| Making the Most of Life |
Chapter 11 |
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The world is very full of sorrow and trial, and we cannot live among our fellow men and be true with out sharing their loads. If we are happy we must hold the lamp of our happiness so that its beams will fall upon the shadowed heart. If we have no burden it is our duty to put our shoulders under the load of others. Selfishness must die or else our own heart’s life must be frozen within us. We soon learn that we cannot live for ourselves and be Christians; that the blessings that are given to us are really for other people, and that we are only God’s ministers, to carry them in Christ’s name to those for whom they are intended.
We begin to felicitate ourselves upon some special prosperity, and the next moment some human need knocks at our door, and we must share our good things with a suffering brother. We may build up our fine theories of taking care of ourselves, of living for the future, of laying up in the summer of prosperity for the winter of adversity, of providing for old age or for our children; but ofttimes all these frugal and economic plans have to yield to the exigencies of human need. The love that seeketh not its own plays havoc with life’s hard logic, and with the plans of mere self interest. We cannot say that anything is our own when our brother is suffering for what we can give.
“Herein is love: to strip the shoulders bare,
If need be, that a frailer one may wear
A mantle to protect is from the storm;
To bear the frost king’s breath so one be warm;
To crush the tears it would be sweet t shed,
And smile so others may have joy instead.
“Herein is love: to daily sacrifice
The hope that to the bosom closet lies;
To mutely bear reproach and suffer wrong,
Nor lift the voice to show where both belong;
Nay, now, nor tell it e’en to God above–
Herein is love indeed, herein is love.”
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