Week 28 Day 1

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The Hard Path of Duty

Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.

1 John 5:1

Lord, I believe thy heavenly word;

Fain would I have my soul renew’d;

I mourn for sin, and trust the Lord

To have it pardon’d and subdued.

O may thy grace its power display,

Let guilt and death no longer reign;

Save me in thine appointed way,

Nor let my humble faith be vain.

Once Abraham Lincoln was asked the best advice to give a young person. Lincoln looked to his own life, remembered how hard he had worked as a young frontiersman, and said, “It is much for the young to know that treading the hard path of duty . . . will be noticed and will lead to high places.” Lincoln talked much about the “hard path of duty.” It meant not only working hard, but working hard for the right things. It meant working hard to help others, to support your family, to live a life of integrity, no matter how hard it might be at times. For Lincoln, being ambitious, achieving things, and acquiring material wealth wasn’t enough. The “hard path of duty” meant to be responsible and do what you had to do, not just what you felt like doing. That was not only the way a frontiersman survived, but how all men and women survive.