To be near unto God - pagina 174

almost every one has some sort of a manuel, if possible, from which to learn how the body is constructed, nothing is read about the soul. By far the larger numbers of people do not investigate it, but speak at random about the soul, and about the will, and the understanding, and everything is in a chaos, and so most people continue all their lives strangers to their own inner selves. Everything else can be described. One is familiar with his house, village or city, and sometimes also with foreign lands. But the illustrated

key to the chambers and vaults

of his

own

soul

has never been found. And since lack of selfknowledge is punished with meagre knowledge of God, one deprives himself of his share in the eternal life, which far excels all things else. We therefore urge the remembrance of the distinction that has been made. When a martyr says: will die for the name of the Lord Jesus, he must himself will to do it. It must be his own act. But that he himself so wills it, does not by nature spring from himself. It is wrought in him by God. To illustrate: Bring to your mind a ship. It has an helm. Attached to the helm is the tiller, and this is held in the hand of the boatswain. If at sea the ship moves with the suction of wind and waves, without being directed, every time the ship turns the helm turns, and with it the tiller, and with the tiller the hand and the arm of the man. This is the image of a man without a will. He is adrift on the sea of life. As the wind and waves move^ so moves he, subject to the currents and influences from within and from without, of inclinations and of circumstances. As

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