Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1903-01-31
HARD CIRCUMSTANCES.
Few People Put N Right Estimate Up
on Them-Pnrt of the Train
ing of Life.

Everybody cries out against them.
Almost everybody fights against them.
Few put real value upon them. People
like things easy and pleasant. That is
natural. But there are a few voices
that have some very good things to say
about hard circumstances. These
voices say that the best and strongest
and most far-seeing characters have
grown up out Of hard circumstances.
Almost all the brightest lives of the
world have graduated from the "col-
lege of hard knocks"
The Scriptures are constantly telling
us about great characters that were
born where many things were against
them. 1T was true of Jesus. Every
thing and every person was against
Him from the hour of His birth. When
He describes the one whom He called
the greatest ever born, He marks Him
as surrounded by hostile circumstan-
ces. He was not born to wear soft
raiment. He was not brought up in
kings houses. Still He was no reed
shaken by the wind. His strong and
great character was born and educated
in hard circumstances. Peter and Paul,
says the Philadelphia Young People,
are seen growing sweeter and tender
er and greater while circumstances
pinch them with letters and harass
them with threats.
In hard circumstances Milton wrote
his Paradise Lost" In like circum-
stances Bunyan grew great and strong
enough to write his "Pilgrim's Prog
and if Bunyan had not been cast into
prison we should not have known their
immortal works. Livingstone in his
youth looked up at the great bare
walls of a cotton mill. He read there
no promise of opportunity or of great
ness, but he made hard circumstances
splendid servants TO lead to large
things for himself and the world. Hard
circumstances did not keep him from
being laid among the great in his.
3eath. His character and his work
cannot be forgotten.
Lincoln in his younger years never
knew the caresseS of fortune Every
thing that he gained had to be forced
from the unwilling hand of hard en-
vironment. Adversely was his teacher
He did not repine. He fought for his
life. He put adverse circumstances
under his feet. Some one has said:
MANY men owe the grandeur of til cir
lives to their tremendous difficulties. I"
Certainly the life of this man revealed
its grandeur in the hours when the
small soul would have been defeated.
This is the truth that the Bible is
seeking to teach us when it says that
Jesus Learned obedience by the things
which He suffered" Hard circum-
stances should not discourage. There
is right side and bright side to them
That side is on top. The problem is to
find the friendly hand of Divine prom
use to aid us in getting Oh that right
side. Another says: "Notin the spots
of earth where plenty breeds indo-
ience do we meet with the perfected
type. 1t is in the land of adversely and
out of much pain and travail that fully
emerge the highest manifestation"
Believing in this view of life, Bunyan
wrote his conviction that the best
things come to life by the sch ooling of
hard circumstances. He said he be-
deved it when he wrote:
Sculptor g souls, lift to thee, ~, q. 4,
Encountered heart and hands
Spare not the chisels set me free,
However dear the banes. ~ -