| The Secrets of a Beautiful Life |
Chapter 13 |
Page 8 |
This is the ideal Christian life. It is possible to every one, — the weakest, the most exposed, the sorely troubled, — possible, but possible only in Christ. There is no self-sufficiency in us which will give it to us. The dream of self-culture may be most radiant, but it is only a dream; it never can be realized. All that self alone can build up may be destroyed. The fairy palace of self-sufficiency which one may pile up can be nothing more than a house built upon the sand, which the floods will sweep away. But when we have Christ in our heart, we have a life which no one can touch, whose joy lives on, sweet, calm, and serene amid all earth’s strifes and trial.
This is the life every one should seek to live. We should not carry our joy where every earthly experience can destroy it, but only where it will be safe from whatsoever might quench it. It is impossible to estimate the power for good, in this sad, struggling life, of a bright, glad, shining face.
“Of all the lights you carry in your face,
Joy shines farthest out to sea.”
One of the best things any of us can do for this world is to show it ever a victorious life of joy, a face that shines even through tears, a beauty of the Lord which glows with radiance even in the night. That is the life the Master wants every follower of his to live; and we can live it, too, if our life is truly hid with Christ in God.
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