_There are Denials of the Will_.
Human nature is a collection of likes and dislikes. The great mass of men
are governed by their preferences. What they like, they strive after; what
they do not like, they neglect, or refuse, or resist. Many of these
preferences, though not harmful in themselves, lead continually to that
subjection of the will to self-interest, and help that self-satisfaction
and self-love which are the deadly enemies of the soul. Now, true
self-denial is the denial, for Christ's sake and the sake of souls, of
these preferences. To say to God: "I sacrifice my way for Thy way--my wish
for Thy wish--my will for Thy will--my plan for Thy plan--my life for Thy
life"--this is self-denial.
Nothing can be more acceptable to a good father's heart than the knowledge
that his son, living and labouring far away from him amid difficulties and
opposition, is courageously sacrificing his own preferences, and
faithfully seeking to carry out his, the father's, will. In such a son
that father sees a reproduction of all that is strongest and best in his
own nature. And so it is with the Heavenly Father. No greater joy can be
His than to see the resolute surrender of His children's own will to His,
and the daily denial of their hopes and plans for themselves and theirs in
favour of His plans.