will do it. Miss Havergal tells of her experience
in the girls' school at Dusseldorf. She went there soon after she had
become a Christian and had confessed Christ. Her heart was very warm
with love for her Saviour and she was eager to speak for him. To her
amazement, however, she soon learned that among the hundred girls in
the school, she was the only Christian. Her first thought was one of
dismay--she could not confess Christ in that great company of worldly,
un-Christian companions. Her gentle, sensitive heart shrank from a
duty so hard. Her second thought, however, was that she could not
refrain from confessing Christ. She was the only one Christ had there
and she must be faithful. "This was very bracing," she writes. "I
felt I must try to walk worthy of my calling for Christ's sake. It
brought a new and strong desire to bear witness for my Master. It made
me more watchful and earnest than ever before, for I knew that any slip
in word or deed would bring discredit on my Master." She realized that
she had a mission in that school, that she was Christ's witness there,
his only witness, and that she dare not fail.

This same sense of responsibility rests upon every thoughtful Christian
who is called to be Christ's only witness in a place--in a home, in a
community, in a store, or school, or shop, or social circle. He is
Christ's only servant there, and he dare not be unfaithful, else the
whole work of Christ in that place may fail. He is the one light set
to shine there for his Master, and if his light be hidden, the darkness
will be unrelieved. So there is special inspiration in this
consciousness of being the only one Christ has in a certain place.

There is a sense in which this is true also of every one of us all the
time. We really are always the only one Christ has at the particular
place at which we stand. There may be thousands of other lives about
us. We may be only one of a great company, of a large congregation, of
a populous community. Yet each one of us has a life that is alone in
its responsibility, in its danger, in its mission and duty. There may
be a hundred others close beside me, but not one of them can take my
place, or do my duty, or fulfil my mission, or bear my responsibility.
Though every one of the other hundred do his work, and do it perfectly,
my work waits for me, and if I do not do it, it never will be done.

We can understand how that if the great prophet had failed