| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 11 |
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It is one of the best tests of our life that others are helped, cheered, strengthened, or comforted by the things in us which are beautiful and good. There are some people whose lives are benedictions wherever they go. The peace, joy, and love of their hearts make others happier and better. One of the old legends tells of the visits of a goddess to ancient Thebes, and relates that the people always knew when she had been there, although no eye saw her, by the blessings she left behind. She would pause before a lightning blackened tree, and the tree would be covered with beautiful vines. She would sit down to rest upon a decaying log, and the decay would be hidden under lovely moss. When she stepped on the muddy shores of the sea, violets would spring up in her tracks. This is only a legend, but it illustrates the influence of the beautiful life in which the fruits of the Spirit have full and rich growth. There are lives so full of grace and goodness that every influence they give forth is toward cheer and hope and purity.
On the other hand, there are lives whose every breath is baleful. Another ancient legend tells of a maiden that was sent to Alexander from some conquered province. She was very beautiful, but the most remarkable thing about her was her breath, which was like the perfume of richest flowers. It was soon discovered, however, that she had lived all her life amid poison, breathing it, and that her body was full of poison. Flowers given to her withered on her breast. Insects on which she breathed perished. A beautiful bird was brought into her room and fell dead. Fanciful as this story is, there are lives which in a moral sense are just like this maiden. They have become so corrupt that everything they touch receives harming. Nothing beautiful can live in their presence. On the other hand, the Christian life is one whose warm atmosphere is a perpetual benediction. It is like the shadow of Peter, having healing power, so that all on whom it falls are enriched and blessed by it.
In one of the Psalms a good life is compared to a tree planted by the streams of water. The emblem is very suggestive. A tree is not only one of the most beautiful objects in nature, but also one of the most useful. One puts it graphically in the following lines:
“What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants the friend of sun and sky;
He plants the flag of breezes free;
The shaft of beauty towering high;
He plants a home to heaven a nigh,
For song and mother croon of bird
In hushed and happy twilight heard–
The treble of heaven’s harmony–
These things he plants who plants a tree.
“What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest’s heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see–
These things he plants who plants a tree.”
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