'Yet the other side is just as true

Yet the other side is just as true

The truest religious life is one whose devotion gives food and strength for service . The way to spiritual health lies in the paths of consecrated activity .

It is related in a legend of Francesca, that although she was unwearied in her devotions, yet if during her prayers she was summoned away by any domestic duty, she would close her book cheerfully, saying that a wife and a mother, when called upon, must leave her God at the altar to find Him in her domestic affairs.

Yet the other side is just as true . Before there can be a strong, vigorous, healthy tree, able to bear much fruit, to stand the storm, to endure the heat and cold — there must be a well-planted and well-nourished root.

Just so, before there can be a prosperous, noble, enduring Christian life in the world, safe in temptation, unshaken in trials, full of good fruits, perennial and unfading in its leaf — there must be a close walk with God in secret.

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