“In Weariness and Painfulness.”
IN Paul's enumeration of his labors and sufferings (2 Cor. xi, 23-28) he makes use of the above expressive phrase. It is a light thing to labor with a buoyant spirit, and with the vigor and energy of full strength. Labor, under such circumstances, is a pleasure. But when the strength is exhausted with long-continued effort, and the heart saddened by the small measure of good accomplished, and when the elasticity of the spirits are gone and nothing but anguish remains, it requires the most perfect devotion and singleness of purpose to still labor with persevering effort for Christ and his cause. This spirit Paul possessed. This we should possess if we also were true soldiers of the cross. This is the spirit of steadfast, active obedience, that never tires and never loses sight of the grand result. Christians that only labor when they feel like it have no acquaintance with this kind of undeviating activity in the service of Christ.