The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

156 CHRIST THE HEALER
He who can restore health by a touch, watch over the
loved ones and guard them from harm Has not He,
whose goodness has made blessed, the best claims on
the service of grateful love Through many a
weary day the memory of that joyful hour will sustain
their hearts when ready otherwise to sink with disappointment
and sorrow.
It is surely of great importance
that those who are called to higher duties should
be set free from lower cares. To have passed through
sorrow, enables us more intelligently to sympathise,
but in the hour of anguish how can we feel
of other grief besides our own
the pain
All the thought and
anxiety which inseparably attend the little worries
wherewith life is so full, distract the attention and
undermine the strength which should be set to the
accomplishment of life's great tasks. Christ's way is,
first, to set at rest the present fears, and then to issue
the summons, Follow Me. All unnecessary anxiety
after that is a looking back after having put the hand
to the plough.
If we have troubles and cares belonging
to the sphere of ordinary life
and interfering with
our higher vocation, let us first strive to rid ourselves
of these, by casting our care upon God who careth
for us, and then let us run with patience the race that
is
set before us.
In the sickness spoken of in the text, we have an
example of the way in which bodily infirmities and
temporal calamities are made, in the providence of
God, means of leading us into higher blessings. Blessings
in themselves they do not seem to be, and may
But there are worse things than sickness and
not be.
earthly loss, which may be made indeed the
channel
of God's best gifts. "Jesus said to His disciples,