THE TEAOBINGa OF THE BIBLE 271 



are the pickets of God's great host. They are scat- 

 tered up and down our land, fighting alone the great 

 battle, unknown of men and sometimes thinking that 

 they must be forgotten of God. And the picket's 

 lonely post is what tries a man's courage and strength. 



Take your example from Paul's epistle. Greet 

 Phebe, the schoolmistress, and Aquila and Priscilla 

 on their rocky farm on the mountain-side, and greet 

 the burden-bearing Onesiphorus. And give them 

 God's greeting and encouragement, for he sends it to 

 them through you. Show them the heroism which 

 there is in their "humdrum" lives; and cheer them 

 in the efforts, of whose grandeur they are all uncon- 

 scious. Bid them " be strong and of a very good 

 courage." For in the character of these people there 

 is the granite of the eternal hills, and in their hearts 

 should be the sunshine of God. Do not be ashamed 

 of your congregation. Their dimes or dollars may 

 look pitifully small and few on the collector's plate; 

 only God sees the real immensity of the gift in the 

 self-denial which it has cost. Your people will take 

 sides with the cause of right, while it is still unpop- 

 ular. They have furnished the moral backbone and 

 unswerving integrity of many of your great business 

 houses in this city to-day. From those families will 

 go forth the men whom the good will trust and the 

 evil fear. The power for good proceeding from your 

 church will be like the floods which Ezekiel saw pour- 

 ing out from beneath the threshold of the Lord's 

 house. 



For these common people, whom " God must have 

 loved because he made so many of them," are the 

 true heirs to the future. And wealth and culture, art 



