| The Golden Gate of Prayer |
Chapter 10 |
Page 5 |
We are not accustomed to thank God for our disappointments, for the blighting of our earthly hopes and expectations, for the failure of our plans, but we might safely do so, ofttimes; for it is in such experiences as these that we are led to the sources of truest blessedness and most enduring honor.
“Thank God for failure, shattered hopes, lost aims,
And ungained garlands, for he knoweth best.
‘They also serve who only stand and wail’;
Perchance they also win who seem to fail’
God’s eye sees clearer than our earth-dimmed sight.”
What is the standard of success in the sphere of the unseen and the spiritual? It is the doing of the will of God. He who does the will of God makes his life radiant and beautiful, though in the world’s scale he is rated as having altogether failed in the battle. He who is true, just, right, and pure, pleasing God and living unselfishly, is the man who succeeds while all others fail.
Really, there is no other final and infallible standard of living. One who writes his name highest in earth’s lists, and yet has not done God’s will, meanwhile, has failed, as the angels look at his career. God had a purpose in our creation and redemption, and we succeed only when our life carries out this purpose. The most radiant career, as it appears to men, means nothing if it is not that for which God made us. We fail in life if we do not realize God’s will for us.
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