September 14Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully — 1 Pet. 2:12, 19.
We may be evil reported of and slandered, but all who know us, who have dealings with us, should find from experience our loyalty to principle, our endeavor that the words of our mouths as well as the meditations of our hearts and the conduct of life should be pleasing to the Lord and an honor to His name and cause, that God may be glorified through Christ, to whom belongs the glory and the Kingdom forever—Z '03, 365 (R 3246). The Lord's people are often undeservedly slandered. It should be their constant care so to live as not to deserve reproach. However, if it comes, let them not weary in well-doing; let them continue the course of honest conduct, certain that even if they now fail to bless others with their good works, the latter, in the Day of Christ, when visited with an opportunity of salvation, will receive such a blessing from the remembrance of these good works as will inure to God's glory. The seed, though long delayed in sprouting, will then yield an abundant crop. Therefore we may thank God for the privilege of suffering evil for our well-doing—P '33, 147. Parallel passages: 2 Cor. 8:21; Rom. 12:17; Phil. 4:8; Neh. 5:9; 1 Pet. 2:15; 3:13-18; Matt. 5:16; John 13:34, 35; 1 Pet. 2:20-24; Rom. 8:17-19; 2 Tim. 2:10-12; Heb. 13:10-14. Hymns: 299, 134, 208, 224, 302, 315, 325. Poems of Dawn, 287: The Rainy Day. Tower Reading: Z '12, 323 (R 5116). Questions: Have I been mistreated this week? How did I endure it? What were the effects? THE RAINY DAY
THE day is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary; The vine still clings to the moldering wall, But at every gust the dead leaves fall, And the day is dark and dreary. My life is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary; My thoughts still cling to the moldering past, But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast, And the days are dark and dreary. Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary. |
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