Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-10-28
Look for Results.

A great deal of the ordinary work Of
life is done without any idea Of the dig
nifty or the results Of labor. The conse
QuCnce is that life to many Is painfully
burdensome and altogether aimless. They
look for nothing and they fail to achieve
anything. If each one would set before
him some end to be attained his life
would be much more Joyous and his sue
cess much greater. Many are poor or in
want in old age who might have had a
handsome competency if in their earlier
years they had set before them COM
Portable home to be secured by industry
and prudent management. Not a few en-
dowed with great capabilities and enjoy
ing peculiar advantages have failed in the
struggle Of life because they cherishedno
high aim and sought no particular result.
The lives Of all such can only be failures.
The same mistake IS very often made
in the Christian life, to the great injury
Of ourselves and also to the hindrance of
the progress Of the cause of Christ. Our
faith, activity, self-denial and persever-
ance will be in proportion to what we eX-
pect to accomplish in ourselves or for
others. If we do not look for greater
love, stronger faith, more deafness to the
world, increased likeness to Christ, and
enlarged influence for good upon others,
all our prayers and efforts toward our own
spiritual improvement must necessarily
be to a greater or less extent formal, cold
and lifeless, and we will remain from year
to year without any decided growth in
grace. This is no doubt one cause for the
low state of piety so often deplored, and
the removal of which is so difficult when
it has taken possession of individuals or
churches. There may be little strength,
the name of Christ may not have been de-
MED, but they are weak and sickly when
they should be strong and rich in grace.
Parents may continue to worship God
in their families and to instruct children
from year to year, without expecting
them TO be brought to repentance toward
God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is no yearning anxiety for them,
is not strange that the children remain in
different or turn aside to folly and sin.
Teachers in the Sabbath-school can APP
pear before their classes, and pass over
the same round of services from Sabbath
to Sabbath without any definite object or
having any anxiety that their pupils may
receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Sa-
vior. That such teaching should fail to
accomplish anything toward the CONVEX
sion Of the young cannot be placed among
the things that are ineXplicable. And
it is not impossible for ministers of the
Gospel to make this great mistake-to
preach from Sabbath to Sabbath, not
error, but truth, and yet fail to see any
favorable results Of their labors, simply
because they have not in the exercise of
faith aimed to accomplish by the power
Of the Holy Ghost the salvation of sinners
and the sanctificatiOn Of believers. Letno
one be surprised that such minister is a
barren one; it cannot be otherwise.
No others have such encouragement to
expect results as have Christian workers
in the family, in the Sabbath school,
among all classes and conditions of men
and in the pulpit The word Of God is
quick and powerful; the prayer of faith is
always heard; nothing is too hard for
the Holy Spirit to overcome; the prom
Uses of God are yea and amen in Christ
Jesus. Why then should we doubt?
Why should we not pray and labor for
great things for God and His church?
And why should we not expect great
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