Page:Some Reflections on the Importance of a Religious Life.djvu/40

 willingness to benefit others, to help and to comfort them; to promote their happiness in time, to feel and to manifest a strong interest for their happiness in eternity. In the performance of these duties, it is well to have a continued reference to the second commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Many will be the occasions on which you may keep this injunction; may you rightly improve them, and partake of the pleasure which results from doing good to others. It is right, at the same time, to remember, that the servant of Christ, however he may be employed, will act in love and in patience, committing his feeble services to the blessing of his Lord, with a full persuasion, that except this blessing be conferred, all his efforts are to no purpose. He well knows that it is his duty, whilst he may humbly take comfort in the fruit of his labours, to remember that the Lord confers the blessing according to his own good pleasure; and that it is not for us to be impatient for the fruit of our efforts, or to murmur if this evidence be not afforded.

Small as our numbers are, compared with the bulk of the community among whom we live, I believe, that if we are faithful to God, we have an important part to act as a distinct religious Society. It is therefore my fervent desire, that, accepting the whole truth of the Gospel,