Obedience That Pleases Christ

7 said, “Let me walk in the fields,”
He said, “No; walk in the town.”

I said, “There are no flowers there.” He said, “No flowers, but a crown.”

I said, “But the skies are black;

There is nothing but noise and din.”
And He wept as He sent me back —

“There is more,” He said; “there is sin.”

I said, “But the air is thick,

And the fogs are veiling the sun.”

He answered: “Yet souls are sick.
And souls in the dark, undone.”

I said, “I shall miss the light;

And friends will miss me, they say.”
He answered, “Choose to-night

If I am to miss you, or they.”

I pleaded for time to be given.

He said, “Is it hard to decide T
It will not be hard in heaven

To have followed the steps of your Guide”

Then into His hand went mine;

And into my heart came He;
And I walk in a light divine

The path I had feared to see.

—George Macdonald.

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T is not enough to begin; the test of a true life is in its persistence unto the end. A good beginning is important. The trouble with many people is that they do not begin at all. They listen, ponder, dream, and resolve, but never take the first step. That is the way thousands of men, with splendid possibilities, fail to make anything of their life, miss their chance. Nothing is more important than promptness in doing the duty that comes to one’s hand. Not to do it at the moment is to lose the opportunity of doing it at all.

But it is not enough to begin. The paths of life are marked at every step with unfinished work. It is persistence that alone wins the prizes. Jesus said to certain persons who had believed on Him, “If ye abide in My word, [105] then are ye truly My disciples.” To abide in Christ’s word is to be always faithful to it. The one great duty of discipleship is obedience. The word abide has the thought of home in it, and suggests also a willing and loving obedience, hearty, trustful, joyous. Jesus said of His own obedience, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me.” Obedience was bread, life, to Him. We must abide in Christ’s word. It may sometimes cost us a great deal to obey — it would be much easier to listen to the voice of ease or self-indulgence. But the question of ease or inclination must never be considered. The only question is: “What is the Master’s plan for my life.?”

The highest and noblest success possible to any life is its realization of the divine purpose for it. Whatever else we may do, whatever great thing, whatever praise we may win from men for our fine attainments and our splendid achievements, if we miss filling the place God made us to fill and doing the work God made us to do, we have missed the true [106] jaDbetii’ence tiat ^^leajse Cirfjst

glory of our life. The most triumphant word anyone can say at the end of his life is, “I have accomplished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.”

It is most important, therefore, that we find the will of God for our life and accept it sweetly and gladly. There are those who are always at odds with their circumstances. The people they have to live with or work with are uncongenial and disagreeable. The conditions in which they find themselves are uncomfortable and distasteful. So they chafe and fret and are full of discontent. All this unhappiness could be cured if they would accept their circumstances and get their own spirit in proper accord with the will of God. When St. Paul could say, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therein to be content,” he had found the secret of sweet and joyous living. You cannot change the people about you and make them agreeable to live with; but you can learn to keep sweet yourself, however irritating others may be. You may not have power to make your surroundings pleas- [107] ant and congenial, but you can bring your own mind and heart into such patience, such cheerfulness, such self-control, such peace, that in whatsoever state you are, you shall be content. As Browning puts it:

The common problem, yours, mine, every one’s, Is — not to fancy what were fair in life Provided it could be, — but, finding first What may be, then find how to make it fair Up to our means; a very different thing.

Many people are unhappy because they cannot do the large and fine things which they see some other people doing. But we should remember that the things that God has given us to do, however small they may be, are really the greatest things we can possibly do. Self-surrender to God, though our fondest ambition is laid down, is in God’s sight really the noblest thing we can do with our life. Because we cannot achieve the great things it is in our heart to do, our life need not therefore be a failure; the folding of our hands in trust and resignation may be a greater act [108] in God’s sight and a greater benediction to the world than the finest work those hands might have done.

