Duty

Day by Day. — But why is it you will be troubling yourself about the things of to-morrow? The common people say, “Cross a bridge when you come to it.” That is good advice. Do the same. When a trouble comes, attack it, and down with it, and master it; but do not begin now to forestall your woes. “Ah! but I have so many,” says one. Therefore I say, do not look further before thee than thou needest. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Do as the brave Grecian did, who, when he defended his country from Persia, did not go into the plains to fight, but stood in the narrow pass of Thermopylae; there, when the myriads came to him, they had to come one by one, and he felled them to the earth. Had he ventured into the plain he would have been soon devoured, and his handful would have been melted like a drop of dew in the sea. Stand in the narrow pass of to-day, and fight thy troubles one by one; but do not rush into the plains of to-morrow, for there thou wilt be routed and killed.

Our Duty to Our Neighbor. — An infidel once met a Christian, and said, “I know you do not believe your religion.” “Why?” asked the Christian. “Because,” said the other, “for years you have passed me on my way to my house of business. You believe, do you not, there is a hell, into which men’s spirits are cast 1” “Yes, I do,” said the Christian. “And you believe that unless I believe in Christ I must be sent there?” “Yes.” “You do not, I am sure, because if you did, you must be a most inhuman wretch to pass me, day by day, and never tell me about it or warn me of it.”

Stedfast in Duty. — “Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end,” — because there is wondrous grace to be revealed to you by and by. I should like you to act as an American — Colonel Davenport — did upon a certain occasion. One day, many years back, a thick darkness came over the United States. Now and then in London we have dreadfully dark days, for which we can scarcely account, but this was quite a new experience for the New Englanders, and caused a terrible sensation. So exceedingly black was it that the barn-door fowls went to roost in the middle of the day. The darkness grew worse, and people trembled in their houses, declaring that the end of the world was coming. They were all excited and alarmed. One of the houses of legislature adjourned under the belief that the Day of Judgment was come. The other house was sitting, and the blackness was so intense that everybody was awed. A motion was made that they should break up, as the end of the world had certainly arrived. Colonel Davenport objected, saying, “The judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjourning; and if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish, therefore, that candles may be brought.” Brethren, it is dark; but whatever is going to happen, or whatever is not going to happen, let us be found girded, sober, and hopeful. In these dark political times, these dark religious times, I call for candles, for we mean to go on working.

The Duty at Hand. — Nothing for a Christian to do! You are lazy, sirs; lazy, listless, sluggish, or else you would never raise such a question. It is not, “What should I do,” but “Where shall I begin doing it — which is the first point?” And I would say, begin at the point that is nearest to you. So they did when they built the walls of Jerusalem. Every man built opposite to his own house. There, you see, the advantage was he had not to walk two miles to his work at mom and then come back at night. He built opposite to his own house, so he was spared all that trouble. And when he had a little leisure time, when he went to his dinner, he could sit and look at his work, and think how to do it better next time. There was a further advantage in that. Much economy and great benefit would come of it were Christians to work near where they live, and take up that part of Christian service most congenial to their circumstances and to their tastes. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do” — next to thine own door — “do it with all thy might.”