February 5

God hath chosen the weak things. — 1 COR. i. 27.

So the last shall be first, and the first last. — MATT. xx. 16.

WHOM God accepts the world rejects. To human eyes Dives was first and Lazarus last, but God saw differently. Nero had all the world offered. — health, an athlete's strength, intellectual culture, boundless wealth, absolute power, great honor. Paul was poor, old, sick, imprisoned, friendless. But the shout of triumph comes from the dungeon, not the palace; from the poor old sick man, not the athlete; from the apostle, not the emperor. "I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course, I have kept the faith." Who thinks of Nero to-day save with contempt? while Paul is loved and honored throughout the world, and will be to the end. Jonathan Edwards's congregation rejected him by a vote of two hundred to twenty. Even the King of heaven "was despised and rejected of men." Saved by grace, we are rewarded according to our faithfulness. The eleventh-hour laborers were as faithful as the rest, and so were paid the same. The weakest, obscurest child of God can be as faithful as Paul or Luther.

"Within the smallest flower I often find A richer and more delicate perfume Than in the largest, most pretentious flower, That waves its petals in the summer wind."

The most beautiful window in the Lincoln Cathedral was made of rejected bits of glass. From material rejected of men, God will fashion some of the brightest and most glorious ornaments of the temple on high.

T. T. Eaton

Let the world despise and leave me, They have left my Saviour too; Human hearts and looks deceive me, Thou art not, like man, untrue. And while thou shalt smile upon me, God of wisdom, love, and might, Foes may hate, and friends may shun me, Show thy face, and all is bright.

LYTR.