January 10

God Looketh on the Heart

Walking in all the commandments Lord and ordinances of the Lord blameless — Luke 1:6

Of course, this does not mean that they were absolutely faultless, but that their lives were so beautiful, so sincere and faithful, that God saw nothing in them to blame or rebuke. This is very beautifully illustrated in one of Mrs. Herrick Johnson’s tender little poems. A mother is sitting at her work; her mind perplexed as she thinks of her poor faulty life. She had longed to serve the Master, and had tried to do so; but it seemed to her that she had utterly failed. Just then she turned the garment she was mending, and her eye “caught an odd little bundle of mending and patchwork” done by some other hand. Her heart grew tender as the truth flashed over her. Her little daughter had wanted to help her. To be sure, she had made a botch of it; but the mother knew it was the best she could do, and she felt a strange yearning for her child. Then a voice whispered, “Art thou tenderer for the little child than I am tender for thee?” She understood it all in a flash, and her perplexed faith brightened into peace.

For I thought, when the Master Builder
Comes down his temple to view,
To see what rents must be mended,
And what must be builded anew,

Perhaps, as he looks o’er the building,
He will bring my poor work to the light,
And seeing the marring and bungling,
And how far it all is from right,

He will feel as I felt for my darling,
And say as I said for her:
Dear child! she wanted to help me,
And love for me was the spur;

And for the true love that is in it,
The work shall seem perfect as mine;
And because it was willing service,
I will crown it with plaudit divine..