| In His Steps |
Chapter 3 |
Page 4 |
The goal of blessedness is not to be reached at one bound: it is the work of long and painful years, and the progress is slow and the transformation gradual and almost imperceptible.
“Heaven is not gained by a single bound,
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to its summit round by round.”
It will help us, in striving after the perfected beauty, to remember that we can best attain it by carving each moment’s line with care. God gives us life by days and hours, not by months and years. The way to have his purpose for us fulfilled in us is to fill each minute with simple faithfulness. Doing God’s will for one moment not only lights the path for the next, but prepares us for its responsibility. Charles Kingsley said, “Do today’s duty, fight today’s temptation, and do not weaken or distract yourself by looking forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.”
Character is a mosaic in which each day has its little stone to set; we need but to look well to the days as they come, and to print on each its record of beauty, and the whole will be beautiful in the end. This living simply by the day is one of the royal secrets of a beautiful life which every young Christian should learn.
A life thus lived, each day made beautiful with the beauty of holiness and of usefulness, will in the end give a record of duty well done, or work completed, of blessings left behind at each step, and a character transfigured by the indwelling divine Spirit and the outworking of love until it shines in the full likeness of Christ himself.
Page 4
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