Work and Wait by Christian Union

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 1, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 37.

Work and Wait.

By Christian Union

THERE are exceptions to most rules, and, therefore, while it remains true that faithful service in every calling and station is sure to command respect and advancement, it is still true that some men put all their conscience into their work, and, for the time, get their labor for their pains. They serve without recognition, and with only a poor return for their fidelity. The recognition of work well and faithfully done, which is such a spur to the worker; the consciousness of deepening hold on one's place, and of growing opportunities in one's future, which are stimulus and inspiration in toil, are denied; there is none of the joy of work, because none of its legitimate rewards. The sense of increasing value to the world, which is so grateful to the man of high purpose, is lost, because there are no evidences by which one can measure it.

Day after day such men go to their places at their desks or behind the counter, give all their skill, strength, heart, to the duties of the day, and night after night they go to their homes tired, discouraged, and heartsick because no word of encouragement, no expression of appreciation, no hearty grasp of the hand, has given evidence that their labor has not been in vain. Such men work as he might work who felt that the sublime laws of the universe were with him, but had no nearer, warmer, more helpful support. Such men, prompted and sustained as they are in their fidelity by a sense of duty only, are to be honored and reverenced. Their service is free from selfishness; it is rendered directly to that God who lifts all duty above human conditions and rewards it as inevitably as day follows night.

But such faithful servants rarely fail, in the end, of material rewards. Good work cannot be hidden, and no one knows from what source it may bring recognition. If the employer fails to appreciate or recognize it, others have keener eyes and clearer perceptions of its value. The clerk who is putting his whole heart into the service of an ungrateful employer never knows what eyes are upon him, nor who is taking note of his capacity and faithfulness. At a time when he is most disheartened, and from a quarter whence he least expects it, the call to preferment may come. The lives of successful men—successful because of faithful service—are full of just such advancements; light has broken when the darkness seemed deepest and most confirmed; the door of preferment swung wide, like the gates of Paul’s prison, when the narrow walls seemed most impenetrable. Good work, in the long run, is sure of its reward; it carries the seed of honest success in its bosom, and sooner or later the blossom will discover to the world the life that fed it in silence and darkness.—Christian Union.