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Edited with an Introduction by Paul L. Holmer Translated by David F. and Lillian Marvin Swenson
t harper torchbooks / The Cloister Library HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK
edifying discourses: A Selection Copyright © 1958 by Paul L. Holmer Printed in the United States of America All rights in this book are reserved. No part of the book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Harper & Brothers 49 East 33rd Street, New York 16, N. Y. This selection of the Discourses is reprinted by arrangement with the following publishers: aucsburg publishing house for "Preface," "The Expectation of Faith," "Every Good and Perfect Thing is From Above," "Love Shall Cover a Multitude of Sins" from Edifying Discourses, vol. I; "The Lord Gave and the Lord Hath Taken Away" from Edifying Discourses, vol. II; "Remember Now Thy Creator in the Days of Thy Youth" and "The Expectation of an Eternal Happiness" from Edifying Discourses, vol. Ill; "Man's Need of God Constitutes his Highest Perfection" from Edifying Discourses, vol. IV; "Love Conquers All" from Thoughts on Crucial Situations in Human Life; "The Narrowness is the Way" and "The Glory of Our Common Humanity" from The Gospel of Suffering. These Discourses have been translated from the Danish by David F. and Lillian Marvin Swenson, copyright 1941, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1948 by Augsburg Publishing House. Princeton university press for "The Unchangeableness of God" from For SelfExamination and Judge for Yourselves! translated by David Swenson, copyright 1944, by Princeton University Press. First Harper Torchbook edition published 1958
Library of Congress catalogue card number: 58-jioj
CONTENTS PAGE Introduction by Paul L. Holmer vii Preface 1 i. The Expectation of Faith 2 ii. Every Good and Perfect Thing is From Above 29 in. Love Shall Cover a Multitude of Sins 50 iv. The Lord Gave and the Lord Hath Taken Away, Blessed Be the Name of The Lord 67 v. Remember Now Thy Creator in the Days of Thy Youth 87 vi. The Expectation of an Eternal Happiness 109 vii. Man's Need of God Constitutes his Highest Perfection 136 viii. Love Conquers All 177 ix. The Narrowness is the Way 209 x. The Glory of Our Common Humanity 230 xi. The Unchangeableness of God 253
INTRODUCTION TO THE TORCHBOOK EDITION by Paul L. Holmer Thou plain man [wrote Kierkegaard toward the close of his life]! The Christianity of the New Testament is infinitely high; but observe that it is not high in such a sense that it has to do with the difference between man and man with respect to intellectual capacity, etc. No, it is for all. . . . Thou plain man! I have not separated my life from thine; thou knowest it, I have lived in the street, am known to all; . . . Thou plain man! I do not conceal from thee the fact that, according to my notion, the thing of being a Christian is infinitely high, that at no time are there more than a few who attain it, as Christ's own life attests, if one considers the generation in which He lived, and as also His preaching indicates, if one takes it literally. Yet nevertheless it is possible for all. . . - 1 It is with this explicit appeal to plain people that all of the discourses in this book were written. Each discourse is calculated to bring the reader, whatever his aesthetic and intellec-
tual capacity, into conversation about religious and Christian concerns. For this reason, among others, Kierkegaard suggests that they should be read in privacy and preferably aloud. Their simplicity and repetitive style make them extremely effective devotional essays. Not every discourse, however, is equally adapted to every 1 Attack Upon "Christendom," translated by Walter Lowrie (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1944), pp. 287-88.
Vlll INTRODUCTION reader. Kierkegaard therefore suggested in subtle ways that the person whom he calls "with joy and gratitude, 'my' reader" will be self-chosen. Kierkegaard knew of no way to assure himself of his audience; therefore, he likens his discourses to the objects which the bird, his reader, fixes with his eye, flies down to pluck off, and takes away unto himself. It is a safe surmise that each reader can easily enough discover those discourses which are peculiarly adapted to his own interests and needs, and begin there. Kierkegaard flatters his readers by supposing that they are willing and able to explore those needs and interests native to themselves. He seeks to address himself to the universally human in each of us. However, against those who have identified the universally human as rationality or as aesthetic sensibility or as an endowment with natural rights, Kierkegaard insists that the truly universal and distinctively human factor lies in subjectivity and inwardness. Furthermore, by developing our capacities for interest, for enthusiasm and passion, we become ethical and religious subjects. The discourses are efforts, then, to stimulate and also to discipline our feelings, wishes, and hopes. Kierkegaard does not try to convey results as much as to elicit in his reader a self-activity and a process of appropriation. His conviction is that every man is potentially a being of spirit. This means in effect that the awakening of inwardness is the beginning of the relationship to God. If the reader should discover that these discourses speak poignantly to him, he may want to read more of them. The first eight discourses included in this selection are chosen from twenty-one printed in five small volumes: Edifying Discourses Vols. I-IV (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943-1944) and Thoughts on Crucial Situations (same publisher, 1941); the next two, numbers IX and X, are
INTRODUCTION IX from The Gospel of Suffering and What We Learn From the Lilies of the Field and the Birds of the Air, respectively,
Kierkegaard asserted that the use of his own name was crucial evidence. Repetition.where ten discourses are published under the single title. these are not all of Kierkegaard's works even for this brief period. This event. another and substantial work in a religious mood. that he was. Either /Or in two volumes. The Concept of Dread. translated by Walter Lowrie (Oxford University Press. From 1842 to 1851." accompanies Walter Lowrie's translation of For SelfExamination (Oxford University Press. The early literature from 1843 to 1846 has then two strands. The story of Kierkegaard's life is essentially the story of his authorship. if not all of Europe. The Stages. The Gospel of Suffering (Augsburg Publishing House. X INTRODUCTION penned in Scandinavia. is strenuous but resolute. A desultory youthful period. By 1843 his writing career was launched and books began to pour forth in profusion. Besides being some of the finest literature 2 On My Work As an Author in The Point of View. The first which is pseudonymous is also philosophical . The first series of books were issued under pseudonyms. Fear and Trembling. a religious author. His early years seem like the seedtime for a writing career. he said it was like a single movement. The period between. 1948). 1846. 1939). Philosophical Fragments. became for Kierkegaard in 1841 the precipitating cause of his entire authorship. All of the above essays were translated by David F. despite the somewhat ambiguous nature of his writings. Lillian Marvin Swenson. Kierkegaard wrote about thirtyfive books and the bulk of his twenty-volume journal. the last discourse in this selection. when his pen was relatively quiet. Swenson or his wife and widow. this not so much to secure anonymity as to fulfill a certain pedagogical intention. was climaxed by a broken engagement. were published under Kierkegaard's own name. the religious discourses. pp. "The Unchangeableness of God. 1941). on Life's Way and the Concluding Unscientific Postscript were published within the thirty-six-month period ending in February. Oddly enough. When giving an account of his literature. about nine or ten years. For at intervals during these same months he also published seven smaller volumes of religious discourses. These accompanied in a certain manner the above-noted longer works. though. are like a benediction upon a work already done. including study at the University of Copenhagen. accomplished in one breath. his last years. from first to last. 2 S0ren Aabye Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagen in 1813 and died in 1855. so common to the rest of the world. 146-47. The second series. these pages include as well the most discriminating philosophic reasoning.
that he decided he had no right to attribute such holiness to himself as the use of his own name might suggest. His pseudonymous lit- INTRODUCTION XI erature was his way of coming to grips with the philosophy and culture of his day in its own terms. The discourses. Most of them were published in books of substantial proportions. The early literature is even conceived as a kind of introduction and preparation. especially the earlier ones. were also accompanied by more religious discourses. Only briefly is pseudonymity again invoked and this for a special purpose. edifying in intent. again pseudonymously. together with the Fragments. Kierkegaard likened himself to a missionary whose responsibility it was to reintroduce Christianity into Christendom. It is interesting to note. his literature moves through its numerous difficulties and niceties of argument for the purpose of showing why the . parallel his more technical and abstruse writings. to this specifically Christian literature. too. from behind. to a more severe and demanding form of Christianity. independently. From Either/Or through the Postscript. Every book has a significance given by its role in his extended program and. and a few. that which is paradoxical and even entails suffering. carries the depiction. an immediate and intrinsic importance. In one sense. through an ethical view which is dutiful and describes existence as a responsible and obliged sojourn. It was when Kierkegaard came to the depiction of the most strenuous Christian categories. No one can understand Kierkegaard's authorship unless he also fathoms these discourses. The Postscript. a kind of softening up of the opposition. from a mild kind of religiousness. The numerous books of the late forties (and they are as many as the earlier period from 1843 to 1846) articulate over Kierkegaard's name the details of the Christian view of life. which again were somewhat argumentative and polemical. were even published singly. a transition is effected. into the religious view. the reader discovers that the two strands seem to come together. for here the litmus test of Kierkegaard's thought and conviction must finally be made. others were added to longer works. In obedience to the pedagogical principle which says that one who teaches must begin where the learners are. those growing out of the consideration of the vicissitudes of following Jesus. Following his literature beyond 1846.and argumentative. Kierkegaard creates authors who are ideal representations of the kind of existence they describe. that several of these later works. perhaps akin to Ralph Waldo Emerson's Unitarian Christianity. as he said. He attacked. from an aesthetic view of life which is hedonistic and largely a quest for immediate satisfactions. Kierkegaard wrote over eighty discourses in his lifetime.
His attack is as savage as any that has ever been composed. Therefore no reader should assume that these are lesser 3 Cf. too. Even though few people noticed the discourses as they appeared. From first to last. or as good as all. Kierkegaard's own literature is contrived so ironically that the simple discourses become more crucial and important to any reader who understands them than the profound and difficult philosophic pieces. Kierkegaard heaped diatribe upon diatribe and applied relentlessly the categories articulated in his earlier literature to the particular empirical situation presented by the State Church of Denmark. he published another edifying discourse. where the editor. the poetic. often expressed by the author. His edifying discourses limn the author from his earliest days of authorship to the last. discusses this discourse and its place in Kierkegaard's literature. that the . For this reason Kierkegaard could insist that the religious discourses. and the aristocratic. grasped with their right what I held in my left. Attack Upon "Christendom. as many assumed. got most of the attention. Kierkegaard said. slight as they appear in comparison.simplicities of the sermon contain the highest wisdom. Just as he had argued that philosophy could not really distill the gist of religion anyway. "The Unchangeableness of God" (number XI in this volume). However. Kierkegaard engaged in a most exacting pamphleteering attack upon the Lutheran Church of Denmark. His philosophy succeeded in taking him out of the speculative. Kierkegaard could say: I held out Either/Or to the world in my left hand. the most popular and most spectacular of his pseudonymous works. and scorn. back to the simple and the edifying." pp. immediately after the most devastating articles and in the midst of his fiercest attack. Using every literary weapon at his disposal. INTRODUCTION Xlll works. he was a religious author. irony. savage wit. but all. Xll INTRODUCTION In late 1854 and continuing through 1855. 232-34. the last year of his life. 3 This served again to call the attention of his contemporaries to the fact that despite the violent controversy. and even though Either /Or. nevertheless. so. 4 It was the hope. Walter Lowrie. enable the reader to interpret the more imposing philosophic works. and in my right the Two Edifying Discourses. Kierkegaard was speaking from within the Christian community and not from without.
translated by David F. not the authoritatively given content. 5 Kierkegaard developed very precise notions of why his religious essays were discourses and not sermons. 7 But discourses. p. Climacus' comments. In an extended account of a contemporary effort in literature which is useful to his own purposes. Vol. but the human situation. p. entry no. In contradistinction to sermons. they are not categorical and declaratory as much as they are accommodating to. to encourage the growth of inward propensities toward the good life and God. pp." 8 and nowhere use the distinctively Christian concepts and categories. and these were his edifying discourses." 6 They presuppose a priest who in virtue of ordination speaks categorically and definitively on God's behalf. or addresses as they may also be called. Kierkegaard indicated that his early pseudonymous litera4 Point of View. "Johannes Climacus. translated by Alexander Dru (Oxford University Press. tells about discovering to his surprise the edifying discourses by Magister Kierkegaard. 20. hence. 1945). the discourse uses every device. aesthetic and poetic. 192. 5. accept with their right hand what was offered with his right hand. the religious potentiality in the listener or reader.readers would. Discourses are in a different tenor than sermons and can even be conceived and delivered by a layman. Furthermore. 243-44. They aim to tease out of the human being's ethical life those considerations which are upbuilding and regenerative. are to the effect that the discourses are not sermons "since they employ only the ethical categories of immanence." the thirty-year-old pseudonymous author of the Concluding Unscientific Postscript. 1941). 6 The Journals of Spren Kierkegaard. XIV INTRODUCTION ture was conceived as a description of individual stages on the way toward a Christian religious existence. 629. 1938). instead. Ill (Augsburg Publishing House. They deal with doubt. the discourses are exploratory in a philosophical manner. p. Swenson (Princeton University Press. that of Holy Writ and of Christ's Apostles. which are edifying by reference to Jesus and God who are independent of the inner life. These early discourses abstain . Primarily it is that sermons are properly a work "absolutely and entirely through authority. and eliciting of. and. 5 "Foreword" to Two Edifying Discourses in Edifying Discourses. which for good reasons can be accepted also as Kierkegaard's judgments. 7 The Postscript. use as their point of departure.
Thus. In all of his writings Kierkegaard practices a deliberate kind of craftiness. and XI. however. p. Early in his career Kierkegaard concluded that his entire age had been misled by the increase of knowledge. 9 Ibid. namely. it does not follow that every edifying truth is Christian. Kierkegaard insists that Christianity is edifying.. From such facts. from mentioning the name of Christ. 243. They are conducive to. IX. his emotional cosmos of convictions. so it said in his. Instead of becoming impatient with his devices it might be well for the reader. instead. Also note Journals. had come to the view that being even ethical or religious was a matter of "knowing" first and then "doing" subsequently. that it is first necessary to know what is what before any action can be contemplated. by accident. All of this meant too that a person's subjectivity. and preparatory of. however. to the professors. and not that of the sermon. wishes. and feelings.from all "Christian-dogmatic terminology." 9 They are an illustration of the fact that the edifying is a wider category than the Christian. X. Personal living was made to appear as an addendum. Neither are they non-Christian. however. INTRODUCTION XV edifying. Christian faith without quite presupposing it. The mode of communication and style is still that of the discourse. the majority of these discourses are not Christian. By this he means that it too builds up or constitutes human beings as ethical subjects. it makes an empirical difference in the lives of men. to understand his point of view and ascertain whether or not he is correct in designing his literature as he did. They are later in Kierkegaard's authorship and actually use Christian categories. Kierkegaard viewed this situation as at once tragic and comic. Christian faith does have moral consequences. p. entry 519. Unsuspecting people. 229. though they indeed are believed to be 8 Ibid. The last three discourses in this selection. p. in a precise sense. hopes.. and so forth. As the world says in our day. 140. his entire . a mere consequent to objective reflection about the world and things in it. Kierkegaard said that it was so bad that even the clergy were rated on a scale which gave them greater eminence the closer they got to being professors of theology. are. It was tragic because it meant that people had really forgotten what it means to exist. It was comic because it meant that an extraordinary and utterly exaggerated significance had been given to knowledge and. almost overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of truths about almost anything you please. distinctively Christian while also being edifying.
XVI INTRODUCTION range of inward sensibility, was deemed a by-product of his knowledge. The upshot of such attitudes was that even religion was made a matter of objective faith. The objective faith, what does that mean? It means a sum of doctrinal propositions. . . . The objective faith² it is as if Christianity also had been promulgated as a little system, if not quite so good as the Hegelian; it is as if Christ ² aye, I speak without offense² it is as if Christ were a professor, and as if the Apostles had formed a little scientific society. 10 Such a mode of understanding profound ethical and religious problems has numerous advantages. It seems to convert the human condition into a manageable scholarly and scientific problem. Nowadays enthusiasts for such a point of view insist that all we need is sound human engineering and better social management. Kierkegaard's protest is both an ethical one, against the denigration of human personality which such a contention implies, and an intellectual one, against any interpretation of knowledge which understands it to invest men with omnicompetence. Kierkegaard tells us that we have forgotten what it means to exist as human beings. In fear of subjectivity, in fear that something whimsical and fortuitous might mar our otherwise controlled objective temper, men have gone to another extreme. Instead of inwardness being aberrant, it has become nonexistent. Another type of madness takes over, and it means the dehumanizing of people. One shrinks from looking into the eyes of a madman of the former type lest one be compelled to plumb there the depths of his delirium; but one dares not look at a madman of the latter type at all, from fear of discovering that he has eyes of glass and 10 Postscript, p. 193.
INTRODUCTION XV11 hair made from carpet-rags; that he is, in short, an artificial product. If you meet someone who suffers from such a derangement of feeling, the derangement consisting in his not having any, you listen to what he says in a cold and awful dread, scarcely knowing whether it is a human being who speaks, or a cunningly contrived walking stick in which a talking machine has been concealed. 11 Even the man who everlastingly repeats objectively true sentences about the world may betray by that fact that he is mad and even inhuman.
Therefore, Kierkegaard urged another consideration upon his age. He deliberately and carefully plotted his entire authorship to show his readers what it means to exist, and what inwardness and subjectivity signify. Almost incidental to this was his highly sophisticated analysis of the misunderstandings and mistakes concerning the relation between philosophy and Christianity. Such mistakes as he discerned were explicable on this same ground. Though his interest was religious and, perhaps, more specifically, Christian, he believed that men had forgotten not only what it means to exist Christianly, but also humanly. Therefore, he began way back, as he said he must, with the most rudimentary drives and satisfactions by which people forged a way of life. 12 However, Kierkegaard was convinced that his task could not be done in any straightforward dogmatizing manner. He noted that a man with a doctrine which said a man ought not to have any disciples would be inconsistent if he had disciples; therefore, a man who said existing did not consist in getting to know something about this and that would be inconsistent if he conceived his task as one of communicating something in the form of knowledge. Any attempt at direct 11 Ibid., p. 175. 12 Ibid., pp. 222-24. Also, "A Glance at a Contemporary Effort in Danish Literature," pp. 225-66.
XV111 INTRODUCTION and immediate communication between such an author and his reader would result in a misunderstanding. Accordingly, Kierkegaard designed his works to beguile the reader into the truth. 13 The pseudonymous works created ideal authors who designed in turn a series of mirrorlike positions in which the reader sees himself reflected. No results are conveyed by the author in these works. Instead he endeavors to get the reader to make the decisions and achieve the results in his own personality. If there is any increment anywhere, it is in the reader, not in the author's work. Kierkegaard's constant and lifelong wish, to which his entire literature gives expression, was to create a new and rich subjectivity in himself and his readers. Unlike many authors who believe that all subjectivity is a hindrance, Kierkegaard contends that only some kinds of subjectivity are a hindrance. He sought at once to produce subjectivity if it were lacking, to correct it if it were there and needed correction, to amplify and strengthen it when it was weak and undeveloped, and, always, to bring the subjectivity of every reader to the point of eligibility for Christian inwardness and concern. But the Edifying Discourses, though paralleling the pseu-
donymous works, spoke a little more directly, albeit without authority. They spoke the real author's conviction and were the purpose of Kierkegaard's lifework. Whereas all the rest of his writing was designed to get the readers out of their lassitude and mistaken conceptions, the discourses, early and late, were the goal of the literature. Though they do not convey results either, they aim to elicit that specific kind of existing, that mode of subjectivity and inwardness, which is the truth for every reader. Kierkegaard was a master at once in two different areas. On the one side, he was a dialectician. This means that he 13 On My Work As an Author in Point of View, p. 148.
