| Making the Most of Life |
Chapter 24 |
Page 6 |
Some people are for ever unwisely testing themselves by questions like these: “Could I endure sore bereavement? Have I grace enough to bow in submission to God, if he were to take away my dearest treasure? Or could I meet death without fear?” Such questions are unwise, because there is no promise of grave to meet trial when there is no trial to be met. There is no assurance of strength to bear great burdens when there are no great burdens to be borne. Help to endure temptation is not promised when there are no temptations to be endured. Grace for dying is nowhere promised while death is yet far off, and while one’s duty is to live.
“Of all the tender guards which Jesus drew
About our frail humanity, to stay
The pressure and the jostle that always
Are ready to disturb, whate’er we do,
And mar the work our hands would carry through,
None more than this environs us each day
With kindly wardenship– ‘Therefore, I say,
Take no thought for the morrow.’ Yet we pay
The wisdom scanty heeds the impotent
To bear the burden of the imperious Now,
Assume the future’s exigency unsent.
God grants no overplus of power: ‘tis shed
Like morning manna. Yet we dare to bow
And ask, ‘Give us today our morrow’s bread.’”
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