Therefore, He only
gave me these talents to use for Him, and if I use them for my own
ends, I shall be misusing them, and trying to rob God of His own. I
am His child, His subject, His steward; He has put me just in that
place in His earth which is most fit for me, and my business is, not
to try to desert my post, and to wander out of the place here He has
put me, but to see that I do the duty which lies nearest me, so that
I shall be able to give an account to Him. It is only if I am
faithful in a few things, that I can expect God to make me ruler over
many things." Ah, my friends, if we could but see ourselves, not as
we fancy we are, nor as others fancy we are, but just as we really
are, then, instead of pushing, and boasting, and standing stiffly by
our rights, and fancying that God and man are unjust to us, we should
be crying out all day long with the prodigal son: "Father, I have
sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be
called thy son." We should say with St. Paul--who, after all,
remember, was the wisest, and most learned, and noblest-hearted of
all the Apostles--that we are at best the chief of sinners. We
should feel like the dear and blessed Magdalene of old, the pattern
for ever of all true penitents, that it was quite honour enough to be
allowed to wash Christ's feet with our tears, while every one round
us sneered at us and looked down upon us--as, after all, we deserve.
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