If you had passed them on the
street, you would not have noticed them, unless to remark that they
were grimy, perhaps, or lean. The great German artist saw them folded
in prayer, and heard all the language of a despairing soul as it came
out in the expression of those hands,--wonderful hands, "instinct with
spirit." Look at them again, girls.
We talked about commonplace duties when we spoke of work. Let me repeat
here that life is made up of commonplace deeds. We do not have great
national disturbances every day; and the surest proof that we have
greater need of common events rather than startling ones, ordinary
duties rather than extraordinary, is, that the moment we scorn an
ordinary occurrence, or omit a daily duty, we find ourselves and every
one else miserable, for a while, at least. We are stopping a part of
the machinery necessary to human happiness. Let us not despise the
lowliest duties. George Macdonald, the writer who has given strength
to the souls of so many people, was contented to write, "If I can put
one touch of a rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall
feel that I have worked with God."
Do you begin to think, girls, I would have you always prosaic, plodding,
self-satisfied, unambitious? Oh, no! do not understand me so. Why,
I believe that even dreaming about doing, and seeing, and having things
is sometimes very helpful, and not at all inconsistent with the
commonplace.
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