| The Golden Gate of Prayer |
Chapter 8 |
Page 5 |
It is not easy for any life to be thus brought into full accord with the will of God. Much that is in us must be changed. All earthward tendencies must be turned heavenward. Self must die. When Jesus said that he who would follow him must deny himself, he did not mean that he must give up a few things, or many; he meant that self must be effaced as the dominant ruler of the life, and dethroned, and that Christ must be seated in the empty place. No more must the question be, “What is pleasant to me? what would I like to do? what does the voice from the throne command?”
For example, one wrongs us, does us some great unkindness or injustice. Nature counsels resentment, bitterness, the repaying of the evil with evil. But the will of God counsels love, forbearance, patience, forgiveness. As we pray “Thy will be done,” our natural impulse must yield to the divine Spirit and love must prevail. When Enoch Arden came back from the voyage on which it was thought he had perished, and, looking into the window of his old home, found another in his place, — husband to his wife, father to his children, — the poet says:—
He was not all unhappy. His resolve
Upbore him and firm faith, and evermore
Prayer from a living source within the will,
And beating up through all the bitter world,
Like fountains of sweet water in the sea,
Kept him a living soul.
This finely illustrates the work of the will of God in every Christian heart. It is there as a well of the water of life, a fresh-water spring in the brackish sea, and it beats up through every tide of bitter feeling, sweetening it and subduing it.
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