Making the Most of Life | Page 9

But let us
not forget the vision that awaited these disciples with the coming of the
dawn--the risen Jesus standing on the shore with his salutation of love
and his strong help that instantly turned failure into blessing. So over
against every tempted, struggling, toiling life of Christian disciple,
Christ is ever standing, ready to give victory and to guide to highest
good.
Life would be easier for us all if we could realize the presence and
actual help of Christ in all our experiences. We need to care for only
one thing--that we may be faithful always to duty, and loyal to our
Master. Then, the duller the round and the sorer the struggle, the surer
we shall ever be of Christ's smile and help. We may glory in infirmities,
because then the power of God rests upon us.
It is not ordinarily in the easy ways, in the luxurious surroundings, in
the paths of worldly honor, in the congenial lot, that the brightest

heavenly visions are seen. There have been more blessed revealings of
Christ in prisons than in palaces, in homes of poverty than in homes of
abundance, in ways of hardship than in ways of ease. We need only to
accept our task-work, our drudgery, our toil, in Christ's name, and the
glory of Christ will transfigure it and shine upon our faces.
CHAPTER IV.
THE POSSIBILITIES OF PRAYER.
"Ask and receive--'tis sweetly said; Yet what to plead for know I not,
For wish is worsted, hope o'ersped, And aye to thanks returns my
thought. If I would pray I've naught to say, But this, that God may be
God still: For time to live So still to give, And sweeter than my wish
his will." --DAVID A. WASSON.
We do not begin to realize the possibilities of prayer. There is no limit,
for example, to the scope of prayer. We may embrace in it all things
that belong to our life, not merely those which affect our spiritual
interests, but those as well which seem to be only worldly matters.
Nothing that concerns us in any way is matter of indifference to God.
One writes: "Learn to entwine with your prayers the small cares, the
trifling sorrows, the little wants of daily life. Whatever affects you,--be
it a changed look, an altered tone, an unkind word, a wrong, a wound, a
demand you cannot meet, a sorrow you cannot disclose,--turn it into
prayer and send it up to God. Disclosures you may not make to man,
you can make to the Lord. Men may be too little for your great matters;
God is not too great for your small ones. Only give yourself to prayer,
whatever be the occasion that calls for it."
We soon find, however, if we are really earnest, that our desires are too
great for words. We have in our hearts feelings, hungerings, affections,
longings, which we want to breathe out to God; but when we begin to
speak to him, we find no language adequate for their expression. We
try to tell God of our sorrow for sin, of our weakness and sinfulness,
then of our desire to be better, to love Christ more, to follow him more
closely, and of our hunger after righteousness, after holiness; but it is

very little of these deep cravings that we can get into speech.
Language is a wonderful gift. The power of putting into words the
thoughts and emotions of our souls, that others may understand them, is
one of the most marvellous powers the Creator has bestowed upon us.
Thus we communicate our feelings and desires the one to the other. It is
a sore deprivation when the gates of speech are shut and locked, and
when the soul cannot tell its thoughts.
Yet we all know, unless our thoughts and feelings are very shallow and
trivial, that even the wonderful faculty of language is inadequate to
express all that the soul can experience. No true orator ever finds
sentences majestic enough to interpret the sentiments that burn in his
soul. Deep, pure love is never able to put into words its most sacred
feelings and emotions. It is only the commonplace of the inner life that
can be uttered in even the finest language. There is always more that
lies back, unexpressed, than is spoken in any words.
It is specially true of prayer that we cannot utter its deepest feelings and
holiest desires. We have comfort, however, in the assurance that God
can hear thoughts. He knows what we want to say and cannot express.
Your dearest friend may stand close to you when your mind is full of
thoughts, but unless you speak or give some sign, he cannot know one
of your thoughts. He may lay his ear close