Seen by God

A woman should not live for, or even desire, fame. This is yet more true of a Christian woman. If I had not steadily suppressed all such ambition, I might have become a sour, disappointed woman, seeing my best work unrecognized. But it has been my wish to

 

"Dare to be little and unknown,

Seen and loved by God alone."

~ From letter to Mr. Cady, written in 1878. Mrs. Prentiss died later that year.

Nearer

Oh Jesus, draw nearer,

And make Thyself dearer,

I yearn, I am yearning for Thee;

Come take for Thy dwelling,

The heart that is swelling

With longings Thy beauty to see!

How languid and weary,

How lonely and dreary,

The days when Thou hidest Thy face;

How sorrow and sadness

Are turned into gladness,

By a glimpse of its love and its grace.

Come nearer, come nearer,

And make Thyself dearer,

Thou joy, thou delight of my heart.

Close, close to Thee pressing

I long for Thy blessing,

I cannot without it depart.

~ Golden Hours, Heart-Hymns of the Christian Life, 1873

Another Lesson Learned

I have had a new lesson that has almost broke my heart. In looking over his father's papers, Ernest found a little journal, brief in its records indeed; but we learn from it that on all those weddings and birthdays, when I fancied his austere religion made him hold aloof from our merrymaking, he was spending the time in fasting and praying for us and for our children! Oh, shall I ever learn the sweet charity that thinketh no evil and believeth all things! What blessings may not have descended upon us and our children through those prayers! What evils may they not have warded off! Dear old Father! Oh, that I could once more put my loving arms about him and bid him welcome to our home! And how gladly would I now confess to him all my unjust judgments concerning him and entreat him for forgiveness! Must life always go on thus? Must I always be erring, ignorant and blind? How I hate this arrogant sweeping past my brother man, this utter ignoring of his hidden life! ~ Stepping Heavenward, April, 1844 entry

[Let me just say this. This entry by Katy caused an explosion of tears from my eyes more than any other in the entire book. I'll just leave it at that. mr]

Abide With Me

A Shadow Then Illumination

"I know that I, a poor girl, married a poor man," returned Aunt Jane. "And he took me to a home in which his love was my sole luxury, and mine my only refining influence. And how gladly I would go back with him this day, leaving behind me all that his long years of labor have won for me, into that homely home, if I might but go there with him in poverty instead of weeping for him amid this wealth. Oh! men make such mistakes! such fearful remediless mistakes!They sacrifice the lives on which other lives hang under the delusion that when they are gone money can satisfy the aching, empty hearts they leave behind them."

This was the first time she had ever made the slightest allusion to a sorrow that had cast first a great shadow and then a great illumination upon her life. An illumination; for a shadow implies a sun. ~ From Aunt Jane's Hero,

Full Possession of Christ

For you I desire but one thing--a full possession of Christ. Let us turn away our eyes from everything that does not directly exalt Him in our affections; we are poor without Him, no matter what our worldly advantages are; rich with Him when stripped of all besides. ~ Letter to Mrs. Leonard, April 5, 1869

[Love that--"full possession of Christ."]

Be blessed this Lord's Day and every day by the beauty of our Savior.