POWER FOR GOOD by Adelaide De Yarmond

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 15, 1879

POWER FOR GOOD.

By Adelaide De Yarmond

A light-house lamp, when so placed as to shed the greatest light, is itself invisible. We shall find that those persons who have the greatest influence in the world are the ones unrecognized. Those to whom are attributed the great achievements have only entered into the labor of almost unobserved workers. Fame and usefulness are not commonly united: or, surely, the most famous are those who have worked for the world most suffering; and those whose lives have poured light over many a stormy sea, and sent cheer to the soul of many a struggling seaman, are those whose names are not before the world,—those whose acts are recorded only in the one book, the Book of Life.

Was ever a one whose name is oftener on history’s pages than is Alexander’s? and did ever a one more shame the name he bore? Has ever a character more loathsome been lauded by civilized historian? Here, then, are the utmost credit and honor given to one who, while with his implicit power working sorrow and destruction world-wide, did in his life just one humane deed, so far as known;—he kindly cared for the body of one among the thousands destroyed in his wars.

See the reverse:—

“There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man.” Eccl. 9:14, 15.

Yet God remembered that same poor man! and many of the lowly of earth will be of the high of Heaven.

There are many noble ones whose lives attest to their acceptance of these words: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.” This calls for work which shall cause men to glorify the Father in Heaven, rather than man.

Oh! there are noble workers in every sphere of life,—humble and true, living lives pure and righteous: and these, though they have not renown, are not unappreciated; for, in the same degree to which we possess godliness, we are also earnest in our indorsement of God’s words of cheering approval to the faithful,—“Well done.” The love and sympathy of God’s true people—a type of the infinite love and good-will in his home in Heaven—is a motive to urge us onward in the right; and though, among the selfish of the world, “no one remember” the efforts the faithful make to attain to faithfulness, yet, if we are true to the truth, we shall be assured of the sympathy of our Saviour and his people; and no effort is lost, even though it does not accomplish its direct object.

“If you are too weak to journey Up the mountain steep and high, You can stand within the valley While the multitudes go by; You can chant in happy measure, As they slowly pass along: Though they may forget the singer, They will not forget the song.”

ADELAIDE DE YARMOND.