The Divine Gardener, J. R. Miller, How to Live a Beautiful
Christian Life, 1880 We may think that our lot is especially hard,
and may wish that it were otherwise. We may wish that we had a life
of ease and luxury amid softer scenes, with no briars or thorns,
no worries or provocations. We think that then we would be
always gentle, patient, serene, trustful, happy—how delightful
it would be!—never to have a care, an irritation, a trouble, a single
vexing thing. But the fact remains that the
place in which we find ourselves is the very place in which the
Master desires us to live our life. There is no haphazard in
God's world. God leads every one of His children
by the right way. He knows where and under what
influences each particular life will ripen best. One tree grows
best in the sheltered valley, another by the water's edge,
another on the bleak mountaintop swept by storms. Every tree or
plant is found in the precise locality to enhance its growth,
and does God give more thought to trees and plants than to His
own children? No, he places us amid the circumstances
and experiences in which our life will grow and ripen the
best. The peculiar trials to which
we are subjected is the exact discipline we each need to bring
out the beauties and graces of true spiritual character in us. We are in the right school. We
may think that we would ripen more quickly, in a more easy
and luxurious life, but God knows what is best for us. He makes
no mistakes. There is a little fable which
says that a primrose growing by itself in a shady corner of
the garden became discontented as it saw the other flowers in
their mirthful beds in the sunshine, and begged to be moved to a more
conspicuous place. Its prayer was granted, the gardener
transplanted it to a more showy and sunny spot. It was greatly
pleased, but a change came over it immediately. Its blossoms
lost much of their beauty and became pale and sickly. The hot
sun caused them to faint and wither, so it prayed again to
be taken back to its old place in the shade. The wise gardener
knows best where to plant each flower. Just so, God, the divine
gardener, knows where His people will best grow into what He would
have them to be. Some require the fierce storms,
some will only thrive in the shadow of worldly adversity,
and some come to ripeness more sweetly under the soft and gentle
influences of prosperity whose beauty rough experiences would
mar. The Divine Gardener knows what
is best for each one. There is no position in this
world in the allotment of providence in which it is not possible to
be a true Christian, exemplifying all the virtues of godliness.
The grace of Christ has in it potency enough to enable us to
live godly wherever we are called to dwell. When God chooses a
home for us, He fits us for its peculiar trials. God adapts His
grace to the peculiarities of each one's necessity. For rough,
flinty paths, He provides shoes of iron. He never sends anyone
to climb sharp, rugged mountainsides wearing silken slippers. He always
gives sufficient grace. As the burdens grow heavier,
the strength increases. As the difficulties thicken,
he draws closer. As the trials become soarer,
the trusting heart grows calmer. Jesus always sees His disciples
when they are toiling in the waves, and at the right moment
He comes to deliver them. Thus, it becomes possible to
live a true and victorious life in any circumstances. Christ
can as easily enable Joseph to remain pure and true in heathen
Egypt as Benjamin in the shelter of his father's love. The sharper
the temptations, the more of divine grace is granted. There
is, therefore, no environment of trial or difficulty or hardship
in which we cannot live beautiful lives of Christian fidelity and
holy conduct. Instead, then, of yielding to
discouragement when trials multiply, and it becomes hard to live right,
or of being satisfied with a very faulty life, it should be our
settled purpose to live, through the grace of God, a patient,
gentle, and unspotted life, in the place and amid the circumstances
He allots to us. The true victory is not found
in escaping or evading trials, but in rightly meeting and enduring
them. The question should not be, How
can I get out of these worries? How can I get into a place where
there shall be no irritations, nothing to try my temper or put
my patience to the test? How can I avoid the distractions
that continually harass me? There is nothing noble in such
living. The question should rather be,
how can I pass through these trying experiences and not fail
as a Christian? How can I endure these struggles
and not suffer defeat? How can I live amid these provocations,
these testings of my temper, and yet live sweetly, not speaking
unadvisedly, bearing injuries meekly, Returning gentle answers
to insulting words, this is the true problem of Christian living.