ess about
honouring Him? the moment we come to Him He is ready with His
consolations for us!

'I have been thinking lately over some of the inducements we have
to live for Christ, and to confess Him and preach Him before men,
not conferring with flesh and blood. Why should we be trammelled by
the opinions and customs of men? Why should we care what men say of
us? Salvation and damnation are _realities_, Christ is a reality,
_Eternity_ is a reality, and we shall soon be there in reality, and
time shall soon be finished; and from our stand in eternity we
shall look back on what we did in time, and what shall we think of
it? Shall we be able to understand why we were afraid to speak to
this man or that woman about salvation? Shall we be able to
understand how we were ashamed to do what we knew was a Christian
duty before one whom we knew to be a mocker at religion? Our
cowardice shall seem small to us then. Let us now measure our
actions by the standard of that scene, let us now look upon the
things of time in the light of eternity, and we shall see them
better as they are, and live more as we shall wish then we had
done. It is not too late. We can secure yet what remains of our
life. The present still is ours. Let us use it. It may be that we
can't be great, let us be good; if we can't shine as great lights,
let us make our light shine as God has made it to shine. Let us
live lives as in the presence of Christ, anxious for His approval,
and glad to take the condemnation of the world, and of Christ's
professed servants even, if we get the commendation of angels and
our Master. The "well done!" is to the faithful servant--to the
_faithful_, not the great. Let us watch and pray that we may be
faithful. It is a little hard to be this, and to care little for
man.

'Yesterday afternoon I preached here at home, and took the most
earnest sermon I had, "_Behold, I stand at the door and knock_."
Well, in doing so, I thought I was acting quite independently of
man; and even after I had preached it, thought I would not care for
man. But one man praised it, and I felt pleased, and, as might then
be expected, felt a little hurt when a friend called this morning
and told me that what I gave them yesterday was _no sermon at all_.
Now, if I had been regar