April 5
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeFriday after Ash Wednesday
They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. Psalms 84:7.
THE future is the special blessing of God to His fallen ones, one of His best gifts to them, enfolding all the possibilities of grace and the powers of the world to come. It offers the fulness of hope in redeeming the misery of the past and winning back the lost crown, bringing again the sun upon the dial on which it has gone down. There is nothing of promised bliss which may not be won by a true faith using all the means of grace which the future opens to the contrite. There is no limit to the promises. The future is the scene in which all the resolutions of a loving faith may embody themselves, in which all energies, hitherto dormant or misspent, may find their sphere of devotion and their rest. Only let the aim be high. Lay hold of the highest possible greatness, to which the callings of God summon you.
In some ways it is easier to maintain a higher than a lower aim. There is a stimulus in the sense of greatness which arouses and enthrals the powers of the soul, while feebler efforts only are stirred at the thought of the lesser object. Energies are put forth at the instance of a great and noble self-devotion, which may remain wholly unknown to the soul, which may be forfeited for ever, because they were never used.
'Tis not enough to save our souls,
To shun the eternal fires;
The thought of God will rouse the heart
To more sublime desires.