Galatians 4:18 But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. We do not value an intermitting spring so much as the clear brooklet which our childhood knew, and which has laughed on its course unheeding, and which could never be persuaded to dry up, though it has had to battle against the scorchings of a jubilee of summer's suns. We do not guide ourselves by the glow-worm's bead of light, or with the marsh-lamp's fitful flame. No, we look to the ancient sun, which in our infancy struggled through the window, and danced upon the wall of the nursery, as if he knew how much we delighted to see him light up the flower-cup and peep through the shivering leaf. And, for ourselves, we do not value the affection of a stranger awakened by some casual congeniality, and displayed in kindly greeting or in occasional courtesy. Our wealth is in the patient bearing, and the unnoticed deed, and the anticipated wish, and the ready sympathies, which make a summer and a paradise wherever there is a home. And not only in the natural and the social relations, but in the enterprise of the world, in the busy activities of men, the necessity for uniformity in earnestness is readily acknowledged. Society very soon brands a man if he has not got a perseverance as well as an earnestness about him. The world has got so matter-of fact now, that it jostles the genius off the footpath, while the plodder, whose eye sparkles less brilliantly but more evenly, steadily proceeds on his way to success. (W. M. Punshon, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.WEB: But it is always good to be zealous in a good cause, and not only when I am present with you. |
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