INTRODUCTION XIX commanded the abilities to define a thought, to trace its implications and consequences, and to juxtapose it against differing views. On the other side, he was also skilled at depicting and creating pathos. Here he was a kind of poet, quick to catch and to express the nuances of mood and feeling that make up our inward life. 14 Kierkegaard's philosophical and theological reflections, his dialectic as he called it, led him to say that religious and ethical truth for every man lay finally in subjectivity and inwardness. His literary talents, his poetic nature as he called it, caused him to describe the kinds of inwardness that belonged to human existing. He concluded that many of these kinds of inwardness were untrue and unworthy of a man. His Edifying Discourses are attempts to create that kind of subjectivity and pathos that is the truth for every reader. Perhaps the words of his pseudonym, a pastor, are conclusive: Do not check your soul's flight, do not grieve the better promptings within you, do not dull your spirit with half wishes and half thoughts, ask yourself, and contrive to ask until you find the answer; for one may have known a thing many times and acknowledged it, one may have willed a thing many times and attempted it, and yet it is only by the deep inward movements, only by the indescribable emotions of the heart, that for the first time you are convinced that what you have known belongs to you, that no power can take it from you; for only the truth which edifies is truth for you. 15 Kierkegaard was seeking to be a Christian. Christianity was the truth for every man, because it alone described and produced that kind of subjectivity which is sufficient to the human quest. It is toward such an end that his discourses lead his readers. November, 1957 14 The Point of View, pp. 82-88.
benevolent enough to receive it. or believed that I saw. is. I saw. starting out on a kind of journey. how it set out on its solitary way." not discourses for edification." not sermons. insofar as. it finally met that individual whom with joy and gratitude I call my reader. then. 1843 [His thirtieth birthday] I THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH NEW YEAR'S DAY But before faith came. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. that individual whom it seeks. we were kept under the law. as it came into existence in secret. p. when it was deceived by a fleeting resemblance. Vol. something of a superfluity. like an insignificant little blossom in its hiding place in the great forest. translated by Walter Lowrie (Princeton University Press. After one and another little misapprehension. sought for neither for its showiness nor its fragrance nor its food value." On the other hand. I still have not said farewell to it without an almost fantastic hope. then. it stretches out its arms. flew down to it. II. how the bird whom I call my reader. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. PREFACE \ LTHOUGH this little book (which is called "dis/\ courses. But I saw also. or solitary set out along the highway. there . by being published. 294.15 Either /Or. by being published. 1944). whether in the moment of meeting it found him happy and confident. and only desires to remain in secret. "edifying discourses. K. Insofar as it. it in a stricter sense remains quiet without leaving the place. and took it to himself. we are no longer under a schoolmaster. suddenly fixed his eye upon it. But after that faith is come. that individual who is benevolent enough to let himself be found. figuratively speaking. I saw nothing more. shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. toward whom. because the speaker does not claim to be a teacher) only wishes to be what it is. that we might be justified by faith. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. I let my eye follow it a little while. It stood there. because its author has no XX authority to preach. plucked it off. as it were. I let my eye rest on it for a little while. Copenhagen. S. there is neither bond nor free. And when I had seen this. There is neither Jew nor Greek. or "melancholy and thoughtful. May 5.
we do not give the thought time to disturb the heart's mysterious and indeterminate impulses. The more this is the case. On this day. which yet is not. too. Only with respect to an individual person do we make an exception. rises vividly before us. of wishing anything determinate. devout listeners to this address! The festival we celebrate today is one to which the Church has given no name. its challenge to quiet meditation no less solemn. our wish tends to take on a more general character. over against the indeterminate and the indeterminable. where the subject of discourse is always the same. According to what we believe ourselves to know about a man's special circumstances. for his welfare we are more concerned. What others do easily and without trouble seems to this man heavy and difficult. a new year has begun. we do not neglect to show other men our good will and sympathy by wishing them this or that good thing. only the future is. and heirs according to the promise. THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH 3 But since on this particular day the thought about the future and the inscrutable possibility involved in the future. A year has passed. even if it does not deserve to be honored by the name of love. we express a good will. he finds hard in relation to . it strays hither and thither in its restless efforts to force or coax from the mystery its explanation. and yet is its celebration no less welcome. which. sits there and waits for the thought to return and enlighten it as to what it might venture to wish with all its heart. like a spy it hastens from one possibility to another. what he himself does easily in relation to others. To him our heart clings more steadfastly.is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. and under all this the washing soul becomes sorrowful. Nevertheless we do not permit this difficulty to repress our wish. the more conscious we become of the difficulty. still ought not to be disparaged as thoughtlessness. then are ye Abraham's seed. because we hope that the greater compass of the wish may better succeed in laying hold of the future's manifold variety. It is in the house of God that we are gathered. particularly suitable for him and for his life. to that degree we deem ourselves capable of wishing for him some definite good. though as yet there has nothing happened in it. but in vain. Galatians 3:23-29 IT is on the first day of the year that we are gathered here. though varied in fashion according to times and circumstances. In our daily life we are accustomed to wish each other one or another good. And if ye be Christ's. the present is not. The past is completed. his thoughts and achievements. When the thought now becomes absorbed in the future. because we feel the difficulty.
of the same kind as those. If such a wish could be found. to surrender him to the future's power. there . and still more glad that he could wish it for the other. the most precious. I cannot do that. then he would probably say: "I readily admit that it is the highest good of all. or feel the lack of it. then he would be free and glad. conferred only upon the chosen few. lest he might have forgotten some other particular thing. without holding back any part of it for another wish. unstable. seldom for THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH 5 the whole life? If this were so. also of importance to the beloved. a glorious fame. If he possessed it. for the rest. he would doubtless recollect the testimonies he had heard in these sacred places. said about faith.the one he loves most. and the listener is warned against them. for he who has them is warned not to trust in them. the most beautiful. wealth. About Faith a different kind of speech is heard. he does not wish to release the beloved from his own influence. that it is again and again eulogized and commended. and the more he loves the greater the difficulty becomes. but. transient. then it would be inexplicable that in these sacred places there is always one thing. a wish that needed not to be accompanied by new wishes relative to its permanence. a wish that did not confine itself to the present. besides. If a man's troubled mind felt itself ensnared like a prisoner in this difficulty. At last he becomes irresolute. not to be compared with anything else. not replaceable by anything else. a wish which did not guilefully continue after he had ceased to wish it. he would perhaps go to one of them again in order to inquire as to whether there might not be a wish which was so safe that he dared pour the whole of his soul's fervency into it. but praise it to others² no. and only one. the richest of all blessings. which later might disturb his peace. exclusive wish. but he has not one single. Is it then so different from the other goods because it is the highest good. fortune. for that would make it harder for those who do not have it. a wish that did not concern some one particular thing. as this was the occasion for his wishing. good times. He who would speak about it must either be in possession of this good. but was suited to the future. of health. It is said to be the highest good. And in these sacred places many good things are mentioned. he will accompany him with all good wishes. power. he who does not have them is warned not to set his heart upon them. and yet he must. glad in his wish. so certain and so sure that he almost feared that he did not have enough inwardness to wish it as it ought to be wished. There is mention of worldly goods.
The man looked earnestly at him and said: "How can you be so in error? Your wish is not only pious and beautiful. rejoices also on behalf of countless generations of men. faith would be the only good which was never mentioned in the holy places." He who wishes it for another man. for it would be too great for a man to dare warn against it. "that every man possesses or may possess. my troubles.is a secret pain connected with its possession which makes me more lonely than do the greatest sufferings. and he who rejoices in his possession of it. he would answer: "That is a beautiful and a devout wish which you ought not to relinquish." he says. that I may have a share in this faith. wishes it for every man." If it was a benevolently inclined man he went to. If there was a man who went to another man and said to him: "I have often heard faith extolled as the highest good. confided to him. Consequently faith has a different quality. for that quality by virtue of which a man has faith is not one in which he is different from another man. then. you are much nearer to its fulfillment than you yourself believe. could dare to continue to wish it more and more heartily. but for no price should you relinquish it. he would wish it. the complexity of my life. but this I know. but something in which he is absolutely identical with everyone else. Still time went on. So."² Is it not true that it would seem to him an acceptable speech. I certainly feel that I do not have it. then it is your fault and a sin. So then the opposite of what happens would happen. he would perhaps think: "So this faith is not as glorious as it was . wishes it for himself. But he who did not have faith could hardly admit it. "for what I possess. his concern and his wish. and he got no farther. for we are all willing to hear one who speaks about the fulfillment of our wish. and it will surely be fulfilled. he who wishes it for himself. that whereby he possesses it is not something in which he differs from others. my numerous affairs and many other things interfere. to which he would gladly listen. Then he went to another man. as his love became more fervent. too glorious for one to dare to praise it. it is not only the highest good. but it is a good in which all can share." And this would be a very noble and benevolent thought on his part." He would perhaps be startled by this speech. but that wherein he is identical with him. for fear there might be someone present who did not have it and could not get it. too. that I have one wish and only one. and if you do not have it. There was then such a wish as that bewildered man sought. he could wish it for another man with all his heart and with all his might and with all his soul. it is your duty to have faith.
should there be no difficulty connected with its acquisition?" However. that I never had heard that speech. but he cannot give him faith. When his soul became fearful he called it to him and said: "If you are anxious. which one can wish. Still this is not the case. then you slyly destroy their power!" 8 Then he went on. he might perhaps say: "He was right. So you betray not only your own case. and whoever came first. it is so. and when he had rightly considered it. with my sorrow² and with my wish. he who came first. Oh. he was fortunate. for the wish profits nothing. that I had gone my way through life undisturbed. but. When he was near despair. for fear is a form of wishing. all other men can except myself. which one can only will. you delude yourself. since it is acquired so easily. only not I. while you know that it is something internal. they are concealed in distant places which are only accessible to men through great perils." Then would he quietly review his inner emotions. when he said: "I cannot. then it is with their distribution as with the water at the pool of Bethesda. that is the way a man should speak. so that if it really is the truth that you can not do it. One man can do much for another man. with the highest good. and every time his soul allowed itself to rest on a wish. We hear various stories in the world. that would be absurd." as if it were another man who was doing it. for you say that you wish. "Was being educated. aye. With faith. on the contrary.described." Then he called upon his soul and said: "Now you are being crafty. and pretend that the speech was about something external. he was perhaps nearer to the faith. a-bout which we read in the sacred Scriptures: At times an angel went down and troubled the THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH 7 water. One . and when you humbly exclude yourself from their number. for you say: 'All other men can. it is because you are wishing. the case of all men. is that in which they are absolutely identical with you. he would still certainly think earnestly upon this matter. For other good things one travels out into the wide world. and you know you must not wish"² and so he went on. insofar as it depends on you.' and yet you know that that whereby other men can do it. then neither can the others do it. or if this is not the case. it was a bold speech in which there was sense and meaning. it is only a misunderstanding. should not this also be the case. and in so doing he made progress. only an appearance. he called it to him and said: "You know you must not wish". When he was then being slowly educated over a longer time under a schoolmaster.
we who were too insignificant to become disciples. the tempest and the storm did not take it from you. could the other get it. We shall not decide how far such a speech is legitimate. although this concerned him less. you do not become afraid when it is mentioned. he was no longer in distress. whether his gesture was obeyed by thousands. And you know it. it can only be applied to the specially gifted: those who either were inherently talented. Whether his forehead was flattened almost like a beast's or arched more proudly than the heavens." would this be less beautiful? And yet every man can say it. my hearers. Or do you not know it? Alas! then were you very unfortunate. but because he distorts it. We. and he believes it something to take pride in. or else so favored that they could become disciples of the distinguished man. my hearer. and if he does not say it in truth. and this is my happiness. or to gather up the necessary gifts which fell from the rich man's table. my pride. whether his arm was outstretched to rule over kingdoms and countries. for as he was wishing it. but for it really to mean anything. You could not grieve and say: "The giver of good gifts passed by my door". and he thinks it something to be proud of. on the other hand. my joy. it became clear to him that that good could not be obtained through a wish. He became my schoolmaster. or the defenseless woman who only sought shelter against the storm² it has nothing to do with the matter. then I went to God.says: "My being what I am is my own work. then. he could not even get it himself by wishing it. as if you first savored its bliss in the moment of its departure. THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH 9 whether he was the powerful man who defied the storm. dares to say it. but neither could he give it to another by wishing it to him. for this is precisely the glory of faith. Every man dares say it when he has faith. absolutely nothing. And yet . only by himself willing it. you could not grieve and say: "The tempest and the storms took it from me". whether eloquence blossomed on his lips or only unintelligible sounds passed over them. So then it was again necessary to set him free. his wish for him was as impotent as before. and I count it an honor to dare call myself his disciple". for the giver of good gifts did not pass by your door. can say it in truth. a wish quite as that bewildered man had hoped for. for they could not do it. So there was. Yet there now appeared a new difficulty. or there was not a soul who paid attention to him. necessary to leave him to himself. as if it thereby took something from you. Every man dares say it. I owe no man anything". Another says: "That distinguished man was my teacher. then it is not because the thought is not true. my hearer. what shall we say? If a man were to say: "When men rejected me.
say to the beloved: "Just be quiet and unconcerned. it was something that could not be wished. as he mentioned the individual good things. so to speak. lo. therefore it is the only unfailing good.this was not his intention. satisfied. which before was so rich in wishes. He would. again concerned. had now become poor. because it can only be had through being constantly acquired. Then he found that life was beautiful. but only make it more difficult? That thought he could not endure. and can only be acquired through being constantly developed. They had become separated. he must seek a way out. The bewildered man was then reassured. and happy with all the good things I shall wish you. that it was a new glory in faith that no man can give it to another. his hand. and so you shall have everything. and yet they had become almost stran- THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH II gers to one another. I shall wish. which formerly was so willing to help. he still had loved him in the wrong way. and also the highest good. His heart. There must be something wrong in his love. for when I wish a man something. faith. for if it had been possible to procure for him all the good things. then he would by this very fact have made him into a more imperfect being. I shall move the all- 10 bountiful God who bestows the good gifts. it is inherent in him. for he knew he could not help. they seemed to him so questionable that he dared not wish them for the other. as it were." And lo. but perhaps a change had taken place in him as well as in the one for whose welfare he was so concerned² in their relation to each other. every man has it if he wills to have it. can love not explain it. that it can only be had on this condition. most sacred in man. noblest. you have nothing at all to do except to be glad. that every man has. I shall move Him by my prayers. Is then the whole of life only a contradiction. Then he perceived that however much he had loved the other man. had now learned to be quiet. The bewildered man had also considered it in this way. I do not require his co-operation. again ensnared in a difficulty. Their lives had become more significant than before. I shall not grow weary of wishing. but that what is highest. and this is the glory of faith. in that one. what he might confidently wish for. the other certain within his own limits. It was truth he had recog- . He was again bewildered. was established in his right. He wished to do everything for him. when he finally found what he sought.
I bring him to will to own it. even if he need not fear this. then he will acquire it. then I should in the iame moment that I gave it to him. When we speak about the expectation of faith. we also . and urge him to perceive that it is the highest good." My hearers. for if he owed t to me. I will only be the more happy. So life is then a contradiction. he nust seek an explanation. speak with one another about THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH. if he does not have it. but this truth had not made him happy. And if he is not n possession of it. take it from him. for the more profoundly he recognized the truth. On the other hand. "with my wish or with my gift :ould present him with the highest good. until. and then he perceived that his relation to his friend had now acquired its true significance. whether he can understand it or not. and as I assume that he possesses it. shall we not do the same. the truth can not explain it. there is but a single expression which explains his failure² that he did not will it. He will not have o thank me for it. but can Dnly make it more painful. it would disturb our relation. I will speak to him about the expectation of faith. with him I will penetrate every irregularity. as death itself could not have separated them. I took the lighest good from him. the more he felt himself separated. for the highest would be that he hould give it to himself. this he cannot endure. "If I. when the thought of the future tempts us with its manifold possibilities. lye. for n the fact that I gave him the highest good. could not wish that he lad remained unconscious of it.nized. Therefore I will thank God that his did not happen. And yet he :ould not wish that it was untrue. Should I then be less glad with lim. less glad that he now owns the most precious of all joods? Nay. for I know that with all my efforts I still hould not have been able to preserve this good for him ls certainly as he himself can keep it." said he. So today on the first day of the year. if I could do this. not because I set him free. then I can be very helpful to him: for 12 I will accompany his thought. and I will prevent it from escaping into some hiding place where it might become obscure to him. and according to the opportunities of this festal occasion. my love has only lost its anxiety and gained gladness. although it had separated :hem for all eternity. I will show him that in faith he possesses the only power which can triumph over the future. what is worse. but because le owes me nothing at all. then could I dso take it from him. the more powerless in his relation to the other. I will praise the glory of faith to him. This thought he was not able to endure.
is perhaps well founded. But those who have expectations are the happy and the successful. the pillow of sloth on which they would drowse away their lives in THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH 13 idleness could be taken away from them. then we naturally think of ourselves as talking to those who expect something. We shall not deny that this has happened in the world. still we prefer to speak to those who still expect something. that men forget the present in their preoccupation with the future. that while all other men confessed that on the day of judgment they would not be able to answer one to a thousand. that he can occupy himself with the future. but neither shall we fail to recall that it is precisely man's greatness. then would man be enslaved like the beasts. even if more seldom in our time. Are they then the proper persons to be addressed in these sacred places. they made it a condition that they should be in possession of a just demand on life which could not be redeemed. They might be addressed thus. It could be said to them that it was a very wretched wisdom they had found. it could be said that it was a proud distinction they had acquired in life. Yet all of them have one expectation in common. when we speak about expectation. that they all expect some future. for expectation and the future are inseparable thoughts. a demand which in its time would make the reckoning difficult enough² but not for them. those who have already made up their account with life and who expect nothing? Aye. indeed. and not rather the unsuccessful. so too their expectations can be so various that it is very difficult to mention all of them. neither would there have been a past. As the number of those who expect something always constitutes the majority of the world. is perhaps not right. He who expects something is preoccupied with the future. In that sense one might not. But to occupy himself with it. the speech could well be addressed to them if our voice were capable of it. wish to live for M . The complaint which is often heard. the proof of his divine heritage. that it was easy enough to harden the heart. his head bent toward the earth. and if there were neither past nor future.speak about expectation in general. his soul ensnared in the service of the moment. for if there were no future. that while all other men² however successful or however troubled they had been in the world² were still always ready to recognize that God could indeed make up the reckoning.
