HELPS IN WORRIED WEEK DAY LIFE.
By J. R. Miller
I WRITE to help you, if I can, in your personal life. You are cast in the midst of experiences that continually worry and vex you. Those about you, either wittingly or unwittingly, annoy and try you greatly. Especially since you became a Christian, and made a confession of your love for Christ, have they made it hard for you. Perhaps I can help you. The question is this: How can you get through the tangled briers and thorns which grow along your path without having your poor hands and feet torn? How can you live sweetly amid the vexatious things, the irritating things, the multitude of little worries and frets, which lie all along your way and which you cannot evade? You do not want merely to get through in any sort of way; you want to live a beautiful Christian life. A little child when once asked what it was for her to be a Christian, replied, "It is to live as Jesus would live, and to behave as he would behave, if he were a little girl, and lived at our house." That is it precisely. And you want to bear yourself just as Jesus would do if he were standing all day where you stand, mingling with the same people with whom you have to mingle, and exposed to the same annoyances, trials, and irritations to which you are exposed. You want to live a life that will please God, and that will bear witness on its face to the genuineness of your piety. How can you do this? Let me suggest a few things for your prayerful, thoughtful pondering. First, your life is to be lived in just the circumstances in which you now find yourself. You cannot, at present, change your surroundings. Whatever kind of life you are to live, must be lived amid precisely the experiences in which you are now moving. Here you must win your victories or suffer your defeats. You may think your lot is hard; may wish it were otherwise, that you had a life of ease and luxury, amid softer scenes, with no briers or thorns. Then you would be gentle, patient, serene, trustful, happy. Vain dreaming! Whatever your life is to be made, beautiful or marred, you must make it where you are. No restlessness or discontent can change your lot. Others may have other circumstances surrounding them, but here are yours. You had better make up your mind to accept what you cannot alter. The second thing for you to ponder is that this is the place in which your Master desires you to live your life. "Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident;
It is the very place God meant for thee."
There is no hap-hazard in this world. God leads every one by the right way. He knows where your particular life will ripen best. One tree grows best in the sheltered valley, and another on the bald, bleak mountain top, swept by storms. And there is always adaptation in nature. Every tree or plant is found in the locality where the conditions of its growth exist. And do you think God cares more for trees than for his children? He has planted you amid the experiences and circumstances in which your life will grow and ripen the best. The discipline to which you are subjected in your lot is the discipline you need to bring out in you the beauties and graces of true spiritual character. You are in the right school. You may think you would ripen better in a more easy and luxurious life, but God makes no mistakes. There is a little fable which says that a primrose growing away off by itself, in a shady corner of the garden, became discontented as it saw the other flowers in their gay beds in the sunshine, and begged to be removed into a more beautiful and conspicuous place. Its prayer was granted. The gardener transplanted it to a more showy and sunny spot. It was greatly pleased, but its blossoms were not nearly so beautiful as before. They were pale and dim. The hot sun made them faint and wither. So it prayed again to be taken back to its old place in the shade. The lesson lies on the surface, and need not be written. The next thing for you to ponder is that you can live a beautiful life in the midst of your present circumstances. When God put you into them, he meant to see you through. He had no intention that you should fail. I know it seems hard to you at times, but Christ is with you. You say, "Oh, if I had such a lot in life as this one, or that one, I should be so different." No, I remind you, again that you must be yourself, and not some other one, and that your life is to be lived amid your own peculiar experiences. But God adapts his help to our circumstances. There is a text that says, "Thy shoes shall be iron." That means that if you have stony paths to walk over, God is not going to send you forth with paper-soled slippers on, but with shoes strong and enduring, equal to the need of the journey. Or in simple words, Christ is just as able to help you to live a truly beautiful life, in your peculiar circumstances, as if you were in the easiest and most sheltered position possible on earth. And he will, if you but learn to trust him. Then the last thought in this little sermonette is that you must resolve, through God's grace, that you will live a sweet, lowly, Christ-like life in your allotted place. Every life must grow up in this world amidst antagonisms. But you will overcome. You are at school now, and you will be a good, apt scholar. Processes are unimportant; it is results we want. If a tree grows into majesty and strength, it matters not whether it be in the deep vale or on the bald peak. If character develops into Christ-like beauty and symmetry, what matters it whether it be in ease and luxury or through hardship and sharp attrition? The important thing is not the means, but the end—spiritual loveliness. To be made truly noble and God-like, we should be willing to submit to any training and discipline. You must resolve, then, that you will use every experience to help to develop in you the likeness of your Lord; that you will regard your provocations, annoyances, and all your hardships and trials, as practice-lessons in the application of your Christian knowledge. The tree that grows where storms sweep is stronger and grander than the one that grows in the quiet vale. There is no heroism to live patiently where there is nothing to disturb. Not the hermit's cave, but the heart of busy life, tests character. If you can live gently, patiently, unmurmuringly, amid all your frets and irritations, day after day, that is heroism. That is your task. You are to resolve to do it. No one, not even God, will do it for you. Heaven does not put features of beauty in our lives, as the jeweler sets gems in clusters. The unlovely elements are not drawn out and replaced by lovely ones, like slides in the stereopticon. You must win your way through struggles to all noble attainment. It is he that overcometh that is made a pillar in God's temple. You must accept the task. You will fail more than once. Many a night you will go to your lonely room to weep at Christ's feet over painful defeats. But never give up. You spoiled many a quire of paper before you could write well. So you will make many poor efforts, crooked lines, and many a page will be blotted and blistered with tears of regret. But, through all keep a brave heart and an unfaltering purpose. Endurance and continuance will accomplish anything. And Christ will help you. Trust him. Let every failure or defeat only cause you to lean on him more perfectly. Heaven is on the side of every one who is struggling to do the divine will. And that means victory.—Rev. J. R. Miller, Sunday School Times.