| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 1 |
Page 5 |
These are only hints of the best things in life. The world thinks that those who turn away from the quest for earth’s prizes to live lowly lives of love, trying to help the poor, the weak, the obscure, are throwing away their opportunities. It thinks they are following a delusion, and pities them. But those are rather to be pitied who think they are finding the best things in their quest for wealth, for honour, for fame, for power. There will come a day of revealing, when things shall be seen as they are, and then it will appear that those who have devoted their lives to the honour of Christ, and to the lowly service of love in Christ’s name are the really shining ones, that they are doing the best, worthiest, and most beautiful things under the sun, and will receive the highest honours and rewards.
If we learn this lesson well, the aspect of all life will be changed for us. We shall see that there are things that are gloriously worth while, in which the world beholds no beauty, no honour. The greatest thing is love. To live the little thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians day after day, in quiet circumstances, among people who need to be loved and helped onward, is a greater achievement for a lifetime than to win one’s way to fame or to wealth by selfish striving. One writes thus of a “perfect day”
“I have done good work; I have seen a friend
Who cheered me with a cordial look;
And I found a sweet half hour to spend
With a child, and a rare good book.
“What more could I ask than this, I say?–
A book–a child–a friend,
And my honest work! ‘Twas a perfect day,
From dawn till the starlight end.”
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