I remember a letter that I received recently from a young woman of my acquaintance. The only daughter of wealthy parents, she had enjoyed every advantage and comfort of life and she knew that it was likely she would continue to have them. This very fact gave her anxiety, and she wrote, “What can we, who are born to luxury, do to offset the lack of struggle?” She did well to be anxious. There must be something to counterbalance this lack, yet how few who are born to wealth realize it!
I often say to myself, as I think of some aimless, indolent, yet really able girl, “What a blessing it would be if she were thrown upon her own resources and forced to earn her own living!” Of another, too pleasure-loving, lacking in earnestness and depth of character, I regretfully say, “I am afraid nothing will touch her or wake her up to the realities of life until some great grief comes to her.” What a pity to be able to learn one’s lesson only at such great cost!
When Adoniram Judson, about to go to India as one of the group of our earliest foreign missionaries a little over one hundred years ago, sought in marriage the hand of Ann Hasseltine, of Bradford, he wrote as follows to her father:—
“I have now to ask whether you can consent to part with your daughter early in the spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure for a heathen land, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, persecution, and perhaps a violent death.”
A remarkable letter, indeed! And Adoniram Judson and Ann, his wife, did suffer most of the hardships predicted. But if they had not, those lands which sat in darkness would not have seen a great light. The blessings of civilization and of Christianity would not have spread to the remotest parts of the earth as they have, unless there had been some cast in heroic mould who were ready to take their lives in their hands and if need be pay the last full measure of devotion.
The habit of having everything one wants and of doing all one desires to do is a fatal habit and never should be formed at any age, especially in youth. Instead, cultivate independence of luxury and ease and learn the joy that St. Paul felt in knowing that he had within himself the power to meet and cope with whatever difficulties, obstacles, or dangers life might have in store for him.
In this thought of Phillips Brooks we find a striking likeness to the earnest message of St. Paul to Timothy:—
“Do not pray for easy lives! Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come in you by the grace of God.”
| [2] | Certain disputed points regarding the authorship of the Epistles to Timothy and other critical questions connected with these books are not pertinent here. |