RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 185, 6 August 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT-DAY OUTLOOK. LIFE'S LITTLE TASKS. HOW WE SHOULD BE FAITHFUL. Dr. Albert Schweitzer, the famous *urgeon-missionary, preached for Miss Maude Eoyden, D.D., in French (Miss Hoyden interpreting) at the Eccleston Guildhouse, London, on Sunday evening, June 12, on the man with ono talent. We give below one or two passages from ithe sermon:— In the eyes of Jesus there is not one ttask that is great and another that is Jittle. Jesus does not say to the one 'who has received five talents, "Because you have been faithful in great things tenter into the joy of your Lord," but He says, even as He would have said to the one-talent man, "You have been Ifaithful in little, and because you have ibeen faithful in little things, enter into 'the joy of your Lord." If God has so ordered your life that von have to live lmost of it to earn your living, or for some other task, so that only a little 3bit of your life is able to be given directly to the service of Christ, that fittle bit has just the same importance and value to Him as that which is given by someone who has his whole life to give. For that reason take courage. Let joy fill your hearts. No longer ibe sad because you have received only one little talent. Difficult to Recognise. This little task is difficult often because it is hard to recognise exactly what it is. When you see a man who seems to have lost all enthusiasm, and people say of him, "This is one who has no devotion in spiritual service," do not think of him as one incapable of devotion, for which of us knows the mystery of another soul? He is perhaps a man who had the desire to serve and devote Mmself, but could not find the way, and he has grown weary, md asks, "What rase is there, what importance, in the itiny thing I have to do?" So, like the iman in the parable, he buries his desire to serve Christ in the depths of his heart, and becomes an unprofitable servant. Our Lord does not speak in the parable of the "unfaithful" servant; He makes what i 3 really a much more severe condemnation. He speaks of a servant who is useless, unprofitable. The servant was one who did not know the importance that his master attached to the little service that he could have rendered. For this reason keep your eyes open and be patient. Each one of us whose preoccupation it is to earn, our own living or discharge our responsibilities to the people around us must seek for wayi.?.by which we can devote a little foit/of '.our lives direct to the service of Christ, "and we may not find it easy. Aid: we have to wait. T myself waited for years before I four "-lie way, and had to say letters or in conversations with people, "Do not lose courage. Wait and be patient, and you •will'find the way." There are some among you who are getting • tired of waiting, but I eay to them, "Do not get tired, because for every one of us the smallest, indeed the most humble task is the path to follow if only we recognise it." The thing we have to avoid is to pass by on the other side and leave it unseen because' it is so smalL Therefore seek for this little path. Seek there where Jesus Christ has need of a man to serve another man. Always, if you seek patiently and well, you will find what you seek. "Keep Your Eyes Open." Perhaps Jesus is asking of yon a very little task, and if you find it, later He will ask of you something that is greater. Always keep your eyes open for the little task, because it is the little task which is important to Jesus Christ. The future of the Kingdom of God does not depend on the enthusiasm of this or that powerful person; those great ones are necessary, too, but it is equally necessary to have a great number of little people who will do a little thing in the service of Christ. I entreat you, in the spirit of this parable, seize that little task, be faithful to that little task, that your Lord may at last say to you also, "You have been faithful in the little thing I have entrusted to you. Enter into the joy of your Lord." And as we leave this building this lovely June day, which seems unable to end, let us bear with ns the resolution that we will be faithful to all the little tasks, and may God bless us in the doing of them I