The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1910-03-03
BRIGHT DAYS
AND DARK
By REV. DONALD SAGE MAcKAY
ID. D., LID.


Our bright days are counterbalanced
by dark days. Our times OF prosper.
ity are Offset by times OF adversely.
For every sorrow there is in the d..
vine providence. corresponding gain,
and at the heart of every defeat there
Is Tor the man OF faith the
prophecy of new victory. Go
where we will In the great universe
OF love and we find everywhere the
working Of this divine law of counter.
poise-the divine love compromising
OF every earthly loss. Where sin
abounds grace doth much more
abound" Where death walks with
insolent feet life triumphs in exultant
song. When earthly Joys wither heav.
emily hope blooms In eternal beauty.
When time wears out its venture into
threadbare decay eternity robes her
self In immortal splendor.
We want to realize. OF course, that
these bright days and dark in life
which alternate in such swift success
sion are all part OF divine plan.
These heeting changes of prosperity
and adversely. Joy and sorrow, life
and death. are not haphazard. They
are not the chance happenings of a
cruel and needless fate. Nor are they
ebullitions ickleness in God, or for.
getfulness Of his children. Not to
tAntalize and tease the soul, not that
we may take our joys with trembling
and our sorrows with cringing does
our Heavenly Father set the dark days
over against the bright days In life.
God sends these seasons for the
growth OF what is worthless and best
within us. The dark days and the
bright days are as necessary 10 the
poise OF your character as the counter.
balance is necessary 10 the equilibri-
UNI OF the wheel. II needs no pro-
found thinking TO realize what n grind
ing monotony life would be II there
were no shadows to Offset its sunlight
What an insipid thing Joy would be.
come--a surfeit in the banquet OF life
If there were no bltters to cleanse
the palate Of the soul.
These bright days and dark days
In life as they come and go. some
times in rhythmic cadence and some
times in bewildering confusion. are al.
30 part Of a divine revelation. They
are days OF revealing as well as days
Of discipline. God sends these alter
mating seasons into your life TO reveal
certain qualities within you, to call
into play certain capacities. TO make
vital certain possibilities In your ma.
ture which the monotony OF an I'M
broken experience could never bring.
The changing days OF life unmask the
reserves Of character II is. Of course.
a trulsm that a man never knows how
much he can endure until the day OF
adversely comes. II has been pointed
out that Walter Scott became great as
a man and realized the highest ex.
preston OF his genius not until the
wave OF adversely swept over his life.
A writer has pointed out the common.
place character of Scott's personal
Journal up to the time before the fail
ure OF his publishers took place. But
after that failure a new note became
vocal In the great writer's journal. n
new personality emerged. One re-
members in this connection the letter
which upon the day succeeding the
news Of the disaster Scott wrote 20
an intimate friend: Il have walked
for the las time in these halls which
l have built. looked for the last time
in all probability az the domain which
| have planted. but death would have
taken these things from me II mis-.
fortune had not" The letter concludes
with the words. Adversely is to me
a tonic and a bracer" Look at that
says Ruskin. referring to
SCOTS novel of Woodstock" which !
was in course of writing at the time,
written in the very maelstrom OF that |
adversely and not by the culver OF a
hair stroke. not by the suggestion OF !
a single tremor I'm the hand, not by an |
rrasure or change. not by any falling
on in the creative interest OF the story |
could any one detect that when Scott |
wrote the second part OF that novel |
he did so under a cloud OF bitter ad. |
yersity"
And biography is full Of such un.
iAAhhAikt vi Aht lltHohiF vi AlAt uAIh
lays succeeding the bright days In /
life. Millions personality became |
ar more potent influence after blind |
ness had stricken him. The loss OF |
physical sight intensified the keenness
II spiritual vision. Had Bunyan never
ain In Bedford Jail he had never
ireamed the Pilgrims Progress" |
Rad Tom Hood never known for him
self the bitterness of want and the
lche of pain he had never sung the |
Song OF the Shirt" or sobbed out his |
immortal dirge. The Bridge of |
Signs" Had David never fallen as he
lid the world would never have felt
he passion Of pentience and aspira.
ion OF heart which breathed through /
.ome such psalm as the fifty -first. Had
Iohn never been banished to the is.
and of Patmos we should never have
lad the revelation of heaven as he has
lnfolded its glories in the last book
Il Scripture In a sense. most solemn