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  THE FAITHFULNESS OF THE COMMON MAN
  by Phillips Brooks
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Summary: The world's progress is driven by the patient faithfulness of
the one-talented many, not by the achievements of the highly-gifted few.

Topics: "Faithfulness Matters", "Christian Stewardship"
Scripture References: Matthew 25:25, Luke 16:10, 1 Corinthians 4:2, Colossians 3:23

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DESCRIPTION
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Phillips Brooks preaches about the importance of faithfulness in using
our talents, emphasizing that the world will be enriched not just by the
extraordinary achievements of a few gifted individuals, but by the
consistent faithfulness of ordinary people in their daily tasks. He
highlights the idea that common tasks are often the hardest, yet they
hold the power to bring about significant change and transformation.
Brooks encourages his listeners to see the dignity and importance in
their seemingly mundane lives, as their faithfulness in small things can
have a profound impact on the world.

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CONTENT
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"And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth..."

(Matt. 25:25).

It seems very certain that the world is to grow better and richer in the
future, however it has been in the past, not by the magnificent
achievements of the highly-gifted few, but by the patient faithfulness
of the one-talented many. If we could draw back the curtains of the
millennium and look in, we should see not a Hercules here and there
standing on the world-wasting monsters he had killed, but a world full
of men, each with an arm of moderate muscle, but each triumphant over
his own little piece of the obstinacy of earth or the ferocity of the
brutes. It seems as if the heroes had done almost all for the world that
they can do, and not much more can come till common men awake and take
their common tasks.

I do believe the common man's task is the hardest. The hero has the
hero's aspiration that lifts him to his labour. All great duties are
easier than the little ones, though they cost far more blood and agony.
That is a truth we all find out. And this is part of the reason why we
make allowance for our poor friend in the parable. But if we look at it
in a higher way, surely we may come to feel that the very certainty that
the world must be saved by the faithfulness of commonplace people is
what is needed to rescue such people from commonplaceness in their own
eyes, and clothe their lives with the dignity which they seem so
woefully to lack, and which, if any man does not see somewhere shining
through the rusty texture of his life, he cannot life it well.

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/phillips-brooks/the-faithfulness-of-the-common-man/
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