Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1901-02-06
FAITHFULNEss.
Rev. James 6. Miller. D. D.

Rev. Jan,es G. Miller, %. D.
BE thou faithful unto death and | vii.
give thee crown Of life.-Isev, H.. 10.
No higher praise can be given TO any
life than To say it has been faithful. No
one could ask for a nobier epitaph than
the Single words. HE was faithful"
This will be the eommendation given in
the great final account TO those who
have made the most of their talents
Thou hast been faithful" Faithfulness
should, therefore, be the aim in all our
living.
Jesus aid OF Mary, after her act of
love. .hen men murmured at her. "She
hath done what She could What had
she done? Very little, we would say.
She loved Jesus truly and deeply Then
she brought flask OF precious ointment
and broke the flask. pouring the sacred
nard upon her Lords tired feet, those
feet than were soon to be nailed to the
cross. That was one of the ways love
and honor were shown in those days.
What good did it do: That was the
question the disciples asked. We know
it wonderfully comforted the Sayior's
sorrowful heart Amid almost universal
ha red. there was one Of his friends who
believed in him still Amid madding en-
nifty here was one who loved him. While
other hands were weaving a crown of
thorns for his brow, TO be put on him
five days hence, and others still were
forging cruel nails to drive through his
feet Mary's hands We're pouring oint-
ment on his head and bathing his feet
Nth the nard. While many were de-
sertinG him, here was one who was faith
fr.. Who will say that Mary's oct did
no good? We cannot know hoy her
sweet. pure, loyal love blessed that holy
life in its anguish. 1t seemed little
thing, bur, little though it was, 1t gave
the heart of Jesus a thrill of JOY that
made him stronger for all the dark, ter
rible days that followed, and for that
blacklist, most terrible day Of ali, when
he hung upon the cross.
Call nothing little which gives COM
fort. streL 9Th, courage or cheer to hui
man heart. A Indy handshake when
despair ,7as wrapping soul in folds of
gloom and driving it to madness, saved
life from suicide. A sympathetic word
when one was about to yield to temp
tation which would have left shame, dis
honor and ruin rescued soul and saved
it for purity, beauty and heaven. We DO
not know what is little. What seems SO
small to use as to be almost insignia
cant, may have infinite and eternal CON
sequences when all its harvest of results
is gathered up in the Judgment.
This divine law ow faithfulness applies
to all callings in life and 10 every kind
of work. Some people try TO make
separation between sacred and secular
matters, as if religion applied only to
part of a mans life. But there is a
moral quality in everything that moral
being does. The judgment of God will
take in not only specifically religious acts,
but also all that belongs in ene's business
or trade.
We may apply the truth to the work
of each man and woman. One works in
a factory, one in machine shop, one in
an office. oae in store, one in school.
One man is a physician, one lawyer,
one Il merchant, one a mechanic, one a
minister. Whatever our calling is, we
cannot be wholly faithful TO God unless
we do our work as well as we can. To
siur it is to do Gods work badly. To
neglect it is to rob God The work of
the universe is not quite complete with
out our part of its work well done, how
ever small that part may be.
The nithfuness which Christ requires
must reach to the way the child gets his
lessons and recites them; to the way the
dresslnaker and the tailor sew their
seams: to the way the blacksmith YIELDS
the iron and shoes the horse; to the way
the carpenter builds his house; to the
way the clerk represents the goods aud
measures and weighs them. BE thou
faithful" rings from heaven in every ear,
in every smallest piece of work we are
doing.
Another application of the lesson is to
promises There are some people who
make promises Freely, but as easily fail
to keep them Surely we ought to keen
sedulous watch over ourselves in this
regard. One of the Psalms gives, as 4
mark of a good man, that when he swear
eth. even 10 his own hurt, he changetll
not. II entirely forgot my promise, one
saws. as if forgetting it We're much less
sin than deliberately breaking it. We
have no right to forget any promise we
make to another. 1t is a noble thing te
find one whom we can absolutely depend
on, whose promise we are as sure of rs
we are of the rising of the sun, whose
simplest word is as good as his oath. who
does lust what he says he will do at the
moment he says he will do it.