| Things to Live For |
Chapter 13 |
Page 6 |
How many such fateful minutes are there in the lives of the great masses of Christian, when, with the one thousandth part of the provocation of Moses, they fail far more sorely? We know not what sublime things we throw away in our failures of patience, peace, and self control. “In your patience ye shall win your lives,” said the Master. The losing of patience, therefore, may be the losing of all.
The lesson from all this is that the failures of faith are far more serious than we are apt to think them. They are sins against Christ, who is trusting us and testing us; sins against others, who are looking to see what Christ can do for a soul in stress or suffering, and whose faith is weakened, perhaps destroyed, by our faltering; and sins against our own life, leaving us maimed and hurt, and cutting us off from the full realization of the hopes of our life.
Peter began to sink because he took his eye off Christ, and let it fall on the waves about his feet. It was because his faith failed that he sank. “Wherefore didst thou doubt?” was the Master’s pained question. The only secret of sustained victoriousness in living amid trials, temptations, and sufferings, is sustained faith. We need not be defeated. We may always overcome and be more than conquerors, but it can be only in him who loves us. He overcame the world, and in him we may have peace.
Shall we not then seek to be braver, truer, more steadfast in meeting these crucial hours of experience? They may come to us any day. We shall not know them by any special mark from the other hours. They will not announce themselves to us, nor call us to unwonted watchfulness by any warning bell. They will come quietly, suddenly, unexpectedly. In the heart of your calmest, commonest day there will be an hour when your life will be in peril. It may be a sore temptation; it may be in a surprise of joy; it may be in a keen disappointment; it may be in a bitter sorrow; or it may be in a pressure of duty or responsibility. To be ready for the experience, whatever it shall be, whenever it may come, you need to keep always near the Master, with your eye upon him. He walks the waters beside you, and you will never sink unless your faith fails. Why should you fail?
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