| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 9 |
Page 6 |
We are not to try, therefore, to trust from us the cares and trials that come to us clearly as God’s will, but are quietly to submit to them. It I this restless struggle against the things we cannot compel out of our life that makes such pain and bitterness for so many of us. The bird which when put in the cage flies against the wires in wild effort to be free, only bruises its body and beats its wings into bleeding wounds in unavailing struggle. Far wiser is the bird which when put in a cage begins to sing. If we would but learn this lesson and cheerfully accept the things we cannot resist as our Father’s will for us, we would have peace in our heart and would get a blessing out of every trial.
“Just to be still, though tempests break;
To know he never would forsake
The heart he made to be his own;
To know he is not King alone,
But Father–infinite in care
Of every waif that breathes the air–
If this is mine, how light the weight
I bear through changing time’s estate.
Just to be joyous in to-day;
To know time’s floods–which sweep away
The gold and precious things of life,
With desolation’s breathings rife–
Can never touch the arm I hold
Around my gems, more dear than gold,
Unless he wills–if this I know,
Fearless my footsteps come and go.
Just to be still and murmur not;
To know he never yet forget
The child he led; to-morrow’s care
To lay on him–my guide–to bear;
To see the sunlight of to-day,
Nor sigh that it may fade away–
If this my part, my days hall be
Forecasts of immortality,”
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