| The Life of Dr. J.R. Miller |
Chapter 12 |
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Again he gave this word of kindly counsel:
“A vacation should be fruitful in wayside ministries of kindness. We lay down our routine duty and task work for a little while. We do not hurry away in the morning to school or office or field. We relax the tension and take life leisurely. But there is a work which we never should lay down – we should go on with love’s duty just as diligently in our resting weeks as in our busiest days. Love is like God – it ‘worketh hitherto,’ it takes no vacations, knows no Sabbaths, never intermits. Love’s ministry should go on while we are resting from business cares. Not always do people remember this, however. Some grow selfish when away from home and fail in those gentle courtesies and graceful services which are the charm of a truly beautiful life. Countless opportunities occur when we are traveling or tarrying at summer resorts for a ministry of gentle manners and thoughtful ways which leaves behind its unspeakable blessing. The things we do when we are not supposed to be doing anything, the thousand little unpurposed acts, are truer tests of the real character of our life than the things we do with purpose and intention.”
On the rare occasions when he would go away from the city to seaside, to mountains, or to the home of a friend, his days might have been described most fittingly and accurately by those bits of counsel given to others. Always he was God’s messenger of helpfulness and love. Wherever he was – on the hotel piazza, on the beach, on the forest pathway – others were eager to gather about him. When guests learned that he was in the house, as soon as possible they sought the author whose works they had read with delight, and when they talked with him they said to one another, “He is just like his book.” He was in demand for Morning Prayer service in one hotel where he spent a week or two on several occasions, and on Sundays he was urged to preach. He was glad to respond to such invitations when this was at all possible, for preaching was a joy to him.
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