He is fitted for his
vocation; he has watched all night by his armor. Whatever his trial may
be, he is prepared; he may even be happily disappointed in respect to it;
flowers of unexpected refreshing may overhang the hedges of his strait
and narrow way; but it remains to be true that he who serves his
contemporaries in faithfulness and sincerity must expect no wages from
their gratitude; for, as has been well said, there is, after all, but one
way of doing the world good, and unhappily that way the world does not
like; for it consists in telling it the very thing which it does not wish
to hear.
Unhappily, in the case of the reformer, his most dangerous foes are those
of his own household. True, the world's garden has become a desert and
needs renovation; but is his own little nook weedless? Sin abounds
without; but is his own heart pure? While smiting down the giants and
dragons which beset the outward world, are there no evil guests sitting
by his own hearth-stone? Ambition, envy, self-righteousness, impatience,
dogmatism, and pride of opinion stand at his door-way ready to enter
whenever he leaves it unguarded.
Pages:
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150