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true celebrity has his spells of wish ing that he could drop out of sight into the ranks of the common folk and enjoy life’s simple joys without the blinding glare of publicity and news reporters dogging every step. We ordinary mortals need shed no tears over our obscurity. There are satisfactions in it that fame cannot taste and we are often the envy of the high and mighty. Besides, fame is such a fleeting thing anyway. The other day I discovered in a library alongside the usual “Who’s Who,” another volume, “Who Was Who.” Of course the present-day American standard for measuring preachers is hard on the man who goes in for sort instead of size, quality rather than quantity. Few would agree now with Alexander Whyte when he said: “The true preacher may have, and usually has but few people, as people go in our day, and the better the preacher sometimes the smaller the flock. It was so in our Lord’s case. The multitude followed after the loaves but they fled from the feeding doctrines till He first tasted that dejection and sense of defeat which so many of His best servants are fed on in this world. Still as our Lord did not tune His pulpit to the taste of the loungers of Galilee, no more will a preacher worth the name do anything else but press deeper and deeper into the depths of truth and life as was the case with the Master till His followers, though few, will be all the more worth hav ing.” Well said, but not many pul pit committees are out looking for that kind of preacher nowadays. “How big a church does he now have? How much money does he raise? How many members has he taken in?” When have you heard any body ask, “Does he know God?” All of this is hard on a sincere man with a family to feed in this insane age. It is possible, as we indicated at the outspt, for a man to have depth of soul and strength of character and fame along with it, but by and large the combination is rare. The saints at
Smyrna were plutocrats in the eyes of the Lord, but they were anything else in the eyes of men. A Christian may be in the upper brackets both on earth and in Heaven, but the Scrip tures do not indicate an oversupply of such. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews, that Westminster Abbey of the New Testament, lists several categories of the heroes of faith. It begins with an illustrious number whose names are given, another galaxy unnamed but still successful, but it ends with that unknown aggregation simply desig nated “and others.” They did not fare so well on earth and they are per petuated today in that countless host “among those present.” These un knowns, however, do not pass their day in self-pity. This business of be ing unnoticed and unrecognized can degenerate into false humility. I have heard of a gentleman who made a donation and explained later, “I wish to be anonymous so I did not sign the check.” These “others,” in fact, may be the happiest of the lot. They expect nothing of men and everything from God. They major on being faith ful over a few things. When others get the cake and they get the crumbs they say, “Hallelujah anyway!” For them the most important thing is to keep the heart right, cleansed by the blood from resentment and jealousy. They think upon “whatsoever things are of good report” and believe the best about people until they must be lieve otherwise. They have a sense of humor and know how to laugh at themselves. Other people laugh at them anyway and it is a good thing sometimes to make it unanimous. There are a lot of these on earth and there will be a lot of them in Heaven. Babe Ruth used to tell of a saintly old preacher he once knew, one of these unknowns. Babe said: “I have written my name on thousands of baseballs, but he wrote his on a few hearts. Compared to him, I didn’t even reach first base.” These are the salt of the earth.
Without them the celebrities could not make it; every great movement ■that gets publicity would fold up overnight. I refuse to give them much comfort or advice. They are doing very well without it. To them the Lord says, as to the saints of Smyrna, “I know . . . fear not . . . be faith ful.” They are not gullible, they know what goes on. But neither are they grouchy, they keep sweet. They are too busy serving the Lord to gripe over the inequities down here. They did not expect anything of earth any way and so have not been severely disappointed. Men have failed them and they have failed themselves, but God has not failed and they knew that to start with. They follow in the footsteps of Another who didn’t get it when He was here and doesn’t get it yet except from such as know His cross. He wears a crown now, but the only one we gave Him was made of thorns. Blessed is the man who con ditions himself for discipleship by re membering that as was the Master, so shall the servant be. All else is incidental. Fame and fortune may come to a few, but if they are truly great, they are as though they had it not, for only the poor in spirit belong to the Kingdom. It is the Laodicean age, but not en tirely. Concurrent with it is Philadel phia whose saints have a little strength, have kept His word, and have not denied His name. They do not pull wires to advance themselves, for they believe the Keeper of the Keys still runs the preaching busi ness and is the Lord of the Open Door. Of course Satan can hinder; but, though they be sorely tested in be lieving it, the Christ of the Candle sticks can still open doors that no man can shut. If we can believe that and live accordingly we shall be kept from ulcers and nervous breakdowns as well as from “the hour of tempta tion, which shall come upon the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth” (Rev. 3:10). It is a great day for the unknowns, the Aristocrats Anonymous!
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FEBRUARY, 1962
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