Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1857-09-09
From the Crisis.
The Wav of Life.

How much divine Joy is mingled with un.
rest passionate regret and half discourage
meut, as we take up our life journey. So
clear, SO rich, SO peace-distilhng is the atmos-
phere around us sometimes, that we cannot
comprehend the strength Of the evils that
are not yet driven from our borders. We
are Glad to learn the defects of our natures
we are eager that "the crooked places
should be made straight, and the rough pla-
ces plain" But it is hard to be thrust in to
circumstances that strike rudely against the
whole free beat of our minds; we desire to
creep out Of them in some way, but see that
this involuntary impulse is wrong we try to
yield we'll and gracefully, but do not succeed
altogether; we journey through the day per-
haps, with rays of light breaking above us in
answer to beseeching prayer, but gray clouds
shut together over the brightness, and we
pass on fulfilling our work with sort of an
noying fire preying upon our hearts. Then
there is no help for us but to cry out to God
"Let the misery quietly burn on; let the
fine gold come forth from the dross; let thy
will be done" All! when this beautiful
consent to endure, rises like incense upward,
we arc entering new and better state; per-
chance at such moments, if we sit down to
read passage from the Holy Word, it lifts
us above the present, and we verify smile to
realize that we have been walking through
the groves of that Eden, which we shall
tread when the scales have fallen from our
eyes: we see that we are linked with the in
terests of heaven; the slough of despair is
bravely encountered, for the goal shines be-
fore us, and we must not lose it. Anon some
little deed of faithfulness is suggested to our
thought-we fulfil it, and perceive that it
would have been undone, if we had been
left to pursue the easy current of our way.
Absolute gladness supplants anxiety, as we
discover that the Lords love drove us from
the path of external pleasure into the mar
row road that guides to the coming glory
Every step from natural freedom to spiritual
freedom is taken through uneasiness-we
cannot glide softly into peace; its way is
prepared by the battle sword; oftentime we
are captured and taken down into Egypt,
where the riots of our evils convinces us
again, and again, that while we live on earth
we must not dare to rest in the belief that
we are conquerors, and have sufficiently adj
vanced in regeneration to be clad in armor Of
proof against the foes of olden time.
While the world is in its present state, it
must be sheer impossibility for the inward
life to work harnoniously with the outward
circumstances of our lot: there may be agree
ment for time-our natural warnings may
be satisfied with bright successes, or our spir-
itual desires may be brought into accordance
with temporal infelicities; but the harmony
in each case must be for season; if we
enemies must be seen and acknowledged as
such; in our best states we deceive ourselves
with the happy thought that we are nearer
God than we are: only the war of crcum-
stances against our wishes, can place us in
true light before ourselves-the All-seeing
provides and permits the great events and
the minute surroundings that fill up the
sphere of our external life; where no wisdom
of. ours can alter our fate, we ourselves must
be bent and broken into such accord as will
give birth to celestial liberty; while endur-
ing the pangs that Stay our natural repose,
we are called upon to wrestle for the higher
good that will bring content in such fields of
destiny as lie Immediately before us; we
must turn to account little experience, and
by Gods help, mould from them something
to carry to heaven with us: common duties
can become significant if the Lord bend us
to their fulfllment. The. Unsuitable longing
to break away from them to do something
higher, is not all evil, if it strike out unex-
pected gems from the soil that we pronounced
barren at careless glance: if this sense of
inadequate opportunities did not stir within
us, we should never profit by the small open
ings of Providence. To do all that we can,
is to walk perpetually through one gate of
progress after another; it is only when we
look backward that we perceive all that has
been evolved from the performance of unpa-
latable duties that were forced beneath our
hand the very narrowness that chafed us
has been the means of developing to our
thought our fit uses: it may have goaded us
into paths we were not bold enough to take
except under the pressure of the spirits ne
cessitous cry. We do not always love what
God sends us to do; we do not always take
our discipline in such wise that it will intro
duce us to state more and more heavenly,
hence we are longer kept under the harrow,
until in anguish and unrest we plead for d.
vine light and support Our days move on