| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 22 |
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She accepted the disappointment cheerfully, and turned quietly to other occupations. The result was that her lost year proved the best year of her life. It gave her time for quiet culture and for reading and thought on lines neglected before. The influence on her character was enriching and sweetening. She was also led into new experiences which proved gateways into treasure houses of blessing and good she never could have found in her eager, unresting life. She learned more of the sweetness of friendship than she had ever dreamed of before, more too of the reality, the tenderness, the infinite satisfaction of the divine friendship. At the end of the year her friends were conscious that she had grown in all lovely qualities. What had been regarded as a misfortune proved to have been divine leading in most gracious ways.
It is always so. There is never any real need for growing discouraged. No matter what the condition may be, we may trust God with the outcome, while we accept our lot with cheerfulness, and do the duty that comes into our hand. There are many things we never can learn in the midst of our earthly ambitions, which must be learned, if ever, as songbirds learn new song’s, in darkened rooms. A Christian’s rule of life should be, never to yield to discouragement, never to faint in any trouble, but always to keep his face toward the light and his heart full of song.
One of the most wonderful words of Christ is that in which he forewarns his followers that in this world they shall have tribulation, but bids them nevertheless be of good cheer, giving as a reason that he has overcome the world, and therefore in him they may have peace. One who believes on Christ is identified with him, and shares in all his blessedness, his victoriousness, his peace. There is that great Old Testament word, too, which assures us that if our mind is stayed on God he will keep us in perfect peace. The comfort is that the keeping is God’s, not ours, ours being only the staying of our mind upon God.
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