They were admired in the world. not until he has conquered the future does his present life become sound and strong. The fact of being able to occupy himself with the future is then an indication of man's nobility. becomes only in an unworthy sense strong in the present. he who does not conquer it. it borrows its strength from the man himself. Consequently. no man is stronger than himself. they became powerless. Still it is indeed an impossibility. until we are able to return to the present. He who absolutely relinquishes it. how return from this victory to that which went before? Is it not so. because people thought they had conquered in the most dangerous fight. which no man saw. who was able to terrify them. for he fights with himself. then it appears outside of him as the enemy he must meet. their arms paralyzed. THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH Therefore we frequently see those who in life conquered in every battle. a vague figure. The future is not. when it was a future enemy they had to deal with. has one enemy more who will make him weak in the fight against the present. He who fights with the future has a more dangerous enemy.the present. But where shall we set our limits. He who strives with the present strives with a single thing against which he can use his entire strength. perhaps frequently the men whom God called to be tested in battle went from a worse fight into that battle which to men seemed so terrible. how could we have conquered the whole before we have even reached the first part of it. While they were perhaps accustomed to challenge the whole world to battle. the future is everything. is it an ill-timed difficulty the thought raises? By no means. and when it has tricked him out of this. and yet that fight seemed to them like a childish game in comparison with the fight which had gone before. If therefore a man had nothing else to strive against. they had now met an enemy. for we dare not commend every occupation with the future. he can never remain ignorant about himself. the present is a part of it. It would naturally be true that he who is stronger than . It is precisely as here stated. Let a man then be as strong as he will. perhaps they sometimes smiled in the heat of conflict when they considered the invisible fight which had taken place before. it would be possible for him to go victoriously through life without learning to know himself or his own strength. until our life finds significance therein. nor in that sense might one have meant it when he recommended the present as the great thing. how much do we dare to occupy ourselves with the future? The answer is not difficult: until we have conquered it. Therefore. the conflict with it is most ennobling.
still better that he be armed according to the nature of the conflict. then he learns that however strong he is compared with the rest. What is the expectation of faith? Victory. but his armor would scarcely be advantageous to him. now another. the future is not entirely new." And it is indeed well that a man be armed when he goes into a conflict. How should we then go to meet the future? When the sailor is out upon the sea. He looks up at the stars: and why? Because they are faithful. therefore through this one can understand that. but not for the kind of conflict we go to meet. for they change. with conjecture apprehension. the future is the past. and thus armed go confidently forth to meet the future. with the conclusion disquiet. there is one enemy who is stronger. and guessing is a deceitful guide who deserts one when one needs him most. that is himself. So we might be well-armed when we had put on experience. the conflict with the future. Old or young. that is himself. When a man strives with the future. those weapons are difficult to use. we will put it on. we have all of us had some experience. as they stand now. they stood for the patriarchs. and will stand for the coming generations. then he does not stare down into the depths of these. Through the eternal can one conquer the future. we will follow the trail of conjecture and the guidance of the supposition. and the supposition is a vague glance which does not look very far. Is not the case the same in the matter of equipment for one who would strive with the future? For experience as a friend has a double tongue which says now one thing. What then is the eternal power in man? It is faith. because the eternal is the foundation of the future. by the power of the conclusion will we overcome it. one enemy he cannot conquer by himself.others conquers in the conflict with these. for there is nothing new under the sun. he would indeed be armed. . If a i6 man who would compete on the running-track were to put on heavy armor. we sought to transform this into something present. or as the Scriptures have so earnestly and so movingly taught us. By what means does he then conquer the changing conditions? Through the eternal. when the waves are constantly born and die. for with guessing goes fear. In addition. something individual. but the future is not an individual part but the whole. Yet why describe this conflict with the future as so dangerous? "Whether old or young. since the questing soul does not remain unmoved by the experience. and the conclusion is a sling wherein a man more often catches himself than the other. we have all had experience. but it is also natural that no man is stronger than himself. when everything is changing about him.
so everyone fashions it according to the way he himself is fashioned. the troubled one. The believer is therefore done with the future before he begins on the present. assists this expectation with all its might. when one has lost everything. which was not shaped by the dubious wisdom of experience. was still not the expectation of faith. to a certain degree. in every conflict and exertion. Then the expectation of faith is victory! The glad heart which had not yet tasted of life's adversities. for it expects victory in everything. we would rather be the one who should call him to the conflict when he feels himself powerless. rather be the one who will let victory beckon to him when he believes everything lost. We would not choose to be the austere figure which would halt the young on his way.THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH 17 it is that all things must work together for good to those that love God. like a loving mother. for what one has conquered no longer has power to disturb one. also conceals good gifts. he has felt his loss too keenly. In success a man ought. however beautiful it was. On the other hand. pictures the future differently. then one ought to consider that time conceals much precious healing power for the sick soul. and even if it happened in the past. When one has almost every good one could i8 desire. and that future is indeed light and ephemeral. it expects to conquer without conflict. or rather. to be . who has scarcely dried his tears over the present loss. he still keeps it with him. that the future. But an expectation of the future which expects victory has indeed conquered the future. then one ought to be prepared to have the troubles of life also visit the home of the fortunate. which was not educated in the school of sorrow. more flexible than any sickle. The troubled one does not expect victory. he expects that the future will at least grant him peace for the quiet occupation with his pain. The experienced man disapproves of both modes of conduct. and this victory can only make one more powerful for the present. we would rather be considered as a consolation to him when he has learned that this expectation.
victory is its expectation. according to the advice of the man of experience. This expression: to a certain degree. For both the fortunate man who was not thoughtless and the troubled man who was not in despair will readily listen to his words. prepared for a certain degree of misfortune. Only one single good he can not lose without losing his gladness.prepared for failure. the believer says: "I expect victory. victory in every conflict. but faith expects only one. On the contrary. And the counsel of the man of experience is not in vain. even if not quite as you think." Nor is this a vain speech. both will willingly arrange their lives according to his advice. shows no sympathy. Still by the help of faith it expects victory in everything. this is even more than the most joyous hope of youth. not lose to a certain degree without losing it entirely. others are such that he could easily recover from the pain of their loss. Some of them he thinks he could lose without pain. and the troubled man. to a certain degree." Aye. is not concerned about their strenuous efforts to understand it. The experience which should guide them." it says. for experience taught that there might be talk about a conflict. becomes bewildered. Still the experienced man said: to a certain degree. and he were to say: "That is impossible² all the necessities for a man. unshakable. or rather. if he was not in despair. So then the successful man. and with it his joy. the experienced man's advice was questionable advice. becomes the binding power which ensnares them. he leaves the explanation and the application to the one whom they would guide. if he was not thoughtless. all the much which I need". then would the one who referred him to the Holy Scriptures. "it is impossible. If there was a man who had heard of a belief which was able to give everyone the thing he needed. rightly dare to testify about them. no less than the troubled one. in failure. and yet it is so. He will then be prepared to lose his goods. for success. pays no attention to their THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH 19 prayers for an explanation. he cannot lose it to a certain degree without losing it absolutely. it expects victory. in every temptation. for both the one who was happy. life cannot be so glorious. Gladness returns again to the glad heart. The successful man inspects the goods he possesses. he repeats them unchanged. it is certainly more than the gladdest hope of youth. The man of experience will not interpret his words. however rich youth was in its extreme happiness. will readily heed his words. and in this way he is. as now for me. that he would find in them . You speak about many victories. and the word continues to sound. only for a moment does it pause: "It is too much. gives birth to doubt. which should set them free. This word might also apply to that one good he could not lose without losing his happiness.
For the one might learn. when it was rebuked. if one was punished. every time it was punished to profit by the suffering. and faith expects victory. but the seeker would find that it did not turn out quite as he had expected. Why did it teach you this? Could it not have taught you something else? When two men learn different things from life.the thing needed. and why should it not be since it expects victory! Still I am sensible of a voice which you also 20 know well. the other was likewise. at least as long THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH 2I as you believed that someone sought an explanation. to suck faith and confidence out of their hearts. of which we do not speak at all. your cravings not heeded. you who speak in this way? Is it not true that it taught you that your wishes would not be fulfilled. when you speak about many victories you are like one who talks about many things being needed. whenever it was punished to store up secret anger. The other might learn. to do this in the sacred name of earnestness." So too with faith. but to be silent. It says: "This is good to listen to. when it was commended. Only one thing is needful. The Scriptures say: "One thing is needful. every time it was rebuked to humble itself under the admonition. then at least not to drag others into your distress. but it can also arise from the fact that they themselves were different. but truly the earnestness of life teaches something different. and in addition it taught you with deceitful lips to come to men's assistance. If you had loved men. the other was also. the other was also. these are great words and agreeable modes of speech. your desires not satisfied? It taught you this." What then did life's earnestness teach you. so that if one was singled out for commendation. all this. still it would be true that they might learn absolutely different things. and when you were in distress like one at sea. and therefore it is glad and confident. But it expects victory. if one was rebuked. Perhaps it taught you to smile. whenever it was commended. your yearnings not sated. my hearer. If two children were brought up together and shared everything in common. to harbor resentment. it may be because they experienced it differently. not to become proud. a . then perhaps life's earnestness had taught you not to be vociferous. and saw no land. to become arrogant. So also with you.
Life might then perhaps have afforded you the melancholy gladness of seeing others succeed where you had not succeeded. so that it might not be disturbing to others. In its secret way it sneaks about a man. The doubt which comes from without does not disturb it. Still doubt is crafty. for it dishonors itself by speaking. He certainly realized that doubt did not make him happy. When the world begins its sharp testing. Consequently. and makes others unhappy. everything which he gave so that he could take it back. It is true that he who expects something in particular. therefore. transforms itself into a merciless proprietor who demands everything back. only falsely imputes this passion to himself. the consolation that you had gained through stifling the shriek of anguish in your heart. we cannot pay attention to what you say. From this it by no means follows that the expectation of faith is a delusion. when existence. He loses himself. which seems so loving and so gentle. but he still says: ''There is an expectation which all the world can not take from me. had he preferred quietly to bear his pain in solitude rather than to become noisily important in the sight of men by coveting the honor and distinction so many desire² of doubting. for doubt is a cunning passion. The expectation of faith. when the storms of life snap the vigorous expectation of youth." Certainly the soul. then it whispers that this expectation is a delusion. is victory.testimony in your appearance. is prevented from falling out of itself into the manifold. is only an illusion. Doubt is a profound and cunning passion. is not only untrue in itself. we pay no attention to him. but this does not happen to the believer. . such an expectation is an enchanted circle from which the soul cannot escape. thus one can always continue to ex- 22 pect. Why did you not learn this? Since you did not learn it. but he whose soul it did not grip so intensely that he became speechless. I am not deceived. then the believer looks with sadness and pain at himself and at life. why then confide to others what will make them equally unhappy? And what does he gain by telling them? He loses himself. but it would be the greatest evil which could befall a man if he escaped from this circle. or at least of having doubted. it remains in itself. and when faith expects victory. "An expectation whose time and place are not determined. but especially so on his lips. then. in the expectation of faith. We are not judging you because you doubt. and this is victory. What we do demand of the doubter is that he shall be silent. whereas by keeping silent he might perhaps have found peace. may be disappointed. and it may well be very difficult to free one's self from its snares. what he says. it is the expectation of faith.
and my expectation is victory. and far from being resignation. This expectation is not deceived.for what the world seemed to promise me." Was it not so in life? If there was a man to whom you felt yourself so strongly attracted that you dared say: I trust him. neither shadow of turning? Should He not be faithful. only a means of perdition to you. through whom every man who is so is faithful? Should not He be without deceit in whom you yourself had faith? Could there ever be an explanation which could explain any- . We do not know. then it was. so you felt it impossible that the change could bring you to act as did the others. or if not entirely so. that promise I still did not believe that it would keep. on the other hand. had signified something different from their meaning^ when others said them. the incomprehen- THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH 23 sible. then would everything be lost. but in God. how could your faith then ever be changed into a beautiful conceit which you ought rather to relinquish? Could He be changed with whom there is no variableness. conquered through my expectation. yet so that you could easily bring it into agreement with your ideas. that if in this faith you forgot that there was a higher faith. Still we do know this. but in trusting a man in this way. my expectation was not in the world. in spite of its beauty. then you trusted him. it would rather have been self-confidence. then the others fell away. for as you had believed that these words from your mouth: I trust him. as others also trusted him. You felt that it was not on the fact that you could explain what happened. You continued to trust. Perhaps you did wrong in doing so. Perhaps the inexplicable was easily explained. is it not true that when everything went in accordance with your wish. that you had based your faith. even in this moment I feel its victory more gloriously and more joyfully than all the pain of loss. you put your faith in God. If. If I lost this expectation. but when the inexplicable happened. not in trusting. not in trusting in this way. or rather (not to confuse the language) they showed that they never had trusted him? Not so with you. Now I have still conquered. for then it would have been based on your insight. It seemed to you that it would be a disgrace to give it up. perhaps there was a distressing certainty that witnessed so strongly that your belief became only a beautiful conceit that you ought rather to give up. unless your faith originally had not signified more than theirs.
they show that they never had it. for every man will readily be thankful for the good he receives. even if slowly. was only a fleeting emotion." And even if the adversity . when what you had slowly built up was blown away in a moment. they lose their faith. nor wretched enough to wish to seek fellowship with this wisdom." In this way. when they see 24 good days. "I adorn it with the garlands of gladness. When everything succeeds for them. you did not harden your heart. I will not say that I have lost faith. more beautiful and more blessed than language can describe² to believe God² that I have presumptuously imagined myself to have done. then they believe. in your inmost heart you still hid your expectation. because in all your wretchedness you still expected victory. Lo. Do not behave in this way. therefore you won. a reflection of my earthly happiness. When you caught yourself being changed by everything changing about you. and yet my faith. again to the expectation of faith. your step wavering. which is victory. in their gladness they do not always forget to thank God. as I now see. meaningless speech. but prove it I cannot. then they fall away. but they still cannot deprive me of my faith. when sorrow replaces gladness. You did not even reveal it to others lest they mock you. the gloomy times can indeed bring tears to the eyes and sorrow to the heart. you sought to halt yourself when you would go astray in sorrow. "The joyful days are indeed able to embellish my faith. my hearer. you were not foolish enough to wish to imagine that if particular things had not happened. and you must toilsomely begin again from the beginning. nor upon men. but every man's heart is also weak enough to wish to determine for itself what the good is. when THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH 25 your arm was weak. But I will not edify myself by presumptuous. to all the rest of my gladness I have also added this. Then when you failed in everything. then you still held fast to your expectation of faith. when in a wonderful manner they feel them selves in harmony with everything about them. nor even accuse God. that what is even higher. When everything changes. will not lay the blame upon the world. That the highest one man can do in his relation to another is to believe him. for let us not confuse the language." you said. then you said: "I confess that now I see that what I called my faith was only a delusion.thing other than that He is truthful and keeps His promises? And yet we see that men forget this. or rather. my hearer. then you would have preserved your faith.
found joy in frightening others with the assurance that some such power did exist that made sport of the noblest in a man. perhaps I am certain about the future. If I continued to be a child." you said. coveting. and faith does exactly this. then I know too what I have to do. then it can only too often be very obscure to me what I really mean by that. I know that I do not believe. only secretly we meet in the triumphant moment of believing expectation. but through it one gets no farther. and this expectation cannot be disappointed unless a man disappoints himself by depriving himself of expectation. Yet perhaps one or another says: "This speech is in- 26 deed coherent and consistent. desiring. I still could not wish always to be a child. Every time then that I catch my soul not expecting victory. is one finished with the future. when I know that. for it is by no means an easy matter to believe. Then I perceive that not only does he not believe who expects absolutely nothing. then I could not love with all my might and with all my soul. we were separated in order to meet again. or he who bases his expectation on something special." The expectation of faith is then victory. Perhaps I am mistaken. and wonderful deeds. but also he who expects some special thing. "It is still beautiful. who every day requires proofs. since not until a man is finished with the future can he be entirely and undividedly in the present? But only by conquering it. your soul became gentle. it seems to me that I believe.continued. Would it be so foolish and insignificant a thing for a man really to become conscious of whether he had faith or not? But when I say: I believe. hoping. like the one who foolishly supposed that he had lost faith. Could a man then wish to get farther than to conquer? Then he must also lose the victory. or foolishly supposed that some individual had taken it from him. who found satisfaction in the vain thought that this was precisely what had happened to him. although I really do not. perhaps I am only creating a conception about the future. or like the one who sought to delude himself with the idea that there was some special power which could deprive a man of his faith. perhaps I am wishing. The first condition for my . and when I am. we do not meet daily." One gets no farther. On the other hand if I confront myself with the question: Do you expect victory? then every obscurity becomes more difficult. signs. Now we are separated. "that God will not thus appear to me in the visible things. for its expectation is victory. and empowered the one who was thus tested to ridicule others. perhaps longing for something. And should this not be of importance. and insofar it is a foolish and meaningless speech.
he is wearied at the thought and says: "and so at last be saved. then. THE EXPECTATION OF FAITH 27 when it proved my expectation. many expectations disappointed." There is a little word sufficiently familiar to the congregations even if not always heeded by them. who stands almost at the end. the shadowy figures from the past again become living before him. but. but severally only from and through God. God be praised! Nor can time prove or disprove it. instead of an assurance of faith that we believe." The younger. it is not thus that the individual can prove or disprove the expectation of faith. our heart and our thought. he is weary and he says: "and so at last be saved. The believer demands no proof for his expectation. the fearful anxieties. and. when the thought about the future thrusts itself upon me. so it will happen. quiet and yet so moving. I will rally it. the 28 sad longings. In thought he experiences what is to come: the painful bereavements. little and insignificant it seems. he is overwhelmed by the varied content of what he has lived to see. Therefore will we commit to Thee. God be praised. is that I become conscious of whether I do believe or not. and yet so rich in content. but . but no man learns this from another. "for.coming to believe. experience has not taught me this." It would indeed be a great gift if a man could rightly use this word. who even now stands at the beginning of the way. looks ahead in thought over the long road. for many of the sacred collects which are read in our churches end in this way: "and at last be saved." he savs. It brings what it will and must bring. as experience has taught me. "if I could assume something to be a proof. It is the word: at last. he remembers the course of events. but there is an expectation which will not be disappointed. My soul is not insensible to the joy or pain of the individual. it would also disprove it. nor has it authority to deny it. calm and yet so filled with longing. if possible. it is the expectation of faith. Father in heaven. sound and happy. for faith expects an eternity. the quiet concerns. that it forgets this liberating word. I will not satiate my soul with various expectations. For that reason we so often fall into error because we look for an assurance of our expectation. nor dissipate it in manifold ideas. go forth to meet the future. many fulfilled. And today on the first day of the year." The older man among us. so that our soul may never be so ensnared by the joys of life or by its sorrows. and this is victory. looks back in his thought over the way he has traveled.
