“Take no thought for your life” (Matt. vi. 25).
Still the Lord is using the things that are despised. The very names of
Nazarene and Christian were once epithets of contempt. No man can have
God’s highest thought and be popular with his immediate generation. The
most abused men are often most used.
There are far greater calamities than to be unpopular and misunderstood.
There are far worse things than to be found in the minority. Many of God’s
greatest blessings are lying behind the devil’s scarecrows of prejudice
and misrepresentation. The Holy Ghost is not ashamed to use unpopular
people. And if He uses them, what need they care for men?
Oh, let us but have His recognition and man’s notice will count for
little, and He will give us all we need of human help and praise. Let us
only seek His will, His glory, His approval. Let us go for Him on the
hardest errands and do the most menial tasks. Honor enough that He uses us
and sends us. Let us not fear in this day to follow Him outside the camp,
bearing His reproach, and by-and-by He will own our worthless name before
the myriads of earth and sky.