April 24
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeWednesday after Third Sunday in Lent
For the fruit of the Spirit is in all . . . righteousness. Ephesians 5:9.
No trouble is too small wherein to see the will of God for thee. Great troubles come but seldom. Daily fretting trials, that is, what of thyself would fret thee, may often in God's Hands conform thee more to His gracious Will. They are the daily touches whereby He traces on thee the likeness of His Divine Will. There is nothing too slight wherein to practise oneness with the will of God. Then shall we be perfect in that will, when we are like children in our Father's arms, carried as He wills, "like the weaned child on its mother's breast," still to our own desires, even when within their very reach. This is attained through God's grace by daily use. By daily practice in little things are our senses exercised, our limbs nerved, our skill perfected. By daily practice in slight crosses of our own will do we learn the lesson our Lord taught. For the joy that was set before Him He endured the Cross. He was not above human need, or the power of the impulse which is given to the human consciousness by the contemplation of the reward, the glorious recompense of self-sacrifice. Stimulate your supernatural ambition by the same marvellous future of an exalted destiny among the Saints, within the Throne, by the Right Hand of God. Let the end be the one prominent idea, that which presses most vividly on your mind, not the means to it, not the form of the trial, but the result of trial in any appointed shape.
"O Father! not My will, but Thine be done," So spake the Son. Be this our charm, mellowing earth's ruder noise Of griefs and joys;