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The Son of Man must. And so His followers must. The storm must beat upon them as they seek to serve. “Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit”; this is the same truth under another figure. What didst Thou ask of life, Lord Jesus, Lord of Life? “No victor’s crown, but only wood enough to make a cross.” The Son of Man must suffer many things:
In patience, as in labor, must thou be
A follower of Me,
Whose hands and feet,
when most I wrought for thee,
Were nailed unto a Tree.
“And so we come to Thee; O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come. From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
Looking up from the shelter of that rock, we hear words that fall quietly one by one, even as the stars drop through the dim blue, till almost before we know it, the sky is full of stars: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Our hearts are quiet then: “I trust to rest in Thy great hallowing.”
By such gentle ways we are led till we come to the place where we understand that it is not enough to accept the will of our God in the sense of ceasing to wish it were different, and taking it peacefully. We must go further than that. We are not wholly loyal till we learn to welcome it. Stormy wind fulfilling His word—by the time the wind blows upon us it is His wind for us. We have nothing to do with what first of all stirred up that wind. It could not ruffle a leaf on the smallest tree in the forest had He not opened the way for it to blow through the fields of air. He commandeth even the winds, and they obey Him. To His winds as to His servants He saith to one “Go,” and it goeth; and to another “Come,” and it cometh; and to another “Do this,” and it doeth it. So whatever wind blows on us it is His wind for us, His wind fulfilling His word. Therefore not to welcome it is a kind of treachery.
God’s winds do an effectual work. They utterly blow away from us what The Spirit of Discipline calls the meanness and vulgarity of self-satisfaction; the absurdity of self-centeredness and self-advertisement; the ludicrous littleness of unreality, and all acquiescence in poor and stunted thoughts of life. They shake loose from us the things that can be shaken, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain, those eternal things that belong to the Kingdom which cannot be moved. They have their part to play in stripping us and strengthening us so that we may be the more ready for the uses of Eternal Love. Then can we refuse to welcome them?
“The lover asked his Beloved if there remained in him anything still to be loved. And the Beloved replied that he had still to love that by which his own love could be increased.” O my Redeemer and my Lord, Thou dost often increase love by that which is very lovable, but sometimes Thou comest otherwise. I cannot by nature love that which is unlovable to me. Do Thou for me, O God the Lord, do Thou for me. “Give me what Thou commandest and command what Thou wilt.” Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; cause me to love that way, so that in me love may be perfected, and I be made more serviceable to my Beloved.
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“Art thou indeed willing, O child of My desire? Art thou willing for any wind at any time? Art thou willing to lose thy life that thou mayest find it? Then hush thy heart to listen as I make intercession for thee.
“Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am: that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world. And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
The love wherewith the Father loved the Son was a love which gave His Son to Calvary.