2 Kings 12:15

A “Reliable” Story

“They reckoned not with the men, into whose hand they delivered the money... for they dealt faithfully.” 2 Kings 12:15.

When your house is going to be papered and painted what happens? Well, first father pays a visit to the painter and asks him to send a man to look at the rooms and measure the walls. Then you get up great heavy books with patterns of wall paper, and you choose the paper you think most suitable. And father tells the painter the paper you have fixed on, and then the painter sends in what is called an “estimate” that is, a note saying how much he estimates or figures out that the painting and papering will cost. If father thinks the estimate reasonable he orders the work to proceed, and the painters with their pots and their brushes and their ladders arrive on the scene. Some time after they have finished their job the master painter sends in his bill, and father compares it with the estimate which he received before the job was begun. If the bill is larger than the estimate, or if there is what father considers an unreasonable charge, he goes to the painter and speaks about it before he pays the bill.

That is the way people usually do business nowadays, but occasionally you hear someone say. “Oh! I never ask So-and-so for an estimate. He is such a decent man I know I can trust him to do it as well and economically as it can be done. He is thoroughly reliable.” You feel that that workman must be well worth employing don't you? if people say such nice things about him.

Well, the men of today's text are all of the reliable order. Those who were arranging for the repair of the Temple trusted them so thoroughly that they handed over to them all the money which had been gathered for the Temple repairs. They told these overseers to lay it out to the best advantage, knowing that the men would act honestly and faithfully, and do with the money the utmost that could be done. There would be no sloppy work allowed either. There would be no building with rubble and calling it stone, there would be no cheating with the woodwork no putting in of inferior or unseasoned wood. Everything would be as perfect as it could be made.

Boys and girls, it is a fine reputation these men bore. And it is a reputation we can all have if we care. The matter lies entirely in our own hands. Nobody but ourselves can make us reliable. It is our honor alone that can command us here.

And if there be reasons needed why we should be reliable, here are three.

1. Only what is reliable is useful. The bicycle you ride every day must have a stout frame, and good tyres, and a strong brake. There must be nothing shaky about it. For the bicycle that may break down at any minute is of little value. The tools that snap when you use them, the needles that bend or break when you ask them to go through stiff material, are worse than useless. They are a downright nuisance. And it is the same with the men and women, the boys and girls, who cannot be relied on.

A man who sold fruit and vegetables from a cart in the city streets carried always in the back of the cart an odd looking little mongrel dog. It was no beauty, looked at from a doggy point of view. Its legs were much too long, its head was too broad, its coat was too rough, and its left ear was sadly torn; but its master would not have parted with it at any price. “Trusty,” said he, “has saved me pounds and pounds. Before I got him I used to lose a great deal of money from people helping themselves to my goods while I was bargaining with somebody else. I tried a boy to watch the cart, but he was no use, for he ate the apples and plums himself. Then I got Trusty here. Since then I've had no trouble. I can rely on him. He never fails me.”

2. The second reason is that what is reliable always comes out on top. Reliable people are like cream on milk. They always rise to the top and they are always in great demand. If it is known that you can be thoroughly trusted you are sure to get on in life. There are always more positions of trust than there are trusty people to fill them; so the trusty man wins every time. If you are setting out with the idea of being somebody in the world, be clever if you like, but first be reliable. Clever people who are not reliable are like rockets. They go up with a great show, but they don't stay long aloft. They are only poor imitations of a star. If you want to be a star, if you want to shine up high with a steady radiance, you must be reliable as well as clever.

3. The third reason is that to be reliable is the only right way. It is the only way for the boys and girls who are trying to follow Christ. Those who say they will do a certain thing and do not do it, those who make large promises and never fulfill them, are little better than liars. Those who do sloppy work, or flitter away their master's time, are really thieves. They are untrue to the name they bear.

In the beautiful city of Florence there stands a wonderful cathedral with a lofty dome like St. Paul's. The dome has many gorgeous stained-glass windows, but perhaps the most remarkable thing about it is a tiny iron ring in the casement of one of these windows, for by it the uprightness and downrightness of the whole building is tested year by year. On a certain day in June, at a certain hour of that day, the sun shines through that ring, and its rays fall on a brass star let into the marble pavement beneath. So long as the sun falls exactly on that spot people know that the building is as erect and sound as it was the day it was finished. If the rays failed to fall exactly on that spot then they would know that the cathedral was beginning to be off the straight, that it was in danger of toppling or becoming like the leaning tower of Pisa.

Boys and girls, our reliableness is just our iron ring. It tests the uprightness of our character. It proves the truth of our love for Christ.