p. 87 | CONTENTMENT

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 24, 1881

CONTENTMENT.

WE do wrong when we despise our work on account of its lowliness. Imagine a grumbling coral insect in the far distant Pacific; if endowed with speech and discontented with his obscurity, he might complain as he toiled, "What is the good of my activity? My diminutive form is lost in the infinity of ocean; I am buried deep beneath the wave; and my work is of the feeblest character and of the smallest bulk. I will give it up." But he knows not that, in concert with millions of his species, he is erecting an impassable barrier in mid-ocean, and, by the formation of islands, is recasting the surface of the globe. Our work may be veiled by the waters of obscurity, and we may sometimes be discouraged by the little we can do; but this thought shall cheer us, that with our band of brother workers we shall, by the blessing of God, greatly improve the moral condition of those around us. Contentment with whatever position the Master gives us is not only a guarantee of effective service therein, but one of the best preparatives for the higher and broader departments of work.—Rev. W. Norris.