| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 12 |
Page 5 |
Among the many beautiful stories of Queen Victoria this was told just after she died. While visiting the wounded soldiers who had been brought back from South Africa, she was greatly distressed by the appearance of one poor man who had been terribly injured. “Is there nothing,” said the Queen, “that I can do for you?” The soldier replied, “Nothing, your Majesty, unless you would thank my nurse for her kindness to me.” The Queen turned to the nurse and said, with tears in her eyes, “I do thank you with all my heart for your kindness to this poor wounded son of mine.” There was something exquisitely beautiful in the soldier’s utter self forgetfulness, which led him to think not of anything from his Queen for himself, but of pleasure and honour to her who was serving him so faithfully.
Are we willing to go about ministering blessing to others and then forget what we have done? Are we willing to be as the dew which loses itself as it sinks away into the bosom of the rose only to be remembered in the added sweetness of the flower? Are we willing to do deeds of love, and then keep absolutely quiet about what we have done? Is there not among us too much of the spirit which our Lord so severely condemned – sounding a trumpet before us when we are going out to do some deed of charity, some act of kindness? We all are quite ready to note the blemish in others when they talk about their own piety and devoutness, or about their good deeds and their acts of self denial and helpfulness. We say the desire to have people know how holy he is and how useful, dims the lustre of a man’s graces. Moses wist not that his face shone, and the truest and divinest godliness is always unaware of its shining. We say this when we are speaking of others’ self praise, but are we different from them? Do we do our deed of love and straightway hide the knowledge of it away in our heart? Henry Drummond puts the lesson well in these short sentences: “Put a seal upon your lips and forget what you have done. After you have been kind, after love has stolen forth into the world and done its beautiful work, go back into the shade again and say nothing about it. Love hides even from itself.” We could not do better than write out these words and place them where we must see them every day, and then make them the rule of our life, until we have indeed learned to seal our lips and be silent about ourselves and what we have done; to steal forth quietly on errands of love, do our errands, then hurry back into the quiet whence we set out, and to hide even from ourselves the things we have done to help others, never thinking of them again. Talking about these gentle and sacred ministries is like handling lovely flowers – it spoils their beauty.
Tell no one of the kindness you have been doing. Do not keep a diary, writing therein a minute record of your charities, your words and deeds of love. Let them be forgotten on the earth, even by yourself. There is a place where they all will be written down. That is record enough.
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