I have recently read this story about an unhappy woman. She was, indeed, very miserable, and for years her complaints were loud and constant. But one day she happened to read of a naval disaster: the ship was doomed, but the officers set the band playing, the flags flying, and, drest in full uniform, with their white gloves on, waited for the ship to go down.
She thought of herself, and was ashamed. Never had she met disaster except with tears and complaints. “I won’t be as I have been any more,” she said to herself. “When troubles come to me, tho I perish as those officers did, I will meet them as they did, with flags flying, the band playing, and my white gloves on.” And new troubles came; but with each one she said to herself, “The flags must fly to-day, the band play, and I must have my white gloves on.” And, if the trial were very severe, she would actually put on her best clothes, and with smiling face go out to perform some act of cheerful kindness.
And after some years the result is that she seems to be happy and prosperous. People call her fortunate. Another complaining woman said to her, “Oh, it is well enough for you to talk, you who have never known a trouble in your life.”
“A trouble in my life!” the cheerful woman said to herself, and stopt to think. “A trouble! Perhaps not; but now, thank God, those which I thought I had seem no longer to have belonged to me, but to some other person living centuries ago.” And she felt sorry for her fretful friend.—M. O. Simmons.
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See [Death, Christian Attitude Toward].
TRUST
It is a pleasant sight sometimes to see a child and a father at a crowded London crossing; to the child’s imagination the street with its rattle of horses and vehicles is the picture of danger and death—to attempt to get to the other side alone would be certain destruction; but as the father stands at the edge of the pavement, the child looks up to him with a glance of perfect trust and puts its hand in his, and goes with him through the tangled maze of traffic without a thought of danger or fear. This is just what the converted soul does with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. It looks up into His gentle face with trust, and goes with Him whithersoever He will lead it; there can be no danger and no misgiving; sin and temptation have lost their power; the soul shall pass through the tangled maze of life safely.
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