| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 10 |
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Many of the things which offer it are not worth while to do. No good would come to the world from our doing of them. It is well for a busy man to have an avocation, something to which he turns when his day at the duties of his vocation is ended, but he should make sure that it is an avocation which will prove a benefit not to himself only, but to others as well. If we are to give account for every idle word we must also give account for every idle hour spent in any useless occupation. Sometimes the most sacred use of leisure hour is rest, or bright, cheerful recreation, to fit one for the serious tasks and duties which wait on the morrow.
But we should always remember that we have a duty of not doing, and that many calls for our time and strength must be firmly declined. Not every open door opens to a duty. The tempter opens doors, too, and we are to resist all his solicitations. Then there are calls which are not to sinful things, but to things that are inexpedient. There even come to all of us appeals for ministrations of mercy and kindness which are not to be regarded, because prior duties fill the hands that would quickly turn to these new services if they were empty. There are first things which must never be neglected nor displaced, though a thousand appeals clamor for our attention.
When Jesus said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” he did not mean merely prayer meetings, sick calls, and social visits – he meant the great duties and occupations which belong in each day. For most of us these fill our waking hours. What we shall do in our leisure we shall learn if we are ready always to follow the Master’s leading.
It need not even be said that all wrong and sinful things should be left undone. Part of the confession we must make every day is that we have done things which we ought not to have done. There is need for more tenderness of conscience, more careful searching of heart, that we may put out of our life firmly and remorselessly everything which ought not to be there. We are too easily satisfied with low attainments. We are fond of saying that no one can live perfectly, that, do the best we can, we sin every day.
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