“Thou good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have
thou authority over ten cities” (Luke xix. 17).
It is not our success in service that counts, but our fidelity. Caleb and
Joshua were faithful and God remembered it when the day of visitation
came. It was a very difficult and unpopular position, and all of us are
called in the crisis of our lives to stand alone and in this very matter
of trusting God for victory over sin and our full inheritance in Christ we
have all to be tested as they.
Our brethren even in the church of God, while admitting in the abstract
the loveliness and advantages of such an ideal life, tell us as they told
Israel that it is impracticable and impossible, and many of us have to
stand alone for years witnessing to the power of Christ to save His people
to the uttermost and like Caleb following Him wholly, if alone. But this
is the real victory of faith and the proof of our uncompromising fidelity.
Let us not therefore complain when we suffer reproach for our testimony or
stand alone for God, but thank Him that He so honors us, and so stand the
test that He can afterwards use us when the multitudes are glad to follow.