The Ancient Shield
Story★★★★Life is like the ancient shield with two sides, one of gold and one of silver. The two knights fell out and fought as to which was right, one contending that the shield was gold and the other as stoutly asserting that it was silver. After both were worn out in the contest, they decided to look at the shield itself, and, lo, both were right.
So it is in life. There is a bright side and a dark side. It is merely a question of which one prefers. Let us cultivate the habit of looking at the bright -side.
Some one expressed an aversion to calling on Mrs. , and said: “She wails so much; but I understand she wails less now. Probably her health is better.” “Her health is better,” was the reply, “because she wails less.”
It is not a question of what to think about. There are plenty of things over which to worry. There are problems of sorrow and sufferings and pain and sin sufficient to drive us crazy if we allow them. It is rather a question of what we will think about.
He is wise who counts his blessings. The best way of all is the method Dr. Chalmers used to commend when he spoke of “the expulsive power of a new affection.”
It is the method of crowding out the gloom with the light. The way the seven devils were kept out of the cleansed house of the man in the parable, was by the angel who took up his abode in the house.
The point
Life is like a two-sided shield—one gold, one silver. Two knights quarrel over which is true until they examine the shield itself and realize both are right. Cultivate the bright side.