Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its truth, and the rest will be added unto you. Seek ye to be doers of the will of God, and outside of that nothing, nothing else. And all wilt be added: righteousness, and joy, and life, not to speak of food and raiment which are needless. There is but one thing needful—the daily bread, the food of life, that food of which Christ said: "my meat is to do the will of Him who sent me."
The doing of the will of God is the task of life; but wherein is the will of God? Is it necessary Ю do this thing or that thing in order to fulfill the law of God? To place yourself in this condition or in that? To give up your goods ? To forsake your family ? To expose people ? To go to Nineveh or to Jerusalem? etc., etc. And there is no answer.
Neither the one, nor the other, nor indeed anything else is needful, no conditions, no actions correspond to the fulfilment of the will of God; not only do tiiey not correspond to it, but they hinder it, for evety act of your own will, every change of condition is a disobedience to the will of God. But the fulfilment of the will of God, and His Kingd<Mn, are within you: the fulfilment is not in actions, but in obedience, in a lowly and meek attitude to the demands of the life in which you find yourself.
But you might say: The demands of life may be con-
trary to the conscience, or may be contradictory, or there may be no demands at all.
Only meet the demands, if they are contrary to your conscience, in meekness and lowliness, that is without boast-fulness or anger, but in meekness and lowliness decline to fulfill them, or treat the demands which seem contradictory likewise in meekness and lowliness, turning your back upon your own will, facing God only, and the contradictions will be solved. But to say that there may be no demands at all—^that is impossible. Though they be the merest needs of the body, these are also demands, and you can eat and sleep and house yourself in meekness and lowliness.
Indeed, the will of God is not in what you do, but in how you do it (what to do, our life points out to us), but how to do, that is which builds the true life of the spirit.
Thinking recently on the true business of a Christian, I saw it in doing the will of the Father. But what is the will of the Father? How to know it without making a mistake? For when you begin to think, "Is the will of God that I preach? or that I live in this or that fashion? or that I live with or without a family?" Once you begin to ask yourself these questions, you will never find out the will of the Father, you will only fall into doubt and confusion: why are we commanded to do the will of the Father and are not shown wherein is the will of the Father ?
This is how I think on this question: the will of the Father is shown to us very clearly, only we do not seek it where it is shown to us.
We always fancy that the will of the Father is in doing external things,—Abraham going to a foreign country, etc., but the will of фе Father is for us to be meek
and lowly while we yet have strength in the yoke in which we are harnessed, to go without asking whither and why we are going, to stop when we are commanded, to start again when we are commanded, to turn when we are commanded, without asking where and why. "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart."
Be meek and lowly at heart, be content with all, assent to any condition, and you will fulfill the will of the Father. So in order to fulfill the will of the Father, it is not necessary to learn what to do, but to leam how to do that which you are called upon to do.
In order to fulfill the will of God, we must do His work. In order to do His trork, two things are needful, and both of them together, not either one or the other separately: we need reason and love, we need truth and goodness. Reason must be loving, that is its activity must have love for its aim, and love must be rational, that is love must not be opposed to reason.
To illustrate the first, take the endeavors of sdence, the investigation of the Milky Way, the fine points of metaphysics, natural sciences, art for art's sake; to illustrate the second,—love for one woman only, or for one's . own children or nation, which ts love that has for its aim animal and not spiritual blessings.
The fruit of the activity of reason is truth, the fruit of the activity of love is goodness. But that there may be fruit, both forms of activity must coincide. Goodness will result only from rational love that is controlled by truth, and truth from a loving activity that has for its aim rational goodness.
I have not invented this, but I have seen it in life.
We all think that our duty, our calling is to do different things, to bring up children, or to make a fortune,
or to write a book, or to discover a scientific law; but only one thing is needful—that our life be one complete, good, rational work; not a work before men, leaving behind a memory of a good life, but a work before God: offering yourself, your soul to Him in a better state than it has been before, closer to Him, more obedient to Him, more in accord with Him. It is very difficult to think this, even more difficult to feel this. One is so apt to stray towards desire for human glory, but it is possible, and it is needful. God help me, I have felt so at times, I feel so now.
One feature of the teaching of Christ which is closely allied with all the rest of His teaching, a basic principle in fact of His teaching that was entirely obscured, even lost sight of in His deification, is the teaching of His ambassadorship. Remember how often, from how many angles He refers to His doing the will of Him who sent Him, saying that He is nothing of Himself, that He is an ambassador, merging His life with Him who sent Him, that His life, the meaning of His whole life is in the fulfilment of his mission. Only the recognition of Christ as a peculiar being and not a man such as we are could conceal from us this basis of His teaching.
If my whole life consists in letting that light shine which is within me, that is if my life is in the light, then death is not only free from terror, but is a joy, because the personality of each one of us obscures that light which we bear. And physical death frequently brightens that light in which is centered our life.
The practical application of this is that every one of us must put all interests of his life into the task of bearing truth all through life, and into establishing it in others, and then we shall have no doubt or suffering, nor any idle
leisure. Every one of us is surrounded by people and can. always fulfill the business of his life.
And to be always mindful of our dignity as ambassadors of God to whom is entrusted the accomplishment of His will! If I were the Tsar's ambassador to Turkey, how I should watch myself! And now being God's ambassador in the world—is that nothing? And a Tsar might be fooled, but nothing can be hidden from God.
Man is an ambassador, as Christ told us, yes, indeed, an ambassador. His only concern is to carry out his instructions, let them think of him what they will. Let them think evil of him: sometimes even this is necessary in order to carry out instructions.
My life is not mine own, it cannot have my wellbeing for its aim, it is His who sent me, and its aim is the fulfilment of His will. And only in fulfilling His will can I be blessed.
You know it; but it is so significant to me, so joyful to think of it, that I rejoice in every opportunity I have of repeating it.
The purpose of life is no more in the reproduction after our own kind—the continuation of the race—than in the service of man, nor is it in the service of God.
To reproduce after our own kind? What for? To serve men? And those whom we are to serve, what are Ш^ they to do ? To serve God ? Can He not do that which He needs without us? Why, He cannot need anything.