| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 17 |
Page 6 |
If today is gloomy and cheerless, remember the past days that were glorious in their brightness. Let their splendour strike through today’s clouds. In the old Psalm we read, “This is the day that the Lord hath made.” This is true of everyday, not only of the rare days of June, so marvelous in their splendour, but just as really of the sombre days of November and the wintry days of January. The aspect of the dreary days is only a think veil, behind which always are blue heaven, glorious sunshine. God made the days, and he made every one of them beautiful. If today is dark and misty, it has divine beauty in it nevertheless. If things seem adverse, God is still God, our Father, still love, and nothing is really going wrong.
“God’s in his heaven–
All’s right with the world.”
Even Luther, heroic as he was in his faith, sometimes lost confidence in the long and hard struggle of the Reformation. Once, it is said, he seemed to have given up utterly, and was almost in despair. No one could revive his hope. In the morning his wife came down to breakfast in deep mourning. Luther noticed her garb and in alarm asked, “What is wrong? Who is dead?” – “Why, don’t you know? Didn’t you hear it? God is dead.” He rebuked her for her words in saying that God was dead. God could not die. Then she told him that God must be dead or he would not have become so hopeless. Her reply brought back the old trust.
We sometimes need to be reminded that God is not dead. He lives, he always lives; he loves, he always loves. The fluctuations in our experience are not fluctuations in the divine interest and care. “I am the Lord; I change not,” is an Old Testament assurance. Then in the New Testament we have it thus, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, yea, and for ever.” This faith in the unchanging God should bridge over all the chasms of earthly trial and keep ever in our hearts a joyous trust.
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