February 2

Our only care, to please God

“For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God” (John 12:43).
“Do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10).

It is a light thing to be judged of man’s judgment, and all the lighter since they are so prone to judge by a false standard. What is it to me that men condemn me if God only approve? The longer I live, the less I think of human opinions on the great questions of right and wrong as God sees them. They will judge both themselves and others falsely. Even the Church sometimes condemns and excommunicates her best men. I have known cases, and could name them, in which I am confident they have done this very thing. They have cut men off from their communion, and now everybody sees that the men excommunicated were the best men of the Church.


It is a blessed thought that the only thing we need to care for is to please God. The only inquiry we need make is—What will God think of it? We have only one mind to please, and that the Great Mind of the universe. Let this be our single aim, and we shall not fail to please Him. But if we do not aim at this all we can do is only an abomination in His sight.
—Charles G. Finney.

May I have grace to live above every human motive; simply with God and to God, and not swayed, especially in missionary work, by the opinions of people not acquainted with the state of things, whose judgment may be contrary to my own.—Henry Martyn.

Make not a man your measuring-rod
If you would span the way to God;
Heed not our petty “worse” or “less,”
But fix your eyes on perfectness.
Make for the loftiest point in view,
And draw your friends along with you.
—Amos R. Wells.

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