The Responsibility of Greatness
“The easy path in the lowland hath little of grand or new, But a toilsome ascent leads on to a wide and glorious view; Peopled and warm is the valley, lonely and chill the height; But the peak that is nearer the storra-cloud is nearer the stars of light.”
No doubt it is natural to desire easy ways in life. None of us love hardness for its own sake. We all like to have good things come to us as favors, as gifts, without toil or sacrifice or cost. But not thus, ordinarily, do life’s best things come to us. Nor would they be best things if we received them in this way. The gold of life we must dig out of the rocks with our own hands in order to make it our own. The larger blessing we find not in the possessing, but in the getting. This is the secret that lies at the heart of our Lord’s beatitude, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” He did not say it is more pleasant to give than to receive, or more easy to human nature, but more blessed.
It is related in an ancient Bible record that the people of Joseph came once to Joshua with a complaint concerning their allotment in the promised land. They said, “Why hast thou given me but one lot and one part for an inheritance, seeing I am a great people?” Joshua’s answer was, “If thou be a great people, get thee up to the forest, and cut down for thyself there.” The incident is full of suggestion. It gives us an example of a premise with two different conclusions. The people said, “We are a great tribe; therefore give us a larger portion.” Joshua said, “Yes, you are a great people; therefore, clear the forests from the mountains, drive out the enemy, and take possession.” To his mind, their greatness was a reason why they should take care of themselves and win their own larger portion.
One teaching from this incident is that it is not the bravest and most wholesome thing to be eager for favors and for help from others.
These people wished to be recognized as the most important tribe, but they wanted this prominence and wealth bestowed upon them without exertion of their own. There arc men of this class in every community. They want to rise in the world, but they would rise on the exertions and sacrifices of others — not their own. They want larger farms, but they would have some other hand than their own clear away the forests and cultivate the soil.
We find the same in spiritual life. There are those who sigh for holiness and beauty of character, but they are not willing to pay the price. They sing, “More holiness give me,” and dream of some lofty spiritual attainment, some transfiguration, but they are not willing to endure the toils, to fight the battles, and to make the self-sacrifices necessary to win these celestial heights. They would make praying a substitute for effort, for struggle, for the crucifying of self. They want a larger spiritual inheritance, but they have no thought of taking it in primeval forests which their own hands must cut down.
The truth is, however, that God gives us our inheritance just as he gave Joseph’s lot to him. Our promised land has to be won, every inch of it. And each must win his own personal portion. No one can win the inheritance for any other. You must conquer your own temptations — your dearest friend by your side cannot overcome them for you. You must train and discipline your own faith. You must cultivate your own heart-life. You must learn patience, gentleness, and all the lessons of love for your self. No one can give you any Christian grace as one gives a present to another. There is a deep truth in that touch in the parable, when the wise virgins refused to give of their oil to those whose lamps were going out. Perhaps you have thought it ungenerous in them, when you heard them say, “Go to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. We have not enough for us and you.” But the teaching is that grace is not transferable, cannot be passed from heart to heart. The wise could not give of their oil to the foolish. No one can live for another at any point. Even God cannot give us holiness, peace, and the rich results of victorious living, without struggle, battle, or self-denial upon our own part. True it is that God works in us both to will and to do, but the text which tells us this begins, “Work out your own salvation.” God works in us only when we begin to work at his bidding.
Another lesson here is that truest friendship must ofttimes decline to do for men what they can do for themselves. Joshua may have seemed a little unkind to his own tribe, but really he was not. The best kindness to them was to send them out to do the things they could do. It was far better to command them to go into the forest and cut down the timber and clear off the land for themselves, than it would have been to give them a broad acreage of new land all cleared and under cultivation. It was far better to send them to drive out the enemies with the iron chariots, conquering the valley for themselves, than it would have been to send an army to make the conquest for them.
Our best friends are not those who make life easy for us; our best friends are those who put courage, energy, and resolution into our hearts. There are thousands of lives dwarfed ana hurt irreparably by pampering. Parents, ofttimes, in the very warmth and eagerness of their love, do sad harm in their children’s lives by overhelping them; by doing things for them which it were better to teach them to do for themselves; by sparing them struggles, self-denials, hardships, which it were better for the children to meet.
