Consecrated Endeavour
Illustration★★★★The sweeper of the city street who sweeps in the dark corner where no inspector comes, simply because it is his business to have the streets clean, has a touch of consecration in him. The lighthouse-keeper who rows out night after 431 night to the lonely rock, though he knows that for weeks together no ship goes by his coast, and who does it because he is counted on for that, is in the same list.
The shoemaker in the little island town who makes an honest shoe for some unknown customer across the world and who feels the sacredness of his work, is in his humble way consecrated. The scientist who counts nothing too hard in his unwearied struggle to win one more secret from the unknown, that he may add it to the slowly growing total of human knowledge, is to be enrolled among those who are consecrated. The daughter who smothers all her own personal dreams to care for an invalid mother or a widowed father, the reformer who spends his days study- ing the slums that he may hasten the day when there shall be no slums, the Christian teacher who counts no obstacle too difficult if so by it he may make one more person enter into the real meaning of the love of Christ—all these are examples of consecration.
The point
Consecration is found not only in the famous but in humble daily work done faithfully—street sweepers, lighthouse keepers, shoemakers, scientists, caregivers, and teachers all serve with dedication.