At least, if we would reach the highest and best possibilities of Christian discipleship, we must put ourselves in full harmony with the will of God for us. We must be content to let God use us how and where He will, and to do what He would have us do. Many people make almost nothing of their lives, do little that is worthy or beautiful, because they are not wilHng to do the plain, lowly things that are ever waiting close to their hands, but strive always to find conspicuous things to do So as to get praise of men. If you would leave behind you when you go away a beautiful story of good done, things which have made the air sweeter, and the world better and happier, do what the Master wants you to do. Christina Rossetti’’s little prayer to be used is very beautiful:

Use me, God, in Thy great harvest-field Which stretcheth jar and wide, like a wide sea. [109]

The gatherers are so few, I fear the precious yield Will suffer loss. 0, find a place for me —

A place where best the strength I have will tell;

It may he one the other toilers shun; Be it a wide or narrow place, ’tis well,

So that the work it holds he only done.

If we would make our discipleship what we should make it, we must keep self out of it. We cannot live for ourselves and live for Christ. Then we must also learn the lesson of love for others. Self-seeking is nowhere else so unseemly, so unlovely, as it is in Christian life and Christian work. Ruskin has a passage in which he portrays the self-seeker and tells of the outcome of his life:” So far as you desire to possess rather than give; so far as you look for power to command instead of to bless; so long as you seek position for self instead of for another; so long as you crave homage and have the desire to be greatest instead of a desire for self-effacement and to be least — just so long you are serving the lord of all that is last and least, and you [110] flDbetJicnce tlat pltam Clttjst

shall not win the crown laid up for the self-sacrificing, but you shall have death’s crown, with the worm coiled within it, and death’s wages, with the worm feeding on them.” It is a canon of art that only a good man can paint a great picture. A connoisseur of art, looking at a painting, said, “That man must have risen to great spiritual heights before he could have painted that figure of the Christ.” His friend told him the story of the picture. Two boys, twins, chose art as their life-work. They toiled and struggled, keeping themselves from everything that would weaken either their physical or moral well-being. Some wealthy friends proposed to lionize them, but the boys declined all help, all patronizing. “We will not sell our manhood,” they said to each other. “We will hew out our own paths.” And they did, their hearts set meanwhile on a great work of art, the Christ, which they wished to produce. “We must live and work,” they said, “that our ideal will be possible when we come to the fulness of our powers.” At the age of forty-

eight one of the twins died, and after his first passion of grief the other said, “Now I must do my brother’s work as well as my own.” “That painting,” the friend continued, “is the culmination of the life-work of these two men. Do you wonder at its excellence?” With Christian work it is still more true than with art work that only a good man can do it well. If we would reach the great possibilities of discipleship we must seek purity of motive, holiness of life, devotion to lofty ideals, and self-forgetfulness in striving for worthy ends. We must be good, if we would do good. We must realize the Christ in our own life before we can show others the glory and the beauty of the Christ. Then if we would fulfil our discipleship we must concentrate all our energy and strength upon it. We must make it the first thing in our life to be Christians. That is what St. Paul meant of himself when he said, “To me to live is Christ,” or when he said again, “This one thing I do — I press toward the goal.” He did a great many things, but in

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them all he was living Christ and reaching toward the goal of perfection. We can do this in the surest way by giving Christ our days one by one as they come.

“With every rising of the sun
Think of your life as just begun.

“The past has shrivelled and buried deep All yesterdays. There let them sleep;

“Nor seek to summon back one ghost
Of that innumerable host.

“Concern yourself with but to-day,
Woo it, and teach it to obey

“Your mill and wish. Since time begaUj To-day has been the friend of man;

“But in his blindness and in his sorrow He looks to yesterday and to-morrow.

“You and to-day! a soul sublime.
And the great pregnant hour of time,

“With God himself to bind the twain; Go forth, I say; attain! attain!’’

A business man when asked the secret of his

success in doing things so well, replied,” I

do not know unless it be that whatever I am doing any moment, however small a thing it may seem to be, I bring all my mind and heart and strength to it.” The poet bids us, if we write but one line, to make that sublime. Let us learn to bring all the strength of our life to the smallest details of our duty. Let us make the moments beautiful, and then the hours will be radiant and the days glorious.