p. 5 | BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE by Selected

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 31, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 44.

BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE.

By Selected

DON'T listen to those melancholy souls who tell you there is no rapture in living. Life is neither a sad tragedy nor a worthless farce. We persist in disavowing that miserable pessimism which disfigures much of our modern life.

Some conceited individuals cherish the delusion that if they "ran creation" this old world would be a much more habitable spot. And even true and loyal hearts grow sad and weary because of the burdens which are their daily portion.

"This world is full of pain!" says the mental dyspeptic. Aye, and of joy, too. Why not tell us the latter half of the truth? And how much pain is self-caused!

Yet, even tho pain is with us, it serves its purpose. It is the guardian of bodily safety, conscience, and honor, saying with stern tones to the vicious and profligate, "Thus far hast thou gone; go no farther, lest a worse thing befall thee."

Taken from us, and with its sharp reminders absent, we should rush on to physical and moral mortification. It is nature's signal-light of danger ahead. Well were it for men if they always heeded it and turned from violating our great mother's laws. Pain has these uses, and they fulfil the beneficent Creator's purpose.

"But we are beset with constant and imperious toil. Work! Work! Work! Such is human hap!" mutters the pessimist.

Aye, and it is that very labor which brings man up from the low level of the savage to the higher plane of civilized manhood. God's best gift to man, and man's highest dignity and crown, is the divine necessity of toil. There is no more miserable man than he who is worthless because he is idle.

Then when you have dealt with these objections, the last and most serious yet remains: Are we not the victims of discontent and deep-seated, abiding dissatisfaction?—Yes, and that is the groundwork of progress, the mainspring of civilization, the trumpet call to advance. Our most puissant deeds are born of conscious failure. Contending with difficulty develops our noblest strength. Palissy, the potter, with eager vision and deft fingers, throws aside his ninety-ninth failure that he may found his success upon its ruins in the next attempt he makes to conquer nature. The man was dissatisfied, and it is very fortunate for the world he was so. Depend upon it, the things we are too ready to call evil are only blessings in disguise, and we must not be weary of this grand earth a good God has given us.—Selected.