Step by Step | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 14, 1875

Step by Step.

Samuel Burnham’s life was one of constant disappointments. He would no sooner begin a course of action than sickness would thwart him. He was in this way kept from college. Because of this he was compelled to give up teaching. By this his literary labors were impeded, and yet his patience was wonderful, and he was never heard to complain. The secret of his endurance and cheerfulness is found in a passage in his diary written twenty years ago, at a time when physicians despaired of his life. He wrote: “If I get well, to God will be all the praise; if not, I hope and pray that I may be prepared to submit cheerfully to anything he may have in store for me.” His own life was an exemplification of the advice which he himself gave to a young man before whom the way looked dark: “God will point out the path he wishes you to take. God always makes the next step clear. We are apt to trouble ourselves about the future, but we forget that one step at a time is all we have to take, and that we usually have light enough for that one.” And so, whenever the path of his choosing was hedged up, he only said, “God wishes me to do something else,” and he did it.—Sel.