| The Hidden Life |
Chapter 3 |
Page 8 |
It is not enough to seek attainments merely for the sake of the attainments. That will bring no satisfaction. Learning merely to know neither enlarges nor truly enriches the mind. It is only when we desire more knowledge in order that we may use it in living more nobly and in doing greater good to others that we are led into deeper peace. Says Froude: “The knowledge which man can use is the only real knowledge which has life and growth in it, and converts itself into practical power. The rest hangs like mist about the brain, or dries like raindrops off the stones.” The same rule applies in all our longings. To desire to be good merely for the sake of being good, to stand up among men in holy beauty but with no wish to make one’s goodness a power is honoring God and in blessing the world, will bring no true and permanent satisfying.
After all, satisfaction can come only through the consecration of all the powers to God for love’s service. Deeper amid the laws of our immortal being than any of us can ever know in this world, lies the must of service. “Ich dien,” I serve. I must serve. “Not to be ministered unto, but to minister,” is the divinest law of moral and spiritual life ever enunciated by any teacher. This is the way, the only way, to satisfaction. The powers of the soul must be led out in the paths of their own true craving, to lay hold upon the things which they were made to attain. They must not be repressed or destroyed, but must be drawn out, directed, disciplined. Then all the life must reach its divine purpose in becoming as Christ to the world, living to bless others, giving itself in utter abandonment to help save the world.
This is the way, and the only way, to the satisfying of human desires. The water that Christ gives alone can quench the soul’s thirst. Only as we return to God, and to the place and service for which we were created, can we be at peace. Obedience, likeness, service, are the keywords of spiritual life. Earthly satisfaction at the best is incomplete; but the well in the heart in this life springs up into eternal life. What we call dying is but entering into fullness of life and perfection of blessedness.
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