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There are some people who think it impossible in their narrow sphere
and in their uncongenial circumstances to live so as to win God's favor
or be blessings in the world. But there is no doubt that many of the
most beautiful lives of earth, in Heaven's sight, are those that are
lived in what seem the most unfavorable conditions. A visitor to
Amsterdam wished to hear the wonderful music of the chimes of St.
Nicholas, and went up into the tower of the church to hear it. There
he found a man with wooden gloves on his hands, pounding on a keyboard.
All he could hear was the clanging of the keys when struck by the
wooden gloves, and the harsh, deafening noise of the bells close over
his head. He wondered why people talked of the marvellous chimes of
St. Nicholas. To his ear there was no music in them, nothing but
terrible clatter and clanging. Yet, all the while, there floated out
over and beyond the city the most entrancing music. Men in the fields
paused in their work to listen and were made glad. People in their
homes and travellers on the highways were thrilled by the marvellous
bell-notes that fell from the chimes.
There are many lives which to those who dwell close beside them seem to
make no music. They pour out their strength in hard toil. They are
shut up in narrow spheres. They dwell amid the noise and clatter of
common task-work. They appear to be only striking wooden hammers on
rattling, noisy keys.
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