Friendship is in constant danger of overhelp ing in this way. When one we love comes to us with a difficulty, it is love’s first impulse to solve it for him, whereas it would be a thousand times better kindness if we put him in the way of solving it for himself. If you can wake up a young man, arouse his sleeping or undiscovered powers, so that he will win a fortune or do a brave thing with his own hands and brain, that is an infinitely better thing to do for him than if you were to give him a fortune as a present. In the former case, in getting his fortune, he has gotten also trained powers, energy, strength, self-reliance, disciplined character, and all the elements that belong to strong manhood. In the other case he has gotten nothing but the money. He has missed all the lessons he would have learned, and all the enlargement and enrichment of life he would have gotten in the struggle and the conquest, and these are the true acquisitions in life. Things are not possessions. Money and real estate and stocks and bonds are not real possessions in the hands of a man with a soul. They are entirely external to the man himself. They make a man no greater, no more a man, if they are merely put into his hands. In winning a fortune the man will grow. Work itself is always a better blessing than that which one works to get. Hence it is a greater kindness to incite another to open the hard rocks and thus find the water for himself, than it is to bring him the water which another has led down from the mountains.
That was the way Joshua showed his friendship for these children of Joseph. He would not do them the unkindness of freeing them from the toil of conquest and subjugation. He set them to win the land for themselves, because the blessing lay as much in the winning as in the possessing.
That is God’s way with us. He does not make life easy for us. He does not promise to lift the burden off our shoulder even when we cast it upon him. It is God’s gift to us, this burden of ours, and to lay it down would be to lay down a blessing. It is something our life needs, and it would be an unkindness to take it away. Surely it is a wiser love that puts new strength into your heart and arm, so that you can go on with your hard duty, your heavy responsibility, your weight of care, without fainting, than would be the love which should take the load away and leave you free from any burden. You may think you would prefer the latter way, that it would be easier, but you would miss the blessing, and your life would be weaker and poorer in the end.
God’s purpose always is to make something of us, to bring out the best that is in us. Hence he does not clear the forest for us, but puts the axe into our hands and bids us to cut it down for ourselves. And while we prepare the ground for tillage we grow healthy and strong ourselves through the toil. He does not drive out the enemies for us; he puts the sword into our hands and sends us to drive them out. The struggle does us good. The wrestling makes us strong.
Still another lesson from this incident is that true greatness should show itself, not in demanding favors or privileges, but in achieving great things. The people of Joseph thought that their prominence entitled them to a portion above others. “No,” said Joshua, “your prominence entitles you only to the privilege of the finest heroism and the largest labor.” So he gave them the hardest task. The way a commander honors the best regiment on the field is not by assigning it to some easy post, to some duty away from danger. He honors it by giving it the most perilous post, the duty requiring the most splendid courage. So it is in all life — the place of honor is always the hardest place, where the most delicate and difficult duty must be done, where the heaviest burden of responsibility must be borne. It is never a real honor to be given an easy place. Instead of demanding a place of honor as a favor of friendship, which sets no seal of greatness upon our brow, we should win our place of honor by worthy deeds and services.
Our Lord taught this lesson when the disciples strove for the highest positions. They wished that he would merely appoint them to seats on his right and left hand. His answer is very important. Men are not appointed to the high places in spiritual life, he said, “It is not mine to give.” Even Christ cannot give any disciple rank or place in his kingdom. It must be won by the disciple himself. In human governments, rulers may put their favorites in places of honor merely to show them regard. Appointments are ofttimes arbitrary in such cases, and unworthy men are set in exalted seats. But places are never given to men in Christ’s kingdom; they must be won.
Then our Lord went further and explained the principle on which places are assigned to his disciples. “Whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; and whosO’ ever would be first among you shall be your servant.” That is, rank in Christ’s kingdom is in proportion to service. He who serves his fellow-men most utterly, in Christ’s name, is the highest among men. Or, to put it in an other form, instead of claiming rank by appointment or favor, you must win it by serving your fellows, by using your strength, your abilities, your greatness, in doing good to others. The only privilege your superiority over others gives you is the privilege of doing good to others in superior ways.
This truth is far-reaching in its applications. It should sweep out of our thought forever all feeling that others owe us favors; all that spirit which shows itself in self-seeking, in claims for place or precedence over others. It should make us despise all the miserable toggery of professed rank, aristocracy, blood, in which so many people play such farces. “What are you doing with your life?” is the only question that is asked, when rank is to be measured. The law of love is that with whatsoever we have we must serve our fellowmen. Selfishness discrowns a life. The least talented man in the world who uses his little powers with which to serve and help others, is higher in rank in God’s sight than the most nobly gifted man who uses his great power only to advance his own interests.
The most highly dowered life that this world ever saw was that of Jesus Christ. Yet he demanded no recognition of men. He claimed no rank. He never said his lowly place was too small, too narrow, for the exercise of his great abilities. He used his greatness in doing good, in blessing the world. He washed men’s feet with those hands which angels would have kissed. He was the greatest among men, and he was the servant of all. That is the true mission of greatness — to serve. There is no other worthy way of using whatever gifts God has bestowed upon us. Instead of claiming place, distinction, rank, position, and attention, because of our gifts, abilities, wisdom, or name, we must use all we have to bless the world and to honor God.