To be near unto God - pagina 492

Augustine, that great spirit, it must needs be so and not otherwise, and ^or 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 contains a strong stimulus and a spur. It imposes the obligation to produce from one's own being 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 saj^: I can never attain the height of an Augustine. Just because j^ou are not an Augustine, it will not do to imitate him. For you are called of God, and you are bound, to seek from and for yourself, this own and only path, by which you, and no one else, can attain the hidden walk, and continue in it. This does not mean to say that there ma\' 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 maj^ not inwardly edify us. Even the humblest poet can learn from Bilderdyk and DaCosta. The humblest artist-painter can profit by 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

alwaj'^s in

this

way,

that with every individual the inner spiritual feeding has a process of its own, and leads to an

own result. Not only

in

the

case 488

of

Paul,

but

also

of

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