| Week-Day Religion |
Chapter 4 |
Page 4 |
Instead, then, of yielding to discouragement when trials multiply and it becomes hard to live right, or of being satisfied with a broken peace and a very faulty life, it should be the settled purpose of each one to live, through the grace of God, a patient, gentle and unspotted life in the place and amid the circumstances allotted. The true victory is not found in escaping or evading trials, but in rightly meeting and enduring them. The questions should not be, “How can I get out of these worries? How can I get into a place where there shall be no irritations, nothing to try my temper or put my patience to the test? How can I avoid the distractions that continually harass me?” There is nothing noble in such living. The soldier who flies to the rear when he smells the battle is no hero; he is a coward.
The questions should rather be, “How can I pass through these trying experiences and not fail as a Christian? How can I endure these struggles and not suffer defeat? How can I live amid these provocations, these reproaches and testings of my temper, and yet live sweetly, not speaking unadvisedly, bearing injuries meekly, returning gentle answers to insulting words?” This is the true problem of Christian living.
We are at school here. This life is disciplinary. Processes are not important: it is results we want. If a tree grow into majesty and strength, it matters not whether it be in the deep vale or on the cold peak, whether calm or storm nurture it. If character develops into Christ like symmetry, what does it matter whether it be in ease and luxury or through hardship? The important matter is not the process, but the result – not the means, but he end; and the end of all Christian nurture is spiritual loveliness. To be made truly noble and godlike we should be will to submit to any discipline.
Every obstacle to true living should, then, only nerve us with fresh determination to succeed. We should use each difficulty and hardship as a leverage to gain some new advantage. We should compel our temptations to minister to us instead of hindering us. We should regard all our provocations, annoyances and trials, of whatever sort, as practice lessons in the application of the theories of Christian life. It will be seen in the end that the hardships and difficulties are by no means the smallest blessing of our lives. Some one compares them to the weights of a clock, without which there could be no steady, orderly life.
The tree that grows where tempests toss its boughs and bend its trunk, often almost to breaking, is more firmly rooted than the tree which grows in the sequestered valley where no storm ever brings stress or strain. The same is true in life. The grandest character is grown in hardship. Effeminacy springs out of luxury. The best men the world ever reared have been brought up in the school of adversity and hardship.
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