The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1910-11-10
Make Use of
Your Gifts
By REV. ABNER H. LUCAS, D. D.

we are 10 enCdmp IN the wilderness anu
thou mayest be with instead Of eyes.
Mum. 1921.
What more glorious use can be
made of knowledge, influence, and per-
sonal strength than to turn them to
the help of the needy? If your vision
is penetrating and clear, what nobler
service can you render then to be
eyes" for those who may not see
afar? If your hand has strength and
cunning, to what better use may 1t
be turned than lifting the burdens
of the weak and teaching the unskill-
ed how best to accomplish their task7
If you have wealth you have pos
session of power for good which is
nearly omnipotent, if rightly applied.
What more worthy aim can lead men
and women of wealth than that
through their help the poor may catch
visions of the highest and hottest life?
If we have the gift of prophecy, we
must use it for the instruction of the
ignorant, If We retain it. To hesitate
i5 ingloriously to fail; selfshly to
keep for ourselves what God has in
tended shall serve his children, is to
lose life with all its opportunities Of
good. Hobab's knowledge and inAu-
enCe never were more precious to him
than when, having refused the appeal
to enrich himself, he accepted the op-
pOrtunity to assist others. AS the new
dangers arose, and he helped Moses
meet them and conquer them, his own
mind gToi iT,pA-io1 IDv-+ hn
number, magnitude, and stress Of the
responsibilities of others. he was de-
veloped into his own worthiest life.
| When a great Italian commander was
defeated he issued his immortal APP
! peal: Soldiers l am without money
and without reward. | have nothing
| to offer you but cold and hunger, and
rags and hardship. Let him who
| loves his country follow me" But
| with that summons to self-denial and
| patriotism he gathered to his side
| the choicest souls OF his generation.
| The men who followed in response to
| that appeal became courageous
| heroes themselves. When our Lord
turned and said to the multitude,
The Son of man hath not to where
to lay his head" and invited them to
| follow him, he was calling TO
men and women who had counted the
cost, and were ready to surrender
| themselves to the cause of purity,
truth, and human helpfulness. The
way of life is narrow; the gate to it
| Is narrow; but the narrowness of the
way and the gate are its glory. Mar
| roWness of the way demands energy
! high purpose and noble perseverance
| There is no other way. To invite
| great soul to broad path is to invite
| him to smallness, to the cessation Of
growth and impotence. The cry has
| been heard in every age, Would God
| it were easier to be good" And
would God it we're easier to redeem
the EARTH But that is mistaken
! cry. When the ten spies returned
| from Canaan murmuring because of
| the obstacles to their conquest, their
murmuring was an evidence of weak
ness of character; but the cry of Ca
| leb and Joshua was, up, let US con-
| quer these giants, and take their
vailed cities" That was the token Of
| the greatness Of the two.
| Jesus Christ did not come primarily
| to change the circumstances that
| should make life easy, but to give a
new incentive and lofty inspiration
| that would enable men to meet life's
| circumstances as they are. He never
| promised his friends that the path OF
| duty should be free from danger. In
| the spirit of the Spartan mother who
| charged her soldier son, Come home
| with your shield or on it" Christ says
| to his disciples, Take the field and
| save humanity, cost what it may" 1t
| is always true that the choice of the
| broad path of personal ease and COM
| fort, instead of the narrow path of
| duty, leads to the loss of selfrespect,
| the worlds esteem, and true success.
Sir Henry Stanley describes bravery
as requisite for those who push into
| the African forest, and says: The
bigger the work the greater the joy Of
| doing it. The whole-hearted striving
and wrestling with difficulty to lay
| hold with firm grip and level head,
| and the calm resolution Of the mon
| ster, and Juggling and toiling and
westling at it today, tomorrow, and
the next, until it is done-is the sol
| dier's creed of forward, ever forward;
| it is a mans faith that for this task
he was born" When Mckay wrote
from Uganda in Africa to the home
church, he said, For our work at
this station We want the best men
in England; not a man who can be
easily spared but the man who can
not be spared Christianity from
The beginning has grown upon tasks
that were so great as to require the
conservation of all its power. 20,
pray not for easy lives, pray to be
stronger men; do rot pray for power
equal to your tasks; then the doing
of your work shall be miracle, but
you shall be a miracle; every day
you shall wonder at yourself, at the
richness of the life which has come