The Crown of Thorns: A Token for the SorrowingChapin, E. H. (Edwin Hubbell)
Religion
The Crown of Thorns: A Token for the Sorrowing
Chapin, E. H. (Edwin Hubbell)
Consolation
The truth is, there is no one place, however we may envy it, which would
be indisputably good for us to occupy; much less for us to remain in.
The zest of life, like the pleasure which we receive from a work of art,
or from nature, comes from undulations--from inequalities; not from
any monotony, even though it be the monotony of seeming perfection. The
beauty of the landscape depends upon contrasts, and would be lost in
one common surface of splendor. The grandeur of the waves is in the deep
hollows, as well as the culminating crests; and the bars of the sunset
glow on the background of the twilight. The very condition of a great
thing is that it must be comparatively a rare thing. We speak of summer
glories, and yet who would wish it to be always summer?--who does not
see how admirably the varied seasons are fitted to our appetite for
change? It may seem as if it would be pleasant to have it always
sunshine; and yet when fruit and plant are dying from lack of moisture,
and the earth sleeps exhausted in the torrid air, who ever saw a summer
morning more beautiful than that when the clouds muster their legions to
the sound of the thunder, and pour upon us the blessing of the rain?
We repine at toil, and yet how gladly do we turn in from the lapse of
recreation to the harness of effort! We sigh for the freedom and glory
of the country; but, in due time, just as fresh and beautiful seem to
us the brick walls and the busy streets where our lot is cast, and
our interests run. There is no condition in life of which we can say
exclusively "It is good for us to be here." Our course is appointed
through vicissitude,--our discipline is in alternations; and we can
build no abiding tabernacles along the way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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