Their Greatest Obstacle in the
Way of Spiritual Growth and Transformed Character by J.R. Miller from
The Transformed Life, 1893. Nothing helps more to develop
the transfigured life in us than work. Some people chafe because
they have so much to do. Their days are filled from morning
to night with dreary, monotonous task work. With men, it is the
never-ending work of the farm, the office, the store, the shop,
the mill. With women, it is the thousand
duties of the household, the care of the home, the tending
of children, the weary chores of domestic life. There are many
people who think their greatest obstacle in the way of spiritual
growth and transformed character is in the drudgeries to which
they are indentured by their condition. They imagine that
if they could be freed from these, and could have leisure for reading,
for study, and for fellowship, then they would grow into far
more radiant beauty of character. But this is a mistaken impression.
The only one perfect life the world has ever known was not
spent with a book, but with a hammer and a saw. The school of common
task-work, with its perpetual round of dreary duties, is the
best place in the world in which to attain noble spiritual culture. There is no other way in which
one's life will be so surely and so quickly transfigured as
in the faithful, cheerful doing of everyday tasks. We need to
remember that this world is not so much a place for doing things
as for developing character. Household life is not primarily
a sphere for good cooking, tidy keeping of rooms, thorough sweeping
and dusting, careful nursing and training of children, hospitable
entertainment of friends, and the thousand things that must
be done each day. It is a sphere for transforming
women's souls into radiant beauty. The shop, the mill, the factory,
the store, the office, the farm are not primarily places for
making machines, selling goods, weaving cloths, building engines,
and growing crops. They are, first of all, places
for making men. building character, growing souls. Right in the midst of what some
people call drudgery is the very best place to get the transformed,
transfigured life. The doing of common tasks patiently,
promptly, faithfully, cheerfully makes the character beautiful
and bright.