There are objections, I know, which arise in the mind to this insistence
on God and the will or kingdom on which He is at work in the world, and
they must be faced. It is easy, I feel, to speak of the will of God in
general terms. But what does it mean in particular? Can it be known or
defined? Is it practicable?
I remember being puzzled by a great religious teacher to whom I owe
much--Father Kelly of the Society of the Sacred Mission, Kelham. It was
almost comic to me that in the same breath he would urge (1) that the one
thing needful was faith in God and in the will which He is accomplishing
in His world, and--with equal energy--(2) that no one could say what in
the world that will is. It reminded me of those philosophers who liken the
meta-physical pursuit of the Absolute to Lewis Carroll's _Hunting of the
Snark_.
But there is something essential here. Christian faith in God and in His
will is not sight, else it were no venture. It does not bring with it a
particularised programme to meet all the changing and complex
circumstances of life. It does not carry with it anticipatory knowledge.
Yet it is not an agnostic gazing into the mist of heaven. It is the
looking unto Jesus. There is light--light on His Cross, telling of the
love and will and desire of God Who is marching on.
Given the attitude of faith in God and the belief that He is at work in
human affairs, the practical corollaries have to be worked out by the
exertion of our faculties. If God and His will be the end of our
endeavour and the object of our co-operation, then the means towards the
end and the ways of co-operation must be arrived at, step by step, by
effort and experiment, by science and common sense. The endeavour to do
God's will, will disclose what that will is.
After all, in every sphere of human relationships, whether in home or
neighbourhood or business or municipality or commonwealth, what is lacking
is not the knowledge of what the kingdom of God requires, but the will and
motive and power to accomplish it. We are not short of knowledge; rather
we are weighed down by the power derived from new knowledge, for want of
an end other than our own selves to which to consecrate it. The means for
transforming life and suffusing it with new radiance abound as never
before. It is the will which is lacking. If we will lift up any department
of life to God in the faith that He cares about it and has desires for it,
the next step to be taken will be apparent to conscience and reason.