Bright Pictures

The memory may ofttimes bear you back through the past days of your life and set pictures before your mind’s eye. This may be for your good or it may not be. It is according to the nature of the scene you are viewing. Some things of the past you should forget. Some pictures you should tear down from memory’s wall and cast them into the deep abyss of forgiveness.

One day I entered a sick-chamber and saw at once discouragement written upon the countenance of the afflicted sister. She began to tell me of the afflictions she had had for many years. One disease after another had laid its torturing hand upon her body. There was hardly a fiber of her physical being but had experienced severest pain. “And now,” she said, “I see nothing but pain and suffering through all my future days.”

I talked with her and showed her that she had been looking upon the dark pictures of the past. “Here,” I said, “you saw trials and here temptations and here pain and suffering. These dark pictures which you have allowed Satan to hang upon memory’s wall have cast a dark, gloomy shadow down your future pathway, and you see nothing but suffering and pain and dark days.” I then asked her if she remembered certain blessings she had enjoyed in the past—if she remembered when God healed her of consumption and what glory filled her soul; if she remembered how precious God was to her at such a time. “And don’t you see,” I continued, that, although you are now suffering from an attack of la grippe1, your general health is far better than it was in former years.” She saw that this was true; and as she began to look upon those bright pictures, behold, that cast a bright beam down her future walk, and her soul was filled with hope and cheer.

Remember this: The pictures you are viewing cast a shadow before them. Satan is in the picture business. So also is Jesus. Satan’s pictures, being dark and gloomy, will cast a shadow over your life if you look upon them. But bright are the pictures that Christ presents to view. They will cheer you, make sunny all your way. Be careful where you look.

I recently read in a child’s paper a beautiful story that is so appropriate here I must ask the privilege of relating it. It was as follows:

Two little girls that lived in the city went to visit their aunt living in the country. The next day after their arrival, these little girls went for a walk in the garden. Soon one came back wearing a disappointed expression on her face. She said, “O Auntie, those rose bushes have ugly thorns on them!” The other, coming in a little later with joyous brightened countenance, exclaimed, “O Auntie, those thorn-bushes have such beautiful roses on them.”

We leave you to find and to be benefited by the moral.