" Lord, take away pain — The shadow that darkens the world Thou hast made,
The close-coiling chain
* W. M. Clow, The Secret of the Lord, 333.
6o ROOM TO LIVE
That strangles the heart, the burden that weighs
Oil the wings that would soar; Lord, take away pain from the world Thou hast made,
That it love Thee the more ! "
Then answered the Lord to the cry of His world:
" Shall I take away pain And with it the power of the soul to endure,
Made strong by the strain ? Shall I take away pity that knits heart to heart,
And sacrifice high ? Will ye lose all your heroes that lift from the fire
White brows to the sky ? Shall I take away love that redeems with a price,
And smiles at its loss ? Can ye spare from your lives that would climb into ]\Iine
The Christ on His cross ? "
3. The thought of God will change grinding toil into a sweet ministry.
(1) We shall realize that our sphere is God-appointed. The place in which we find ourselves is the place in which the Master desires us to live our life.
Thou cam'st not to thy place by accident; It is the very place God meant for thee.
N There is no haphazard in this world. God leads every one of His children by the right way. He knows where and under what influences each particular life will ripen best. One tree grows best in the sheltered valley, another by the water's edge, another on the bleak mountain-top swept by storms. There is always adaptation in nature. Every tree or plant is found in the locality where the conditions of its growth exist, and does God give more thought to trees and plants than to His own children ? He places us amid the circumstances and experiences in which our life will grow and ripen the best. The peculiar discipline to which we are each subjected is the discipline we severally need to bring out in us the beauties and graces of true spiritual character. We are in the right school. We may think that we would ripen move quickly in a more easy and luxurious life, but God knows what is best ; He makes no mistakes.
PSALM XXXI. 8 6i
^ Too often the Christian thinks that he could " walk and please God " if he might first readjust the pathway to his own liking. But surely it is not so. Our work, our home, our appointed circle of intercourse, our temperament, our past, He has made them. It is ours not to re-arrange His plan, but to follow Him along it. There is an instructive passage in the life of Madame de la Mothe Guyon. At an early stage of her blessed walk with God, peculiar trials beset her home life. She had learnt to taste the deep sweetness of solitary communion with the Lord in order to renew her strength for duty. But day by day this was made impossible in ways exquisitely trying. For a time her spirituai prosperity was greatly disturbed. But soon she saw that even in this there lay hidden the will of God, and that while the difficulty lasted she was accordingly to welcome it as from Him. By His grace she did so, and with the surrender, with the trust, there came to her a larger and fuller experience of peace than she had ever known when time seemed at her own disposal.^
^ There is a work for all of us, and there is a work for each, v work which I cannot do in a crowd, or as one of a mass, but as one man, acting siugly, according to my own gifts, and under a sense of my personal responsibility. There is no doubt associated work for me to do. I must do my work as part of the world's great whole, or as a member of some great body. But I have a special work to do, as one individual, who by God's plan and appointment has a separate position, separate responsibilities, and a separate work ; if I do not do it, it must be left undone. No one of my special fellows can do that special work for me which I have come into the world to do ; he may do a higher work, a greater work, but he cannot do my work. I cannot hand over my work to him, any more than I can hand over my responsi- bilities or my gifts.^
(2) "We shall regard all the tasks of life as golden opportunities to further a great purpose. After having seen the sordidness and meanness and littleness of things, David still held that life is a grand, free, glorious gift, that it is liberty and opportunity and hope. What was the secret of his wide and worthy view of life ? How had he escaped these narrower and meaner thoughts that crowd into men's minds and belittle their lives ? He had laid hold upon God. He looked at life through the Divine purpose. He found the high and noble meaning of the dusty parable that
^ H. C. G. Moule, All in Christ, 207. * Rnskin.
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men call the day's work. When he talks of life as a large room, it is really his way of saying, " Thy service is perfect freedom." If life is lived to God, then it is wider than any man can measure.