| Things to Live For |
Chapter 11 |
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Many people find the way of life hard at some time or other. There are scarcely any who do not come upon points of hardness, even amid the most prosperous and happy years. There are elements in many people’s condition and circumstances which in themselves are hard. Sometimes it is sickness, sometimes poverty, sometimes sorrow. The burdens are heavy. The toil is oppressive. The way is wearisome.
Then sometimes, as in the case of the Israelites, much of the hardness is caused by unbrotherly conduct. There are brothers who put barriers in the way, and make life harder for brothers. We all need to guard our conduct most sedulously, lest we become hinderers of others in their life. It is a sin to be a hinderer. We commit a grievous wrong against another when we make life harder for him – when we make it harder for him to be true, honest, pure hearted, and worthy. Edom made it immeasurably harder for Israel, simply by being disobliging. There are many people who make the way longer and harder for others, when by a little unselfish obligingness, a little cheering helpfulness, they might make it easier for them.
It is a sin to be a discourager. The ten spies who brought back the cowardly report about the giants, and thus spread disheartenment and dismay, wrought a great crime against the people. Their discouraging words let to most calamitous consequences, – the doom of death on a whole generation, and the shutting of a nation out of the Promised Land for forty years. Yet like wrongs are being committed continually right in our own Christian days. Discouragers go about among men, and, by their gloomy, pessimistic words, make life incalculably harder for them. They put out the lamps of cheer and hope that shine in men’s homes. They quench the very stars that burn in the sky above men’s heads. They take the gladness out of hearts. They see only the dark shadows of life, never the sunshine; and they prate wherever they go of gloom and care. They never bring us a message of cheer. We are never stronger, braver, happier, or truer for meeting them. On the other hand, after a talk with one of these discouragers, we always feel as if part of life’s beauty had faded, as if there were less to live for. Our stars of hope shine less brightly, and a sense of weariness and languor creeps over our spirits. Life is harder for us after meeting them.
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