Adaptation

He hath made everything heaittifid in His time.*7 — Eccles. iii. ii.

What! everything? sorrow and trial, and privation and weariness, and struggle? Surely these are not the things which one would call beautiful, and surely much of life has been made up of these? Yes, but, my soul, God has made even these things for thee, and He has made them to contribute to thy beauty. There is a time in which sorrow is beautiful as there is a time in which childhood is beautiful, as there is a time in which winter is beautiful. It is the time that justifies the sorrow; its beautylies in its seasonableness. Is it not written that when the fulness of time was come God sent His Son — sent into this world the greatest manifestation of a cross which the world has ever seen? It was the fulness of the time that justified the fulness of the sorrow, that made the fulness of the sorrow beautiful. The world had reached that stage of hardness which needed to be crucified, and therefore the crucifixion came. It came not a day too soon, nor a day too late; it was the act suited to the hour, it was beautiful in its time. So, my soul, has it ever been, shall it ever be, with thee. God never sends His cross into thy heart until thy heart is absolutely ripe for it, until it is the only fruit that would fit thy year. Thou speakest of the adaptations of nature, and verily all adaptation is beautiful. Thou say est that the eye was made for sunshine, that the ear was made for melody, that the heart was made for joy. Yea, but there are times in which the eye was made for darkness, there are times in which the ear was made for discord, there are times in which the heart was made for sorrow. If thou knewest the time of thy visitation it would be to thee the best and costliest of all thy Father’s gifts. Thinkest thou that the wilderness is an accident? It is that which prevents accident, which keeps thee from becoming a spontaneous flower of the field. It is that which forces thee to hold thy virtue as a conscious possession. It sends clouds into thine understanding that thine understanding may become faith. It sends temptation into thine innocence that thine innocence may become purity. It sends bereavement into thy heart that thy heart may become awake to its infinite power of loving. If thou wert a plant the calm would to thee alone be beautiful, but because thou art a man thou hast need also of the storm. One day thou shalt bless God for the cloud as well as for the sunshine; He has made them both beautiful, each in its time.