| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 17 |
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If we all would keep in our hearts the remembers, the memory of the beautiful things, the cheering things, the happy things that come to us in our bright, pleasant days, we should never have a day of unrelieved gloom. The weather is the cause of a great deal of unhappiness. A cloudy or rainy day makes a great many people wretched. You go out on a dripping morning in a mood like the weather, and nearly everybody you meet will greet you with a complaint about the miserable day. The Kaiserbad tourist were not sinners above all people, though, possibly, being invalids to some degree, they were more excusable than most others who grumble about lowering skies and dripping mists. The trouble with many people is that the gloom of the weather gets into their hearts and darkens their eyes and makes them unhappy. Ofttimes whole days are altogether spoiled for them in this way.
The Kaiserbad doctor’s philosophy ought to come in with fine effect on every such day. “Ah! But I have the remembers.” Today may be gloomy, but remember what bright sunshine you had yesterday. There are few people who do not have many such remembers in the story of their lives, if only they would recall them in the days when they are discouraged; and if only they would recall them, their gloom would be lightened.
The Bible is full of exhortations to remember: “Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God hath led thee these forty years in the wilderness.” “Remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt, all the days of thy life.” “But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.” The memory of past goodness should shine in the present darkness, however deep and dense it is.
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