I have recently read this story about an unhappy woman. She
was, indeed, very miserable, and for years her complaints were
loud and constant. But one day she happened to read of a naval
disaster: the ship was doomed, but the officers set the band
playing, the flags flying, and, drest in full uniform, with
their white gloves on, waited for the ship to go down.
She thought of herself, and was ashamed. Never had she met
disaster except with tears and complaints. “I won’t be as I
have been any more,” she said to herself. “When troubles come
to me, tho I perish as those officers did, I will meet them as
they did, with flags flying, the band playing, and my white
gloves on.” And new troubles came; but with each one she said to
herself, “The flags must fly to-day, the band play, and I must
have my white gloves on.” And, if the trial were very severe,
she would actually put on her best clothes, and with smiling
face go out to perform some act of cheerful kindness.
And after some years the result is that she seems to be happy
and prosperous. People call her fortunate. Another complaining
woman said to her, “Oh, it is well enough for you to talk, you
who have never known a trouble in your life.”
“A trouble in my life!” the cheerful woman said to herself, and
stopt to think. “A trouble! Perhaps not; but now, thank God,
those which I thought I had seem no longer to have belonged to
me, but to some other person living centuries ago.” And she felt
sorry for her fretful friend.--M. O. SIMMONS.
(3304)
See DEATH, CHRISTIAN ATTITUDE TOWARD.