'What we may do

What we may do with the hard things in our life

A man brought a large, beautiful onyx stone to an artist, and said: "See how clear, pure, and transparent this stone is. What a fine one for your skill, were it not for this one fatal blemish!" Then he showed the artist an underlying tinge of iron-rust at one point, which, he said, made the stone almost worthless.

But the artist took it, and with matchless skill and delicacy wrought upon the stone, carving on it the graceful figure of a lovely woman. By most ingenious and patient use of his engraving tool, he fashioned it so that what had seemed an irreparable blemish, actually enhanced the beauty of the cameo.

This illustrates what we may do with the hard things in our life — what God would have us do with them. We think we can never make anything good and worthy of our life, with our many discouraging faults and blemishes, and the obstinate hindrances there are in our lot.

Really, however, we can make our life all the nobler, richer, holier, stronger, worthier — by means of the very things which we think ruin our opportunities.

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