| Finding the Way |
Chapter 4 |
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Religion is not a mere matter of emotion or devout feeling – it is a matter of life. The influence of the indwelling Spirit is not shown merely in holy raptures, in ecstatic experiences, but in most practical ways in everyday living. Jesus said very emphatically that not every one who says, “Lord, Lord,” is in the kingdom of heaven. Obedience, He said, is the test. He only is in the heavenly kingdom that doeth the will of the Father. Nothing pleases our Master but obedience. He says very little about emotion, but a great deal about obeying. His friends are known not by their loud professions of love and ardour, but by their doing whatsoever He commands them to do.
A very little love for our neighbour wrought out in a bit of everyday kindness is worth a great deal of talk about love which finds no expression in act. To be kind and charitable, to give bread to the hungry, to deny one’s self a pleasure in order to help another over a hard place, to go far out of one’s way to be of use to another who is in need, are better evidence of the indwelling of the Spirit than any amount of effervescent talk about consecration in a prayer meeting. To be honest in business on Monday, to be a good, tidy and hospitable housekeeper on Tuesday, to pay one’s debts on Wednesday, to be patient in enduring wrong on Thursday, is better proof of the Spirit’s indwelling than a whole hour’s rapturous experience on Sunday, which bears no fruit in the life. If God is in us, the world will know it without being told of it – it will see it in character, in disposition, in act, in service of love, in the diffusion of grace and goodness.
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