There Is No Victory Until the Final Victory

The gains and losses of each hour, each day, may not seem very significant, In business, a profit at the end of one day does not mean that we are solvent. In warfare, victory in one battle does not mean that we have won the war. In life, one good deed or a quick and sudden honest effort does not mean that we have lived successfully. With this there comes to mind a significant sentence from scripture , often quoted, but of which we may need to be reminded: “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” An occasional good deed does not make a good life any more than an occasional cure makes a good doctor, or any more than an occasional idea makes a brilliant man. There is a premium for consistent performance, and no man is considered successful who finishes as a failure. Nor is a man considered good who ends up bad. Consider the case of the banker who deals honestly for many years, and then, under pressure misappropriates funds. He may have dealt honesty for fifty years, and then yielded to temptation only once, but the record says he is dishonest. He didn’t endure to the end. Consider the man who serves his country long and faithfully and then commits one act of treason – betrays his country only once. In spite of all past service, he is tried as a traitor. It is consistency of living, consistency of performance, consistency of faithfulness that counts. Good deeds will help to counterbalance the bad – but the man who falters will not have the same success or satisfaction as the man who endures to the end. It is the whole picture that counts, and not only the deeds of any one day. “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”