[R957 : page 8]

GOD WILL NOT FORGET.

"For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister."--Heb. 6:10.

"Can a woman forget her sucking child? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee [Zion, the Church]. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."--Isa. 49:15.

As we read these assurances of tenderest love on the part of our heavenly Father, and then consider our low estate, we can scarcely realize that we are indeed the objects of that love. Yet if we are humbly walking in the narrow way, these assurances are for our comfort and consolation.

Your sphere may seem to be a narrow one; your opportunities for engaging in the special work of the present hour may be necessarily very limited: yet if you are lovingly laboring to do all you can under circumstances which you cannot control to improve, and doing that service with your whole heart cheerfully, then be assured that the Lord appreciates it. And he is not unrighteous to forget it because it is small and does not amount to much.

God is not measuring us by the magnitude of the results of our labors, but by the spirit which we develop and manifest in their performance. If we have the spirit of our Master, our constant aim and effort will be not only to do something, but to do all we can in the special work which God has marked out for this special time. In some cases that all is a great deal more than in other cases. We are more likely to under-estimate than to over-estimate our abilities and opportunities, and thus to accomplish much less than we might. But if faithful stewards, we will endeavor to invest our talents to the best possible advantage, according to our best judgment, so as to secure the largest possible results. The efforts of such will also be directed in the exact line which the Lord indicates--first to the saints, to minister to them and build them up in the faith, and to encourage and strengthen the weaker ones among them, and in brief to serve them in any way.

Such service and labor of love the Lord will not forget. Sooner could a mother forget her infant child than could God forget these precious ones.