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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Home Ideals (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 22. A Bit of Real Life.
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A Bit of Real Life.
Now, the best part of all this simple homely talk about the finest friendship is yet to come. It is a story, a heart story, a simple bit out of real life. But it is of the sort that is sacred, because it has to do with the things of the innermost heart. Such things can be told only to a very very few, and then only in softest tones, and only at such times as the 'heart-mood, tender and soft, has sway. It is told here now only that others—answering hearts—may be helped a bit in waiting, and praying, and keeping true until the morning of their new day breaks up the east.
It is about the coming together of two whose lives have been joined for years now, while their hearts are growing more and more into one, as the ripening gray is coming. It is interesting to note that the woman's part of the story comes first. Into her heart there gradually came during her tender teens high ideals of life, and of its aims and personal relations. They came gradually, increasing in clearness of outline and in strength of conviction. She believed, and believes that they were put into her heart by no human thought or touch, but by Him whom she has long known as her first Friend.
By and by she was led to begin praying about the one life-friendship, which is ever the chief thing in the making of a life. The prayer took this simple shape: that God would bring to her the man of His choice for her; and that He would be blessing and guarding him then wherever he was. That habit and undercurrent of praying went on steadily for nearly eight years, while she was busy with the duties of her daily life. There was no outer sign that the ideal in her heart was real in life; but the ideals stood out more and more clearly, and the convictions struck their roots deeper into the sub-soil of her life, as she keenly observed the habit of life round about, and quietly believed and prayed on.
Then there began to come premonitions, spirit-suggestions, that the answer was coming, and was near at hand. There still lingers a great touch of tender awe over that wondrous group of simple spirit-indications that came, scattered through several months. They may not be put on paper, but only told, at rare intervals, as one tells a thing of the heart, in the twilight-glow of an open fire, and in the hushed yet eager voice of one who feels the tender presence of the Master's own wondrous self.
In the stillness of her inner soul came again and again the soundless but distinct voice, telling of his coming who was yet unseen and unknown. And sometimes he seemed brought into her presence for a moment's clear, unforgetable look into his face and eyes. But even soft spoken words cannot tell the quiet spell that held her spirit in its gentle thrall at those times. It was when the year was at the spring that these buddings of the springtime of her new life were coming.
The calendar shows that his story begins after the beginning of hers. During the first three years, and a little more, of her praying, a change was gradually coming in his inner life. There came a distinct spirit-crisis which made a radical change in him, and has affected his whole life since. As the new adjustment of his life and plans came he began praying daily that God would choose for him his life-friend, and bring them together, and that He would be blessing and shaping her character day by day.
Each was praying exactly the same, though all unknown to the other. They think this points unmistakably to a common source of the two prayers. And his praying continued daily for four years and a half, while his eyes reverently looked, and his heart sometimes wondered where she was, and his habit of caution held him steadily to his knees that no mistake might be made.
Then they met. Their homes were hundreds of miles apart. It would certainly seem that in the ordinary course of life they would not have met. But the invisible hand was steadily at work. Unexpected circumstances took each hundreds of miles away from home to the place of meeting. Unknown and still unexplained difficulties, in apparently trifling matters, which would have prevented one of the journeys, were overcome. They met. The circumstances of the meeting were peculiarly adapted to his revealing his whole inner self to her, though unconsciously to himself. The first decision was to be hers.
Then came the recognition, and then the mellowing and deepening of acquaintance into the holiest of all emotions that can grip and sway the human heart. The union of hearts was complete. Then came the union of lives. And now years have gone by. They have been full of the common experiences of life; for these two have had their full share of hard work.
Problems and suffering have played their full part; but there has been a deep unfailing peace, and an ecstatic joy in the midst of these ripening experiences. And they insist on saying that their life is just at the spring, the maturing spring of June. Their calendar is kept open at June. May many another follow them into the same simple path they found, where a Friend is waiting to lead into this new Eden of God.