Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1875 — A Monosyllable Meditation. [ARTICLE]

A Monosyllable Meditation.

To do a thing well, one needs to know the worth of deeds large or small. The end may not prove the aim, but a right aim is to be sought first, and then the deed may be left where all men’s deeds must be left, in the hands of God. There are folks who do not ask to know if a thing be right or wrong, but if it will do something to please the self, which is first in the thoughts of a bad mind. To put down this self, the love of Christ is meant to be at hand for our help. Love and law are as one. He who loves most what is right and good and true will prove that law is the chief friend of all. It may be hard to see this so long as sin blinds the eyes. But the light of Christ’s love drives black night off, so that with the pure rays of God’s truth all things mav be seen to be as they are, good or bad. Yet as love is life, we must know that where love is not, the law of God is a hard rule, and the heart turns to it as if it were a foe of peace. Now the part of the law may be to drive us to Him who is the end of the law, but the part of love is to hold us by sweet and strong ties to the Rock cleft for us. There we are safe. The rose is fair, for it draws its life from the sun, which is the source of that wealth of tint and shade which we find" in earth and sky; but how much more do our souls need to draw from the Great Sun of our Faith all that can make them bright and cause them to throw back the rays they get from on high, so that their light may shine clear and well in the ways by which we goto the house not made with hands. In that fair home of love and rest no eyes will be held in the dark, for there will be light of not sun or m<>on, for the Lord God shall lie the light and the joy of those who dwell by the throne. It were well, then, for all who are on this edge of time; by the shore of a vast sea. to walk with feet shod with peace, hands full ot trust, eyes set on the mark, and hearts drawn by a great cord to the long rest; where shall be no storm, but the full calm for which we moan and pray, while the waves press and the winds beat on our weak barks.— E. 8. Porter, I). J). Temptations are true tests, and accordingly are often the best friends we have. The man or woman who has no temptations can never know the strength of principle he or she may possess. Tlie merit of a virtue is brought out when it is beset Dy an enemy. The world likes the strong and the good, but it never sees it till it has shown itSelf by severe contact and struggle with the opposing elements, and been on severe trial, as it were. Self is mighty, the world is mighty, sin is mighty, death is mighty; but Christ is mightier, infinitely mightier, than any of ihein or ail of them combined. 1 Happy is grows with Christ as his portion, for he is ever renewing his youth. He lives, like Moses, upon the mount, in full view of the promised land Take care that all is done in a sweet and easy way; make no toil or task out of the sendee of God. Do all freely and cheerfully, without violent effort.