To be near unto God - pagina 181

struggle against it. In this is gained of the child-like

When God

is

spoken

of

way only the victory Abba Father. in a way which shows

that there has been no fear of God, nor love to cast it out; that there has been no struggle and consequently no triumph, there is no child-like Abba, dear Father, but a pedantic show and pretense of knowledge, which exhales no fragrance of piety, but rather destroys the germ of vital godliness. To avert this it is needful that our knowledge of God is properly related to our whole inner self, to our creation after God's image, to our childship in the family of God, and especially to our will and purpose. Purely intellectual knowledge of God is a frozen crust of ice from under which the stream has run dry. Another distinction must be observed. There One just remains are two kinds of willingness. what it is, the other is translated into doing. In our days the inclination is strong to attribute an inner excellence to the willingness that expresses There is something bold and itself in doing. almost brutal in the will-life of our times. All one needs is to \\dll. He who wills must dare. Then let come what will. In ever>^ case the will must express a power that can do everything. "Where there is a will there is a way." And under the lead of such men as Ibsen and others, this will-effort has been driven so onesidedly, that in their effort irresistibly to carry out their own will many pride themselves on their indifference to opposition. Compared with these present-day heroes of the will, a weakling like St. Paul cuts a ver>^ poor figure. He candidlj^ declares that he has known 173

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