r enjoyed.

I cannot describe these men and women. If you have lived with
them, you will need no description, and would resent the
inadequacy of mine. If you have never had the good fortune to live
with them, it is impossible to make you see them as they are. When
you once have thoroughly known them, language will fail you to do
them justice, and you will prefer to be silent rather than slander
them by inadequate portrayal. They are at first sight not
attractive-looking. If you stand outside and look at them from a
distance their lives will appear to you very humdrum and prosaic.
But remember that for almost thirty years our Lord lived just such
a life in Nazareth, making ploughs and yokes; and then, when the
younger brothers and sisters were able to care for themselves,
snatched three years from supporting a peasant family in Galilee
to redeem a world. And who was Peter but a rough, hardy fisherman?

Now a Paul, trained at the feet of Gamaliel, was also needed; and
the twelve did not come from the lowest ranks of society. But they
were honest, industrious, practical, courageous, hardy, common
people. And single-handed they went out to conquer empires. And they
succeeded through the power of God in them.

Who knows the possibilities of your little church in the hilltown of
Smyrna? These men and women are the pickets of God's great host.
They are scattered up and down our land, fighting alone the great
battle, unknown of men and sometimes thinking that they must be
forgotten of God. And the picket's lonely post is what tries a man's
courage and strength.

Take your example from Paul's epistle. Greet Phebe, the
schoolmistress, and Aquila and Priscilla on their rocky farm on the
mountain-side, and greet the burden-bearing Onesiphorus. And give
them God's greeting and encouragement, for he sends it to them
through you. Show them the heroism which there is in their "humdrum"
lives; and cheer them in the efforts, of whose grandeur they are all
unconscious. Bid them "be strong and of a very good courage." For in
the character of these people there is the granite of the eternal
hills, and in their hearts should be the sunshine of God. Do not be
ashamed of your congregation. Their dimes or dollars may look
pitifully small and few on the collector's plate; only God sees the
real immensity of the gift in the self-denial which it has cost.
Your people will take sides with the cause of right, while it is
still unpopular. They