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. we still dare have confidence that they are not loose and idle words. as it were. has spoken to us warningly and admonishingly. James 1:17-22 EVERY good and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights. Wherefore. with whom is no variableness. so moving. to that place where we shall understand its full significance. So we may understand that the same God who by His hand led us through the world. my beloved brethren. has accommodated itself to us. not a graceful expression for an airy thought. softly and soothingly. They are spoken in connection with other words. that then our soul in its last hour may be carried away from the world on this word. not in passing but accompanied by an earnest admonition: Do not err. it is in order to warn against the fearful error of believing . our cause of rejoicing. no echo in his heart. so that when. neither shadow of turning. cheerfully and invitingly. as was the life of the apostle who wrote them. but that they are faithful and unfailing. They are by an apostle of the Lord. These words are so beautiful. has been our consolation. that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. has sounded to us solemnly and inspiringly.so that it may not too often be impatience and inner disquiet which bring this word to our lips. so eloquent. Amen. II EVERY GOOD AND EVERY PERFECT GIFT IS FROM ABOVE Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. it has accompanied us through all the many relations of life. which is able to save your souls. and insofar as we ourselves have not felt their significance more deeply. slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. like a faithful friend. but also strength to sustain it. and cometh down from the Father of lights. my beloved brethren. these words which sustained an apostle through a stormy life. They are said not incidentally but with special emphasis. tested and proved. now withdraws it and opens His embrace to receive the longing soul. slow to speak. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. and receive with meekness the engrafted word. with whom is no variableness. that it was certainly not the fault of the words if they found no entrance to the listener's ear. our gladness. We dare then set our confidence in their having not only power to lift up the soul. neither shadow of turning. our hope. yet without being false to itself. let every man be swift to hear.
and yet their life is a riddle. a link in the chain which connects a future with a past. Resting in the natural law that lets a human life develop in the world in the same way that it spreads a carpet of flowers over the earth. they would soon be through with them. they are in the midst of the life movement. that they had not understood them. Without knowing how it comes about. We dare then assure ourselves that the word is also mighty in explaining the folly. for the apostle's words are not difficult. does not make EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT 31 them pause. that the apostle says: Do not err. and the apostle's earnest admonition: Do not err. anymore than the wave gives heed as to whence it comes or whither it goes. giving everyone his honest due: thanksgiving to the one to whom they ascribe the good gifts. with whom is no variableness. all their undertakings are successful. they live happy and satisfied amid the changes of life. wishing at no moment to extricate themselves from it. my beloved brethren. and yet they proved thereby. for the earth gives its increase. a dream. For them life holds no riddle. wise and intelligent. succeed as is natural since they are wise and intelligent. and yet many go on as if they had never heard them. Unconcerned about how it happened they are borne along on the wave of the present. with whom is no variableness. every wish is fulfilled. neither shadow of turning. and yet how many were . and cometh down from the Father of lights. and it would perhaps have affected them disturbingly if they had heard them. and cometh down from the Father of lights. neither shadow of turning. bring us some new thoughts which we have not understood. Every good and every perfect gift is from above. a friendly fate makes everything so easy for them. and their plans. Every good and every perfect gift is from above. gave heed to the apostle's words. considering higher things. That there are good and perfect gifts they know well. so comforting. Carelessly they go on their way. in order to warn against the foolishness of a heart that would tempt God. and heaven sends the early and the late rain. and family and friends consider it best for them. mighty in halting the erring thought.3 o that God would tempt a man. help to the needy in the way they believe is useful to him. These words are so soothing. they also know whence these come. and then they said: "Now we have understood them. These words are again and again repeated in the world. in that after having understood them they wished to abandon them. They let their thought for a moment occupy itself with the words. Or if some individuals among them. they have no time to pay attention to it nor to the words." Nor would they have been wrong.
a jewel which he never denied was magnificent. the earthly life knows nothing about it! Is there then no mutual harmony between what happens in heaven and what happens on the earth! Is there joy in heaven. they longed only for the opportune hour to come. They gave them wings which could indeed lift them up to God. If a man owned a magnificent jewel. If that came. they did not harden themselves against the consolation of the word. but that life gave him no opportunity to find happiness in displaying it. how to appropriate them! Those concerned.there who really understood how to suck the rich nourishment from them. So they sat in their quiet sorrow. they were humble enough to acknowledge that life is a dark saying. I wait for in vain. and rejoice over it. and the spirit which flees from earth. but soon he would say: I cannot adorn myself with this for daily use. so were they also slow to speak and slow to wrath. and as in their thought they were swift to listen to see if there might be an explanatory word. Or is there only a spirit who bears witness in heaven. and the festal occasions on which it would really be appropriate. they still did not gain the strength to comprehend life. but who were early weaned from it. could forget everything in them. and would sadly consider the fact that he owned such a jewel. my hearer. They awakened a confidence in them which was constantly being disappointed. They did not deny the inexhaustible comfort of the words. At last perhaps it seemed to them that these 3 2 words were almost dangerous to their peace of mind. no matter how much confidence they gained. only sorrow on earth. then they would be saved. but no spirit who bears witness on earth! Heaven only knows. And it might happen. Still it soon appeared that this strength was a delusion. those whom life did not permit to grow up and who died as babes. but they almost feared this comfort even when they praised it. he might take it out from time to time. sometimes the troubled mind and the bewildered thought resorted again to that rich consolation. yoi| said. or is it only said that there is joy in heaven! Does God in heaven take the good gifts and hide them for us in heaven so that we may some time . those whom it did not suckle on the milk of prosperity. the more they felt themselves strengthened and made confident. Such was their belief. The more completely they could sink their souls in them. sometimes they felt again the contradiction. whose thought attempted to penetrate through the changing to the permanent² those were conscious of the apostle's words and gave attention to them. So then he would put the jewel away. but which could not help them in their walk through life. that God is good. They did not presume to give up the word. the sorrowing.
if only your soul might be assured that eternity would bring you your wish. that every good and perfect gift cometh from above. then you were immediately ready with prayers. only you begged for a testimony early and late. but the day you desired did not dawn. Vainly you sought rest. when the fruitless wishes had exhausted your soul. that by the help of these you might create the actual from the apparent. this certainty too was denied you. You descended again. you would dispose your soul to patience. and which was able to save your soul. If you believed that you saw such a possibility. all depend on this. Alas. then would you with all your heart bear testimony to the word. while time went on as it always does. and gave yourself up to the stupefying exhaustion of sorrow. And the morning came. and the evening. and your soul became restive. it still did 34 not come to pass! And you gave up. Then you acknowledged in all humility that God had . for me it is so very important. Alas. you left nothing untried in your unfruitful restlessness. you did not childishly demand that every one of your wishes should be fulfilled. With humble prayers and burning desires you sought. then would the festal occasion come. for your troubled soul treasured a wish. Still it was an illusion. It became defiant and angry. that every good and every perfect gift comes from above. But the wish was not fulfilled. tossed about by the passionate wish. to tempt God: This wish is so important to me. You did not impatiently cast off the leading-strings of humility. for God it is so easy. But lo. You did not demand that for your sake there should be given signs and wonderful manifestations. then perhaps your heart. But when the busy thoughts had worked themselves weary. you prayed early and late. then would your thanks and your praise be unceasing. as it were. my joy. then perhaps your being became more quiet. bring you that which was the delight of your eyes and your heart's desire. you had not forgotten that you are on earth and God in heaven. for He is all-powerful. my peace.EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT 33 receive them in the next world! Perhaps you spoke in this way in your heart's bewilderment. had developed in itself the meekness which received the word which was implanted in you. more and more temptingly. you ascended the dizzy heights of anticipation to see if a possibility might not appear. then everything would be well. If this were fulfilled. more and more fervently. that was denied you. my future. you would wait in quiet longing. secretly and unnoticed. And still you made every effort.
but for compensation created this faith in your heart. And yet if He were to share your ideas. so that He might rightly fulfill your wish. but you had one conception about what would be advantageous to you. was at most able to give you the whole world.certainly not deceived you. as it were. who had not only created the world out of nothing. as if you would not sometime discover with terror that you had wished what no man would be able to bear if it came to pass. I had called his weakness affection. Then you perceived how foolish your conduct had EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT 35 been. but you also wished that He might be the almighty Creator of heaven and earth. Then you recognized with humble gladness that God was still the almighty Creator of heaven and earth. and gave you instead heavenly consolation and holy thoughts. Or perhaps this was not the case with you. You wished that God's ideas about what was profitable to you might be your ideas. which even if it could do everything. to fulfill your wish. corrupt God's eternal Being. you would say: If now I influenced him by my prayers to do what he does not regard as right. but you were not. That life was a dark saying you readily confessed. you would perhaps influence Him by your defiance. and you were blind enough to delude yourself. in a moment of intoxication. and its relation to the error that wishes to tempt God. then it would be even more terrible that I had been weak enough to make him equally weak. He gave you a faith through which you gained God and overcame the whole world. then must He cease to be the almighty Father. he another² is it not true. swift to . You would in your childish impatience. exchanged them for you. too mature to think humanly about Him. in accordance with the apostle's warning. but if he continued to deny you. you would then seek to persuade him. since then I should have lost him and my confidence in him. that God had not permitted Himself to be tempted. you would cease to beg him. Then ashamed you confessed that it was good. For let us for a moment speak foolishly and with human wisdom. as if it helped you if God in heaven did not know better what was profitable to you than you yourself. If there was a man in whom you rightly had confidence. that He did not treat you unfairly when He denied you your wish. since He accepted your earthly wishes and foolish desires. so very good for you. you were perhaps too old to cherish childish conceptions about God. because you believed he wished for your welfare. even if. then you understood the apostle's admonition. you would perhaps beg and adjure him. when instead of the wish. but had done the even more miraculous² out of your impatient and unstable heart He had created the incorruptible essence of a quiet spirit.
Then you were terrified at your error in thinking that the idea that God tempts a man could make life explicable. you said² no. and heaven did not hear your prayer. then. in your despair. and its death brooded over your heart. and call God forth from His hidden depths. If life is a dark saying. swift to wrath. well that you. great is my sin. yet a little while. paying no attention to the world and its fate? But heaven is closed to such presumptuous speech. He sat calm and indifferent. should not have . groaned: "My God. And the coldness of despair chilled your spirit. then did God. For why was your complaint so violent. contrary to his admonition. my God. Impotent was your speech. where. your form was renewed. then there raged wild voices. that it was well that God did not allow Himself to be tempted. Your appearance was perhaps calm. simply made everything inexplicable. but that everyone is tempted when he is seduced and drawn away by his own desires. but which still sounded from within you. that He was the almighty God. and God's merciful grace had produced in your barren heart the meekness which receives the word. as it seemed to you. and because of this your complaint so just. and it is written that God is tempted of no man. greater than can be forgiven. as your arm was impotent.hear whether there might be an explanatory word. impotent as your thought. perhaps friendly. and I will renew the forms of earth² and lo. which. able to crush every presumptuous thought. your voice so mighty. But. you did not say it. your sorrows so crushing. as a prophet writes. crushed in spirit. why were even your prayers so challenging? Or was it not because you believed that your sufferings were so great. but in your heart. your speech even benevolent. just as you were tempted by proud and arrogant and defiant thoughts. as you must confess. but you heard a voice which said: God does tempt a man. you would not concern yourself about the explanation² and your heart was hardened. when you humbled yourself under God's powerful hand and. you 36 were. for then life would become to you a dark saying. look down upon you from the window of heaven and say: Yet a little while. Then you acknowledged. If sometimes life again stirred within you. humbled and ashamed. EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT 37 Then you humbly acknowledged before God that God tempts no man. that it must resound through heaven. voices which did not belong to you." then heaven again opened. why was your shriek so penetrating. in the secret workshop of your thoughts. as you listened to this explanation. then let it be so.
sometimes to one. so that what is good in itself does not become a detriment and a loss to him. that His eternal love hastens forward and prepares everything. to another fewer. that it is a sound and blessed fruit which hides no unsound and injurious decay within itself. "Every perfect gift. "Every good gift. and cometh down from the Father of lights. but also sorrowful because he did not know whether it actually became a good gift for the other or not.found an explanation of life's dark saying which any man would be able to insist upon. up to heaven from which the good intentions return as heavenly gifts. and comes down from the Father of lights." says the apostle. more glorious than all the treasures of the earth. glad indeed because it was a good gift and he a glad giver. and indicates thereby the inmost nature of the gift. "The gift is from above." For God in heaven is not like a man who. and sends them. Every good and every perfect gift is from above. and yet how many were there who rightly understood them. and thus makes the "good gift" into a "perfect gift." If the apostle had wished to express . rightly understood that they were a badge of honor." "It is from above. "Every good and perfect gift. the blessing that satisfies the mouth." The apostle uses two expressions. up to heaven from which the good spirits issue forth for the deliverance of men. 38 These two expressions are analogous to two others. and the one which satisfies the heart. but that what He sends is good and perfect? Let us notice the words which follow: "with whom is no variableness." he says. "From the Father of lights. but that they were also small change. according to time and opportunity now and then. and that all the things which heaven contains are good gifts? Does he mean that God brings things out from this rich store. and means thereby that God with His eternal clarity penetrates everything. with whom is no variableness. neither shadow of turning. and in this way he directs the believer's thought up toward heaven where everything good has its home. to the one many. "every." says the apostle. useful in the daily relationships of life. neither shadow of turning. so simple." what does this mean? Does the apostle mean by this that the firmament of heaven is a great store-room." says the apostle. so that He understands the thoughts of men from afar." says the apostle. and knows clearly all their ways. and indicates thereby the closer relation in which the good gift. to a particular individual nothing at all. sometimes to another. "Every good and every perfect gift is from God. if he had a good gift to give. through God's assistance. still gave it in darkness and in uncertainty. stands to the particular man who accepts it. These words are so comprehensible.
and the more unassuming it is. If it did this. that He remains the same while everything else changes. and save our souls in patience. that with God there is no shadow of turning. the God of mercy and consolation. as it is sometimes claimed to be. when despondency veils our sight. that every good and every perfect gift is from God. by no means vocifer- 4 o ous and defiant. in proportion to the good gifts bestowed upon them. nor shadow of turning. with whom is no variableness. but he speaks about God's eternal relation to the believer. "What does this mean? What else than that everything which comes from God is a good and a perfect gift. It does not deny that those words are beautiful. in order that we may win God in constancy. the more dangerous it is. heart enough to be confident. everything into a good and perfect gift for everyone who has the heart to humble himself. makes everything good in every moment. it merely says that the words are difficult.this. still constant. and that everything which is . and everything is delightful and clear. It wishes to help the troubled mind to understand the apostolic saying. the error of believing that God would allow Himself to be tempted. Still doubt is cunning and wily. and admonishes us to refer it to the Father of lights. That which he emphasizes is that God is constant. then in place of this word he would have added: from the God of love. then he warns against this explanation. then would the heart rebel against it. not impudent and arrogant. better and more emphatically than we are able to do. then sounds the apostolic warning. nor that they are comforting. so He. as if His heart had either become cold or weak. That which he emphasizes is that as God's all-powerful hand made everything good. when the clouds of anxiety take God away from before our eyes. He did warn against the error of thinking that God would tempt a man. almost mysterious. When gladness explains life. That which the apostle warns against is the disturbing of God's blessed Being through the unrest of temptation. so that our being may come into likeness with His own. that which he admonishes us to do is to love God. or however else he would have expressed it. EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT 39 the Giver of good gifts. it is unobtrusive and crafty. he would next have admonished the believers to thanksgiving according to time and opportunity. He did not do this. He says nothing in this word about the quality of the particular gifts. When sorrow casts its shadow over our lives. the Father of lights.
too. For the thanksgiving the apostle speaks about is not the gratitude which is offered by one man to another. if it is received with thankfulness. sinned against God. or what may rightly and in truth be called a good and perfect gift. Meantime. It continues therefore: "Consequently. It was modest enough EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT 41 not to demand that the words should be erased or consigned to eternal oblivion. Would not the same hold true of every man's relation to God. that the apostle says these words. that the believers. by transgressing ceremony. then by preaching a word whose only effect is to confuse his thought? The apostle Paul says: "All of God's creation is good. it tore them out of the heart. above worldly prudence and doubt. and those teachers of false doctrines believed. But how is this possible? Is then every human life a continuous chain of miracles? Or is it possible for a man's understanding to make its way through the interminable ranks of derived causes and effects." It is principally in order to warn against an earthly prudence which would enslave the believer in the service of ceremonial. Could it be this way. that every gift is a good and perfect gift when it is . my hearer? Was an apostle of the Lord perhaps not responsible for these words? Were perhaps those spiritual hosts beneath heaven responsible for them? Was there a curse which rested upon them. how often has every individual man." This explanation is so simple and so natural. without sense or meaning. and find no dwelling place in the heart of man? Was it their intention to confuse men? Is it not possible to check these anxious meditations in which the thought exhausts itself. and also ready with words. and thus find God? Is it possible for a man's understanding to determine with certainty what constitutes for him a good and perfect gift? Is it not stranded again and again on this? How often has mankind. and left them on the lips. and yet never makes any progress? Was it still perhaps true that God does tempt a man. if in no other way. what is the apostle doing? He is raising the believer's mind above earthly and finite concerns. It had changed the apostolic exhortation into mere words that passed from mouth to mouth.a good and perfect gift is from God. for a man in his lifetime to be able to find peace in these words. and yet doubt has cunningly hidden itself within it. learned by painful experience that to wish to venture on what had been denied to man is a folly that will not go unpunished?" Thus doubt was ready with an explanation of the meaning of the words. so that they should be homeless in the world. he must either be able to determine what it is which comes from God. by a godly reflection that one ought always to thank God. to penetrate all the intervening events.
you wished to learn only one thing: always to thank God. Is then the apostolic word. that you interpreted those in this manner. dare you assert that you have wished to understand it? If you doubted whether it came from God. or from God? For.received with thanksgiving? Is it not true. or whether it was a good and perfect gift. for which I thank God. and by your thanksgiving received it from Him as a good and perfect gift? Have you done this? Then surely you have worthily interpreted the apostolic word to the honor of God. have you dared to make the test? And when the easy play of happiness beckoned you. for you said confidently. a dark and difficult saying? And if you believe that you cannot understand it. and you were not what was a good and perfect gift. You did not concern your mind with reflections on what constitutes a good and a perfect gift. and therefore I thank Him for it. for it is beautiful for a man to pray. have you thanked God? And when your allotted share was small. apostolic words perplexed as to whether it came my hearer. you did not ask to learn much from life. you must yourself decide. but have you re- EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT 43 ferred the wrong and the offense to God. have you thanked God? We do not say that the wrong done you by men thereby ceased to be a wrong. have you thanked God? And when you were so strong that it seemed as if you needed no assistance. and thereby learn to understand one thing: that all things serve for good to those that love God. I know it is that for which I thank God. you said. have you thanked God? And when your wish was denied you. and from God comes every good and every perfect gift. have you thanked God? And when men did you wrong and offended you. for that would be an untrue and foolish speech! Whether it was wrong. as your heart developed. every gift is 4 2 good when it is received with thanksgiving from the hand of God. have you thanked God? And when you must deny yourself your wish. and many promises are held out to the one who prays without ceasing. to your own salvation. that every good and every perfect gift is from above. You did not anxiously ask what it is which comes from God. You interpreted the apostolic word. and comes down from the Father of lights. You said gladly and confidently: this. but it is even more blessed to . have you thanked God? And when your allotted share was suffering.
