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us from what we would do; bereavement and trouble taking from us what we would keep; our path and our fortune shaped for us, more perhaps than we shape it for ourselves. Is all this discipline certainly good for us? No; if we take it only as a rule of force, as that to which we must yield, because we can do no other, as an iron necessity, it will harden us, or sour us with the bitterness of a restless and unsatisfied spirit. But if we take it for what it is (however it comes, even when it comes through the sins and selfishness of others) and see in it a discipline from the one rightful and loving authority, the authority of our Father, then most assuredly we shall prove the blessing that is in it, its wise correction, its light and profitable yoke; 'subject to' it we shall 'increase in wisdom.'[1] For indeed the two lie very close together; the heart which is lowly to submit is open to learn; and all through life the opportunities lie thick around us of a knowledge which is wisdom.
What we need for reading it is not cleverness so much as faith; for each man there is wisdom enough and to spare, if he will gather up the knowledge that comes to him from every side, not to trade in it, nor to tickle his curiosity with it, nor to cut a figure by help of it, but for the divine meaning and value that it has: if, as life goes on, he will try to be ever learning, pressing on to get at the meaning of things, by putting together what he sees without him,
- ↑ Luke iv, 51, 52, (the text).
