| The Beauty of Self Control |
Chapter 2 |
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Sorrow ofttimes is God’s plough. We dread pain and shrink from it. It seems destructive and ruinous. The plough tears its way, with its keen, sharp blade, through our hearts and we say we are being destroyed. When the process is completed and we look upon the garden with its sweet flowers growing, we see that only blessing, enrichment, and beauty are the result. We complain of our suffering, out we cannot afford to have suffering taken away. One writes:
“The cry of man’s anguish went up into God;
‘Lord, take away pain–
The shadow that darkens the world thou has made,
The close coiling chain
That strangles the heart, the burden that weighs
On the wings that would soar;
Lord, take away pain from the world thou hast made,
That it love thee the more!’
“Then answered the Lord to the cry of his world:
‘Shall I take away pain
And with it the power of the soul to endure,
Made strong by the strain?
Shall I take away pity that knits heart to heart,
And sacrifice high?
Will ye lose all your heroes that lift from the fire
White brows to the sky?
Shall I take away love that redeems with a price,
And smiles at its loss?
Can ye spare from your lives that would climb
Unto mine
The Christ on his cross?’”
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