It matters little the pace we take,
If we journey sturdily on
With the burden bearer’s stead gait,
Till the day’s last hour is gone;
Or if, with the dancing feet of the child,
Or the halting step of age,
We keep the goal in the eye of the soul,
Through the years of our pilgrimage.
Character is a growth. It is like fruit – it requires time to ripen. Different kinds of fruits come to ripeness at different seasons; some in the early summer, some later, and some only in the autumn. It is so with Christian lives – they ripen at different seasons. There are those who seem to grow into sweetness in early years, then those who reach their best in the mid years, and many who only in the autumn of old age come into mellow ripeness.
All life is a season of character growing. We are left in this world, not so much for what we may do here, for the things we may make, as that we ourselves may grow into the beauty of God’s thought for us. In the midst of all our occupations and struggles, all our doing of tasks, all our longings and desires, all our experiences of every kind, there is a work going on in us which is quite as important as anything we are doing with our mind or with our hands.
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