One winter evening a fellow worker in the gospel joined me in the railroad station to await the arrival of the train, and said pleasantly, "I got a good illustration from the man at the gate the other day as I got on a train. It was very cold, and everyone was grumbling, and some were abusing him as he made them get out their tickets and show them before they got past the gate. I said to him, 'You don't seem to be a very popular man around here.' "
" 'If I am popular with the man that put me here, it is all that I want,' was his reply.
"Ah," continued this friend, "if we could go through this world with the same thoughts toward Christ, what a straight path we would make!"
Popular with one Man. May this be our ambition, the only ambition the gospel enjoins. "Wherefore also we are zealous, whether present or absent, to be agreeable to Him." 2 Cor. 5:99Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. (2 Corinthians 5:9); J.N.D. Trans.
If we please Him, we cannot please the world; and if we please the world, we cannot expect to please Him. Dear young reader, what is your life's ambition?