Williamsport Pioneer
Indiana

One need never despair of opportunity, for it is always present. Perhaps not in just the precise form that we had dreamed of, but gorgeously with each of us. In fact we may be surprised at the form in which it may appear, and extreme alertness in thought and observation is needed to lay hold on it. Therefore, well may we heed the Master's parable of the ten virgins and have our lamps trimmed and ready through careful living, and doing the smaller things which invariably lead to greater achievements.

Success begins when we turn our attention to the task closest at hand. Every house to stand the test of time must have a firm foundation. So every individual must lay carefully the groundwork of the life to be lived. There is no better foundation than good deeds. It may be only a smile, a kind word—even a pure, wholesome thought. Opportunities like these are always present, and the effort required for such manifestation is most minute.

Opportunity, then, is not always what we want to do, but the thing we ought to do. Self-justification might easily lead us far from the simple task that would establish our readiness for further growth. When we forget self and willingly and joyfully accept the immediate task, new and greater opportunities will unfold to crown our humble effort. God is not unmindful of His children and our nearness to Him is measured only in the good that we do and embody in our lives, and this opportunity is ever present.

Lethbridge Herald
Alberta, Canada

It is a true thing that we can bring radiance to our lives by bringing radiance to the lives, of others. Man has not only to live for himself but for others. This is essentially the Christian creed, embodying in it that twofold duty emphasized by Christ [Jesus]— the duty to God and the duty to our fellow creatures. It is the foundation on which Christianity is built.

Life is not worth living unless we bring radiance to it, making it possible to say, "It is good to be here." Such radiance is gained by every good action, by every kind thought, by acts of consideration of others, by not neglecting our duty to our fellow man while recognizing our duty to God, bearing in mind that one is the corollary of the other.

There are things which make for the beauty of life and bring radiance to it. These things, if we learn to know them, are worth cultivating. Are there not those radiant moments when we feel that we have done something worthy of the Christianity we profess?... Can we deny that in such moments we feel that it is good for us to be here, just as the disciples felt on the mount of transfiguration? It is good for us to dwell on these things and thus to gain the great knowledge of what the truly Christian life means. Life presents many opportunities for living up to the Christianity we profess. Realizing this we get a fuller appreciation of what it means to be a Christian more than in name. It is only thus that we get the full meaning of the words, "Life is real, life is earnest."

Robert Quillen
Indianapolis Star, Indiana

The minimum of decent duty, reduced to its simplest terms, is this: Do the best you can with what you have where you are.

The test of character is not how much one accomplishes, but how well he uses the material and equipment he has. The early settler on the Atlantic Coast, having neither bricks nor mortar, built a comfortable house out of logs; the early settler on the plains, having no timber, built his home out of root-matted blocks of sod, half of it underground.

Generations of Americans have been improvisers, always able to "make things do," and thus they have developed the fabled "Yankee ingenuity" that is still paying dividends at the battle front. The true scientist needs no fancy equipment; given a few tools, he will make everything he needs.

Ludlow Advertiser
Shropshire, England

The Prime Minister said: "It is not given to the cleverest and most calculating of mortals to know with certainty what is their interest. Yet it is given to quite a lot of simple folk to know with certainty what is their duty."... This suggests the acid test of real character: Do we seek our personal interests or are we endeavoring to do our duty? Our answer to this question indicates our real value, and determines our ultimate destiny in our own esteem, as well as in the esteem of God and man. It is the knowledge that we have deflected our conduct from the divinely appointed laws that carries with it inevitable punishment.

Many win still ask, "But how can I know my duty?" The answer of the Prime Minister accords with the findings of the greatest philosophers and thinkers. It is given to simple folk to know their duty. Daniel Webster once said that the greatest fact that appealed to his intelligence was "the consciousness of personal responsibility to God."... To perform our duty is to find the consolation which alone can enable the spirit to rest in peace. It remains to be said, as John Stuart Mill taught his students from the chair of philosophy in Edinburgh University, that "our duty coincides so strictly with our interest that a perfectly prudent man would of necessity become a perfectly virtuous man."

Edith J. McLellan
The Christian Advocate
Chicago, Illinois

What does allegiance to Christ require of us? This: that we shall love the Lord our God with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and our neighbor as ourself. And as Chester Warren Quimby has pointed out in The Christian Advocate [December 17, 1942], love is "the duty we owe to God of reverence, obedience, and service, and to each other of respect, helpfulness, and sacrifice." We have only to endeavor with all the powers we possess to obey God and to make His will completely ours, to find such joy and delight springing up in us as a result of this obedience that ...our lives will overflow with love for God and man.

To know God's will for us and His world, that we may be obedient to that will, requires that we take time, at whatever sacrifice necessary, to acquaint ourselves with God. We cannot otherwise become efficient working partners with Him.

In communion with God through meditation and prayer, in the reading of the Bible (especially the Gospels), in the association with great souls whose stories are related in the pages of history and biography, in the fellowship of the church, in the world of nature, and in everyday human relationships— in all these ways and more, we may come to know God.

And as we give the time and thought necessary to do this we shall find ourselves lifted out of ourselves, and united to God in a fellowship that is the most satisfying experience on earth. You are God's, and God is yours. Your world can crash about you; but together you and God will rebuild your world. Life has become purposeful. Joyously you adventure into each day. Eagerly you subject every thought, word, and deed to "the mind of Christ." No longer do you fear what may lie ahead, for you know yourself for what you are—a spiritual being, who...has the constantly sustaining companionship of his creator. God. Life has become more than food and raiment, more than the mere possession of things. Life is knowing God and helping others to know Him; it is working with God to make His kingdom a reality upon earth.