Zechariah 2

Zechariah 2:1

Measuring Lines A man with a measuring line.—Zechariah 2:1. The other day when I was walking along a country road I saw two men carrying what looked like a huge tape measure. They laid it down on the ground, stretched it tight, and then the man who was in front made a little jotting in a notebook.I daresay you have often seen men doing the same thing, and you know that they are road surveyors, whose business it is to measure the roads and see that they are kept in good order. Now measuring lines are very important things; we couldn’t very well get along without them. So today I want to talk to you about these lines—how and when to use them.There are three different kinds of things we try to measure.1. First of all there are the things we can measure. And these are usually the things we ought to measure.

We can measure money, and we ought to do that from time to time to make sure that we are not spending more than we have, to make sure also that we are not spending too much on ourselves and giving too little away. We can measure our food, and mother knows what that meant when sugar was rationed and she had to count every spoonful that went into your tea.

We can measure our time. If we are going in for an examination and have just an hour and a half to answer the paper, we can set aside so much time for each question. These are all things that we can measure and that it is wise to measure.2. But, secondly, there are the things it is difficult to measure, and they are the things that we often measure wrong. Because, you see, we are so apt to measure people and things by what they look like instead of by what they are. Perhaps you will understand better if I tell you a story which I heard lately.In a certain country district there lived a lonely farmer whom everybody thought very mean.

He would give away nothing he could keep. When he was asked for a contribution for any charitable object he either gave nothing at all or a very shabby subscription.

His clothes were worn and threadbare. He starved himself and he even starved his land. So later his acquaintances left him alone, and he lived his solitary life, year in, year out, with no one to care very much what happened to him.Then one day his story leaked out. The farmer had once had a very dear friend who had done him a great wrong. They had drifted apart and the friend had married. After some years the friend died, and it came to the ears of the farmer that he had died very poor. He had died very poor and had left a family of young children penniless and orphaned, for the mother had died previously. So, for the sake of the old friendship, the farmer took upon himself to bring up these children.

He fed them, he clothed them, he educated them, until they were ready to go out into the world and earn their own living. But to do this he had to pinch and starve himself, for he was not a rich man. And when his acquaintances heard the story they were thoroughly ashamed, for the man they had counted mean was the most generous in the whole district.So, boys and girls, be very, very careful with your measuring line when you apply it to other people. Try to get below the mere surface. Don’t jump to the conclusion that people are mean because they have a little money to give away. Don’t imagine that people are ill-natured because they have spoken a sharp word to you.

Perhaps they have some big worry to try their temper that you know nothing about. Don’t conclude that people are tiresome when perhaps they are just tired.

And remember, too, that it isn’t always those who speak the biggest that do the most; it isn’t always those who smile the sweetest that are the most sincere; it isn’t always those who wear the finest clothes that have the noblest hearts.I read a sort of fable the other day. It told how an angel was sent down to a certain village with a measuring rod. His business was to measure the people in the village and to crown as king or queen the one who came up to the required standard. He measured the minister, the schoolmaster, the squire, and many other well-known people, but they all failed to reach the standard. Then at last he picked out of the crowd a poor, shabby little woman. Nobody had ever thought very much about her, but they knew that she was always trying to do kind things and to help those who were in trouble.

She alone of all that village reached the required standard, and there, before them all, the angel crowned her queen.3. But, lastly, there are some things we can’t measure, and these are usually the best things of all.

Did you ever try to measure happiness? Did you ever try to measure your mother’s love? Did you ever try to measure God’s love? Ah, some people have tried to do that. They have measured God’s love by the measure of their own miserable little hearts and they have made it less than the love of men. But God’s love is immeasurable. It is deeper than the ocean, and wider than the universe, and higher than the heavens. It is underneath us, and round about us, and over us.

It is so big and wide and tender that we can only begin to realize the least bit of what it is like.Boys and girls, have you begun to realize what God’s love is? Have you ever begun to think about it? Have you let a little bit of it into your hearts and into your lives? If you haven’t done it yet, don’t wait any longer. Do it now.