hen it happens to be easy, and
sometimes, when temptations are strong, they do not. It needs a
strong hand on the tiller to keep it steady when the wind is blowing
in puffs and gusts, and sometimes the sail bellies full and sometimes
it is almost empty. The various strengths of the temptations that
blow us out of our course are such that we shall never keep a
straight line of direction, which is the shortest line, and the only
one on which we shall 'obtain,' unless we know very distinctly where
we want to go, and have a good strong will that has learned to say
'No!' when the temptations come. 'Whom resist steadfast in the
faith.' 'I therefore so run, not as uncertainly,' taking one course
one day and another the next.

Now, that definite aim is one that can be equally pursued in all
varieties of life. 'This one thing I do' said one who did about as
many things as most people, but the different kinds of things that
Paul did were all, at bottom, one thing. And we, in all the varieties
of our circumstances, may keep this one clear aim before us, and
whether it be in this way or in that, we may be equally and at all
times seeking the better country, and bending all circumstances and
all duty to make us more like our Master and bring us closer to Him.

The Psalmist did not offer an impossible prayer when he said: 'One
thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the
beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple.' Was David in 'the
house of the Lord' when he was with his sheep in the wilderness, and
when he was in Saul's palace, and when he was living with wild beasts
in dens and caves of the earth, and when he was a fugitive, hunted
like a partridge upon the mountains? Was he always in the Lord's
house? Yes! At any rate he could be. All that we do may be doing His
will, and over a life, crowded with varying circumstances and yet
simplified and made blessed by unvarying obedience, we may write,
'This one thing I do.'

But we shall not keep this one aim clear before our eyes, unless we
habituate ourselves to the contemplation of the end. The runner,
according to Paul's vivid picture in another of his letters, forgets
the things that are behind, and stretches out towards the things that
are before. And just as a man runs with his body inclining forward,
and his eager hand nearer the prize than his body, and his eyesight
and his heart