The Way of the Seven Fold Secret by Lilias Trotter

- 49-
ladder and the way in which God makes a tree. Such
is the difference between the methods of man, wherein
one step follows another in a stiff and regular formality,
and God's methods, wherein one step of progress grows
out of another in life and freedom, and never two souls
are led in just the same fashion. And this is because
God's method of progress for us is in our learning to know
Jesus Christ: and this does not mean learning things
about Him, but learning to know Himself, and to find
that our emptiness makes way in all things for His fulness.
It is when we ·feel that without Him our souls are
lost and dark and dead, that we are ready for His new
secret. "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life."
See this secret in the first words. "I am the Way."
This does not mean· a series of difficult rules to be obeyed
but "a new and livinq way"-a way of living love. It is
as when an elder brother lifts the little one over the
torrent, or bears him up the steep path home when he
finds him lost in the forest. The small helpless boy
needs not to trouble himself over the next step. He
clings to the shoulders of his brother and finds that he is
going on safely. He no longer treads on cold, hard
stones, but his feet are held in the warm strong grasp of
his brother. His brother does not teach him the way: he
is the way.
So this saying "I am the Way" does not mean that
there are wonderful stages to be examined and watched
in our hearts. It only tells us that we have a wonderful
Saviour. Rest thyself in His arms in a full abandonment
of trust. He is the Way.
And it is the same with the second part of this revelation
of the secret of progress. "I am the Truth".