ke according to
Jesus, and a very common one--forgetfulness of God in fact (Luke
12:20), a mistake that comes from _not_ thinking things out. Jesus
will have men think everything out to the very end. "He never says:
Come unto me, all ye who are too lazy to think for yourselves" (H.
S. Coffin). It is energy of mind that he calls for--either with me
or against me. He does not recognize neutrals in his war--"he that
is not against us is for us" (Luke 9:50)--"he that is not with me is
against me" (Matt. 12:30).

Where does a man's _Will_ point him? That is the question. "Out of
the abundance, the overflow, of the heart, the mouth speaketh"
(Matt. 12:34). What is it that a man _wills_, purity or impurity
(Matt. 5:28)? It is the inner energy that makes a man; what he says
and does is an overflow from what is within--an overflow, it is
true, with a reaction. It is what a man _chooses_, and what he
_wills_, that Jesus always emphasizes; "God knoweth your hearts"
(Luke 16:15). Very well then; does a man choose God? That is the
vital issue. Does he choose God without reserve, and in a way that
God, knowing his heart, will call a whole-hearted choice?

St. Augustine, in a very interesting passage ("Confessions", viii.
9, 21), remarks upon the fact that, when the mind commands the body,
obedience is instantaneous, but that when it commands itself, it
meets with resistance. "The mind commands that the mind shall
will--it is one and the same mind, and it does not obey." He finds
the reason; the mind does not absolutely and entirely ("ex toto")
will the thing, and so it does not absolutely and entirely command
it. "There is nothing strange after all in this," he says, "partly
to will, partly not to will; but it is a weakness of the mind that
it does not arise in its entirety, uplifted by truth, because it is
borne down by habit. Thus there are two Wills, because one of them
is not complete."

The same thought is to be traced in the teaching of Jesus. It is
implied in what he says about prayer. There is a want of faith, a
half-heartedness about men's prayers; they pray as Augustine says he
himself did: "Give me chastity and continence, but not now" (Conf,
viii. 7, 17). That is not what Jesus means by prayer--the utterance
of the half-Will. Nor is it this sort of surrender to God that Jesus
calls for--no, the question is, how thoroughly is a man going to put
himself into God's hands? Does he mean to be God's up to the cross
and bey