CHAPTER XIV THE MINISTRY OF WELL-WISHING
There are few hearts in which there do not lie kindly wishes
for others. The man must be depraved indeed,
who has only malign thoughts and desires for his fellow men.
Every Christian at least wishes others well, since love is the
law of the regenerated life. There are occasions, too, when
the good wishes find their way to the lips in kindly words.
We say good-morning when we meet a neighbour, and good-bye when
we part from him. When our friends' birthdays come,
we are in the habit of finding many delicate and pleasant ways
of expressing our good-will. The Christmas time and the New
Year usually thaw out of our hearts the laggard good feelings,
prompting us to many acts and words of kindness. It is well
that our hearts have their seasons of generous blossoming, even
if they are so brief, and are fixed by the almanac. It is well
that anything whatever has power to touch our lips with fire from
the altar of love and teach us to speak the gentle words which
the lives about us are so hungry to hear. One of the saddest things
about life is that with such boundless power to give cheer
to others by our speech, most of us pass through the words
in silence, locking up in our own hearts the thoughtful and
helpful words which we might speak and which, if spoken, would
minister so much strength and inspiration. Hearts are breaking
with sorrow. Men are bowing under burdens
too heavy for them. duty is too large, battles are
too sore, on every hand and in every life there is need for
love's ministry, that men and women may not fail. Nor is it
large and costly service which usually is needed. The kindly
utterance of a kindly feeling will often give all the impulse
and inspiration required. and the feeling is always close
at hand, needing but to be put into honest words, and spoken
where the struggle is going on. Yet many of us let the good will
lie in our heart unuttered, and stand by in silence, while our
brother beside us goes down in defeat, which one word of ours
would have changed into victory. It is not the lack of love that
is our fault, but the stinginess which locks up the love and will
not give it out to bless others. Is any miserliness so base? We let hearts starve to death
close beside us, when in our hands is the food to keep them
living and make them strong. Then, when they lie in the dust
of defeat, We come, with our love, to make funeral wreaths
for them, and speak eloquent eulogies to their memory. How
much better it would be if at all times we gave freer rain
to our lips in speaking kindly and cheering words. It is truly
very sad when nothing less than the death of our friends can
draw from our slow and selfish hearts the debt of love and of
helpfulness that we owe them. The warmest utterances then of
love's good Cannot stir again the heart's chilled currents.
It is too late to cheer the defeated spirit To new and victorious
struggle. There is a time for the angel
ministry. It is when the conflict is waging. When death has come, or failure
or defeat, The opportunity is past for ever. The good wishes
of friends do not, by their mere utterance, become realities in
our lives. If they did, how rich most of
us would be, and how happy! Good wishes, however, may be
made to come true, they may be turned into prayers by those
who make them, and, passing through the hands of Christ, may be changed
from mere empty breath into choice blessings which shall enrich
our lives, or feed our souls, or shine like sparkling gems
upon our brows. The best way for our friends
to get good things to us is to pass them through Christ's hands. No doubt many of the good wishes
that fall from the lips of those we meet are but empty forms,
thoughtlessly uttered, with neither real desire nor fervor in the
heart. Many of them also, that are sincere
enough, are wishes for very empty things. Happiness is the word
into which so often the wish is coined, yet mere happiness
is not by any means life's best blessing. It is but the ripple
of laughter on life's surface. One may be happy and never have
one deep thought of life. Happiness is the product of mere
earthly blessings—friends, honors, pleasures, riches—and these are
the cheapest and least valuable and least satisfying things life
can give. Wise and holy friends will wish
better things for us, things that we can keep, things that
will live on in us through all life's changes, and last over
into the eternal years. It is in such qualities as these
that we should seek to grow. Happiness is but like the sparkling
dew that shines on the leaves and grasses in the summer morning,
but is gone as soon as the sun's heat touches it. Life itself
is deeper than happiness, and true blessings are those that
are carved in life's own fiber. The good wishes that are of most
worth are those that are for qualities of character which
we can carry with us through the pearly gate. The friends
who think only of this world's beauties and honors and possessions
and attainments when they wish us well, do not understand the
table of values by which heaven estimates everything. How to
get these great things into our lives is the question. Our best
and truest friends cannot put them into our lives by any power
of love. They may utter the wishes and
may translate them into prayers, but only we ourselves can take
the benedictions and the answered prayers into our life. This we
cannot do by mere resolving and purposing. New Year or birthday
resolutions are good enough as such, but unless they are gotten
into the heart and life, as well as down in neat lines on paper,
they will amount to little. Intentions may be very fine,
but they must be lived out to become of practical worth. Rainbows
are splendid pictures as they arch over the meadows and fields,
but they vanish while you gaze at them. No hand is alert enough
to grasp them and hold them down upon earth. It is so with the
lovely visions of excellence or of beauty which glow before
us in our better moments. Unless we set ourselves at once
to work them into life, they will vanish into air. We must
get our rainbows down out of the skies and into our hearts. We must take the good wishes
of our friends and turn them into life. We must let them into
our spirits as the plant in the garden lets the sunshine and
the rain into itself and transmutes it into blooming, fragrant roses. Just how to do this is an important
question. The Bible emphasizes the fact
that all growth of character must begin within. We are to
be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Our hearts make
our lives. What we are in heart, in spirit,
in the inner life, we are really before God. And that, too, we
shall ultimately become in actual character, in outward feature. The disposition makes the face. Every creature builds its own
house to live in and builds it just like itself. Coarseness
builds coarsely. Taste builds tastefully. A corrupt heart works through
in the end and changes all without into moral decay like itself. Jealousy, envy, bitterness, selfishness,
all write their own image and signature on the features if
you give them time enough. A pure, beautiful soul builds
a holy and divine dwelling for itself. In one of Goethe's tales
he tells of a wonderful lamp which was placed in the fisherman's
hut, but changed it all to silver. In reality, the lamp of Christ's
love, set in the human heart, transforms the life from sinfulness
and earthliness into the likeness of Christ himself. To make good
wishes come true, we must first get them into our heart, and
then they will soon become real in our life. No wish is more
commonly expressed than that we may be happy. But true happiness
depends altogether on the heart. A heart at peace fills our world
with peace. Light shining in the bosom gives
us light wherever we may be. The miners carry little lamps
on their caps, and wherever they move in the dark mines there
is light. So it is with us, if in us the
lamp of joy shines in our hearts. The world may grow very dark
sometimes, but round about us there is always light. We shall
be surely happy in the truest sense if we have Christ's joy
in our hearts. This is a lamp which shines through
the longest night. No storm blows it out. Indeed,
its beams grow brighter the denser the gloom about us and the fiercer
the storm. Christ's joy was in his own life,
a lamp which was not quenched, even by the awful darkness of
the cross. If we would realize the wishes
of our friends for joy, we must be sure to get the love of Christ
into our hearts. And then we shall always have
our own lamp and shall find gladness wherever we go. We need not,
then, in any case, greatly worry about our circumstances. If we
are right within, all will be well. If the lamp is kept burning
within the chamber, it will be light there, however deep the
gloom outside.