Making the Most of Life | Page 8

reveal himself to you in them. Be sure that
he will never come to you when you are avoiding any tasks, when you
are withholding your hand from any duty, or when you are fretting and
discontented over any circumstances or conditions of your lot. There
are no visions of the Christ for idle dreamers or for unhappy shirkers.
Suppose you have come back, like the disciples, from times of
privilege and exaltation, and find yourself face to face once more with
an old life which seems now unworthy of you; yet for the time your
duty is clear, and if you would have a vision of Christ, you must take
up the duty with gladness. Suppose that your home-life is narrow,
humdrum, unpoetic, uncongenial, even cold and unkindly; yet there for
the time is your place, and there are your duties. And right in this
sphere, narrow though it seem, there is room for holiest visions of

Christ and for the richest revealings of his grace and blessing.
It will be remembered that Jesus himself, after his glimpse of higher
things in the temple, went back to the lowly peasant home at Nazareth,
and there for eighteen years more found scope enough for the
development of the richest nature this world ever saw, and for the
fullest and completest doing of duty ever wrought beneath the skies.
Whatever, then, may be our shrinking from dull tasks, our distaste for
dreary duty, our discontent with a narrow place and with limiting
circumstances, we should go promptly to the work that God assigns,
and accept the conditions that lie in the lot which he appoints. And in
our hardest toil, our most irksome tasks, our lowliest duties, our
dreariest and most uncongenial surroundings, we shall have but to lift
up our eyes to see the blessed form of Christ standing before us, with
cheer, sympathy, and encouragement for us.
There is more of the lesson. Not only did Christ reveal himself to these
disciples while at their lowly work, but he helped them in it. He told
them where to cast their net, and turned their failure to success. We
think of Christ as helping us to endure temptation, to bear trial, to
overcome sin, to do spiritual duties, but we sometimes forget that he is
just as ready to help us in our common work. That morning he helped
the disciples in their fishing. He will help us in our trade or business, or
in whatever work we have to do.
We all have our discouraged days, when things do not go well. The
young people fail in their lessons at school, although they have studied
hard, and really have done their best. Or the mothers fail in their
household work. The children are hard to control. It has been
impossible to keep good temper, to maintain that sweetness and
lovingness that are so essential to a happy day. They try to be gentle,
kindly, and patient, but, try as they will, their minds become ruffled and
fretted with cares. They come to the close of the long, unhappy hours
disturbed, defeated, discouraged. They have done their best, but they
feel that they have only failed. They fall upon their knees, but they have
only tears for a prayer. Yet if they will lift up their eyes, they will see
on the shore of the troubled sea of their little day's life the form of One

whose presence will give them strength and confidence, and who will
help them to victoriousness. Before his sweet smile the shadows flee
away. At his word new strength is given, and, after that, work is easy,
and all goes well again.
Men, too, in their busy life, are continually called to struggle, ofttimes
to suffer. Life is not easy for any who would live truly. Work is hard;
burdens are heavy; responsibility is great; trials are sore; duty is large.
Life's competitions are fierce; its rivalries are keen; its frictions
sometimes grind men's very souls well nigh to death. It is hard to live
sweetly amid the irritations that touch continually at most tender points.
It is hard to live lovingly and charitably when they see so much
inequity and wrong, and sometimes must themselves endure men's
uncharity and injustice. It is hard to toil and never rest, earning even
then scarce enough to feed and clothe those who are dependent on them
for care. It is hard to meet temptation's fierce assaults, and keep
themselves pure, unspotted from the world, ready for heaven any hour
the Lord may come.
It is no wonder that men are sometimes discouraged and lose heart.
They are like those weary disciples that spring morning on the Sea of
Galilee, after they had toiled all night and had taken nothing.