| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 22 |
Page 6 |
These are only illustrations of a most unhappy spirit that is much too common in the world. We all know how such conduct mars the beauty of manliness. Nothing is a better test of character and disposition than the way one meets defeat or bears injury. “Blessed are the meek” is a great deal more human beatitude than we are wont to think. Commendation is sweet, but we show a pitiable weakness if we keep sweet only when people are saying complimentary things to us or of us, and then get discouraged and out of sorts when the adulation fails to come. There is a good teaching which counsels us to prefer others in honour, and when a young man has had a term as an officer or a committee chairman in his society, he ought to be delighted to yield the place to another, and should go back into the ranks with the best of cheerfulness to work more earnestly and beautifully than ever in the unofficial place.
Let us put away childish things for ever. Let the young people begin to do so very early. If you find the slightest disposition in yourself to pout or sulk or be envious or jealous, or to play the baby in any way, you have a splendid chance to do a Christ like thing. Will you do it?
“I like the man who faces what he must,
With step triumphant and a heart of cheer;
Who fights the daily battle without fear;
Sees his hopes fail, yet keeps unfaltering trust
That God is God; that somehow, true and just
His plans work out for mortals; not a tear
Is shed when fortune, which the world holds dear,
Falls from his grasp; better, with love, a crust
Than living in dishonour; envies not,
Nor loses faith in man; but does his best,
Nor ever murmurs at his humbler lot,
But, with a smile and words of hope, gives zest
To every toiler; he alone is great,
Who by a life heroic conquers fate.”
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