| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 6 |
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Centuries ago a little fern leaf grew in a deep valley. Its veins were delicate, its fibres tender. But in a little while it fell and perished. It seemed to have done nothing, to have left no impression in the world. But the other day a party of geologists were going about in the interest of their science. One of them with his hammer broke off a piece of rock, and there he saw the fern–
“Fairy pencilings, a quaint design,
Leafage, veining, fibres, clear and fine;
And the fern’s life lay in every line.
So, I think, God hides some souls away,
Sweetly to surprise us at the last day.”
Persis lived without fame, and when she was gone a little while she was forgotten. But we open one of the New Testament pages, and there the story of her life lies in shining beauty.
Persis is called “the beloved.” We are not told why she was so universally beloved. No doubt her character was beautiful. Every Christian woman should seek to be lovely in her life. Beauty of the face and feature is not the highest beauty. There is a story of a girl who was so homely that even her mother said to her, “You are so ugly that everybody will dislike you, and you will have no friends.” The girl accepted the fact of her homeliness bravely, without being discouraged by it. “I will make my life so beautiful,” she said, “that people will forget my face.” So she set herself to cultivate her mind and spirit. She opened her heart to receive the fullness of Christ’s love, until all the graces of the Spirit blossomed in her character. She grew so like her Master that people no longer thought of the homeliness of her face, but only of the loveliness of her character, the sweetness of her spirit, and the helpfulness of her life. She became an angel of goodness in the town where she lived. Beauty of face may win admiration; only beauty of heart, of diposition, of character, can win love. Persis was called the beloved, not because of any merely physical attractiveness, but because she had in her the qualities of heart that made people love her.
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