He is
Christ's only servant there, and he dare not be unfaithful, else the
whole work of Christ in that place may fail. He is the one light set
to shine there for his Master, and if his light be hidden, the darkness
will be unrelieved. So there is special inspiration in this
consciousness of being the only one Christ has in a certain place.
There is a sense in which this is true also of every one of us all the
time. We really are always the only one Christ has at the particular
place at which we stand. There may be thousands of other lives about
us. We may be only one of a great company, of a large congregation, of
a populous community. Yet each one of us has a life that is alone in
its responsibility, in its danger, in its mission and duty. There may
be a hundred others close beside me, but not one of them can take my
place, or do my duty, or fulfil my mission, or bear my responsibility.
Though every one of the other hundred do his work, and do it perfectly,
my work waits for me, and if I do not do it, it never will be done.
We can understand how that if the great prophet had failed God that day
when he was the only one God had to stand for him, the consequences
would have been most disastrous; the cause of God would have suffered
irreparably. But are we sure that the calamity to Christ's kingdom
would be any less if one of us should fail God in our lowly place any
common day?
Stories are told of a child finding a little leak in the dike that
shuts off the sea from Holland, and stopping it with his hand till help
could come, staying there all the night, holding back the floods with
his little hand.
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