THE SACREDNESS OF OPPORTUNITY.—NO. 3.
By W. S. Sadler
REMEMBER that heaven does not send us here to recognize great opportunities for other people. When Jesus saw the blind man, it meant that there was a work He must do for the blind man. When you see a human soul in need, it means there is a work for you to do for him. When God sends us a discouraged soul, it does not mean that we are to take him to some other person, and say, “Will you please attend to this man?” It means that we should take him straight to Jesus. At the miracle of feeding the five thousand, Philip thought he must have two hundred penny-worth of bread before he could undertake to feed the hungry multitude; but Andrew, who had been doing personal work in the crowd and knew there was a boy with a lunch-basket there, was willing to begin with what the lad had. When Christ is with us, we can begin with just what we have and are. Philip was a mathematician and must figure it all out before he would do anything. Let us begin with what we are and have. There is no use in waiting till you get through school to be a missionary. Four years in college, or a trip across the ocean will not make missionaries. It is the missionary spirit that makes missionaries. And you don't get it4from boards, committees, or by resolutions, but you get it by doing missionary work. On one occasion some Greeks came to Philip, and said, “We ‘would see Jesus.” So Philip took them to Andrew. Let us not simply carry persons off to anybody else when they come to us discouraged. Go right to Jesus with them, as Andrew did. He could not help the Greeks any more than Philip could, but he knew enough to take them to Jesus. His eyes were wide open to recognize opportunities. We get by giving; we live by dying; we grow by decreasing. The only way to get good out of an opportunity is to give yourself away with it. As far as you give yourself away, it will come back to you in Christ an hundred-fold more than it was when it left you. Let us ever remember to recognize the sacredness of physical, mental, and moral opportunities. They are all of the same degree of sacredness. May God grant that we may continue to look upon a spiritual opportunity as a very sacred thing, and that we may also see a physical opportunity as none the less solemn and important matter. It is as solemn a thing to give a man a bath to help him get into harmony with God physically, as it is to pray with a man, to help him get back into harmony with God spiritually. W. S. SADLER.