Living the Radiant Life: A Personal NarrativeJames, George Wharton
Religion
Living the Radiant Life: A Personal Narrative
James, George Wharton
Conduct of life
It may be that as you read over what I have said of the observations and
achievements of the scientists and others that you will say that you
have no such opportunity for wide observation as this. It is not
necessary that you should have. Let me suggest to you how to begin the
development of your powers of observation in order that you may in your
way reap as beautiful a harvest as those men have in theirs.
David was only a poor shepherd boy, but while out tending his flocks by
day and night he learned the wonderful lessons that he afterwards
incorporated into the Psalms. It was his observations, without
scientific knowledge, without observatories, without telescopes, or
other scientific instruments, that gave him such clear knowledge of the
stars that he was able to sing those wonderful words that have thrilled
all mankind ever since they were uttered, "The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork." While a shepherd boy
without training, without education, he so observed the things about him
that when, later in life, the power of expression came, he was able to
sing messages that will live so long as man lives.
So, like David, begin to study the common things about you. Observe the
flowers. Observe their loveliness. Study the infinite variety of their
form, color, fragrance; compare them one with another; ask yourself why
one appeals to you more than another; wherein the special beauty and
attractiveness lies of one flower over another for you. No one can study
the flowers and not realize that the Divine Creator loves beauty, for
the infinitude of varieties that are presented, from the delicate
orchids and cactuses of the tropical forests and barren deserts down to
the plainest sunflower and dandelion, are all rich in a beauty and
attractiveness all their own.
Ina Coolbrith, the California poet, in one of her sweetest songs, says:
I will out in the gold of the blossoming mould
And sit at the Master's feet,
And the love my heart would speak,
I will fold in the lily's rim,
That the lips of the blossom more pure and meet
May offer it up to Him.
See what a beautiful conception! Her heart was full of desire to lift
her prayer of thankfulness, praise, and supplication up to God, but
feeling her own inadequacy and incompleteness, and realizing the perfect
purity of the delicate lily, she felt that she might wrap her prayer up
in the rim of the flower and thus make it acceptable to the God of
purity and immaculate whiteness.
There never was a flower yet that was not a miracle to the observing eye
and thinking mind. How does it shape all that beauty? From whence does
it gain those delicate tints, tones, and colors? From what laboratory
does it extract those exquisitely delicate and delicious odors?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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