CHAPTER V. GIVING OURSELVES. "Well I know thy trouble, Thou art very weary,- But that toil shall make thee Some day all Mine own; And the end of sorrow Shall be near My Throne. John Mason Neale, From the Greek of St. Andrew of Crete. FROM unrecorded, not uneventful, but deep obscurity of daily life, our Lord issues, and in baptism is consecrated to the Father's work; that all men may know Him as "He that should come." The world's benefactor, the mighty intellect, the splendid conqueror-shows by the many silent days of his earthly being, that the reality of our existence, in the sight of God, rests not in the outer but the inner life. This -in compass, in creativeness, in every power, occupying a throne above every throne in the world of intellect-the unknown of men and in men, is of far more importance than that which reveals itself to outer view. The beloved of God, whose prayers and quiet meditations are as the chariots and horses of Israel, are often hidden as was the Son of the Almighty. That life is highest and best, however lowly, in which we can say― 'Every leaf in every nook, Minds us of our better choice." First Sunday after Epiphany, "Christian Year." The Lord Jesus, whose whole life was in one piece, and all given to God, shows by His own example that the best life, the one given from earliest days to the Almighty, will in an immense majority of cases seem insignificant. There is an apparent littleness that is true greatness. Continual excitement, prominent position, showy actions, worldly success, are not essential parts of a true and noble existence. For the most part, it is the lot of those who live godly that they be long unknown, lowly, and obscure, as was Jesus, the Son of God. These are generally the happy years in life. We believe that the obscure days of the trade and early home of the Carpenter of Nazareth were full of that faith and love which made Him rejoice in spirit. Pre-eminently the man of sorrow, the unknown, the refused, there was yet in Him abounding happiness as the full flow of a river. Happiness, not less than Heaven, means principle. "How great must have been the happiness of a sinless childhood!"* The first step into possession of that happiness, as our own, is the giving ourselves, simply and childlike, to be as nothing at all that God may be all in all: therefore, we pray Come to our poor nature's night Holy Ghost the Infinite, Comforter Divine ! Like the dew, Thy peace distil; Comforter Divine!' George Rawson. * The Life of Christ, p. 85.-Canon Farrar. O Jesus! every thought, the one continuous effort of our life, is to be like Thee. We would fully trust our Father, give our time, our wealth, our strength, ourselves, to Him. This is right, and good, and prudent: to whom shall we go, sweet Saviour, if we come not to Thee? Thou didst tread our sinful earth, but we saw Thee not; we stood not by when from excellent glory came the Father's voice and the Spirit as a dove; nor when in Thy manhood's power, as fulfiller of all righteousness, Thou gavest Thyself to God; Thy voice restored the dead, but Thy voice we heard not; yet we believe Thou didst leave Thy glorious throne to do all this. On the wave Thou walkedst; Thou the sea didst rule; Thy blessing to the sick gave health; to lame, to deaf, to blind, Thy word brought power; and we believe in Thee, O Thou fount of light, balm and cure of woe! We stood not with the faithful around that bitter cross; nor heard the prayer for those that slew; nor felt the earthquake; nor saw the spear wound Thy side; but we believe that Thou hast died--died for us. Believing, we would so live our prayers that in the morning's longer petitions, in the evening's shorter form, in every occasional office, in sacred spirit made continual, we ascend whither Thou hast gone. Not so leaving the earth that Heaven shall possess all our wondering view; but walk here, as Thou didst walk; share Thy grief, and in the sharing find a bliss that passeth all understanding; so that rays of glory shine in our praise and prayer, make all our life "So nigh to the very heart of God, We almost seem to feel it beat Down from the sunshine, and up from the sod." Lowell, slightly altered. The obscure years and unknown efforts during which we secretly grow in divine and human learning, those home teachings which do so much to make us like or unlike Christ, are, for the most part, groundwork of the wisdom, or of the perversion, which after-opportunities manifest. In them we gather from the books of God in Scripture, in nature, in life, that holy obedience of simplicity, of purity, and of cheerful labour, which fills our manhood with floods of light. In these early and obscure times, the children of Jesus generally hear, more especially |