The Road to Greatness

“So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that 1 love Thee. He saith u?ito him, Feed my lambs.” — John xxi. 15.

“Lovest thou me more than these love me?” It is an appeal to the oldest instinct of Peter’s nature — his desire to be first. The root of his whole being had been ambition. Even in his approach to his Lord there had been a consciousness of self, a thirst for superiority a desire that his coming should be singled out from the approaches of all other men. “Bid me that I come to Thee on the waters” — that had been the motto of his life. What was he that he should be bidden more than John or James or Nathaniel? But the instinct for superiority was in the man, and he could not help it. And now it is to this instinct that our Lord appeals, “Lovest thou me more than these love me?” is there the old wish to be first. But observe the new revelation which the Lord makes to the old instinct, “Feed my lambs.” It is as if he said: Peter, thou hast been pursuing a wrong road to greatness; he that is least shall be greatest of all. Wouldst thou be spiritually the most conspicuous of the band? Then must thou be the least proud, the most self-forgetting. Thou must come down to feed the very lambs of the flock. Thou must descend into the lowliest valleys of the world. Thou must lose through the very power of thy love all sense of thine own power. Thou must forget thine interest in the interest of the lives beneath thee, thou must be oblivious of thy wants in feeling the hunger and the thirst of other souls, thou must take no thought for thyself through the pressure of the one great thought — the burden of humanity, the bearing of my cross.

0 Thou that hast emptied Thyself of Thy glory, and by Thy humiliation hast conquered the world, help me to be great like Thee in Thee. Give me Thine own spirit of self-forgetful ness, that I may be inspired with the power of love. Teach me to lose self-will, that I may be strengthened by a higher will. Let my life be buried in the love of Thee, hid in the sense of Thy presence, absorbed and lost and overshadowed in Thine all-excelling glory. Then in Thy cross shall I reach Thy crown, and Calvary shall become my Olivet. My enthusiasm of self-forge tfulness shall be the greatness of my power, my loss shall be my gain, my death shall be the strength of my life. When I feel that I have nothing I shall indeed possess all things; when I am least conscious of myself I shall be strongest of all. Teach me to feed Thy lambs.