Trial lies somewhere in every one’s path. To the young it may seem far off, and even thinking of it may be unwelcome. “Why should we stain the blue of our skies,” they ask, “with anticipations of trouble that may not come for years?” We are specially commanded by our Lord himself not to take anxious thought for any tomorrow. The true rule of a life of trust is to live by the day.
“Make a little fence of trust
Around today;
Fill the space with loving works,
And therein stay;
Look not through the sheltering bars
Upon tomorrow:
God will help thee bear what comes,
If joy or sorrow.”
Yet there is a sense in which even in their happiest days the young should anticipate trial. The man whose garners have been filled from this year’s golden harvest should not be anxious about next year’s bread, but he must forecast his future wants by sowing in time to have another harvest. We need not sadden our days of joy by anticipations of coming sorrow, but we ought, even in our sunniest hours, to be preparing for the times of gloom, so as to be in readiness for them when they come. We ought in our plenty years to store away provision to feed upon in the famine years that will follow. We ought in the glad springtime, amid plenty, to sow the seeds whose fruit we shall need in the dreary autumn. In the pleasant summer days, when we have no need for fuel, we ought to gather the wood which by and by we shall want for our winter fires.
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