| The Glory of the Common Life |
Chapter 17 |
Page 8 |
Count your blessing. Do not forget the multitude of your benefits in the recollection of the few disappointments and discomforts you have had. Let the many joyous remembers blot out the lines that stand black in the record. Even your sorrows are seed plots of blessing. When you get to heaven and look back, you will see that the days which now appear draped in mourning have been your best days – the fullest of good. Where the plough has cut deepest, tearing up your garden of happiness and destroying the flowers of gladness, you will find loveliness a thousand times more wonderful. God never destroys – he only and always fulfills. Out of sadness he brings light. Out of pain he brings health. Out of disappointments he brings appointments of good. Every year is a harvest growing out of past years, each one better than the one left behind.
“Why do we worry about the nest?
We only stay for a day,
Or a month, or a year, at the Lord’s behest,
In this habitat of clay.
“Why do we worry about the road,
With its hill or deep ravine?
In a dismal path or a heavy load,
We are helped by hands unseen.”
Page 8