Doctor William T. Harris says, "Realize your ideals quickly." That is,
an ideal is a responsibility; it is the working model that God has set
before the individual; the pattern after which and by which he shall
shape his life. If he accept and follow it with fidelity and energy;
with that energy born of absolute faith in the Divine leading,--he will
find himself miraculously led; he will find that the obstacle which
appears so insurmountable in perspective vanishes as he comes near; that
a way is made, a path appears.
It chanced to the writer of these papers to take a long day's stage
drive one summer through the Colorado mountain region. For a distance of
forty-five miles the solitary road wound on and on, ever ascending
through the dreamy, purple mountains. The entire route was a series of
vistas that apparently came to an abrupt end at the base of an
insurmountable height. The mountain wall seemed to utterly arrest
progress, as it rose across the ascending valley through which the
driver urged his "four-in-hand," and no way to pass beyond the next
mountain ahead could possibly be discerned. But as the stage drew near,
a way, unseen before, revealed itself, and the winding road found its
outlet and onward course in another valley opening by a natural pass
between the hills, and one that apparently in its turn was as inevitably
blocked at its end by another mountain range. It was a constant interest
to watch the changing landscape and discover the new ways that
constantly came in sight as fast as the need for them came. That day
amid the dreamy purple of the Colorado mountains was one to translate
itself into renewed trust in the Divine guidance on the journey of life.
Some wonderful words of Phillips Brooks seemed to write themselves on
the air:--
"Look up, poor soul, out of the valley and know that on the top of
yonder shining mountain lies folded safe the secret of your life,
the oracle which would, if you could read it, solve all your
mysteries and tell you just exactly how you ought to live. Look up
out of the valley and know that it is there; and then turn back
again into the valley, for in the valley is the home where you must
live, and you can never read the oracle which you know is there
upon the mountain top."
That day, alone with the mountains and with God, was one to leave its
impress forever upon life. It was a day of solutions as well as of
impressions--of solutions of the problem of living. One has but to
follow the path that God has revealed to him, and however insurmountable
the difficulties that seem to hedge him in and to limit his progress,
they vanish as they are drawn near, and a way is revealed.
[Sidenote: Obey the Vision.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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