| The Beauty of Self Control |
Chapter 20 |
Page 8 |
Thus, God gives us friends, and our heart’s tendrils twine about them; they stay with us for a time, and then leave us. Our loss is very sore, and we go out bereft and lonely along life’s paths. But we have not lost all. Loving our friends drew out to ripeness the possibilities of love in our own hearts; then the friends were taken away, but the ripened love remains. Our hearts are empty, but our lives are larger. The illusions of faith and hope and love are but the falling away of the rude scaffolding used in erecting the building, that the beautiful temple itself may stand out in enduring splendour.
We come close to the end of trials and sorrows. Every night has a morning, and, however dark it may be, we have only to wait a little while for the sun to rise, when light will chase away the gloom. Every black cloud that gathers in the sky and blots out the blue or hides the stars passes away ere long; and when it is gone there is not stain left on the blue and not a star’s beam is quenched or even dimmed. So it is with life’s pains and troubles. Sickness gives place to health. Grief, however bitter, is comforted by the tender comfort of divine love. Sorrow, even the sorest, passes away and joy comes again, not one glad not hushed, its music even enriched by its experience of sadness.
“No note of sadness but shall melt
In sweetest chord unguessed;
No labour, all too pressing felt,
But ends in quiet rest.”
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