acceptance of the will of God in all
things. To be one with God's will is to be holy. Let him who would be
holy take his place here and 'stand in all the will of God.' He will
there meet God Himself, and be made partaker of His Holiness, because
His will works out its purpose in power to each one who yields himself
to it. Everything in a life of holiness depends upon our being in the
right relation to the will of God.

There are many Christians to whom it appears impossible to think of
their accepting all the will of God, or of their being one with it. They
look upon the will of God in its thousand commands, and its numberless
providential orderings. They have sometimes found it so hard to obey one
single command, or to give up willingly to some light disappointment.
They imagine that they would need to be a thousandfold holier and
stronger in grace, before venturing to say that they do accept all God's
will, whether to do or to bear. They cannot understand that all the
difficulty comes from their not occupying the right standpoint. They are
looking at God's will as at variance with their natural will, and they
feel that that natural will will never delight in all God's will. They
forget that the new man has a renewed will. This new will delights in
the will of God, because it is born of it. This new will sees the beauty
and the glory of God's will, and is in harmony with it. If they are
indeed God's children, the very first impulse of the spirit of a child
is surely to do the will of the Father in heaven. And they have but to
yield themselves heartily and wholly to this spirit of sonship, and they
need not fear to accept God's will as theirs.

The mistake they make is a very serious one. Instead of living by faith
they judge by feeling, in which the old nature speaks and rules. It
tells them that God's will is often a burden too hard to be borne, and
that they never can have the strength to do it. Faith speaks
differently. It reminds us that God is Love, and that His will is
nothing but Love revealed. It asks if we do not know that there is
nothing more perfect or beautiful in heaven or earth than the will of
God. It shows us how in our conversion we have already professed to
accept God as Father and Lord. It assures us, above all, that if we will
but definitely and trustingly give ourselves to that will which is Love,
it will as Love fill our hearts and make us delight in it, and so become
the power that enables us j