in the
world, and by means of the world and not apart from it, and in the
exact circumstances in which we find ourselves.

Another difficulty we have, and which forms an insuperable barrier
to finding God, is the ever-recurring--we may almost say the
continual--secret undercurrent of criticism and hardness towards
God over what we imagine to be His Will. We need to seek God
with that which is most like Him, with a will which most nearly
resembles His own. To be in a state of hardness or criticism, not
only for God but for any creature, in even the smallest degree is to
be giving allegiance to, and unifying ourselves with, that Will which
is opposite to, furthest away from, and opposed to God. He Himself
is Ineffable Tenderness.

Having once re-found God, the soul frequently cries to Him in an
anguish of pained wonder, "How could I ever have left Thee? How
could I ever have been faithless to Thine Unutterable Perfections?"
This to the soul remains the mystery of mysteries. Was it because
of some imperfection left in her of design by God in order that He
might enjoy His power to bring her back to Him? If this were so,
then every single soul must be redeemed--and not for love's sake,
but for His Honour, His own Holy Name, His Perfection. If the soul
left Him because of a deliberate choice, a preference for
imperfection, a poisonous curiosity of foreign loves, then love alone
is the cause and necessity of our redemption, and so it feels to be,
for in experience we find that love is the beginning and the middle
and the end of all His dealings with us.

* * *

What is our part and what is our righteousness in all this Process of
the Saviour? This--that we obey, and that we renounce our own will,
accepting and abiding by the Will of God: and this self-lending,
self-surrender, this sacrifice of self-will is counted to us for sufficient
righteousness to merit heavenly life. But from first to last we remain
conscious that we have no righteousness of our own, that we are
very small and full of weaknesses, and remain unable to think or say,
"This is my righteousness, I am righteous," any more than a man
standing bathed in, or receiving the sunlight can say or think, "I am
the sun." Is all this, then, as much as to say that we can sit down and
do nothing; but, leaving all to Christ, we merely believe, and
because of this believing our redemption is accomplished? No, for
we have an active part to play, a part that God never di