AFTER all has been said for great deeds, dear young Christian reader, patient continuance in well doing deserves the greatest praise. Bright occasions of self-denial or victory are worthy of our high admiration and thanksgiving, but a Christian life lived in patient continuance in well-doing, oh! how excellent it is! Hundreds of Christians begin well, few comparatively continue patiently in well-doing. Really the story of many Christians’ lives is almost like that of the old fable of the tortoise and the hare. We remember how briskly the hare began her race, laughing at the prospect of the poor, slow, old tortoise ever getting in before her, and how that, when she had neared the winning post, she said she would just take a nap till the tortoise came up, and then she would dash in first. But she slept longer than she had meant to do, and all the time the plodding slow coach kept on and on, and so it was that, after all, his slow pace won the race. Or rather we should say, that despite his slow pace, he won the race. Let them be plodding slow coaches, but if they are on the race course, patiently continuing in well-doing, we almost think they will exceed in the end some who make a fine start, but do little more.
Do keep working away, plodding along, dear young friend. You will do more by devoting a small portion of time daily to your Lord and Master than by making a grand rush on special occasions. If there is to be a special service, or special effort, to be sure, we shall have plenty of volunteers; but if it is only the plodding work of daily duty, too often but very few are willing to undertake and to do it.
Do more in little things and you will do well. Suppose you gave daily a few minutes to the service of one invalid. Three hundred and sixty-five of such gifts in a year would be golden gifts indeed! We knew a poor woman, who for years went every week to a sick neighbor, and tidied up her room for her. That was good service, was it not? What a grand total of patient continuance in Christian love and kindness did those visits represent. It was a continual series of loving Christian actions, which made no blaze or stir, but which was precious in the eyes of the Lord Christ. We knew another Christian who used to write once a week to an invalid. Now, such a letter, full of all the bright things a young heart could collect about the Lord Jesus—about His people and His work, coming to one unable to stir out of the sick room, would be as good news from a far country—as a ray of heaven’s sunshine into the heart once a week regularly. How would the letter be prized? And coming regularly, it would be of such value, it would be something for the prisoner to depend upon. Now, if you cannot visit any one regularly you can write to them. Do not say, “But what I might do would not be valued,” for you have only to try, to prove how valued you may be. But be content to do the small things—at least till the Master calls you to do greater.
We should seek to use as many of the little things of life as we possibly can for God. We cannot continue in doing great things; great things are accomplished very rarely; but we can plod on in doing little ones. Also, it is very questionable whether anyone ever did well one great thing, who had not done well several little things.
We have no hesitation in saying that the most useful Christians known to us are those who have the most “stay” in them, and that our fitful friends, who put on a great rush of energy now and then, are, as a rule, disappointing. We recall the happy service of some half a dozen young men in a poor district, and as we think of them, we remember first him of whom it used to be said, “You can rely on—, for he is always at his post.” Our young friend never was late, and never forgot to do what he had engaged to perform, and this continued foursome years. He was not the most brilliant worker of that little band, but he was the most reliable, for he was the most patient in continuance in well-doing.
The other day we were hearing of another young man; he had begun his Christian career brightly, but, alas! like so very many, he had not continued with patience in well doing. What a position of danger is his “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62).
If we are redeemed by Christ we must be His disciples indeed, and follow Him. He does not offer us a bed of roses here, He offers us hardship. Those who would find in this world, which crucified their Lord, a place of ease, forget the cross. We cannot serve two masters. We must be out and out for Christ, or our Christianity is of little worth. And we say this, because a good heart for Christ gives the “stay” we need for our Christian life and work. One great reason, if not the reason, why there is not the patient continuance in well-doing there should be in the Christian is, that there is a want of heart for Christ.
To point out an error without discovering the cause of it, and advancing the remedy, is poor physician-ship; therefore we appeal to our young Christian readers to make more of Christ in their hearts. Seek to have Him to you as your own personal Friend. Take your concerns to Him in private, tell Him your temptations, your difficulties, tell Him exactly what you feel to be your need, and what you know you ought to feel, but which you do not. He will meet all your wants, and that greatest want the Christian can have, namely, insensibility to want. There is no state more sorrowful than that of spiritual numbness, that of not feeling our coldness, our dullness, our deadness. But if we open our hearts to Christ, He will meet every need, known and unknown.
Patient continuance in well doing will earn a crown by-and-by, but it carries with it here a great reward. There is a secret joy and calm in the heart of the Christian, who is plodding on with his work for Christ, that is above all the happiness and excitement the world can give. A selfish life is always a wretched one; whoever plans and toils simply for his own advantage, is a kind of miser; but God has ordered it that in serving others we obtain cheer in our own souls. “The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” (Prov. 11:25).