Not Ready to Give Up One's Will

A friend called on me one day, desiring to secure my aid in reaching spiritually a man whose condition seemed sadly involved, if not, indeed, desperate. The man in behalf of whom counsel and help were sought had been prominent and efficient in a large and prosperous business enterprise; but he had, by failing health, been for some time confined to his home. While thus shut in, his business, of which he was chief manager, had become hopelessly involved, and bankruptcy stared him in the face. Meantime his physician informed the man’s wife, although not communicating the fact to him, that he was not likely to recover from his present illness. In heaviness of heart, she had sent the mutual friend to implore my effort to bring her husband nearer to her Saviour. While upright in character

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and reverent in spirit, the sick man was averse to conversation on the subject of personal religion, and even in his illness had declined to have his wife send for a clergyman.

Although I had well known the man in former years in another place, I had never visited him in his present home, and it would be a delicate matter to make the first visit for the avowed purpose of reaching spiritually one in such trouble. Yet the request was an earnest one, and I could not refuse to respond to it. Imploring God to prepare the way for the interview, and to guide in it, I called at the sick man’s house one Sunday afternoon. By God’s ordering I could not see him then, as he was asleep when I called. So, seeing his wife, I left an old friend’s love for her husband, and came away.

On learning of this call when he awoke, the man regretted his failure to see his old friend, and sent word desiring me to call again. On my second call, I had the ad-Hot 1Rea&12 to (5ive TIlp ©nc’g ‘QCliU

vantage of coming at the sick man’s request, and the interview was a natural and free one. The man told of his misfortunes and regrets. As he spoke, I said naturally that he certainly needed in his troubles, and I hoped he could have, his Saviour’s sustaining presence. At this he spoke with some bitterness of his hopeless helplessness, and he then indicated his realest source of doubts. He was a man of diminutive appearance, but of intensest energy and enterprise. Unaided, he had fought his way up to success, in spite of many difficulties and obstacles.

“I know what you would say to me,” he said. “All I have got to do is to give up my own will, and trust myself to the Saviour to take care of me. ‘Give up my will? ‘But all there is of me is will. I started life a poor, sick boy, with nothing but will. My will kept me alive. By my will, I worked my way to success. By my will, I built up a great business, and had prosperity and a good home. By my will,

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I supported my parents, and helped others to do well. But sickness came, and, while sick, my business broke down, and all I have in the world is likely to be swept away. Everything is gone but my will. And now you ask me to give up that. You don’t know what it is you would be counseling. Everything else but my will is gone, and now you ask me to give up that. What would be left of me if that were gone?”

“But I have not advised you to give up your will,” I replied. “You need a stronger will, not an abandonment of all that now remains of you. Your own will, strong as it is, with its present hold, could not keep you from sickness, could not continue success to you in your business. You need more will, not less. Wouldn’t a touch of Omnipotence help you, in your present state? I think that if you, with your strong will, will lay hold on One who is all-powerful, and who can do even those things which you confess you are unable inot 1RcaDi3 to <5ivc “dp one’s lIDliU

to do even when you long to do them, you will be using your will in the right direction, and will have more will and a better will than ever.”

This was to him a new way of looking at will. He who had ever wanted to use his will aright, in response to the question whether he would like me to pray with him that he could lay hold with a strong grip on the AU-Sufficient Will, said that he most surely would. And as I kneeled, on that first visit in that sick-chamber, and prayed with and for that sick man, who had no idea of his wasting illness, I was sure that my old friend was finding joy in the thought that his will could, in Christ, keep him through all trial and sorrow, through life and through death, giving him final success in God’s way. And from that hour it was apparent that he was grateful that God had chosen this way to lead him to a right understanding of the gain of a strong will properly directed.

The following months, when I went

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every few days to cheer that new believer’s heart and to strengthen my own grateful faith by Christian counsel with that glad saint as he was ripening for glory, I found that talk about his will had given place to loving words about his Saviour. Rarely is one to be met who has fuller joy and peace in Christ than had this man who had feared the barrier of his determined will. He had long lived a life of purity in duty-doing in God’s service, but he had been mistaught as to what was required of him if he would be one with Christ. He had confounded his determined purpose in whatever he had to do, with wrong self-seeking. When he saw the light, he turned to it, and rejoiced in it. He seemed to have forgotten that he had any troubles.

He spoke only of the bright side of his present or his future. When he realized that he had not long to live, he was ready to see better things in prospect than he had ever ventured to hope for. His grateful and glad-hearted wife found cheer and

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gave him cheer as they communed together of their Saviour’s love and constant presence. Each day seemed brighter than any that had gone before. As to his will, he did not have to give it up, but only to lift it up.

Fresh trials came to him as he lay helpless in that invalid-chamber, which proved to be his death-chamber; but he had now strength and faith to bear them all. His aged mother, whom he had for years supported, was stricken with a fatal disease. The knowledge of this was kept from him, lest he should be unable to bear it. But when she was dead, they were compelled to tell him of it. He received the intelligence with joyous faith. He said pleasantly:

“It will not be long before we shall be together again.”

It was evident that life with Christ was already more real and precious to him than this earthly life. His will was still unbroken, but it was now wisely directed.

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And when at last he bade me farewell as he entered peacefully into rest, he seemed glad of the lesson he had freshly learned, that one who wants to do his duty needs not to have less will, or determination, but to have his strongest will, or purpose, rightly directed toward his loving and all-sufficient Saviour. Thus directed, the more will a man has, the better it is for him in God’s service.