September 1

He went and beheaded him in the prison. — Mark 6:27

Jesus knows how His followers can best serve Him. He sent the apostles out to teach and heal.

John the Baptist, however, He permitted to be seized, to languish in prison, and to be put to death.

We should be willing to serve our Master in the way He points out. He may want us to give a long life to active usefulness, or He may want us to serve and honor Him by enduring persecution and suffering wrong.

The life of John seemed to be a failure. He preached only a few months.

He was a great preacher, too, and hundreds went to hear him. It seemed to his friends a pitiful waste of life, an irreparable loss to the heavenly kingdom, when he was murdered.

But John’s work was done – all he was sent into the world to do. There really was no reason for his living an hour longer.

When one dies in youth, we are apt to deplore his departure as untimely, but no mistake is made. “Every man is immortal till his work is done.”