my hearer. is a good and a perfect gift. more gloriously than if all the angels spoke in glowing tongues. that He fulfilled your wish. that He called to you. that He fulfilled your wish. when what happens is wonderful in your eyes. Then have you worthily interpreted that apostolic word. that He questioned you. Still. have you not secretly done it for yourself? Have you said to yourself: "I certainly understand the apostolic word. you need so many words? Have you at least in this way been sincere toward yourself and toward God in your relation to Him? Have you not deferred the reckoning. also then. but you did not listen. even if it seems like a hard saying. not wishing to shame yourself in your solitude? Have you been swift to endure the pain of the reckoning. and for no price. who loved God in this way? Who was the joyful and resolute and devout warrior who stood so persistently at his post in life that he never slumbered? And if you did it. courage to explain it in love. while you were slow to love in return? If you have done this. faith to accept this courage. but you had not wished rightly. that you were lukewarm when He was ardent. and you were swift to wrath? Have you really deeply felt the sadness since. but you misunderstood it. so that He should not continue to love you. who had such courage and such faith. for no crafty bribery of prudence. that He spoke earnestly to you. that 44 He sent good gifts which you yourself perverted. and you for thanks brought new wishes. you will gain courage to understand that every good and every perfect gift is from above. but you would not hear. or too sluggish rightly to wish to understand it"? Have you admonished yourself? Have you considered that timidity. has overcome the world? Have you at least watched over yourself? Have you held the apostolic word sacred? Have you hidden it in a pure and clean heart. would ransom yourself from the deep pain of having repeatedly to confess that you have never loved as you were loved? That you were faithless when God was faithful. then you will now and then gain courage to be thankful. too. have you considered that He first loved you? Have you been swift to judge yourself.return thanks. or too proud. but you would not answer. but the humble heart comes not to judgment? Have you considered that the sorrowful does not love God with his whole heart. in order to describe your relation to God. for it. that timidity also has a deceitful heart. and is not a sincere lover? Have you considered that there is a judgment upon the despondent. . that He spoke kindly to you. but I also understand that I am too cowardly. but that he who is glad in God.
still loves according to his perfection. neither shadow of turning. indeed. how then. and more init is God . you are convinced that in the same way the other man must appropriate everything himself. and it became difficult for you to understand how the unsoundness which came from you could be anything but injurious to others. that made them difficult for you? If a man himself were a good and a perfect gift. But was. humbler one. so satisfied that you perhaps thanked God that you were not like other men? Had you perhaps become so clever that you understood the profound meaning in the meaningless saying that it was glorious not to be like other men? .. so healing. can wholesome food preserve its wholesomeness in the sick soul? A man does not merely refrain from receiving. These words are so refreshing. then you confessed that you were neither good nor perfect. which is more beautiful than for in it you love God! It is more faithful ward than all other love. but that everything you received underwent a change. did it not change the recipient? Can then a man do more than love? Have thought and language any higher expression for the fact that loving is always thanking? By no means. he is also communicative. can the good remain good in other than the good. was there perhaps no occasion in your EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT 45 life when you found these words difficult? Were you always satisfied with yourself.Every good and every perfect gift is from above. my hearer. What is this love? It of repentance.. then. if he only were receptive and accepted everything from God's hand. that you not only withheld yourself. It has a lower. and a man can truly only love God when he loves Him according to 4 6 his own imperfection. how often did he understand their condemning earnestness but also their merciful grace? Or. and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness. You certainly understood that it was only through your thanksgiving to God that everything became for you a good and perfect gift. even the love which gave rise to thanksgiving pure. What was it. Can then the like be understood by other than the like. for in repentance is the love born all other love. then.. for even the one who is always willing to return thanks. and yet how often did the penitent soul understand how to let himself be healed by them. could he receive other than good and perfect gifts? But when you submitted to the common lot of man.
then. not by what you had done. so that even this is what the child's gift is in the eyes of the parent. you who in a more simple and humble manner understood the profound meaning of the thought that you were not like other men. then it would not be true that every good and every perfect gift comes EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT 47 from God. even if it seemed to you far harder than to him who dared to . but by your poor. so that He would make the thing done undone. then would God not be greater than a man's troubled heart.who loves you. return to heaven again. it would exclude you from the blessing. my hearer. if this were possible. Your joy even at the thought of it. nor the apostolic word. Alas! but you could not understand that the gift good for you might be injurious to another. even the gratitude which you bring Him. nor the deep sorrow in which a man becomes joyful as a child in God. But God is tempted of no man. but if the harmful weed understood itself and could speak. and like smoking flax. You endeavored to forget it. then every good and every perfect gift would not come from God. then would you with glad thanksgiving take every perfect gift from God's hand. could all good and perfect gifts come from Him? Perhaps there was something in your life you wished undone. you had excluded yourself from the blessing. that I may perish of drouth. was it as easy not to misunderstand the apostolic word? You certainly fully understood that every good and every perfect gift comes from God. for if that were true. so that your thanksgiving might not be weak. if your wish was denied. do not revive my root so that I may thrive and grow. a jest. and become even more harmful!" And you did not understand yourself. so that. Dew and rain are good gifts from above. if you did not fear the pain of remorse. not that we love God. was so great that it was as if it would tempt God. and how. but that God loves us. Then you understood that God is the one who does everything for you. but even this thanks was so imperfect. then it would perhaps say: "Oh. selfish. This joy He grants you. In repentance you receive everything from God. through your being willing to believe that the denied wish was not also a good and a perfect gift. my hearer? You always wished to thank God. Alas! and if you could forget it. a receiving something one has himself given. if you did not fear to understand that this is love. and arbitrary understanding of the word. And you. stop. and then grants you the childish joy of having Him regard your thanksgiving as a gift from you. how would it then be possible for you to understand the apostolic word? If it were possible for you to forget it. Was it not this way.
You perhaps understood the apostolic word differently. Even if in your quiet thought you recognized that the divine guidance knows how to overtake a man. The wrath in your heart joined. the inward man was renewed. and felt that to Fet it go was more terrible than anything else? Did you do this. then you could not put it on. you could not understand the word. although the outward man perished.understand it. as it were. As the Lord Himself says: Yet today. that it was anything else than folly and sin. and comes EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT 49 down from the Father of lights. neither shadow of turning. the apostolic word remained obscure to you. yet today. that punishment from God is also a good and perfect gift. Was it also a good and a perfect gift? Then your soul became darkened. You would renounce everything. you understood that repentance is a returning of thanks not only for punishment but also for the dispensation of Providence. and that he who in his repentance will only suffer punishment. every wish. you would suffer every punishment. love according to his imperfection. because you still cherished a vague hope. it was as if the punishment itself became a new temptation. if it was only incident. and yet you were the only one who should have been its object. You became doubtful as to what was punishment. But what did you do? Did you give up the word? Oh. And when all the devils stood ready to save your soul from the insanity of despair by explaining that God is not love. is it not true that you clung fast to the word. no. the divine wrath in helping that the punishment might consume you. you would give up the idea that the best you had done in the extreme exertion of your soul. but the more which was connected with this. my hearer? Then. it was perhaps more comprehensive. and what was incident. will still not. and yet the punishment you suffered was different from what you had thought it to be. was an assurance that it was good. you held fast to it in all your need. you could not bear. every desire. if it was entirely punishment. then your soul demanded punishment. It perhaps included more than yourself. Then you understood that every good and every perfect gift is from above if it is received with thankfulness. knows how to make itself intelligible to him. so the apostle of the Lord says: Yet today is every good and every perfect gift from above. even if you did not understand it. and that al- . with whom is no variableness. even if no one else understood it. and yet you were the only one guilty. in the deepest sense.
What is it that outlives everything else? It is love. These words are so beautiful. that Thou wilt incline the erring thought under the saving obedience of the word. What is it that . so moving. Amen. but itself gives everything? It is love. If any man speak. willing to accept them. Ill LOVE SHALL COVER A MULTITUDE OF SINS But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober. As every man hath received the gift. so that they may repeatedly understand it. with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning. What is it that remains when the imperfect is abolished? It is love. that Thou wilt make the ears of those who hitherto have not regarded them. let him speak as the oracles of God. they are so soothing and so comforting. what is it that makes him soft. What is it that endures when all else disappoints? It is love. And above all things have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover the multitude of sins. even so minister the same one to another. and watch unto prayer. that Thou wilt give the penitent soul confidence to dare to understand the word. more immovable than the rock. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. so eloquent. Every good and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights. but itself takes everything? It is love. what is it that makes him weak. stronger than the whole world. to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. What is it that cannot be taken. to understand the word. so refreshing and so healing. as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. O God. What is it that persists when all else changes? It is love. What is it that bears witness when prophecy is silent? It is love.though He is the same today as He was yesterday. Therefore we will beseech Thee. acceptable in the sight of God? What is it that makes a man strong. What is it that explains when the dark saying is ended? It is love. that Thou wilt heal the misunderstanding heart by the understanding of the word. if any man minister. weaker than a child? What is it that makes a man immovable. What is it that does not end when the vision ceases? It is love. Amen. softer than wax? It is love! What is it that is older than everything else? It is love. admired by his fellows. let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ. and that Thou wilt make those who have understood it more and more blessed therein. so simple and comprehensible. What is it that comforts when all comfort fails? It is love. I Peter 4:7-12 W'HAT is it that makes a man great. What is it that cannot be given.
rth! How then could a pagan be able to overcome the world? But if he could not do this. that the power which benevolently bestowed the joy of love on mankind. that fear was not cast out. He even ascribed vengeance to the Lord. foolish was the pagan thought about love and about the heavenly. even when love slept soundest. And so. because it was the sweeter. For the pious Jew also bore witness to love. too. until his last hour was come. What is it that transforms the widow's mite into an abundance? It is love. and only that is love which never becomes anything else. more beautiful than anything else. What is it that never changes when all else changes? It is love. and. Love was beautiful. and thereby assured itself of its kinship with the heavenly! What wonder that no love was happy. enviously reserved revenge for itself. sweeter than all else. was this consciousness sweet. What is it that gives emphasis to the speech of angels? It is love.bestows a blessing on the abundance of the gift? It is LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS 51 love. what wonder that the enemy worked in stillness. that the Lord's vengeance is more terrible than human vengeance. his own soul was not unacquainted with its sweetness. because he himself had it. that a man curses his enemy. its beauty and its power. so selfish was everything both in heaven and on earth. Then. which they praised even more highly. but that love could become something else. For the pagans also praised love. but revenge was sweet. what wonder that resentment secretly lay in wait and watched for an opportunity. What is it that turns the words of the simple man into wisdom? It is love.he knew how to hate his enemy. and only this is love which never becomes something else. but the Lord curses the ungodly . but his love was the child of mutability and change. how could he be able to gain the world? What is it that is never changed when all else changes? It is love. what wonder that it completely filled the pagan soul which imbibed its forbidden sweetness. what wonder that it suddenly burst forth in all its fierceness. which again could only bitterly mock a man with the idea that he had been happy! What wonder that sorrow was mingled in every joy. that even in the moment of gladness the next moment constantly loomed as alarmingly as the shadow of de. even if it was forgotten. as no man was in paganism. What wonder then that the idea of revenge was concealed in all pagan love.
even at this hour. and blesses when it is cursed. this which gives everything and because of this demands nothing. And only this is love which never becomes something else. an even more merciful judgment upon it. not giving ourselves time to dwell on the meaning of them. even if all else changes? It is love. if possible. It is this love the apostle Peter speaks about in the text we read. and therefore has nothing to lose. him whom it met in the race to' hasten to finish it? Shall we speak thus as to the imperfect! Shall we recall how rarely even one is found who either has never known or has absolutely forgotten those rudiments of worldly wisdom. but whose enemy is also his neighbor. so here again LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS he bears witness to its power when he says: Love shall cover a multitude of sins. if he is honest. the word may influence one whom it met standing idle to begin the race. if possible. how ought we to speak about these words? Shall we speak hastily. earnestly learning to interpret this sorry truth. this which leaves vengeance to the Lord. as we reflect on HOW LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS. It is this word. because it comforts him to believe that the Lord is even more merciful than he himself is. may resolve to buy the opportune moment. this testimony. the individual. . him whom it came across on the way to accelerate his speed. What wonder then that fear always kept one eye open even when love was least concerned. what wonder that resentment quietly sat and reckoned up the things given and the things received. that revenge is sweet? Shall we recall how rarely there is even one who left vengeance to the Lord. confident that He had an even milder explanation of the guilt. which calls forth a striving toward that goal which is set for every man to strive after? Shall we speak in such a way that. because the mere sound of them contains a quiet reproach which awakens grief. only too often catches himself tediously. so that. What is it that is never changed. this which blesses. the thine and mine. we shall examine a little more carefully. Still. that revenge is sweet? Shall we recall that every man. because not till then was love's uncertain demand perfectly redeemed. this which loves its neighbor. even when love least dreamed of it! What wonder that no love was happy until the last hour came. and as this love many times and in many ways received the testimony of the apostle.and the family of the ungodly through many generations. this which demands nothing.
we shall explain and praise the love which . one who loved so much that when it went hard with his enemy. nor that he was owed only fifty pennies. because no man can entirely understand another. and. we shall lay the emphasis on the words themselves. one who in his forgiveness 54 actually broke down the wall between them. secretly delighted in him? Shall we admonish everyone not to be too zealous in invoking the wrath of heaven upon another. admonish against judging and condemning. and in so doing forget to judge others. because every man so often needs forgiveness himself? Shall we admonish every man to judge himself. when his enemy was prosperous. yet through its curiosity does not so much harm the neighbor as retard itself. his enemy at the eleventh hour. he had forgotten that it was his enemy? Shall we warn against that which in the eyes of men is a lesser fault. but that the Lord. and which does not indeed misuse its knowledge in judging. his enemy five hundred? Shall I recall how seldom there was even one who loved so much that his ear.that He is greater than the heart of man? On the contrary. Shall we admonish everyone to aim at that Christian love. against a certain shrewd commonsense which cunningly knows how to discover a man's fault. was sensible of no whisper of envy. but to do it is so very difficult that not even the speaker himself is able to act in accordance with the LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS 55 speech in judging others. and was conscious of no difference because he himself was called in the early morning. lest through his unforgivingness he call down a more terrible wrath upon himself on the day of judgment? Shall we speak in this way? Certainly. who loved so much that "his eye did not begrudge forgiveness" when fortune favored his enemy. gracious and gentle. so that the speaker does not become entangled in a new misunderstanding. how often must every honest man confess that he really did not relinquish the idea of revenge because he left it to the Lord? Shall I recall how rarely there was even one who forgave in such a way that the repentant enemy really became his neighbor. because his heart was free from envy. Certainly. as all other kinds of love have been praised in the world. even in speaking it is very difficult to judge oneself. Therefore we choose the easier task. to speak in this way would indeed very frequently be profitable to us. because it still sometimes happens that the wrath of heaven did not consume the one upon whom one called it down. and thereby confuse others.
is an old saying which does not indicate an imperfection in the pure that might gradually disappear. the more important becomes the question of what the observer is in his inmost being. or he who had even forgotten this? To the pure all things are pure.has power to perform the miraculous. Or was it an imperfection in the pure. and then. something the observer's deeper nature is unconscious of. but what a man sees depends on how he sees it. but it does not thereby mean that this is an imperfection in the lover. We shall let our soul rest in the apostolic word. poetic mode of expression. the more the object of contemplation belongs to the spiritual world. the nature of the observer is a matter of relative importance. and from within goeth forth everything which makes a man unclean. as love triumphed more and more within him. he who knew that he had forgotten something. and in so far as it is that. Love is blind. which is not a deceitful. then the one discovers what the other conceals. says an old proverb. We shall speak as to the perfect. a discovery. Insofar as the object of contemplation belongs to the external world. for an evil eye even regards the . Or did love become more imperfect when. the more perfect he becomes. the purer everything seems to him. when one person sees one thing and another another in the same object. he became more and more blind. which to be understood must be taken at its face value. If there should then be one who did not regard" himself as perfect. or that he was born blind. but a trustworthy thought. not a bold outburst. the speech would make no difference. or rather. Thus. after having first deceived itself by not wishing to see what it actually saw. he at last finished by not knowing it any longer? It depends. then." But an evil eye discovers much that love does not see. for all things spiritual are appropriated only in freedom. it is then. the crucial thing is what the observer himself is. on the contrary. but from within "proceedeth the evil eye. The difference then does not depend on externals but on the inward condition. What the eye sees externally is of no importance. but what is appropriated in freedom must also be produced in freedom. that after having saved himself unspotted by the impurity through not wishing to know 5« what he really did know. at last it did not even see it any more? Or who concealed ijt best. and his thoughts unclean. for all observation is not only a receiving. Love shall cover a multitude of sins. not only on what a man sees. on the contrary. as a necessary object of reflection. but also a creation. to cover a multitude of sins. a perfectly valid testimony. for not until love won a place in his soul did he become blind.
then is a man quick to discover the multitude of sin. When evil dwells in the heart then the eye sees evil. and LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS 57 makes them even more numerous. is guilty before the council.Lord as unrighteous when He is good. then. does not see God. because he ascribes to it a good intention and a good meaning. and listens with his rascally ears." has an evil mind. then the ear discovers the variety of sin. and how is such a man helped by being blind? For a rascal casts his eyes down. 5« . so that Every heart is like a trap. When fear dwells in the heart. then a man comprehends slowly. When the lust of sin dwells in the heart." What is in a man. even less those that are concealed. for "he who winketh with the eye. "but he who does evil. and makes it even more manifold. for the eye is the light of the body. Every rogue like a child. does not understand the long. almost before it is spoken. and does not hear at all the hasty word and does not understand its repetition. When there is precipitancy in the heart. but he who hears it. When love abides in the heart. the bitterness of its blasphemy. hastily understand it from a distance. then the eye discovers the multitude of sins. angry or derisive speech. is not perfect in love. but when purity abides in the heart. and does not discover the manifest acts of sin. then the eye sees the finger of God. then the ear is closed and does not hear the worldly speech. when it is said to him. then how great is that darkness! When the apprehension of sin dwells in the heart. When love dwells in the h~art. then the eye closes. for the pure always see God. for he who says Raca to his brother. then he is excellently able to understand a half-uttered word. but if the light that is in a man be darkness. but he who understands the invitation of the eye is not pure. decides what he discovers and what he conceals. When love dwells in the heart. Every promise but a shadow. then a man easily discovers the multiplicity of sin² weakness and deceit and faithlessness and scheming. because he still expects one word which will give meaning to the speech.
