| The Way of Victory |
Chapter 5 |
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Any man who has a noble woman for his wife will say Amen to the statement that the price of such a woman as is painted in this passage is far above rubies. She is better to him than all the rubies in the world would be. He would be a fool if he were to exchange her for them all. The young man who finds such a woman for his wife may consider himself rich, though having nothing in the world besides. The reference to rubies suggests also some of the qualities which belong to the true character of every worthy woman. A writer says: “There is something in the glow of precious stones that peculiarly fits them to serve for spiritual figures. There is about them a subtle light, a brilliancy that burns without fire, that consumes nothing and requires no supply, that for ever shines without oil. A diamond that glows in the sunlight flashes yet more beautifully at night. No mould can get root upon it, no rust can tarnish it, no decay can waste it. The jewels that were buried two thousand years ago if now dug up from the royal and priestly tombs would come forth as fair and fresh as they were when the proud wearer first carried them in his diadem-fit emblems of the beauty and imperishableness of Christian virtue.” It would be easy to show how this applies to a true and Christlike woman. There pours forth from her spirit a gentle emanation of light like that which a diamond emits. It is the soft radiance of love. It is the peace of God in her heart, shining out. It is the quiet beaming forth of the joy that lives deep in her soul. It needs no oil and no fire, for the candle of love that burns within her own breast supplies the light. Like the diamond, also, womanhood of this type shines the most brightly in the darkness. The noble woman is beautiful in the light, in the time of joy, in the brightness of prosperity, in the midst of earthly gladness. She shines then in her home, among her friends, wherever she goes. But it is only in time of trial that the most precious things in her nature appear. Like those precious stones, too, the rich lustre of her life is not dimmed by time and its experiences. Sorrow comes upon her, but it makes her beauty of soul only the more radiant. Care comes to her, — toi1, burdenbearing, responsibility, sometimes poverty, pinching want, loss, but amid it all she moves victorious, unfretted in spirit, keeping faith, her face shining still with its sacred inner light.
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