To be near unto God - pagina 496

Augustine, that great spirit, it must needs be so and not otherwise, and for this very reason it never can and never will be so with the humble and the plain. As it was with Augustine or Calvin would not meet their case. But next to this comforting thought, it conIt imposes tains a strong stimulus and a spur. the obhgation to produce from one's own bemg and in connection with one's own spiritual existence and life of the soul an own form for the hidden walk with God. It will not do to say: I can never attain the height of an Augustine. Just because you are not an Augustine, it will not do to im'itate him. For you are called of God,

and you are bound, to seek from and for yourown and only path, by which you, self, "this and no one else, can attain the hidden walk, and continue in it. This does not mean to say that there mav be no blessing in learning how others have sought and found it, or that reading what some great spirits have written about their nearness to God may not inwardly edify us. Even the humblest poet can learn from Bilderdyk and DaCosta. The humblest artist-pamter can

bv the works of Rubens and Rembrandt. Only, All this' can be productive of great good. as one and the selfsame bread forms an own blood in every individual constitution, and maintains an own life of the nerves, thanks to the inner workings, so also it is one sacred material on which many subsist, but always in this way, that with ever>^ individual the inner spiritual feeding has a process of its own, and leads to an profit

own result. Not only

in

the

case 488

of

Paul,

but

also

of

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