merely a rhetorical expression that love covers a multitude of sins. even if these were explained to him? Would not this.But the love which covers a multitude of sins is never deceived. a stranger. When the heart is filled with envy. remains an alien. does one then need to go far in order to discover the multitudinousness of sin. faith. was not such a knowledge a superhuman knowledge? It is not. When disputes. meekness and temperance dwell in the heart. does not scrutinize the gift. peace. gentleness. was still conscious of the manifold of sin. then one easily discovers a multitude of sins. to remain ambiguous. Certainly there is a power in this world which by its words turns good into evil. but it is the very . When the heart is niggardly. be a covering of the multitude of sins? Or is it not this way? Should we shrewdly say: The variety of sin in the world is and remains equally great whether love discovers it or not? Should we permit the LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS 59 apostolic word. nor lovingly unconscious of it. wrath. but this eye does not see the evil but the pure. longsuffering. that the manifold of sin remained equally great whether the intelligence discovered it or not. but when love dwells in the heart. what wonder. then the eye has power to call forth uncleanness even in the pure. for love when it gives. When hate dwells in the heart. and not rather commend its own ingenuity in discovering and tracing the hiding place of sin? But then it became equally true that the intelligence discovered the manifold of sin. factions fill the heart. when one gives with one eye and with seven eyes looks to see what one will get in return. But when the heart is filled with love. and that love concealed it. and its manifold desires exist in him. that power is the love which covers a multitude of sins. but there is a power above which turns the evil into good. and with ?t the love which is described. quarrels. then the eye is never deceived. Or was there not still a third way in which one without being sensibly conscious of it. but the one was no truer than the other. and he sees it no more. then. or does a man need to live very long to produce these outside of himself! But when joy. malice. then. but when love dwells in the heart. who understands only a very little about the customs of the country. but its eyes are fixed on the Lord. a graceful turn of expression which is not able to endure the test of an investigation? But then did the intelligence really understand love as well as it understood the manifold of sin! Or would it admit the opposite. which it loves and encourages by loving it. that a man. then. then the eye has power to foster the good in the unclean. goodness. then sin lies at a man's door. dissensions. even if he were surrounded by a multitude of sins. then sin flees far away.
as other love is. then it knows how to cover the multitude of sins. but he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way. Love shall cover a multitude of sins. is sin very fruitful. so that the reed is not crushed under the burden. and he shall have in abundance. and this is the power of the Christian love. he covers a multitude of sins. And yet he who prevents boredom. An ancient sage has said: Prevent boredom and you will diminish sin. A multitude of sins. as the father of the prodigal son did. if it had not even hidden the multitude of sins from its view. then it knows how to hide again the multitude of sins. the innumerable multitude of living beings. perhaps the same man will seek boredom in another direction. that is an appalling word. then it stands with open arms and awaits the . which cannot be reckoned in 6q numbers. When love has triumphed over the multitude of sins. or is not love even more manifold than sin is? When love sees the bruised reed. as the apostle James says. and one sin breeds many. As it is said that to him who hath shall be given. Still is it possible to explain correctly how love covers a multitude of sins. and becomes more and more multitudinous. for every moment an innumerable number is born. keeps a man from sinning only for a moment. but greater in its quiet miraculousness.truth. too. When love sees the smoking flax. and conceals them doubly by not sinning himself. and because there is no moment when one can begin to count. If the eye of love had not closed. But love covers a multitude of sins. blessed the love which covers a multitude of sins. how could it then venture to check the power of sin! So then love really covers a multitude of sins through the fact that it has covered them before. more blessed the soul who was God's collaborator in love. then it knows how to cover the multitude of sins. Happy that man who saw the world in all its perfection when everything was very good. happy that man who with God was a witness to the glory of creation. and by preventing another from sinning. because no number is vast enough. But this is not the case with the multitude of sins. But one who reduces the number of sins. which is not great through unusual achievements. so. and readily recalls another connection in which the word is frequently used: the multitude of created beings wherein we contemplate the countless hosts of generations. so that the flame is not quenched. covers a multitude of sins. then it prepares everything festally for the reception.
LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS 6l erring. But when prayers and warnings only inflame the sin. then love becomes even more manifold. love turned the other to it. but it covers their multitude. enduring all things. when it would maliciously cause love itself to sin. but lo. But lo. too. For love does not even weep over the multitude of sins. then it blesses and curses not. when it rewards kindness with abuse and scorn and ridicule. never weary of believing all things. it took away love's coat. But because of this. but lo. it forces love to go a mile with it. and become a new occasion for multiplying the sins. by hiding a multitude of sins. but lo. it will then tear itself away from it. sin believes. then love would never begin. and sin sooner became tired of needing forgiveness than love did of forgiving. love could forgive seventy times seven. so. When sin hardens itself against love. is there a heavenly power which starves out the manifold 62 of sin in a man. if it did this. steadfast as a woman. it struck love on the right cheek. it saves. it cannot hold out against love. When sin enviously hates love. more blessed the love which hides a multitude of sins. as it again hides the multitude of sins. love begins by hiding a multitude of sins. And sin would thrust love away from it. then has it forgotten everything and causes him to forget everything. hoping all things. And when sin offers resistance. then it finds no deceitfulness on its lips. Or is it not this way? Should we rather praise a cleverness which knows how to describe the multitude of sins even more terribly? Or ought we not rather to ask this cleverness where it gets such knowledge? Certainly. then love does not requite abuse with abuse. as a woman does² "without words. as there is a power of sin which has the power to consume every better feeling in a man. love gave its cloak also. love goes two. but not the less faithful. Already sin feels its impotence. for even love itself. ." Sin thought that it would soon bring about the parting of their ways. and therefore it ends where it began. cannot forgive more than seven times. Blessed the man whose sins are hidden. but lo. Yes. and would accomplish nothing. but only prayer and admonition. never weary of faithfully pulling in an unequal yoke with it. Then it injures love as deeply as possible. then is love silent. and wishes to be rid of it. This power is the love which covers a multitude of sins. love remained with it. then it would have seen the sins. if it could convince love that such is the case.
If love had triumphed in the world. anything more than the pious ignorance of love. and rather commend the cleverness which says: The way of life follows an appointed course. Is this not true? For the reason still merely makes a man despondent and faint-hearted." Thus is it not true that the guilty may be the occasion for the destruction of the innocent? But is not the opposite equally true? Perhaps then the understanding lacked only the courage to believe this. but an . and for many days they saw neither sun nor stars. my friend. An ancient pagan. If. insofar as we wish thereby to consider its zeal within its own limits. I admonish you to be of good courage. If the hosts of love were numerous in the world. who in pagandom was renowned and praised for his wisdom. so they could fight man to man² then. and everything would be perfect in love. if each one is only a solitary man. and while it had sufficient distressing cleverness to discover the wretchedness of life. there had been a righteous man. the ship will go under. is not the apostolic utterance in such a case a beautiful but still a meaningless expression? Ought we not to regard the apostolic expression as an enthusiastic bit of foolishness. let love live next door to ungodliness. should the fact that a wicked man was on board have power to alter the circumstances for the others on the ship. sailed on the same ship with a wicked man. then will love actually be able to cover a multitude of sins? Or is the apostolic word. and the ship was in distress. if their number were equal to that of the enemy. and Paul came forward and said to them who were with him in the ship: "Men. the ungodliness gains LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS 63 no advantage from it? Would the reason be equally prompt to assert the opposite. if there had been an apostle! And did this not happen? A pagan ship sailed from Crete bound for Rome. it did not have the courage to apprehend the power of love. and because of this every apostolic word is always confident. instead of there having been a wicked man on board that ship. if heaven discovers that you are on board." Or should unrighteousness really have greater power than love. on the contrary. but the wise man said to him: "Keep quiet. but love gives courage freely. that it makes no difference if ungodliness does dwell with love? Will the reason deny that in life the innocent must often suffer with the guilty? Let us interrogate the reason. for not one soul among you shall perish. On board that ship there was an apostle. the servants of love are but a small host. how could love do other than conquer since it is the stronger! If. then would all the multitude of sins be hidden. When the ship was in distress the wicked man lifted up his voice in prayer.Love shall cover a multitude of sins.
shall even judge angels. aye. if it had power to impose a condition. We have praised the power of love to cover a multitude of sins. thirty. that He penetrates everything and judges the designs of the heart? Would one be right in reminding us. If there was someone who did not feel himself perfect. did he not cause the Lord to forget the multitude of sinners in order to count the number of the righteous.apostle not have power to do this? Or does not the Lord 6 4 Himself say that for the sake of the elect the days of distress shall be shortened? Is this an unworthy conception of God to believe that love thus hides a multitude of sins? Do we perhaps forget in our speech and in our reflection that God in heaven is not hindered by any illusions. that His thought is vivid and present. even more terrible? How did Abraham pray? Let us speak about it from the human point of view! Did he not. what we do not forget. whether there might be even ten innocent men? Did not Abraham then conceal a multitude of sins? Does the destruction of the cities prove the converse. whether there might be fifty. carry the Lord along with him in his course of reasoning. made the judgment. if anything. rather to restrict ourselves to telling the truth. the speech . forty-five. when we wished to extol love. as it were. twenty. or prove anything except that there LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS 65 were not ten righteous men in Sodom? And yet what was Abraham in comparison with an apostle. just as his own life was already a judgment. did he not then conceal a multitude of sins? Or is it perhaps a commendable sophistry for someone to say that by his prayer he recalled the multitude of sins and proclaimed the judgment. that it is beautiful and lovely that love should wish to cover the multitude of sins and avert wrath. which. that love prays for the sins of others. in that his life. more blessed the love which covers a multitude of sins. what was his confidence in comparison with an apostle's? Great is a man. forty. has he not forgotten that the prayer of a righteous man availeth much? When Abraham spoke earnestly to the Lord and begged for Sodom and Gomorrah. if he is upright. We have spoken as to perfection. than to exaggerate by saying that love does cover a multitude of sins? Has he who speaks thus not forgotten.
did He write with His finger upon the ground? Did He sit there like a judge who listens attentively to the story of the accusers. Should there be one who by observing himself in this mirror ascertained his own unlikeness. one of which they made themselves guilty. did He bow down. BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD Then Job arose. who loudly accused her. which was indeed easy since her sin was open. but love covers the multitude of sins. why. for sin discovers a multitude of sins. But Jesus said to her: "Neither do I condemn thee. I wonder. and may judge strictly. knew also what the scribes and the Pharisees knew.made no difference. listening. when they artfully laid snares for the Lord. the speech makes no difference. Let us once more dwell upon this love in order to observe the image of it which clearly presents itself to the soul. When the scribes and the Pharisees had taken a woman in open sin. bows down and jots down 66 the principal points so that he may not forget them. Yes. IV THE LORD GAVE. I wonder. they brought her into the midst of the temple before the face of the Savior. was the woman's guilt the only thing which was noted by the Lord? Or did not He who wrote with His finger on the ground rather write it down in order to erase it and forget it? There stood the sinner. but love bowed down and did not hear the accusation. should this be the case with everyone. love covers a multitude of sins. They also discovered a new sin. but love covers a multitude of sins. For by one word from the Master the Pharisees and the scribes were struck dumb. who. and rent his mantle. and there was no longer an accuser. go and sin no more. no one who condemned her. He who knew everything. The scribes and the Pharisees soon discovered her guilt. He wrote with His finger in order to blot out what He himself knew. and fell upon ." for the punishment of sin breeds new sin. before they told Him. but Jesus bowed down and wrote with His finger on the ground. But Jesus bowed down and wrote with His finger upon the ground. Why. which passed over His head into the air. surrounded perhaps by those even more guilty. even in the sight of the sinner. and shaved his head. AND THE LORD HATH TAKEN AWAY.
his significance different. fought its battle. then Job would have been a different kind of man. if. so that the expression itself was the action. or by unremitting toil and continued perseverance brought to light one or another truth. If Job had devoted his whole life to emphasizing this word. his name as an assurance to the many.the ground and worshipped. while now. fulfilled its duty. and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave. the richness of the thought it embodied. When one generation has served its time. it is Job himself who guides the generations. Then would Job's name have been forgotten. then Job is again present. but in the fact that he acted in accordance with it. it would otherwise have been so. Such a teacher and guide of men was Job. his own deeds as an encouragement to the striving. as uttered. and through this understanding to appropriate to themselves. or it would have been unimportant whether anyone remembered it or not. stands ready to begin the journey. if he had constantly only taught it. but had never himself practiced it. or if he had uttered it under different circumstances. and the Lord hath taken away. . in an even stricter sense. if he had regarded it as the sum and fulfillment of what a man ought to let life teach him. or if Job had been different. Job 1:20-21 NOT only do we call that man a teacher of men who through some particularly happy talent discovered. with its innumerable ranks and every individual among them in his place. He has indeed left a saying which because of its brevity and its beauty has become a proverb. Perhaps. blessed be the name of the Lord. then Job has guided it. then it would have been this which one generation transmitted to the next. we also call that one a teacher of men who had no doctrine to pass on to others. the principal thing being the content of the word. left what he had acquired as a principle of knowledge. and no one has been presumptuous enough to add anything to it or to take anything away from it. but who merely left himself as a pattern to succeeding generations. on the contrary. had never himself acted in accordance with what he taught. preserved from generation to generation. and said: Naked came I out of my mother's womb. and Job's significance does not lie in the fact that he said it. whose significance is by no means due to what he said but to what he did. but not significant from the fact that he acted in asserting it. If the race had accepted the saying. which the following generations strove to understand. But the expression itself is not the guidance. then the word itself would have become something different² significant. when the new generation. but if another had used it. his life as a principle of guidance to every man. The expression itself is truly beautiful and worthy of consideration.
Only the thoughtless man could wish that Job should not accompany him. an individual in his thought experiences the terrible. Only the defiant could wish that Job had not existed. so that in his defiance he might stifle the shriek so that it might not even seem as if there were anyone whom it defied. even if a man fails to endure it. so that there might be no consonance of faith and confidence and humility in his speech. not as if he had thus suffered once for all what he would never again have to endure. yea. If the generation sees only happy days and prosperous times.takes his place. then his troubled thought resorts to Job. there is still a God. In joyful days. when the moment trembles in fearful expectation of what may happen. to the profit and happiness of others. in fortunate times. that his venerable name should not remind him of what he seeks to forget. so 70 that he might complain. the horror experienced. dwells upon him. so that he might absolutely free his soul from the last vestiges of love which still remained in the plaintive shriek of despair. even curse life. then Job faithfully goes with them. guarantees that even if the individual loses in the strife. In stormy times. and frighten him out of his intoxicated security in obduracy and perdition. more glorious than any human expectation. Job walks by the side of the race and guarantees it its happiness. who. combats the apprehensive dream that some horror may suddenly befall a man and have power to destroy his soul as its certain prey. nevertheless. which is the outpost of humanity. when the foundation of existence is shaken. as with every human temptation. but he comforts him as one who witnesses that the terror is endured. is THE LORD GAVE 69 reassured by him. Only the selfish man could wish that Job had not existed. so that the idea of his suffering might not disturb with its austere earnestness his own unsubstantial joy. will still make its outcome such that we may be able to bear it. and "in bitterness of soul" he cries to heaven. and if. when every explanation is silent at the sight of the wild uproar. that terror and anxiety exist in life. the battle of despair waged. is apprehensive because of his conception of what life may conceal of horror and distress. to the honor of God. of the fact that no one knows when the hour of despair may strike for him. For Job keeps faithfully by his side and comforts him. Only the effeminate could . to his own salvation. aye. then Job still walks at the side of the race and guarantees that there is a victory. when a man's heart groans in despair.
the sooner the better. When the adult reflects on this word. Still. About that the child can have only a dark premonition. then he understands essentially the same by it as did the child and the wisest. as if he had discovered what no one had known before. happy the man who understood the word. more gloriously than the one who spent a whole life-time in explaining this one word. and steadfastly admired what he did not understand. immediately becomes vividly present in everyone's thought. does not understand why all the distress and wretchedness should come THE LORD GAVE 71 in which Job was tried. even though he never speaks about it. might renounce every emotion in the most abhorrent impotence and completely efface himself in the most wretched and miserable oblivion. or rather he does not understand Job. When the man who has been tried. happy the child who understood the word and got an impression of what he did not comprehend. too. then he understands it. Still he perhaps does not understand it. and yet perhaps he does not understand Job. Only the one who has been tried. happy the youth who understood the word and humbly bowed before what he did not understand. for what he does not comprehend is all the distress and wretchedness with which Job was tested. before his own distress made his thought wayward. before sorrow and adversity made its thought cunning. he does not understand for what purpose he will use it. He understands. he understands how Job could say it. and understands it essentially the same as the child and as the wisest understood it. who fought the good fight through remembering this saying. for he cannot understand how Job was able to say it.wish that Job had not existed. he understands essentially the same thing by it as does the wisest. that it was the most terrible thing imaginable. mentions it. is a plain and simple one. who tested the word . when it is mentioned. He understands the word. he interprets it. who possessed. and yet. When the youth turns his attention to this word. the wretchedness and distress in which Job was tried. if it is entrusted to him as an endowment. the child does not understand it. he understands Job's misery. and yet. The expression which. and understands it essentially the same as do the child and the wisest. or rather. and yet. when he understands the word. If a child learns this word. before his own distress and wretchedness made him also distrustful of Job. he does not understand Job. at once reminds us of Job. the convincing and childishly vivid conviction that it was in truth the most terrible. so that he might relinquish every thought. then he understands it. it conceals no secret wisdom that must be unearthed from the depths.
if he even believed that it was the word which had deceived him. only such an interpreter. and not always be the one to receive instruction. as a result of this. even if he takes care not to ensnare himself in the splendid words of human persuasiveness. if not enviously yet in troubled despondency. compared with which all other art and all other wisdom is very unessential. Job does not tempt him in this way. and allow it to slumber in extensive reflection! But even if this is true. or the one less favored by time and 72 circumstances. How. If the one reflecting had not hitherto known this word. only he interprets the word correctly. for he offers himself to every man as his pattern. but it had deceived him. then it would always be an advantage to him. then it would always be an advantage to him that he had learned to know it. could human wisdom help here? Would it perhaps seek to make that more intelligible which the simplest and the child easily understood. and only such a disciple. despite its pretentiousness.through himself being tested. but had had no occasion to test it. the most beautiful and blessed truth. if he had known it. which. may sometimes have wished for the talent and the opportunity to be able to understand and absorb himself in those things which scholars from time to time have discovered. summons everyone in his beautiful words. may also have felt a desire in his soul to be able to teach others. While the more simple-minded man. rather benumb the power of action. THE LORD GAVE 73 If he had tested it. which are very unfruitful. and even if. too. then it would be advantageous to him that he had pre- . that he had learned to understand what he perhaps might some time have to use. so that he may not increase sorrow by increasing wisdom. Therefore we rightly call Job a teacher of mankind. is nevertheless unable to express the differences which always dwell in the heart of man. the speaker endeavors to avoid intruding disturbingly between the striving individual and the beautiful pattern which is equally near to every man. beckons to everyone by his glorious example. and understood as well as the wisest! How would the art of eloquence and fluency help here? Would it be able to produce in the speaker or in some other man what the simplest is able to do as well as the wisest² action! Would not human wisdom rather tend to make everything more difficult? Would not eloquence. not of certain individual men. the one less gifted. still it by no means follows that the reflection and the development might not have their own significance. does Job desire. Only such a one learns from Job what there is to learn.
