There is no assurance of strength to bear great burdens when
there are no great burdens to be borne. Help to endure temptation is
not promised when there are no temptations to be endured. Grace for
dying is nowhere promised while death is yet far off and while one's
duty is to live.
"Of all the tender guards which Jesus drew
About our frail humanity, to stay
The pressure and the jostle that alway
Are ready to disturb, what'er we do,
And mar the work our hands would carry through,
None more than this environs us each day
With kindly wardenship--'Therefore, I say,
Take no thought for the morrow.' Yet we pay
The wisdom scanty heed, and impotent
To bear the burden of the imperious Now,
Assume, the future's exigence unsent.
God grants no overplus of power: 'tis shed
Like morning manna. Yet we dare to bow
And ask, 'Give us to-day our _morrow's_ bread.'"
There is a story of shipwreck which yields an illustration that comes
in just here. Crew and passengers had to leave the broken vessel and
take to the boats. The sea was rough, and great care in rowing and
steering was necessary in order to guard the heavily-laden boats, not
from the ordinary waves, which they rode over easily, but from the
great cross-seas. Night was approaching, and the hearts of all sank as
they asked what they should do in the darkness when they would no
longer be able to see these terrible waves.
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