Silent Times A Book To Help in Reading - Miller, J. R. (James Russell), 1840-1912

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MILLER'S BOOKS
Silent ILimee
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TO HELP IN READING THE BIBLE INTO LIFE
THE
"
REYJ.jrK.-^MI.LLER;
i>.D.'
AUTHOR OF " making' THE' ;M>?)MT 0F 'lIFE,' "building of c h1 r AC t'e'ii ,'"'"" things
TO LIVE'
Foj?;*\ ?;Vc.
>'
'^
'^
1Rcw
THOMAS
Y.
lôrft
& CO.
CROWELL
PUBLISHERS
PiJ&IJG
LIBRARY
LENOX AND
,
soeo
-'-
O'^,
T'LD N FOUNDATIONS
,'
1914'
Copyright, 1886
By
THOMAS
Y.
CROWELL &
CO.
TWENTY-FIRST THOUSAND
PREFACE
The
point at which
is
many
Christians
fail
in the using
of divine truths
the point at which doctrine should

life.
be transmuted into
Bible as the
They know and honor

inspired
teachings,
the
word of God, and

to
its
sincerely wish to con-
form their
difficulty in
lives
but have
applying them to the actual experiences
of daily
life.
This book
Its
is is
offered as a
humble help
in this direction.
aim
to bring the divine lessons
down, and give some hints of the way they may be

used on
common
The
days and in the actual experiences of

title,
';
those days.
Silent Jl'imes,"
is
suggestive
of the need of seasons of quiet in every
life .that
would
grow
into
full,
rich beauty.
if
is-
su^g.e^tiye also of
Q'f
one particular use that may

the reading of
the
its
be- n:ia,de
di book,
chapters.' ot pbttions ot
them,
as
in
" silent times " of busy,
feverish days,
helps
in the direction of true Christian growth.

is
It
The book
earnest
that
it
sent out in Christ's
name, and with the hope that

little
little
may make
and
the
way a
plainer for
some
and
pilgrims,
religion a
more
real,
may become
for
a lamp for some dark ways, and a staff

paths.
J.
some rough and steep
R. M.
Philadelphia,
CONTENTS
CHAITEK
I.
PAGE
Silent Times
7
.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Personal Friendship with Christ Having Christ in Us Copying but a Fragment Thv Will, not Mine God's Reserve of Goodness
*'
17
29
41
52
....
62
73
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
The Blessing of Not Getting; ... Afterward" The Blessedness of Longing ... The Cost and Worth of Sympathy
.
84
93
102
XII.
XIII.
XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX.
Finding One's Mission Living up to our Best Intentions Life's Double Ministry The Ministry of Well-wishing Helping without Money Timeliness in Duty The Office of Consoler
.
112
.
123
134
.
145
156
171
181
191
Living by the
Day
.
. .
Habits in Religious Life

.
200
213
The Power of the Tongue The Home Conversation XXII. An Old Bible Portrait XXIII. Sorrow in Christian Homes. XXIV. Dealing with Our Sins
XX. XXI.
223
234
. . .
243
254
SILENT TIMES.
CHAPTER
SILENT TIMES.
In Wellesley College a special feature of the
daily life of the
I.
household
is
the morning and

at
evening " silent time."
Both
is
the
opening
and closing of the day, there
a brief period,
marked by the strokes

the house
is
of a bell, in
is
which
all
quiet.
Every pupil
in
is
her room.
There
is
no conversation.
No
if
step
heard in
its
the corridors.
The whole
great house with

all
thronging
of
life is
as quiet as
its
is
hundreds
no posi-
inmates were sleeping.
There
tively prescribed
way
of
spending these silent

it is
minutes in the rooms, but

all
understood that
shall
whose hearts so
incline
them
of
devote
the time to devotional reading, meditation, and

prayer.
At
least,
the design
establishing
this period of quiet as part of the daily life of
8 the school,
tional
is
SILENT TIMES.
to give opportunity for such devo-
exercises,
all
and by
its
solemn hush
to
suggest to
the fitness, the helpfulness, and
the need of such periods of
communion with
God.
to
The
bell that calls for silence, also calls

;
thought and prayer
and even the most
in-
different
must
be
affected
by
its
continual
recurrence.
Every true
" silent times,"
Christian
life
needs
its
still,
daily
when
all
shall
be
when
com-
the busy activity of other hours shall cease,
and when the
heart, in holy hush, shall
mune
Ours
with God.
One
of
the greatest needs

is
in Christian life in these

is
days
more devotion.
not an age of prayer so
much
as an
age of work.
The tendency
;
is
to action rather
than to worship
to
busy
toil
rather than
to
quiet sitting at the Saviour's feet to
commune
with him.
The key-note
of our present Chrisis
tian life is consecration,
which
understood to
mean devotion to active hand we are incited to

stirred
service.
On
Our
every
zeal
is
work.
by every inspiring incentive.
The
calls
to duty
come
to us
from a thousand earnest
Voices
SILENT TIMES.
And
we
shall
9
little
this
is
well.
There
is
fear that
ever grow too earnest in working for
our Master, or that our enthusiasm in his service shall

set
ever become too intense.

to toil for the world's
We
are
for
on earth
good and
God's glory.
The
day's heat
Till
is
not to draw us
from our active duty.

God's messenger to
call
death comes, as
toil,
us from
we
are
not to seek to be freed from service.

is
Devotion
not
all.
Peter wished to stay on the
Mount
to the
of Transfiguration, to
cold, sin-stricken
go back no more
world below; but no: down at
the mountain's base,
human
suffering and sorof the Healer,
row were waiting
for the
coming
and the Master and
his disciples
must leave
the rapture of heavenly communion, and hasten
down
so.
to carry healing
and comfort.
It is
always
While we enjoy the blessedness
of fellowin at
ship with
God
in
the closet, there
come
our closed doors, and break upon our ears, the

cries of
the
human need and sorrow outside. raptures of devotion we hear the
Amid
calls of
duty waiting without.
We
should never allow
our ecstasies of spiritual enjoyment to
make
10
SILENT TIMES,
us.
US forgetful of the needs of others around
Even the Mount
of Transfiguration
must not
hold us away from ministry.
The
way
truest religious
life
is
one whose devo-
tion gives food and strength for service.
The
to spiritual health lies in the paths of conIt

is
secrated activity.
related
in
monastic
legends of St. Francesca, that although she was
unwearied
in
her devotions, yet
if
during her
prayers she was

tic duty,
summoned away by any domeswhen

called
find
she would close her book cheerfully,
saying that a wife and a mother,

upon, must quit her
God
at the
altar to
him
side
in
is
her domestic
just as true.
affairs.
Yet the other
Before there can be a

tree,
strong,
vigorous,
healthy
able
to
bear
much
fruit, to
stand the storm, to endure the
heat and cold, there must be a well-planted and
well-nourished
root
and before there can be

enduring Christian
life
a prosperous, noble,
in
the presence of the world, safe in temptation,
unshaken
in trials, full of
good
fruits,
perennial
and unfading
in its leaf, there

in
must be a close
must receive
walk with God
secret.
We
SILENT TIMES.
from God before we can give to others, for we

have nothing of our own with which to feed
men's hunger or quench their
thirst.
We
are
but empty vessels at the best, and must wait

to
be
filled
before
need.
we have any thing
to carry
to those
who
We
must
listen at heaven's
gates before
we can go out
lips
to sing the
heavenly
sor-
songs in the ears of

row.
human weariness and
Our
must be touched with a coal
from God's
altar before
messengers to men.
Christ's
we can become God's We must lie much upon

earthly lives
bosom before our poor
can be struck through with the spirit of Christ,
and made
to shine in the transfigured

life.
it
beauty
dis-
of his blessed
Devotion
is
never to
place duty,
often brings
new
duties to our
hands,
but
it fits
us for activity.
"
That Thy
full
glory
may abound,
is
increase,
And
I
so
:
Thy
likeness shall be formed in me,
pray
the answer
not rest or peace,
But charges,
Till there
duties, wants, anxieties,
seems room for every thing but Thee,
And
never time for any thing but these.
12
SILENT TIMES.
The busy
But
fingers
fly
;
the eyes
may
see
Only the glancing needle which they hold

all
my
life
is
blossoming inwardly,
is like
And
Is
every breath
a litany
While through each
labor, like a thread of gold,
woven
the sweet consciousness of Thee."
In order to this preparation for usefulness
we all need to get into the course of our lives many quiet hours, when we shall sit alone with Christ in personal communion with
and
service,
him, listening to his voice, renewing our wasted

strength
from his fulness, and being transcharacter by looking into his face.
of spiritual
care,
formed
in
Busy men need such quiet periods
communion
spiritual
for their days of
toil,
and
their
struggle tend to wear out the fibre of

life,
and exhaust their inner strength.
Earnest
are
women need such silent times, for there many things in their daily household life and
exhaust their supplies of grace.
care of their children, the very routine of
social life to
The
their home-life, the thousand little things that
try their patience, vex their spirits,
and tend to
break their calm
the influences of
much
of
SILENT TIMES.
their social
life,
with
its
manifold temptations
to artificialness, insincerity, formality, unreality,

or,
ity,
on the other hand, and

vvorldliness,
to frivolity, idleness, vanall
amid
to
these distract-
ing, dissipating, secularizing
influences, every
life
earnest
least
woman needs
get into her

like
at
one quiet hour every day, when,
Mary,
she can wait at the feet of Jesus, and have her
own
soul calmed and fed.
Preachers,
teachers.
Christian
workers,
all
need the same.
How
first
?
can
men
stand in the
Lord's house to speak his words to the people

unless they have
get their message
waited at Christ's feet to
How can
life
any one teach the
children the truths of
without having been
himself freshly taught of
God
.''
How
can any
if
one bear heavenly
gifts to
needy souls
he has
not been at the Lord's treasure-house to get

these gifts
}
Dr. Austin Phelps, in speaking of
the danger of incessant Christian activity with-
out a corresponding secret
life
with God, says,
*'The very obvious peril

holiness
is,
that the vitality of
may be exhausted by inward decay

its
through the want of an increase of
devo-
14
SILENT TIMES.
tional spirit proportioned to the expansion of

its
active
forces.
Individual experience
for
may
become shallow
habits and
ity
the
want
of
meditative
Activvital
falls
much communion
itself.
with God.
can never sustain
Withdraw the
it,
force which animates and propels

like a
feel,
life
and
it
dead arm.
We
cannot, then, too keenly

still
each one for himself, that a

with
and secret
God must
strong,
energize
the
all
holy duty, as
vigor in every fibre of
body must come

beat
of
from the
heart."
calm,
faithful
the
A
prise
Christian
man
of intense business enterlaid aside
and
activity
was
by sickness.
He
who never would intermit

stretched
his labors
was
compelled to come to a dead

limbs were
halt.
His restless
the bed.
motionless on
He was
word.
so
weak
that he could scarcely utter a

to
Speaking
friend
of the
contrast
between
his condition
now and when he had

said,
I
been driving his immense business, he
''Now
am
growing.
have been running
my
soul thin
by
my
activity.
Now
am
grow-
ing in the knowledge
of
myself and of some
SILENT TIMES.
things
which
most
intimately
concern
me."
No
doubt there are
many
of us
who
are run-
ning our souls thin by our incessant action,

without
finding
quiet
hours for feeding and
waiting upon God.

"
The world
Little
is
too
much
with us
late
and soon,
Getting and spending,
we
lay waste our powers.

is
we
see in nature that
ours
We
have given our souls away, a sordid boon."
Blessed, then,
is
sickness or sorrow or any ex-
perience that compels us to stop, that takes

the work out of our hands for a
little
season,
that empties our hearts of their thousand cares,
and turns them toward God

him.
to
be taught of
But why should we wait
for sickness or sor-
row
to
compel into our

.-*
lives
these necessary
quiet hours
to train
little
Would
it
not be far better for us
ourselves to go apart each day for a
season from the noisy, chilling world, to
look into God's face and into our

to learn the things
we need
streno'th
so
own hearts, much to learn,

life
and
to
draw secret
and
from the
r6
fountain of
SILENT TIMES.
life
in
God
George Herbert's
:
quaint lines contain wise counsel
every
"
By
all
means use sometimes
to
be alone
Salute thyself, see what thy soul doth wear.
Dare
to look in thy closet,
for
'tis
thine own,
And tumble up and down what thou
findest there."
With these sacred

day of
strong,
toil
**
silent
times
shall
"
in
and struggle, we
be always
and "prepared unto every good work."

shall daily
Waiting thus upon God, we
renew
our wasted strength, and be able to run and

not be weary, to walk and not be faint, and to
mount up with wings

flights.
as eagles in bold spiritual
CHAPTER
11.
PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP WITH CHRIST.

'
would converse with Thee from day

heart intent on
to day, to say,
With
what Thou hast
And
through
my
pilgrim-walk, whate'er befall,
Consult with Thee,

Since
Lord
about
it all.
Thou
art willing thus to
condescend
To
be
!
Oh
let
my intimate, familiar friend. me to the great occasion rise,

Thy
friendship
life's
And
count
most glorious prize
We are
ficial
in
danger on several sides of
supeilife.
and shallow conceptions

of these
beliefs,
is,
of a religious
One
that
it
consists in correct docfirmly
trinal
that holding
and
intelli-
gently to the truths of the gospel about Christ
makes one a
cal,
Christian.
Another
is
the liturî-
that the faithful observance of the forms

is
of
worship
life.
the essential element in a Chris-
tian
Still
another
is
is,
that conduct
is
all,
that Christianity
but a system of morality.

fully accept the
Then, even among those who
FRIENDSHIP WITH CHRIST.

sin,
doctrine of Christ's atonement for
there
is
ofttimes an inadequate conception of the

laith, a
life of
dependence
for salvation
upon one great
past act of Christ,
his death, without formIn the
ing with him a personal relation as a present,

living Saviour.
New
Testament the
is
Christian's relation to Christ
represented as
a personal acquaintance with him, which ripens

into a close
and tender friendship.
This was
our Lord's
vited
own
ideal
of discipleship.
He
him
;
in-
men
all
to
come
to him, to break other ties,

to
and attach themselves personally

leave
to
full
and go with him.
He
claimed the
:
allegiance of men's hearts and lives
he must
in
be
first
in
their affections,
and
first
their
obedience and service.
He
offered himself to
men, not merely as a helper from without, not

merely as one who would save them by taking
their sins
and dying
for them, but as
one who and

of
desired to form with
them a
It
close, intimate,
indissoluble friendship.
was not a
tie
duty merely, or of obligation, or of doctrine, or

of cause,
by which he sought to bind

a tie of
his follow-
ers to himself, but
personal friendship.
FRIENDSHir IVrTH CHRIST.

That which makes one a Christian
is
TQ
not
therefore the acceptance of Christ's teachings,
the uniting with his church, the adoption of his

morals, the espousing of his cause, but the re-
ceiving of him as a personal Saviour, the enter-
ing into a covenant of eternal friendship with

him.
ers
We
in a
are not saved by a creed, which gath-
up
few golden sentences the essence

:
of
the truth about Christ's person and work
we
must have the Christ himself

holds
forth
in
whom
the creed
his radiant beauty and grace.
We
are in the habit of saying that Christ saved
us by dying for us on the cross.

tant sense, this
is
In an impor-
true.
We
never could have

us.
been saved
if
he had not died for
But
we
are
actually
loving,
saved by our relation to a

Saviour,
into
living,
personal
all
whose
lives,
hands we commit
the interests of our
and who becomes our friend, our helper, our

keeper, our care-taker, our
tian faith
is
all
in
all.
Chris-
not merely laying our sins on the

trusting
to his
Lamb
living,
of
:
God and
it
one great
sacrifice
is
the laying of ourselves on the

of
loving heart
one whose friendship
20

of our
becomes thenceforward the sweetest joy

lives.
The importance of this personal knowledge when we think of him as the revealer of the Father. The disciples first learned to know Christ in his disguise, with his
of Christ is seen
divine glory veiled.

to them,
He
and
led
them
on, talking
confi-
walking with them, winning their

love,
at
dence and their

that the Being
length they learned

so inexpressibly
who had grown
dear to them was the manifestation of

self,
God himas his

lifted
and that by their relation
to
him
friends, their poor, sinful
humanity was
up
into union with the Father.
They became
chil-
dren of
God through
their
attachment to the
only-begotten Son of God.
Clinging to him, and
cleaving to him in deathless friendship, in his

humiliation, he exalted
to be joint-heirs with
them
in his
exaltation
him
in his divine inherit-
ance.
It
was as
if
a royal prince should leave
his father's palace for a time,
and
in disguise
dwell
among
the plain people as one of themlove,
selves,
winning their
and binding them

and then,
to
him
in strong personal friendship,

disclosing his royalty, should lead
palace,
21
to his
them
and keep them about him ever
after as
his friends
and brothers, sharing his rank and
honors with them.

his
The
friends Christ
won
cast
in
off
lowly condescension he did

to his glory
:
not
when he went back

up with him
It is in
he
lifted
them
to share his
heavenly blessedness.
that Christ
the same
way
now
saves
men.
He
them
wins their love and trust by the

his
manifestation of
exalts
love for them, and then
to the possession of the privileges

to
which belong
himself as the Son of God.

knit to Christ in love
of
Any one whose

faith, is lifted
life is
and
up into the family
God.
Some
way
:
one has represented
this truth in this
A
it it
vine has been torn from the tree on which
grew and clung, and

never can
lift itself
lies
on the ground
to its place.
it
up again
Then
which
the tree bends

earth.
down low
until
its
touches the
The
vine unclasps
frail
tendrils
have twined about
and unworthy weeds,
and, feebly reaching upward, fixes
them upon
the tree's strong, living branches.
The
tree,
it
again lifting
itself up,
carries the vine with
22

and original place
of
to its natural
fruitfulness,
beauty and
where
it
shares the tree's glory.

soul-history.
This
is
a parable of
We
were
torn from our place, and lay perishing in our

sins, clinging to the earth's
treacherous trusts.
We
God
could never
lift
ourselves up to God.
Then
and
himself stooped
down
in the incarnation,
bending low to touch these souls
of ours
when our
hearts let go earth's sins and
its frail,
lalse trusts,
and lay hold never so
feebly,
by the
tendrils of faith
lifted up,
and
love,
upon Christ, we are

of
and become children and heirs
God.
But how may we form a personal acquaintance with

Christ
1
It
was easy enough
for
John and Mary, and the others who knew him

in
the flesh.
His eyes looked into theirs

;
they
heard his words
they sat
at his feet, or
leaned
in
upon
his
bosom.
We
is
cannot know Christ
this way, for
he
gone
from earth
and we
ask
how
it is
possible for us to have
more than
If
a biographical acquaintance with him.
he
were a mere man, nothing more

would be possible.
about knowing
St.
It
than
to
this
were absurd
talk
John personally, or forming
FRIENDSHIP ]Virn CHRIST.

an intimate friendship with
learn the
St. Paul.
23
We
may
much
of the character of these
men from
fragments of their story which are prethe

Scriptures,
served in
but
we can never
until
become personally acquainted with them
we meet them
however,
lose
it
in the
other world.
With
Christ,
is
different.
The Church
did not
him when he ascended from

in
Olivet.
He
is
never was more really
the world than he
now.
He
is
as
much
to those
who
love
him
and believe on him as he was to his friends

in
Bethany.
He
is
a present, living Saviour
and we may form with him an actual relation

of personal friendship,
which
will
grow
closer
and tenderer as the years go on, deepening with

each new experience, shining more and more in
our hearts, until at
portal
really
last,
passing through the
which men misname death, but which

is
the beautiful gate of

to face,
life,
we
shall see
him face
known.
Is
it
and know him even as we are
possible
for
all
Christians
to
attain
}
this personal, conscious intimacy
with Christ
to realize
There are some who do not seem
it.
24

Christ
is
To them
are
a creed, a rule of
life,
an
example, a teacher, but not a friend.
There
some
excellent
know
them
Christ only
who seem to biographically. They have

Christians
of
no experimental knowledge
at best
him
he
is
to
an absent friend,
still
living, faithful
and trusted, but

couragement,
such.
absent.
No word
of dis>
tc
however,
should be
spoken
The Old Testament
usually goes before
the
cal
New,
order.
in experience as well as in
the
bibli-
Most Christians begin with the

Christ,
historical
knowing of him before they
know
him
yet
is
it
Jiivi.
Conscious personal intimacy with

;
ordinarily a later fruit of spiritual growth
certainly appears
is
from the Scriptures

all
that such intimacy
possible to
who
us,
truly
believe in Christ.
Christ himself hungers for
our friendship, and for recognition by
and
answering affection from us

his gifts without himself
and
if
we take
and
his love,
we
surely
rob ourselves of
much joy and blessedness.

experimental knowledge of
The way
Christ
is
to this
very plainly marked out for us by our
Lord
himself.
He says
that
if
we
love him, and

keep his words, he
us,
25
will
manifest himself unto

will
and he and
his
Father
come and make

and
their
abode with
will,
us.
It is
in loving him,
doing his
that
we
learn to
know
Christ
and we learn
to love
him by trusting him.

"
dying youth looked up into the face of a friend,
and with troubled tones

Christ: will you
first,"
tell
said,
want
to love
me how.?"
at
all.
"Trust
It
I
him
was
the answer, "
and you
"
will learn to
love
him without trying

"
I
was a new
revelation.
always thought
must love
Christ before
could have any right to trust
him," was the answer.
Ofttimes we learn to
know our human
friends
by trusting
them.
as
We
see no special beauty or worth in
them
they move by our side in the ordinary experiences of

life
:
but
we
pass at length into
cir-
cumstances
of trial,
where we need friendship

and they come nearer
true.
and then the noble qualities of our friends

appear, as
to us,
we
of
trust them,
and prove themselves
In like man-
ner,
most
us
really
get
acquainted
with
Christ only in experiences of need, in which his

love and faithfulness are revealed.
26
l^RIENDSHIP WITH CHRIST.
The
Christ
value of a personal acquaintance with

is
incalculable.
There are men and
women whom it is worth a great deal to have as friends. As our intimacy with them ripens,
their lives open out like sweet flowers, disclos-
ing rich beauty to our sight, and pouring
fra-
grance upon our

friendship
blessings.
is
spirits.
true
and great
one of earth's richest and best

ever breathing songs into our
It is
hearts, kindling aspirations
and hopes, starting
impulses of good, teaching holy lessons, and
shedding
our
lives.
all
manner
of benign influences
of
upon
But the friendship
Christ does
infinitely
more than
;
this for us.
It purifies
our
sinful
it
lives
it
makes us brave and strong

brooding over
of
inspires us ever to the best and noblest serIts influence, perpetually
vice.
us,
woos out the winsomest graces
mind and
spirit.
The
richest, the sweetest,
and the only

in
perennial and never failing, fountain of good
this world, is the personal, experimental knowl-
edge
of Christ. to give
is
That Christ should condescend thus

to us sinful
men
his pure, divine friendship

the greatest wonder of the world
is
;
27
but there
friendship
no doubt
of the fact.
No human
us
can ever be half so close and intimate as that
which the lowliest

Saviour.
If
of
may enjoy
to our lives
with our
we but
realize our privileges, the
enriching that will
come
through
this glorious relationship will
be better than ah
gold and gems.
"And
And Ah
!
can a thing so sweet,
can such heavenly condescension, be?

wherefore tarry thus our lingering feet?
It
can be none but Thee.

is
There
the gracious ear

to sinner's call
fear.
That never yet was deaf
We
will
not linger, and
we dare not
Thee
all.
But kneel, and
tell
We
And
tell
Thee
of our sin,
Only half loathed, only half wished away;

those clear eyes of love that look within,
Rebuke
'
us,
seem
to say,
blood,
life I
Oh
bought with
My own
precious
Mine own,
for
whom My
prized,
I
gave,
Am
so
little
remembered, loved,
?
By
those
died to save
28

And under
Sorrow awakes.
that deep gaze
We
kneel with eyelids wet,
And
marvel, as with Peter at the gate,
That we could so
forget.
We
Of
tell
Thee
of our care,
the sore burden pressing day by day;

in the light
And
and pity of Thy face
The burden melts away.
We
breathe our secret wish.
The importunate
longing which no
or,
man may
still,
see;
We
ask
it
humbly,
leave
more
to
restful
We
The
it all
Thee.
thorns are turned to flowers
All dark perplexities
seem
light
and
fair
mist
is lifted
from the heavy hours.

art
And Thou
everywhere."
CHAPTER
HAVING CHRIST
" As some rare perfume in a vase of
III.
IN US.
clay-
Pervades
it
with a fragrance not

in a
its
own,
So when Thou dwellest

All heaven's
mortal soul,
it
own sweetness seems around
thrown."
The
Scriptures
if
make
a great deal of having
Christ in men,
they are Christians.
Christ
himself speaks of abiding in his people, and of

his life as flowing
through them as the

its
life
of
the vine flows through

of the
branches.
The
figure
of
body
is
used, believers being
members
Christ's body,
and deriving
all
their life
from
him.
The
idea of a building or temple with

is
the divine Spirit as indwelling guest,
also
employed
to his
to represent the Christian's relation
Lord.
Then,
St.
Paul says without
fig-
ure, " Christ liveth in

''
me," and speaks of being

filled
filled
with the Spirit," "
with
all
the
ful-
ness of God," as a possible and most desirable

29
30
HA VING CHRIST IN
which
it
US.
attainment cf Christian experience.
From
the
many forms
in
this truth
is
is
represented
in the Scriptures,
evident that the ideal

is
Christian Hfe
is
one that
thoroughly pervaded,
saturated, so to speak, with the life and spirit

of Christ.
Far more certainly
is
implied than
mere divine influence over us or upon us from

without, such influence as a friend exerts over a
friend, a teacher over a pupil, or
even a mother
is
over a child.
a
To become
germ
a Christian
to have
new
to
spiritual life enter the soul, as

its living
is
when
seed with
soil
life
:
planted in the dead

is
grow
as a Christian
to
have this new
increase in strength and energy,
making
daily conquests over the old nature, extending

itself,
and expelling the
evil
by the force
of its
own good, and

tions, feelings,
ultimately bringing the affecdesires,
and
all
the activities,
even the thoughts

to Christ.
of the heart, into subjection
There
is
a great difference between having

If
Christ outside and having him in us.
he
is
only outside,
we may
listen for his words,
and
try to obey his voice, following
where he leads
HAVING CHRIST IN
and we may gaze upon
to
US.
31
his loveliness,
;
and seek
copy
it
in
our lives
but our following and
obeying
will
be under the impulse of duty only,
with no inward constraint; and our striving after

the divine likeness will be like the carving of a
figure in cold
marble rather than the growing

its
up of a
life
from within by
own
vital force
and energy into fulness of power and beauty.
Only
let
as
we
get Christ into our hearts, and

in
him dwell
us by his Spirit, shall

life
we reach
the true ideal of Christian
and experience.
Then
shall
we do
right,
not by direction of
written rule, but by the promptings of our re-
generated nature, the Christ indwelling.

shall our dull lives
Then
be transfigured by the light
that shines in our hearts, and slowly changes

all
the earthliness to heavenliness.
Then
shall
the features of the divine image
come out
Httle
itself
by
little
as
the
new
life
within forces
through the dull crust of the old nature, until

at
length the
full
beauty of Christ shines where
once only
sin's
marred visage was seen.
Christ within
makes an inner joy
that
all
the darkness of earth's trials cannot quench.
32
HA VING CHRIST IN
diversities
of
US.
There are great

sorrow.
experience in
lights
Some when
left
this world's
are
quenched are
in utter
gloom, like a house
without lamp or candle or flickering firelight
when the sun goes down.

they
Others, in similar
darkness, stand radiant in the deep shadows
have
bright
light
within
themselves.
his
Christ dwells in them, and the

blessed
life
beams from
There
is
turn night into day.
an
ancient picture of the Christ-child in the stable
which
lies
illustrates
this
experience.
is
The
child
upon the straw, the mother
bending over
him, the wondering shepherds are near, and in
the background are the cattle.

there
is
It is night,
and
only one feeble lantern in the place
but from the infant child a radiance streams
which lights up
all
the rude scene.
So
it is
in
sorrow-darkened hearts when Christ truly dwells

within.
The
all
light
streaming from him who
is
the light of the world, in

illumines
whom
is
no darkness,
Indeed,
is
the gloom of grief.
when
Christ dwells in the heart, sorrow
a blessing,
because
it
reveals beauties and joys which could

It
is
not have been seen in the earthly light.
HAVING CHRIST IN
US.
33
it
one of the blessings of night, that without
we
could never see the stars

trial,
it
is
one
of the
blessings of
that without
it
we
could never
'
see the precious comforts of God.
"
Were there no night, we could not read the stars, The heavens would turn into a blinding glare
Freedom
is
best seen through prison-bars,

seas
And rough
make
the haven passing fair

;
We
Our
cannot measure joys but by their loss

blessings fade away,
When
And
we
see
them then
cross,
richest clusters
grow around the
in the night-time angels sing to
men."
When
Christ
It
is
within us, sorrow
is
a time of
revelation.
is
like the cloud that
crowned
the summit
of the holy mountain into which
Moses climbed, and by which he was hidden

long from the eyes of the people.
in the clouds,
so
While folded
face.
he was looking upon God's
Sorrow's cloud hides the world, and wraps the
wondering one
in
thick darkness
but in the
splendor
darkness, Christ himself unveils the
and glory
of his face.
There are many who
never saw the beauty of Christ, and never knew
34
HA VhXG CHRIST IN
in
US.
him
till
the intimacy of a personal friendship,
they saw him, and learned to talk with him
as friend with friend, in the hour of sorrow's
darkness.
When
is
the lamps of earth went out,
Christ's face appeared.
But Christ
not a friend for sorrow alone.

till
We
do not have to wait
trial
comes
to
enjoy
his love,
and be blessed by
his indwelling.
His
light shines in
many
places where the brightstill
ness of other lamps

there,
it
beams.
Yet, even
Christ within
does not shine in vain.
has a deep meaning to the joyous as well as to

the sad.
is
All blessings are richer,

all
all
gladness
sweeter,
love
is
purer, because
we have
earth-
Christ.
ly
is
Peace
in the heart
makes every
all
beauty
lovelier.
Indeed,
human gladness
its
but a vanishing picture, a passing illusion,
unless the joy of the

source.
Lord be
spring and
What
ment
earth, to
confidence
it
gives to us in our enjoy-
of the transient
and uncertain things
of
know
;
that these are not our only posif
sessions
rich
that
we
lose them,
we
shall
still
be
and secure, because we
shall
still
have
HAVING CHRIST IN
Christ.
US.
35
All day the stars are in the sky.

in the glare of
We
;
cannot see them

but
it
the sunshine
is
something, surely, to
know
that they
are there, and that,

will shine out.
it
when
it
grows dark, they

joy,
So,
amid abounding human
is
a precious confidence to
know
that there
are divine comforts veiled, invisible to our eyes

in the
sunshine about
us,
which
is
will flash out
the
moment
"
the earthly joy
darkened.
wonder
if
the world
is full
Of
other secrets beautiful,

little
As
guessed, as hard to see,
As
this sweet, starry
mystery
Do
Do On
angels
veil
themselves in space,
?
And make
the sun their hiding-place
white wings flash as spirits go
heavenly errands to and
fro,
While we, down-looking, never guess
How
near our lives they crowd and press
If so, at life's set
we may
see
Into the dusk steal noiselessly
Sweet faces that we used
to
know,
Dear eyes
like stars that softly glow,
Dear hands stretched out
to point the way,
And deem
the night more fair than day."
36
HA VING CHRIST IN
To
US.
the happiest heart that really makes room
for Christ within, there is always the assurance of a world of

joys,
spiritual
blessings, hopes, and
lying concealed in the lustre of
human
gladness, like stars in the
noonday sky, but
ready to pour their brightness upon us the
moment
the
night
falls
with
its
shadows.
Whether, therefore, the earthly
light
be bright
or dark, Christ in the heart gives great blessed-
ness and peace.
But there
is
another way in which Christ
within us will be
made
manifest.
If
we have
have
in
this divine indwelling,
we should
all
also
life
ever-increasing measure in
tle
our
the gen-
and loving
Spirit of the Master.

if,
We
in
should
not claim to have Christ in us,
our con-
duct and speech, in our disposition and temper,
and
is
in
our relations with our fellow-men,

of the
there
none
mind
of Christ.
If
Christ
in
truly be in us,
he cannot long be hidden
our
hearts without manifestation, but there will be
a gradual transformation of our outer

Christlikeness.
life
into
;
As he
lived,
we
will live
;
as
he ministered to others, we
will minister
as he
HAVING CHRIST IN
was
holy,
US.
37
patient,
we
will
be holy
as he
was
thoughtful, unselfish, gentle, and kind, so will
we
be.
Christ
came
to our world to pour divine
kindness
lives.
on
weary,
needy,
perishing
human
is
Christ truly in our hearts should send
us out on the
same mission.
And
there
need
tO'
everywhere
for love's ministry.
The world
day needs nothing more than true Christlikeness

in those
who bear
Christ's
name, and represent

doing
him.
Christ
went
about
good
all
he
sought to put hope and cheer into

If
he met.
Christ be in us,
we should
strive to perpetu-
ate this Christ-ministry of love in this world.
Hearts
are
breaking with
sorrow,
men
it
are
bowing under burdens too heavy

is
for them, duty
too large, the battles are too

if
hard
is
our mission,
Christ be in us, to do for these
weary, overwrought, defeated,
and despairing
if
ones what Christ himself would do

standing where
represent him
that
;
he were
to
we
stand.
fills
He
wants us
and he
us with his Spirit,
we may be
able to scatter the blessings of

all
helpfulness and gladness
about
us.
is,
Yet,
that,
one of the saddest things about
life
38
HAVING CHRIST IN
much power
US.
with SO
to help others
act,
by kindHof us
ness of word and kindliness of
many
pass through the world in silence or with folded

hands.
Silence has ofttimes a better ministry
It
than speech.
were well very frequently
if
we
did not speak where
now we speak
is
with quick
and
glib tongue. heart.
There are words that pain and There

speech that
is
wound the
cruel.
most
There are tongues
that
had better been

speech, and
is
born
dumb
it
than to have the

as
gift of
employ
silence
they do.
" Speech
silvern,
is
golden," says the old proverb; and
there are
if
homes and
lives in
which
it
were well
fewer words were uttered.
But there are also

walk beside our
bear-
silences that are cruel.
We
friends
whose hearts are heavy, who are
ing burdens that well-nigh crush them,
who
:
are
yearning for cheer and sympathy and love

talk incessantly with
we
of
them
of
other things,
of
business, of
things,
society,
of books,
a thousand
but
is
never speak the sweet word for

If
which they are hungering.

