Continuing in Well Doing.
By C. B. Reynolds
It is only by overcoming, by patiently continuing in well doing, that we can ever attain to the joys of immortality and eternal life. The prize can only be gained by doing all we can, always. It needs all the grace we have and all we can obtain. Those efforts and services which are capricious and irregular, or which prompt us only to make partial sacrifices for the cause of God and truth, afford at best but very slight evidences of our sincerity. Called from the darkness and perplexing labyrinths of modern, miscalled orthodoxy, to the glorious light and harmony of God's truth, the love and gratitude of our hearts should be as his mercies,—not fitful and capricious, but steadfast and continual. Our love and gratitude to God should glow with a steady and uniform fervor that no trials or discouragements should dampen or diminish. Our faith in God, the conviction that he is our loving Father and that his word is truth, should give us such reliance on the promised help that no duties, however difficult or arduous, should deter or dismay us. The sincere child of God, awakened to a true sense of the immense debt of gratitude which he owes, alike to an ever loving Heavenly Father, and to Jesus, the Redeemer who died to obtain for us the glorious joys of immortality, will not measure his obedience or the amount of his self-sacrifice by the nice calculations of cold and selfish policy. His performance of duty will result from the promptings of a truly grateful heart. His vows of obedience will embrace every sacrifice to which devotion to the cause of his blessed Lord may call him, and will extend to every act of duty by which present truth may be advanced. He will be actuated by the hope of gaining the glorious plaudit, "Well and faithfully done." There is a class of people who are apt to be spasmodically zealous. Under favorable surroundings, they suddenly flash and blaze only to flicker out, bring gloom and discouragement, and do actual injury to the cause. It is not the fitful, uncertain burst of enthusiasm, but the steady, continual, burning zeal that is needed. Let not our performance of duty be the fruit of merely a sudden and transitory glow of feeling; rather let our vows and acts of allegiance be founded on a deep and serious conviction of the weighty obligations we are under, of the exalted and ennobling nature of the service, of its brilliant and glorious reward, and let these be our incentives to patiently continue in well doing, "seeking for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life." When disposed to murmur at the severity of the sacrifice to which God calls us, at the extent and difficulty of his service, to imagine our burdens greater than we can bear, and that the demands are beyond our capabilities, let us look to Jesus and be lightened; let us contemplate the number and poignancy of his sufferings. He endured the cross and despised the shame; and shall we not blush that for one moment we have indulged in ungrateful murmurs? Rather let us deplore the utter inadequacy of our most zealous service to repay the debt we owe, and, realizing its insufficiency and unworthiness, offer to our gracious Redeemer the best tribute we can render—a zealous and uniform obedience. And that we may do this, let us make the most diligent use of every means of grace. To work out our salvation is indeed the momentous business that should occupy us; it should call forth our greatest care and exertions. Heaven can never be obtained by spasmodically grasping upward with one hand, while the other digs vigorously in the earth, and we are engrossed in scraping together and hoarding up the perishing things of this world. There is no half-way heaven, to reward half-hearted service. It is only by patient continuance in well doing that the glorious prize of immortality can be secured. Consider how potent the sway which sin maintains over the enslaved affections; consider how deep is the unhallowed taint of iniquity which is to be washed away; consider how strong the chain of corrupt passion from whose ignoble thralldom we must be delivered; consider how extensive, how important, how continuous the duties we must discharge; consider how many painful sacrifices must be made, how many obstacles triumphantly surmounted, ere we can be fitted to receive the priceless boon of immortality. Dare we, then, indulge the vain, the presumptuous expectation that we can overcome—that we can discharge these momentous duties—by feeble and occasional efforts? Having admitted and received the truth, we can fall back in idle serenity, content to simply refrain from violating the Sabbath, to attend to family worship and church services, and so think all our duty done, our salvation fully secured? Fatal delusion! To resist the spirit of a corrupt world, the seducing pleasures and allurements that from a thousand quarters assail us; to stand against the subtle wiles of Satan and all his insinuating solicitations, and cheerfully go forth, at all times recommending the truth, both by precept and example; to let our light so shine that others shall see our good works, and so be led to glorify our Father in heaven;—to do these things requires the most vigorous, persevering effort, the most constant endeavor, the most earnest prayer, the most vigilant watchfulness, failing which, we shall assuredly fail of immortality. Yet, praise his holy name, the grace of God is all-sufficient for the most difficult and dangerous trials. His strength will be gloriously perfected in the weakness of the most humble of his children. "Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isa. 41:10. He imposes no restrictions or duties without giving all needed aid. He calls us to the battle, but himself supplies the armor, and imparts strength for the encounter. He has promised that as our day, so shall our strength be. How is it with us? Are we doing all we can? Are we in earnest? Do we realize the times in which we live? Are we seeking to learn what God would have us do, and striving to accomplish it? Soon, very soon, Jesus will leave the sanctuary and will say, "Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." Are we making sacrifices for Jesus? Can it be said to us, "Well and faithfully done"? Are we doing well? If so, wherein? Which of our acts deserves this encomium? Are we as much in earnest in advancing the proclamation of the last message of mercy, in seeking immortality and eternal life, as we are in seeking the things of this world? May the Lord revive his work; may we be up and doing while it is yet day; "for the night cometh, when no man can work." Remember it is by "patient continuance in well doing" that we must "seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life." God help us to strive for this blessing, and through Jesus obtain it. C. B. Reynolds.