XL.
LIFE.
As long as the heir is a child, he is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father.--_Galat._ iv. 1, 2.
Life is a school--neither more nor less. _Not more._ Therefore we must not expect to find it satisfying. We must not look here for the freedom, the gladness, the warmth, the indefinable happiness of home.
But surely the eternal Home is worth waiting for! “It hath not yet appeared what we shall be.”[154] “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him.”[155] Yet we may infer something of the grandeur and blessedness of the life to come from the study of our own souls, from the vastness of their capacity, their insatiable thirst for knowledge, the depth and tenderness of their affections. Capacity supposes complement. The aspirations God has given He will surely satisfy. And therefore all that the noblest, the most highly gifted, the most loving of our race have desired for their perfect happiness, will be given to them in a fulness of which they can form no conception--“good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over”.[156] The most far-reaching penetration of the secrets of nature and of grace; the perfect realisation and more a thousand times than realisation of home; the satisfaction of all the cravings of kindred and of friendship, to say nothing of the essential joy of which these are but the redundance--this is what awaits us hereafter. Not here, nor yet. We must not look now for anything but the faintest anticipation of what is in store for us--_we are at school_.
How is it that this elementary truth has so little hold upon us? Life would be much less of a disappointment if we remembered its true character and purport, if we had more of the wisdom of the schoolboy who lives with his heart in the future, and for the rough discipline of the present is for ever promising himself the compensations of home.
Life is a school. _Nothing less._ Therefore we must beware of squandering the time given us to prepare for our final state. We are here for our training, not for our enjoyment, and must go in for the experiences and the work our education demands. We have to drill ourselves in regard to our pleasures and our pains. Pleasure must not be suffered to monopolize our interest. It is but the half holiday thrown into school life to make its pressure bearable. Pain must not cast us down utterly, but detach us from our surroundings here, and foster in us the homesickness of the saints. And we have to work, work seriously at the formation of mind and heart--the task allotted us in this world. Both have to be conformed to the likeness of Him Who is the pattern of all the elect. Both have to be brought into harmony with the surroundings in which they will find themselves directly. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”[157] “Our conversation must be in heaven.”[158]
Meantime we have with us, not only as Master, but as Father and Elder Brother, Him Who has passed through the experience of human life; Who, “because the children are partakers of flesh and blood, hath also Himself in like manner been partaker of the same,”[159] “like to us in all things excepting sin”;[160] Whose word of comfort as we take to Him our weary tasks is a reminder at once of their necessity and of their recompense: “Work your work before the time, and He will give you your reward in His time.”[161]
My God, I thank You for the immortal spirit You have given me. I thank You for its vast capacity, which I recognise in a craving that nothing here can sate. Its very neediness appeals to Your beneficence, “abyss calleth upon abyss.”[162] Keep up the keenness of its desire, the hunger and thirst which You have declared blessed, till the time comes for satisfying it fully. Let me not seek to assuage it by anything transitory. Let me “so pass through the things of time as not to forfeit those of eternity”.[163] Let me be schooled by the tasks and trials, the little joys and sorrows and passing brightnesses of this life for the great future, the true life that lies beyond. May my happiness no less than my duty be found in preparing now for what I am to do and to be hereafter.
And when my school days are over and my lessons here are learned--dear Father, take me Home!
[154] 1 John iii.
[155] 1 Cor. ii.
[156] Luke vi.
[157] Philip. ii.
[158] _Cf._ _Ibid._ iii.
[159] Heb. ii.
[160] _Ibid._ iv.
[161] Ecclus. li.
[162] Psa. xli.
[163] Collect for 3rd Sunday after Pentecost.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text.
In the footnotes, 1 Par. and 2 Par. refer to the first and second Books of Paralipomenon, which are also known as the Books of Chronicles.
Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the ends of their chapters.
Missing italics markings in chapter subheads have been silently corrected.
Itemized changes from the original text:
On page 37, changed “may-be” to “maybe”, near “are deterred from visiting” On page 59, changed “heavy laden” to “heavy-laden”, near “within a stone’s throw” On page 69, changed “fault ” to “fault.”, in “through my fault” On page 69, changed “fail ” to “fail.”, in “will never fail” On page 96, changed “3 Kings” to “1 Kings”, in “Footnote 58” On page 115, changed “Ps. xxiii.” to “Psa. xxiv”, in “Footnote 81”