Christ
in us,
it
the Spirit of
should prompt us to speak
HA VING CHRIST IN
US.
39
if
such words as Christ himself would speak
he
were
in our place.
Surely
we should
in
life's
learn the lesson of gentle*
thoughtful kindness to those
we
;
love,
and
to all
we meet
walk
busy ways
too,
and we should
show the kindness,
while their tired feet
in life's toilsome paths,
and not wait to

oi to
bring flowers for their coffins,

of
speak words
cheer
when
their ears are closed,

it is
and their
hearts are stilled, and
too late to give
them
comfort and
If
it
joy.
we have
the true Christ-spirit in our hearts,

in
will
work out
;
transfigured
life
and
in Christ-
ly ministry
it
will lead to
the brightening of
one
little spot, at least,
on
this big earth.

calls to
There
are a few people
whom God
is
do great
things for him
but the best things most of us

just to live out a real,
life
can do in this world

simple, consecrated,
lotted place.
Christian
in
in
our
al-
Thus,
our
little
measure, we
shall repeat the life of Christ himself,
showing
men some
feeble reflection of
his
sweet and
loving face, and doing in our poor
way
a few
40
HA VTNG CHRIST IN
US.
of the beautiful things
he would do
tells us,
if
he were
here himself.
"
Whittier
The
dear Lord's best interpreters
Are humble, human souls
The gospel
Is
of a
life
more than books or
scrolls."
CHAPTER
IV.
COPYING BUT A FRAGMENT.

**
Heaven whispers wisdom

Bidding
it
to the
wayside flower,
use
its
its
own
peculiar dower,
its little
And bloom
best within
span.
We
must each do not what we
will,
but can,
Nor have we duty
to exceed our power."
Nothing
of
is
more
striking to a close observer
human
life
than the almost infinite variety
of
character which exists

to be
among
those
who
profess
Christians.
No two
to
are alike.
Even those who

samtliness,
of their
are
alike
revered for their
who
alike
seem
wear the image
Lord, whose lives are alike attractive
in their beauty,
show the widest

and
in the cast
all
diversity in
individual traits,
their character.
and mould of
Yet
all
are sitting before the
same model
ideal
;
are
striving after the
same
life.
all is
are imitators of the
same blessed
41
There
but one standard of true Christian
42
character,
his
the likeness
it
of Christ.
all
It is into
image that we are

is
in
the end to be
transformed, and
that
as
toward his holy beauty
we
are always to strive.

:
We
are to live
he lived
lives.
we
are to copy his features into

in
all
our
Wherever,
the world, true
disciples of
Christ are found, they are trying
to reproduce in themselves the likeness of their
Master.
Why
is
it,
then, that there
is
such variety
of character
and disposition among those who

}
aim to follow the same example

all
Why
are not
just alike
.^
If
a thousand artists were to

of
paint the
pictures,
ures.
if
picture
faithful,
the
same person,
their
feat-
would show the same

to
But a thousand persons seek
copy
into their
own
is
lives the likeness of Christ,
and
the result
thousand different representa-
tions of that likeness, no two the same.
Why
is there this strange diversity in Christian lives,
when
type
t
all
have before them the same original
One
reason for this

all
is
that
God does
same
gifts,
not the
bestow upon
his children the

same
natural
all
43
loves
ani;
qualities.
The Creator
:
variety, as
his
works attest
in
no two
mals are precisely alike
every feature
no
two plants are exactly similar

ure
;
in their struct-
no two human
all
lives
;
in all
the race are
identical in
respects
and divine grace does
not recast
all
is
dispositions in the
same mould.
is
When
of the
gold
minted, each coin of a kind

;
stamped by the same die
and a million coins

be precisely
is.
same value
is
will
all
alike.
But
life
not minted as gold
Grace does
not transform Peter into a John, nor Paul into

a
Barnabas, nor Luther into a Melanchthon.

not
Regeneration does
make
busy,
like
bustling
Martha
quiet
and
it
reposeful,
her sister
restful
Mary
nor does
change Mary's calm,
spirit into
the anxious and distracted activity of

It
Martha.
makes them both

in love
friends of Jesus,
devoted to him
but
it
and loyalty and service

herself in
all
leaves each of
them
It
her indilike
vidual characteristics.
makes them both
Christ in holiness, in consecration, in heavenly
longings
but
it
does not touch those features

identity.
which give to each one her personal
44

You drop twenty
different seeds in the
same
garden-bed, and they spring up into twenty

different
kinds of
plants,
from
the
delicate
mignonette to the
skill of
flaunting
all
sunflower.
No
alike.
gardening can make
the plants
The
will
fuchsia will always be a fuchsia, the rose
always be a rose, the geranium

In the same
rain,
soil,
will
always
be a geranium.
sunshine and
with the same
and the same culture, each

In like manner divine
Christian
grows up
after its kind.
grace does not
make
all
women
either
Marys or Marthas, or Dorcases

nor
all
or Priscillas,
Christian
men
either Johns or Peters,

;
or Barnabases or Aquilas
but each believer

self.
grows up
eration
into his
own
to
peculiar
Regenour
neither adds
;
nor takes from

is
natural gifts
in
and since there and
infinite variety
the
endowments
qualities
originally
is
bestowed upon different individuals, there

the same variety in the
followers.
company
this
of
Christ's
Another
Christians
is
reason
for
diversity
among
because even the best and holiest
saints realize but a little of the
image
of Christ,

have only one
little
45
of
fraction
and fragment
In one of his
his likeness in their souls.
fol-
lowers, there
is
some one
;
feature of
Christ's
is
blessed
life
that appears
;
in another, there
still
another feature
feature.
in
a third,
different
One
seeks to copy Christ's

his
gentle-
ness, another
patience,
another his sym-
pathy, another his meekness.

lievers
thousand bebe like
may
all,
in
certain
of
sense,
Christ,
and yet no two
them have, or consame features

is,
sciously strive after, just the
of
Christ in their souls.
The reason
that the
character of Christ
glorious, that
it
is
so great, so majestic, so
all
is
impossible to copy
of
it
into
any one
little
human
is
life
and again, each
human
that
it
character
so imperfect and limited,

in all directions after
cannot reach out
the boundless and infinite character of Christ.

It
is
as
if
a great
company
of artists
were
sent to paint each one a picture of the Alps.
Each chooses
and
his
own
point of observation,
selects the particular feature of the
Alps
he desires to paint.
pictures
;
They
all
bring back their

alike.
but
lo
no two of them are
46

presents a sweet valley-scene, with
bright
flowers
;
One canvas
its
quiet stream and

its
;
another
the
has for
clouds
central figure a wild crag
among
another a snow-crowned peak,

;
glitter-
ing in the sunshine
another a rushing torrent

;
leaping over the rocks

cier.
another a mighty gla-
Yet no one
of the artists
can say that
the pictures of the others are not true.
They
is
are probably as true as his own, but there
not one of them

Alps.
all
that has painted the whole

his canvas only
Each one has put upon
the
little
part of the magnificent scene which
he saw.
So
it is
with those
who
are striving to reproin their
duce the likeness of Christ
own
lives.
thousand Christians, earnest and
sincere,
begin to follow him and to imitate him.

seizes
One
to
upon one feature which

of
to
him seems
be the central beauty
Christ's character
another, looking upon the
same glorious person
with different eyes, or from the view-point of

different experiences, sees another feature alto-
gether, and calls
it
Christ
each one strives to

of Christly char-
copy the particular elements

acter which he sees.
precisely the
47
No two
reproductions are
same
no two have the same con-
ception of Christlikeness.
that
Yet no one can say
the
others
are not true Christians, that
they have not also seen the Lord, and have not
faithfully copied into their
own
lives
what they
saw
of him.
The
his
truth
is,
the Alps as a whole are too
varied, too vast, for
any one
artist to
take into
canvas.
perspective,
and paint upon

is
his
The
best he can do
to portray
some one or
eye can see
is
two features,
the
features
his
from where he stands.
And
Christ
too great
in his infinite perfections, in the
majestic sweep
of his character, in
the many-sidedness of his

followers to
beauty, for any one of his finite
copy the whole

life.
of his
image into
his
own
is
little
The most
that
any
of us can
do
to get
into our
own
soul one little fragment of the
wonderful likeness of our Lord,
Thus
it
is
that there
is
such variety in the

all
individual dispositions of Christians, while
seek to follow the same copy, and while
all
may
be equally faithful in their noble endeavors.
48

practical lesson from this fact
is,
The
that no
one follower of Christ should condemn another

because the other's spiritual
life
is
not of the
same stamp
where
sick
as
his
own.
Let
not
Martha,
busied with her
much
serving, running every-
to missionary meetings, or to visit the

find fault with
and the poor,
Mary
in her
quiet devotion, peaceful, thoughtful, gentle, loving,
because she does not abound
in the
same
activities.
Nor
call
let
Mary
in
her turn judge
Martha, and
her piety superficial.
Let her
honor
it
rather as the copy of another feature
of the infinite loveliness of Christ.
There
of
is
the greatest diversity in the modes
service rendered
by
different followers
of
Christ.
All
may be
own
alike loyal
and acceptable,
and yet no two be the same.

Christ along his
his
Each
follows
path, and does his
work
in
own way.
Whatever we may say about the
sweetness and beauty of Mary, as
we
it
see her
sitting in such peaceful attitude at the feet of
her Lord,
we must not
forget that
was not
Martha's service which Jesus reproved, but her

anxious, fretful worry.
Her
service
was im-

portant,
49
was even
essential to our Lord's
own
are
comfort, and to her true and hospitable enter-
tainment of him
very lovely
Mary-spirit
Mary-like,
;
in
her home.
The Marys
sit
and every woman should have the

of
peace,
and
should
much,
his
at
the
Master's feet to
hear
words, in order to be fitted for the best service.
But Martha's work must be done too
no true Christian
woman
will neglect
her duties
of service in her privileges of devotion.

*'
Yea, Lord.
Yet some must serve.
Not
all
with tranquil heart,
Even
at thy dear feet,

in devotion sweet,
Wrapped
May
sit apart.
Yea, Lord.
Yet some must bear

of the day,
heat,
The burden
Its labor
and
its
While others
at thy feet
May muse and

Yea, Lord.
pray.
Yet some must do

:
Life's daily task-work
some
toil
Who fain
Amid
While
would
sing,
must
moil,
earth's dust
lips are
and
dumb,
50

Yea, Lord.
Yet man must earn, And woman bake the bread And some must watch and wake
Early for others' sake,
Who
pray instead.
Yea, Lord.
Yet even thou

care.
Hast need of earthly

I
bring the bread and wine

thee,
To
Guest divine
prayer."
Be
this
my
Let each of these good

Master
closely, see as
women
follow the
much
as possible of the
infinite loveliness of his character,
and copy into
her
own
life
all
she can see
yet let her not

all
imagine that she has seen or copied
of
Christ, but let her look at every other Christian
woman's
little
life
with reverence, as bearing another
fragment of the same divine likeness.
Let
every
man do
earnestly and well the particular

is
work which he
let
fitted
and called
is
to do, but
him not imagine that he

world
rather let
doing the only

to
kind of work which

this
;
God wants
have done
in
him look upon every

a different
faithful servant
who does
work
as

doing a part equally important and equally
ceptable to the Master.
51
ac*
The
pays
bird praises
God by
singing
the flower
its
its
tribute in fragrant incense as

;
cen-
ser swings in the breeze

fruits
the tree shakes

;
down
from
its
bending boughs
the stars pour

;
out their silver beams to gladden the earth

the clouds give their blessing in gentle rain
yet
all
with equal faithfulness
fulfil
their mis-
sion.
So among
Christ's
redeemed servants,
the home, carii>g
one serves by incessant

for a large family
;
toil in
another by silent example
as a sufferer, patient
and uncomplaining
an-
other with the pen, sending forth words that

inspire, help, cheer,
and bless
another by the
living voice,
whose eloquence moves men, and

better,
starts impulses to
grander living
;
an-
other by the ministry of sweet song
another
by sitting in quiet peace at Jesus'

ing in his
spirit,
feet, drink-
and then shining as a gentle

pouring out the fragrance
and
silent light, or
of love like a lowly
and unconscious flower
yet
each and
all
of these
may be
serving Christ
acceptably, hearing at the close of each day the
whispered word, "Well done,"
CHAPTER
THY
*
V.
WI3JL,
NOT MINE.
were, for
Our lives we
cut on a curious plan,

it
Shaping them, as
man
But God, with better

Shapes them
art than we.
for eternity."
Many
people
only half read their Bibles.

fail
They skim
but
the surface, and
to get the
full,
deep meaning of the golden words.

half-truths,
They
get
and half-truths ofttimes are

inspired sentences standing
full
misleading.
Even
alone do not always give the
and
final
word
on the doctrine or the duty which they present

frequently
it
is
necessary to bring other
in-
spired sentences, and set
them
side
by side with
its
full,
the
first,
in order to get
the truth in
rounded completeness.
quoted certain Scriptures
swered,
**
When
to
the
Tempter
plausible
our Lord, he an-
It
is
written again."
The
word
in
52
its
isolation
was but a fragment, and
THY
WILL,
NOT MINE.
53
Other words must be brought to stand beside

it
to give
it its
true meaning.
Many mistaken
of prayer
conceptions of the doctrine

this superficial reading of
come from
shall
the Scriptures.
*'
One person
finds
;
the words,
Ask, and
it
be given you
" and, search-
ing no farther, he concludes that he has a ke>

for the unlocking of all God's storehouses
;
he
dis-
can get any thing he wants.
But he soon
covers that the answers do not
come
as
he
expected
and he becomes discouraged, and
perhaps loses faith in prayer.

is,
The simple
fact
that this
word
of Christ standing alone does
not contain the

written
again."
full
truth about prayer.
" It is
He must
all
read more deeply,

this
state-
and, gathering
subject,
our Lord's sayings on

in
combine them
one complete
this
ment.
There are conditions to
general
promise.
defined
The word "ask" must be carefully by other Scriptures and, when this is
;
done, the statement stands true, infallible, and

faithful.
One
all
of the ofttimes forgotten conditions of

is
true and acceptable prayer
the final refer
54
THY
WILL,
NOT MINE,
ence of every desire and importunity to the

divine
will.
After
all
our
faith, sincerity,
still
and
importunity, our requests must
be
left to
is
God, with confidence that he

best.
will
do what
For how do we know that the thing we
ask would really be a blessing to us
Surely
God knows
better than
if it came we can know
"i
and the only sure and safe thing
to
do
is
to
express our desire with earnestness and faith,
and then leave the matter

thus that
to
in his hands.
all
It
is
we
are taught, in
to God.
the Scriptures,
make our prayers

But do we
far
quite understand this
Is
it
not
something
think
}
more profound than many
of us
It is
not mere silent acquiescence after
the request
has been refused

stoical
such acquiesit
cence
may be
and obstinate, or
;
may
be despairing and hopeless

is
and neither temper
the true one.

to
To
God
ask according to God's
will is
have the confidence, when we make

will
our prayer, that
grant
it
unless in his
wisdom he knows
that refusal or
some
different
answer than the one we seek

us
;
will
be better for
in
which case we
pledge ourselves to take
THY
the
refusal
WILL,
NOT MLVE.
55
or the other answer as the right
thing for us.

If
we understood
and
its
this, it
would remove many

about the doctrine
of the perplexities of prayer
which
answer.
lie
We
ask.
pray earnestly,
In our bitter
and do not receive what we

disappointment we say,
ised, that,
if
but look a
we ask, moment
the
all
Has not God promwe shall receive " Yes

"
.?
at the
history of prayer.
Jesus himself prayed that the cup of his agony
the
rious
betrayal,
trial,
the
ignominy, the
crucifixion,
and
that nameless and myste-
woe
that lay back of these obvious pains
and sorrows
pass.
might
pass,
and yet
it
did not
Paul prayed that the thorn in his flesh

it
might be removed, yet
was not removed.
All along the centuries, mothers have been
agonizing in prayer over their dying children,

crying to
God
that they
might
live
and even
while they were praying, the shadow deepened
over them, and the
little
hearts fluttered into
the stillness of death.
All through the Chris-
tian years, crushed souls,

of sorrow or shame,
under heavy crosses
have been crying, "
How
56
long,
THY
WILL,
NOT MINE.
?
Lord
how long
little
"
and the only anto the bur-
swer has been a
more added
den, another thorn in the crown.
Are not our prayers answered, then, at all ? Certainly they are. Not a word that goes faithwinged up to God fails to receive attention and
answer.
is
But ofttimes the answer that comes

but the spirit of acquiescence in
only
not
relief,
will.
God's
The prayer many, many times

to
draws the trembling suppliant closer
God.
The cup
will
did not pass from the Master, but his
was brought into such perfect accord with

his piteous
cries
the Father's, that

died
ing.
for relief
away
in a refrain of sweet, peaceful yield-
The thorn was

to
not
it
removed, but
it
Paul
was enabled
keep
and forget
in glad
acquiescence in his Lord's refusal.

did not recover, but the king was
rise,
The
child
helped to
wash away
his tears,
and worship God.
We are
we
ask
not to think, then, that every burden

to
God
remove, he
will
surely remove,
nor that every favor
we
crave, he will bestow.

this.
He
has never promised
"This
if
is
the
confidence that
we have
in
him, that,
we
ask
THY
WILL,
NOT MINE.
57
Any thing according Lord
to his will,
he heareth us."
our
Into the very heart of the prayer which

gave, saying,
" After this
manner pray
ve," he put the petition, **Thy will be done."
Listening at the garden-gate to the Master's
own most
all
earnest supplication,
of
his
we
hear,
amid
the
agonies
wrestling, the
words,
"Nevertheless, not as
I will,
but as thou wilt."
The supreme wish
in
our praying should not,

relief
then, be merely to get the
we
desire.
This would be to put our own
will before God's,
and
to leave
is
no
place for his
wisdom
to decide
is
it
what
best.
We
me
I
:
are to say, " This desire

I
very dear to
would
like
to
have
granted; yet
I
cannot decide for myself, for

I
am
not wise enough, and

If
it
put
it
into
Thy
hand.
if
be
Thy
will,
grant
it
me my
request
not, graciously withhold
from me, and help
me
sweetly to acquiesce, for
Thy way must be

is
the best."
For example
your health
broken.
;
It is
right to pray for its restoration

all
but running
supplication,
through
your most
earnest
'*
should be the songful, trustful,
Nevertheless,
58
THY
I will,
WILL,
NOT
AfLVE.
not as
but as thou wilt."
You
are a
mother, and are struggling in prayer over a

sick child.
God
will
never blame you for the

for
strength
of
your maternal affection, nor
the clasping, clinging love that holds your darling in your

is
bosom and pleads

is
to
keep
it.'
Love
right
mother-love
is
right, and, of all things
on
earth,
is
likest the love of
God's own heart.
Prayer
right, too,
;
no matter how intense and
importunate
sire, it
yet,
amid
all
your agony of de-
should be the supreme, the ruling wish,

all
subduing and softening

guish,
of nature's wild an-
and bringing every thought and feeling
into subjection, that God's will

*'
may be
done.
Not
"
as
will
"
the sound grows sweet

words repeat.
"
Each time my
lips the
:
Not
as
will
the darkness feels

when
this
More
safe than light,
thought steals
Like whispered voice to calm and bless

All unrest and
*'
all
loneliness.
Not
as
will,"
because the One
Who
loved us
first
and best has gone

still
Before us on the road, and
For us must
"
all
his love
will."
fulfil,
Not as we
THY
WILL,
NOT MINE.
is
59 our
The groundwork
is
of this acquiescence
of
confidence in the love and wisdom
God.
He
our Father, with
all
a father's tender affec-
tion,
and yet with
infinite
wisdom, so that he
can neither err nor be unkind.

for us.
He
has a plan
He
carries us in his heart
and
in his
thought.
desire,
The
things
we, in
our ignorance,
ill
;
might
in the
end work us great
the
rich
things from which

blessings for us
;
we shrink may carry

so
we should
life
not dare to
choose for ourselves what our

shall be.
experiences
The
best thing possible for us in this

us.
world
is
always what God wills for

rather than
his,
is
To have
mar the
our
own way
to
beauty of his thought concerning
us.
is
The
ing of
posal.
highest attainment in prayer

all
this laydis-
our requests at God's feet for his

highest reach of
all
The
God.
faith
is
loving )>
to the
ntelligent consecration of
will of
&
our
life
Laid on thine
altar,
O my
Lord divine
Accept
I
this gift to-day, for Jesus' sake.
have no jewels to adorn thy shrine,
Nor any world-famed
sacrifice to
make
6o
But here
This
I
THY
WILL,
NOT MINE.
trembling hand
bring within
my
!
will of mine,
a thing that seemeth small;

canst understand
I
And
thou alone,
I
Lord
How, when
Hidden
yield thee this,
yield
mine
all.
therein, thy searching gaze can see
Struggles of passion, visions of delight.

All that
I
have or
am
or fain would be,
Deep
It
loves, fond hopes,
and longings
infinite.
hath been wet with tears, and
dimmed
it
with sighs,
Clenched
in
my
grasp
till
beauty
it
hath none
lies,
Now from
thy footstool, where ascendeth,

'
vanquished
The prayer
Take
it,
May
thy will be done.*
Father
it
ere
my
courage
fail,
And merge
If in
so in thine
own
will,
that e'en
some desperate hour my

thou give back
cries prevail.
And
my
gift, it
may have been
So changed, so
So one with
I
purified, so fair
have grown,
thee, so filled with peace divine,
may
not
know
or feel
it
as
mine own.
But, gaining back
my
will,
may
find
it
thine."
When
balance,
a beautiful
life
hangs trembling
with
all
in the
we should
to us,
not,
our loving
it
yearning, dare to choose whether
shall
be
spared
or carried
home.
When some
THY
WILL,
NOT MINE.
is
great hope of our heart
about to be taken
settle the question
it.
from
us,
we should not dare

shall lose
it,
whether we
not
or keep
We
do
know that it would be best. At least, we know that God has a perfect plan for our life,
marked out by
his infinite
wisdom
and surely
lim-
we should not say

ited
that
what we, with our
wisdom, might prefer, would be better than

to be.
what he wants us
CHAPTER
VI.
GOD'S RESERVE OF GOODNESS.
God
bestow.
never gives
all
he has to give.
The
time never comes when he has nothing more to
We
:
never reach the best in divine

is
blessings
to come.
of love
there
always something better yet
Every door that opens into a treasury shows another door into another
treas-
ury beyond.
The unrevealed
is
ever better
than the revealed.

shall ever
We
need not fear that we
come
to the
end of God's goodness,
or to any experience for which he will have no

blessing ready.
Yet the divine goodness

in
is
not emptied out

first
heaps at our feet
when we
it is
start
in
faith's
pathway
rather
it,
kept in reserve for

is
us until
we need
them
and
then disbursed.
The
Scriptures speak of God's great goodness

that fear him.
as laid up for
62
This
is
the
GOD'S RESERVE OF GOODAESS.
6^,
divine method, both in providence and in grace.
We
mer
think of one gathering food in bright sumdays,
when the
harvests are golden,
when
'the
the fruits hang on bending boughs,

hillsides are purple
when
with their vintage, and lay-
ing up for winter's use,
when
the fields shall
be bleak, and the trees and vines bare.
Or we
think of a father gathering riches, and securing
them
in
safe
deposits or investments for his

shall
children
when they
grow
up.
So God
has laid up goodness for his people.
God
laid
up goodness
in
the creation and

before
preparation of the earth.
Ages
man was
plain,
made, God was
fitting
up this globe to be his

hill,
home,
water,
storing in
air,
mountain,
and
in
and
soil,
and
in all nature's treasuries,
supplies
for
for
every
human
need.
We
think,
example, of the vast beds of coal laid up

earth's strata,
among
ages and ages since, in
order that
our homes might be
warmed and
;
brightened in these later centuries

silver,
of the iron,
in
gold,
and other metals secreted

;
the
veins of the rocks
of the medicinal
leaf, root, fruit,
and
heal-
ing virtues stored in
bark, and
64
GOD'S KESERl'E OF GOODNESS.

;
mineral
and of
all
the latent forces and prop-
erties lodged in nature, to
be called out from
time to time to minister to
human
say that
wants.
all this
No
was
laid
sane and sensible

accidental
:
man
will
it
was divine forethought that
up
all
this
goodness for the welfare of God's
children.
The same
the past,
is
true of spiritual provision.
In
the covenant of his love, in the infinite ages of
God
laid
up goodness
:
for
it
men.
Re-
demption was no afterthought

before
was planned
the
foundation
of
the
world.
Then
people.
Christ, in his incarnation, obedience, sufferings,
and death,
laid
up goodness
forget,
of
for
his
We
sometimes
while
we
pillow
our
heads on the promises

in the
God, and
all
rest secure
atonement, and enjoy
the blessings
of
redemption and the hopes of glory, what

In those long
these things cost our Redeemer.
years of poverty, those sharp days of temptation, those
keen hours
of
of agony,
he was laying
glory for us.
up treasures There
is
blessing
and
not a hope or a joy of our Christian
faith that does not coixjc to us out of the treas-

ures stored
65
away by our Redeemer during the
ye^rs of his humiliation and the hours of his
agony.
But
all
this
goodness was laid up.

all
The
So
treasures were not
opened
at the
beginning.
This
is
true,
both
in
nature and in grace.
far as
we know,
there has been nothing
new
created since the beginning, but there has been

a continual
succession of developments of hidto
den treasures and powers
meet
the
new
needs of the multiplying and advancing race. Thus, when fuel began to grow scarce, the vast
coal-beds were discovered.
They were not

:
created then for the emergency
ages before,
storehouse
they had been 'Maid up," but the
was only then opened

So,
to
meet the world's want.
when
material for light was in danger of

oil,
exhaustion, the reservoirs of

in reserve,
long hidden
these recent
were opened.
And
in
days,
city,
men
are discovering the powers af electri-
not a new creation, but an energy which

all
has flowed silent and unperceived through
space from
the
beginning,
only to
become
need
is
available in these later days.
Human
66
GOD'S RESERVE OE GOODNESS.
the key that unlocks the storehouses of God's

provision for the children of men.
In spiritual things, the method
is
the same.
Take the Bible
for illustration.
It is a great
treasury of reserved blessing.
There has not

it
been a chapter, a
line,
a word, added to
final
since
;
the pen of inspiration wrote the

yet every
Amen
new generation
This
is
finds
new
all
things in
individual
the Holy Book.

experience.
true in
and con
we study the Bible, many of the precious sentences have no meaning for us. The light, the comfort, or the help is there, but we do not see it indeed, we cannot see it until we
children
;
As
its
words
but
have larger experience, and a

need.
fuller
sense of
For a time the
rich truths of the Bible
seem
to hide away, refusing to disclose to us
their meaning.
We
read them in sunny youth,

is
but do not discover the blessing or help that

in
them.
Then we move on
trials,
into the midst of
the struggles,
and
conflicts of real life,
and new senses begin

the familiar sentences.
pale before, as
if
to reveal themselves in
Promises that seemed

invisible
ink.
written with

begin to glow with rich meaning.
reveals
their
lived
67
Experience
preciousness.
Every Christian
and passed through
who has
trials
many
years,
and struggles, knows
how
texts
with
which he has been familiar from childhood, but

in
which he has never before found any special
help, all at once, in
some new experience
of
need
or trial, flash out, like
newly lighted lamps,
and pour bright beams upon his path.

light
The
the
be-
was not new

;
it
had shone there

it
all
while
but he could not see

other lights
until
now
cause
were shining about
him,
obscuring this one.
Most personal knowledge

be learned in this way.
of the Bible has t<
The words lie in oui memory, and the years come and go, with their experiences. The light of human joy wanes
health gives
way
disappointment comes
;
sor;
row breaks
the
in
upon us
that
some human
path
trust fails
sunlight
flowed
about us yesterday
lies
has gone out, and our
in
darkness.
Then
in
the words of
God
that have lain so long

flash
memory, without apparent brightness,
out like heavenly lamps, and pour their wel-
68
GODS RESERVE OF GOODNESS.

all
come radiance
were shining
not discern
about
us.
Did those words

Yes: the lamps
but our eyes did
have no light in them before?

all
the while
the brightness until this world's

out,
lamps went
and
it
grew dark about

reserved until
us.
The goodness was

needed
it.
laid up,
we
God's storehouses of spiritual truth never are
opened
to us until
we
really
need their blessing.

life-
They
are placed, so to speak, along our
path, the right supply at the right point.
By
;
the plan of God,

at the foot of
in every desert there are oases

hill,
each sharp, steep

;
there are
alpenstocks for climbing

there are lighted lamps
is
;
in
every dark gorge,
at
every stream, there

of these
till
a bridge.
But we
find
none
we
come
to the place
?
where we need them.

it
And
why should we
see the bridge
Will
not be soon enough to
Will
it
when we stand by the stream ? not be soon enough, when it grows dark,
to shine out
t
for the
lamps
Will
it
not be soon
enough, when the larder

send bread
t
is
empty, for God to
The storehouse
in
which God's sroodness
is

laid
69
up
is
found always
or
at
the point of need.

