when the prospect
that lies before them is one of patient and unpraised labour. It leads
to worse disasters to over-estimate one's powers than to under-estimate
them. A man who over-estimates his capacities is apt to grow impatient,
and even tyrannical, in the presence of difficulties.

And after all it may be said that humility is a rarer virtue than
confidence; and though it is not so popular, though it does not appeal
so much to the imagination, it is a quality that may well be exercised,
if it is done without self-consciousness, in these busy days and in
these active western climes. The best work of the world is done, as I
have said, not by those who organize on a large scale, but by those who
work faithfully on individual lines, in corners and byways. Indeed, the
success of those who organize and rule is due in part no doubt to the
power that they may possess of inspiring silent effort, but is still
more largely due to the faithful workers whose labours are unnoted, who
carry out great designs in a simple and quiet spirit. There is strong
warrant in the teaching of Christ for the work of those who are
faithful in a few things. There is no warrant for the action of those
who stride into the front, and clamour to be entrusted with the
destinies of others. There can be no question that Christ does not
admit the value of ambition in any form as a motive for character. The
lives that He praises are the lives of quiet, affectionate persons,
more concerned with the things of the spirit than with the things of
the intellect. The Christian must concern himself, not with grasping at
influence, not even with setting his mark upon the world, but with the
quality of his decisions, his work, his words, his thoughts. The only
thing possible for him is to go forward step by step, trusting more to
the guidance of God than to his own designs, to what are called
intuitions more than to reasoned conclusions. In that spirit, if he can
attain to it, he begins to be able to estimate things at their true
value. Instead of being dazzled with the bright glare which the world
throws upon the objects of his desire, he sees all things in a pale,
clear light of dawn, and true aims begin to glow with an inner
radiance. He may tremble and hesitate before a decision, but once taken
there is no looking back; he knows that he has been guided, and that
God has told him, by silent and eloquent motions of the spirit, what it
is that He would have him