When you go into some great cathedral across the sea, to watch
the player on the keys, which away up in the tower are sounding
forth their wondrous chime, down there you hear only the clatter
of the wires, the deafening din of the reverberating bells, and
the clanging of the wooden shoes he wears upon his hands with
which to strike the keyboard, sending out away up there in the
belfry the silvery notes which he himself can scarcely hear.
Ah, but they are heard. Many a tired soul stops on the distant
hillside in his day’s toil to listen to those strains, and his
heart is filled with a strange gladness and peace. And amid the
din and tumult of your daily work, it may sometimes seem as tho
you were doing naught which was worth the doing; down there in
obscurity, unthought of and unnoticed by the great world, simply
beating out the allotted task upon the clattering keyboard which
the Master has set for you. But do it well. Do it as the violet
smiles, as the bird sings, as Jesus lived, and you shall send
out over land and sea music, which shall bless the generations
afar off.--GEORGE T. DOWLING.
(2002)
=Membership, Church=--See BADGES.
=Membership of Churches, Distribution of=--See CHURCH
STATISTICS.
=Memorial Day=--See DEAD, INFLUENCE OF; DECORATING SOLDIERS’
GRAVES; HONOR’S ROLL-CALL.