| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 5 |
Page 5 |
Then one day there is an awakening, and they become aware of a life far above them, with rich possibilities of joy and blessing. It is significant that the prodigal is said to have “come to himself” when in his degradation he had a vision of his true home and his father’s house, with all the possibilities of good and of blessing that were there for him. Until that moment he had been a child of God lost in the world of sin. Now he had found his soul. His fingers touched the chords of the heavenly harp and holy music was evoked.
This is the real story of all Christian life. Faith in Christ is finding one’s rightful place as a child of God. Only in Christ can we find our true self. He alone can restore our soul. Peace is the music of a life at rest in God. The whole being is full of harmony. All discord vanishes as the lessons are learned, as the image of God is imprinted on the soul, and as the Spirit of God possesses more and more fully his own place in the heart.
It is often in the hard and painful experiences of life that men find their soul. We dread pain; but in the days and nights of keen suffering many people develop strength and beauty of character which had never before been revealed in them, as the photographer’s picture is developed on his sensitized plate in the darkness. We shrink from sorrow; but in sorrow’s dark hours many a life for the first time finds itself, as the gold discovers its richness in the fire. We hold ourselves back from costly self denial and sacrifice; but the Master says it is only in the losing of our life in love’s devotion that we really find it. Whenever we are divinely led in any way of struggle, cost, danger, or darkness, we may rejoice, for God is taking us on a path of self discovery; and in the cost or trial, if we faint not, we shall find our soul.
Page 5