THE KING’S BUSINESS
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they built the cathedral. This is a rough picture of what the building up of the Kingdom of God is. We do our part, our very best, our most consecrated effort, and then pass on and leave the whole incomplete. Yet we need not be discouraged for those to come will do their part and they in turn must drop their tools and leave the work to other hands. And all are but doing His will and are the instruments through whom He continues to work. Then away with discouragement. Paul plants, Apollos waters, but God gives the increase. The best we can. do is but a part of all that He would have and will have done, the least done for Him is His own power working. And this suggestive title to the book (or inferred title) leads us to the thought of the Christ present and active in His Church and in the world today, and leaves us with a plea. It is a plea for men and for women, for youth and for older lives, that shall gladly and willingly live the life of service to God and to their fel- lowmen. It is the plea for the service of hopeful and expectant men and women and young men and maidens, who trust a living God and who follow a living and a vital faith. The foundations of the Church have been lhid. broad and deep on the one enduring foundation, the only one that could be laid. Men and women too, of ages gone have reared its walls true and strong, and builded grace and beauty into its structure, but the building is not yet complete. We have our work to do, our generation to serve, God’s purpose for us to fulfill. And let us give our lives to Him that He may make them His own so that our deeds shall be blessed and the Acts of our lives shall be the acts of Jesus Christ among men today.
ries on through what His children do and only so. A soldier of his country falls in the charge against the foe.. His gift of service and his final gift of life is wholly personal, it is the free offer of patriotism. Yet in another sense his sacrifice is only part of a greater one and his fall was the part in the working out of a great plan of campaign where many must fall to make it a success. In thè mind of the general was the great purpose and this patriot’s fall was but a part of it. It 'is as true of our deeds as it is of our philosophies that "Our little systems have their day, They have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, And Thou, O Lord, art more than they.” But the encouragement is also manifest. When anyone feels that his work has been more or less of a failure, when conscious of weakness and disappointment, then the thought is strong and great that this which we do is after all not ours alone but God’s. It is His work, His purpose, His service, that we are doing. And from this come lessons of patience. Those who stand before some ancient cathedral of the old world and fillecUwitha sense of its beauty ask unthinkingly, “who built this temple of God?” will be told a story of many years, even centuries. For men of one generation laid broad and deep its foundations and reared its massive walls. They passed away and the children brought their added knowledge and sense of beauty to the work, and added an arch here and there or put the glory of a great window in its walls. Their children gave their contribution and so bit by bit and generation by generation
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