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God is always active in creating and in sustaining His creation (John 5:17). His works never cease. We see them in the circulation of the blood and in respiration, which go on unceasingly in living creatures. Again, we see them in His inanimate creation. In air, water, earth, sun, and stars there is a constant ordered movement as they fulfil the purpose of their Creator. Why should we then, who are called the sons of God and are, in fact, in every way superior to all His insentient creation, neglect and carelessly fall short of the definite work which our Creator has, in His mercy and providence, allocated for us?
Satan has none of the impetus of a righteous cause to help him, but he works incessantly. He is busy day and night in leading people astray. How the Serpent, which brought about the Fall of Eve, still creeps about, without even hands and feet! Then if we, who are the followers of Truth and have received the commission of God and the power of the Spirit, neglect our blessed work, we are indeed inferior and are worse than Satan and the Serpent (Ephesians 6:10–18). So let us be wide awake and watchful and get our strength from God by which to overcome Satan and evil, and faithfully to accomplish and complete our definite work (2 Timothy 4:4–5; James 4:7).
A Sufi, or mystic, on a journey had with him a quantity of wheat. When he had been on the road for several days he opened the bags and found in them a number of ants. He sat down and pondered over their evil plight, and being overcome with pity for the little lost creatures, he retraced his steps and returned them safe to their original home. Perhaps it is possible that a man should show such sympathy with helpless insects. But how is it that we so deplorably lack sympathy and fellow-feeling in our dealing with men who, made in the image of God, have gone astray like the Prodigal Son and the Lost Sheep? Surely it is a bounden duty that they should be brought back to the way of righteousness and returned to their Father’s eternal home.
Once in the Hills I saw an ant running round looking for food. It found a seed which it merely touched and at once went off again. I thought that the seed was perhaps bad or sour, but no! In a little while back it came with a number of its companions. It had no thought of keeping the food to itself, but wished them to share in it.
Selfish man should learn the lesson of the ant. Those who have received all kinds of spiritual blessing from living with God should take His word to those who have not heard of Him, that they also may receive the fellowship and blessings of God and eternal joy.
A poor French sculptor had just completed a very beautiful clay model. That night it became bitterly cold and wet, and he was afraid that the model might be damaged by the frost. At length he took his blankets, and, wrapping them round the model, lay down again. In the morning he was found dead, but the model was intact. When there are people among us like this, who are willing to give their lives for the work of their hands, and for lifeless things, then how much more willing should we be to spend our lives for those living souls whom God has created in His own image (1 John 2:16).
Until a lump of salt is dissolved it cannot salt a single grain of pulse, and till the sun’s heat has melted the snow of the mountains it cannot flow down and irrigate the sun-dried and thirsty plain, nor can that snow be drawn as water vapour to form clouds from which it can come down as rain to make the thirsty land green and fruitful. So if we are not melted by the heat of the Sun of Righteousness and by the fire of the Holy Spirit (that is, if we are not tried by self-denial and sacrifice), then we can neither quench the thirst of any famished soul, nor bring him to the Fountain of Life, where he will be satisfied and made alive for ever.
We cannot serve the Creator and His creatures without meeting difficulty and temptation, but we can make no spiritual progress unless we meet them. In the world no man is free from them, and one who does not endure temptation is, as Aristotle has said, “either a beast or a god.”
Difficulties and troubles are the cross that we have to bear, but through bearing them life and countless blessings come to us. For, as birds carry wings and wings carry birds, so experience tells us that he who with joy takes up his cross is himself lifted up by it, and borne safely along, until he reaches his final destination.
We must consider family and other duties as included in these difficulties. Some fail to understand this, and look on them as a burden or a hindrance. Angela of Foligno, on the death of her mother, husband, and children, “congratulated herself”, as she considered that they were “great obstacles in the way of God”. To fulfil all these duties with self-sacrifice is just as much the Will of God for us as to spend our days in prayers, fasts, and vigils.
Experience teaches us that in helping others along we help ourselves, and reach a wonderful contentment in our own souls—a fact which shows clearly that we have an intimate connection with others, and that all progress is based on mutual help and service. We may count this as the rule of our very existence, for if we are self-centred and act in opposition to this rule, both we and our neighbours will find less joy in life, and through the conflict of our self-interests we will destroy one another. Let us take this principle of service as the Golden Rule of our lives, and “in love serve one another.”
Without self-denial it is impossible to serve God, and, as we mentioned before in the first chapter, we should first learn to live our lives with the Lord in secret, and learn the lesson of love while we sit at His feet. Then let us go out and love and serve our fellow-beings as we love our own selves. And in doing this we fulfil in our lives now the Purpose and Will of our Creator and Lord, and shall continue to fulfil it through all eternity.