I Corinthians 10:31

Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.

He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

Ye know how we exhorted . . . and charged every one of you, that ye would walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.

Ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

The great marvel of the Incarnation slips into ordinary childhood's life; the great marvel of the Transfiguration vanishes in the devil-possessed valley; the glory of the Resurrection descends into a breakfast on the sea-shore. This is not an anti-climax, but a great revelation of God.

The tendency is to look for the marvelous in our experience; we mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes. It is one thing to go through a crisis grandly, but another thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, no one paying the remotest attention to us. If we do not want mediaeval haloes, we want something that will make people say - What a wonderful man of prayer he is! What a pious devoted woman she is! If you are rightly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the sublime height where no one ever thinks of noticing you, all that is noticed is that the power of God comes through you all the time.

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow concerns of life are not ordained of God; they are as much of God as the profound.

It is not your devotion to God that makes you refuse to be shallow, but your wish to impress other people with the fact that you are not shallow, which is a sure sign that you are a spiritual prig.