পাতা:তত্ত্ববোধিনী পত্রিকা (একাদশ কল্প দ্বিতীয় খণ্ড).pdf/১০০

খানি ৪%s** loodst in little bits isobedience,submission, patience, trust, hope, and which looked at in the lump may be called the life of faith. . Well—the servant of God, devoured by the ambition to creep a little nearer to his God, finds that misfortune is one of the best instruments for gratifying his ambition. He never passes thro' any severe misfortune, always supposing he takes it in the right way, without finding himself drawn a little bit nearer to the throne. In the first place, without any effort of our will, the mere menace of misfortune is e-ough to send us instinctively to God if we are in any degree happily related to Him. We "may sit rather loose to Him when all things go pleasantly, satisfied innocently satisfied up to a certain point, with the bright and busy life to which He has called us, but He may know that it is not good for us to dwell very long in this way, careless and Ꭶ©ᏟᏖᏗᏦᏬ. drying up for want of closcr intercourse with Him ; and so the hole of alarm is sounded, which is im tyutiy i{is vali t«, us. the honnely saying saisi they “can’t stand boats." Well, in the spiritual world, this is true, probably, cf the great majority of souls; they cannot stand beans, cannot stand the high feeding of perpetual prosperity, and God, in his mercy, sends them the low dict of anxiety and the medicine of downright misfortune, intil it becomes a second nature witli 1heum to reali e deir need of Him. What a light this single truth throws on the dark side of life. He may know that our souls are You know {11, sinlile truth that the immediate efiect f anxi, ty, of sorrow, if we can presume in any Seuse to cali ourselves servants of God, is to servi us to God. “The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and so are the stony, rocks for the comies.” Those of you who have shot rabbits know what it, iš tá sę0 theiıı after ! lıe first. frightened pause hurry into the holes round which they have been feeding. Just in the same-way do those who love God hurry at the first alarm iĥto the slolter of llis presence, Thus the evil thing that affrighted them has worked obviously for their good. * Passing on from these first and almost instinctive effects of misfortune, we come wo the after processes, worked out by God s servant, at first, perhaps, with toil and pain, TRUE FAITH. | ృ్వసి but rieldinatterward.solution and even joy. by the desire to enter more thoroughly into the joys and privileges of the higher ಶ್ಗ turns all his misfortunes in to opportunities for exercising obedience, submission, patience, trust, hope ; the wreck of his earthly palaces be converts into fuel for his faith. Ah he has the magic shield from which every spear drops blunted to the ground. He has the true philosopher's stolic, exceeding in its virtues the wizard's wildest dream, for with his stone he turns even the dross to gold. He has constant access to the crucible of (ind, an i into that crucible ille pours-- “The precious things whate'er they he Thzt baunt and vux him heart and brain,“ and io ! there comes ont this crown, crown with the jowels clustering thi, k of obedience, submission, patience, trust, hope, and in the contre the fair, rare, jewel, joy. Are mot those jewels fair ? J..ook at one or two of them. Look at submission for example. If sonic terrible 135s or bodily suffering comes to one wo.o is not a servant of God what are the matural results—ICsults from which men have for tiges tried in various ways to deliver themselves—are they not vexation, rage, despair o But if some terrible loss or bodily suffering comes to the servant of God these would not be the natural results—and why Pecause whe loss the suffering, has not really come, that in this case, is not the right way of putting it, it has been sent, sent by a Father, sent by a friend. We may be sorry" that it has pleased Him to send us this which wrings our leart, or racks our framf:, but *there is little vexation, no rage, 1.6 despair. The will man endures at apprenticeship of torture so that he may learn indifference to pain : the philosopher tries to teach himself that nothing matters, and is content to lose the plea otre of life if he may thereby escape the pain ; but the servant of God need not, like the wild mau, vaccinate hunself for the desease of life, he ueed not, iike the philosopher, seek to close up the avenues alike of joy and of woe, the good his Father sends him is enjoyed to the utiermost, enhanced by glad thankfulness, and when his Father sends son row he submits, and so connes the compensation for sorrow, the peace of God filling his heart and mind, and passing,