| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 19 |
Page 6 |
Some of us chafe and fret when those we would help get on so slowly, when we have to tell them the same thing over and over a hundred times. But we should remember how gentle Jesus was with His disciples in their dullness. He never once showed impatience with them. David, at the close of his long and great life, when accounting for his success, attributed it all to God’s forbearance with his slowness and stumbling. “Thy gentleness,” he said, “hath made me great.” It is a lesson that all need to learn – how to deal with the weak brother so as to help him along, and to get him strong at last. So we see that there is something greater, more sacred, than liberty, than rights. Love is the greatest thing in the world. If there is danger that a man’s moderate drinking may lead a weak brother to immoderate drinking, thus causing him to perish for whom Christ died, what should the man do? He may assert his rights, but that is not the lesson that love would teach him.
We are to see to it that everything we do and every influence of our life shall be for our neighbour’s good. If a man has no neighbours, if he lives alone on an island far form other human habitation, he may say that he can do as he pleases, for no one can be hurt or disturbed by anything he does. But that is not the way any of us live. There are other people all about us, and every word and act of ours will affect their lives. We are bound so to live that we shall do hurt to none, but shall edify – add something beautiful to the life of everyone. A boy may enjoy beating his drum, or a man may insist on playing his cornet till midnight in his second story room. But suppose his playing keeps his neighbour awake, or disturbs the sleep of a sick man next door, what about the higher law of love?
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