The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1903-08-28
IF WE HAD OUR CHOICE.
Would Our Way he Better II what
ever In Painful, Bitter and Sor-
rOwful Were Omitted.

we are tempted to think, gays Rev. ].
K. Miller, d. d., in New York OBJ
server. II this were permitted to us,
no doubt there would be great change
In the method of what we now call Prov
idence. We would at once eliminate all
that is painful and unpleasant in our
lot. We would have only properties,
with no adversities, only joys, with no
sorrows. We would exclude pain from
our life and all trouble. The days would
all be sunny, with no clouds or storms.
The paths would all be messy and
strewn with flowers, without thorns or
any rough places.
All this has very pleasing aspect
for us, when we think Of it lightly and in
a superficial way. Would not that be
better than as we have it now? Would
we not be happier. and would not life
mean more to us in blessing and good.
II we could direct our own affairs, and
leave out whatever is painful, bitter, adj
verse or sorrowful? So most of us
would probably say at first, before we
have thought Of the question deeply and
looked on to the end But really the
greatest misfortune that could come to
us in this world would be to have the
direction of the affairs and the shaping
OF the experiences of our lives put into
our own hands. We have no wisdom to
know what is best for ourselves. To-
day is not all OF life-there is long fu-
ture, perhaps many years in this world.
and then immortality hereafter. What
would give us greater pleasure to-day
might work us harm in days to come.
Present qualification might cost us I'M
told loss and hurt in the future.
Our wants and our real needs are not
always the same. We want pleasure.
plenty, rosperity-perhaps we need
pain, self-denial, the giving up of
things that we greatly prize. We shrink
from suffering. from sacrifice, from
struggle-perhaps these are the very
experiences which will do the most for
us, which will bring out in us the best
possibilities of our natures, which will
fit us for the largest service to God and
man.
There Is something wonderfully in
oPiAhiS III thC LiiOuSuI lIldt NIOQ mas
plan and purpose for ELVES, for each
life. We do not come drifting into
tbs world, and we do not drift through it.
like waits on the ocean, We are sent
from God, each one of us, with a divine
thought for His life-something God
wants us to do, some place He wants us
to fill. All through our lives we are in
the hands of God, Who chooses our place
and orders our circumstances, and is
ready to make all things work together
for our good Our part in all this is the
acceptance OF Gods will for our lives.
as that will is made known to us day by
day. If we thus acquiesce in the Di-
vine way for us, We shall fulfill the Dr.
vine purpose.
1t rs the highest honor that could be
conferred upon us to occupy such a
place in the thought of God. We cannot
doubt that His way for us is better than
ours, since He is infinitely wiser than
We are. 1t may be painful and hard. but
in the pain and the hardness there is
blessing.
One is called apart from active life and
shut up in sick-room. 1t seems to
him that his time is being wasted. There
are many things that need to be done
and which he might have done, instead
of lying there with folded hands in his
darkened room. People to whom his
life is a continual blessing miss him
when he comes not. He seems in his
illness to be leaving great blank where
there ought to have been many good
deeds and gentle ministries. Besides
this loss to others and to the work of
the world, sickness is most costly to the
sick man himself. It's money cost Is
great. Then its burden of suffering is
great.
What is there to compensate for all
this loss and cost to make the long ILL.,
ness really blessing? Is there any,
thing? If we were directing the af-
fairs of our own lives, we would not mt
the sickness in. Is it possible that
Gods way is better than ours would
have been?
OF course we may not claim to know
all the reasons there are in the Divine
mind for the pains and sufferings that
come into our lives, or what Gods de-
sign is for us in these trials. Without
discovering any reasons at all, we NAV
still trust God, Who loves us with an
infinite love, and Whose wisdom also IL
infinite. But we can think of some
ways in which it is possible for blessing
and good to come out of sick-room ex-
perience.
The Master has other work for us
besides what we do in our common oc-
equations. We have other lessons to
learn besides those we get from books
and friends and current events. and
through life's ordinary experiences.
There is work to be dore in us, in our |
own hearts and lives, which is even more |
important than anything assigned to us |
In the scheme of the worlds activities. |
There are lessons which we can learn |
much better in the quiet shaded sick |
room than outside, in the glare of the
streets and amid the clamor of earth's |
strifes. Our shut-in days need never
be lost days. Whatever they may cost
us in money or in suffering, we need not
be poorer when they are over than II |
we had been busy all the while at the
worlds tasks.
We need only to accept Gods way and
go as He leads, and at the end we shall
find that in not the smallest matter have
we ever been unwisely led, but that at
every step He has brought us to some
good. We do not know what the future,
even the nearest hour of the future, may