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AS UNTO THE LORD

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 5, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 6.

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“AS UNTO THE LORD.”

By Lizzie De Armond

[Mrs. Lizzie De Armond, in American Messenger.]
She was only a poor, plain, freckled woman, whose clothes were of the fashion her mother might have worn, yet day by day, as she busily plied her iron, many a humble neighbor would stop by her door to listen to the quaint old hymns she sang so vigorously.
“My good woman,” said Mrs. G——, who had called to engage her services, “how can you stand all day in this hot room, always ironing, and yet sing so cheerily?”
“Ah, my dear lady,” she replied, “the Lord has given me this work to do; so when I’m tired and out of sorts, I say to myself that verse about doing things heartily as unto the Lord, and try to think how I’d feel if I could see Him standing by my side, and He knew I had an unwilling heart for His tasks. Then I sing my brightest hymns, and while my iron smooths out the wrinkles in the clothes, I’m planning how to smooth out the rough places in my neighbors’ lives.”
“There’s poor Granny Jones, left alone all day. She’s crippled with rheumatics, and nearly blind, too. When I sing, it cheers her up a bit, and she feels as if some one cared for her.”
“Little Tommy Green in the room above me has a weakness in his back, and lies on his cot-bed from morning till night. His mother works in a factory, and doesn’t come home till dark. When he’s lonely, and sick with the pain, he pounds on the floor with a stick and I sing the hymns he likes best, and he lies quiet and hums them over to himself till he falls asleep. Then once in a while I slip up with a cup of water and bits of picture-papers that come wrapped round the clothes, and give him a pleasant word. Ah, ma’am, the Lord’s so good to me, I must try to help them that have few blessings.”
And this thankful woman lived in a little hot room, spending her whole life ironing and smoothing out wrinkles for others. What shall we render unto the Lord for all His mercies to us?