The Power of Example
A preacher closed his sermon with an earnest Gospel appeal. Among the many who responded was a woman of wealth and social distinction.
She asked per mission to speak a few words to the audience. “I want you to know,” she said, “just why I came forward tonight. It was not because of any word spoken by the preach er. I stand here because of the influence of a little woman who “He who best knows the world will love it least.” — Balzac sits before me. Her fingers are rough with toil. The hard work of many years has stooped her low. She is just a poor, obscure washerwoman who has served in my home for many years. I have never known her to be impatient, speak an unkind word, or do a dishonorable deed. I know of countless little acts of unselfish love that adorn her life. Shame faced, let me say that I have openly sneered at her faith, and laughed at her fidelity to God. Yet, when my little girl was taken away, it was this woman who caused me to look beyond the grave and shed my first tears of hope. The sweet magnetism of her life has led me to Christ. I covet the thing that has made her life so beautiful.”
At the request of the preacher, the little woman was led forward, her eyes streaming with glad tears, and such a shining face as one seldom sees on this earth. “Let me introduce you,” said the preacher, “to the real preacher of the evening,” and the audience arose in silent, though not tearless, respect. Oh, ye obscure toilers of the world, ye patient “doers of the Word,” think not that no one sees. I say unto you that a great cloud of witnesses will rise up on that great day, and call you blessed.
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