The Cost Of Dodging Duty

ILLUSTRATION

“THE COST OF DODGING DUTY”

I have read of a king who placed a heavy stone in the road and hid to see who would remove it. Men of various classes came and worked their way around it, some loudly blaming the king for not keeping the highways clear, but all dodging the duty of getting it out of the way. At last a poor peasant, on his way to town with his burden of vegetables for sale, came and contemplating the stone, laid down his load, and rolled it into the gutter. Then turning around he spied a purse which had lain right under the stone. He opened it and found it full of god pieces with a note form the king, saying it was for the one how should remove the stone.

Under every cross our king has hidden a blessing. We can turn back from a cross, or go around it, but we are eternal losers if we do. We cannot dodge the cross without dodging God’s blessings, and we cannot refuse it without endangering our crown He is watching.