It is a high ideal; it seems well nigh impossible,—workman that needeth not to be ashamed." How can we attain to it? For we all realize how much more 15 possible for us, even after our best attainment, but nevertheless it must be our aim.
The best men are conscious of how Upper Room. And the Christian, if he would follow his Master's example, must be a workman. Labour and not pleasure should form the main substance of life.
Yes, man was made to be a work-Than. A workman, but take care that you do not give too narrow a meaning to that word. Give that word to the head that des as well as to the hand that executes; to the mind that governs, as well as to the feet that obey; to the maker of great thoughts, as well as to the maker of machines or shoes; give it to the man that wears out his nerves, as well as to the man who exercises his muscles, Further, I would have you notice that our religion does not teach us that the man who toils with his head is better than the man who toils with his hands, that a white collar is a far short they come of the ideal. They look back and remember so much of which they are ashamed, things ill done or left undone, unkind or hasty words; they remember how much braver and kinder and truer they might have been. But we must keep the ideal before us—it is the only way. Then, conscious though we will be of so much failure, of so much that makes us ashamed, we shall still go on trying, and "press forward, like St. Paw, who, conscious. of much weakness and unworthiness, as he confessed himself Xo be, could yet say, "I have fought a good fight."
One other thought, and with that 1 close. "Even though we fall far short of the ideal, if we have honestly tried, He will accept the effort. God grant days may come when we shall be privileged to look back to times, when, as He took the little lad's few mark of superiority. No, the Christian teaching is that rank and nobility are determined by service. Our Lord himself said, "I am among you as him that serve th," and "the greatest of all is the servant of all." Everywhere among people who think and truly matter: the Christian ideal is loaves and fishes of old and used them to feed the multitude, so He has taken our work and blessed and multiplied it and made it a glorious thing, of which we indeed shall have no cause to be ashamed. (Source and Bibliography:—Greenhough, "The Cross and the Dicebox"). gaining ground,—that there is something great in all honest work but that there can be no greatness in indolence. Therefore with St. Paul we say, "Study to show thyself a. workman."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.