I have said that all have not the same calling. How are we to know what our calling is? We may so easily allow ignorance or prejudice, self-indulgence or worldliness, human wisdom or unbelief to sway us, to keep us from the simplicity of the perfect heart, and to blind us to the full light of God's perfect will. Let us see where the position is in which perfect safety will be found, and where we may confidently count upon the Divine guidance and approval.
Not long ago I stood by the bedside of a dying servant of God, Rev. Geo. Ferguson, the principal of our Mission Institute. He told me how he had been meditating on a text that had come in the course of his preparation for his Mission class: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." As he thought, it was as if one said to him, "_White as snow_, do you know what that is?" His answer was, "No, Lord, Thou only knowest, I do not." And then the question came, "_White as snow_, can you attain that?--can you make yourself that?" "No, Lord, I cannot; but Thou canst." And, again, he was asked, "Are you willing that I should do it?" "Yes, Lord, by Thy grace I am willing Thou shouldest do all Thou canst."
The three questions just suggest what our duty is. The heavenly poverty of Jesus Christ--do you know what it is? What it is in Him, in His disciples and in Paul, in His saints in later days? What it would be in you? Let the answer be, "No, Lord, Thou knowest." This is what we need first and most of all. If God were to open our eyes to see the spiritual glory of our Lord in His poverty, in _His entire renunciation_ of every thing of worldly comfort or self-pleasing; if we saw the Divine glory of which it is the expression; if we knew how infinitely beautiful it was to all the holy angels, how infinitely well-pleasing to the Father, we should then only in some little degree be able to say whether it was something we ought to desire and imitate. If we saw the heavenliness and the measure of the likeness to our Lord it would bring into our life, we should say, "I have spoken of what I knew not--Oh, that God would show me His glory in this too: '_for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich_'!" Before you judge of it, pray by the Holy Spirit to know it.
Then comes the second question. "Can you attain it? Can you, in the likeness of Jesus, give up everything in the world for God and your fellowmen, and find your joy in the heavenly riches and the blessedness of dependence upon God alone?" "No, Lord, I cannot; but Thou canst work." Come and gaze upon the Son of God and worship as you think. It was God that made Him what He was, and that God can, by His mighty power, work in me His Divine likeness. Ask God to reveal by His Spirit, what the poverty of Jesus is, and then to work in you as much of it as you can bear. Be sure of this, _the deeper your entrance into His poverty_, the richer you are.
And if the last question comes to search the heart--"Are you willing for it?"--then, surely, your answer will be ready: "By Thy grace, I am!" You may see no way out of all the complications of your life. You may dread bringing upon yourself sacrifices and trials you could not bear. Be not afraid: you surely cannot fear giving yourself up to God's perfect love to work out His perfect will. For all He really means you to do He will most surely give light and strength. The Throne of Riches and Honor and Glory to which the Lamb has been exalted is surely proof enough that there is no surer way for us to riches and honor than through His poverty. The soul that in simplicity yields to the leading of the Lord will find that the fellowship of His suffering brings even here the fellowship of His glory: "Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."