratitude. The one may return, but the nine come no more. Many a faithful Christian, having spent time and means in relieving distress only to be forgotten by, and perhaps even to receive wrong from, those he has aided, becomes weary, and says, “It is of no use; I will try it no more.”
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