| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 16 |
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Said the president of one of our great universities, in addressing his students, “Show me the young man who has had failure and has now won his way to success, and I will back him.” A man who has never had any failure, whose course has been one of unbroken prosperity, has not the resources of strength and endurance stored away in his life that he has who has suffered defeats and then has risen again and pressed forward to victory. The latter has been growing manhood while he was suffering earthly defeat. A true man never can be really defeated. He may fail in business, but not in character. According to the English poet he is
“One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, tho’ right were worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, Sleep to wake.”
The angels must watch with eager interest the man who is going through hard struggle which tries his spirit – they watch to see that he endures. They do not try to make the struggle less hard, but in the moment of faintness and wavering – if there be such a moment – they whisper cheer and encouragement that the man may not faint. We have a beautiful illustration of this in our Lord’s experience in Gethsemane. Angels came – not to take the cup away, but to strengthen him that he might not sink down in the darkness.
There is a wonderful Scripture word which shows the divine interest in human struggle, and tells us how and when the interest is shown: “There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that yet may be able to endure it.” God does not promise to save us from struggle and hardship, for in no other school could he make men of us. Nor does he promise to make the hard way easier for us, for that would be to lower the standard of attainment and of character which he has set for us. But he has promised, when the stress is growing too sore, to give us strength, that we fail not.
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