The New Life

The New Life.
us two of the most important lessons on the increase
of the spiritual life. The one is that of its self-suffix
ciency, the other that of its graduabiess.
The first lesson is for tho^e that ask what they are
to do in order to grow aix.. advance more in grace.
As the Lord said of the body : Which of you by
*'
being anxious can add one cubit unto his sta.ure?
;
Consider the lilies of the field how they grow " so
He says to us here tliat we can do nothing, and need
to do nothing, to make the spiritual life grow.^ Do
you not see how, while man slept, the seed sprang up
and became high, he knew not how, and how the
earth brought f^rth fruit of itself? When man has
once sowed, he must reckon that God cares for the
growth : he has not to care : he must trust and rest.
And must man then do nothing ? He can do nothing:
it is from wit'. in that the power of life must
come: from the life, from the Spirit implanted in
liim. To the growth itself he can contribute nothing
: i* shall be given him to grow.^
All that he can do is to let the life grow. All that
can hinder the life, he must take away and keep
away. If there are thorns and thistles that take away
place and power in the soil which the plant should
have, he can take them away.^ The plant must have
its place in the earth alone and undivided. For this
the husbandman can care: then it grows further of
itself. So must the Christian take away what can
1 Hos. xiv. i6 ;
Matt. vi. 25, 27, 30.
2Ps xcii. 14; Gal. ii. 20 ;
Col. iii. 3.
3 Jer. iv. 13 ; Matt. xiii. 22, 23.
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