| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 14 |
Page 7 |
But the narrowness was really in the circumstances in which he was already bound in his father’s business. He was held a prisoner there. Christ now led him out into a large place. His manliness developed into splendour of character. It took half a dozen years of hard work, severe struggle, and pinching economy, but he came out at length a man of strength. If he had remained in his old environment, he would have been only a rich brewer, unrecognized among men, unhonoured, even cut off from men of noble rank. But in his new free life he became a power among his fellows, a moral force in the community, and building up a home which became a centre of beauty, happiness, and good. He was accustomed to say afterward, “My wife’s principles made a man of me.” Here was, indeed, the gentle hand of Christ, sent to lead him out of his narrow prison into a wide place.
Sin dwarfs life wherever it touches it. Selfishness cramps and dwarfs. Envy and jealousy bind the soul in a wretched environment. Love enlarges the tent. A Christian woman tells of the kind of friend she used to be. She would choose a girl friend and would love her intensely. But she was so insanely jealous of her that the girl must be her friend and hers only. If she called on another, or walked with another, or even spoke kindly to another, her friend’s anger knew no bounds. There was no happiness in such friendship for either of the two. It was a miserable prison in which the woman herself was bound, and her passionate friendship made only bondage for the one she loved.
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