One Fair Ideal by J. M. Hopkins

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 28, 1916

“One Fair Ideal”

By J. M. Hopkins

J. M. HOPKINS

IN a poem entitled “Lincoln, the Great Commoner,” Edwin Markham says:—

“And so he came From prairie cabin up to Capitol; One fair ideal led our chieftain on. Forevermore he burned to do his deed With the fine stroke and gesture of a king. He built the rail pile as he built the state, Pouring his splendid strength through every blow, The conscience of him testing every stroke To make his deed the measure of a man.”

What a splendid lesson! In building the “rail pile,” Lincoln put his conscience into every stroke. He determined to make his every deed “the measure of a man.”

In the light of this great man’s example, there is no work that is dishonorable, no service, however humble, that is degrading. Every duty has its glory, and every deed should receive the strictest attention. Whatever we do should be done to the very best of our ability. Nothing should be slighted. The one fair ideal should always be to do the very best in our power. Nothing short of this will make the measure of a man.

Booker T. Washington, in his autobiography, says that when paying his tuition at school by working as janitor, he so thoroughly dusted the furniture of the schoolroom that not until he could wipe the furniture with a white handkerchief and discover no soil upon it, was he satisfied. That was his “one fair ideal.” He made that deed “the measure of a man.”

That same principle of painstaking and thoroughness that characterized Lincoln and Washington, is worthy of us all. In each Christian endeavor let us have for our goal, for our ambition, the one fair ideal, Christ Jesus, “till we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Eph. 4:13.

Roseburg, Ore.