Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-04

as they like. And they take small counsel
of that stout imperative ssmust.
But God expects every Christian to do his
duty. Nelson reminded his sailors that
England expected that of every Englishman.
Battle of the Nile, that from yonder pyra-
mids forty centuries looked down upon
them. There are the two motives. Shall
we work to give something. to give our
allegiance and our lives to the Power that is
over US? or shall we work to get something,
to get somebody's good opinion, or to get
qualification of our own pleasure? Shall our
offering be a sacrifice, or a bargain?
God desires US to do our duty And one
OF the characteristics of duty is that it is
thing done out of sense of obligation. 1t
is our duty. for example, to obey the will
of Christ. And that means that we are to
do Just what He tells us to do, whether we
want to or not; obeying not our own incli-
nations but his positive commandments.
Take for ipstance
THE MATTER OF FORGIVENESS,
upon which He LAID such frequent empha-
sis. When 10 is easy for us to forgive, we
are probably not ooey1ng Christ nor doing
our duty at all; we are obeying ouT own
selves and doing our own pleasure When
yet We forglve-hen We are following the
Master along the hard path of duty.
Indeed, the test of duty is nearly always
tine presence of difficulty. When inclina-
tion says 81 don't want to do that" and
conscience says you must" there Is a case
of duty. Let me illustrate this by two or
three everyday applications.
would say that it is the duty of all
Christian people, who are in health and are
not imperatively hindered, to present them
selves before God in His home upon every
Lords day. This is one of the things which
man owes to God. When you are tired with
your weeks work, or the way is long, or
the sky is overcast, or the rain falls, then
the test comes. You can go to church, and
you don't want to go to church, but you
ought to go to church. That is the syllo-
gism of duty. Now you will discover
whether your attendance is a matter of duty
with you, or not When there are empty
seats upon a rainy Sunday, one-third of
those who are absent are infrm in body, the
other two-thirds are only infrm in duty.
would say. further, that it is the duty of
every Christian who has time to do some
Christian work. This applies to every
Christian, but especially to women, because
they have most time. The societies of a
parish never enroll all the members of
u
of the congregation. This Is partly because
some of the people have no time. They are
mothers who must take care Of their chill
dren, or who must do their household work.
In their case, the call of duty is to stay at
home. But there are always great many
other people in every parish who are never
seen helping with the good work because
they are deficient in a sense of duty. They
are doing what they like, not what they
ought.
THE CONTRIBUTION BOX
It is also universal Christian duty to
give not only time bnt money. And this
applies chiefly to the men, because they
have most money. But every Offering in
every congregation discovers lack of the
sense of duty. Whoever sees it, and notices
what kind of coins compose it, knows that
the larger part OF it was given simply at
haphazard. The plate came by, and the
giver felt constrained to give something,
and he put his hand in his pocket and gave
the first small coin which his fingers lighted
upon. That was no honest, Christian giving.
That did not count. in Gods sight, for any
thing. These men did not say to them
selves: Here is this good cause, how much
ought to give? They knew that if they
gave nothing. somebody would notice it.
piece which looks so much like dime.
Ask the Treasurer of the church how often
people come to him, after the daY of some
special offering, and say: 81 could not be
at church last Sunday, here is my part of
the contribution" That Is q measure of
the sense of duty.
Bnt there is a better word than duty, and
that is devotion.
"When ye shall have done all those
things which are commanded you, say, We
are Improbable servants; we have done
that which was our duty to do" Whatl
Improbable servants still, with all our
duties done? Yes; for there is defect in
duty. Duty has plenty of conscience, but
no heart. The essential characteristic of it,
as I said, is obligation. But that is not the
ideal kind of service. 81 will take the
Lord for my God, because 1 want to; be-
cause love Him." That is the
IDEAL WAY OF SERVING GOD.
Love is better than obligation. Better
than duty is deYetion. For 1t is love which
enriches, and beauties, and inspires and
consecrates devotion, and lifts 1t high above
all the duty-doing in the world. Love
drives NO bargains. Love knows no mea-
suring of give and take. 1t is loves privi-
lege to give. By and by jacob came to
love God; he came to realize his own imper-
feet service and Gods great intimate love
and boundless goodness; he came to see that
balancing of divine blessing with human
obedience would be the most disastrous
thing that could happen to sinful man.
God is our loving Father. What devo-
ton is too great-for US to give Him? Christ
from His cross cries: "This have 1 done
for thee" Who shall set bound or q meas
ure or an end to our willingness and eager
ness to do whatever thing We can for Him?
For all who love God the terms of that old
bargain are written over again, with diff
ferent meaning. Though God lead me along
a narrow way, where it is hard 10 60. and
give me OF bread and raiment but scanty
measure, and tribulatipu with it, yet will 1
serve Him, yet will Ldevote myself to Him
body and soul. and count no sacrifice prec-
ious enough Tor Him, yet will I love Him
with all the love of my whole heart. and the
Lord shall be my God.
--s GEORGE HODGES.