Chambers on Honest Teaching

Worker for God—and I speak this to myself as well as to you—what do you fasten your mind on when you listen to a preacher, when you read a book? When Jesus Christ said “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,” He did not stop there, He went on to say, “. . . and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Oh, I wish I had time, I would kindle you by telling you of some folks I know who have lifted themselves out of the very gutter of ignominy and ignorance by sheer grind in the secular callings of life. Would to God we had the same stick-to-it energy in God’s line! Many a lad have I known in Scotland who has worked hard day and night to attain a scholarship in secular callings, and are we to be behind them? This word of the Apostle Paul’s is used in that connection— “take heed,”  concentrate, stick at it, fix the mind on it.  Give heed to reading, be careful of your self-preparation. God grant that we may be approved unto God by what we build in. When Paul mentions the matter of conversation, he says,  “See that your speech is edifying” —good building-up stuff, not sanctimonious talk, but real solid stuff that makes people stronger in the Word of God, stronger in character, stronger in practical life.

Chambers, Oswald. Workmen of God : The Cure for Souls. Hants UK: Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996, c1937.