| Things to Live For |
Chapter 6 |
Page 6 |
What would be the result if every Christian home in the world had such a holy of holies, its old chair daily wet with tears of love, and its cushion deeply indented by suppliant knees?
Then in countless other lines do opportunities of usefulness and helpfulness open to earnest Christians. Saying nothing of the formal Christian work in which many may engage, every day’s life is full of occasions where good may be done by simple deeds, or words of kindness. The value of these unpurposed things is very great. We may live all day and every day so that each stop of our path shall be brightened by love. The world needs our love al the while. We meet no one from morning till night whom we may not help in some little way at least. It is possible for us to make a good deal more than most of us do of these opportunities for service of love.
Every individual Christian is the centre of a circle whose hearts he may touch with a benediction of love. He is a custodian of blessing which he is to impart to others. The noblest life is the one that is given up most unselfishly to serving.
It is interesting to think what kind of a Christian one would be who should realize all the possibilities of faith in Christ, and truly find the best things in all life’s ways. It certainly is our privilege and our duty to make all we can of the opportunities we have. Ever before us shines the ideal, always unreached, and ever calling us to better things. Though we nay not hope to attain its full beauty, we should ever press toward it in faith and hope and love. Each day of such striving will bring us a little nearer to it, and at last, when we break through the wall into the life beyond, we shall realize it. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
“Something I may not win attracts me ever–
Something elusive, yet supremely fair,
Thrills me with gladness, yet contents me never,
Fills me with sadness, yet forbids despair.
“It blossoms just beyond the paths
I follow, It shines beyond the farthest stars I see;
It echoes faint form ocean caverns hollow,
And form the land of dreams it beckons me.
“It calls, and all my best, with joyful feeling,
Essays to reach it as I make reply;
I feel its sweetness o’er my spirit stealing,
Yet know ere I attain it I must die.”
Page 6