We must catch the sacred meaning of our opportunities if we
would live up to our best.
CHAPTER XX.
THE SIN OF INGRATITUDE.
"The sun may shine upon the clod till it is warm,
Warm for its own poor darkling self to live.
He smites the diamond, and oh, how glows the gem,
Chilling itself, irradiant, to give.
"The silent soul, that takes but gives not out again,
In shining thankfulness, a smile, a tear,
Absorbing, makes none other glad, and misses so
The purest and the best of love's rich cheer."
--MARY K. A. STONE.
A blessing given ought always to have some return. It is better to be
a diamond, lighted to shine, than a clod, warmed to be only a dull,
dark clod. We all receive numberless favors, but we do not all alike
make fitting return.
Krummacher has a pleasant little fable with a suggestion. When
Zaccheus was old he still dwelt in Jericho, humble and pious before God
and man. Every morning at sunrise he went out into the fields for a
walk, and he always came back with a calm and happy mind to begin his
day's work. His wife wondered where he went in his walks, but he never
spoke to her of the matter. One morning she secretly followed him. He
went straight to the tree from which he first saw the Lord. Hiding
herself, she watched him to see what he would do. He took a pitcher,
and carrying water, he poured it about the tree's roots which were
getting dry in the sultry climate.
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