The history of mankind, whether secular or religious, resolves itself ultimately into the history of a few individuals. God carries out His work of continuous redemption by the energy of the chosen few. Into their hearts He pours the power of His Spirit; upon their heads He lays the hands of His consecration. The deliverance of men has never been wrought by the multitude, always by the individual.
From this method of God's working we may learn:
I. The secret, and the sole secret, of moral power. What was it which again and again overcame the world? Was it not faith, showing itself by self-sacrifice? Is not that secret open to the knowledge, feasible to the practice, of every one of us?
II. We may notice, secondly, that the work of these saints of God, being always and necessarily human, is never permanent in its results. Christianity is no stereotyped system; it is no human theology; as such it is nothing; only as a Divine effort, only as an eternal progress, only as a living force, only as an inspiring, continuous effort, can Christianity regenerate the world.
III. Notice that the apparent failures were never absolute. No good man, no saint of God, has ever lived or died in vain. The seed is not quickened except it die; even in its death, but only by its death, comes the promise of the golden grain. Heaven is for those who have failed on earth.
F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiii., p. 337 (see also In the Days of thy Youth,p. 337, and Sermons and Addresses in America,p. 185).
Reference: Psalms 16:3. S. W. Skeffington, Our Sins or our Saviour,p. 270; Expositor,3rd series, vol. v., p. 307. Psalms 16:5. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 19.