| The Golden Gate of Prayer |
Chapter 15 |
Page 4 |
“If I could once lay down myself,
And start, self-purged, upon the race
That all must run!”
Our Master wishes us to remain in the world, but desires for us that we be kept from the evil. Sometimes people say they cannot possibly live a good, true, and holy life in the place where they have to dwell. But wherever it is our duty to stay, though it be in the worst spot on the face of the earth, God is able to keep us unspotted and blameless.
The palm tree, the Arabs say, stands with its feet in salt water and its head in the sun. ofttimes they cannot drink the water found in the oasis where the palm grows, it is so brackish. Then they tap the tree and drink the sweet palm wine which flows out. “The tree by the magic of its inner life, so changes the elements found in the unkindly soil around it, that they minister to its growth and strength and fruitbearing,” it takes the evil of its environment and transmutes it into good.
This is a parable of spiritual life. It is possible for us to live as it were with our feet in the mire of sin’s bitterness, our life smitten meanwhile by fierce temptations, and yet yield the fruits of love and holiness. If we have Christ in us there is a magic power in our life which rejects the evil and assimilates the good, which takes the evil and transforms it. The world has no power to harm us if our life be hid with Christ in God. There is a wonderful promise which says that there is One who is able to guard us from stumbling and to set us before the presence of his glory, without blemish, in exceeding joy.
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