Your ShelfYour Projects

One

8%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 25, 1909

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 12.

Read the full edition

One

By G. B. STARR

G. B. STARR
“Consider the lilies. . . . Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Jesus singled out one lily. It has received the personal attention of God, the Master Artist, to bring it to a degree of perfection, as much as if there were no others in the world. The perfection of a field depends upon the perfection of each one. Jesus was a kindergarten teacher. He used nature as no other ever did or could. Men and women were his pupils. He came to reveal the love of God to the individual.
We are not lost in the great mass of mankind; there is not another in the universe like any of us; there are really no doubles; our features, our figures, our voices, our powers of body and mind, are not just like those of another. We each feel at times that no one in the world fully understands us; and that is true. But there is One who understands us, and who specially loves us.
He “loved me, and gave himself for me,” to bring me to perfection, as if there were no others needing such love and attention.
The parable of the one lost sheep, inwhich the ninety and nine were left that the one might be found, teaches the same lesson. The one prodigal son was not forgotten by the father. It is not the will of the Father that one of these little ones should perish.
The one woman who touched Jesus in the crowd is singled out by him, and sent away with his personal blessing; she is not lost in the crowd. Our names are individually written in the book of life, and engraved upon the palms of Christ's hands. He loves us with an infinite love, and we are ever present in his thoughts.
In John 14:23 we read: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”
He will give to each of us “a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” Rev. 2:17. This name represents the exact character each has formed.
He hears our individual prayers. John 16:23-27. Our voices are not drowned in the din of the crowd. “He heareth us; and we know that he heareth us, . . . we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” 1 John 5:14, 15.
We may esteem others better than ourselves for the very sake of the special gifts and graces which they possess, and which we lack. We influence others by these very qualities in which we differ most. Each is a center of influence all his own.
“He knows each individual by name, and cares for each as if there were not another upon the earth for whom he gave his beloved Son.”
Wahroonga, N. S. W., Australia.