One way of doing this is by obeying him. He is our Lord. Nothing
pleases him so well as our obedience. It is told of a great
philosopher that a friend called one day to see him, and was
entertained by the philosopher's little daughter till her father came
in. The friend supposed that the child of so wise a man would be
learning something very deep. So he asked her, "What is your father
teaching you?" The little maid looked up into his face with her clear
eyes and said, "Obedience." That is the one great lesson our Lord is
teaching us. He wants us to learn obedience. If we obey him always we
shall always be doing things for him.
We do things for Christ which we do through love to him. Even
obedience without love does not please him. But the smallest services
we can render, if love inspire them, he accepts. Thus we can make the
commonest tasks of our lives holy ministries, as sacred as what the
angels do. There is a legend of a monk who painted in an old
convent-cell pictures of martyrs and holy saints and of the sweet
Christ-face with the crown of thorns. Men called his pictures only
daubs.
"One night the poor monk mused, 'Could I but render
Honor to Christ as other painters do--
Were but my skill as great as is the tender
Love that inspires me when his cross I view.'
"'But no, 'tis vain I toil and strive in sorrow;
What man so scorns still less can _He_ admire;
My life's work is all valueless; to-morrow
I'll cast my ill-wrought pictures in the fire.
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