O if only we
_could_ grasp the significance of that!
Ruth M---- was a college junior with ancestry and wealth, brilliant,
sarcastic, selfish. She knew all the facts and accepted them. She was a
member of a church with which she had united at fourteen as had her
mother and grandmother before her. She did not think much about the
facts, they had not greatly impressed her. If questioned, she promptly
stated that she believed this and that, she thought such and such things
were probable though no one could prove them, and dismissed the subject
to talk of her own plans and interests.
Then her great sorrow came. In a moment she lost everything dear to her.
They called it an accident. She held God accountable and in bitterness
and anger turned her back upon all the facts. The months passed and her
health breaking she was obliged to leave college. At the beautiful
health resort to which she went she met a girl she had known well when a
little child. They renewed the friendship. Then the girl's sorrow came.
It was not death, it was far worse, scandal and disgrace in her family,
which had been unstained before. Out of a clear sky it came.
In amazement Ruth watched her friend. She saw her suffer but she saw no
conquering bitterness, heard no words of wild rebellion. She looked into
a sweet calm face and saw a girl less than twenty, with life's
conditions changed in a moment, adjust herself to the new conditions
and go on.
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