THE WILL OF GOD & THE THREEFOLD DEMAND

"The steps of the way I know not,

But my Leader I know full well;

My hand is in His, I fear not—

In the depths of His peace I dwell.

He knows where He leads; I know not,

But I trust in His love each day:

My heart is His own; I fear not,

For the way is my Lord's highway.

"The hours may seem dark and dreary,

But His presence my life shall cheer; The night may seem sad and weary,

But I know that my Lord is near. One step at a time He shows me,

And I know that the rest He hides, That love may the better show me

How in safety His mercy guides.

"I wait, in His will abiding;

I rejoice, for His strength sustains; I trust in His word confiding;

And of doubt not one trace remains.

And never comes pain or sadness

But to hasten the sunlit morn; Then grief shall give way to gladness,

Then never a sigh be born."

E. G. WELLESLEY-WESLEY ("Songs of the Heart").

A THREEFOLD DEMAND

            In our previous articles we have seen that the most important subject of Scripture is the Will of God. As a revelation to man, it declares that human life is only perfectly conditioned as it discovers that Will, and yields implicit obedience thereto. In the present article we shall ask certain questions from the standpoint of conscious human need. Let it be decided that law in some form is a ne­cessity; that anarchy of individual or social being is chaos and confusion: the question immediately arises as to the highest and best law possible. A rough-and-ready division of the mass of men today will reveal three classes.

            First, there are those who are the slaves of others. Human opinion is the test of all their doing and speaking. Conventionality holds them in an iron grip. They will do, or refuse to do anything according to the opinion of someone else. The habit of the crowd becomes the rule of life. Or it may be that one person is looked to as lawgiver; that person being sometimes called priest, at other times teacher. The craving is for authority outside one's own personality; and this is sought in many ways.

            Then there are those who affect to despise the opinion of others, and are openly and avowedly self-confident. They care not what others do; they are capable of making their own program con­ducting their own affairs. These are the people who make time-tables for themselves, and form resolutions, and surround themselves with a whole system of self-created safety laws.

            Last, there are those who decline to be governed by the opinion of others, and who have absolutely abandoned attempting to control them­selves by self-made programs and regulations, and whose whole lives are conditioned in the prayer of the Psalmist of old: "Teach me to do Thy Will; for Thou art my God" (Psa. 143:10).

            The test as to which of these is really the highest law of life is to be found within the consciousness of man himself. There are certain aspirations of the human heart which are always present. They may be distorted or dwarfed, but in some form they abide as the necessary and unalterable desires of human nature. The law of life which realizes and satisfies these, to the fullest possible extent, must of necessity be the best. These aspirations may be summarized under three heads—Perfection, Pleasure, Permanence.

I. Perfection.

            The first aspiration of every human life is for Perfection. How strange and inexplicable, by the way, is the fear some excellent people have of the word. With what bated breath, and what aloofness of fear, is one often asked if one really believes in Christian perfection. And yet what else can one believe in who believes in Christ? Try other phrases—Christian imperfection, for instance. Will not someone explain that for us? Or, if you prefer, take another form of the negative—im­perfect Christianity. Finally, yes, there is much of it; but who will say they believe in it? Let us have done with this unholy fear of a phrase, and immediately say that nothing can satisfy the deepest demand of our human nature except its perfection. It is the common passion of the race, often partially realized and constantly abused, but perpetually present.

            Who is there that would not immediately secure physical perfection if that were possible? To be vigorous, proportioned, and beautiful, would be a blessing no sane person would despise. Mental perfection is much less coveted because harder to attain, yet none would refuse to make some effort to attain it if it were within measurable distance. Spiritual perfection is, alas, most neglected, pro­bably because it moves on the highest plane; yet no person, upon calm reflection, would deliberately reject this if they were once convinced of its accessibility.

            This, then, is the first demand by which we propose to test any law or philosophy of life. It must be of such a nature as to ensure the ultimate perfection of our being, not on one side merely, but in its tripartite character of spirit, soul, and body.

