The soul, like the body, must have something to nourish and strengthen it,
to give it vigor and vitality. An army will have neither the strength nor
the courage to fight unless it has its rations. And if I may be allowed a
play on words, I may say that there are three rations which are very
needful to every Christian. Without these he must be weak and faltering
and of little service, but with them he may be a pillar of strength in the
temple of God.
The first of these “rations” is _aspiration_, or ardent desire. Strong
desire is one of the greatest incentives of life. To be contented as we
are is one of the most fatal hindrances to progress and activity. There is
nothing to stir us to action when desire is satisfied. The trouble with a
great multitude of people is that they are satisfied when conditions do
not warrant it. If we are to make progress in the Christian life or
accomplish anything for God, we must have strong aspirations. These are as
a spur to our energies. Aspiration is the cure for being “at ease in
Zion.” Aspirations are good or bad according to the motive that prompts
them. Some are essentially selfish, and such are necessarily evil. If we
desire to be or do for selfish advantage, for glory and praise; if we
aspire to be leaders, as so many religious people do, only that they may
have authority or honor—our aspirations are evil. But each one of us owes
it to himself and to God to desire strongly to be and to do his best for
God.
What is the temperature of your spiritual aspirations today? Are you so
well satisfied that desire is cold and almost lifeless? or are you
reaching out to the things that are before with an eager yearning? No
matter how good or how holy you may be, if you look Christward until you
see the depths of his submission to the Father, the length of his love for
souls, the heights of his lofty purity and unworldliness, the tenderness
of his sympathy, the richness of his communion with the Father, his
self-abnegation, his humility, and his unswerving faithfulness, your soul
will feel itself so immeasurably beneath Christ that you can not help
longing to be more like him. It will create in your soul an inexpressible
aspiration to draw further away from this old world with its trifles and
its follies and to draw nearer to Christ, to be more like him in your
inner life, and to act more like him in your outward life. If you look
only at self and self-interest, your spiritual aspirations will fade away;
but as you look away from self and behold Him who is altogether lovely,
the more you look upon him the greater will be your desire to be conformed
to his likeness and submitted to his will.
Each of us ought to desire to be our best for God. Do not be content to be
one of the “weak ones,” or even an average Christian. Those souls who rise
above the average, those who are bright lights in their communities, are
not the ones who are easily satisfied with their attainments, nor are they
the ones who are willing to be this year as they were last year or the
year before. You, as well as anyone else, can be a bright light if you
will. You can be spiritual if you will. It is not a question of God’s
blessing some more than others; it is a question of desire that spurs to
active effort to become spiritual.
There is much work to be done, and you have a part in that work. How great
that part may be depends more upon your desire to work than upon anything
else. Are you, like many professed Christians, willing enough for others
to work and willing to be idle yourself? If you really _want_ to do
something for the kingdom, there is something that you can do. If you are
willing to do anything, no matter what, God will see that you have
something to do. No matter how small your task is, it is worth doing well.
Look upon the fields, not those afar off, but those about you. All around
you are souls going to destruction. Forget your own concern. Look at the
needs about you till your heart is filled with desire for these souls,
till you covet them for the Master as a miser covets gold. Then you will
find work enough to do and strength to do it.
The second “ration” is _inspiration_. There is so much half-hearted work,
so much done mechanically, so much form in worship and service. What we
need is enthusiasm. We hear much about artistic inspiration and poetic
inspiration, but what we really need most of all is spiritual inspiration.
Religious forms are cold and dead until there is put into them the warmth
of enthusiasm. Get your soul filled with this glowing warmth. It will
lighten your tasks. It will bring success instead of failure. It will be a
well-spring of joy. It will make an optimist of you. It will help you
break down barriers. It will enable you to surmount obstacles. It will put
the shout of victory in your soul in the very face of your foes. An
enthusiastic man is a victorious man. An enthusiastic church is a
victorious church. Enthusiastic work and worship are filled with a
vitality that makes them worth while.
Do not be content to be a formalist. Throw yourself into your work. Go at
things as though you meant business. Do not be a lazy Christian. An
indolent way of doing things can be neither joyful nor successful. The
more of your heart you put into your work, the more it will mean to you,
and the more it means to you, the more you can accomplish. Have confidence
that you will succeed, for confidence will help you attain to your
desires. Your energy wisely directed has in it the very element of
success. Look at what others are accomplishing by hard work and
perseverance. The same qualities in you will win. But keep this one thing
in view, that without inspiration or enthusiasm you lack much of the
winning quality. Cultivate enthusiasm. Do with your might what your hands
find to do.
The third “ration” needful is _consideration_. This serves as a balance
for the two former rations. Its absence has caused disaster many times.
Many people grow very enthusiastic and aspire to great things, but because
they lack consideration they run into wild fanaticism and go to great
extremes; and as a result both they and their religion lose the respect
and confidence of the people. How especially true this is in some of the
modern holiness movements! Their adherents give themselves over to
unseemly demonstrations, ignore good judgment, and teach things and do
things they would not if they stopped to carefully consider them.
Salvation and all that pertains to it stand on the foundation of wisdom
and good sense. Anything that is not according to these is out of harmony
with the true principles of religion. So we should weigh our every act and
all our teachings in the balance of good judgment. What in our lives or
teaching does not appeal to the sound judgment and good sense of others
had better be rejected. Genuine holiness, because of its reasonableness,
appeals to the intellect and heart of every man. Extremism and fanaticism
are not part of true religion. Throw plenty of enthusiasm into your work,
but see to it that that enthusiasm is held in proper channels by
consideration. Do not let it overflow without bounds. It is sure to run in
the wrong direction if you do.
God has given us the power of consideration and understanding to control
and guide our energies. By means of these faculties we get the highest and
best use of our powers. To act without consideration is very often to act
wrongly. God’s acts are always wise, and to be godlike means for us to use
what wisdom he gives to us.
Let us be sure that we have these three needful “rations” and that we make
the use of them that God has designed. We shall then be successful
Christians and accomplish the work that it pleases God for us to do.
Aspire to be and do your best. Throw your soul into whatever you
undertake. Be careful and considerate in all your ways, so that you “shall
neither be barren nor unfruitful,” but that you “shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his
season.”