THE GARLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3397, 23 April 1919, Page 53

THE GARLAND.

By Duncan Wright, Dunedin.

FOR THE QUIET HOUR

No. 295.

"GO WORK TO-DAY." "Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour „ until the evening." (Scripture.) No man is born into the world whese work Is not born with him. There is* always work, And tools to work withal, for these who will; And blessed are the horny hands of toil. —James R. LowelL For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do. —Watts. When Adam dolve, and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman? A woman's work, grave sirs, is never done. —(Printed in London, 1714). I hear men everywhere praying for more faith; but when I listen to them carefully, and get at the real heart of their prayers, very often it is not more faith at all that they are wanting, but a change from faith to sight. "What shall I do with sorrow that God has sent me?" "Take it up and bear it, and get strength and blessing out of it." "Ah, if I only knew what blessing there was in it, if I saw how it would help me, then I could bear it." "What shall I do with this hard, hateful duty which Christ has laid right in my way?" Do it, and grow by doing ' it." 'Ah yes, if I could only see that it would make me grow." In both of these cases you do not see that what you are begging for is not 'more faith, although you think it is, but sight. You want to see for yourself the blessing in the sorrow, the strength in the hard and hateful task. Faith says not "I see that it is good for me, so God must have sent it," but "God sent it, and so it must be good for me." —Phillips Brooks. Weaving them into a workaday life, Beautiful threads of gold! A thread of joy, with a strand of strife, And yet the hands that hold May fashion them, out into patterns rare, Designs of beauty new and fair, Till the Master Weaver finds them there In beautiful threads of gold. "The persistent effort to give everybody a lift when possible, to make everybody we come in contact with a little better off, to racTiate sunshine, cheer, hope, good will, to scatter light and joy to other hearts, but opens wide the door to our own happiness." Life is an axrow—therefore you must know What mark to aim at, how to use the bowThen draw it to the head, and let it go! I pray not that Men tremble at My power of place And lordly ew.ay; I only pray for sample grace To look my neighbour in the face Full honestly from day to day. —James Whitcomb Riley. Fear not to build thine eyrie in the heights Where golden splendours stay, And trust thyself unto thine inmost soul In simple faith alway: And God will make divinely Teal The highest form of thy ideal. Yesterday He helped me, To-day I'll praise His name, Because I know to-morrow He'll help me just the same. Come, labour on; come, laboiu - on I Who dares stand idle on the harvest plain, While all around him waves the golden grain, And to each servant does the Master say, "Go work tc-day" ? Come, labour on; come, labour on! No time for rest, till glows the. western sky, While the long shadows o'er our pathway lie, •and a glad sound comes with the setting eun, "Servants, well done!" POWER OF WORK. "To show a Frenchman' described as i;he end of a speech in debate; "no," said an Englishman, "but to set your shoulder at the wheel, to advance the business." Sir S. Romilly refused to speak in popular assemblies, confining himself to the House of Commons, where a measure can "be carried by a speech. The business of the House of Commons is conducted by a few persons but these are very hardworked. Sir Robert Peel "knew the blue-books by heart." His colleagues and rivals carry Hansard in their heads. The high civil and legal offices are not beds of ease, but posts which exact a frightful amount of mental labour. Many of the great leaders, like Pitt, Canning, Castlereagh, Romilly, are soon worked to death. They are excellent judges in England of a good worker, and when they find one, fike Clarendon, Sir Philip Warwick, Sir William Coventry, Ashley. Burke, Thurlow, Mansfield, Pitt, Eidon, Peel, or

Russell, there is nothing too good, ox too high for him."—(Emerson.)

But leaving the Political arena and coming to the Church of God (the Church universal, We mean)' could anything he more pointed or- personal than the Lord of the Vineyard -when to the idlers He said: "Why etand ye here all the day idle?"

