| The Building of Character |
Chapter 14 |
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God has put it in our power to help each other in many ways, — sometimes by deeds that lift away burdens, sometimes by words that inspire courage and strength, sometimes by sympathy that halves sorrow; but there is no other way in which we can serve our friends so wisely, so effectively, so divinely, as by intercession for them. Our hands are clumsy and unskillful, and ofttimes hurt the life we would heal with our touch, or strengthen and uphold with our strength; but in prayer we can reach our friend through God, and God’s hand is infinitely gentle, and never hurts a life. We lack wisdom, and ofttimes the help we give is untimely or inwise. We would lift away burdens that God wants our friend to carry. We would make the way easy for him when God has made it hard for his own good, for the development of his powers. We would save our friend from hardship or self-denial, or hold him back from perilous duty or exhausting service, when these are the very paths in which God would lead him — the paths to honor, to larger usefulness, to nobler life. Ofttimes our love is shortsighted. We think we are helping our friend, when really we are hindering him in the things that most deeply concern his life. But we can pray and ask God to help him, not in our way but in his own way, and God’s help is never unwise nor intimely. He never lifts away a load which our friend would be the better for carrying. He never does things for him which he would better be left to do for himself, nor spares him hardness or suffering which will make him more a man.
There are times, too, when we can help with our love in no other way but by prayer. The friend is beyond our reach, or his experiences of need are such that we can do nothing for him. Human capacity for helpfulness is very small. We can give a piece of bread when one is hungry, or a cup of cold water when one is thirsty, or raiment when one is naked, or medicine when one is sick. But in the deeper needs of life we can do nothing. Our words are only mockeries. Yet we can pray, and God can send his own help to the heart in any experience.
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