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WORK DIVINELY INTENDED
As the clear and sensitive organ of the eye, which holds upon its tiny lens the masses of far stars and the mazes of their movement, was evidently made for this marvelous function; as the nerve of the ear, which takes eloquence, poetry, wit, applause, the tone of affection, the crash of the thunder-burst, the lively laugh of childish glee, and communicates each with instant fidelity to the spirit behind, was manifestly formed for exactly this office; so, just as clearly, the personal soul, with its judgment and its will, with its deep-seated instincts and its eager desires, with its unrest in indolence, and its thought that outruns attainment every instant, was made to realize its good by working. The date-tree in the desert is not more precisely preadjusted to its office!—Richard S. Storrs.
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Work in Miniature—See [Miniature Work].
WORK PROVING RELIGION
There is a story of a young minister who had just come to be pastor in a town, and he called on Hiram Golf, the shoemaker.
“Well, Hiram,” said the minister, “I have come to talk with you about the things of God, and I am very glad a man can be in a humble occupation and yet be a godly man.” The shoemaker said, “Don’t call this occupation humble.” The minister thought he had made a mistake, and he said, “Excuse me, I didn’t mean to reflect on what you do for a living.” The man replied, “You didn’t hurt me, but I was afraid you might have hurt the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe the making of that shoe is just as holy a thing as your making a sermon. I believe that when I come to stand before the throne of God, He is going to say, ‘What kind of shoes did you make down on earth?’ And He might pick out this very pair, in order to let me look at them in the blazing light of the great white throne; and He is going to say to you, ‘What kind of sermons did you make?’ and you will have to show Him one of your sermons. Now, if I made better shoes than you made sermons, I will have a better place in the kingdom of God.” (Text.)
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Work, Quiet, Successful—See [Value of One Man].