'*
:
Take a promise
pavilion."
this
two
for illustration
In
his
the time of trouble, he shall hide

It
is
me
in
very clear that we cannot get
promise when we are in joy and safety, but
only
when we
are in peril.
I
"
When
thou pass-
eth through the waters,
will be with thee."
This goodness
is
laid
up
in the midst
of the
wild waves, and cannot be found in any sunny

field.
**
Leave thy fatherless children

:
will
preserve them alive

in
and
let
thy widows trust
me."
This promise can never come to the
tender wife
when she
leans on the strong
arm
of her husband, nor to the
happy children when
they cluster about the living, loving father's

knee.
It
can be found only by the dark coffin

:
or by the grave of love
it
lies
hidden amid
the desolation
of
sorrow.
Thus, the divine
treasuries are placed in the midst of the very
needs themselves, and we cannot get the help

or the comfort until
of the need.
we stand
within the circle
Many
a mother,
when she reads how some
other Christian mother bore herself with sweet
70

when her
child died, says, "
I
resignation
could
not give up
my
child in that
it."
?
way
have not
grace enough to do
But why should she

be time enough
have such grace now
It will
when she needs

at only
it.
That supply can be gotten

the midst of the experi-
when she
While the
is in
ence.
is
child lives, the mother's duty
not sorrow, not submission, but rather, with

life,
loving fidelity, to train her child for this
and
for the life

will
beyond
and for
this duty, the

if
mother
seeks
child,
it
receive
all
needful grace,
if
she
in faith.
Then,
death comes to her
grace will be given, enabling her to meet

to
the
bereavement, and sweetly to submit

will.
God's disclosed
Many
people dread death, and fear that they

it
can never meet
with triumph
but
God does
one's
liv-
not give grace for victorious
dymg when
for fidelity,
duty
is
to live.
He
gives then grace for
ing, grace for honesty, grace
grace
for heroism
in life's battle
life's
then,
when death
and the
comes, when
work
is
finished,
hour comes
ing grace.
for the departure, he will give dy-
The storehouse
in
which that sup

ply
is
y\
laid
;
up, is found only in the valley of
shadows
and we cannot get the prepared and
reserved goodness until
we come
to the experi-
ence to which
it is
pre-eminently suited.
is
The
heaven
best of
:
God's goodness
laid
is
up
in
hence, to a Christian, death
always
first
a glorious gain.
A
first
poet represents our
parent as trembling
when he thought
day of his
life,
of the
sun setting the

night's coming.
and
of
It
seemed
to him, that
only
But,
calamity could result to this fair world.

to
his
amazement, when the sun went down

and
silently,
softly
thousands of
!
brilliant stars
flashed out,
in his view.
it
and
lo
creation infinitely widened
The
night revealed far more than

fly,
hid.
Instead of
flower,
and
leaf,
which
the sun's beams showed, the darkness unveiled

all
the glorious orbs of the sky.

death.
It
So, similarly,
to be only
we shun and dread
seems
darkness, and seems to hide the lovely things
on which our eyes have looked

it
but, in reality,
hides.
If
it
will
reveal
far
more than
little,
it
shuts our eyes to the

earth,
it
perishing things of
will unveil to us the splendors of eter-
72
nity.

The
best things are laid up in heaven,
and can only be gotten when we pass through

death's gate into the Father's house.
Thus, this principle of

runs through
all
reserved goodness
Blessings
God's economy.
are laid up, and are given to us as
them.
store.
Every experience brings

Sorrow comes
;
to us its
we need own
It
but, veiled in the sor-
row, the angel of comfort comes too.
grows
dark, but then the lamps of promise shine out.
Losses are met, but there
is
a divine secret
that changes loss into gain.

given,
soul.
bitter
cup
is
but
it
proves to be medicine for our

of all
;
Death comes, and seems the end

!
but, lo
it
is
only the beginning of
life
for
it
leads us
realities.
away from empty shadows
to eternal
CHAPTER
"
VIL
THE BLESSING OF NOT GETTING.

The good we hoped
to gain has failed us.
;
Well,
We
May And
do not see the ending
and the boon

tell
?
wait us
down
the ages,
who can
bless us
amply soon.
In God's eternal plan, a month, a year,

Is
but an hour of
some slow April day,
Holding the germs of what we hope and fear
To blossom
far
away."
There
of
is
one class of mercies and blessings

sufficiently ready to take
which we are not
note.
These are the things that God keeps

us.
from
We
good
recount, with
gifts that
more or
less grati;
tude, the
we
receive from him
but there are
many
blessings that consist in
our not receiving.
In one of Miss Havergal's
bright flashes of spiritual truth, she quotes these
words
of
Moses
to the Israelites:
"As
for thee,
the Lord thy
God hath
not suffered thee so to
74
do."
THE BLESSING OE NOT GETTrNG,

Then she
adds, **What a stepping-stone!
We
give thanks, often with a tearful, doubtful

for our spiritual
voice,
mercies positive
but
what an almost
negative
!
infinite field there is for
mercies
all
We
cannot even imagine

us not to do,
tiot
that
God has
There
is
suffered
to
be."
no doubt that very many of the Lord's
greatest kindnesses are
shown
in
saving us from
unseen and unsuspected

from us things that we
surely
perils,
and
in
keeping
desire, but
which would
were
work us harm instead
of blessing,
we
to receive them.
trifling
There was a
train
accident to a railway-
one day, which caused an hour's delay.

lady on the train was greatly excited.
One
The
the
detention would cause her to miss the steamer,
and her friends would be disappointed
in
morning when she should

night
the
to
fail
to arrive.
That
steamer on which she so eagerly
wished
embark was burned

all
to the water's
edge, and nearly
on board perished.
Her
feeling of grieved disappointment

to
was changed
one
of grateful praise to
God
for the strange
deliverance he had wrought.
carriage drove
75
rapidly to a station one afternoon, just as the

train rolled
his family.
away
it
contained a gentleman and
They manifested much annoyance

at
and impatience
Important
not
the failure to be in time.

for
engagements
met.
;
to-morrow could
to
now be
Sharp words were spoken
the coachman
for the fault
was
his, as
he had
been ten minutes
late in appearing.
An
angry
scowl was on the gentleman's face, as he drove
homeward
again.
All the evening he was sullen

In the next morning's papers
and unhappy.
he read an account of a terrible bridge accident
on the railway.
The
of
its
train
he had been so anxat missing,
ious to take, and so
annoyed
had
carried
many
sleeping passengers to a
feeling of bitter vexation
horrible death.
The
and sullen anger was instantly changed to one

of thanksgiving.
In both these cases the goodin
ness of
God was shown
not suffering his
children to do what they considered essential

to their happiness or success.
These are
every
life
typical
illustrations.
In almost
there are similar deliverances at
some
time or other, though not always so remarkable
"je

There
is
or so apparent.
fully
no one who has
care-
and thoughtfully observed the course of

life,
his
in
own
who cannot
recall
many
in
instances
which providential interferences and disapthe end,
pointments have proved blessings

saving him from calamity or
to
loss, or
bringing
him better things than those which they
took out of his grasp.
We
make our
plans
with eager hope and expectation, setting our

hearts on things which
seem
to us
in,
most radiant
sets these
and worthy
then God steps
and
plans of ours aside, substituting others of his
own, which seem destructive.
We
submit, per:
haps sullenly, with rebellious heart

to us a sore adversity
;
it
seems
but in a
little
while
we
learn that the strange interference, over which
we
his
struggled so painfully, and were so sorely
perplexed, was one of God's loving thoughts,
he
way
let
of saving us
from
peril or loss.
If
had
us have our
own way, pain
or sorrow
would have been the inevitable
result.
He
we
blessed us by not permitting us to do as
wished.
Who
can
tell
from how manv unseen and

unsuspected dangers he
is
yj
?
every day delivered
When
but
a passenger arrives at the end of a stormy

is
voyage, he
thankful for rescue from peril

is
when
the voyage
quiet, without
tempest
grati-
or angry billow, he does not feel the

tude.
same
Yet,
why
is
not his preservation even
more remarkable
in this case
than
in that
He
has been kept not only from danger imminent
and apparent, but also from terror or anxiety.

In an old-time gathering of clergymen, one of
them asked the others

thanksgiving to
his
to unite with
him
in
God
for a signal deliverance
on
way
to the meeting.
On
the edge of a peril-
ous precipice his horse had stumbled, and only

the good hand of
God had saved him from
be-
ing hurled to death.
Another clergyman asked

still
that thanks might be given also for his
greater deliverance
he had come over the same
dangerous road, and his horse had not even

stumbled.
Surely, he was right
:
he had
still
greater cause for thankfulness than the other.
Each
of
of our lives
is
one unbroken succession
such deliverances.
possible danger
There
is
is
not a
moment
Yet
when
not imminent.
78

too often forget God's
perils.
we
mercy
in saving us
from exposure to
We
life's
thank him
for
sparing us in the midst of
accidents, but
do not thank him for keeping us even from the

alarm and shock of accident.
Passing into the realm of spiritual experiences, the field
is
equally large.
God
is
conto
tinually blessing us
by suffering us not
do
certain things which
we
greatly desire to do.
He
thwarts our worldly ambitions, because to
permit us to achieve them would be to suffer

our souls to be lost or seriously harmed.
One
man
desires worldly prosperity, but in his every

in
effort
that direction
he
is
defeated.
He
speaks of his failures as misfortunes, and wonders
why
it
is
that other men, less industrious
and
less conscientious,
succeed so much better
than he.
He
even intimates that God's ways

But, no doubt, the very disap-
are not equal.
pointments over which he grieves are in reality

the richest of blessings.
God knows
life.
that the
success of his plans would be fatal to the higher

interests of his spiritual
The
is
best bless-
ing
God can bestow upon him
to suffer
him
79
not to prosper in his plan to gather riches, and

to attain ease.
human
ambitions.
The same is true of all other To let men have what they
want, would be to open the gates of ruin and
death for them.

ing
it
What
they hunger
for,
think-
bread,
their
is
but a cold stone.
The path
is
that to
flowers,
eyes seems to be strewn with

to lead to
and
a paradise,
full
of
thorns,
and leads to darkness and death.

for,
The
last
things they crave and cry
thinking to find
sweet satisfaction in them, when gotten at

prove to be but bitter ashes.
^'
think
God sometimes sends what we have

after year in vain,
cried for.
Year
To prove to us how poor the And how beset with pain.

The human
heart can
things we've sighed for,
know no
greater
trial
Than comes
with this confession,
That the continued sorrow of denial
Was
better than possession."
Sometimes the ways
of
God do seem
:
hard.
Our fondest hopes

fade like
are crushed
flowers.
our fairest joys

desires of our
summer
The
So

are withheld from us
;
hearts
yet,
if
we
in
are
God's children, we cannot doubt that
every
is
one of these losses or denials a blessing

hidden.
Right here we get a glimpse into the
mystery of many unanswered prayers.

things
The
the end, but
we seek would not work us good in evil. The things we plead to have
interests.
removed, are essential to our highest
Health
is
supposed to be better than sickness,
but there comes a time

will
when God's kindness

by denying
us
be
most wisely shown
health.
to suffer
He
;
never takes pleasure in causing us

is
he
touched by our sorrows

feels.
every
grief
and pain of ours he
Yet he loves
us too well to give us things that would harm

us, or to spare us the trial
that
is
needful for
in the end,
all
our spiritual good.

that
It will
be seen
many
of the very richest blessings of
our lives have come to us through God's denials, his
withholdings, or his shattering of our

joys.
hopes and
Christians,
When we
True,
are
called
to
be
we
are not promised
earthly ease
told
and possession.
shall
we
are
that
be heirs to
a great legacy,
we
" heirs of

God,
legacy
and joint heirs with Christ,"

is
but
To
our
not such as
men
in
this
world be-
queath
in their wills to their children.
be
"joint heirs with Christ" implies that

first
we must
and
share with him his
life
of self-denial
sacrifice before
we can become
and glories
call
partakers with
him
"
in the joys
of his exaltation.
My
I I
share
To-day men
life
it
grief
and death
see the joy and
to-morrow
thank our Father with
my
every breath
For
this
sweet legacy of sor-ow
And
through
Christ,
my
tears
call to each,
'
Joint heir
!'
*'
With
make haste
to
ask him for thy share
We
all
should never forget that the object of

is
divine culture
to
sanctify us, and
make
this
us vessels meet for the Master's use.
To
high and
glorious
end, present
pleasure and
gratification
is
must ofttimes be
all
sacrificed.
This
the true key to
the mysteries of Provi-
dence.
cration
Any
to
it
thing that hinders entire conseis
Christ
working us
it
harm
and
though
be our tcnderest joy,
had better be
taken away.
In one of Miss Havergal's
poems
82
she

tells of
one who had chosen the Master's
service, but
who
could not yield the
full
meas-
ure that other lives could bring, because the
Master had given her a charge

"
to keep,
A tiny hand,
a darling hand, that traced

tablet
On her heart's And there was
words of golden love
not
much room
for other lines."
Jesus wished her to do larger, wider work for

him, to gather not one
for his crown.
"
new gem, but many,

so
And
He came:
The Master came himself, and gently took The little hand in his, and gave it room
Among
the angel harpers.
Jesus came,
And laid his own hand on the quivering heart, And made it very still, that he might write
Invisible
words of power,
free to serve
Then through
the darkness and the chill he sent
heat-ray of his love, developing

writing,
till it
The mystic
glowed and shone,
And lit up all her life The happy service of

This
that
is
with radiance new,

a yielded heart."
is
but one illustration of a discipline
goins:
on
all
the while
in
the lives

of Christ's
disciples.
%l
Prayer
is
not
always
granted, even
when
its
the heart clings with holi-
est affection to
most precious
joy.
Nothshould
ing must hinder our consecration.
We
never think
first
of
what
will
give us joy or
comfort, but of what will

will in us,
work out God's holy

Pain
and
fit
us for doing the service for

to render.
is
him which he wants us
oft-
times better for us than pleasure, loss than

gain,
sorrow than joy, disaster than deliverFaith should
ance.
know
that God's withhold-
ings from us
when he does not

at
give what
to
we
ask, are richer blessings than
were he
open
to us all the treasure-houses
whose doors
and
we stand and knock with so Our unanswered prayers have

as blessed
great vehemence.
just as real
answer as those which bring what
we
seek.
CHAPTER
" Let us leave
VIII.
AFTERWARD."
God
alone
!
Why
What
should
I feel
doubt he will explain in time

fail
now, but
to find the
words ?"
Robert Browning.
There
is
a wondrous power of explanation
in "afterward."
Things do not seem
to us tois
day as they
will
seem to-morrow.
mystery
This
the
key which the Scriptures give us

tion of the strange
for the solu-
of affliction.
"
No
it
chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous

;
nevertheless, afterward
yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness."
There are many things
in
God's way with his
people which, at the time, are dark and obscure,
but which the future makes clear and plain.

To-day's
heavy clouds
to-morrow are gone

of the sun,
and under the bright shining

the deep blue
of
and
are
the
sky,
the
flowers
^'AFTERWARD."
sweeter,
85
the grass
is
greener,
and
all
life
is
more
beautiful.
To-day's tears to-morrow are
turned to lenses through which eyes, dim no

longer,
see
far
into
the
clear
heavens,
and
behold the kindliness and radiance of God's

face.
One
is
reason for the present obscurity of
life
our ignorance, our limited knowledge.

in
We
a
know now only

mirror darkly.
part
we
see
only in
We
have learned merely the
rudiments,
and cannot understand the more
advanced and abstruse things.
boy enters
a school, and the teacher puts into his hand a
Greek book, a New Testament, we and asks him read from the page
to
will say,
before
it
;
him
but he cannot
make
out a word of
;
he
does not
of
know even
the alphabet
it
is
a page
roll
hieroglyphics to him.
:
But the years
on
he applies himself with diligence to the

c
study of the language,
id
by patient degrees
masters
it.
The day
of his graduation comes, places in his
and the teacher again
hand the
same page that
puzzler
and perplexed him on

It is all
the day of his entrance.
plain to
him
S6
''AFTERWARDr
;
now
line.
he reads
it
with ease, and readily under;
stands every word
he sees beauty
in
every
Every sentence contains some golden

It is
truth.
a page of St. John's Gospel

fell
the
of
words are those that

Christ himself, and are
of
from the
lips
full of love, of
wisdom,
heavenly instruction.
thrill
As he
fill
reads them,
heart
bright
love.
they
his
soul,
and
his
is
with
warmth and
joy.
Every
fires
line
now
with the hidden
of
God's
all
Riper
knowledge has cleared away
the mystery,
and unlocked the precious treasures.
We
book
are
all
scholars in God's school.

is
of
providence
written in a
;
The language we
do not yet understand
but the passing years,
with their experiences, bring riper knowledge,

and, as
we
end
learn
more and more, the
painful
mysteries vanish.
at the
When we
stand, at length,
of our school-days, the old, confus-
ing pages will be plain and clear to us, as child-
hood's earliest lessons, though hard at the time,

are afterward to ripe,
manly wisdom.
Then
we
shall see that every perplexed line held a
golden lesson of wisdom for our hearts, and
''AFTERWARDr
that the
87
but another of
book
of providence
is
God's
many testaments
of love.
little
In one of George Macdonald's poems, a
child runs to her father, as he sits absorbed in

his
is
mental
poetry
?
conflicts,
and asks,
**
Father, what
"
things that
One of the most beautiful God has ever made," he replies.

**
He
opens a book, and shows her some poetry.

at
it
She looks
eagerly
but a shadow comes

I
over her face, and she says, "

that
is
do not think
so pretty."
He
then reads aloud some

;
verses,
and the reading pleases her
but
still
she cannot understand
how poetry
is
is
beautiful.
Her mother
of these,
is
beautiful, the flowers

;
and the
stars are beautiful
but poetry
not like any

in
it.
and she cannot see the beauty

father tells
is
Then her
her she cannot underthen
stand until she
older, but that she will
find out for herself,
and
will love
poetry well.
But the father's lesson was more for his own

puzzled heart than for his
child's.
He,
too,
must wait
until
he had grown older and wiser,
and then he would see the beauty he could not
now
see in God's strange providence.
S8
''AFTERWARDr
We
are
all
like little children.
God
writes
in poetry which,
no doubt,
it,
is
very beautiful, as
its
his eyes look
upon
and read
sentences
but
we must wait
lie in
to learn
more before we can
read the precious truths and golden thoughts
which
the
lines.
In our sorrows and disto us,

;
appointments, good
that the
is
men come
all
and
tell
us
Lord doeth
things well
that there
;
some blessing
for us in
every bitter cup
that the strange answers
we
get to our prayers
are the very best things of God's love, though
so disguised.
We
open the Bible, and we

;
find
there the same assurances
but
we cannot
see
the blessing, the good, the love, in the painful
and perplexing experiences

our dim eyes,
well-nigh
all is
of our lives.
To
is
darkness, and our faith
staggered.
Then our Lord's word

I
comes
ward
to us, "
What
shalt
do, thou
knowest not
**
now; but thou
know
hereafter.
After-
" is the key.
Possibly in this world, cer*'
tainly in the great

shall see
hereafter " of heaven,
we
that every providence of God, even

that
the providences
were
painful,
and that
seemed adverse, meant blessing and good.
No
''AFTERWAROr
doubt,
89
of the richradi-
we
shall see, too, that
many
est blessings of our lives, as
they stand in
ant brightness before Christ's face, have
come
from the experiences that were most painful
and most unwelcome.

"
This
life is
one
and
in its
warp and woof

glitters fair,
There runs a thread of gold that
And sometimes in the pattern shows most Where there are sombre colors."
sweet
Another reason why many
of
God's ways
seem
so strange to us,
is
because we see them
only in their incompleteness.

until they are finished before
We
must wait
fully un-
we can
derstand God's intention in them, or see the
beauty that
is
in
his thought.
We
stand by
it
the sculptor's block
when he
is
busy upon
it
with mallet and chisel, and to our eye

rough, with no lines of beauty
afterward,
it
;
appears
see
it
but
we
when
it is
unveiled to the world, and

is
seems almost to breathe, so perfect
the
finished statue.
is
building
is
going up.
There
now
but an unsightly excavation, with piles
of stones, timbers,
and iron columns lying
all
go
''AFTERWARDr
:
about in confusion
turn,
afterward, however,
we
re-
and a
fine
structure stands before our
eyes, noble
and majestic.
Neither the statue

its
nor the building was beautiful in

ness.
incomplete-
At
present
we
see God's work in us and

its
for us only in the process, not in
finished
state
when
it is
complete,
in this
we
shall
understand
why
it
was done
way or
in that.
"As when some

Having but
workers, toiling at a loom,

portions of the roll
little
Of some huge
fabric,
cannot see the whole,
And note but atoms, wherein they entomb As objects fade in evening's first gray gloom
The
large design,
to
from which each
trifling dole
But goes
make
the long much-wished-for goal,
So do we
That
lies
seek to penetrate the

so heavily upon our
doom
life,
And
strive to learn the

its
whole that there must be;

piece.
For each day has
own completed
The whole
awaits us, where no anxious strife

:
Can mar completeness
here but God's eyes see

life
What
death shall show us when our
shall cease."
The marble might complain

which seem only to cut
substance
;
of the
strokes,
its
it
away, wasting
but
when
the statue stands forth.
''AFTERWARDS
the marvel and admiration of
all
91
eyes,
it
would
complain no longer.
The
vine might cry out
under the sharpness of the pruning-knife, as
many when
of its finest
it
branches are removed
but
hangs laden with purple
clusters, its
cry of pain would

"
become
a song of joy.
Now,
the pruning, sharp, unsparing.
Scattered blossom, bleeding shoot;
Afterward, the plenteous bearing
Of
the Master's pleasant fruit."
Most things look

different points
different
when viewed from

Events
and
in different lights.
and experiences do not appear the same when
we
are in the midst of them, and after
passed through and beyond them.

view, however,
so of
life's
is
we have The afterespecially
the truest.
:
This
is
sorrows
;
as
we endure them, they
are grievous
but afterward the fruits of peace
appear.
In the Canton of Bern, in the Swiss
Oberland, a mountain stream rushes in a torrent
toward the valley, as

tion to the villages
if
it
would carry destruc;
below
but, leaping
from
the sheer precipice of nearly nine hundred feet,

it
is
caught
in
the clutch of the winds, and
92
sifted
''AFTERWARDS
down
in fine, soft spray,
fields
whose benignant
showering covers the
with perpetual green.

torrent, threatening
So sorrow comes, a dashing

to destroy us
it
;
but by the breath of God's Spirit

it
is
changed as
falls,
and pours
its
soft,
gentle showers upon our hearts, bedewing our
withering graces,
and leaving
rich
blessings
upon our whole
life.
We
hour
is
should learn to trust God, even

darkest.
when the
come,
The morning
will surely
and
will
in its light the things that
alarm us
in the
now
appear in friendly aspect
and
forms
we have dreaded
The ploughings
so much, wê shall see the bein love.
nign face of Jesus as he comes to us
of our hearts are but the prep-
aration for fruitfulness.
The
.evil
black clouds that

pass by, leaving
all
appear so portentous of
only gentle rain, which renews
the
life,
and
changes desert to garden.
"What
I
shall thine
'
afterward
'
be,
Lord
.?
wonder, and wait to see

I
(While to thy chastening hand
bow)
What
peaceable
fruit
may be
ripening now,
Ripening
fast for
me."
CHAPTER
"
IX.
THE BLESSEDNESS OF LONGING.

God
loves to be longed for, he loves to be sought
love,
For he sought us himself with such longing and
He died for desire of us, marvellous thought And he yearns for us now to be with him above."
Faber.
At
first
thought,
to
condition
of
longing
would seem
blessedness.
discontent,
be undesirable, and far from
Longing suggests unhappiness,

the absence
of
that
peace which
seems to us to represent the
loftiest state of
blessedness, and the highest ideal of

of
faith.
the
life
To have
all
our longings
the
satisfied,
we
are apt to regard as

condition.
it,
most
desirable
human
Yet,
when we think more

is
deeply of
we know
that there
a blessed:
ness in longing.
" Of
all
Our
poet's words are true
the myriad
moods
of
mind
That through the soul come thronging,
Which one was
e'er so dear, so kind,

93
94
^-^^ BLESî^DAhii^ GJ^ LOAG/AG,
If this
appear too strong, we have
to
remem
ber that one of our Lord's beatitudes was for

those
who
be
;
long.
"Blessed are they which do

:
hunger and
shall
thirst after righteousness
for they
filled."
Longing
is,
then, a healthful
state
one that has an upward look, and has

of
the promise
spiritual
enriching.
Satisfac-
tion with one's attainments or achievements in
any
line,
but especially in spiritual

is
life
and
in
personal holiness,
tion
not an encouraging condiof
and may be unhealthful, even a mark
incipient decay.
Probably the most perfect piece of marble

ever wrought by
human hands
is
the statue of
the Christ by Thorvvaldsen.
Those who have
seen
it
in the
Metropolitan Church at Copenlight of the story of
hagen say that the whole
the gospel seems to stream
down upon them

at
it,
it.
from the stone as they look
The
artist
in-
wrought a long while upon

tense joy and
and with
enthusiasm
but
when
at last
the statue was completed, a deep melancholy

settled over him.
this,
When
asked the reason for

decaying.
he said that his genius was

"
95
of
Here
is
my
statue of Christ
I
it is
the
first
my
Till
works with which
have ever
felt
satisfied.
now my
I
ideal has always

it
been
far
beyond
:
what
shall
could execute, but
is
no longer so
never have a great idea again."
To Thor-
waldsen, satisfaction with his work was the sure

indication of the limit of achievement.
that he
He
felt
would grow no more, because there was

in his soul for
now no longing
In
all life
any thing
better.
this
is
law applies.
a
In the physical
health,
realm, hunger
mark
of
and the
want
of
appetite
proclaims disease.
So the
of
mind grows through longing.

knowledge are opened
to
The doors
student's
the
eye,
giving a glimpse of the boundless fields that

stretch in
ing, a
all
directions,
to
and producing a cravto
hunger
know, which leads him
seek
with eagerness for the rich treasures of wis-
dom.
So long as
this
mind-hunger continues,
the quest for knowledge will continue, and ever
new
stores will be discovered
but,
is
whenever
at
the hunger ceases, mental growth
an end,
its
and the mind has gained and passed

achievements.
best
96

In spiritual
life
the same
is
true.
There
is
no mood so hopeful as longing.

state
for
is
The
highest
one of hunger and

life,
thirst,
intense desire
closer
more
more
holiness,
more power,
communion with God, more of the divine likeness in the soul. The gospel promises rest to those who come to Christ. Peace was one of
the benedictions the Saviour
left for his
people.
Contentment
is
one of the graces and duties
enjoined upon the Christian, but spiritual hunger

is
not incompatible with either peace or

It is
;
contentment.
iety or
it is
not unrest
not
it
is
not anx-
worry
it is
murmuring discontent
of all
deep longing for more and ever more
blessings,
calmer
It is
rest,
sweeter peace, more
perfect contentment, with richer heart-fulness

of Christ,
and more and more
of all the gifts
of the Spirit.
depicted in the Psalms as

of
3n intense thirst for God, not the bitter cry

-an
unforgiven soul
for mercy,
but the deep,
passionate yearning of a loving spirit for closer,

fuller, richer,
more
satisfying
find
it
communion with
the
life
God
himself.
We
in
of
the
see
greatest of the apostles, who, wherever
we

him, on whatever radiant height,
is
c^-j
still
press-
ing on, with unsatisfied longing and quenchless

ardor, toward loftier
summits and more radiant
peaks, crying ever for

of Christ,
more intimate knowledge

of the fulness of
is
and more and more

ideal
God.
The
Christian
life
one
of
in-
satiable thirst, never pausing in

spiritual content, but ever
any arbor
of
wooed on by
visions
of
new
joys and attainments.

of
this
The absence
very soul of
ing more,
is
all
longing
tells
of
is
the
cessation of spiritual growth.

true prayer.
If
Longing
the
we
desire noth-
we
will
ask nothing more.
Longing
the
empty hand reached out

;
to receive
new
gifts
from heaven
it
is
the heart's cry which
God
hears with acceptance, and answers with

;
more and more
it is
the ascending angel that
climbs the starry ladder to return on the same

radiant stairway with blessings from God's very
throne
it
is
the key that unlocks
new
store;
houses of divine goodness and enrichment

is
it
the bold navigator that ventures out on unseas,
known
is,
and discovers new continents

life
it
indeed, nothing les than the very
of
98

in the
God
human
soul, struggling to
grow up
n\ us into the fulness of the stature of Christ.
Longing
fies
is
the transfiguring spirit which puri-
these dull, earthly lives of ours, and changes

little
them
by
little
into the divine image.
"
The
thing
we long
for, that
we
are
"
:
For one transcendent moment
and continued longing

into the
after the
good
lifts
us up
good.
The heavenly
ideal ever kept
before the mind, and longed after with intensity

of desire, carves itself in the soul.
As Lowell
says again,
"
is
Longing
God's fresh, heavenward

striving
still
:
will
With our poor earthward
We
quench
it
that
we may be
Content with merely Hving.

But, would
we
learn that heart's full scope
Which we
are hourly wronging,

to hope,
Our hves must climb from hope
The
latter half
If
of
this stanza
is
must not be
overlooked.
longing
God's angel to lead
THE BLESSEDNESS OE LONGING,
99
US heavenward, \vc must follow where the angel

leads. to
Mere longing opens no
gates, takes us
no heights, finds no rich treasures, discovers
no new worlds.
Longing without action

state
:
is
most unhealthy
it
is
but a poor sentithe

soul
mental day-dreaming, which leaves
more empty than ever when the dreams have

vanished.
Longing, to be blessed, must beinspiration.
come an
When
Raphael was asked
how he
said,
painted
such wonderful pictures, he

;
"
dream dreams, and see visions

'iny
and
then
I paint
dreams and
my
visions^
With
marvellous
of
skill his
hand wrought into forms
radiant
beauty the lovely creations of his
mind: otherwise they would never have brightened the world with their wondrous splendors.
Longmg
but
is
not
only sees the heavenly visions,
obedient to them, and strives to realize

It
them.
struggles up toward the excellence
that shines
before
it
it
seeks
to
It
attain
is
the
fine qualities
isfied
which
it
admires.
not sat-
with good resolves, but sets forward to

true.
make them come
When
Joan of Arc
in
was asked what virtue she supposed dwelt
^-OuCO
loo

it
her white standard that made

she replied, "
the English,'
I
so victorious,
said
to
it,
Go
boldly
it
among
and
then
follozved
''the
myself
The white banner without

maid
So,
"
}ily-white
victories.
herself
would have won no
when we send out the white banners

ourselves,
of pure
and noble longings, we must be sure
to follow
them
if
we would win the
blessings
which our hearts crave.

"
I
will
not wasle one breath of

life
life in
sighing
to
For other ends has
been given
me,
Duties and self-devotion, daily dying

Into a higher, better
life
with Thee,
My
God, with Thee."
Every longing should
at
once become an
active impulse in the soul.
The hand
should
instantly be reached out to paint or carve the
beauty
of
it
which the heart dreams, and
for
which
into
all
longs.
Our longings should

all
lead us
paths of Christly service and
heroic
asfor
duty.
Mere gazing heavenward

not the
after the
cended Christ, and waiting and watching

his return,
is
way
to realize the blessed
THE BLESSEDNESS OE LONGING.

glory.
lOI
There
is
work
will
to do to prepare for his
coming, and he
greatest joy to those

.his
come soonest and with who do most to advance
kingdom.
CHAPTER
X.
THE COST AND WORTH OF SYMPATHY.

