The Road to a Correct Life
“Let us, who are of the day, he sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation.” — i Thessalonians v. 8.
WHAT a strange recipe for a sober walk in life! I should have thought Paul would have prescribed hours of hard work and commonplace duty. I should have thought he would have administered a sedative to the imagination. Instead of that, he recommends a course of powerful emotions — faith, hope, love. And verily Paul is right; he must have known human nature well! For it is not by making men commonplace that you will make them sober. You cannot cure a bad passion by creating passionlessness. We are in a great mistake about this matter. We see people living soberly, sedately, correctly. We say, ‘’ They must have a very even temperament; they must be free from all flights of fancy.” I think it is generally the reverse. I think a man is never so correct on the plain as when he has a sure sight of the hills. The moments when we go wrong are mostly our prosaic moments. There is a deep significance in the words, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, whence cometh mine aid.” Yes, it is from the hills that mine aid comes. It is by the light of the hills that I walk on the common road and do not stray. It is not sober precepts that keep me sober; it is high flights of faith, bright visions of hope, deep pulses of love. To live a steady life I need, not the drag, but the wing. I need, not the motto in the copy-book, but a sight of the golden west. I can only travel through to-day on the strength of the good time coming.
Therefore, O Lord, I understand it all. I understand why Thou hast said before all things, “Come unto me,” Thou hast not begun by saying, “Live soberly, walk circumspectly.” Thou hast carried me to the Mount first of all. Ere Thou hast given me one precept Thou hast set me on the hill with Thee. Other masters have begun with earth and then led
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up to licaven; Thou hast 1)cpun with heaven. and then led down to earth. T l)less Thee for that suhhme, that Divine wisdom. Earth is too difficult for me till I have seen heaven. The more prosaic be my duties, the more I need the wings of the morning. I will not try the plain till I have met Thee on the hill. Meet me on the hill, O Lord! Lift me above earth that I may serve earth! Fire me with high enthusiasm that I may be fit for the commonplace! Send me Elijah’s chariot that I may sweep o’er the dusty plain! Give me one gleam of Thy glory that I may tread the beaten path! Take me for one minute into Thy pavilion ere I go out on my daily round! Inspire me with the poetry of faith, hope, love, that I may not stumble in the world’s prose! I shall only be adequate to the day when I have put on the armour of the Life Eternal.