And In this year of Grace 1919, could anything be more pathetio than the long, loud, urgent call of earnest pastors and devoted, heroic men and women for a large accession of workers in the Sunday Schools of the land? To believers in Jesus Christ whom we recognise as Lord and Master, in a real sense, have the words of the clarion call over hill and dale, in city, town, and country, "Go work to-day, no meaning? "But when He saw the multitudes. He was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. "Then said He unto His disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, out the labourers are few." (Matthew ix.) Let me but do my work from, day to day, In field or forest, at desk or loom. In roaring market-place or tranquil room; Let mo but find it in my heart to say, When vagrant wishes beckon me astray, "This is my work; my blessing, not my doom; Of all who live, I am the only one of whom This work can best be done in my own way.' Then shall I see it, not too great nor small To suit my spirit and arouse my powers; Then shall I cheerfully greet the labouring •hours, And cheerfully turn when the long shadows fall . At eventide, to play, and love and rest, Because I know for me' my work is best. —Anon. -There is no man, no woman, so small that they cannot make their life great by high endeavour; no sick crippled child on its bed that cannot fill a niche of service that way in the world. This is the beginning of all gospels, that the kingdom of heaven is at hand just where we are. It is just as near us as our ■work is, for the gate of heaven for each soul lies in the endeavour to do that work perfectly.—W. C. Gannett, iri "Blessed be Drudgery." "The devoted may have faith in a dying Christ, but little apprehension of the living Christ as the rule of life. This will stir his emotions, and produce love to God -without labour for men. The Reformer may have faith in the life of Christ; this will move to good works which do not flow from that love which purifies the heart. The Sectarian may believe in a creed rather than in Christ; this will make him compass sea and land to make prosllytes to a sect rather than to a Saviour. . . . Thus faith in Christ's life and death combined give both impulse and direction to the religious life. And unless our motives to act are thus drawn from Christ, the impulse and the end of life must be in ourselves, — selfishness will become confirmed in the soul, and assimilation to the Divine image will be morally impossible."—(Walker.) GO WORK TO-DAY. (By Jamea H. BToadley.) "Go work to-day!" the Master earth. Wast© not thy time repining! Fill every hour with earnest deeds, ■ While bright the sun is shining. What though you dto not see the fruits, Yet still continue sowing; For night and day—'.asleep, awake— The grain is ever growing. To-morrow's work may not be your®, Nor yours the joy of reaping. "Go work to-day," and leave the seed Safe in the Master's keeping. That seed shall to the harvest come, Though you in death are sleeping. Others shall reap what you have sown. Work on and cease thy weeping I Do all the good you can By- all the means you can In all the ways you can At all the times you can To all the people you can As long as ever you can. —John Wesley PUT YOUR HEART INTO IT. " (By the Rev. J. G. Greenhough, M.A.) A girl of some 12 years was going through most difficult performances in the circus, a»d doing them with amazing cleverness. An admiring and enthusiastic spectator rushed up to the master of the show, boiling over with excitement, and asked, "However did she learn those tricks?" The master answered, "It's a profound secret, but if you will swear not to repeat it I will tell you." The man gave the promise, and put his ear down to listen. Out came the secret, in a solemn whisper, "She put her whole heart into it." And I venture to say that this great, if not the only secret of success was given there. • Some people will tell you that it is all a matter or luck, and they have, never had the luck; and others will assure you that it all depends on exceptional smartness, talent, and genius, and that the race is always won by the brilliantly olever man. But, in 49 cases out of 50, it is neither luck nor genius, but thoroughness and the simple habit of putting one's heart into it. A wise Frenchman watched some apprentices at work in a blacksmith's shop, and declared that they would never succeed, either at that trade or anything else, for they did not strike hard enough on the anvil. He was right. The man who does anything in a half-hearted way—who strikes a feeble blow on the anvil—will never make a successful man. Wellington said that the Battle of Waterloo was won on tho Rugby and Eton playgrounds. The men who gained that victory had flung their whole hearts into the athletic exercises of schooldays. Workmen rise to be masters by putting some soul into their work. I have read of a certain carpenter who was repairing a magistrate's bench, and doing it as

carefully as if he was working on a king's throne. Asked the reason, he answered: "I am making it ready for the time when I shall sit on it." And that time came sure enough. Nothing is well done unless the heart is engaged in it. You know when a Eiano or an organ is played with the ands only the execution may be faultless, but the music is dead. To listen to it is almost as painful.-. An organ gives out nothing but what you put into ft, and the sounds which thrill the heart come from the heart. All good work is heart-work. An artist paints a great picture; a poet writes a great poem; a preacher preaches a great sermon; and a cricketer makes a great score, because they put brain and soul and their very life's blood into the business. That is the secret all through. There are hosts of people who put neither brains nor their work. When a man shakes hands with- me, _ I like to feel some soul in the grip of it; that man will do well in other things. But I would as soon shake hands with a stick or a poker as with some men I know. Men of that sort never do any good. It 4 oes not greatly matter what our work is—secular or religious—needing great gifts or only one talent. It matters not how much we like it or dislike it; whether we think it mean and menial work, or royal and divine: the sure way to failure is to do it without earnestness and purpose; and the kingly road to success is the hard, plodding road of those who put their heart into it.