and "the secret of the Lord" abode there with him. would sometime gather itself regenerated in the moment of decision. sitting with his fatherly countenance downcast. the Lord hath taken away. and naked shall . "Then Job stood up and rent his mantle and shaved his head. it might perhaps happen that what the reflection had understood only in part. not in despair but stirred by human emotion. blessed be the name of the Lord! In the land toward the east there lived a man whose name was Job. it might perhaps happen that the reflection would become vividly present in his soul just when he needed it in order to penetrate the confused thoughts of his restless heart. "his words had lifted up the fallen. He was blessed with lands. and rich pastures. there he also disposed his heart to joy in the thought of his children. innumerable herds. almost revolting. There he offered burnt offerings for each one individually. while it is affecting to see an honorable old man. And Job was an old man. his joy in life was his pleasure in his children. or rather he did not utter a single one. over whom he watched that no evil might come upon them." His sorrow did not express itself in many words. that the house had been overthrown and had buried them all. and in this tent he lived with his seven sons and three daughters.viously reflected upon it. he was swift to judge between God and himself. As he sat there in the quiet 74 confidence of happiness. while his children were gathered at a festival at the oldest brother's house. and before he could speak there came another. that what reflection had sowed in corruption would spring up in the day of need in the incorruptible life of action. and fell down upon the ground and worshipped. Gould you wish it otherwise! Is not that one who prides himself on not being able to sorrow in the day of sorrow put to shame by not being able to rejoice in the clay of gladness? Is not the sight of such imperturbability unpleasant and distressing. who but now sat in the gladness of the Lord. his tent was blessed as if it rested in the lap of heaven. and while this one was still speaking. there came a third. only his appearance bore witness that his heart was broken. and the words of his judgment are these: "Naked I came forth from my mother's womb. there came a messenger. and had strengthened the feeble knees". his mantle rent and his head shaven! Since he had thus surrendered himself to sorrow. There he sat one day alone by his fireside. So let us endeavor to understand Job better in his beautiful words: The Lord gave. but the fourth messenger brought news concerning his sons and daughters. before he fled from it in the unrest of the strife and the haste of battle! Perhaps the reflection would sometime become significant to him.
as if it had not been a gift. beautiful because the Lord gave it. the Lord took. Blessed be the name of the Lord!" The Lord gave. that the loss of everything first made him thankful to the Lord that He had given him all the blessings that He now took from him. which He did not wish to give. He is reminded again of his . and deprived of the most precious of all. "The Lord took." The word is short." Is not this word irrelevant to the occasion. and what now might seem more beautiful to him." And thus to humble one's self before the Lord in silence and humility is indeed worthy of praise and emulation. was not the gift but the goodness of God. but in its brevity it perfectly expresses what it wishes to indicate. It did not happen with him. and in his heart's agitation he will say. "The Lord gave. that the abundance of the seven fruitful years would be entirely forgotten in the seve*n lean years. Now he is reminded of everything which the Lord had given. does it not contain something different from what lay in the event itself? If a man in a single moment is deprived of everything dear to him. nor more beautiful. But Job! At the moment when the Lord took everything. but still his gratitude was sincere. was brought to silence in his soul." but he said first. some individual thing perhaps with even greater thankfulness than when he had received it. even if in his heart he is conscious before God that he has lost everything. and every claim which would demand something from the Lord. the loss will perhaps at first so overwhelm him that he will not even trust himself to express it. as Joseph predicted. What first arrests the THE LORD GAVE 75 attention is that Job said.I return thither. and in the struggle such a man saves his soul though he loses all his gladness. but still beautiful as before." With these words the struggle was decided. It was not become less beautiful to him because it was taken away. "The Lord took. he did not say first. but that his heart first expanded in gratitude. "The Lord gave. or would desire to retain something. and the Lord hath taken away. Or he will not permit the loss to rest with its crushing weight upon his soul. The nature of his gratitude was not the same as in that long vanished time when he accepted every good and perfect gift from the hand of God with thanksgiving. but he will put it away from him. as was his conception about the goodness of God which now became living in his soul. Then follows the confession from the man whom not sorrow alone but worship as well had prostrated on the ground: "The Lord gave. that Job's soul is not crushed down in silent submission to sorrow.
who now needed no offering except that of thankfulness for having had them. and the old men arose and remained standing." He remembers with thankfulness that his step had not turned away from the way of righteousness. that he now wished to be able to do again." Thus his happiness became pernicious to him. he remembers what joy there was in having seven sons and three daughters. his eyes rest once more upon the rich pastures. "Had he never known happiness. "whose weak hands he had strengthened. for Job's memory was not so short. but now happiness had so educated and developed him as to make him conscious of the pain. and the fatherless who had no helper. that he had rescued the poor who complained.abundant prosperity. He is reminded of those who perhaps still remembered him with gratitude. "when the young men hid themselves out of reverence for him. but to Job it signified so very much. It is a short word. and therefore. Or there awakened a consuming passion in his soul. and follow the numerous herds." THE LORD GAVE 77 Perhaps there might be someone who on the day of sorrow was also reminded that he had seen happy days." then was his mind well prepared to please God also with the next word. "The Lord took. and in this farewell everything disappeared like a beautiful memory. it seemed as if it were not the Lord who took it. Thus he condemned his soul to living famished in the never satisfied craving of want. While thankfulness rested in his soul with its quiet sadness. for what is pain. he bade a gentle and friendly farewell to everything at once. but Job who gave it back to Him. it now thirsted for again. the "blessing of the forsaken" was upon him as before. and his ingratitude punished him by painting it as more desirable than it had previously been." He is reminded of the glorious days when he was powerful and esteemed by the people. What he had once been capable of doing. it was never lost but only lacking. after all. What had been the delight of his eyes. When therefore Job had said. and his ingratitude punished him by conjuring it up as more beautiful than it had formerly been. "The Lord gave. the many he had instructed. whose feeble knees he had upheld. What his soul had rejoiced in. moreover. nor was his thankfulness so forgetful. and his soul would become even more impatient. other than an idea which he does not have who knows nothing else. The Lord gave. and his ingratitude punished him with visions that had never had reality. even in this moment. and it tempted him more in the lack than ever before. he desired to see again. then the pain would not have overcome him. because he had not even enjoyed the happy days in the .
Then oblivion opened its abyss. and will so frequently be repeated in the world? Would he not tire far sooner than would passion of that ever new ingenuity for transforming the explained and the understood into a new disappointment. as if it never had been beautiful. which would not die. not so much to the loss as to him. his defiant will would still be able to retain it as if it were not lost. he would not acknowledge to himself whether the enjoyment he desired was worthy of a man. began by not finding it terrifying to become such a person. turn back to Job. he refused to be concerned by the fact that more wretched than all his wretchedness was the worm of desire in his soul. He would not endeavor to bear the loss. but he chose to waste his strength in an impotent defiance. as if strength lay in falsehood. Or in cowardice he immediately avoided humbly attempting to understand it. Or he irrationally assured himself that life was not so hard as one imagined. If there might only be vouchsafed to him one little hour. therefore. was not so hard to bear. if he wished to speak about what so frequently has happened. Or he lyingly sought to belittle the good which he had once enjoyed. but who had the audacity to try to prevent the loss from becoming intelligible to him.right way. wherein it deceives itself! Let us rather. to lose himself in an insane preoccupation with the loss. Perhaps there might be another man who at the moment of loss also remembered what he had possessed. and thereby learn to disregard the pain! Then he abandoned his soul to a burning unrest. had never gladdened his heart. who would ever finish. that its terror was not as described. he was not appalled by the thought that his de- 7« sires were the cause of his perdition. and he did not so much escape the loss in forgetfulness as he threw himself away. if he might only regain the glory for a short time so that he might satiate himself with happiness. he thought to strengthen his soul by a wretched self-deception. if one. Even if it were lost. In fact. On the day of sorrow when everything was lost. whether he ought not rather to thank God that his soul had not been so extravagant in the time of joy as it had now become in his unhappiness. then he first thanked THE LORD GAVE 79 . had not imbibed all the sweetness from their voluptuous abundance. as you will remember that he did.
as the Sabeans had destroyed Job's herds and . we who sometimes hesitate a long time to speak thus? Perhaps there was a man who had lost everything in the world. He confessed that the Lord had blessed richly and beyond all measure his undertakings. and its memory haunted him like a nightmare." He confessed that the blessing of the Lord had been merciful to him. or did he name someone who sent the wind? 8o Yet Job said. Then he set out to consider how it had happened. Did Job say anything except the truth. he returned thanks for it. or their manifest violence. but how he had been cast off from the glory of the one into the wretchedness of the other. The Lord took. and are we more devout. He did not conceal from himself that everything had been taken from him. Or he assured himself that it was the deceit and cunning of men. remained in his upright soul. did he use an indirect expression to indicate what was direct? The word is short. therefore it did not remain in his mind as a torturing memory. but do we just as naturally link it to Job's thought? For was it not the Sabeans who fell upon his peaceful herds and killed his servants? Did the messenger who brought the news say anything else? Was it not the lightning which destroyed the sheep and their shepherds? Did the messenger who brought the news mean something else. he still remained what he had been from the beginning² "honest and upright before God. who took it. it naturally occurs to us to repeat it after him. It was not the Lord who had taken it² it was an accident. which had wrested it from him. since the expression itself has become a sacred proverb. His happiness had vanished like a dream. he was unable to understand. He did not avoid the thought that it was lost. Who told Job this? Or was it not a sign of his fear of God that he thus shifted everything over to the Lord. and justified Him in doing it.God who gave it. in the very moment of receiving the message. therefore the Lord. even though he called the lightning the fire from heaven? Was it not a wind-storm from out of the desert which overturned the house and buried his children in the ruins? Did the messenger mention some other perpetrator. and while everything was being shaken and overthrown. he had been thankful for this. defrauded neither God nor himself. and found his heart like the good earth well cultivated in patience. and therefore the memory did not become to him a consuming unrest. he realized that it was the Lord who had taken everything. But everything was inexplicable and obscure to him. "The Lord took". and it signifies the loss of everything. therefore his soul rested quietly until the explanation of the Lord again came to him.
and furthermore it was because the men were evil and their hearts perverted. then men and their frail accomplishments are tossed about as in a game. and. he did not retard his soul and extinguish his spirit in reflections or explanations which only engender and nourish doubt. Still who would ever finish if he tried to explain what has happened and what will frequently be repeated in life? Would he not become tired of talking before the sensual man would weary of deluding himself with plausible and disappointing and deceptive explanations? Let us therefore turn away from that which has nothing to teach us. and knew how to describe it with all the eloquence of horror.their keepers. that he had not been prudent. And this explanation explained everything by first explaining that he had corrupted himself and made it impossible for him to learn anything from life. human enterprises are mere child's play. In the same instant that everything was taken from him he knew that it was the 82 ." Job referred everything to the Lord. For why should he not understand that when the sea rages in its fury. such an idea was remote from his thought. "The Lord took. that when the storm rushes forth in its violence. that when the earth trembles in terror of the elements and the mountains groan. and the more immediate explanation was that those men had done it. And this explanation was adequate for him. even if the one who dwells on them does not realize it. For it is true that what is built on sand does not even need a storm to overthrow it. sufficient to make his soul indifferent to everything. above all. but would it not also be true that a man cannot build and dwell elsewhere and be sure his soul is safe! Or he understood that he himself had merited what had befallen him. it would not have happened. Then his soul became rebellious against men. whether that man did him good or evil. he believed he did God justice by not reproaching Him. except in so far as we knew it before. so that we may shun worldly wisdom and turn our attention to him from whom there is a truth to be learned² to Job and to his devout words. would he perhaps have understood it in the same way if they had benefited him? But that the Lord who dwells far away in heaven mighi be nearer to him than the man who lived next to him. He fully understood how it had happened. He understood that men are his neighbors to his injury. then men and their glorious achievements sink as nothing into the abyss. when it flings itself THE LORD GAVE 8l against the heavens. and especially impossible for him to learn anything from God. Or he fully understood how it had happened. For had he rightly calculated in time.
does not that one also see God who sees that He takes? Does only that one see God who sees His countenance turned toward him? Does not that one also see God who sees Him turn His back upon him. And Job indeed stands before us the image . perhaps more fervently than before. how all human power becomes almost an object of compassion. For Job's house was a house of sorrow if ever a house was such. and the sincerity of faith from which it issued. but his confidence in the Lord remained with him as before. but he did what Paul had desired his striving congregation to do: after having overcome everything. for now there was nothing at all which could in any way divert his thought from Him. when it thinks to cause a man to tremble for himself by wresting everything away from him." there gladness also has its home. "It is not you who do this. when it wishes to plunge the weak into the destruction of despair by wresting everything from him. it is the Lord who takes!" How impotent is the arm of every man of violence. he preserved his confidence in the Lord." Blessed be the name of the Lord! Hence Job not only overcame the world. and therefore Job in his devout word had overcome the world. he looked upon the Lord and therefore he did not see despair. and therefore in his loss he remained in understanding with the Lord. The Lord's name be praised! Hence the Lord remained the same. as did Job? The Lord's name be praised! Hence the Lord did not take everything. which here would not so much carry him into temptation but would overcome him with its power. cause him to sink down before its boundless might. is not the wild fury of the storm. indeed almost childishly so.Lord who had taken it. in his loss. and he answers. The Lord took it all. Or does only that man see God's hand who sees that He gives. but who THE LORD GAVE 83 failed in the moment of victory. And yet how weak. how wretched his shrewd cleverness. and only praise remained in the incorruptible joy of his heart. perhaps there has been someone in the world who overcame everything. "It is not you." and then He also took those from him. was through his devout word greater and stronger and more powerful than the whole world. Alas. "Blessed be the name of the Lord. and ought He not to be praised as always? Or had the Lord really changed? Or did not the Lord in truth remain the same. you can do nothing² it is the Lord who takes. and he then confidently says. as Moses always saw only the Lord's back? But he who sees God has overcome the world. he stood. and his peace of heart. but where this word is spoken. for He did not take away Job's praise. Then Job gathered together all his sorrows and "cast them upon the Lord.
that the memory of it should again be revived. it has at least seemed beautiful to you in the quiet moment of reflection. So let it then be forgotten. If hitherto you have not been tested in life. his heart treasures it. THE LORD GAVE 85 . so that in thinking of it you had forgotten what you did not wish to be reminded of. and yet speaks intelligibly to the many who have ears to hear. you will deserve. instead of praise and blessing. We have spoken about Job. and concern no one? If you yourself. But this voice of consolation. and as the ear of the lover indeed hears many voices but really only one² the voice of the beloved. do not become enslaved by some tribulation. but he who utters this word as Job did still bears witness to the joy. and above all learn from Job to be sincere with yourself. and have stood the testing as he did. But should it therefore be entirely without significance or application. My hearer. as little as I. As faith and hope without love are only sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. develop within you that humble courage? Did not Job have a wife. which flatter the ear but are abhorrent to the soul. through which you experience imaginary victories in an imaginary conflict. that which indeed is sometimes heard in the world in the day of need. my hearer. so that you may not delude yourself by an imagined strength. as little as any man.of sorrow. but they pass by and do not enter his heart. then it truly applies to you. even if his testimony does not direct itself to the joyous but to the concerned. Do you think perhaps that these words apply only under such extraordinary circumstances as those in which Job was placed? Is it perhaps your belief that if such a thing struck you. then it indeed applies to you. have been tried as Job was. then the terror itself would give you strength. this voice which trembles in pain and yet pro- claims the gladness. it strengthens and guides him even to finding joy in the depths of sorrow. without the speech wishing to force itself upon anyone. what do we read about her? Perhaps you think that terror cannot get as much power over a man as can the daily thralldom in much smaller adversities. if we have spoken rightly about Job. is it not true? You have understood Job's eulogy. and have sought to understand him in his devout expression. expressed in his countenance and in his form. so the ear of the con cerned also hears many voices. For the ear of the concerned is fashioned in a special manner. Then look you to it that you. so all the gladness in the world in which no sorrow is mingled is only sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. this the ear of the concerned hears.
that you do not know when sorrow will visit your house. perhaps you believe that this is by no means as terrible as was Job's suffering. not like other men. it is not this he wishes." Such a confession. "Blessed be the name of the Lord. and consequently a more difficult struggle. so that they might not extort from you a confession. for if you had been preserved from sorrow. Or perhaps you believe that such a thing cannot happen to you? Who taught you this wisdom. and your youth your assurance? Job had also been young. Are you old. So be sincere with yourself. aye. fix your eyes upon Job. if you yourself do not wish it. Are you young. or on what do you base your assurance? Are you wise and understanding. Are you powerful. "I was fortunate. I have never suffered anything in the world. even if the preceding is less applicable. when you survey your life and think of its end. For even if this were true. if the Lord had taken it from me. the quarrel would still be unprofitable. and with the idea that no man knows the time and ." this applies to you. "I have indeed not been tested in it. or rather bring me new joys. You still could not wish. and I have let each day have its own sorrows. even though he terrifies you. So if you then learn from Job to say. on the verge of the grave? Job was an old man when sorrow overtook him. but nothing was given to me. and is this your confidence? Job was the teacher of many. and. you would still say. but still my mind has frequently occupied itself seriously with the thought of Job. is this your assurance of immunity? Job was reverenced by the people. you could still never wish to make. it would involve your own humiliation. which you now perhaps call a melancholy mood? And yet there is no hiding place in the wide world where troubles may not find you. We shall not quarrel with you. Do you put your confidence in God? Job was the Lord's confidant. if you are honest with yourself and love humanity. or have you not rather avoided them. that you can learn from Job. in order to venture out into a hitherto unknown difficulty.Perhaps you say. but that it is far more wearing. and increase the difficulty. even if it were true. Are your friends your guarantors? Job was loved by everyone. Are riches your security? Job possessed the blessing of lands. that you should have to confess. then you cannot wish to evade Job. until we learn from your testimony that a victory is also possible in this difficulty. Have you reflected on these thoughts. and there has never lived a man who was able to say more 86 than you can say. and keep the rest of us in suspense. But in one thing we are in agreement. as no other had.
