“Of whom the world was not worthy.” (Heb. 11:38.)
God’s greatest heroes are to men unknown,
They move as strangers on the earth, among,
And die by poet and by bard unsung,
Then go to heaven for a victor’s crown.
No storied urn marks where their bodies lie,
No tow’ring obelisk preserves their fame;
They kept the faith, upheld God’s holy name,
Then unto earth breathed out their last goodbye.
These heroes, now, above an arching blue,
Rank high among God’s noblest and His best:
They fought their fight as men of matchless worth,
And but await in heaven’s dazzling hue,
The moment when their names shall be confessed,
That they may reign with Christ upon the earth.
Someone wrote: “Full many a flower is born to blush unseen.” Thus, also, full many a life lives and dies by men unseen and unsung.
These great ones are not always spectacular. Some of them move in obscure circles. Some of them are in distant mission fields, lost to the great world-centers of activity. All of them stand unshaken by every wind that blows, and unmoved by the call of the world.
These great ones know God and His truth; they walk with Him, talk with Him, and work with Him.
Many of them give up houses, and lands, and fame for Christ. They serve for a mere pittance, isolate themselves for Christ’s sake, and with the spirit of the martyrs, they are always ready to do, or die.
God give us heroes, faithful, true,
Who never serve for revenue,
Who stand prepared to do, or die,
And never stop to question, “Why?”
Who gladly pay the fullest price,
And give their lives a sacrifice;
Whose faith surmounts each trying test,
Who always do their very best.
The Christian life calls out the best that there is in any of us. There is no place for cowardice in Christ. He calls for the heroic, the courageous, and the mighty men of valor.
Let us forever away with the thought that the soldier of Jesus Christ will find no hardships to endure, no sacrifices to make, no hills to scale, no obstacles to surmount.
Taken from the devotional by R. E. Neighbour, Gems of Gold: Daily Meditations
