June 11
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeTuesday of the Third Week after Easter
A little while. S. John 16:18.
LET what may happen your life, the life that you live with God and for His sake must be preserved, cost what it may. It will cost you a great many sorrowful confessions; it will cost you some hard penances; it will cost you many a day of weariness, many a night of watching, but you must say, like the chief of old, "I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back." You know, each of you, what is that sin which cleaves as closely to you as a garment, and which you must tear off and leave behind if you desire to be presented hereafter, as brides of Christ should be, not having spot nor wrinkle, nor any such thing. It will be a terrible wrench. Sometimes it is very hard to obey. It is so very hard when angry to kneel down and say, "Now from this spot I will not rise till every spark of anger is gone." It is very hard to make the body suffer that the soul may escape. What a wonderful power there is in these words "a little while"! In the season of affliction or the hour of temptation, or amidst quarrels and disputes, how soothing and calming is this mysterious expression of our Lord's "a little while"! A little while and this trouble, this joy, this passion—all this scene—will have gone by; then be our constant watchword this, "The Lord Himself is near!"
Take anxious care for nought, To God your wants make known, And soar, on wings of heavenly thought, Towards His eternal throne.
So, though our path is steep, And many a tempest lours, Shall His own peace our spirits keep, And Christ's dear love be ours.