04.07 Vain is the help of man

VII. VAIN IS THE HELP OF MAN

“But the wise answered saying, Teradventure there will not be enough for us and you: go ye rather to them that sell and buy for yourselves’“ A profound and solemn truth lies hid in these simple words. The great crises and opportunities of life can never be met and used by borrowed spiritual power. Assent to other men’s thoughts can never be a substitute for convictions reached by our own, and in times of testing, convictions alone can stand the strain. In the last resort no man can deliver his brother’s soul, so that he must let that alone for ever. We must buy for ourselves, buy the oil of clear faith and spiritual strength from the Spirit of God, and the price we must pay is our own personal thought and toil and prayer. While there is yet time, before the last great chance has come and gone, let a* man be wise and go and buy. Let him, on his knees alone with God, face his sins and ask pardon for them, and set his will against them: let him resolve to have done with vacillation and postponement, and choose his side in the great contest between faith and uncertainty, God and the world. Let him in the stress of his own need lay hold of the power of God in Christ, even though he wrestle till the breaking of the day. Then and then only will he be able to be ready for God’s call, to fulfil his destiny, and “go in with the Bridegroom to the marriage-feast.”

TAGS: [Parables]