Love's Ministry

Quality is measured by what it will do, give, and what it will suffer. God so loved the world that he gave—gave his only-begotten son, gave all, withheld nothing. That is the measure of the divine love for us—it loves to the uttermost. If you are Christ's, every energy of your mind, every affection of your heart, every power of your soul, every fibre of your body, every particle of your influence, every penny of your money, is Christ's, and all of these are to be used to bless your fellow-men and to make the world better and happier. If we love, we will give, we will suffer, we will sacrifice. If we would be like God, we must live to minister, giving our life, without reserve, to service in Christ's name.


Estrangements between friends should not be permitted continue over night. It is a scriptural counsel, that we should not let the sun go down upon our anger. Why? Because there may not be another day in which to get the wound healed, and the estrangement removed. "But it was not my fault," you say. Noble souls, inspired by the love of Christ, must not ask whose fault it was, that the estrangement began, nor whose place it is first to seek restoration. If it was not your fault, you are the better one to begin the reconciliation. It is Christ-like for the one who is not to blame to take the first step toward the healing of the breach. That is the way he did—and always does with us. Do not delay too long. What time is it? Is the sun moving toward his setting? Hasten, and before the shadows of evening come on, be reconciled with your friend. Do not let the stars look down on two hearts sundered by anger or misunderstanding.


The greatest men are but fractions of men. No one is endowed with all gifts. Everyone has his own particular excellence or ability. No two have precisely the same gifts, and no two are called to fill precisely the same place in life. The lowliest and the humblest in endowments, is just as important in his place as the most brilliantly gifted. The great life in God's sight, is not the conspicuous one—but the life that fills the place which it was made to fill, and does the work which it was made to do. God does not ask for great things; he asks onlysimple faithfulness, the quiet doing of what he allots.


There are other forms of untruthfulness besides the direct lie. There are those who would not speak an untrue word, who yet color their statements so as to make them really false in the impression they leave; or they would not speak a lie—but they will act one. Their lives are full of small deceits, concealments, pretenses, insincerities, dissimulations, dishonesties. You know how many of these there are in society. Oh, be true in your inmost soul—true in every word, act, look, tone, and feeling. Never deceive. There are no little white lies in God's sight!