| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 15 |
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Young people ought to form their life and character not merely for easy things, for common experiences and achievements, but for emergencies. When they build a ship at Cramp’s, they do not make it strong enough merely to run down the Delaware; they do not compute their measurements of strength for the vessel with a view to a July passage over the sea, when there will probably not be any storms. They build it for the fiercest tempests it may ever have to encounter. That is the way young people ought to do with their lives. Just now, in their sweet homes, they do not have a care or an anxious thought. Everything is done for them. Flowers bloom all about them, love sweetens all the days. They hope to have the same sheltered life all their years, and they may never need to be strong. They may never have a struggle, nor know a want, nor have to face adversity, nor be called to fight hard battles for themselves. It is possible that no sudden midnight call may ever cause fear or consternation in their hearts. But they are not sure of this. Before them may lie sorest testing. At least they will repeat the folly of the foolish virgins, if in the days of education and training they prepare only for easy experiences, unburdened days, and do not build into their life sound principles, staunch character, indomitable courage, invincible strength, so as to be ready for the most serious possible future.
What is true of life in its equipment for success in other departments is quite as true of religious preparation. It is not enough to be a good Christian on Sunday and in church. It is not enough to seek a religion that will keep us respectable, decorous, and true in life’s easy, untested ways. You may never have to meet temptations or be called to endure persecution for you faith. You may never have to take up the burdens of great responsibility. Your life may always be easy. But the chances are that you will come into times of trial. Therefore you must prepare yourself now, so that whatever you may be called upon to meet hereafter, in the way of duty, struggle, endurance, or testing of any kind, you may not fail. Build your ship for the roughest seas. Have you reserve of oil, so that if ever your lamps are going out, you can refill them, and keep the light shining through the darkest midnight hours.
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