" If thou art blest,
Then
let
the sunshine of thy gladness rest

lies
On
the dark edge of each cloud that
Black
If
Still
in thy brother's skies.
thou art sad,
be thou in thy brother's gladness glad,"
Hamilton.
The
lie
true nature of sympathy

:
is
not always
understood
it is
more than
tears,
which often
near the surface, and flow easily at the touch
of
any external experience.
Some
natures are
wonderfully sensitive to the expressions of joy

or sorrow in other lives.
cliff,
You
stand before a
and
in
responsive echo every sound that

to
is
made beside you comes back

cliff
your
ear.
If
a child cries, the

of a soft
sobs back.
The murmur
song returns again, like a melody sung

singer.
by some far-away
The
the
notes of speech
air.
come back echoing through
The
cliff is
COST AND
WORTH OF SYMPATHY.
wave
of sound,
03
sensitive to every
to
it.
and responds
simi-
There are human hearts that are

every touch of
larly sensitive to
human
expefu]!
rience that plays upon

of emotion, that
them
they are so
they respond to every note of
joy or sorrow that strikes their chords.
They
echo back the merry laughter, the voice of

tenderness, the wail
of
sorrow, but
:
they "are
nothing more than echoes
only from their sur-
face do they reflects the tones of other lives.
No
of
depths are
stirred.
They know nothing

is
sympathy.
:
Sympathy
is
more than
an
echo
its
background
is
individual experience.
Strength
not enough for this ministry of
sympathy, even the purest, noblest, most majestic
strength
it
must have passed through

get the
the
fires of suffering, or of struggle, to
fineness and delicacy required for this sacred
work.
Moral uprightness and purity are not

:
enough
unchastened, even these divine qualirender the service that sad

in
ties are too cold to
and weary hearts need

weakness.
their loneliness
and
Even the
purest holiness must be

thrills
swept through by the
of pain before
it
104
COST AND WORTH OF SYMPATHY.

understand
the
can
experience
of
pain
in
others,
and be made capable of feeHng with

their
them
in
weakness and
suffering.
One
of
may have
to
pity without
knowing any thing
the experience of the condition which appeals
him
but pity
is
not sympathy.
Holy angels
can pity the sons of but in
men
in
their sore need,
their lofty heights
of
unfallen
purity
they cannot sympathize with us mortals.

"
Not
pity gazing
from a height
light,
In shining and immaculate
Can touch the sorrow-stricken
soul,
And make
But love
it
glow with warmth again

love can ease the pain,
'tis
'Tis love can
make
the heart feel whole."
Even
with
Christ was
until
not
fitted
to
sympathize
flesh,
men
he had entered into human
and
lived an actual
human
life.
One would
say
that his divine omniscience certainly qualified
him
for
sympathy.
He knew
already every
phase of experience,
in the sense that his eye

of every hu-
saw into every nook and cranny
man
heart,
and
discerned
and
understood
COST AND
WORTH OF SYMPATHY.
lOS
every play of emotion, every struggle, every

pain
;
yet his omniscience did not prepare him
for true
sympathy
that
he must become a
:
man
once
Nor was
with
live
enough
he might have taken hu

at
manity upon him, and then have passed

it
into the glory of heaven.
But he must
an actual
human
life
;
his nature
must be
life,
enriched by experience
he must know
not
merely by his omniscience, but by having passed
through
it
himself.
This
of
all
is
the background of
Christly
the precious
doctrine
sympathy.
Christ was tempted in
points,
and therefore
of our infirmitrial
he can be touched by the feeling

ties.
No
matter what the phase of
or
struggle
earth,
on which he looks down upon the

say,
he can
"
understand
in
that.
At
Galilee, or at
in
Bethany, or
the wilderness, or
I
Gethsemane, or on Calvary,
passed through
that
same phase
of experience."
life
So even the tenderest human
the one
its
most responsive to external emotional influences
cannot
it
truly sympathize with our lives until
has been enriched by experiences of
own.
The young man brought up
in a sequestered
I06
COST
AND WORTH OF SYMPATHY.

of the
home, away from the mad excitements
world, cannot understand, nor sympathize with, the struggles of the
man who
is
wrestling with
city.
the
sore
temptations of a great
The
young woman who
has never herself suffered,

a wish ungratified nor a
who has never had

a grief,
is
hope thwarted, nor has ever endured a pang or

not fitted to
sit
down beside
a sister
woman
in sore
agony over a shattered joy or a

feel-
crushed hope, and really understand her

ings, or enter into actual
sympathy with
fruit
her.
Every one knows how
ripens.
There
it
are a thousand influences that play
upon
all
the summer through, influences
of climate, of
sun and
lisht.
rain, of cold
and
heat, of darkness
and
Some
to
fruits wait, too, for the frosts of
autumn
ripening.
come
In
to
complete the process

life
of
some such way human

influences,
ripens.
joy,
There are countless

struggle, hardship,
sity,
is
trial,
toil,
ease, prosperity, adverat last the character
success, failure,
and
mellow and gentle.
The
old people understand this.
Disappoint-
ments, bereavements, anxieties, tender joys, the
COST

of the heart
lO/
deep ploughing
all
by
afflictions,
and
the diversified experiences of threescore or
fourscore years,
that
is
how
his love
they enrich the heart
held
all
the while close to Christ under

!
the
warmth
of
This
is
one of the
blessed qualities of a ripe and beautiful Christian
old age,
that
underestimate.
How much
we sometimes overlook or the aged know

it
about
life,
if
they have lived
well!
What
is
a power of
helpfulness such an enriching puts

!
into their hearts

finer
No
ministry in this world
than that of those
who have
learned
life's
secrets in the school of experience, and then
go about, inspiring, strengthening, and guiding
younger souls who come
after them.
is
heart thus disciplined
prepared for symIt
pathy, in the deepest, truest sense.
needs
it
no labored words of explanation to enable

understand the stress and strain of
bitterness of sorrow, or the
It
trial,
to
the
burden
is
of infirmity.
has
felt
the same, and

it
now
thrilled
by the
is
experience on which
looks.
Sympathy
wonderful thing
it
has a strange and mighty

it.
power
of inspiration in
How strong
it
makes
loS
COST AXD WORTH OF SVMPATHV.

know
that others
!
us to go on with our work, to
care for us, and are interested in us

is
There
something
in the simple
touch of a friendly
hand, or the look of a kindly eye, or the emotion that plays on an earnest face, that sends a
quickening
is
thrill
through our
is
souls.
When
warm
one
in
deep sorrow, how

it
he strengthened to
of a
clasp,
bear
by feeling the pressure

tells
which
him, better than any words could
do, of sincere
sympathy
It
cannot bring back

idol
his
it
dead
it
cannot restore the shattered

is
cannot calm the storm that

;
raging about
him
it
cannot remove a straw of the burden,

:
nor eliminate one line of the chapter of grief

but there
feels for
is
another
;
human
is
heart close by that
him
there
a loving presence creep;
ing up in the darkness close beside him

is
there
companionship
he
is
not alone, and this
blessed consciousness makes him strong.
little
token of love sent into your
sick-
room from some gentle hand, when human

presences are shut out, telling of a heart out'
side that thinks about you,
of gladness
it
what a messengei
could be
is
No
angel's visit
COST AXD IVORTH OF SYMPATHY.

more welcome
or
lOg
is
more comforting.
There
story of a prisoner
who had
received nothing
but severity in his prison-life, and

ing of
human
tenderness.
knew nothOne day a kindly
man
him.
visited him,
and spoke brotherly words,
manifesting a sincere and hearty interest in

It
was a new and strange experience
and, after the
can stay
at least,
man had gone away, he said, " I here now, for I know there is one man, in the great world outside, who cares
in
for me,
and has an interest
me."
And
that
consciousness cheered and brightened for
many
days the gloom of

Life
is
his
lonely
incarceration.
full
of
similar illustrations.
"
A clasp of hands will oft reveal A sympathy that makes us feel

Ourselves again
;
we
first
lose our care
And
in
our heart's
glad rebound
At tender sympathy new found.
The world once more seems
bright and fair."
If
we would,
then, be fitted for this blessed

to
ministry,
we must be content
learn in
the
school of experience.
Even
Christ learned by
no COST AND WORTH OF SYMPATHY.

the things he suffered.
for
Angels are not
fitted
sympathy, for they know nothing about

life.
human
there
is
In
a picture
by Domenichino,
an angel standing by the empty cross,

finger
touching with his
one
of
the
sharp
points in the thorn-crown which the Saviour
had worn.
On
his face there
is
the strangest
bewilderment.
He
is
trying to
make out
There
the
sufis
mystery of sorrow.
fering,
He knows
nothing of
for
he has never suffered.

in
nothing in the angel nature or

to
the angel
life
interpret struggle
or pain.
measurably true
of untried
The same is human life. If we

must
would be sons
of consolation, our natures
be enriched by experience.
rally gentle to all
We
are not natuis
men.
There
a harshness
in us that needs to be mellowed.
Human
up-
rightness undisciplined,
severe,
is
apt to be stern and
even
uncharitable,
toward
weakness.
We
are apt to be heedless of the feelings of
others, to forget
how many
hearts are sore, and
carry heavy burdens.
We
have no sympathy
not
with infirmity, because

experience what
it
we do
know from
means.
We
are not gentle
COST
Ill
toward sorrow, because our own hearts never
have been ploughed.

to sensitive spirits
We
give constant pain

act,
by word and
because
we have
not learned that gentle delicacy and
thoughtful
tenderness which can
be learned
only through the careless wounding of our

feelings
own
by others.
These are lessons we can
learn in no school but that of jêrsonal experience.
The
best universities cannot teach us
the divine art of sympathy.
We
must
must walk
in
the deep valleys ourselves, and then
we can be
guides to other souls.
We
feel the strain,
and carry the burden, and endure the struggle,

ourselves, and then
we can be
life's
touched, and can

sore stress
give help to others in
and
poignant need.
"
May
reach
That purest heaven,
be to other souls
some
great agony,
The cup
of strength in
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love, Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
Be
the sweet presence of a

in diffusion ever
And
good diffused, more intense "

!
CHAPTER XL
FINDING ONE'S MISSION.
"
To do God's
of
will, that's all

;
That need concern us
not to carp or ask
The meaning
it,
but to ply our task,

befall
Whatever may
Accepting good or
ill
as he
may
send,
And
wait until the end."
One
God
of the
most inspiring
of truths
is,
that
has a distinct plan for each one of us in
sending us into this world.

create us
all
Not only does he
to be useful, to take
some
part in
in
the world's
affairs, to
honor and glorify him

for
some way, but he designs each person

definite place
some
does
and some
life
specific work.
fill
He
not send us into

into which
merely to
any niche
we may chance
life,
to be lifted
by the
bits of
vicissitudes of
or to do whatever
work may
drift to
our hands in the vast and
complicated mesh of
human
affairs.
God has
a great plan, embracing "all his creatures and

all
113
their actions
"
and
in
this plan every in-
telligent
being has an
allotted place
and an
distinct
;
assigned part.
God
one
has, therefore, a
thought and purpose for each one of us

a
true
life
is
and
fulfil
in
which we simply
the divine intention concerning us, occupy the

place for which
ticular
we were made, and do the work set down for us in God's plan.
*'
par-
A
is
distinguished preacher has said,
There
a definite and proper end and issue for every
man's existence, an end which to the heart of
God
is
the good intended for him, or for which

;
he was intended
that which he
is
privileged to
to
become, called
that
to
become, ought
become
which God
will assist
him
to
become, and
fault.
which he cannot miss save by his own
Every human soul has a complete and perfect

plan cherished for
it
in the heart
of
God,
it
a divine biography marked out, which

into
life
enters
to
live."
Surely this
is
a
to
great
thought, and one that gives to
life
each
and every
life,
the smallest, the obscurest
a
God
sacred dignity and importance.
Nothing can
the
great
be
trivial
or
common which
114

The
lowliest
thinks about, plans, and creates.
place in this world, to the person
whom God
because
made
to
oqcupy that place,
is
a position of rank
seat,
and honor glorious as an angel's

it is
one which God formed an immortal being
own image, and with immeasurable possiGeorge MacDonald says, " I to fill. would rather be what God chose to make me
in his
bilities,
than the most glorious creature that

think of
in
;
could
for to
have been thought about, born

is
God's thought, and then made by God,
the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing

in all thinking."
The
here.
question of small or great has no place
To have been thought about

fill
at
all,
and
then fashioned by God's hands to

is
any
place,
glory enough
life.
for
the grandest and most
aspiring
And
the highest place to which

in life is that
any one can attain
for
which he
was designed and made.

any one can do
in this
it
The
is
greatest thing
world
what God made
him
to do,
whether
be to rule a kingdom, to
little
write a nation's songs, or to keep a

clean and tidy.
home
life
is>
The
true problem
of
FINDING ONE 'S MISSION.

not to *'get on," or to "get up," as
it,
1 1
men
If
phrase
not to be great, or to do great things, but to
be just what
in this,
God meant
life is
us to be.
far
we
fail
though we win a place

a failure.
more con-
spicuous, our
An intensely practical question, therefore, is> How may we find our place, the place for which God made us How can we learn what
}
he wants us to do
infinity
in his great world,
with
?
its
of
spheres
sure that
?
and
occupations
How
men
such
for
may we be
in
we
are fulfilling our part
God's great plan
In the olden days,
were sometimes guided to their missions by

special
revelation.
In
the
absence of
supernatural direction,
how may we know
what God made us

It is
very clear, for one thing, that we must
put ourselves
under God's
^;;,ecific
guidance.
life.
We
He
get this lesson from Christ's perfect

did only and always his Father's
will.
:
On
'*'
his lips continually
were words
of
like these
must work the works

"
I
him that sent me

will,
"
:
came not
him
to
do mine own
but the will
of
that sent me."
Even
in the garden, in
Il6
FJh'DTNG ONE'S MISSION.

it
the hour of his bitterest agony,

ertheless
was, "Nev-
not
my
:
will,
but
thine,
be done."
Moment by moment he
Father's hand
took his work from his
he
laid
no plans of his own.

definite
He knew
there was
part
in
the
Father's great plan which belonged to him, and
he wished only to do
our mission, and
fiD
that.
If
we would
find
our allotted place, and do
the work assigned to us, not our own.
we must do God's
will,
All our personal ambitions must

feet, all
be
laid at
his
our plans submitted to
him, either to be accepted, and wrought into

his
plan,
or set aside for his better way.

truly given ourselves to God,
If
we have
we have
:
nothing to say about the disposal of our lives
they are in his hands to do with as he pleases.

If
he interrupts us
in
our favorite pursuits, or
breaks into our plans with some other work, or
by laying us aside
chafe or
fret.
for a îme,
we should not
to him,
Our time belongs

us to do
and
If
he knows what he wants
any day.
we
him,
are
truly taking our life's direction
from
we must always be ready
to forego our
schemes and plans, and take instead whatever

he
to
allots.
WJ
This
is
where the hardest
battle has
be fought, for we
are loath to give up our
personal ambitions.
When we
is
have
gotten
thus far along, what remains
not so hard.
will,
One who
in s'ome
is
really ready to
do God's
and
be just what God wants him to be,
will surely
way be
led into his true place.
As many
living.
for the direction itself,
God
gives
all
it
in
ways.
The
Bible
is
the basis of
will
right
There we learn the divine
and our
duty.
in
No
one can ever find his allotted place
God's plan
who does
There
unless
not follow the divine

is
commandments.
our
mission,
no use asking about

are
we
walking in
the
straight
and clean paths marked out by the
Holy Scriptures.
For
specific
guidance
at
points
along the
in
way, conscience, the voice of

soul,
God
our own
must
be
listened
for
continually,
and
promptly and
affectionately
heeded.
Provi-
dence also must be watched.
God opens doors
and closes doors.

with duties.
If
He
brings us face to face
He
leads us up to opportunities.
we
are ready to be guided, and have a clear
Il8

we
shall
eye for the handwriting of Providence,

not
fail
to be directed in the
path on which
God wants
us to walk.
and alone
" Blindfolded
stand,
With unknown thresholds on each hand
The darkness deepens

Yet
this
as
grope,
:
Afraid to fear, afraid to hope
one thing
learn to
I
know
Each day more surely as

Burdens are
go,
That doors are opened, ways are made,

lifted,
or are laid,
still,
By some
'
great law, unseen and

to
"
'
Unfathomed purpose
fulfil,
Not
as
I will.
People sometimes chafe because, in their
cir;
cumstances, they cannot do any great things

as
if
nothing could be really a divine mission

it is
unless
something conspicuous.
mother,
occupied with the care of her
little
children,
laments that she has no time nor leisure for any
God may have marked out for her. Does she not know that caring well for her children may be the grandest thing that could
mission that
be found for her
in all the
range of possible

duties?
11
Certainly for her hands, for the time
at least, there is
nothing else
in all the
world
so
great.
at
Organizing
missionary
meetings,
speaking
societies,
conventions,
attending
Dorcas
writing books,
all
painting pictures,
these are
fine
;
things
but,
if
when they
are
the
things
God
gives
the mother neglects
her children to do any of these, she has simply

put out of her hands the largest things to take
up those that are exceedingly
small.
In other
words, that which the Master gives any one to
do
is
always the grandest work he can

of
find.
is
The doing
ever
God's
will
for
any moment
for
the
sublimest
thing
possible
that
moment. Another thing

to be
is
remembered
in
asking
after one's mission,
that
God does
not usually
map
it
all
out at the beginning for any one.
When
do,
the newly converted Saul accepted Christ
as his life's Master,
and asked what he should and
he got for answer, only that moment's duty.
He
is
was
to arise,
and go into the
city
there he would learn what to do next.
That
the
way
the Lord generally shows
men what
I20

is,-
their mission
just one step
at a time, just
one day's or one hour's work now, and then

another and another as they go on.
young
man
shall
at
school grows anxious about what he

is
be when he
through his course, what
profession he shall choose, and frets and worries
because he can get no

does not
light.
He
wonders
;
why God
make his duty plain to him but what has the young man to do now with his profession or life-calling, when it must be years
it
.-*
yet before he can enter upon
His present
;
duty
is all
he has to think of
now
and that
is
simply to attend diligently and faithfully to his

studies, to
make
the best possible use of his
time and opportunities.

is
the
way God
leads.
One One
step at a time
day's duty well
done
fits
for the next.

school-girl is sorely perplexed over
:
A young
the problem of her life-duty
ought she to ^q
to a foreign-mission field, or devote herself to
work
at
home
It will
take her at least five
years to complete the course of education on
which she has
just entered.
Very
clearly she
has nothing to do, as yet, with the question

which
is
P2I
causing her such perplexity.

is
;
Her
present duty
all
that concerns her at the
present time
and
that
is,
to lay
broad and
education.
strong foundations for a thorough
What her ultimate mission be, God will show her in due
perplexity, for
it
in this
world m'ay
:
time
about her
mission just now, there need not be a moment's

is
very plain.
of
She has
just to
do well each day's routine

her time in
diligent
work, spending
study.
Common
at a
duties
are the steps that lead
upward and heavenward.

time
God
lights only
one step of the path

that
step, the
but, as
we take
light
falls
on
another, and so on and on, thus lighting the
whole path for our

last to the
feet,
until
we
are
led
at
gate that opens into heaven.

so act, that every hour
"So
live,
May
die as dies the natural flower;
That every word and every deed
May
bear within
itself
the seed
Of future good
in future
need."
The way,
plan
is
therefore, to find out

life, is
what God's
for our
to surrender ourselves to
122

in
him
simple consecration, and then take up,
hour by hour, the plain duties he brings to our

hand.
No
matter about our mission as a whole

is
our only concern
with the
moment we
are
now
we
living,
If
and the thing God wants us now

each hour's work
last a
is
to do.
shall
faithfully done,
faith-
have at the
If
whole life-work
fully done.
we
neglect the duties of the

for our mis-
commonplace days while waiting

sion,
we
shall simply
throw our
lives
away, and
utterly
fail to fulfil
the purpose of our creation.
"
No man
Is not
is
born into the world whose work

;
born with him
there
is
always work,
And And
tool to
work
withal, for those
who
will
blessed are the horny hands of

angrily aside
toil.
The busy world shoves The man who stands

Until occasion
tells
with arms akimbo

to
set,
him what
do
And
he who waits to have his task marked out
Shall die, and leave his errand unfulfilled."
CHAPTER
We
we we
XII.
LIVING UP TO OUR BEST INTENTIONS.

hope,
aspire,
resolve,
we
trust,
When
Our
the morning calls to
life
and
light
But our hearts grow weary, and

lives are trailing
ere the night,
sordid dust.
Wings
for the angels, but feet for the
men
We must borrow the wings to find the way We may hope and aspire and resolve and pray,
:
But our
feet
must
rise,
or
we
fall
again."
J.
G.
Holland.
If our best
moods continually dominated our

all live well.
whole
life,
we should
:
We
all
mean
all
to live well
of us
at least,
there are times with
when we
resolve to do so.
New- Year's
stand out in
days, birthdays,
times,
communion Sundays, and other

life
when
the realities of
clearer relief than ordinarily,
and impress us
with
unusual
vividness,
start in
most
of
us
serious thoughts,
tions
and inspire
in us lofty aspira-
and noble intentions.
We
are apt then

123
124
to
LIVING UP TO OUR INTENTIONS.
make excellent resolutions, and to start off in new and higher planes of living. Now, it would be well for us if there were some way
of perpetuating these better moods,
and living
often,
up
to these
good intentions.
Too
how-
ever, the serious impressions are but transient,
and there
tions
is
too little vitality in the
good intenreally po-
and resolutions to make them
tent impulses for
many
days, or to give
them
of
permanence among the motives and forces

our
life.
Of
ful,
course,
we cannot make our
lives beauti-
merely by alternately adopting resolutions
of
amendment, and wailing out dolorous conof

failure.
is
fessions
Life
runs deeper than
words.
Beauty
not fashioned by evanescent
good intentions.
Blemishes and stains are not
covered up, nor are flaws mended, by penitential
sighings of regret.
Mere
transient spasms
life.
of true living do not give

If a
grandeur to a
temple
is
to
be stable and stately, every
stone from foundation to
dome must be
cut
and
is
set with care.
If
the texture of the fabric

of
to be beautiful
and strong, every thread

web and woof must be
and
care.
If
its
125
bright and clean, and

skill
the weaving must be done with uniform

a life
is
to be admirable
when
finished,
periodical
good intentions must
become
ing
its
strong, self-sustaining principles, shap-
every
act,
and ruling
all
its
days and
hours.
It
ought not to be impossible to
live
up
to
the impulses of our best moods,
or, at least, to
do so to a much
realize.
greater degree than most of us

of these
In
many
good intentions, one

vagueness or
element of weakness
indefiniteness.
lies in their
We
simply resolve to be better
this year than last, or to
do more good
but
in
in the
future than in the past
we have no
clear
and distinct conception

points in which
ticular
our minds of the
we
will
be better, or of the parwill increase
ways
in
which we
our use-
fulness.
Our
ideas of living better, and doing-
greater good, are nebulous and undefined.
We
our
nite
would be much more apt

if
to succeed in
to defi-
new purposes
we reduced them
and practical shape.

}
In what respects will
we amend our ways
This question starts
126
another.
fail in
What
?
?
are our faults
Wherein do we
living
been making
What are the mistakes we have The answers to these questions

ways
in
will indicate to us the particular
which
we need
ways
w^hat
to live better.
Then,
in
what
definite
we strive to be more useful ? To new Christian work shall we put our hands ? Upon what new lines of service shall we enter ? Just what old mistakes are we to avoid ? If we would bring our vague, hazy ideas of greater usefulness down into some practical
shall
forms, and then enter at once upon the execution

of
our resolutions, they would be
much
grow
more
likely to
life.
become permanent, and
to
into our
There are many people who sigh over
their
poor Christian living and their far-awayness
from Christ, and pray much, and earnestly

for
too,
more
faith,
more
love, greater nearness to

all,
the Saviour, who, after
have no well-defined
conceptions of the better things they would like

to attain.
Their sighings are
little
more than
a vague and indolent discontent.
They think
they are sincere
but they are not, for they

really
127
do not want to be any better, or to have

of Christ, or
more
they
do more in his service
if
did,
they would soon be out of their poor,
unsatisfactory condition.
Truly earnest long-
ings heavenward have a wondrous lifting power.
There
is
a great deal of only imagined spiritual
aspiration.
er,
Very much
is
of our singing,
'*
Near-
my
God, to Thee,"
only the weakest kind
of religious sentimentalism.
Such vapid good

because there really
intentions
come
to nothing,
are no good intentions to begin with.
When
the spiritual day-dreaming gets vigor enough to
be worthy the
name
of desire or purpose, the
higher attainments longed for will

reached.
prayer, or
soon
ask
be
in
We
we
to
must want what we

shall
never get
it.
Then we
we want,
to
must help
answer our own prayers, by reach-
ing after, and struggling toward, what
and by climbing the steep paths that lead

the radiant heights.
Another element
desires for better that
of
weakness
in
many
of
our
is,
life
and larger usefulness
we think
of great
and perhaps impossible

the
attainments, and
overlook
simple
things
28
LIVING UP TO OUR INTENTIONS,

lie
that
within our reach.

exertions are
No
violent,
over-
strained
life,
necessary to
noble
no superhuman efforts and achievements,

but every-day duty faithfully done.
of us
nothing
The most
are
must be content
to live
what
regarded
as
commonplace
lives,
without
attracting the attention of the world, or win-
ning the laurels of fame.

greater part,
We
must, for the
devote ourselves to the duties
that spring out of our ordinary business, social,
and domestic
necessities
is
relations.
The
pressure of
life's
so great, that
we cannot
lie
often
turn aside to do things that
outside of our
common
calling.
Whatever
service
in
we render
to Christ,
must be rendered
and along the
line of these relations,

in
and while we are busied
the imperative duties which every day brings
to our hands.
It is just at this
point that
many
fail.
They
they
spend
all
their life seeking for the place in this

fill
:
world which they were intended to
never settle down
to any thing with any sort
of restful or contented feeling.

lofty,
They have
though
possibly a very nebulous, ideal of
LIVING UP TO OUR INTENTIONS,

a vvondrously brilliant
like to attain, in
full
life,
izg
to
which they would

find
which their powers would
and adequate scope, and where they could

;
achieve great things

dition,
but
in
their present con-
with
its
limitations, they
can accom-
plish nothing
worthy
of their powers.
lot,
So they
go on discontented with their

for
and sighing
another
and, while
they sigh, the years

will
glide
away
and soon they
come
to the end,
to find that
they have missed every opportunity
of
doing any thing worthy of

in
an immortal
being
the passage from time to eternity.

is,
The
truth
one's vocation
:
is
never some
far-off possibility
it
is
always for the present

that the
passing-
the simple
round
of
duties
hour brings.
as
Some one
has pictured the days

;
coming
to us with their faces veiled
but,
when they have passed beyond our
recall,
the
draped figures become radiant, and the
gifts
we
rejected
are
seen
to
is
be treasures
fit
if
for
king's houses.
No
day
commonplace,
only
we had eyes
routine.
to see the veiled splendors that lie
in its opportunities,
and
in
its
plain
and
dull
There
is
no duty that comes
to our
T30

to us the possibility of kingly
hand but brings
service, with divine reward.
We
there
greatly mistake, therefore,

is
if
we
think
to
no opportunity for ordinary people

years
radiant
make
pimply
service.
their
filling
and
beautiful
by
them with acceptable Christian

is
There
of
life,
room
in the
commonest
re-
lations
not
only for
is
fidelity,
but for
to the
faith-
heroism.
No
ministry
more pleasing
Master than that of cheery and hearty

fulness to lowly duty,
when
there
is
no pen to
write
its
history, nor
any voice
to proclaim its
praise.
To be
a good husband
loving,
good
tenwife,
in-
der, unselfish,
and cherishing
helpful,
or a
thoughtful, uncomplaining, most acceptable

spiring,
is
and
service.
To
live
well in one's place in the world, adorning one's

calling,
however lowly, doing one's most prodiligently
saic
work
and honestly, and dwelling

all
in love
live
and unselfishness with
men,
battle
to
is
to
grandly.
To
fight
well
the
with
one's
own
lusts
and tempers, and
be victo-
rious in the midst of the countless temptations
and provocations
of every-day experience, is to
be a Christian hero.
LIVING
There
is
irp
TO OUR INTENTIONS.
131
a
at
field,
therefore, for better living

It is
very close
home.
in
these
common
progress,
things that most of us must
make our
in
and win our distinction, or
fail,
and be defeated.
these
prosaic
And
there
is
room enough
There
duties
and opportunities
is
for very
noble and
beautiful lives.
nothing possible to a
human
fulness.
soul nobler or greater than simple faith**
She hath done what she could,"

fell
was the highest commendation that ever

from the Master's
more.
lips.
An
angel could do no
When we
are
resolving to live
more
it
grandly
in the future
than in the past,
will
help us to bring our eyes
down from the

the
far-off
mountain-peaks,
and from among
stars,
where there
and
is
nothing whatever for us to do,
to look close about our feet,
where
lie
many
neglected duties,
ties,
many unimproved
possibilities
opportuni-
and many
in spirit, in
of
higher attain-
ment
temper, in speech, in heart.

of
Another element
our resolving,
of life at
is
weakness
in
that
we
try to grasp too
much of much
Life
is
one time.
We
think of
it
as a whole,
instead of taking the days one by one.
T32
a mosaic, and each tiny piece must be cut with

skill.
The only way

as
to
make
a perfect chain
skill
is
to fashion
each separate link with

passes
and
care
it
through our
a radiant day
hands.
is
only
way
to
make
to
The make its

have a
is
each and every hour bright with the lustre of
approved
fidelity.
The only way

and
all
to
year at its close stainless
beautiful,
to
keep the days, as they pass,
pure and lovely

It is
with the loveliness of holy, useful living.

thus, in little days, that our years
come
to us,
to
fill
and we have but the one small fragment

and beautify
at a
time.
fair
The year
white page
is
is
a book,
and
for
each day one

;
opened
it
before us
to put
and we are
artists,
whose duty
;
is
something beautiful on the page
or
we
lies
are poets, and are to write
some
lovely thought,
leaf as
it
some radiant sentence, on each

open before us
;
or
we
are historians,
of
and must
give to the page
some record
be hard to
work or duty
or victory to enshrine and carry away.

