| The Joy of Service |
Chapter 18 |
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This is true, ofttimes, of the loved ones in our homes, and of the friends who are most to us. We do not perceive the noble things in them while they live beside us, and serve us in so many familiar ways. Their lives appear plain and commonplace. We see no halo, no shining of angel brightness. One sad day they leave us: and the, when we have them no more, we realize for the first time what angels of God they were to us. Their help had been coming to us so long and so quietly, without ostentation, without demonstration, that we did not appreciate its worth until we missed it. Their virtues and graces of character had grown so familiar to us, wearing such common human form, so plain, so modest, that we saw not the angelic, and the Divine beauty in them.
Love walks veiled before us, so that we cannot see the shining glory of his face. Death is the rending of the veil, and then we see the splendour as it vanishes.
In other ways, too, are our lives veiled. The body is a veil which conceals within it all the mysteries of life. No one sees what goes on in your brain, – your thoughts, your imaginations, your fancies, your visions and dreams. No eye can look into your heart to note its daily history, – the affections, the feelings, the desires, the motives, the joys and sorrows, of your days. Every life carries a world of mystery within it, veiled from the eye of even the closest, dearest friend.
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