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Development and Service
365
need to be watched and who work only as every duty is specified to
them, are not the ones who will be pronounced good and faithful.
Workers are needed who manifest energy, integrity, diligence, those
who are willing to do anything that needs to be done.
“For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he be-
came poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.”
2
Corinthians 8:9
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Many become inefficient by evading responsibilities for fear of
failure. Thus they fail of gaining that education which results from
experience, and which reading and study and all the advantages
otherwise gained cannot give them.
Man can shape circumstances, but circumstances should not be
allowed to shape the man. We should seize upon circumstances as
instruments by which to work. We are to master them, but should
not permit them to master us.
Men of power are those who have been opposed, baffled, and
thwarted. By calling their energies into action, the obstacles they
meet prove to them positive blessings. They gain self-reliance.
Conflict and perplexity call for the exercise of trust in God and for
that firmness which develops power.
Christ gave no stinted service. He did not measure His work by
hours. His time, His heart, His soul and strength, were given to labor
for the benefit of humanity. Through weary days He toiled, and
through long nights He bent in prayer for grace and endurance that
He might do a larger work. With strong crying and tears He sent His
petitions to heaven, that His human nature might be strengthened,
that He might be braced to meet the wily foe in all his deceptive
workings, and fortified to fulfill His missions of uplifting humanity.
To His workers He says, “I have given you an example, that ye
should do as I have done.”
John 13:15
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“The love of Christ,” said Paul, “constraineth us.”
2 Corinthians
5:14
. This was the actuating principle of his conduct; it was his
motive power. If ever his ardor in the path of duty flagged for a
moment, one glance at the cross caused him to gird up anew the
loins of his mind and press forward in the way of self-denial. In