y God for our
greater spiritual good and eternal salvation. This must be so, since God
is the universal cause of all things, and since He sincerely loves us and
desires above all to save us. If it were otherwise, either He would not
have omnipotent control of everything, or He could not be said really to
desire our salvation. How sadly we misunderstand these great truths in our
daily lives, when we murmur and complain at the evils that afflict us! How
narrowly we conceive the all-powerful will of God, and the infinite abyss
of His goodness which would lead us to eternal delights! We would like to
escape all the evils of time, we love our lives, and we wish to save them
from final wreck; but when failing to trust to the will of God we forget
the words of Christ, that "he that loveth his life shall lose it; and he
that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal."(100) We
want to save our souls, and we are, perhaps, much disturbed about doing
many and great things in the cause of God and of Heaven, unmindful the
while of the Master's warning that, "not every one that saith to me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the will of
my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven."(101) It is doubtless our aim to draw ever nearer and nearer to
our Saviour, and to deepen our relationship with Him; but do we remember
that He said, "whosoever shall do the will of God, he is my brother, and
my sister, and mother?"(102)

"Yes," you will say, "This is all true; I know it is so; my faith is at
fault. If I only had that beautiful faith and trust in God which many have
it would be easy for me, and I should be happy! Faith is a gift and
favored are they that possess it." But, dear reader, can you not pray? Can
you not ask from God that heavenly gift which will move mountains and
translate them into the sea?(103) Can you not overcome your indolence and
your repugnance, and patiently and persistently implore from on high that
superior vision which pierces the clouds and sees in everything the hand
of God? Surely you can say, with the devout author of the Imitation of
Christ, "Behold, Oh beloved Father, I am in Thy hands, I bow myself under
the rod of Thy correction. Strike my back and my neck too, that my
crookedness may be conformed to Thy will."(104) Here again, remember the
words of your Saviour, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the
violent bear it away.