It
ought not
to
live well
one day.
Any
one should be able to remember God, and

to
keep his heart open toward heaven, and

remember others
fulness, for just
is
33
in
need and suffering about
him, and keep his hand stretched out in help-
one day.
Yet
that
is
all
there
to do.
to live.
We never have more than one day We have no to-morrows. God never
:
gives
us years, or even weeks

If
he gives us
all
only days.
life will, in
we
live
each day well,
our
the end, be radiant and beautiful.
CHAPTER
LIFE'S
XIII.
DOUBLE MINISTRY.
attends
A
every
TWOFOLD
life
:
influence
is
and follows
the one
is
planned and intentional,
the other
unpurposed and unconscious.
A
and
man
nity,
lives fifty years of active life in a
commu;
growing from
poverty to wealth
there are two classes of results left behind
him
when he
is
gone.
There are the buildings he
has erected, the business he has established
and organized, the improvements he has made

in
the town, and the wealth he has accumu:
lated
these are
all
;
purposed
results.
He
lived
to do these things
he thought about them, and
then with labor and pains wrought them out

but while he has been toiling and building, with
earnest ambition and intense energy, he has,
day by day, been leaving behind him another

class of results,
which were not

of
in
his plans,
and the columns

134
which he does not foot up
LIFE'S
DOUBLE MINISTRY.
135
when he
estimates
ing his Hfe, or which he does not bequeath
how much he has made durwhen

These are the things he has
of his
he writes his
will.
done along the years

words he has spoken
busy
life,
by the
with
in daily intercourse
men, by
the
his
manners and
his dispositions,
by
has
little
wayside
ministries
which
he
wrought ofttimes without conscious thought or

intention,
and through the
silent influence that
has flowed forth from his character and example,

as fragrance
is
poured out on the
air
by a sweet
flower, or as the soft
beams
star.
of light stream in
welcome radiance from a

Every
this
life
has this double history, and leaves

In the ordinary reckoning
double record.
of the results achieved
by men, the purposed
things only are counted.

million dollars
built, or
;
We
say he
made a
or
we
point to the bridges he
the cathedrals he planned, or the pict;
or we many miles, and preached so many sermons, and made so many visits or we sum up in our funeral eulogium the great
ures he painted, or the books he wrote
say he travelled so
and conspicuous things
of his career,
and we
136
LIFE'S
DOUBLE MLY/STRY.
all
think
we have given
not.
his
biography
but we
have
is
it
There
is
a part of his history that

;
never written, that cannot be written

is
and
is
probable that in nearly every
life
this
the better part, that a good man's unconscious,
unrecorded,
unintended
influence
aggregates
acts.
more
in the
end than his purposed
Any one who
carefully notes the comparative
value of lives in a community, will soon learn

that the element which counts for the most,
that subtile thing which
is
we
call
personal
influ-
much money to religious another may be an eloquent talker, and his voice may often be heard in public meetings another may be enterprising,
ence.
One may
give
and charitable objects
foremost in
all
progressive
movements
another
another
may
on
be scholarly, a writer, an author, an oracle

questions of learning
;
all
may
repre-
sent the best things in

is
art, in taste, in
whatever
of these
beautiful
and
refined,
yet not
one
may impress
some
himself on the community as does
quiet man, without either wealth or elo-
quence, or public spirit or scholarship, but
who
possesses that mysterious, indescribable power.
LIFE'S
DOUBLE MTNJSTRV.
personal
influence.
subtile than
37
is
beneficent
in
There
something
him more
money
or
speech, or activity or beauty,
a spiritual force,
and touches
It
all is
which flows out from his

other
to
is
life,
lives,
and strangely
is
affects them.
him what fragrance

to a
to a flower,
what
light
it
lamp
it
is
part of himself, and yet
reaches outside and beyond himself.

It is,
so to speak, the projection of the man's
own
spirit
character, the flowing-out of his

;
own
life
into other lives
it
is
the energy of the man's
working, as
it
were, beyond his body, and
working without hands.

goodness,
In the good man,

in his soul,
it
is
goodness dwelling
and
pouring out like light from the windows of a

cottage on a dark night.
is
In the Christian, there

:
more than mere human goodness
God's
is
Spirit dwells in him.

in a sense a
Every true Christian

St.
new
incarnation.
Paul said,
"Christ liveth in
me;" and
The lamp
is
he
prayed
all
for
others that they might be "filled with

fulness of
Christian's
Spirit,
the
God."
heart
that burns in a
the
flame of the Divine

of a
and the personal influence
Chris-
138
tian
LIFE'S
becomes
of
DOUBLE MLV/STRV.
power.
It
is
spiritual
:
like the
shadow
effect
Peter
it
has a healing,
life-givinp:
wherever
it falls.
Such a man goes abont
his daily
is
duty as other
in
men do
but while he
is
engaged
common
things, he
continually
dropping seeds of blessingj which spring up behind him

in
heavenly beauty and fragrance.

life is
Every good
works hard
house
ily,
constantly scattering these
unconscious, unpurposed influences.

all
mothei
day
in.
her home, keeping her
in order,
preparing comforts for her fam-
watching over her children.
She can
tell,
how many garments she has mended, how many rooms she has swept,
in the evening, just
and the entire day's history
but
all
day long
turn,
;
she was patient, gentle, kind.
At every
she had a bright smile for her children
she
had cheering words and fond attentions for her
husband
friends
she had a pleasant welcome for the

called
:
who
in all
these things she was
unconsciously scattering seeds that will spring
up
in
sweet flowers
in other hearts
and
lives.
is
}
Who
in
doubts which of these two ministries

the richer and the more
reality
effective
LIFE'S
Yet the
tired
DOUBLE MINISTRY.
139
woman
does not think of countall
ing these wayside influences and services at

in
her retrospect of the day's work.

so,
it
If
she
could do
would greatly cheer
her,
it
and
be-
strengthen her for a

gins.
new
day's
life
when
She ofttimes comes

do so
to the day's close
discouraged and depressed,
because she has

rousits
seemed
to
little
beyond the endless
tine of her household duties.
When
she
down with her

recall
Bible, after
all
are quiet in her
household, and looks
back, she
can scarcely
one earnest word she has spoken for her
Master.
The whole day has been

yet
filled
it
with with
earthly commonplace, and she thinks of
pain and disheartenment
if
she has lived
sweetly and patiently amid her
toils
and worries,
dropping cheerful words

hold, singing bits of
in
the ears of her house-
song as she went about
her work, bearing herself with love and faith
amid
all
the experiences of the day, she has
unconsciously performed a ministry of blessing,
whose value she can never know

to
till
she gets
heaven.
bit
of written
biography
fits
in here.
I40
LIFE'S
DOUBLE MINISTRY.
slept in the
young man, away from home,
same
room with another young man, a

was
his wont,
stranger.
Before retiring for the night, he knelt down,

as
and
silently prayed.
His com-
panion had long resisted the grace of

this noble
God
but
example aroused him, and was the

awakening.
In old age he
testi-
means
of his
fied, after
life
of rare usefulness, "
Nearly half
its
a century has rolled away, with
all
multilittle
tudinous events,
since
then
but
that
chamber, that humble couch, that

ing youth, are
still
silent, pray-
present to
my
imagination,
and
will
never be forgotten amid the splendors
of heaven,
It
and through
'the ages of eternity."

of
was but a simple act
common
the
faithful-
ness, unostentatious, and without thought or
purpose of doing good, save as
prayer
would bless
from
it
his
own
soul
yet there went out
an unconscious influence, which gave to
the world a ministry of rare power and value.
We
do not realize the importance
of this unIt
conscious part of our life-ministry.

continually.
goes on
give
to
In
every greeting
in
we
another on the street,
every moment's
coii'
LIFE'S
vci'sation,
DOUBLE MLVISTRV.
141
in
every letter we write, in every

is
contact with other lives, there
a subtile influfar-
ence that goes from us that often reaches

ther,
and leaves a deeper impression, than the
things themselves that
we
are doing at the time.

sanctified
effective
life,
After
all, it
is
life
itself,
that
is
God's holiest and most

this
ministry in
earnest, un-
world, pure, sweet, patient,
selfish,
loving
life.
It
is
not so
much what we
do in this world, as what

spiritual results
is
we
are, that tells in
and impressions.
it
good
life
like
a flower, which, though
neither
toil
nor spin, yet ever pours out a rich perfume,
and thus performs a holy ministry.
There
ministry
is
no place where
so potent as
in
this
unconscious
is
the
home.
The
lessons which parents teach their children are
not one-thousandth part so important as the

life
they live before them day after day.
This
incident has appeared in

pers, and,
some
of the
newspa-
though so homely, has
its illustrative
value
little
gentleman who has a goldendiaired
daughter, three years of age, took her to

first
church for the
time the other day.
At
142
LIFE'S
causes
DOUBLE MINISTRY.
much amusement by attempts
sat
home she
in
cunning baby-fashion to do just as her father

It
does.
was an Episcopal church, and she
through the service and sermon with mature

gravity and
sedateness.
;
It
happened
to
be
communion Sunday
cant, her father
and, being a
communi-
went with others toward the

little
chancel,
unconscious that his
daughter
was following him.
As he
knelt,
and bowed
his head, she took her place beside him,
and
bowed her head upon her

story
is
tiny hands.
is
The
is
an example of what
in
going on perchild
petually
every home.
The
acts,
not
merely imitating the parents'

ing in their
ing
spirit, as
but
is
drink-
flowers drink in the morn-
dew and
in
the sunshine, to
reproduce the
same
permanent
dispositions, tempers,
and
principles.
How,
then, can
we
give direction and charac1
ter to this unconscious ministry of our lives
When we
pose,
do things voluntarily and with pur;
we can give shape to the effects but how can we guard this perpetual outgoing of
unintended influence.^
Only by looking well
LIFE'S
to
DOUBLE MINISTRY.
It
is
143
our hearts.
what we are when we are
not posing before men, that

it
we
this
are really
and
is
this
which counts
in
subtile minis-
try.
We
must
be,
therefore, in our
own
inner,
influ-
secret lives
what we want our permanent
ence to be.
This we can become, only by seek-
ing more and more the permeation of our whole
being by the loving, indwelling Spirit of Christ.
No
one
will
say that this chance and undeis
signed ministry of good lives

direction.
not under God's
Though
it
is
not in our thought to
scatter
the
blessings
it is
which we thus
uncon-
sciously give out,
certainly in his thought.
Every influence
will, to
of our lives,
God
it
uses as he
pleases
do good to whomsoever
blessins:.
him
to
send the
" Call you this chance

Is
tiny seed
blown by wandering winds that speed
O'er land and sea.

'Tis swept
On
ocean's breast
to rest
and whirled, then flung

a lonely
isle,
Upon
'mid reed
And
Lo
!
sedge, and
many
a straggling weed.
soon the
isle
a flowery
mead
drest.
Becomes, with
Call
brilliant
blossoms
?
you
this
chance
144
LIFE'S
DOUBLE MhXISTRY.
in need,
Ofttimes a word or kindly deed
Bestowed upon some soul
Some
soul where Love
is
never guest,
Transforms the heart by hate opprest,

Till flowers the
noisome weeds succeed.

this
Call
you
chance
"
?
Part of our every morning prayer should be,

that
God would use our
influence for himself,
and take the smallest fragments of power for
good that drop from our

all
lives,
and employ them
for his glory,
and as seeds
to
grow
into beau-
ty in
some
of this world's desert spots.
CHAPTER
THE]
''
XIV.
MINISTRY OF WELL-WISHING.
not the deed that
It is
we
do,
fair,
Though
the deed be never so
But the love that the dear Lord looketh
for,
Hidden with holy
care.
In the heart of the deed so fair."
There
not
lie
are
few hearts
in
which there do
kindly wishes for others.
The man
Every
must be depraved indeed who has only malign

thoughts and desires for his fellow-men.
Christian at least wishes others well, since love
is
the law of the regenerated
life.
There are
occasions, too,
when
"
the good wishes find their
way
"
to
the lips in
kindly words.
We
say
Good-morning
"
when we meet a neighbor,
and
Good-by " when we part from him.

come, we are
When
of
our friends' birthdays

of finding
in the habit
many
delicate
will.
and pleasant ways
expressing our good
The Christmas-time
146
of
and the New-Year usually thaw out
our
hearts the laggard good feelings, prompting us

to
many
acts
and words
of
kindness.
It
is
well that our hearts have their seasons of gen-
erous
blossoming, even
if
they are so
It is
brief,
and are fixed by the almanac.
well that
any thing whatsoever has power to touch our

lips
with
fire
from the
altar of love,
and teach
us to speak the gentle words which the lives
about us are so hungry to hear.
One
of the saddest things
about
life is, that,
with such boundless power to give cheer to

others by our speech, most of us pass through the world in
silence, locking
up
in
our
own
hearts the thoughtful and helpful words which
we might
speak, and which,
if
spoken, would
inspiration.
;
minister so
much
strength
and
Hearts are breaking with sorrow
men
for
sore.
are
;
bowing under burdens too heavy

duty
is
them
too
large,
battles
are too
On
not
that
every hand, and in every

love's ministry, that
fail.
life,
there
is
need for
men and women may
Nor
is
is
it
large and costly service

:
usually
needed
the kindly utterance of a
kindly feeling will often give
all
147
the impulse
is
and inspiration required.
And
the feeling
always close at hand, wanting but to be put

into honest words,
and spoken where the strugof us let the
gle
is
going on.
Yet many
good
will lie in
our heart unuttered, and stand by in
silence while our brother beside us goes

in defeat
down
which one word

victory.
It is
of
ours would have
changed into
that
is
not the want of love
our
fault,
but the penuriousness which

it
locks up the love, and will not give

bless others.
let
out to
.?
Is
any miserliness so mean
We
when
hearts starve to death close beside us,
in
our hands
is
the food to keep them living,

:
and make them strong

the dust of defeat,
then
when they
lie
in
we come with our
love to
make
funeral-wreaths for them, and speak elo-
quent eulogiums to their memory.

"
What
silences
we keep year
are
after year.
With those who
most near
to us
and dear
We
The
live beside
each other day by day,
And speak
full,
of myriad things, but
seldom say
our reach.
sweet word that
lies just in
Beneath the commonplace of
common speech
148
MINISTRY OF WELL-WISHING,
out of sight and out of reach they go,
close, familiar friends
Then
These
who
loved us so
left.
And
sitting in the
shadow they have
Alone, with loneliness, and sore bereft.
We
think with vain regret of
some kind word

and they have heard."
That once we might have
said,
How much better it would be if, we gave freer rein to our lips
kindly and cheering words
!
at all times,
in
is
speaking
truly very
It
sad
when nothing
less than
the death of our

selfish
friends
can draw from our slow and
hearts the debt of love
and
of helpfulness that
we owe
them.
is
" This
the cruel cross of
life,
to be
Full-visioned only
when
the ministry
Of death has been
fulfilled,
is
and
in the place
Of some dear presence
but empty space."
The warmest
will
utterances then of love's good
cannot
It
is
stir
again the heart's chilled curlate
rents.
spirit
is
too
to
cheer the defeated
to
new and
is
victorious struggle.
:
There
is
a time for the angel ministry
it
when
the conflict
waging.
When
death has come,
or failure or defeat, the opportunity
ever.
is
149
past for-
The good wishes of friends do mere utterance, become realities

if
not,
in
by their
;
our lives
they did, how rich most of us would be, and how happy Good wishes, however, may be made to come true they may be turned into prayers by those who make them, and, passing through the hands of Christ, may be changed
!
from mere empty breath into blessings that

shall
enrich
like
our
lives,
or
feed
our souls, or our brows.

get
shine
sparkling
gems
upon
to
The
best
way
is
for
our friends
good
things to us,
hands.
to pass
them through
Christ's
No
doubt,
many
of the
good wishes that

are but
fall
from the
lips of
those
we meet
empty
forms, thoughtlessly uttered, with neither real

desire nor fervor in the heart.
also,
Many
is is
of them,
for
that are sincere enough, are wishes
very empty things.

into
Happiness
the word
which so often the wish

is
coined, yet
life's
mere happiness
blessing
:
not by any means
best
it
is
but the ripple of laughter on
I50
life's
surface.
One may be happy, and never

of Hfe.
have one deep thought

the
Happiness
is
product
of
friends,
honors,
merely earthly blessings, pleasures, gold, and these
are the cheapest, and least valuable, and least

satisfying
things
life
can
give.
Wise and
thoughtful friends will wish better things for

us,
things that we can

on in us through
keep, things that will
live
all life's
changes, and last
over into the eternal years.
*'
Oh, the rare things which can never be brought
From
far-away countries, but
still
must be sought
Through working and
waiting,
and anguish of thought!
The
patience that comes to the heart, as
it
tries
To
hear, through all discord
and turbulent
cries,
The songs
of the armies that
march
to the skies
The courage
*
that fails not, nor loses
its
breath
In stress of the battle, but smilingly saith,

I'll
measure
my
strength with disaster and death
;'
The The
That
love that through doubting and pain will increase;
longing and restlessness, calmed into peace

is
perfect and satisfied, never to cease,
These, these are the dear things
!
151
No king on
his throne
Can buy them away from
the poor and
unknown
Who make
them, through labor or anguish, their own."
It is in
such qualities as these that we should
seek to grow.
ling
Happiness
is
but like the spark-
dew
that shines on the leaves and grasses

is
in the
summer morning, but

it.
gone as soon as
is
the sun's heat touches
Life itself
deeper
than happiness, and true blessings are those

that are carved in
life's
own
fibre.
The good
we can carThe friends
and
wishes that are of most worth are those that

are for qualities of character, which
ry with us through the pearl gate.
who
think only of
this
world's
beauties
honors and possessions and attainments when

they wish us well, do not understand the table
of
values
by which heaven estimates every
thing.
How
is
to get these great things into our lives
the question.
Our
best and truest friends
cannot put them into our lives by any power

of love
:
they
may
utter the wishes, and
may
our-
translate
them
into prayers, but only
we
153
and the
an-
selves can take the benedictions
swered prayers into our
life.
This we cannot do
by mere resolving and purposing.
New-Year
or
;
birthday resolutions are good enough as such
but unless they are gotten into the heart and

life,
as well as
down
in neat lines
on paper, they
will
fine,
amount
to
little.
Intentions
may be
very
but they must be lived out to become of
practical worth.
Rainbows are splendid
pict-
ures as they arch over the
meadows and
fields,
:
but they vanish while you gaze at them
no
hand
is
alert
enough
to grasp them,
It is
and hold
them down upon
earth.
so with the love-
ly visions of excellence or of
beauty that glow

:
before us in our better
moments
them
unless
into
we
set
ourselves at once to work

will vanish
life,
they
into
air.
We
the
must get our rainskies,
bows
hearts.
down
out
of
and into our

of our
let
We
must take the good wishes

life
:
friends,
and turn them into
we must
them
into our spirits, as the bare, briery rod in
the garden lets the sunshine and the rain into

itself,
and transmutes them into blooming,
fra-
grant roses.
MINISTRY OF WELL-WISH IT^'G.

Just
153
how
to do this,
is
an important question.
all
The
Bible emphasizes the fact that
growth
of character
must begin within.
We
are to be
transformed by the renewing of
our minds.
Our
hearts
make our
and
that,
lives.
heart, in spirit, in the
before
God
What we are in inner life, we are really too, we shall ultimately

outward feature.
face.
become
in actual character, in
The
it
disposition
its
makes the
Every
in,
crea-
ture builds
own house
to live
and builds
:
just like itself.
Coarseness builds coarsely
taste builds tastefully.
corrupt heart works

all
throu2;h in the end, and changes

into moral decay like
bitterness, selfishness,
itself.
all
without
Jealousy, envy,
write their
if
and signature on the features,

time enough.
own image you give them

In one of
A
he
pure, beautiful soul builds a

itself.
holy and divine dwelling for
Goethe's
tales,
tells
of
a wonderful
lamp
which was placed
in
a fisherman's hut, and
changed
it all
to silver.
The lamp
of Christ's
love, set in a
human
heart, transforms the life

like-
from sinfulness and earthliness into the

ness of
Christ's
own
Spirit.
To make good
154
we must
first
wishes come true,
get
them
into
our heart, and then they will soon become real

in
our
life.
No
that
wish
is
more commonly expressed than

true happiness de-
we may be happy, but

fills
pends altogether on the heart.

peace
ing in
heart at
our world with peace.

light
little
Light shin-
the bosom gives us
wherever we
may
caps
be.
;
The miners
is light.
carry
lamps on their
in
and, wherever they
move
is
the dark
if
mines, there
So
it
with us,
in us
the lamp of joy shines.
The world may grow

happy
in
very dark sometimes, but round about us there

is
always
light.
We
if
shall surely be
the truest sense,

hearts.
we have
Christ's joy in our
This
is
a
:
lamp that shines through

no storm blows
it
the longest night

deed,
its
out
in-
beams grow brighter the denser the

us,
gloom about
and the
fiercer
life,
the
storm.
Christ's joy was, in his
own
lamp which
was not quenched, even by the awful darkness

of the cross.
If
for
we would realize joy, we must be
the wishes of our friends
sure to get the love of
MINISTRY OF VVELL-WISHING.
Christ
into
155
shall
our hearts, and
then
we
always have our

ness
own lamp, and shall find gladwherever we go. We need not, then, in
:
any case greatly worry about our circumstances

if
we
are ris^ht within,

is
all will
be
well.
If
the
it
lamp
will
kept burning within the chamber,
be light there, however deep the gloom
outside.
CHAPTER
XV.
MONiiJY,
HELPING WITHOUT
"'Ti.sa]ht'.eth>.r
To
Of
give a cup of water, yet
its
draught
cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips,
May
More
give a shock of pleasure to the frame,

exquisite than
when nectarean
juice
Renews
It is
the
life
of joy in happiest hours.
little
thing to speak a phrase

daily use
Of common comfort, which by
Has almost
lost its
sense
yet on the ear
Of him who thought

'Twill
fall like
to die
unmourned,
choicest music."
Talfourd
There
are not a few good people, with be-
nevolent hearts and kindly impulses,

they cannot do
who think
much good in the world because they have no money to give. They envy those who have wealth at their disposal, and who can
so easily
lift
off
the burdens of the poor, and
give substantial aid to those

tress.
who
are in
dis-
They
156
lament, that, because of their
own
poverty, they cannot relieve the
human needs
HELPING WITHO UT MONE Y.

which they sec about them.
15;
know
and
of
They do not any way of doing good without money,
sit
discouraged in the midst of
human
needs and sorrows, not supposing that they with their empty hands could render any help
or comfort.
No
doubt, there are necessities which
money
only can relieve.
Love, however rich and true

not pay the widow's rent, nor
and tender,
will
buy medicines
for the sick

feet.
man, nor put shoes
will be need for almsgiving while sin and sorrow continue on the earth, and he who has money to
on the orphan's
There always
give must give it. '' Whoso hath the world's goods, and beholdeth his brother in need, and
shutteth up his compassion from him,
the love of
God
abide in him
if
>
"
how doth Our professed

love
love for Christ will,

to
real, exhibit itself in
his friends
who
are
in
need.
We
cannot
now
give
serve Christ in person with our acts and

not need what
us,
ministries, for he does

;
we can
of
but his
for
people are with

for him.
and what
the
we do
old
them we do
One
Christmas legends illustrates this
truth.
HELPING WITHO UT MONE Y.

the
Among
"
Saxons the custom prevailed

at
of
burning the Yule-log
the
Christmas-tide.
of
selfish
man, who had plenty
money but
all
no sympathy, was keeping his

alone
a
;
Christmas
and out
of deference to the day,
he kept
little
log burning with a very feeble flame.
As he
his
shivered in the chilly atmosphere of his

fell
desolate room, he
asleep and dreamed.
In
his
dream he heard a voice which drew
attention to a beautiful child
who stood near him, and said, 'Jesus is cold.' With an impatient movement, the selfish man stirred the fire
a
little,
and
said,
'
Why
Yes,'
cold,
don't you go to the

t
farmhouse down the lane
You'll
be
warm
child
;
enough
*
there.'
replied
the
but you
make me
I
you are so
.-*
cold.'
Then, what can
do for you
'
'
You can
of
a
it.
give
me
a gold coin.*
With a
great deal
reluctance, the money-chest
was opened, and
gold coin was given to the child.

Instantly the
He
took
dingy room became bright and
cheerful, as the child

holly, saying,
*
hung up some
;
laurel
and
These are
shelf,
for life
'
and placed
are
two candles on the
saying, 'These
HELPING WITHOUT MONEY.

for light;'
is
159
and
stirred the
fire,
saying, 'That
for love.'
and a
Then the door was thrown open, poor widow and a sick man, and orphan
were brought
in
children,
and seated
at a
boun-
tiful repast,
is
while the child kept saying, 'Jesus

*
warm now
and the
selfish
man found
I
that
he also was enjoying the scene, so that he

presently confessed,
too.'
'
think that
am warmer
Then
the
child
suddenly disappeared,
and
in his place there
was a divine presence

were
I I
;
and
*
solemnly
I
the
words
pronounced,
Although
am
is
I
in heaven,
for
everywhere
heaven
if
am everywhere am there. I canbut wnenever
not suffer as
once suffered
my
children are cold or hungry, or persecuted or

neglected,
I
suffer with
them
and
;
and whenever
sheltered
they are
loved,
I
warm and
rejoice with
fed,
and
is
them
is
so that
Jesus
often cold, and Jesus
often
warm/
"
There
is
it
need ofttimes for money, and those
who have
their
must use
it
to relieve the
needs of
suffering neighbors.
Yet
it
should be
lives
remembered
that the help which

is
human
need, in nine cases out of ten,
not money-
l6o
help.

" Silver
and gold have
none,"
said
Peter to the lame
man
at the Beautiful Gate,

I
"but such as
he gave was
silver
have give
infinitely
thee."
And what
gold
*'
better
than
or
would have been.
He
said to him,
In
the
name
of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise u})
and walk."
Then, taking the lame man by

;
the hand, he lifted him up
and
at
once his
he could
weak limbs became
strong, so that
tu
walk alone, needing no longer
sit
by the
temple entrance, and ask for alms.
Better help
had been given him than any alms the poor
man
ever received.
is
This story
lesson
is,
a parable as well as a fact.
Its
that there are better things to give

silver.
If
than gold and
we can put new

weak
despair,
life
and hope into the heart
of a discouraged
man,
so that he rises out of his
and
takes his place again

life,
in
the
ranks of active
we have done
if
a far better thing for
him
than
we had put our hands into our pockets,

to help
and given him money

longer
his
him nurse a
little
miserable
and
unmanly
despair.
The
truest
sympathy
is
not that weak emotion
HELPING WITHOUT MONEY,

which only
ferer,
sits
l6l
down and weeps with

while
it
a suf-
imparting no courage or hope, but that

is
wiser love, which,
touched by his
pain and grief, and feels tenderly toward him,
seeks to put
new strength
into his heart, to

vic-
enable him to endure his suffering in a

torious way.
What most
bles,
is
people really need in their trouoff,
not to have the burden lifted

to
or
even lightened, but
have their own hearts
strengthened with fresh cheer and hope, so

that they shall not
fail
in their duty,
and that
they
may overcome
in
their
struggles.
assistance in carrying the load, but a

spiration of courage and energy, that
Not new inthey may
carry
help.
it
themselves,
is
for
most men the wisest

is
The
true problem of living
not to get
along easily, with the least exertion and the

fewest crosses, but to grow by every experience
into stronger
ness to those
men who
hence we show
real
unkind-
are enduring hardship,
when
we seek merely
to
regardless of their
it is
make life easier own highest good.
for them,
Usually
a great deal better for people to fight their
l62

battles through,
own
gives
and carry
their
own
bur-
dens, and bear unlightened the
crosses
them
to carry.
He knows
is
better than
God we
do what they need, and

the
trial
ever watching, that
may
is
not become more than they shall
be able to bear.
He
will
have
relief
ready
relief.
when
it
wisest that there should be
We may
interfere with God's discipline
when
we come running up with our help at every moment of stress. By encouragement and cheer and inspiration, we may put new hope
and energy into hearts that are fainting
usually that
is
is
;
but
It
the only aid
we should
his
give.
always vastly better to give a
man something
own
bread, than
to do,
by which he can earn

In the former case,
:
to put the bread into his hand,

idle.
and leave him
be brave and manly
in
we encourage him to the latter, we make it

despairing, and rob
easy for him to be weak
md
LT-)d
him
of a lesson
It is
which
had set for him
to
learn.
the poorest -indness to work out

tell
a child's school-examples for him, and to
him the answers

him.
to the questions assigned to
In doing:
so,
we make the
lessons of
little

or no use to him.
163
The mere having
of correct
answers
in
is
a matter of small importance to
him
comparison with the mental discipline to be
gotten from the personal and even painful search

after the truth.
We
can show him no greater

for
unkindness than to make his lessons easy
him by doing
all
the hard part for him.

is,
The
truly kind thing
to
encourage him
to solve
the examples, and to search out the answers for

himself.
Each
bit of
knowledge which he gets

will
for himself
through persistent struggle, he

It is
keep forever.
then his own, by virtue of

it
search and discovery, and he will never lose

besides, the wrestling with the hard
problem has
faculties,
added new power to his own mental
and the victory over the
difficulty
has inspired
him with
same
them.
aim,
it
fresh hope for

all
new
struggles.
is
true in
spheres of
life.
We
The may do
others the greatest

If
harm by unwisely helping

life
having an easy
were the highest

lift
would be better that we should
off
every burden under which others bow, and do
every hard
thing
for
them, and
difficulty.
save
them
life is
from every struggle and
But
l64
a school, and tasks and hardships and battles
and
toils
and sufferings are lessons

to be trained
:
set for us,
by which we are
into strength
tries
and disciplined
and nobleness
therefore, he
for
who
only to
make easy paths

of him.
another robs
him
to
of that experience
by which God designed
make
man
Hence, they are
the
best
comforters and
helpers of their fellow-men
large hopefulness and cheerfulness in their

hearts, trying to
who go about with own

more hope and
put a
of
little
cheer into the

Gifts
of
life
every one they meet.

relieve
money, ofttimes, while they

distress,
immediate
easier,
and make
life
for
one hour
only help to encourage disheartenment,
and to perpetuate nervelessness and indolence.

It
would be a great deal
better,
by a few brave
words, to incite the person to rise up, and grasp

life
anew, and conquer for himself.

evident, from this view of
all
It is
what
is
best
for
men, that we can
do a great deal of good,

this world,
If
and
of the wisest, truest good, in
without having
much money
to bestow.
we
have not gold and
silver to give,
we can take
HELPING WITHOUT MOXEY.

by the hand those who have
and help them
to rise again
;
165
fallen in the way,
we can put
faint,
fresh
courage into the hearts of the
so that
they can take up their burdens afresh, and start
forward once more in the race

cheer and comfort to those
we can
give
through
toil
or through sorrow
inspirations of joy, and kindle
who are weary we can impart new hope in the
of those who have begun to lag behind; we can make life a little easier for every one we meet, not by taking any thing from his bur-
bosoms
den, but by
making him more able
to bear
it.
And
tress,
in
the end, although
able to give a dollar of

it
we may never be money to relieve dismay be seen that the blessings we

more
in
have scattered, or have gotten into people's

very
in
lives, are far
number, and greater

lavish
value,
than
if,
with
hand,
we had
been dispensing gold and

years.
silver all
along our
There
is
never an end of opportunities for

this.
such personal helpfulness as

rich,
There
is
possible
wayside ministry, for instance,

courtesies, gentle
made up
of countless small
66
words, mere passing touches on the lives of

those
ting
we
a
casually
meet
impulses given by putinto our ordinary
little
;
more warmth
salutations
rectly
influences flowing directly or indido,
from the things we
and the words we
speak.
street,
For example, we meet a friend on the
whose heart
and
is
heavy
we
stop a
moment
day, like
in passing, to
speak a word of thoughtful cheer

it
and hope
sings in his breast
all
a note of angel song.
We
is
walk a
danger
little
way
with a young
man who
in
of turning
out of the path of safety, and

cere
we
let fall a sin-
word
of kindly interest in him, or of affec-
tionate warning, which
may
help to save him.

in the
Amid
the busiest scenes,

labors,
when engaged
most momentous
we may
up
yet carry on a
never-ceasing ministry of personal helpfulness,
whose
results shall spring

us, or
like flowers in the
path behind
echo
in the hearts of others
like notes of holy song, or in
glow
in
other lives
touches of radiant beauty.

