Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1903-05-20
FAITH AND sERyICE.

FAITH AND SERVICE.
BY Rev. Loais Albert BANKS.
Trust in the Lord and do good
Psalms, xxxvii. 3.
Trust and service go together. The
man who believes in nothing. who has
no faith and confidence, is bankrupt
of good cheer and courage in efforts TO
help others. No man is we'll htted TO
do good until lie trusts in the strength
of an arm greater than his own. in
the goodness of his heart upon which
he may rest with perfect peace.
An elderly merchant in a western
city was in sore trouble. He had one
OF those living sorrows which are in
finiteiy harder TO bear than the grief
which death brings. He had son
who had been caught in the tolls of
strong drink. One Saturday night the
father had been trying 10 help him and
had failed. 1t seemed as though his
heart would break
At midnight he was still staying on
in his office on the brink of despair.
For two years he had been working
an praying. and it seemed to him
tina. e was 10 lose everything at last.
Almost unconsclously he took up from
his desk a paper lying there. and his
sad eyes fell upon Katrina Trask's
little poem, and he read these words:
Lie down and sleep;
Leaye-it with God to keep
This sorrow which is part
New Of thy heart.
When thou dost wake
If still It's thine to take.
Utter no wild complaint;
Work waits thy hands.
If thou shouldst faint
God understands
The words of the poet so met his
desperate need that they aroused the
merchant from the lethargy of despair
that WAS settling down upon him and
he Said out loud: .: will"
He went home and slept in peace.
He arose the next morning refreshed
and full Of power. 1t was the Sab
bath. and setting himself to work with
new devotion. his boy was brought to
trust in the Savior and was redeemed
from his sin that very day.
There are two thoughts suggested
by our text and by this story which
I have tod to illustrate it. The first
have already Indicated that is. that
useful service nearly always has its
foundation in personal faith in God
The man VINO trusts God is at peace;
the man who is worried and fretted
and desperately anAi0Gs cannot serve
you much. He is too worried about
his own affairs. 1t is the man whose
heart is stayed on God. whose faith
is sure and steadfast. who has an in
exhaustible fountain of good cheer in
his own soul, who can give you cam
fort and inspire your confidence in God
when you are in trouble.
1t Is also true that only the man
who trusts God has a proper apP;aeia-
ton OF the desirability of serving
others. The man who loves and trusts
the Heavenly Father by that very
fact has his love and sympathy for
his fellow men deepened and made
more sacred He feels that he is not
only helping his fellow men but is
pleasing God, and is, in the only way
he can, making some return for the
infinite blessings and mercles of God
to him.
The Other thought suggested by our
theme is that service is necessary in
order that we may keep faith and
trust We will not continue to ret
the JOY and gladness which come from
a living faith in God unless we do
good Trust is not given TO us to fold
up in Il napkin and put away as a
keepsake. The man who undertakes
to hoard up his faith in God and thus
save it from burglars is sure to lose
it. The only way TO keep confidence
and trust and faith is to use them
generously, giving them away in low
ing service day by day.
1t was Paul's great JOY as he neared
the end of his life that he had kept
the faith" But he did not keep it by
putting it away in the safe deposit
vault of his own inner consciousness.
He kept it by telling 1t to everybody
he met ON the street, by carrying it
from land 70 land, and preaching IL
Inder every conceivable circumstance
INTO all sorts and conditions of men:
and so the only way we can keep the
kind Of faith and trust In God that
y will be a fountain of good cheer and
song in our hearts is by serving our