Rev. John L. Riach, B.D. in an article in The Expository Times Edinburgh, Scotland

"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven" (Matt. 5:12).

A close study of the Gospels reveals that, without shadow of doubt, Jesus had a good deal to say about goodness being rewarded. Several of his parables have to do with the matter of reward, while in the Sermon on the Mount the idea of reward crops up again and again.... In the last of the Beatitudes, he encouraged his followers not to quail before the persecution which he knew would be inevitable: for, if they were ready to throw their lives away for the faith, they would find that their reward in heaven would be great.

By telling men that goodness is rewarded, Jesus was showing that goodness has meaning.... Men will engage in no activity with any intensity, or for any time, unless they see that it is going to lead somewhere. Is this how it stands with goodness? Unless men see that it is going to lead to some great end beyond itself: unless they see that it is going to lead somewhere, and so has meaning, goodness has little attraction for them. And one of the great things the Bible has to declare is that goodness does lead somewhere: it fulfills a mighty purpose; it ends in satisfaction; it is assured of victory over evil; and so has meaning. The writer of the twenty-third Psalm says, "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness."... Goodness has meaning. This was what Jesus had to showmen if he was to touch the hero in their souls and make them venture all for goodness' sake.

From a News Item in the New York Herald Tribune New York

Two hundred students from Japan and Korea... started the New Year Sunday with a joint prayer meeting under a theme of "reconciliation."

The students are among thirty-five hundred delegates who attended the closing session of the six-day ecumenical student conference on the Christian World Mission.... The hour-long reconciliation prayer meeting had grown out of experiences of the conference, officials said. The ninety Japanese and one hundred and ten Koreans, they added, expressed a desire to start the new year off with the joint prayer service.

Delegates came... from eighty nations and represented fifty Protestant denominations. Most of them are studying in four hundred colleges in North America. Nearly half the delegates are foreign students.

John Park Winkler in an article in Front Rank, St. Louis, Missouri

It is possible for us to be so close to something that we fail to see its importance.... This inability to appreciate things near at hand may in some measure account for the reaction of the people of Nazareth to the ministry of Jesus. He had grown up in the community. They knew his parents and his brothers and sisters. They failed to recognize those qualities which set him apart from the others of his community. This is why Jesus said (Luke 4:24), "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country" [Revised Standard Version]. We should always be alert lest we stand in the midst of greatness and never become aware of it.

From an editorial in the Dayton Journal-Herald, Ohio

We are not alone. No matter how arduous the experience, we are not alone.

Yes, we may suffer much through believing we are deserted.... But the Scriptures tell us that God is never absent from us.

The Psalmist has much to say in this matter. "The Lord is my shepherd," he sings. "Yea," he continues, "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, ...thou art with me."

"Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from tin' presence?" queries the Psalmist. "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there."

This would lead us to believe that no matter how troubling the circumstance we can rejoice in the presence of God. But... if we do not recognize the fact that God is with us, do not get ourselves acquainted with the truth, we rob ourselves of all the comfort and all the help of God. He has counseled us, "Seek ye me [the knowledge of My presence], and ye shall live."

From The War Cry Chicago, Illinois

When Christ [Jesus] told his disciples to cast their nets into the lake, he was not so much concerned about the great quantity of fish they would draw out as he was about the apostolic mission they must soon undertake in his name. The Saviour told Simon Peter that henceforth he would catch men, not fish.... [His] wish was that all men should be... gathered into the Christian fold.

Christ's [Jesus'] mandate to go forth and teach all nations has continued to be carried on untiringly by heroic men and women century after century. In the hustle and bustle of everyday living, the ordinary Christian believer may sometimes forget the great debt that Christendom owes to these legions of God's fishermen.... Not only the church but civilization itself owes them a debt that is beyond repayment.