It
is
related of
Leonardo da Vinci, that
in
his boyhood,
when he saw caged
birds exposed
for sale on
the streets of Florence, he would

buy them, and
trait in
6/
set
them
free.
It
was a rare
full
a boy, and spoke of a noble heart
of genuine sympathy.
streets,
As we go
about the
we
find
many caged
is
birds which
we
lib-
may
set free,
imprisoned joys that we

in
may
erate,
by the power that
us of helping
others.
Naturalists say that the stork, having

its
first
most tenderly fed
young,
will
sail
fly,
under
and,
if
them when they

they begin
to
;
attempt to
fall,
will
bear them
up,
and
is
support them
and
that,
when one
stork
wounded by the sportsman, the

er about
to carry
it,
able ones gathit,
put their wings under
and try
it
away.
These
instincts in the bird
teach us the lesson of helpfulness.
We
should
over-
come up
close to those
who
are in any
way
burdened or weak or
faint, and,
putting our
own
;
strength underneath them, help them along
and when another fellow-being
is
wounded or
it
crushed, whether by sorrow or by sin,
is
our
duty to gather about him, and try to

up,
to
lift
him
and save him.
There
is
scarcely a limit
in
our possibilities of
helpfulness
these
ways.
68
"

Poor indeed thou must
be,
if
around thee
Thou no
If
ray of light and joy canst throw
no silken cord of love hath bound thee
To some
If
little
world, tlirough weal or
woe
no dear eyes thy tender love can brighten,
No
If
fond voices answer to thine own
no brother's sorrow thou canst lighten
By
daily
sympathy and gentle
tone.
Daily struggling, though enclosed and lonely,
Every day a
rich reward will give
Thou
wilt find
by hearty striving
only,
!
And
truly loving, thou canst truly live
"There
ing of
is
a man," said his neighbor, speak"
the village carpenter,

I
more good,
really believe, in
who has done this community

lived
in
it.
than any other person
who ever
He
cannot talk very well

try.
it's
in a prayer-meeting,
and he doesn't often

thousand
dollars,
He
very
isn't
little
worth two
he can put
object.
and
down on subscription-papers for any But a new family never moves into the
that he does not find
village
them
out, to give
offer
them
neighborly welcome, and to

vice he can render.
any
little
ser-
He
is
always on the look-

out
to
169
give
strangers
is
a seat in
his
pew
at
church.
He
always ready to watch with a

after his affairs for him.
sick neighbor,
I
and look
have sometimes thought, that he and his wife

in
keep house-plants
send flowers
winter just to be able
tt?
to invalids.
He
finds time for a

;
pleasant word for every child he meets

you'll see the children
and
climbing into his own

load.
one-horse wagon,
when he has no other
He
me
really
seems to have a genius
for helping
it
folks in all sorts of
common
just
to
ways, and
does
good every day
meet him on the

in
street."
ting,
is
it
This picture, though
homely
;
set-
may do some one good

left
to look at
so
it
framed here, and
on this page.
Thus, without money, we can make our lives
abundantly useful in this world of need.

pathy
is
is
Sym-
better than
is
money
It is
so
is
courage, so
cheer, so
hope.
better always to give
ourselves than to give our
money
certainly
should give ourselves with whatever else
we we
is
may
give.
**The
gift
without the
giver
;
bare."
Christ
himself gave no
money
but
I70
every

life
that
came near
to
him
in faith,
went
and
away enriched and helped.

love
is
He
gave
love,
the brightest and richest coin minted in
this world.
And
all of
us can give love
none
are too poor for that.
CHAPTER
XVI.
TIMELINESS IN DUTY.
The element
many
is
of
time
is
a vital
matter in
duties.
Done
all.
at the right
;
moment, there
a blessing in them
delayed, they were as
well not done at
If
we
sleep through the
hour for duty, we
may
as well sleep on after
Waking then will not avail to accomthe hour. plish that which we were set to do. There are many applications of this princiWhatever we do for our friends, we must ple.
do when they need our help.
If
one
is
sick,
the time to show our affection and
our sym-
pathy
is
while the sickness continues, and not

is
after the friend

to pass
well again.
illness
is
If
we
allow him
through his
without showing
use,
him any
attention, there
no
when he
is
going about again, for us to wake up, and begin

to lavish kindness
it
upon him
he does not need
now, and
it
will
do him no good.
171
172
If
TIMELINESS IN DUTY.
one
of our friends is passing
through some
is
sore struggle with temptation, and

of being overcome, then
is
in
danger
the time to
come up
close
alongside of him, and put the strength
of our love
If
under his weakness to support him.

as well let
that.
we
fail
him then, we may almost

after
him go on alone altogether

what use
over?
is
Of
is
sympathy when the struggle

is
Of what use
help
has been fought through, and
when the battle won without us ?

;
Or, suppose the friend was not victorious
sup-
pose he failed
in
the battle,
failed
because no
one came
to
him
to help him,
because
we came
not with the sustaining strength of our sym-
pathy
suppose
that, left to
struggle unaided
with enemies or
difficulties or adversities,
he
was defeated, and sank down crushed and hopeless,
is
there any use in our hurrying up to

to proffer our assistance
?
him now
Is not the
?
time past when help could avail him
Can our
what he
sympathy now enable him

has lost
?
to retrieve
Can our
faithfulness to-day atone

?
for our unfaithfulness yesterday
Most
of us are in
some way the guardians
of
TIMELINESS IN DUTY.
other souls.
173
The time to fulfil our duty of guardianship is when the dangers are imminent.
There
is
no use for the look-out on the

vigilant only after the vessel
is
ship to
become
among
sentinel,
the rocks.
in
There
is
no use for the

and
the time of war, to arouse
begin to watch
when
field.
the
enemy has
keeper.^
stolen in
and captured the
Are you your
brother's
Are you
?
set to watch against danger to his soul
Are
you a parent, whose duty
it
is
to
guard your
own in ambush
children against the perils of sin that lurk

all
about them
Are you
a teacher,
with a class of young people intrusted to your

care, to shield
and
train
and keep
Are you
sister,
with brothers dear to you,
whom you
Are you
a
are
to protect
from temptation
brother, and have you sisters
tender and ex-
posed to danger, whose defender you should

be
}
Are you
over
?
a friend, and
is
there one beset
by
perils,
whom God
has set you as guide

or are you
or protector
Are you watching,

its
sleeping
is
Remember
that the time to watch
before the danger has done
deadly work.
1/4
TIMELINESS IN DUTY,
it
When^ through your negUgence,

and has destroyed the precious
almost as well sleep on.
so
faithfully will
has come,
life,
you may
Watching then ever

is
not undo the evil which
done.
In the preparation for duty or for struggle in
our personal
life,
the
same
principle applies.
There
is
a time for this preparation,

;
when
then,
it
can be made
and
at
if
it
is
not
made
it
cannot be made
dential
leading,
all.
It is a
rule of proviis
that
opportunity
always
given to every one to prepare for whatever

part he
is
to take in
life,
and for whatever
ex-
perience
he
us
is
ordained to meet.
The days
come
for
like
lift
to
linked
one to another, so that
simple faithfulness to-day always prepares us

the duty of to-morrow.
Or the days
are
steps on a stairway, each one meant to
our
feet,
and make us ready
for the next.
If
one only embraces and uses his opportuas
nities
will
they come to him, one by one, he
never be surprised by any sudden emerin

life,
gency
for
whether of
duty or of
trial,
which he
will
not be ready.
For example,
TIMELINESS IN DUTY.
before
life's
175
stern,
fierce
conflicts,
which put
manhood's strongest
fibre to the test,
we have
childhood and youth as seasons for calm preparation.

is fully
He
that rightly improves these seasons

life
ready for whatever

just because
may
bring.
for
It
is
these
opportunities
preparation
come
to us so quietly,
and with-
out announcement, not recognized by us at the
time as important, or as carrying in them any elements of destiny for

us, that so
many
fail
to
improve them.
The
set
school-boy does not see
what good
things
that
it
will
do him to know the simple

as
his
are
daily
tasks,
and
neglects
to learn
them.
Twenty, forty years
afterward, he fails in the position to which he

is
called,
because he slurred his boyhood
les-
sons in the quiet school-days long ago.
The
young apprentice takes no pains

sequently
to
perfect
himself in the trade he has chosen, and conis
only a third or fourth class work

life,
man
all
his
while diligence in youth would
have prepared him for highest excellence.
The
young professional man
dislikes the dry drudg-
ery that the early years bring to him, and neg-
176
lects
it,
TIMELINESS IN DUTY.
waiting until some great opportunity
lift
comes
tunity
to
him
at
into prominence.
The
fails
opporin
it,
comes
length,
but
he
because he has not improved the long series of

preparatory steps that came before.
On
the other hand, a school-boy does every
task faithfully.
He
never sHghts a lesson

;
he
goes thoroughly over every day's studies
he
does not see, any more than the other, of what

particular use these things will be to
him when
-.
he
is
a man, in active
is
life,
nor does he ask
his
only care
to
be faithful now in every duty.
Years
later
he rises to high places which he

filled
never could have

hood's tasks.
had he slurred his boyis
physician
suddenly called
to take charge of a critical case, requiring the
best skill in the world.
He
is
successful,
and
wins fame for himself, because
in the long, quiet
years of obscure practice he has been diligent.

If
he had not been
faithful in those years of

failed
routine work, he
must have
when the
great opportunity came.
He
could not have

at the
made the necessary preparation when suddenly

called to act.
moment
The
case could
TIMELINESS IN DUTY.
177
only be met by the instant use of knowledge
and
skill
already acquired and available.
It is a secret
worth knowing and remember-
ing, that the truest,

ble,
and indeed the only

life's
possiis
preparation for
duties
or
trials,
made by simple
brings.
fidelity in
whatever each day
day
squandered
anywhere
may
prove the dropped stitch from which the whole
web
will
begin to ravel.
One
lesson neglected
may prove
to have contamed the very knowlfar
edge for the want of which,

course, the student
let slip
along in the
may
first
fail.
One
opportunity
may be
the
step in a ladder leading

of
to
eminence or power, but no higher rounds

first
which can be gained, because the

taken.
was not
We
never know what
is
important, or
when we
are standing at the

life.
open doors of
insignifi-
great opportunities, in
The most
the
:
cant duty that offers
may be
first
if
lesson in
preparation for a noble mission

or neglect
it,
we
despise
we miss
the grand destiny, the
gate to which was open just for that one mo-
ment.
Indeed, every hour of
life
holds
the
keys of the next, and possibly of
many hours
1/8
TIMELINESS IN DUTY.
:
more
to fail of our duty in

to lose the
all life
any one
of them,
may be
through
most splendid opportunity
to the end.
of
So the times
and unawares
;
preparation
come
silently
and many neglect them, not

:
knowing what depends upon them

lected,
but neg-
and allowed to
slip
away, they can never

finds himself in
be regained.
The man who
the presence of a great duty or opportunity
which he cannot take up or accept, because he

is
not prepared for the

needful
it,
cannot then go back to
make
battle.
preparation.
The
soldier
cannot learn the
art of
war
in
the face of the
The
Christian cannot, in an unexpected
emergency
all
of temptation, gather in
spiritual power.
moment
in
is
needed
Not
to
be ready
advance for great duties or great needs,

fail.
to
The
lesson
is
important, and has infinite ap-
plications.
You
cannot go back to-day to do
the work you neglected to do yesterday.
You
burre-
cannot make preparation for
life
when the
den of
turn.
life is
on you.
Opportunities never
They must be taken on the wing,
or they
TIMELINESS IN DUTY.
cannot be taken at
every duty
;
179
a time for
all.
There
its
is
done then,
issues
:
and results
may be
lected,
it
infinite
and eternal
deferred or neg-
may never be worth
while to take
it
up
**
again.
Muffled and dumb, the hypocritic days,
And marching
single in an endless
in their
file,
Bring diadems or fagots
hands.
To
I,
each they offer
gifts after his will,
all.
Bread, kingdoms, stars, and heaven that holds them
my pleached garden, watched the pomp, Forgot my morning wishes, hastily

in
Took
a few herbs and apples, and the day

silent:
I,
Turned and departed
too
late,
Under her solemn
fillet
saw the scorn."
Many
of us in
our later years have in our

of
life,
hands only the poorest things
withafar
in
ered leaves, faded flowers, straws, and bits of

worthless
tinsel,
while
we can
see
their bright glory the kingdoms, diadems,
and
crowns which we have missed, which might

have been ours had we but taken them when
they were offered to
us.
Let the young learn

life
the lesson, and miss no chance that
brings^
l8o
TIMELINESS IN DUTY.
and refuse no blessing which the commonest

day presents,
It
in
whatever plainness of form.

dull,
may be
only a
dry
it
little
is
seed which
is
held out to you, but in
infolded a rare,
will
it
:
sweet
flower,
which some day

if
fill
your
room with
fragrance,
you accept
you can-
not have the flower then unless you take the
seed to-day.
CHAPTER
XVII.
THE OFFICE OF CONSOLER.

**
For she
is
kinder than
all
others are,
And weak
To
As
things, sad things, gather
where she dwells.
reach and taste her strength, and drink of her,

thirsty creatures of clear water-wells."
There
cially
are
some people who seem
to be spe-
anointed to the office of comforter and
consoler.
The sorrowing and

them
troubled are at-
tracted to
as steel filings to a magnet, or
as thirsty ones to a spring of water.

to their doors are
The
paths
worn by the passing
feet of
is
many weary
more
field
ones.
No
office
among men
sacred, or fuller of blessing; for in no other
can wider opportunity be found for renderIt
ing helpful service to humanity.

service, in an
was
to this
eminent degree, that Christ was

said of himself, that the Spirit
set apart.
He
had sent him "to heal the broken-hearted." His whole ministry was one of consolation to
i8i
82

The weary and
their burdens
;
the sorrowing.
the heartsore
came
to
him with
the penitent
;
crept to his feet with their confessions

ers sought his sympathy
:
mourn
and,
wherever he
went, he carried cheer, light, and inspiration.
No
one who came to him with a trouble went
away uncomforted.
His deep and ready sym-
pathy and his gentle, uplifting help made him

pre-eminently a consoler.
Those who would follow

and repeat
of
in their
in Christ's footsteps,
human measure
in
his ministry
love
to
and beneficence
this
world, must
strive
be sons of consolation.
There
'\^
always need for this sacred ministry.

ever one
Wher-
may
In
live,
there
is
is
no other human
experience that one

sorrow.
so sure of meeting as
other respects
men
differ,
in
race, in color, in worldly condition, in culture,
in degrees of refinement, in of
life,
customs and mod'es

all
but
in
one respect
are alike
all
have sorrow.
There are many languages spoken

and the traveller ofttimes finds
falls
on
the earth,
himself unable to understand the word that
upon
his ear
but there
is
one language that he
THE
finds the
officp:
of consoler.
183
same
in all zones, in all
conditions,
the language of grief.

tears telling of sadness.
Everywhere there are

There
is
no circle in
which there
no day
in
is
not
some heavy
heart.
We
pass
which we do not meet with those who
are oppressed with
some open
or secret grief.
An
old clergyman once said to a
company
of
students he was addressing, that they ought
never to conduct a religious service without
some word
their
of
comfort for the troubled, for
they would always have some troubled ones in

audience.
Wherever we
for
go,
we come
upon those who long
sympathy, and whose
hearts are crying out for comfort.
Therefore, those
who have
learned to comfort
others have found a ministry of great usefulness.

It
was the early prayer

so
of Mrs. Prentiss,
who has helped

ward,
"
many weary
pilgrims heaven-
Oh
For
that this heart, with grief so well acquainted,

rich
Might be a fountain,
all
and sweet and
full,
the weary that have fallen and fainted
In
life's
parched desert,
thirsty, sorrowful.
84
Thou Man of sorrows, teach my lips, that often Have told the sacred story of my woe, To speak of thee till stony griefs I soften, Till those that know thee not, learn thee to know."
Her prayer was answered

woman,
after her death,
it
for of this gifted
was
said with great
truthfulness, "
Hers was
in
an eminent degree
the blessing of them that were ready to perish.
Weary, overtaxed mothers, misunderstood
and unappreciated wives, servants, pale seamstresses, delicate
women
in
forced to live in an
brutality,
atmosphere of drunkenness and coarse
widows and orphans

over empty cradles,
the bitterness of their
bereavement, mothers with their tears dropping
to
thousands of such she
was a messenger from heaven."

such eulogium when one's work
is
To
receive
is
finished,
better than to have died amid the richest splen-
dors of wealth, or to have had the paeans of
fame sung over one's grave.
The anointing
to
the office of consoler
is
usually an anointing of tears.
Only those who

was thus
have learned in God's school of experience can
be the best comforters of others.
It

that Christ himself
185
was prepared
to be the great
Comforter.
It is
because on earth he was tried

are, that
in all points as
is
we
now
in
heaven he
touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

his divinity did not qualify
:
Even
pathy
him
for
sym-
he must learn by actual human expeis,
rience what sorrow
that he might be the

is
comforter of sorrow.
that
It
in the
same school
God
ordinarily trains his children for this
sacred
office.
He may
there
are
not take them through
bereavements (Christ did not suffer bereavements),

suffering
but
in
many other which hearts may be
kinds of
schooled.
Some
learn their lessons in early struggles with
adversity, or with temptation, or with the weak-
ness and sin of their
own
natures, or in disaptrials.
pointments, self-denials, and
Many who
trained
seem
rows
to
common
eyes to have escaped the sorin
of life,
have yet
many ways been
and
disciplined,
and their hearts chastened and
softened, and cleansed of the hardness and self-
ishness of nature;
so that
they are well pre-
pared tG understand the experiences of others

in struggle
and sorrow, and give true and wise
86

This
:
consolation.
is
one of the rich compenit, if
sations of trial
it
we
get out of
we endure
life's
Christianly, preparation for one of
most
sacred ministries.
As
to the
manner
in
which
this ministry of
consolation
may be
will
performed, but few suggesIf
tions can be made.

it,
the heart
is
ready for
no rules
be needed.
all
Genuine sympathy
is
the basis of
true and wise comfort.
We
must enter
into the
experiences
of
;
those to
whom we
would minister comfort

:
we must
us reverIf
understand their grief
this will
make
ent in the presence of their trouble.
we
could read the secret history of those about us,
who now
ofttimes
try our patience
by their
infelicities of
temper and disposition, we should
probably find in their lives sorrow and suffering
enough
to explain to us the infirmities
which so
mar
their character.
True sympathy draws us

It also gives
very close to the sufferer.
us that
thoughtfulness, and that delicacy of feeling and

touch, which
make
;
us gentle in
all
our treatis
ment
of grief
for
no other ministry
refine-
ment
of spirit so essential as for that of dealing

with pained or
i8;
wounded
hearts.
A wrong touch,
or a harsh word, or the quick flash of an eye,
may do
meant
irreparable harm, only opening afresh,

it
with new pain and torture, the wound

to
heal.
was
Hence, there
is
deep
signifi-
cance in the prophet's portraiture of Christ's

gentleness in dealing with crushed spirits
bruised reed shall he not break."
*'
:
He
never
caused needless pain to the bruised heart he
meant
rude
:
to
soothe.
No
his
touch of his was ever
no word of
was ever harsh.
We
need, in like manner, the most delicate gentle-
ness for the offices of comfort.
We
need also victorious

fit
faith,
as
well
as
gentleness, to
solation.
us for the ministry of con-
We
cannot give what we have not
ourselves to give.
How
can
strong faith in
hearts are
God and
in his
we communicate Word, if our own

t
full of
doubts and misgivings
How
there
t
can we kindle the lamps of hope and courage
and joy in the heart where
all
is
dark,
if
be no lamps shining in our

true comforter
'
own
breast
A
joy,
must know deep Christian
the joy that springs up amid sorrows, like a
88
sweet, fresh spring under the tides of the brack-
One woman wrote to another in deep "The shadow of death will not always you will emerge from its rest on your home obscurity into such a light as they who have
ish sea.
grief,
:
never sorrowed cannot know.
We
it
never know,
or begin to know, the great Heart that loves us

best,
till
we throw
ourselves upon
in the
hour
of our despair."
This writer herself knew the
joy which she foretold to her sister,
ing in the deep shadow.
now walkOne who had had

such comfort.
is
sorrow, but had never gotten out into the sunshine,
could
not
have
given
Bright, radiant, victorious faith
essential in
one who would give
real consolation.
One who
has not come as a conqueror through Christ

out of
affliction,
but
has
been crushed, and
still lies in
the dust of
defeat, cannot minister
comfort to others.
vanquished soldier can-
not inspire courage and hope in another
who
is
going out to
ourselves,
if
battle.
We
must be overcomers
others to overcome.
of
we would help
We
must be truly comforted
God,
if
we
would comfort others.

As
is
89
to the quality of
it
the comfort itself that

pity.
ministered,
should be more than
Mere
before.
pity alone leaves the heart
weaker than
Wise and
shall
true
comfort
must
give
something that
prove strength and inspi-
ration to the fainting spirit,

again.
of
It
and help
it
to rise
should be like the wine which angels

into the lips of the
mercy pour
wounded on
the fields of battle to revive them.

of comfort
is
The design
not merely to help the sorrowing
through their sorrow, but to help them to get
from their sorrow the blessing

to take
it
has for them,
from God the message
of love
which the
sorrow bears, and to come from the experience

stronger,
Christ's
purer,
more
radiant,
with
more
of
image glowing
in their face.
it
Wise and
really helpful comfort, while
is
touched by the friend's sorrow, and shares the

pain, yet strives to put
hope and strength into

hand,
the sad heart, that
recognizing God's
and submitting to
diction
it, it
may
yet take the bene-
which the dark-robed messenger brings.

life
In no experience of
do most persons need
wise friendship and firm guidance more than in
IQO

trouble.
all
their times of
There are dangerous
shoals skirting
the deeps of affliction, and
many
It is
frail
barks are wrecked in the darkness.
the office of the one
who would
For
give good
comfort, to pilot the sorrowing past the shoals

to the safe
and radiant shore.
this,
a firm
hand
is
needed as well as a tender heart.
CHAPTER
" Time was,
is
XVIII.
LIVING BY THE DAY.

past
:
thou canst not

:
it
recall.
Time
is,
thou hast
is is
employ the portion small. and may never

be.
Time future, Time present
not,
the only time for thee."
It
is
life's
largeness that most discourages
earnest and conscientious souls.
As men
think
deeply of
its
meaning and
responsibility, they
are apt to be
its
overwhelmed by the thought

It
of
vastness.
has manifold, almost
infinite,
relations toward
of
God and toward man.

has
its
Each
duties.
these
relations
life
binding
lived
Every individual
less
must be
amid count-
antagonisms, and in the face of countless

Battles
perils.
must be fought,
trials
encounhas a
tered,
and sorrows endured.

fulfil,
Every
life
divine mission to
out.
a plan of
God
is
to
work
Then
the brief earthly course
but the
beginning of an endless existence, whose im191
192
LIVING
BY THE DAY,
fidelity
mortal destinies
present
life.
hinge upon
at in
in
the
as
Looked
is
this
way,
a
in
whole, there
something almost appalling
the thought of our responsibility in living.
Many
aspect,
a person
it
who
thinks
of
life
in
this
and sees
in its wholeness,
has not the
courage to hope for success and victory, but

stands staggered, well-nigh
threshold.
"
I
paralyzed, on
all
the
cannot possibly meet
these
responsibilities,
I
I
and perform end

if
all
these duties.
:
can but
try at
fail
in the
try
why should
a heart
all,
}
only to suffer the shame and pain
of defeat
"
Despair comes to
many
is
when either duty or sorrow or danger

at in the aggregate.
looked
But this
It
is
not the
way we should view

all
life.
does not come to us

it
in
one piece.
We
do not get
even
in years, but only in days,
day by day.
We
look
on before
us,
and as
we count up the long

struggles,
tain
years with their duties,

is
;
and
trials,
the bulk
like a
moun-
which no mortal can carry
but we really
never have more than one

or one day's
day's battles to fight,
work
to do, or
one day's burdens
LIVING
to bear, or
BY THE DAY.
193
in any-
one day's sorrow to endure,
one day.
"
I
think not of to-morrow,

Its trial or its task,
But
still
with childlike spirit

ask.
For present mercies
With each returning morning

I
cast old things away.
Life's
journey
prayer
lies
before
me
My
It is
is
for to-day."
wonderfid
how
his
the Bible gives emphasis

Ufe.
to this
way
of
viewing
When
for forty
years
God
fed
chosen people with bread
from heaven, he never gave them, except on

the
morning before the sabbath, more than
one day's portion at a time.
He
positively forsuffice
bade them gathering more than would

for the
day,
and
if
they should violate his

daily
command, what they gathered over the

portion
would become
corrupt.
Thus
early
God began
to teach his people to live only
by
the
the day, and trust him for to-morrow.
At
close of the forty years, the promise given to
one
of the tribes was,
"
As
thy days, so shall
194
LIVING
BY THE
DAY.
thy strength be."

in advance,
Strength was not promised

for all
life,
enough
day,
or even for a
year, or for a month,
but
when
the promise was,

it
that
for
each
came with
griefs,
its
own
needs, duties, battles,
and
enough
in-
strength would be given.

creased,
As
the burden
more strength would be imparted.
As
the night grew darker, the lamps would shine

out
more
is,
brightly.
The important thought

is
here
that strength
not emptied into our

for years to come,
hearts in bulk,
a supply
but
is
kept in reserve, and given day by day,
just as the day's needs require.

"
Oh
ask not thou,
How
shall
?
bear
The burden
Its evil,
of to-morrow
Sufficient for to-day, its care,
and
its
sorrow
God
imparteth by the
way
Strength sufficient for the day."
When
emphasis
said,
**
Christ
to the
came,
he
gave
of
still
further
same method
for the
living.
;
He
Be not anxious
will
morrow
for the
morrow
be anxious for
is
itself.
Sufficient
unto the day
the evil thereof."
He
would
LIVING
have us fence
off
BY THE DAY,
T95
the days by themselves, and

to-
never look over the fence to think about
morrow's cares.
The thought
own
is,
that
each
day
is,
in
It
a certain sense, a complete
life
by
itself.
has
its
duties, its
its
own
trials,
its
own burdens, and

to
fill
own
needs.
It
has
full
enough
day.
of
its
heart and hands for the one

live its life well,
We
cannot
and use any
strength
outside
for
of
itself.
The very
one day
best
we can do
any day, for the perfecting

is
of our life as a whole,

well.
to live the
We
should put
skill
all
our thought and
energy and
into
the
duty of each day,
wasting no strength, either in grieving over

yesterday's failures, or in anxiety about to-mor-
row's responsibilities.
"
Bear the burden of the present,

Let the morrow bear
If
its
own
the
morning sky be pleasant,

the
Why
coming night bemoan

any sorrow,
Grief, nor pain, nor
Rends thy heart
He
to-day and
Him unknown He to-morrow

to
Grace
sufficient gives
His own."
196
LIVING
BY THE
DAY.
to-day's duty,
Charles Kingsley says,

fight
"Do
to-day's temptation,
distract
and do not weaken

looking forward
see,
and
yourself by
to
things which you cannot
and could not
understand
if
you saw them."

also, in
Our Lord,
the form of prayer which

this lesson of liv-
he gave his disciples, taught

ing by the day.
for bread for
There he has
*'
told us to ask
this
one day only.
Give us
day
our daily bread."

that
Here, again, he teaches us
we have
to
do only with the present day.
We
for
do not need to-morrow's bread now: when

it,
we need
it,
it
will
it.
be soon enough to ask God

It
is
and get
the
manna
all
lesson over
again,
trust
God
him
is
caring for us, and

of
we
are
to
for the supply

:
our wants as
they press upon us

tent to have only
we
are to trust him, conin
enough
fill
hand
for the day.
"
Why
should'st thou
to-day with sorrow
About to-morrow,
My
One watches
Doubt not
heart
all
.?
with care most true
that
He
will give thee, too,
Thy
part
"
LIVING
If
BY THE DAY,
197
we can
but learn to live thus by the day,
without anxiety about the future, the burden

will not
be so crushing.
life in
We
have nothing to
bulk
trials
do with
the aggregate,
that great
and
of duties, responsibilities, struggles,
that belong to a course
of years.
We
really
have nothing to do even with the nearest of the

days before
ness
is
us,
to-morrow.
little
Our
sole busi-
with the one
day now passing.

:
And
its
burdens
will
till
not crush us
we can
easily carry
them
the sun goes down.

:
We
can get along for one short day
it is
the projec-
tion of life into the long future that
dismays
life
and appals and simple.

"
us.
So the lesson makes
easy
One day
at a time.
Every heart that aches
Knows
But
it's
only too well
how
long that can seem

spirit breaks,
never to-day which the
It's
the darkened future, without a gleam.
One day
at a time.
burden too great

:
To
be borne for two can be borne for one
Who
knows what
will enter
to-morrow's gate
all
While yet we are speaking,
may be
done.
198
LIVING
One day
at a time.
its
BY THE DAY.
But a single day,
whatever
its
Whatever
load,
length
And
there's a bit of precious Scripture to say,

to
That according
each shall be our strength."
But
is
there to be no forethought
is
:
The
best
forethought for to-morrow

done.
It
is
to-day's duty well
so
in to
school
one lesson well
learned leads up
the next,
and makes
it
easy
and each day's lessons mastered through

It is
all
the years, give scholarship in the end.

so in
all
life
if
to-day
is
well lived,
if
its
responsibilities are promptly
and wisely met,
to-morrow
will
come
bright with
new
hopes.
God who
gives guidance, also, by the day.
One
only a
is
carries a lantern at night does not see the

;
whole path home
the lantern lights

;
single step in advance
but,
when
is
that step
taken, another
until the
is
thereby lighted, and so on
end
of the
journey
reached.
It is
thus that
God
lights
of
our way.
it
He
does not
:
show us the whole

makes one step
that,
when we
set out
he
plain,
and then, when we take
another and then another.
LIVING
BY THE DAY.
199
" If thou hast yesterday thy duty done,
And
thereby cleared firm footing for to-day,

sun,
Whatever clouds may dark to-morrow's
Thou
shalt not miss thy solitary way."
CHAPTER
XIX.
HABITS IN RELIGIOUS LIFE.

