| The Building of Character |
Chapter 24 |
Page 5 |
“I walk along the crowded streets and mark
The eager, anxious faces,
Wondering what this man seeks, what that heart craves,
In earthly places.
“Do I want anything that they are wanting?
Is each of them my brother?
Could we hold fellowship, speak heart to heart
Each to the other?
“Nay, but I know not! Only this I know,
That sometimes merely crossing
Another’s path, where life’s tumultuous waves
Are ever tossing.
“He, as He passes, whispers in mine ear
One magic sentence only,
And in the awful loneliness of crowds
I am not lonely.
“Ah, what a life is theirs who live in Christ!
How vast the mystery,
Reaching in height to heaven, and in its depth
The unfathomed sea!”
The Christian’s life is hidden also in the sense that its true and full glory is concealed in this world, and will not appear until it enters the heavenly life. Only the dull bud is seen as yet; by-and-by the flower will burst into rich bloom. The best of every Christian’s life remains unrevealed on the earth. We fail to realize even our own best intentions. You did not live yesterday as you meant to live when you went out in the morning. No artist ever puts on his canvas all the beauty of his vision. No singer ever gets into the song he sings all the music of his soul. No saintly Christian ever translates into disposition and conduct all the spiritual loveliness that glows in his ideal. Our hands are too clumsy and unskillful to express the best things of our mind and heart in word or act or character. We see the good, but cannot do it in more than a mere fragmentary way. Yet the visions of beauty which we have in mere flashes and glimmerings are hints of Divine revealings that are yet to be made, and of the wondrous possibilities which lie in the hidden depths of our nature, some day to be brought out.
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