're brought within easy reach of any hand by the steady
use of this key.
This is the key to God. It unlocks the doors and lets Him freely into
our lives. Then we find out how much truer it is than we can understand.
Then there's _the key to the Book of God._ There are many keys here, of
course. Daily time alone with the Book, thoughtful reading, prayer, some
simple plan, putting into your life what has been put in its
pages,--these are all good keys. But there's a master-key, _the_
master-key. It is simply this: glad surrender of will to the God of the
Book. I mean a strong intelligent yielding to His mastery in all of
one's plans and life. The highest act of the strongest will is yielding
to a higher will when you find it. And you find the higher, the highest,
will here.
This is the master-key. Bending the will affects eyes and ears and mind.
The hinges of eye and ear are in the will. As the will bends those
hinges move of themselves. Eye and ear and mind open. The lower the will
bends, the more fully and habitually, the more will eyes and ears open,
the keener and more alert will be the mental processes, the more
intelligent the understanding. And there comes to be a continual mutual
shifting. With better understanding can come stronger more intelligent
yielding of will, and so again clearer light.
And it is striking to discover that there's a practical connection
between the joints of the knees and the joint of the will. The bending
of knees to a sharp right angle affects the will. It is easier to bend
it. It bends better and more. And this grows. The habitual bending of
the knees helps make habitual and stronger and more intelligent the
bending of the will.
This is the master-key to the Book of God. It opens every lock and page.
It opens us to the Book, and opens the Book to us. It frees out to us
the wondrous Spirit who is in these pages. And so through the opened
Book there come to be the direct touch with the God of the Book. We
don't come to the Book merely; we come _through_ it to Him who comes
through it to us. This is the second key in this bunch.
Three Keys.
Now, I want to give you _the three keys to John's Gospel._ There's a
back-door key, a side-door key, and a front-door key. These keys hang
outside the doors, low down, that so any one who wants to can easily
reach up, and get them. And if used faithfully and simply they will be
found to unlock every page and line and difficult questi
|