"
Forenoon and afternoon and night
And
afternoon and night

repeats
forenoon forenoon and what

;
The empty song

Yea, that
is life
:
itself.
No more ?
make
this
forenoon sublime,
This afternoon a psalm,
this night a prayer,

is
And
time
is
conquered, and thy crown
won."
E. R. Sill.
Some
conscientious people are

life
anxious
be-
cause their religious
has become such a
matter of habit, that they are not conscious of
any voluntary
efforts to live right.
They
feel
that their acts and services cannot be pleasing

to
God when rendered without any conscious They are oppressed with desire to honor him.
the fear that their comfortable religion
is
really
only formality.
They pray
at
certain hours,
and go
to
church at certain times, and they go

duties,
through regular routines of
and they
seem
to
be good and to do good by routine rather
HABITS LV RELIGIOUS
than from the heart.
their
LIFE.
201
of
The methodicalness
seems
to
piety
frightens
it
:
them when they think

them, that,
in
seriously about
all
it
their acts
of
devotion
and
service, there
should be a spontaneous feeling,
ever fresh
and sweet.
little reflection will
show us that such anxis
iety is groundless.
All true greatness

It
is
un-
conscious of
itself.
so of beauty.
is
The
sweetest
feature
in
childhood
the
is
its
uncon-
sciousness.
Whenever
little girl
begins to
is
be conscious that she

greatly marred.
is
pretty, her beauty

skill
The
highest
in
any
art
that which
is
not conscious of
skill.
Poets
do their best work when they are conscious of
no
effort.
They
write, as
it
were, by natural
Artists reach
inspiration, just as a bird sings.
their highest
achievements when they are conexertion.
scious of
making no great
A musician
brings the sweetest strains from his instrument
when he
is
not conscious of trying to do any
thing great.
art is that in
The
highest attainment in any

art is forgotten.
which the
effort
The
appearance of
mars any performance.
202
HABITS IN RELIGIOUS
LIFE.
All truly great things are done easily and unconsciously.
The
to
principle
is
just as true in its application
Christian
life.
When
a
one
is
conscious of
his spiritual graces, the

is
beauty
of these graces
marred.
When
man knows
that
he
is
humble, his humility vanishes.

to
When
one has
make
efforts to
be generous, patient, or un-
selfish,
he has yet much to learn about these
elements.
The
a
highest
reach
in
Christian
character brings the disciple back to the simplicity
of
little
child,
when he
is
utterly
unconscious of the splendor of his character in
Heaven's
This
is
sight.
the culmination, but
it
takes
many
years ofttimes to attain to such completeness.
Take
piano-playing.
You
listen
entranced to
fly
the skilful performer.

keys, and
His fingers
over the
wander over the chords, up and down
the octaves, and the music thrills you.

are utterly
it
You
:
amazed
effort
at the skill
he exhibits
it
yet
as
seems no
to
him
he does
all
easily as the bird sings its
morning song
;
in the
grove.
This
is
the ultimate of his art
but
it
HABITS IN RELIGIOUS
was not always
so.
LIFE.
203
Back
of
what you now see

of weary, toil-
and hear, He long, patient years
some
tice,
learning,
and tedious, exhausting practo
when he had
for that.
pick out each separate
note on the key-board, then pass to the next,
and search
So you see a Christian who

or has great meekness.
is
very patient,
He
is
not easily pro-
voked.
When
he
is
insulted, his face

is
grows a
no anger
little pale,
but there
;
no outburst
clouds his brow

his lips
;
no passionate word escapes

spirit
or,
;
he rules his own

is
he speaks the
soft answer, or
silent
he has wondrous
Christian joy.
all
He
has sorrows, but amid them
his heart rejoices.
His
life
is
**
song
in
the night," or he has attained rare, almost unearthly, spirituality.
He
seem.s to have actual
converse with heaven.

clings to him.
celestial brightness
if
He
walks the earth as

;
he
were a visitant from another world

life
is
his daily
a prayer, breathing out a silent, unconof
scious influence
heavenliness, as
a sweet
air
;
flower pours out fragrance on the

or he lives a Christian
life
common
of superior noble-
204
ness.
HABITS IN RELIGIOUS
LIFE,
ii
He
displays the graces of the spirit
unusual measure.
He
manifests Christ's hid
den
life
wherever he goes.
His
life
is
one
ol
great
usefulness, as, with
beautiful
unselfish-
ness, he ministers to the good of others.
His
heart
his
is
touched by every cry
of distress,
and
hand goes
;
out to give relief to all suffering

all
and need
and
this costs
no
effort.
It ap-
pears easy and natural for him to be just such
a Christian, and he seems unconscious of any
pre-eminent attainments.
Looking
at
such characters and
lives,
many
feel discouraged.
They
;
say, "
can never be
they take an-
such a Christian
other view of
or
it,
"
or perhaps
say,
*'
and
It
costs these
:
men
it is
women
effort
nothing to
be good Christians
easy and natural to them.
They have
If
to
make
no
to be true,
meek,
gentle, unselfish, or
good-tempered and sweet-spirited.
they had
;
my
quick, fiery nature, they could not be so

I
if
they were made of tinder, as
am, they would
not be able so to rule their spirits under keen

provocation
;
if
they had
my
strong feelings,
they could not be joyful when sorrow sweeps
HABITS IX RELIGIOUS
over them
;
LIFE.
205
if
they had
all
my
peculiarities of
constitution,
all
circumstance,
and
environment,
my No
trials
and
difficulties,
they could not be
such lovely, full-rounded Christians."

doubt, there
is
something
is
in
temperament
than
and constitution, but there

of us claim.
It is
far less
many
very convenient to have such
a scapegoat on which to pile the responsibility

for
bad temper and execrable

is
living,
but the
life.
difference usually
It is just as in
in the culture of the
the case of the pianist.
You
spirit,
see the matured character, the disciplined the trained

perfectness,
life
;
and you marvel
at the ease, the
the
unconsciousness, with which

;
these beautiful things are done
but you
know
nothing of the years that

results, in
lie
back of these
efforts,
which there were exertions,
struggles,
and
failures,
amid which, a thousand

and
spirits
times, hearts
in despair.
grew
faint,
sank almost
in the
What we admire and envy
finely cultured character, is not the spontaneity
of unschooled nature, but the result of years
and years
of patient
and painful
discipline,
by
which a disposition, perhaps coarse and rude
206
HABITS IN RELIGIOUS
LIFE.
refine-
and impetuous, has been trained into

ment, gentleness, and calm peace.
The tendency
is
of all faithful
and true living
toward the confirmation and solidifying of
character.
We
grow always
efforts.
in
the direction
of our habits
and
He
that continually
struggles to be unselfish, will have

flict
many
a con-
and many a defeat
but at length he will
learn to exercise an unselfish spirit without any

exertion.
The wheels have run
so long and so
often in one track, that they have cut
deep
fall
grooves for themselves, into which they

as
if
by nature.
Yet
this does not take
away
from the moral character

Indeed,
it
of the acts themselves.
shows, that, instead of doing certain
specific things in detail to please

life
God, the whole
has become bent, trained, and solidified into

It
conformity with right.

of
shows, that, instead
piecemeal obedience, holy principles have

into the very fibre
less
become wrought
of the soul.
and quality
There may be
minute acts
feeling, less
emotion, less consciousness of trying to please
God
in the
of life
but the charholi-
acter itself
has taken on the stamp of
HABITS IN RELIGIOUS
ness,
LIFE.
20/
and the natural motions
of the soul
have
been trained into the grooves of righteousness.

Yielding habitually to the monitions of the
Spirit, the life has
been transformed more and

of
more
into the
image
Christ,
until
uncon-
sciously,
and without
effort,
the Christian does
the things that please God.
This
is
the ultimate of Christian culture.
It
has in the highest and truest
sense become
"second nature"
things,
to
do
right
and beautiful
and not even
to stop to think of
to
them
as right
and beautiful, or
weigh their moral
character.
Who
life
is
does not
know some
quiet
to
Christian
that
makes no pretension
greatness, that
tiring,
simple, humble, modest, re-
and yet performs a blessed ministry,

all
breathing fragrance and joy
about
itself.'*
The more we watch

we
the seeds which grow and
bring forth fruit in this world, the more shall

learn that they are oftenest those that are
unconsciously dropped,
not that his hand
life.
when
the sower
knows
is
scattering golden grains of
When we
try to do
of
it.
something great or
fine,
nothing comes
God seems
to blight
208
HABITS IN RELIGIOUS
we do with
LIFE.
:
the things
large intent
then,
when
we do some
simple thing, without pretentious
purpose, or any thought of excellence or fame,
he makes the results immortal.
Surely no one
will say that these beautiful things possess
no
moral quality, because they are wrought unconsciously, or
through force of long habit.

is
A
in
ripe
Christian character
all
simply a
life
which
Christian virtues and graces have
become
fixed
and
solidified into
It
permanence
as
established habits.
right,
costs no struggle to do
because what has been done so long,

of grace in the heart, has
under the influence
become
bird
part of the regenerated nature.
The
It
sings not to be heard, but because the

is
song
in its heart,
and must be expressed.
sings just as sweetly in the depths of the wood,
with no ear to
oughfare.
listen, as
by the crowded thor-
Beethoven did not sing for fame,
but to give utterance to the glorious music

that filled his soul.
The
face of
Moses did not
shine to convince the people of his holiness,
but because he had dwelt so long in the pres-
ence of God that
it
could not but shine.
Tru-
HABITS IN RELIGIOUS
est,
LIFE.
out
of
209
a
full
it
ripest
Christian
life
flows
heart,
heart so
filled
with Christ that
requires no effort to live well, and to scatter
the sweetness of grace and love.

It
must be remembered, however, that

in living
all
goodness
in
begins
first in
obeying
rules,
keeping commandments.
Mozart and Men-
delssohn began with running scales and striking chords,
and with painful finger-exercises.
The
noblest Christian began with the simplest
obediences.
The way
to
become
skilful is to
do things over and over, until we can do them

perfectly,
and without thought or
effort.
is
The
to
way
our
to
become
able to do great things,
do
little
things with endless repetition, and
with increasing dexterity and carefulness.
The
way
is
to
grow
into Christlikeness of character,

in
to
watch ourselves
the minutest things of
thought and word and
act, until
our powers are
trained to go almost without watching in the

lines
of
moral right and

prayerful,
holy beauty.
To
become
we must
It
learn to pray by the

is
clock, at fixed times.
fine
ideal talk to
say that our devotions should be like the bird's
210
HABITS IN RELIGIOUS
LIFE,
songs, warbling out anywhere, and at any time,
with sweet unrestraint
but in plain truth, to

to prayat
all.
depend upon such impulses as guides

ing,
would soon lead

for our
to
no praying
life
;
This may do
heavenly
but
we have
do,
not gotten into heaven yet, and until
we
we
need to pray by
habit.
So
of all religious
life.
We
can only grow into patience by being as

as
patient
we
can, daily
and hourly, and
in
smallest matters, ever learning to be
more and
more patient
until
we reach
the highest possi-
ble culture in that line.
We
can only become
unselfish
by practising unselfishness wherever

opportunity, until
of
we have an
into
our
life
grows
the
permanent beauty
unselfishness.
We
can only grow better by striving ever to be

than we already
are,
better
and by climbing
step by step toward the radiant heights of excellence.

*'
We
become better than we

it is
are by
doing better than

than
it
in our heart to do, better
is
yet our
new nature
to do.
is
The
faith-
quickest
ful
way
to outgrow rule,
to
make
use of rule.
The melted
iron can dispense

in
with the mould
by having been run
the
HABITS IN RELIGIOUS
mould.
letters in
LIFE.
to
211
The more
pains
we take
make
the
our copy-book like those at the top
of the page, the sooner
out any copy-book.
we can get along withThe element of the formal

the threshold over which
and the mechanical
is
we
step forward to any
new
acquisition."
" Slowly fashioned, link by link,
Slowly waxing strong,

'Till the spirit
never shrink.
Save from touch of wrong.
Holy habits are thy
wêalth.
Golden, pleasant chains,
Passing earth's prime blessing, health,

Endless, priceless gains.
Holy habits are thy
joy.
Wisdom's pleasant ways.

Yielding good without alloy.
Lengthening, too, thy days."
Thus our
test of all
daily habits carry in
them the buds
and prophecies of our future character.

moral
not,
life
is
in its tendencies.
The The
?
question
but,
is
What
point have you attained
Which way
are you
tending
In what
212
HABITS IN RELIGIOUS
is
LIFE,
direction
your growth
Is
your character
compacting toward patience, gentleness, truth,

love? or toward impatience, hardness, falsehood,
and selfishness
spiritual habits
What
is
the
trend
of
your
We
grow always
in the direc-
tion of our daily living.
The powers we
use
develop continually into greater strength.

graces
The
we
its
cultivate
come out more and more
clearly in
our character.
A
to
fly
bird that would
not use
that
it
wings would soon have no wings
could use.
Made
soar above
the
earth as our souls are, to
toward God and
heaven,
if
we only
life
grovel in the dust, and do
not use our wings,
we
lose
power
to
soar,
and
our whole
if
grows toward earthliness.
But
walk
the
we
train ourselves to look upward, to
erect,
to
gather
our
soul's
life,
food
from
branches of the tree of

will
our whole being
grow toward
spirituality
and heavenliness.
CHAPTER
"
XX.
THE POWER OF THE TONGUE.

Words
are mighty, words are living
Serpents with their venomed stings,
Or
bright angels crowding round us.

Iieaven's light
its
With
upon
their
wings
Every word has
own
spirit,
;
True or
false, that
never dies
lips
Every word man's
have uttered,
Lives on record in the skies."
"
erb,
Death and
"are
in
life,"
says the wise man's prov-
the power of the tongue."
Words
seem
Httle things, so fleeting

it
and evanescent,
that apparently
sort they are.
cannot matter much of what

are so easily spoken, that
They
we
forget what power they have to give pleas-
ure or pain.
They seem
so swiftly
gone after
and to
they have passed the door of our
lips,
have vanished so
utterly, that
at
all,
we
forget they
do not really go away

like
but linger, either
barbed arrows in the heart where they
214
struck, or, like fragrant flowers, distilling per-
fume.
They seem
to us, as
we
carelessly speak
them, to be insignificant, and powerless for
good or
as they
fair
ill
and we do not stop to think,
that,
fly,
they either tear down or build up
fabrics of joy
and peace
speak.
in
the souls of
those to
whom we
There have been

like
words quietly spoken, which have broken
the lightning-flash, bearing sad desolation on

their blighting wings,
repair.
which years could not
On
the other hand, there have been
simple words which, treasured in memory, have
hung
like bright stars of joy
and cheer
in long,
dark nights of sorrow and
trial.
The tongue's power

calculable.
it
to do
good
is
simply
in;
It
can impart valuable knowledge

will
can speak words that

;
shine like lamps in
darkened hearts
it
can pronounce kindly sen-
tences that will comfort sorrow, or cheer de-
spondency
it
can breathe thoughts that will
arouse, inspire, and quicken heedless souls, and
even whisper the divine secret

energy to
spirits that are dead.
if
of
life-giving
could do with our tongues,
What good we we would use
THE POWER OE THE TONGUE.

them
to the full limit of their
215
power
for good,
no one can compute.

do not
lie
And
these opportunities
alone in formal speech, as in the ser-
mon
talk,
or the lesson, or in the occasional serious
but they come in
all
conversation, even in
the most casual greeting on the street.

"
A kindly
To
only
word and a tender
tone,
God
lift
is
their virtue
known
They can
They can
from the dust the abject head,

;
turn a foe to a friend instead
The
heart close-barred with passion and pride

its
Will fling at their knock
portal wide
And
the hate that blights, and the scorn that sears,
Will melt in the fountain of childlike tears.
What ice-bound barriers have been What rivers of love been stirred, By a word in kindness spoken,
By
only a gentle word."
broken,
But are these

ized
fine possibilities of
}
speech
real-
by most people
Is the daily talk,
even of
of blessit
fairly
good men and women, a ministry
ing and good to those on whose ears
falls
What
is
the staple of conversation

}
among
aver-
age Christians
Let us
listen
for a day,
and
2l6

careful note of
all
?
make
of
we
it is
worth recording
hear. How much How many sentences
are
spiritually
helpful,
calculated
to
kindle
?
higher aspirations, or start upward impulses
How much
that
of
it
is
utterly empty,
mere
no
chaff,
feeds no
heart-hunger,
?
kindles
joy,
is
helps no one to live better
How much
careless scandal, unjust and injurious criticism

of the absent
?
How much
is
hypocritical and
insincere
It is startling to
think what Christian converit
sation might be, of what
ought to be, and
then of what
for
it
is.
Why
should such a power
good be wasted, or
far
worse than wasted
Why
should our Christian development be
re-
tarded by the misuse of the marvellous gift of
speech
It
were
far better that
one were born
dumb
use
it
than that, having a tongue, one should

to scatter evil
and sorrow, or to sow the
seeds of bitterness and pain.
Our Lord
;
said
we must
if
give account of evêry idle word
and,
for the idle words,
how much more

injure, or fall
for the
words that stain and
as a de!
structive blight into other hearts and lives

When we
to
2T7
give ourselves to Christ,

:
we ought
It
give
him our tongues
when we
are regener-
ated, our
tongues ought to be regenerated.

significance,
that,
was not without
when the
of Pente
Holy Ghost came down on the day
cost, the manifestation was in ''tongues like as
of fire."
One
of the first results, too, of this
heavenly baptism was that the disciples spoke

with other tongues.
It
is
not a mere fanciful

all
interpretation that sees in
this
an intimation
that true conversation transforms the speech,
and that a Christian should speak with a new

Christian tongue.
There are many suggestions For example
in
the Scrip-
tures as to the kind of words a Christian tongue
should speak.
*'
:
Let no corrupt
communication proceed out

that
it
of
your mouth, but
which
is
good to the use of edifying, that
may
minister grace unto the hearers."
Two
essential features of Christian speech are here
touched upon.
One
ever
is
is
purity
no
corrupt
word
should
yet
fall
from
consecrated
in
tongue,
there
much impurity
the
speech of some professing Christians.
Filthy
2l8
Stories

are
told,
and there are
vile allusions
and innuendoes which
stain the lips that utter
them and the heart

snow.
of
him who
hears.
Chris-
tian conversation should be clean
and white as
in
Nothing should be spoken
any com
the pres-
pany which could not be spoken

ence of
the
in
most refined
ladies.
}
Will
our
every-day speech stand this test

quality indicated in this quotation
The
is is
other
edification
and the imparting
of
grace.
Purity
only
negative, that which does not stain and soil
but more
is
required.
is
No
sentence should be
spoken which
not good for edifying, which
does not minister grace.
Every word should

up character,
be
fitted
in
some way
to build
and add
to its beauty.
The
geologist will take
you
sea,
to what was once the shore of an ancient
and show you the marks made by the

on the
pat-
ter of the raindrops

lines left
soft sand, or the
by the wash
of the waves.
fell
leaf
fluttered
down from
its
a tree, and
there, im-
printing
delicate figure.
Ages have passed

the wash of the
since that time, but every trace remains as perfect as
when
it
was
first
made

surf,
2ig
the indentations
made by the
pattering
raindrops, the minutest lines, the leaf's skeleton,
there
of
they are, preserved through milyears.
lenniums
So
it
is
that words
fall
upon
human
is
heart.
idle
Our
gentle
the
poet's
thought
sings,
no
fancy that
song
he
he
will
find again long,
long afterward,
uttered,
fall
in the heart of his friend.
Words
and are forgotten
as their echoes die away, but

:
they leave their mark
they either beautify or

life
mar
they either
it
;
make the
brighter, or they
sully
they either build up, or they tear

before was builded.
down what
A
all
warm
breath
upon the mystic frost-work on the window-pane

on a winter's morning causes
io vanish.
the splendor
So,
before the breath of
impure
words, the soul's glory melts into ruin.
The
Christian's speech should always edify, and give
grace
yet on
how many
lips,
now
garrulous
with flippant words, would this test lay the

finger of silence
!
This does not imply that only grave and
solemn words may be spoken.
There
is
noth-
ing gloomy about the religion of Christ.
You
220
THE POWER OF THE TONGUE,

own
conversa'
look in vain through our Lord's

tion for
one gloomy sentence: he scattered only
sunshine.
But
all
his
words were
fitted to
be
gift
helpful words.
He
sought to leave some
or blessing with every one he met.
He
spoke
words that made the careless thoughtful, that

kindled hope in despairing souls, that
left lights
burning where
all
was dark before, that com-
forted the sorrowing, and cheered the despairing.
For every one he met, he had

;
some
message
yet there was no cant in his speech.
He
his
did not go about with a sad face, uttering
messages
in
sanctimonious tone and phrase:

life,
his speech, like all his
was sunny.
He
is
to be our model.
The
:
affectation of
it
devoutness never ministers grace

catures religion.
only
cari-
We
meet.
are not to
fill
our speech
with solemn
every one
hearts,
phrases,
and deal them out to
we
Yet with Christ
in our
we
are to seek to impart something of
Christ to every one with
whom we
of
converse.
There are a thousand ways
giving help.
There are times when humor ministers grace,
when the
truest Christian help for a
man
is
to

make him
of
221
laugh.
Jives.
Infinite are the necessities
human
Our
to
feeling toward others
is
ever to be a strong desire to
do them good.
We
are
have an errand
each one with
whom we
we may
in
permitted to hold even
the briefest and

it
is,
most casual conversation.

not
What
know
will
but,
if
the desire be in our heart,
God
way.
use us to minister blessing

for
some
are
Opportunities
such
ministry
occurring continually.
ing,
In a morning's
heart and so
greet-
we may put
into
so
much
the
much
few
Christ
phrase and tone as to make our

all
neighbor happier
day.
In
the
moments' conversation by the wayside, or during

the
formal
call,
or in
the
midst of the
day's
heat and
lift
strife,
we may drop the word
that will
a burden, or strengthen a faint-
ing heart, or inspire a

ing of danger.
new
hope, or give warn-
We
should certainly not be

trifles.
always flippant, talking only of

are
ful
There
some who never say a

word.
serious or thought-
We
may never
we
see our friend again,
and any passing conversation with him

be the
last that
may
shall ever have.
We
should
222
not

fail,
then, even in our briefest and idlest
talk, to let fall at least

ful
one inspiring and helpa blessing to
sentence, which
may prove
the one
"
who
listens to us.
Only one
But
it
little
word,
stirred the depths of a living heart

life,
And
With
there through the years and the changes of

its
blessing and glory,
its
darkness and
strife,
The soul of that little word And nevermore depart."
shall abide,
So we may leave blessings

our way.
love,
at every step of
Our words
in
season, throbbing with

of silent prayer,
and wafted by the breath
shall be medicine to every heart into which any
simplest sentence of our speech
may
fall.
CHAPTER
XXI.
THE HOME CONVERSATION.

*'
The angry word suppressed,
the taunting thought,

strife
life
;
Subduing and subdued, the petty
Which
clouds the color of domestic

all
The
sober comfort,
the peace which springs

little
From
the large aggregate of
things,
Hannah Morr
On
these small cares of daughter, wife, or friend,
The almost
sacred joys of
home depend."
Few
than
to
its
things are
more important
thought
in a
home
conversation, yet there are few things

less deliberate
is
which
given.
We
take great pains to have

nished.
our house well furcarpets
We
select our
and pictures
with the utmost care.

school that they
We
send our children to

intelligent.
may become
We
con-
strive to bring into our
homes the
best
is
ditions
of
happiness.
But how often

left
the
speech of the household

undisciplined
}
untrained
and
323
224
our tongues,
The good we might do in our homes with if we would use them to the limit
and helpfulness,
it is
of their capacity of cheer
simply impossible to
state.
That
in
most homes
the best possible results from the gift of speech

are not attained,
is
very evident.
Why
should
much power for blessing be wasted } Especially why should we ever pervert these gifts,
so
and use our tongues
to
do
evil, to
}
give pain, to
scatter seeds of bitterness
It is
a sad thing
when
far to
gift of
it
a child
is
born
dumb
but
it
were better
be born dumb, and never to have the

speech, than, having that
gift, to
employ
in
speaking only sharp, unloving, or angry
words.
While
words
in
all
places
and
at
all
times our
full
shall
be well chosen, and should be
of the pure
and gentle
spirit of
Christ, there
are
many
reasons
why
the
home
conversation,
pre-eminently, should be loving.

place for
Home
:
is
the
warmth and tenderness
it
should be
made the brightest and sweetest spot on earth to those who dwell within its walls. We should
all
carry there our very best moods, tempers,

and dispositions.
should
Especially
225
by our speech
we seek to con nbute to the enrichment home life, help g to make it elevatingand refining, and in ev ry way ennobling in its
of the
influence.
Home
should inspire every tongue

is
to speak its
most loving words, yet there
in
many
In
families a great dearth of kind speech.

cases, there
;
some
is
no conversation at
all
worthy of the name
there are no affectionate
greetings in the morning, or hearty good-nights

at parting
when the evening

;
closes
the meals
fire-
are eaten in silence
there are no bright
side chats over the events
and incidents
of the
day.
stranger might mistake the
home
for a
deaf-and-dumb institution, or for a hotel where

strangers were together only for a passing season.
In
other cases
it
were even better
if
silence did reign, for there are words of miser-
able strife and shameful quarrelling heard from
day to day
husband and
wife,
who vowed
at
the marriage-altar to cherish the one the other

until death,
keep up an incessant petty
strife
of
words
parents,
who
are
commanded
in
the
to
Holy Word not
to provoke their children
226
wrath, lest they be discouraged, but to bring
them up
in the
nurture of the Lord, scarcely
ever speak to them gently and in tenderness.
They seem
to
imagine that they are not govern-
ing their children, unless they are perpetually

scolding them.
They
smallest
to
fly into
a passion against
them
their
at
the
irritation.
They
issue
commands
them
in
words and tones
which would better
suit the despot of a petty
savage tribe than the head of a Christian household.

It is
not strange, that, under such "nur-
ture," the children, instead of dwelling together

in unity, with loving speech, only
wrangle and
quarrel,
speaking only bitter words in their
intercourse with one another.
That there are

it is
many homes
That prayer
of just this type,

is
idle to deny. in
offered
morning and evening
some
of these families, only

;
makes the truth

for the
the sadder
of a
for
it
is
mockery
members
household to
rise together
from their knees
after
morning devotion, only

and
bitterness.
to begin another
day
of strife
Nothing
carefully
in the
home
life
needs to be more
watched and more diligently cultivated

than
the
22/
conversation
spirit of love.
it
should be imbued
bitter
with the
No
word should
ever be spoken.
"
The
ill-timed truth
we might have
it
kept,
.^
Who
Who
The
ger
knows how sharp
pierced and stung
The word we had not sense to say,

knows how grandly
it
had rung?
"
talk of
husband and
wife, in their inter-
course together, should always be tender.

in
An-
word, or even in tone, should never be

;
suffered
chiding and fault-finding should never
be permitted to mar the sacredness of their speech

;
the warmth and tenderness of their
hearts should flow out in every

utter the one to the other
;
word that they
as parents, too, in
their intercourse with their children, they should
never speak, save

ness.
It
is
in
words
of Christ-like gentleto
a fatal mistake
suppose that
children's lives can
grow up
what
into beauty in an
atmosphere
of strife.
Harsh, angry words are

frosts are to the
to their sensitive souls
delicate flowers.
To
is
bring them up in the nurto bring
ture of the Lord,
them up
as Christ
228
THE HOME CONVERSATION'.

;
himself would do
and surely that would be with
infinite tenderness.
The
blessed influence of
loving speech, day after day and
month
:
after
like
month,
it
is
impossible to estimate
it
is
the falling of
warm
spring sunshine and rain

of char-
on the garden.
Beauty and sweetness
acter are likely to
come from such a home.

influence
But home conversation needs more than love

to give
it
its
best
it
ought to be
enriched by thought.
against
idle
The
should
Saviour's warning
words
be
remembered.
Every wise-hearted parent
will
seek to train his

will yield
household to converse on subjects that

instruction, or tend
toward refinement.
The
table affords an excellent opportunity for this
kind of education.
family gathers there
ness.
Three times each day the

:
it is
a place for cheerful-
Simply on hygienic grounds, meals should

Bright, cheerful con-
not be eaten in silence.

versation
is
an excellent sauce, and a prime aid

If it
to digestion.
prolongs the meal, and thus
appears to take too

day,
it
much time
out of the busy
will,
in
the end, add to the years by

life.
increased healthfulness and lengthened
In

any
case, however,
still
life.
229
refine-
something
is
is
due to
ment, and
one's
more
due to the culture of
home
The
life
table should be
made
the
centre of the social

all
of the household.
There,
should appear at their best and brightest
gloom should be banished.
The
:
conversation
it
should be sprightly and sparkling

sist of
should con-
something besides
dull
and threadbare
commonplaces.
The
idle gossip of the street is
not a worthy theme for such hallowed moments.
The
hence
conversation of the table should be of a

all
kind to interest
it
the
members
the
of the family
should vary to suit the age and intelthose
ligence of
who form
circle.
The
with
events and occurrences of each day

profit
may
full
be spoken of and discussed
and now and
that the daily

faithful a
newspaper contains so
of the world's
summary
is
doings and
happenings, this
tion the event
easy.
Each one may menBits
which has specially impressed
him
of
in
reading or in discussion without.
refined
all
humor should always be welcome,

recital
and
wearisome
and
dull, uninterest-
ing discussion should be avoided.
230

may be
enriched, and at the same
all
Table-talk
time the intelligence of

family
the
members
of the
may be advanced, by bringing out at least one new fact at each meal, to be added to the common fund of knowledge. Suppose
there are two or three children at the table,
varying in their ages from
five to twelve.
Let
the father or the mother have
some
particular
subject to introduce during the

will
meal, which
be both interesting and profitable to the

of
younger members
the family.
It
may be
some
man.
historical incident, or
life
some
scientific fact,
or an event in the
of
some distinguished
the
The
benefit
subject should not be above
capacity of the younger people, for whose special

it
is
introduced, nor should
the
conversation
too
be
overweighted by attempting
much
at
one time.
One
single fact clearly

re-
presented, and firmly impressed so as to be
membered,
is
better
than whole chapters of
information poured out in a confused jargon on
minds that to-morrow cannot

it.
recall
any part
of
little
thought
will
show the
if
rich possible
faithfully fol-
outcome
of a
system
like this,

lowed through a series of years.
fact
is
23
If
but one
presented
at
every meal, there will be
a thousand things taught to the children in a

year.
If
the subjects are wisely chosen, the
fund of knowledge communicated in this way

will
be of no inconsiderable value.
lies in this
whole
;
system of education
suggestion
for,
besides the communication of important knowl-
edge, the habit of mental activity

interest
is
is
stimulated,
re-
awakened
in lines of
study and
search which
may
afterwards be followed out,
tastes are improved, while the effect
upon the
family
It
life is
elevating and refining.
may be
objected that such a system of
table-talk could not be
conducted without much
thought, study, and preparation on the part of
parents
but
if
the
habit once were formed,

it
and the plan properly introduced,
would be
found comparatively easy for parents of ordinary intelligence to maintain

it.
Books are
now prepared
in great
numbers, giving impor-
tant facts in small compass.
Then, there are
encyclopaedias and dictionaries of various kinds.
The newspapers
contain every
week paragraphs
232

articles of great value
in
and
such a course.
will
wise use of
scissors
filled
and paste
keep
scrap-books well
readily be
with materials which can

It will
made
available.
be necessary
to think and plan for such a system, to choose
the topics in advance, and to become familiar
with the
facts.
This work might be shared

for both.
by both parents, and thus be easy

That
it
will cost
time and thought and labor

is
it
ought not to be an objection, for
not
worth almost any cost to secure the benefits
and advantages which would

system of home instruction
">
result
from such a
These are hints only

possibilities of
of the almost infinite

lie in
is
good which
little
is
the
home
con-
versation.
That so
so
realized in
is
most
cases
when
much
possible,
one of the
It
saddest things about our current
life.
may
in
be that these suggestions
shall
stimulate
some
families, at least,
an earnest search after

in
something better than they have yet found

their desultory
its.
and aimless conversational hab-
Surely there should be no

all
home
flies
in
which,
amid
the
ligh^
talk
that
from busy

tongues, time
to say at
tive,
is
233
not found every day in which

shall
least
one word that
be instruc-
suggestive, elevating, or at least, in
some
way, helpfuJ.
CHAPTER
XXII.
AN OLD BIBLE PORTRAIT.

