“The beginning is half of the whole,” said the ancient Greeks. And it is true – true whether the beginning be right or wrong. And yet a good beginning is not enough. It is the last step that wins the race. It is the last stroke that fells the tree. It is the last grain of sand that turns the scales. One of the sterling virtues in practical life is continuance – continuance through all obstacles, hindrances and discouragements. It is unconquerable persistence that wins. The paths of life are strewn with the skeletons of those who fainted and fell in the march. Life’s prizes can be won only by those who will not fail. Success in every field must be reached through antagonism and conflict.
In no sphere are these things truer than in the moral. Many start well in the Christian life, with rich hope and glowing ardor, who soon fail. They become discouraged at the hardness and toilsomeness of the way or at the little impression they are able to make on the world, and grow weary. Such faint heartedness will never win the honors and crowns of immortal life. These are only for those who overcome.
There are two ways of becoming weary in well doing. We may be weary in it or of it. And there is an immense difference in the two experiences. The best men may grow weary in their service. Human nature is frail. We are not angels, with exhaustless powers of endurance. But we are to guard against growing weary of our great work, as sometimes we are tempted even to be. There are discouragements that sorely try our faith, but, whatever they are, they should not be allowed to cause us to faint.
“What is the use of serving God?” cries one. “I have tired for years to be faithful to him and to live as he would have me to live, but somehow I do not succeed in life. I have no blessing on my work. My business does not prosper. There is my neighbor, who never prays, who disregards the precepts of God’s word, who desecrates the Lord’s day, whose life is unjust, hard, false and selfish. And yet he gets along far better than I do. What is the profit of serving God?” Many a good man has felt thus in his heart, even if he has not spoke his thoughts aloud.
To all this it may be replied that God’s years are long and he is never in a hurry. As a good Christian man said to a scoffer who boasted that his crops were good though he had never prayed for god to bless the, while the Christian’s after all his praying, had failed, “the Lord does not always settle his accounts with men in the month of October.” Besides, worldly prosperity is not always promised, nor is it always a blessing. There come many times in every man’s life when trial is better than prosperity. A little with Heaven’s benediction is better than great gains poisoned by the curse of God. Of this at least we may always be sure – that in the end well doing will succeed and ill doing will bring sorrow and woe. “My Lord Cardinal,” said Anne of Austria to Cardinal Richelieu, “God is a sure paymaster. He may not pay at the close of every week or month or year, but he pays in the end.”
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