II. Pleasure.

            The second demand is for Pleasure. This is a perfectly legitimate demand, because it comes out of the deepest necessities of human nature, and is common to men everywhere, under most diversified conditions of life. In all ages, in all lands, and under all circumstances of life, man desires and seeks after happiness. It is very doubtful if a single exception can be found to this rule in the ranks of the human family. We occasionally hear of such a thing as pessimism; and some there are who even venture to affirm that they have seen a pessimist. Some of us have never had such a sorrowful experience, thank God!

            There are men who seem to have no fellowship with the ordinary pursuits of pleasure, and are devoid of humor of a certain kind; but it has been discovered often that in some hidden and least expected place they have had their treasure-house of happiness. That it was not of the nature of the things that make other men happy does not matter for a moment. Even if it be granted that there are some human beings who are all that is intended by the word pessimist, the true facts of their condition are quaintly revealed in the saying that they are only happy when miserable, for out of their discontent they are attempt­ing to minister to the universal craving for pleasure.

            Man was not made for sorrow. It is, we believe, a Divine minister of blessing and in many cases precedes gladness; but the transient character of sorrow in the purpose of God is marked by the glorious promise that He will wipe all tears away. The heart of man was made for peace, and joy, and love; and through all the foolish blundering of popular pleasure-seeking, it is after these men seek.

            By this also, therefore, we test the laws of life that are proposed to us. They must secure for us the highest and fullest pleasure; not that, which is unsubstantial and momentary, but the deep and the abiding; and the law which most perfectly does this is the best, and to it we will yield our whole­hearted allegiance.

III. Permanence.

            The last demand is that of Permanence. Man is everywhere and at all times, and in every way, at war with decay. The hatred of death, and the loathing of the grave, marks the fact that man has capacity for life, and therefore feels rebellious against the faintest suggestion of its cessation.

            How men strive after permanence! The search of old for the potion of life was a pathetic proof of this craving; and in cases where men have been unable to hope for actual continuity of being, they have sought to perpetuate their existence in the memory of others by writings and works, and even by monuments erected.

            We cry out for the beyond. Horizons are always a menace to our peace. We crave the infinite. Deeply conscious of the perishing nature of everything around us; seeing the dark sentence, "passing away," written large upon our most valued treasures, and feeling ourselves ceaselessly moving through the pages of our life's account to the dreaded word FINIS—we sigh, and sob, and fret, and de­mand some place that passes not; some treasure that vanishes not away; some secret of being that will enable us to say, We abide, masters of death.

            True it is that thousands of us seem to float easily through the days, unconscious of these crav­ings, content to drift and not to know. Yet this is but false seeming. Carefully observe the first ordinary, everyday, matter-of-fact man in any crowd in any city, in any land. Keep close to him, that you may watch him. Suddenly, in a moment of loneliness, when the things unseen come near in overwhelming reality, or when he faces death and feels it imminent, or when some cherished hope is suddenly destroyed, that man will lift his eyes and gaze wistfully toward the future. In those eyes shine the light of his true being, and the passion for permanence is revealed as being the true and perpetual sub-consciousness of his life.

            That law of life which could answer that demand, Love only can make laws for man which will provide him with perfect pleasure.

            God's Will is perfect, because He is, and the Eternal alone can make laws which take in all the past, present, and future, so as to secure permanence and make man master of all the forces of dis­integration and decay, is assuredly the highest and the best; and when we find it, to it we will abandon ourselves with whole-hearted devotion.

            Thus standing within the realm of my own being, turning a deaf ear for the moment to all the babel of outside voices, I hear the speech of my true life, and learn its deepest demands; and I solemnly, deliberately, and positively declare that if the Will of God for man be, as the Bible declares it to be, the highest philosophy of human life, it must meet this threefold demand, and secure to me the perfection of my being, the highest and abiding pleasure, and that victory over the ele­ments of death and decay which shall ensure my permanence.

            In three subsequent articles we shall endeavor to show that this is exactly what the Will of God does, and what any other law of life fails to do. In concluding the present article, it will be suffi­cient to summarize the subjects of the next three thus:

1. God's Will is perfect, because by Him man was created, and He therefore is alone able to make such laws as shall ensure man's perfection.

2. God's Will is perfect, because He is love, and Love only can make laws for man which will provide him with perfect pleasure.

3. God’s Will is perfect, because He is, and the Eternal alone can make laws which take in all the past, present, and future, so as to secure permanence.