| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 17 |
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There are many people who put shingles before sunsets in their life and work. They see the dusty road on which they are waking, but see not the glorious sky that arches above them. They toil for earth’s perishing things, and see not heaven’s imperishable glory that might be made theirs. They spend all their life striving to get honour, wealth, or power, and miss God. They paint the shingles into their picture, bringing out every minutest detail, but when that is done the glory of the sunset has vanished, and they have only a picture of some shingles. Thinking soberly is getting God and eternal things first of all into our life. If we fail of this, nothing else that we may do will be of any avail. Without God, a life full of services great and small is only a row of ciphers, with no numeral before them to give them value.
Thinking soberly recognizes the truth that others also have abilities which God has bestowed upon the. We are not the only one to whom God has given brains and a heart. And how do we know that our gift is really greater or more honourable than our neighbour’s? One man may have eloquence, and be able to move and thrill hearts. Another is a quiet man, whose voice is not heard in the street or in any assembly. But he has the gift of intercession. He lives near to God, and speaks to God for men. While the preacher preaches, this man prays. May the man of the eloquent tongue glory over his brother who cannot speak with impressiveness to men, but who has the ear of God and power in heaven instead? Who knows but that by the ministry of intercession more things are wrought in peoples’ hearts and lives than by the eloquence that wins so much praise among men?
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