Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net Living for the Best By James G. K. McClure Author of "A Mighty Means of Usefulness," "The Great Appeal," "Possibilities," etc. CHICAGO NEW YORK TORONTO Fleming H. Revell Company LONDON AND EDINBURGH Copyright, 1903 By FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY MARCH CHICAGO: 63 WASHINGTON STREET NEW YORK: 158 FIFTH AVENUE TORONTO: 27 RICHMOND STREET, W. LONDON: 21 PATERNOSTER SQUARE EDINBURGH: 30 ST. MARY STREET PREFACE. The publisher of a large metropolitan journal, a most effective man in reaching and influencing his fellows, once expressed to me the thought, "From what I know of myself and others, were I a writer or speaker desiring to enforce truth, I would always try to vivify that truth through illustration and story. The every-day intelligence of man rejoices to have truth put before it in living form." It is with these words in mind that this book is written. Its purpose is to set forth great ideas, and so to set them forth, each one illustrated by a historic life already familiar, that these ideas shall be made luminous, and even vivid, to the reader. The characters chosen for such illustration are from the Old Testament--those men of ancient times whose humanity is the humanity of every race and clime, and whose experiences touch our own with sympathy and suggestion. May these old-day heroes live again before the mind of him who turns these pages, and may the ideas which they are used to illustrate be an abiding power in the memory of every reader. JAMES G. K. MCCLURE. LAKE FOREST, ILLINOIS. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Open to the Best 11 II. Winning the Best Victories 31 III. Making the Best Use of Our Lives 49 IV. Putting the Best into Others 67 V. Developing Our Best under Difficulties 87 VI. The Need of Retaining the Best Wisdom 105 VII. The Best Possession 123 VIII. Using Aright Our Best Hours 141 IX. Giving Our Best to God 161 OPEN TO THE BEST. CHAPTER I. OPEN TO THE BEST. "If every morning we would fling open our windows and look out on the wide reaches of God's love and goodness, we could not help singing." So it has been written. So Luther thought. When he was at Wartburg Castle, in the perilous times of the Reformation, he went every morning to his window, threw it open, looked up to the skies, and veritable prisoner though he was, cheerily sang, "God is our Refuge and Strength, a very present Help." Then he carried a buoyant heart to the labor of the day.