g a man at all. It is a miserable
thing to be hanging on externals and so to be always exposed to the
possibility of having to say, 'They have taken away my Gods.' It is as
wretched to be hanging on people. 'The good man shall be satisfied for
himself.' The fortress that has a deep well in the yard and plenty of
provisions within, is the only one that can hold out.

This independence teaches the true use of all changing circumstances.
The consequence of 'learning' therewith to be content is further stated
by the Apostle in terms which perhaps bear some reference to the
mysteries of Greek religion, since the word rendered 'I have learned the
secret' means I have been initiated. He can bear either of the two
extremes of human experience, and can keep a calm and untroubled mind
whichever of them he has to front. He has the same equable spirit when
abased and when abounding. He is like a compensation pendulum which
corrects expansions and contractions and keeps time anywhere. I remember
hearing of a captain in an Arctic expedition who had been recalled from
the Tropics and sent straight away to the North Pole. Sometimes God
gives His children a similar experience.

It is possible for us not only to bear with equal minds both extremes,
but to get the good out of both. It is a hard lesson and takes much
conning, to learn to bear sorrow or suffering or want. They have great
lessons to teach us all, and a character that has not been schooled by
one of these dwellers in the dark is imperfect as celery is not in
season till frost has touched it. But it is not less difficult to learn
how to bear prosperity and abundance, though we think it a pleasanter
lesson. To carry a full cup without spilling is proverbially difficult,
and one sees instances enough of men who were far better men when they
were poor than they have ever been since they were rich, to give a
terrible significance to the assertion that it is still more difficult
to live a Christian life in prosperity than in sorrow. But while both
threaten, both may minister to our growth. Sorrow will drive, and joy
will draw, us nearer to God. If we are not tempted by abundance to
plunge our desires into it, nor tempted by sorrow to think ourselves
hopelessly harmed by it, both will knit us more closely to our true and
changeless good. The centrifugal and centripetal forces both keep the
earth in its orbit.

It is only when we are independent of circumstances that we are able to