It
is
the picture of a mother of the olden

is
times that
is
before us.
The
story of
It
is is
Hannah
one
of
invested with
narratives
rare interest.
those
whose
world
charm
was
their
un-
adorned
since,
simplicity.
Though
living
so
long
when
the
so
young, this
her
mother stands
life,
yet, in the
radiant spirit of
in the clearness of her faith, in the devo-
tion of her motherhood, as a

tian
model
for Chris-
mothers
in these
newest ages.
There are
some things that grow

motherhood does not
its
:
old and out of date, but

it
is
ever the same in
duties, its responsibilities, its sacred priviv
leges,
and
its
is
possibilities
of influence.
The
looks
old picture
age, to
new and
fresh, therefore, in every
every true-hearted mother
who
upon
it.
For one thing, Hannah, as a mother, was

234
AN
enthusiastic.
OLD BIBLE PORTRAIT.

She was not one
of those
235
women
mar-
who think
children undesirable encumbrances.

herself, in her earlier
She did not consider
ried years, particularly fortunate in being free
from the cares and responsibilities of motherhood.
She believed that children were
bless-
ings from the Lord, that motherhood was the
highest honor possible to a

sought,
woman
and she
from
reverently
and
very earnestly,
little
God, the privilege of pressing a

her bosom, and calling
in the ancient picture
it
child to
her own.
This line
we must
not overlook in
these days,
when
children are not always re-
garded as blessings from the Lord, nor even

always welcomed.
For another thing, when

came, she considered
duty to take care of
it
it.
Hannah's
child
a part of her religious
Listead, therefore, of
going up to
feasts,
Shiloh
to
attend
all
the
great
at
as
for
she had
done before, she
staid
home
that
some
time, to give personal attention

her,
to the little
one that God had given

too
and
was
still
young
to
be taken with safety
and comfort on such long journeys.
No
doubt
236
AN
OLD BIBLE PORTRAIT.

she was worshipping
she supposed that

just as acceptably
in
God
doing this as
if
she had
gone up
to all the great meetings.
And who
will say that

first
she was not right
A
:
mother's
obligations are
to her children
she can
have no holier or more sacred duties than those
which relate to them.
No amount
of
public
religious service will atone for neglect of these.
She may run
to
temperance and missionary

all
meetings, and abound in

activities,
kinds of charitable
and may do very much good among

carrying
blessings
to
the
poor,
many
other
homes, and being a blessing to other people's

children, through the
Sunday school
or mission
school
but
if
she
fails,
meanwhile, to care for
her
own
children,
as
she can scarcely be com-
mended
a faithful Christian mother.

first
She
has overlooked her
and most sacred
duties,
while she gives her hand and heart to those

that are but secondary to her.
Hannah's way
evidently was
the true one.
mother had
better be missed in the church, and at the public
meetings, than be missed in her
own house-
hold.
Some
things must be crowded out of
AN OLD
every earnest
life,
BIBLE PORTRAIT.
but
the
last thing
life
237
to
be
crowded out of a mother's

faithful
should be the
and loving care
of her children.
The
preacher
may urge
that every one should do
something
in the general
work
of the church, for teachers
and the superintendent may appeal

for the
Sunday school
but the mother herself

to
must decide whether the Master wants her

take up any
religious
work outside her own

is
home.
For the work there she surely

;
re-
sponsible
for that outside she
is
not respon-
sible until the other is well done,
and she has
time and strength for
new
baby.
duties.
Another thing about Hannah was, that she

looked after her
ing herself.
office,
own
She did the nursto
She did not go
an intelligence
at so
and hire a foreign woman
much
week, and then commit her tender child to her

care, that she herself
might have a
" free foot "

social
for parties
and
calls
and operas, and
and
religious duties.
to
She was old-fashioned enough
prefer to nurse her
own
it
child.
She does
not
seem
to
have
felt
any great personal
deprivation to be kept at
home
rather closely
238
A/V
OLD BIBLE PORTRAIT.

two on that account
it
:
for a year or
she even
appears to
have thought
a high honor, and a
distinguished privilege, to be a mother, and to
do with her own
hands
mother's
duties.
And when we
nursed became
think what this child that she

in after-years,
what the outcome

and
toils,
it
was
of all her pains, self-denials,

if
certainly looks as
not likely she ever regretted,
Hannah was right. It is when she saw her

par-
son in the prime and splendor of his power
nd usefulness, that she had missed a few

ties
and other
social privileges in nursing

in his tender infancy.
If
and any
caring for him
thing even half so good comes ordinarily out

of
faithful mothering,
there are certainly few
occupations open to women, even in these ad-
vanced
nineteenth-century
days,
which
will
yield such satisfactory results in the
end as the
wise and true bringing up of children.
Many
women
are sighing for distinction
in
the pro-
fessions, or as
authors, or artists, or singers
but, after
all, is
there any distinction so noble,

so enduring
as
so honorable, so worthy, and
that which a true mother wins
when she has
AN OLD
BIBLE PORTRAIT,
239
brought up a son who takes his place in the

ranks of good and true
men
Could Mary,
the mother of Jesus, have found any mission, in
any century, greater than that of nursing and

caring for the holy Child that was laid in her
arms
Or,
if
that example be too high, could
the mothers of Moses, of Samuel, of Augustine, of
Washington, have done more
for the
art,
world
if
they had devoted themselves to

?
or poetry, or music, or a profession
Perhaps Hannah was right

old-fashioned
and,
if
so,
the
the
motherhood
is
is
better than
new, and the mother herself

best nurse.
ful
;
her
own
child's
skil-
hired
woman may
be very
but surely she cannot be the best one to

of
mould the soul

draw out
er
its
the child, and

affections.
waken and
powers and
The mothleft
may, by employing such a substitute, be
free to pursue the fashionable
round of dining
social
and dressing,
of
amusement and
is
engageof the
ments
but what
coming meanwhile
at
tender, immortal
life
home
in
the nursery,
thus
left practically
motherless, to be nurtured
}
and trained by a hireling stranger
And what
240
AN
OLD BIBLE PORTRAIT,

of the holy mission
of mother,
comes besides
her
hood, which the birth of every child lays upon
who gave
it
life
recent writer, refer**
ring to this subject, asks,
Is
there any mal-
feasance of office in these days of dishonor like
unto this
Our women crowd
the churches, to
draw the inspiration

duties,
all
of religion for their dally
and then prove recreant
to the first of
all
fidelities,
the most solemn of
responsi-
bilities.
We
that
hear fashionable young mothers

to
boast
they are not tied down
their
nurseries, but are free to keep in the old

life,
gay
as though there were no

therein."
shame
to the soul
is
of
womanhood
Such
a boast
one
of the saddest confessions a
mother could make.

is
The
live
great want of this age
mothers who
will
with their
own
all
children,
and throw over
their tender lives
the mighty power of their

If
own
rich,
warm, loving natures.
we can
then
have a generation of Hannahs, we
shall
have a generation of Samuels growing up under

their wise, devoted nurture.
There
is
one other feature
in
this
old-time
mother that should not be overlooked.
She
AN
first
OLD BIBLE PORTRAIT.

From
as
241
nursed her child for the Lord.
the very
she looked upon him as God's child, not
hers,
and
considered
it
herself
only
God's
nurse, whose duty

for a holy life
was
to bring
It
is
up the child
easy to see
and
service.
what a dignity and splendor
this
gave to the
whole toilsome round of motherly tasks and

duties which the successive days brought to her
hand.
This was God's child
that
she was
for the
nursing, and she was bringing
him up
Lord's service in two worlds.
Nothing ever
little
seemed drudgery
no duty to her
one was
hard or distasteful, with this thought ever glowing in her heart.

or
Need any woman have

inspiration for toil
.'*
loftier
self-
more powerful
and
forgetfulness than this
And
round
is
there any mother
who may
not have
the same inspiration as she goes through her

of
commonplace nursery tasks

child in
.-*
Was
little
Samuel God's
any higher sense when

are the
Hannah was nursing him than

ones
that
lie
?
in
the
arms
of
thousands of
mothers to-day
a baby
is laid
In every mother's ears,
when
in her
bosom, there
is
spoken by
242
AN
OLD BIBLE PORTRAIT.

if
'*
the breath of the Lord the holy whisper,
she
but have ears to hear the divine voice,

this child,
Take
and nurse
it
for
meT
All children
belong to God, and he wants them brought up

for pure
and noble
is,
lives,
and for holy missions.

lot of
Every mother
by the very
motherhood
when
it
falls
upon
her, consecrated to the sa-
cred service of nursing, moulding, and training
an infant
this,
life
for
God.
and found her task
full of glory.
Hannah understood But how

fail
many, even among Christian mothers,

understand
ness of
it,
to
and, unsustained by a conscious-
the dignity and blessedness of their

its
high calling, look upon
duties
and
self-
denials as painful tasks, a round of toilsome,
wearisome drudgery
It will
be well worth while for every mother

quietly beside
to sit
down
Hannah, and
try to
learn her secret.
It will change the humblest
nursery into a holy sanctuary, and transform

the commonest, lowliest duties of motherhood
into services as
splendid as those the radiant
angels perform before the Father's face.
CHAPTER
SORROW
"
XXIII.
IN CHRISTIAN
but sorrow never dies
HOMES.
Men
And
die,
The
corroding years divide in vain,

is
the wide world
knit with ties

in pain."
Of common brotherhood
Susan Coolidge.
Sooner
or later, sorrow
comes
to every
home.
No
conditions of wealth or culture or social

it.
standing, or even of religion, can exclude
When
to
two young people come from the mar-
riage-altar,
and
set
its
up
their
new home,
it
seems
them that
joy never can be disturbed,
that grief can never reach their hearts in that
charmed
spot.
For a few
years, perhaps, their
fond dream remains unbroken.
The
flowers
fra-
bloom into
grance
;
still
softer beauty
and richer
the music continues light and joyous,

;
with no minor chords

child-lives
the circle
is
unbroken
grow up
in the
tender atmosphere,
blessing the
home with
their love
and lovable243
244
ness
;
SORROW TN CHRISTIAN HOMES.

the
household
life
flows on
softly
and
smoothly, like a river, gathering in breadth and
depth as
there
are
it
flows.
In other homes,
all
about,
griefs
sorrows,
that are sorer than bereavements,
bereavements, or but
amid
these desolations of the dreams of other households, this
one remains untouched,

;
like an oasis
in the desert
but not forever does the exemp-
tion continue.
There comes a day when the
strange messenger of sorrow stands at the door,
nor waits for bidding and welcome, but enters,
and lays
flower.
his
withering hand on
some sweet
very sore
The
ness.
first
experience of grief
is
its
suddenness and strangeness add to
its terrible-
What seemed
so impossible yesterday,
has become a fearful reality to-day.
The
dear
one
that
whom we
held so securely, as
lose her,
call.
is
we thought
seems to us
we never could
gone now, and

It
answers no more to our

that
we never can be
life
comforted, that
can enjoy
for us so
again, since the
we never one who made
much of the gladness of life has been taken away. The time of the first sorrow is to
SORROW IN CHRISTIAN HOMES.

every
life
245
a most critical point, a time of great
danger.
The way
feet
is
new and
is
untried, one over
which the
have never passed before.
At
no other point, therefore,

guidance more needed.
wise and loving

lives are
Many
wrecked
on the hidden reefs and the low, dangerous

rocks that skirt the shores of sorrow's
sea.
Many whom whom
persons find in grief an
enemy
strife,
only, to
they refuse to be reconciled, and with

they contend in fierce
to
receiving
in
only injury and harm

unavailing conflict.
themselves
the
An
self a
impression prevails, that sorrow

blessing in
its
is
in
it-
influence, that
it
always
makes purer and

it
holier
is
and better the
lives that
in
touches
but this
not true.
Sorrow has
itself
no cleansing
it
efficacy, as
some suppose,
lives
fire
by which
removes from
sinful
their
blemishes and stains.
The same
is
which
refines the gold destroys the flowers.

is
Sorrow
fire,
which
in
God's hand
designed to
purify the lives of his people, but which, unblessed, produces only desolation.
It
depends
on the relation of the sufferer to Christ, as
246
friend or enemy, and on the reception given to

grief,
whether
;
it
leave good or
ill
where
it
enters
but in a Christian home, where the love
of Christ dwells
and holds sway, sorrow should

It
;
always leave a benediction.

ceived as God's
should be
re-
own messenger
and we should
welcome
it
it,
and
listen for the divine
message
bears.
For God's angels do not always come

as
to us,
we
are apt to imagine
them coming,
in radi-
ant dress, with smiling face and gentle voice.
Thus
of
artists paint
them
in their pictures.
Thus
think
we fancy them
them
;
in their ministries.
We
as possessing rare
and wondrous love-
liness
and so, no doubt, they do as they appear
before God, and serve in his presence.

is
There
no unloveliness
in
any angel-face
in heaven.
;
No
angel has features of sternness

celestial
but,
as
these
messengers come
to
earth on
their ministries, they appear ofttimes in forms
that
appal,
and
fill
the trembling heart with

it is
terror and alarm.
Yet ofttimes
when they
come
in
these very forms that they bring their
sweetest messages and their best blessings.
SORROIV IN CHRISTIAN HOMES.

''
247
All God's angels
come
to us disguised,
Sorrow and sickness, poverty and death,
One
after other
lift
their
frowning masks,
And we
behold the seraph's face beneath,
All radiant with the glory and the calm
Of having looked upon the face
of
God."
Wherever God's messenger

received in
a
of
sorrow
is
thus
Christian
home, with welcome

it
even amid tears and pain,

ing of peace, and will
tenderer, heavenlier.
will leave a bless-
make
the
home
sweeter,
We
speak
of love as the
its
atmosphere
in
which the home reaches
best
development
in
in
the direction of happiness, as
summer warmth
beauty
the
flowers
unfold
;
their
rarest
really
and
sweetest
its
fragrance
but
no home ever attains

its
highest blessedrichness of
its
life,
ness and joy, and

until in
fullest
some way sorrow enters

love, like certain
its
door.
fruits,
Even
does
the
home
autumn
not ripen into

frosts of trial
sweetest tenderness until the

it.
have touched
When
a green
log of
wood
is laid
on the andirons, on a winter

begins to play about the
evening, and the

log,
fire
a weird, plaintive music
comes from the
248
wood.
SORROW IN CHRTSTIAN HOMES.
poet
would
tell
you,
that,
while
the tree stood in the forest, the birds sat amid

its
branches,
of
and sang
there,
and that the

tree.
notes
their
songs hid away in the

that
it
Then he would tell you now hear from the log as

the
the music you

is this
burns,
bird-
minstrelsy, which has remained imprisoned in
wood
until
brought out by the hot flames.

is
The
poet's
thought
only a fancy, but

life
it
well illustrates a truth concerning the
of a
Christian home, which
is
worth pondering and
remembering.
In the sunny days of joy, the

all
bird-notes of gladness are sung
about
us,
and sink away into our hearts, and hide
there.
The
lessons, the influences, the tender impres-
sions,
quiet,
lives,
the peace, and the beautiful things of
happy, prosperous years,

as the
fall
upon our
fall
sunbeams and rain-showers

the long
upon the
fields all
autumn and winter

lost.
and early spring, and seem to be

appears but
little
There
to
show
for so
tion of brightness
and
blessing.
much absorpOur lives do

trial
not appear to yield the measure of joy they
should yield.
Then
the flames of
are kin-
SORROW IN CHRIST/AN HOMES.
249
died; and, in the heat of suffering, the long-
gathering and long-slumbering music
is
set free,
and flows
out.
Many
born
of the world's best things
have been
of affliction.
The
sweetest songs ever
sung on earth have been called out by suffering. The richest blessings that we enjoy have come
to us out of the
fire.
The good
things
we
in-
herit from the past are the purchase of
suffer-
ing and sacrifice.
Our redemption comes from
Gethsemane and Calvary.

through Christ's tears
is
We
get
heaven
and blood.
in life
Whatever
anywhere
richest
and most valuable

fire.
has been in the
Our
love for one another
may be
it
strong and true in the sunny days, but

its
never reaches
until
holiest
and
fullest expres-
sion
pain
has touched our hearts, and
called out the
hidden treasures of
affliction.
Even the
love of a mother
it is,
for her child,

its
deep
and pure as
never reaches
full
won-
drousness of devotion and sacrifice until the

child suffers,
and the mother bends over
it
in
yearning and solicitude.

all
The same
is
true of
the
home
loves
the best and divinest quali-
250
SORROW IN CHRIST!AA' HOMES.

them come out only
and
in the fires.
ties in
The
unde-
household that has endured sorrow in the true

spirit of love
faith,
emerges from
it
stroyed, untarnished, with purer, tenderer affections,
with less of passion, of selfishness, and
of earthliness.
When
husband and wife stand
together beside their dead child, they are drawn

to each other as never before
:
their
common
grief
is
sacramental.
Children that remain are
dearer to parents after one has been taken.
Brothers and sisters grow more thoughtful and

patient in their mutual intercourse
when
is
the
home
empty
power
circle has
been broken.
There
in
an
chair in a Christian
home
a wondrous
to soften the asperities of nature,
and
re-
fine all the affections
and
feelings.
The
cloud
of grief that
hangs over a household,

above the
fields
like the
summer
cloud
and gardens,
leaves blessings.
" Is
it
raining,
little
flower?
Be glad
of rain.
Too much sun would

'Twill shine again.
wither thee.
The sky
But
just
is
very black,
it
'tis
true,
behind
shines the blue.

Art thou weary, tender heart ?
251
Be
<l
glad of pain
In sorrow sweetest things
will
grow
As
flowers inrain.
God
watches, and thou wilt have sun

clouds their perfect work have done."
When
But how may we make sure

tions that sorrow brings
?
of the benedic-
Even
the gospel
reject
it
;
is
the savor of death to those

sorrow, though
it
who
and
be God's evangel, ofttimes
comes and goes away again, leaving no heavenly

gift.
How
if
must we
treat this dark-robed mes-
senger,
we
would receive the heavenly blessits
ings
it
bears in
hands
We must welcome
tears, as sent
it
it,
even
God.
in our
trembling and
from
We
must believe that
comes from our

it is
Father, and that, coming from him,
a mes-
senger of love to us, bearing a true blessing for

us,
though
it
be a loss or a pain.
We
must ask
in the
for the
message which God has sent us

and
listen to
It
it
affliction,
as
we would
to a
mes-
sage of gladness.
or
has some mission to us,
some
gift
from heaven.
in
Some
golden
fruit
lies
hidden
the rough husk.
Some
bit
of
252

God designs
fire.
gold in us
to
be set free from

is
its
dross by this
There
some radiant height

which he wants
to
beyond
lead us.
this dark valley, to
Christ himself accepted and endured
with loving submission the bitter sorrow of his

cross,
because he saw the joy set before him

In the same
and waiting beyond the sorrow.

way,
we should
accept our griefs, because they
are but the shaded gateways to
peace
and
blessedness.
If
we cannot
get
through the
gateways,
we cannot
Not
get the radiant joys that
wait beyond.
to be able to take from our

is
Fathei's hand the seed of pain,

fruits o; blessing
to
miss the
which can grow from no other
sowing.
cordial a
If
we
are wise,
;
we
will give
it is
sorrow as
welcome as joy
for
from the same
loving hand, and brings gifts as good and golden.
We
locks
must remember, that
it
is
in
the
homf
where Christ himself dwells, that sorrow units
heavenly treasures.
A
all
Christless
home
and,
left
receives none of them.
Those who shut

blessedness,
their doors
on Christ, shut out
when
in
the lamps of earthly joy go out, are

darkness.
utter
wise forethought

will
253
make
sure of the hopes and comforts of a
personal interest in Christ, and of having him

as
guest in the sunny days, that,
when
the
shadow
of night falls, the stars of bright
hope
may
shine out
CHAPTER XXIV
DEALING WITH OUR
It takes courage to look our
face,
SINS.
and
to deal
own sins in the with them as we would counif
sel another to do,
the sins were
his.
It
was
"
I
one
of
the
old
psalm-writers
who
said,
thought on
my
ways."
it
It
is
not likely that

do.
It
is
even he found
usually very
an easy thing to
to think
:
much harder
on our own
of
ways than on other people's

quite
most
us do
enough
of the latter.
We
keep a maglife,
nifying-glass to inspect our neighbor's
a
in
high-power microscope to hunt for specks

his character
;
but too often
we
forget to use
our glasses on ourselves,
or, if
we
do,
we
re-
verse them, and thus minify every spot and

imperfection.
fessed a great
The Pharisee in the temple conmany sins, but they were his
and the publican's
sins
:
neighbor's
254
sins
he
DEALING WITH OUR

made no confession of sin for us are in the same danger.
of our
SINS.
255
himself.
Most
of
We
like to think
ways when they are good,
to
it
flatters
our vanity to be able to approve and

ourselves
;
commend
turn our
but,
when our conduct has not been
particularly satisfactory,
we
like
back upon
it,
and solace ourselves meanwhile
by thinking on our neighbor's evil ways.

here, strange to say,
it
And
of
seems
to please
many
us best to find things
we cannot approve
us learn,
or
commend.
One
of the last lessons of Christian

is
charity which most of
to rejoice
with others in their attainments of character,
and to be pained and grieved when we find

blemishes and stains in their
lives.
But
it is
a brave thing for a
man
to say,
*'
I
it
will think
upon
my own
his
ways," and to say
when he knows
and
right, but
ways have not been good

It is
wrong.
an excellent thing
for us
to
turn
our lenses in
if
upon our own
hearts, in
right.
order to see
our
own ways
first
are
This should always be our
duty.
We
should take heed to ourselves before

others,
we
and
try to look after the mistakes of
256
point
all
DEALING WITH OUR

them
out.
SINS.
There
is
only one person in

are
the world for whose ways any of us
really personally responsible, for
whose
life
any
one
is
will
be required to give account,

self.
and that
;
one's
Other people's wrong ways may
pain us, and offend our sense of right
and
it is
our duty to do
to lead
all
we
can, in the spirit of Christ,

:
our neighbors into better ways
but,
after
all,
when we stand
before God's
judg-
ment-seat, the only one person in the whole
world for
whom any
be one's
of
us will have
to
be
judged
will
self.
Certainly
it is
most
important, then, that

ourselves and our
we give own ways in
earnest heed to
this world.
Retrospect has a strange power.
As we
look back upon our ways, they do not appear to

us as they did
when we were passing through

at
them.
Things that seemed hard and painful
the time, now, as
we
look back upon
them,
appear lovely and radiant.
There are experi-
ences in most lives that at the time seemed to
be calamities, but in the end prove rich blessings.
Then, there
is
another
class,
things
at the
which appeared attractive and enjoyable
DEALING WITH OUR

time, which afterward
horrent.
SINS.
257
look
all
repulsive and ab-
This
is
true of
wrong
actions,
all
deeds wrought under the influence of the

passions.
evil
At
;
the
time, they give a
thrill
of
pleasure
but
when the emotion has

seems horrible
fills
passed,
at
and the wrong-doer turns and looks back

what he has done,
eyes.
it
in
his
The
retrospect
him with disgust
and loathing.
To
do.
look at one's ways

is
when they have been
wrong
sorrow.
not by any means a pleasant thing to

looks,
if
Such
honest, will produce deep

it
It is well that
should be
so,
that
it
regret should grow into sore pain, until
has
burned into our hearts the lessons which we

ought to learn from our
follies
and
sins.
But
pain and regret should not be

ures
all.
The
Script-
speak of the sorrow of the world which
works death.
This
is
sorrow which passes
away
like the
morning cloud or the early dew,

working no
improvein despair.
leaving no
impression,
ment, or the sorrow which ends only
Godly sorrow
to repentance.
is
the pain for sins which leads
The
prodigal in the far-off land
258
DEALING WITH OUR

in his
SINS.
thought on his ways, and,
shame, hid his
face in his hands, and wept bitter tears over
the ruin he had
made
:
of his
life.
But he did
more than weep
he rose and went straight
home
has
to his father.
No
matter how badly one

is,
failed,
the noble thing to do
not to
sit
down and waste

the lost years.
despair
other years in grieving over
Weeping
to rise,
in
the darkness
o^
amends nothing.
is
The only
truly wise
thing to do
and save what remains.

of the allotted twelve
Because ten hours out

are lost, shall
we
sit
down and waste

"i
the other
two
in unavailing grief over the ten
Had we
in
not better use the two that are
left
doing
what we can
our past folly
said
to retrieve the consequences of

.-*
*'
We
have
lost
the
battle,"
Napoleon
*'
" but,"
drawing his watch from
his pocket,
it is
only two o'clock, and we have

:
time to fight and win another
"
and the sun
went down on a victorious army.
No young
;
person, especially, should ever yield to despair

for in youth, there
is
yet too wide a margin to
blot with the confession of defeat
and
failure.
it
Even
old age, with a whole lifetime behind
DEALIXG WITH OUR

wasted,
is
SINS.
259
not hopeless in a world on which
Christ's cross stood.
few moments
of
sin-
cere penitence and true repentance are enough

in
which to creep to Christ's
feet,
and
find par-
don.
The
divine
mercy
is
so great, that no
sins be as scarlet.
its
one need perish, though

Then, though the
life
his
be so utterly wrecked,
glory so destroyed,
its
powers so wasted, that
on earth
it
can never be any thing, even when

it
saved, but a shattered ruin,
may
still
become
not
radiant and beautiful in the blessed immortality
which Christian
faith
Its
reveals.
Life does
end
at the grave.
path sweeps on into the

will
eternal
years,
and there
all
be time enough
then to retrieve
the wasted past.
speaks of heaven as the place

over souls.
Some one where God makes
Even
find
lives
wasted and marred on
earth, turning to Christ only in the late even-
ing-time,
may
mercy, and in heaven's long,

into
blessed
day be
made over
grace
and
beauty.
But no careful seaman
will
run
his
ship
child
twice on the same rock or reef.

will
Even a
not be likely to put his hand a second time
26o
DEALING WITH OUR
SINS.
into the flame.
We
should learn by experience

folly,
in living, and should not repeat the same
mistake, or sin over and over.
Every error we
again.
make should be marked, and never made

Thus we should use our very
ping-stones
better
life.
if
failures as step-
by which to climb
to
higher,
Nothing comes
of
thinking
on
our ways
we do not turn from whatever we

Godly sorrow works repentif
find to be wrong.
ance.
few tears amount to nothing

the
one
goes on to-morrow in
same
old
paths.
Some one
twice."
says,
'*
The
true science of blunder-
ing consists in never making the same mistake
This rule applies to sins as well as to
mistakes.
to
The
true science of living

sin a
is
never
commit the same

But even
second time.
this falls short.
We
are not saved
by negatives.
We
can never go to heaven by
merely turning from wrong ways.

pentance leads to Christ, and into
It
is
True
re-
his ways.
the
his
man who
is
forsakes his wicked ways,
and
wicked thoughts, and returns to the

abundantly pardoned.
Lord,
who
No
matter
how
black the sin
when
there
is
this kind of
DEALING WITH OUR

repentance.
SINS.
26
the
Even Christ does not undo

had never been done.
wrong
past,
and make that which has been

it
done as though
It
never can be made true that the thief did not
once
steal
but grace
that,
may
appear.
so
make over
marred
special
life,
where the blemish was, some
beauty
its shell
may
mends
wound
souls
sins.
with a pearl."
" The oyster Where the ugly
was, there comes, with the healing, not
a scar, but a pearl.
The same
we
truly
is
true in
human
when
divine
grace heals the wounds of
Sins that
repent of become
the experience of
that
lives
pearls in the character.

all
It is
who grow into Christ-like nobleness, many of the golden lines of their later
of wrong-doings.
have been wrought out through their regrets
and their repentings
Some one
come
that
says, "
The
besetting sin
the guardian angel.
Let us
may bethank God

in heart
I
we can
say
it
Yes, this sin that has sent
me weary-hearted
to
to bed,
and desperate
morning work, can be conquered.
do not
say annihilated, but, better than that, conquered,

captured, and transfigured into a friend
;
so that
262
I,
DEALING WITH OUR
SINS.
at last, shall say,
'My temptation has become

it I
my my
strength
force.'
"
for to the very fight with
owe
We
rise
by the things
that are under feet
By what we have mastered of good or gain By the pride deposed, and the passion slain,
And
the vanquished
ills
that
we hourly meet."
An
past,
follies,
old
man
sat thinking,
one day, about his
recounting to himself his mistakes and
and regretting them, wishing he had

them, and
that
never committed
there was
some way
of
undoing them.
of
He
took his pen,

of
and on a sheet
things in his
paper made a
list
twenty
life of
which he was ashamed, and

an imaginary sponge, and
was about to
rub them
all
seize
out of his biography.
He
was
thinking
ter
if
how much more
beautiful his charac-
would have been
at the close of his years
these wrong things had never been commit-
ted.
But
to his
amazement, as he thought
evil things,
of
if
wiping out these
he found,
that,
there were any golden threads of beauty run-
ning through his
life,
they had been woven into
DEALING WITH OUR

the
SINS.
felt
263
over his
web by
wrong
the regrets he had

;
wrong-doings
these
and
that,
if
he should wipe out

at the
acts,
he would
same time
destroy the fairest lines of nobleness and worth

in
his
present character.
He
learned in
all
his
meditation that he
had
gotten
his
best
things out of his errors, with the painful regrets, the wise lessons, the true repentings,
and
the
new
life,
which followed.
There
rience
if
:
is
it
a deep truth in this record of expeis,
that even our mistakes and sins,
we
leave them, and find our
way
to Christ,
will
be transmuted into growth and the upbuild*'
ing of character.
past, that
We
can so deal with the

it
we can make
*'
give up to us virtue
make wrong the seed of right and righteousness we can transmute error into wisdom we can make sorrow
and
wisdom."
We
can
bloom
ers."
into a thousand forms, like fragrant flowIf
we
truly
repent of our sins, then,

their thorns
where they grew with
and poisonand plants
seeds, there will be in our lives trees

of beauty with sweet
flowers and rich fruits.

births to our souls,
Our very
falls
become new
264
if
DEALING WITH OUR

rise
SINS.
we
again, and, in lowly penitence
and His
sincere return, creep to the feet of Christ.
tender grace heals the wounds our sins have
made, and restores our lives to strength and

beauty
;
but
it
must never be forgotten,
that
Christ alone can thus save us from our sins,
and transmute their
evil into good.
This won-
drous alchemy exists only in the Saviour's cross
and blood.
Left to
itself,
sin
works death
is
but,
brought to Christ, the poison

death
the
is
destroyed, and
changed
of
to
life.
Longfellow says of
look
after
power
Christ's
we have
sinned,
"
look of that pale, suffering face
One
Will
make us
feel the
deep disgrace
:
Of weakness
We
Of
shall
be sifted
till
the strength
at
self-conceit be
changed
length
To meekness.
Wounds of the soul, though healed, will ache The reddening scars remain, and make
Confession
;
Lost innocence returns no more
We are
not what
we were
before
Transgression.
DEALIXG WITH OUR

But noble
souls,
SINS.
265
through dust and heat,
Rise from disaster and defeat
The
And, conscious
Within them,
stronger,
still
of the divine
lie
on earth supine
No
In every
life,
longer."
there are mistakes and
sins.
The
holiest do not live perfectly.
The
strong-
est are liable to fall in
sudden and unexpected
temptation.
rors
The
wisest will
commit grave
er-
and
follies at
some
time.
We should know
self-condoned, and
well in such cases
how
to deal with our sins.
They must not be simply

left
lying in the path behind us, while
we
hur-
ry
on
nor must they bring despair to our
hearts as
we sorrow over them
they must be
sincerely and heartily repented
of,
and
forgive-
ness for them sought at the feet of
have offended
rise
and grieved.
Him we Then we must

over
from disaster and defeat stronger, purer,

through
Christ
a
victorious
nobler,
our
own
sins,
and
conqueror
over
our
own
defeat.
266
DEALING WITH OUR

"Yet,
SINS.
!
my
soul, look not
behind thee
Thou
hast work to do at last

toil
Let the brave
of the present
Overarch thy crumbling past

Build thy great acts high and higher,
Build them on the conquered sod
Where
thy weakness
first fell
bleeding,
Where
thy
first
prayer was to God."
m^;

Silent Times A Book To Help in Reading - Miller, J. R. (James Russell), 1840-1912

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Silent Times A Book To Help in Reading - Miller, J. R. (James Russell), 1840-1912

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NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES

TO HELP IN READING THE BIBLE INTO LIFE

the point at which doctrine should

They know and honor

word of God, and

sincerely wish to con-

applying them to the actual experiences

to bring the divine lessons

down, and give some hints of the way they may be

days and in the actual experiences of

of the need of seasons of quiet in every

one particular use that may

" silent times " of busy,

in the direction of true Christian growth.

sent out in Christ's

name, and with the hope that

a lamp for some dark ways, and a staff

some rough and steep

XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX.

Habits in Religious Life

the morning and

evening " silent time."

and closing of the day, there

marked by the strokes

great house with

inmates were sleeping.

spending these silent

minutes in the rooms, but

the time to devotional reading, meditation, and

this period of quiet as part of the daily life of

the fitness, the helpfulness, and

the need of such periods of

bell that calls for silence, also calls

thought and prayer

and even the most

the busy activity of other hours shall cease,

and when the

heart, in holy hush, shall

the greatest needs

in Christian life in these

not an age of prayer so

quiet sitting at the Saviour's feet to

of our present Chrisis

tian life is consecration,

mean devotion to active hand we are incited to

by every inspiring incentive.

from a thousand earnest

ever grow too earnest in working for

our Master, or that our enthusiasm in his service shall

ever become too intense.

from our active duty.

not to seek to be freed from service.

Peter wished to stay on the

world below; but no: down at

the mountain's base,

suffering and sorof the Healer,

row were waiting

and the Master and

the rapture of heavenly communion, and hasten

While we enjoy the blessedness

the closet, there

our closed doors, and break upon our ears, the