ll the instincts and impulses of his origin
in him, have _merited_ eternal life by refusing to be a devil? Not the
less would he have had eternal life; not the less would he have been
wrapt in the love and confidence of the Father. He would have had his
reward. I cannot imagine thing created meriting aught save by divine
courtesy.

I suspect the notion of merit belongs to a low development, and the
higher a man rises, the less will he find it worth a thought. Perhaps we
shall come to see that it owes what being it has, to man, that it is a
thing thinkable only by man. I suspect it is not a thought of the
eternal mind, and has in itself no existence, being to God merely a
thing thought by man.

For merit lives from man to man,
And not from man, O Lord, to thee.

The man, then, who does right, and seeks no praise from men, while he
merits nothing, shall be rewarded by his Father, and his reward will be
right precious to him.

We must let our light shine, make our faith, our hope, our love,
manifest--that men may praise, not us for shining, but the Father for
creating the light. No man with faith, hope, love, alive in his soul,
could make the divine possessions a show to gain for himself the
admiration of men: not the less must they appear in our words, in our
looks, in our carriage--above all, in honourable, unselfish, hospitable,
helpful deeds. Our light must shine in cheerfulness, in joy, yea, where
a man has the gift, in merriment; in freedom from care save for one
another, in interest in the things of others, in fearlessness and
tenderness, in courtesy and graciousness. In our anger and indignation,
specially, must our light shine. But we must give no quarter to the most
shadowy thought of how this or that will look. From the faintest
thought of the praise of men, we must turn away. No man can be the
disciple of Christ and desire fame. To desire fame is ignoble; it is a
beggarly greed. In the noble mind, it is the more of an infirmity. There
is no aspiration in it--nothing but ambition. It is simply selfishness
that would be proud if it could. Fame is the applause of the many, and
the judgment of the many is foolish; therefore the greater the fame, the
more is the foolishness that swells it, and the worse is the foolishness
that longs after it. Aspiration is the sole escape from ambition. He who
aspires--that is, does his endeavour to rise above himself--neither
lusts to be higher than his neighbour