| The Hidden Life |
Chapter 3 |
Page 6 |
Years ago there were in southern California great stretches of burning plains, covered with dry sand, with scarcely a living thing growing anywhere upon them. Meanwhile, up in the mountains, there were streams of running water, produced by the melting snows, running to waste, ofttimes causing damage as they rushed down the gorges. Men saw that if those wasting and destructive streams could only be carried down into the valleys, and made to distribute their waters over the alkaline sands, the desert could be changed into a garden. Today great orange orchards grow on what, twenty-five years ago, was barren wastes.
This is an illustration of what the forces of human nature, which now in so many lives run riot in dissipation, doing harm to others, and hurt to God’s kingdom, might be trained to do, if all their energies were but turned to noble and beneficent uses. That is what Christ proposes to do with those who come to him. He sets them free, not by unleashing them to live without law or control, but by brings them under his own yoke, where in true and holy serving and obedience they will not only find rest and peace for themselves, but will also become means of carrying benediction to others.
In no other way can the longings and cravings of human hearts find satisfaction. These were not made for idle rest, but for healthful activity. The affections can find satisfaction only in loving, and in loving purely, truly, unselfishly. Love is not a sinful passion; it is sinful only when it is perverted from its true end and debased, and becomes unholy lust. Nor is love an unworthy or an unmanly quality. God is love — love in its true sense is the whole of living. We can never find satisfaction until we have learned to love in a Christ-like way, as Christ loved us, giving our life as he did to be consumed in the flame of love.
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