And only that man would have the true understanding of it. happy or depressed. indifferent to its own relation to him. whether it benefits him or injures him. Nor do they at once release the individual and abandon him. whether he is young or old. but they continue to be concerned about him until he completely frees himself. Such a truth is not indifferent as to how the individual accepts it. whether he himself discovered it. for the converse decision precisely testifies against the equal validity. although he is still not able to make them doubtful about themselves. whether he is young or old. another kind of truths. which we might call the concerned truths. or professes it coldly and unemotionally. as it were. they are themselves conscious that they are not quite appropriate for all general occasions. and not even this is a matter of indifference to them. They are not indifferent to the particular condition of the indi- vidual. while the evil days come not. whether it restrains him from something or helps him attain it. Such a truth is not indifferent as to whether it becomes a blessing or a curse to the individual. whether he appropriates it with his whole heart. nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say. indifferent to the special circumstances of the individual. whether he lays down his life for it. or uses it merely as a means of gain. each one more terrifying than the last. It is not indifferent as to whether he sincerely has confi- . Ecclesiastes 12:1 T^HERE is a truth whose greatness. whose sublimity. or particularly as man. or he merely repeats it by rote." REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.the hour when the messengers will come to him. I have no pleasure in them. for this difference proves exactly whether he is jealous for himself. the legitimate admiration. There is another kind of truth. who understood that this objectivity is the main thing. that it is equally valid whether anyone accepts it or not. for this decides for them whether they may be truths for him. or whether it merely becomes idle words to him. Their life is not so exalted. happy or depressed. perhaps because abashed. and who allowed himself to be shaped in conformity with this into an objectivity toward that which concerns himself or some man as man. but only specially for individual occasions. we are accustomed to extol by saying that it is an objective truth. or if this is more unassuming. equally valid whether he subscribes to it with his whole heart.
a picture whose crudities almost provoke a smile. then the Preacher speaks to him. for its avenging wrath proves conclusively that it is not indifferent. Such a concerned truth is not indifferent as to who has proclaimed it. while. that. the word itself in different ways is troubled about the inequalities. or self-deceived wishes to deceive others. then we are told that this man. then. although. he could still only arouse you to concern about yourself. even if your life is impoverished. And when the son of the poor man stands astonished in the palace. too. at most. Is there then no compromise? Or will you assume the appearance of contentment in order to seek untimely quarrels to prove that you do not covet the splendor of a king² but that neither are you satisfied with thinking about your Creator! As if that self-created satisfaction . even if you stood next in succession to the throne and your thoughts were such as would be inspired by the expecta- REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR 89 tion of dominion. when unclarified thoughts awaken in his soul. then the Preacher speaks to him. even if the story about a king having spoken these words is only a pious wish which wishes to reconcile the greatest inequalities in the simple understanding of the same word. notwithstanding all this. and the Preacher was also a king. And if you could see his face.dence in it. but the Preacher was also a king. and you yourself were a young man. One such concerned truth is that tested admonition. sees upon the wall of a humble cottage a picture such as might be expected in such humble circumstances. then you would be gripped by the solicitude with which he concerned himself about you. in order that it may again concern itself about the individual. the thought about the Creator is still the most beautiful excellence of youth. as awe-struck he beholds the kingly majesty. you still have his royal word. Then reconciled he returns home to his humble dwelling and to his poor picture on the wall. For when one who is royal born and will sometime rule over kingdoms and countries. Therefore. And if you could have heard the voice of him who uttered it. Who. repeated for hundreds of years. untempted by any glittering prospects. which we have read. on the contrary he continues to be constantly present with it. was the man who uttered these words? We do not know. and he comes closer to it and reads those words in the inscription on the picture. then you would certainly realize how moved he was personally. notwithstanding all this. he believed that the thought about the Creator was the best thought of youth. And if you are young. But if you are young. wore the kingly purple.
when his spirit has lost the power to make up the reckoning in earnest.were not an arbitrary merit for which you dare not praise yourself. when the will and the purpose desire nothing more. aye. what is worse. blinded as he was. not even the one from whose heart the sigh issues. For there is a wisdom which almost prefers the concealment of madness. but trembling in earnestness. but the will-o'-the-wisp in the fogs of night does not furnish light. they were indeed reconciled with life. any more than the world itself is able. while oblivion like a busy journeyman works early and late in the service of consolation² and youth slips . is sometimes heard in the world. such a language of the heart. and "a king always gets everything he points at. when. no one in the whole world. a sigh at the moment when the wearied soul bids the world farewell. because the words are certainly concerned. and in the sight of men affords satisfaction to everyone by its strange actions. and the moon will REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR 91 shine for him at night. but nevertheless only a sigh from the recesses of sadness. but still only a bubble that bursts. to compensate a man for the injury he would inflict upon his soul if he gave up the thought of God? But the one who. not even for itself. he still let it be understood that in a certain imperfect sense he grasped the significance of that which he relinquished. insofar as it had been softened by sorrow. what wonder that his view of life suddenly undergoes a change?" The words would certainly have significance. but the thought hazily centers about past experiences. Such a brief word. demanded the highest. they were indeed words of concern. but the admonition could not be accepted. but not concerned about any individual. in which the heart would break. just because it was a king who had spoken these words. It will not illuminate anyone's way. no matter from what depth it rises. But the sigh itself and the outburst and the emotion concern no one. Or was it perhaps otherwise with you? You were perhaps unwilling to consent to a compromise. 9 o which only testifies against you! Is there anything indeed in the wide world which is able. weary and thoughtful. after he has followed the ways of pleasure to the uttermost limit of enjoyment. he holds intercourse with death as his only confidant. for the sun lights a man's way by day. not emphatic like the language of thought. a sign of your paltriness. When a man's life draws toward evening. and death has become the comforter.
which makes the last condition worse than the first. as often as not. and to walk in the ways of the heart. but has the Preacher ever said that to consider the Creator in youth is vanity and vexation of spirit." says the Preacher. not to his own soul. could help him to renounce the vain desires which constantly become more and more ingenious. even to have done what he encourages one to do. if only someone would accept this word! For the Preacher actually says that "childhood and youth are also vanity. only then he says it. faith in oneself's having perfected the good. nor the blessing of the admonition rests upon them. and the light-minded regard such an expression as an ingenious triviality. and therefore they both find relief and alleviation in swooning in that weakness where neither the admonition disturbs them. but one will seek vainly in it for the strength of the admonition because there is no faith in it. The Preacher has spoken many such words. himself in a similar condition. 92 "All is vanity and vexation of spirit. or that to have considered Him in youth would also sometime appear to have been vanity? Has he mingled the word about this in with the rest? Or is not the manner in which he says this as far removed from the manner in which he says the rest as heaven is from earth? Has he not precisely resolved everything into vanity in order that the blessed and eternal . not to some man. Only when he sits alone.past the soul like a dream. is. or. as his mind dwells on the most beautiful significance of life. And he who eagerly listens to such words. or in another's having succeeded in doing so. then he would not speak in this way." and insofar. or at least in a sadly suspicious realization that something similar may befall him. but he says it as to the air: "Happy the man who is done with it. "to let the heart cheer him in the days of youth. The outburst may well have its own significance. at least. and the melancholy as a stupefying drink. sunken like a ruin. then such a man says to himself." would be vanity. and I wonder if he would not readily have refrained from saying all the rest. lost in sadness. as this once appeared to him: "Happy the man who is done with it!" But if a young man stood by his side upon whom life still had all its claims. and in the sight of the eyes. so the psychologist knows that this outbreak indicates that the spirit wishes to be extinguished. But are the words we read of such a nature? I wonder if the Preacher has not said all that precedes for the sake of this and similar words. the thoughtless as an unsolved riddle. all of which would be profitable if they could help anyone to save himself from going through the same experience." And as the physician recognizes the sign of death in the face.
which . and will. with the authority of experience. so put sorrow from you. the Preacher stands up to resolve the confusion. with the emphasis of earnestness. and it is just in this way that the Preacher wishes to have the admonition understood. or like one who longs. and it is precisely by means of this thought that youth must be assured against being vanity. yet each time it speaks to the individual. he speaks to the young. as if it were only for his sake. which still would sometime be outgrown. This is the way the word is spoken. that although it can be repeated again and again and concern an innumerable multitude." He does not speak as if this thought were merely a youth's thought. not as about something past. as if it were unconcerned about all the rest of the 94 world. with the glad confidence of liberty. For this is the solicitude in the admonition. assured against sometime seeming to be vanity. he does not speak about it as about something past which had once had significance. to check the vanity by a definite expression of admonition: "Therefore. so that it may bind the wandering soul in obedience under the admonition? He does not say. but. as ordinarily: "So rejoice in your youth. since it is as if it spoke to him alone. by casually disposing of the matter. of which it was desirable that it should once have had significance. and as the discourse about vanity goes on. with the concern of admonition. but with the power of conviction. but the more concerned about him. He does not speak vaguely about youth in general. and if you thoughtlessly or sadly were to attempt to deceive the Preacher. moreover. so that it does not go beyond its limits. for such an understanding really belongs to a later age. the youth's significance is exactly this thought's significance. or to trick him out of the admonition. as concerned as if the youth were conferring a favor by accepting it.significance of this thought may rightly appear. consider thy Creator. as the individual does not understand in general that he is young. or like one who swoons. He has omitted this little casual word. carry everything away in vanity." where the expression itself. indicates that REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR 93 what he speaks about is of no concern to anyone. He does not speak like a man who wishes. with the reliability of complete knowledge. he understands it as a matter for his own personal concern. no. as it were.
who shall prepare himself for battle?" But to make the speech explicit² what else does this mean than that it should concern some particular individual. must certainly guard against the accidental enviously coming into conflict and contradiction with what is otherwise edifying. And if you are young." and prevents itself from doing what it emphatically understands for some other age. and all of the daughters of music are brought low.' " Therefore. if you are unconcerned. but he exhorts you to do so. but the speech about this truth must still guard itself against conditioning the edification through the accidental. if you are distressed. should endeavor not only to make the thoughts contained in the passage explicit. And when the evil days come. but to make the speech itself explicit. Thus the Preacher addresses his admonition to the young. it is still you.would certainly be a distressing thing to do. or rather. for then the edification is untrue. But he who wishes to speak about the passage we read. Youth does not think of the evil days. for "if the trumpet give forth an uncertain sound. Thus the Preacher speaks admonishingly." for otherwise his admonition. you to whom the admonition applies. when you shall say: 'I have no pleasure in them. if you are happy. just you to whom he speaks. even if you are among the more simple. however well-meant it was. and the years draw nigh. and the "sound of the grinding is low. he prevented it from "believing in vain. And if you are young. he has not only lost his youth. as does also the reason for the admonition² "before the evil days come. you still need not stand begging at the door of that wisdom. but the understanding of youth's thought about the Creator. he still speaks to you. would always remain a vanity. and does not understand what it means to say that the "sound of the grinding is low. if you are despondent at being what you are. for the Preacher's concern is for you also and he not only says you may consider your Creator." then if one has not remembered his Creator in his youth. and naught but an unwholesome diversion. you would not be able to do it. and the daughters of REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR 95 music are brought low. brought about by a preference or a mistaken wish . a serious matter which was always taken in vain. and if you are young. that it should speak to some man for his edification? Now it is certainly true that the concerned truth of the admonition addresses itself to the individual according to the special circumstances of his life. in what he said earlier he sought to drive your soul up from its security to see the vanity of life. even if you have earlier dedicated yourself to the pursuit of wisdom. for the Preacher has been guilty of no ambiguity.
but if it makes it impossible for this concern to become profitable for his reassurance. for the edification of an old man. only vouches for it. if the best one could say of it at its end was that everything would soon be over? But such an edification is a deception. his fellow-conspirators. while otherwise understood it would be the most foolish and disheartening speech the world has ever heard. What is true about childhood is also true about youth. about how pleasant it is to be young. but worldly-minded. therefore. If one were to say. for the child itself does not know what it means to be a child. REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR 97 . When. a deceitful compromise. because it addresses itself to every man. even if the speech concerning authority. that insofar as youth is past. for 9 6 being old is no advantage. for fear lest the edifying thought might transform itself into a terrifying one. Thus if someone wished to be edified by the thought about old age. for fear lest it might be too late. and confused. that everything would soon be over. then the speech is not edifying. then the edification itself would be irrational. If one wishes to believe that youth itself with respect to this thought about the Creator. but in so special a manner that youth could not be edified by the same thought. it can also be lost or greatly neglected. if the speech may also influence a single youth to anticipate the painful aftercost of this neglect. So the speech about youth can indeed occasion the individual concern. to become a regret for the past which effects his improvement. has a decided opportunity which can never later be repurchased: who would dare to say this to himself. If a man wishes to believe that youth is an advantage. that a man should become a child again. the Holy Scriptures make this a condition for entering into the kingdom of heaven. On the other hand. it will indeed imbue him with the significance of youth. But it is not so. and will only listen to the worldly speech of the like-minded. then this speech is really edifying. but with this difference. and there is just as little advantage in being young. contentious.which foolishly desires this. who would dare say it to another. then he rejects the edification. might he not by this speech disturb the young? For why would he not become despondent and tired of life long before his time.
therefore. for in youth one does it best and most naturally. He accompanies the happy. so let us not pay too much attention to youth. as it might be injurious for the tiny babe to be handled too much. for youth can do this with a smile upon his lips and exultation in his bearing. Moreover. so it seems that too much praise might be detrimental to the wholesomeness of youth. and if a man throughout all the rest of his life preserved the thoughts of youth. But he makes the transition as naturally as does the youth. when he has danced himself weary. even if it is more rarely heard. but let no one teach youth this² teach youth to "use creation as youth's possession. then the Preacher sits down in a room off the ball-room. then the Preacher is not a disconsolate figure who wishes to tear him away from the wild passion and enjoyment of the moment. will it not besmirch with its fiery unwholesomeness. do the opposite: let us not make it old before its time.REMEMBER THY CREATOR IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. nor keep it from being young when it is. So. and when the youth has 98 enjoyed himself with all his heart. so that it may not a second time drain the bitterness of not having been young when it was young." and in this or some other way cause it to "reason wrongly" as if this were the only thing it had to do. but neither let us. he is still young. but neither is he a carping and irritable critic who cannot rejoice with the happy. not a fool who imagines that. For when the false or injudicious friendship of dejection is the spokesman. and he . let youth "wear the garlands of rosebuds before they be withered". For the thought about the Creator is still the most beautiful glory of youth. will it not bring a darting unrest and craving into the careless confidence of youth? Because despondency is envious of youth. a rosebud that does not wither. but for the evening. Nor does the Preacher counsel thus. for youth ought not to do that. And in youth one does it most naturally. lest it drain the bitterness. although youth is praised often enough. worthy to listen to the talk about high and holy things. although advanced in age. When a youth is joyful and happy at a banquet. not an alarming spectre who wishes to forget himself in the circle of youth. then. not exactly of life. then he would accomplish a good work. must we therefore make youth envious of itself and perplexed about itself? As one does not pay too much attention to the tiny babe. for a man thinks most naturally who can think this thought in conjunction with all the other things he thinks. Let this be our eulogy of youth. and speaks more seriously.
Suppose one dies before that time. and who does not need to have the thought changed in order to think it. and after he had kept the learner busier than the Jews in Goshen in slaving for the truth under his supervision. overleaped the intervening causes to arrive at God. When one grows older. whose memory is revered. then it is so cold in the church. then the way to church is often very long. When one becomes older. He understands immediately that a God exists. If he had not been speaking to youth. then everything becomes so wretched. in the midst of sorrow and joy he hears God's voice calling. he would perhaps give him to understand that he might finally get to the point where God became the Creator. suppose that by the time the matter is decided. But when one becomes older. then he misses it at once. when the birds sing in the woods in the summer time. Youth understands it at once. that this wonder. I wonder if the miraculousness of wonder might not again appear. in a peculiar manner. because in the thought he finds the childlike simplicity which makes the game the best. someone had grown unaccustomed to thinking of God as the Creator. To youth God dwells close at hand. for to the young God's house lies next door to his father's yard. if he does not know how to hide himself² until he hears it again. and the youth understands it at once. God in heaven must sit and wait for the fates to decide whether He exists. then it is far to heaven. but as a friendly man predicts a happy future for the child in its cradle. and the joy in the thought was past! The Preacher does not speak in this way. so the Preacher uses the word. So that word of the Preacher is from the beginning a proof that this thought must be most natural for youth. And so it goes. But. and if one does not hear it.thinks it most naturally who does not himself have to be changed in order to think it. He might perhaps have proved that God exists. and finally He REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR 99 comes into being by means of some proofs. the church does not lie in the direction he is going. And then I wonder what essentially belongs to . men must put up with waiting until the matter is decided. when the wind is severe in winter. then the earthly noises make it easy for one not to feel the want of it. he might perhaps have made lengthy preparations. and it seems quite natural to him to be there. who believed that wonder was a characteristic of the Jewish people. Is not this wonderful! But is the fact that it is wonderful not also a clarification! There was a thinker. if we wish to select a youth who was not brought up among that people. and the earthly noises make it difficult to hear the voice. if he has not learned evasion. if he does not hear it.
" "All that in them is"² is not this a great word. for many doubtless perish on the way. becomes a disciple of a later one. give youth the straw. On the contrary. and since He is never far away. then one realizes that it is six thousand years since the world was created² and also six thousand years since everything was very good. There was a thinker who became a hero by his death. I wonder if manhood dares to forget this completely. but only the judgment of the world. then the proof comes. But what does follow from this? Moreover. youth has with the first . indeed. then he can say that he comes from afar² if he reaches God. What does it understand about the world in comparison with one who has circumnavigated the globe? But youth understands about God. and does other similar things which concern neither God nor one's self. when one becomes older and very intelligent. But when we become older. Then one repudiates an earlier thinker. he can² not prove it. for how does six thousand years to youth differ from yesterday when it is past. Let the thinker keep his proof. But as the youth quite naturally thinks that God is the REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR 101 Creator. belongs to an individual nation. He had said that from a single straw he would prove the existence of God. and if someone reaches God by the long way of these intervening causes.100 youth. and the proof is a distinguished traveler whom all regard with admiration. then extremely strange things result from it. and yet that was six thousand years ago. and all that in them is. when one has the straw and² God! When one becomes older. if one is to find Him he should not look for Him far away. too. But why. that He has created "the heavens and the earth. he can at once begin on the last. not as the accidental. then come the intervening causes. and what. then six thousand years are many years. is proof needed. Youth understands that God has created the world. so he just as naturally thinks what follows from that. When one becomes older. or gives others the name of that one. Is this the fault of the intervening causes or of the pilgrims? Youth understands at once that God is the Creator. But he understands it at once² what wonder. and since he does not need to waste his time in understanding the first. is it not becoming to youth? What has youth really seen? It has merely glanced at the world.
but from that it merely follows that he can better cherish the one he has. he is like one who has many suits of clothes. and time is wasted in 102 looking for it. does not seek in out of the way places in order to find it. may indeed need a lantern. Or it sometimes seems to someone that one of his thoughts was lost. the concern so childlike that youth does not need to go far in order again to live and move and have his being in God. One ought not to ridicule him. When one gets older. which always clothes him equally well. even if he is constantly using it. the pain over the interruption of the harmony so deep that peace cannot long remain away. And what is this other except thanksgiving in quiet humility. And in youth one does it best. how could he lose it? When one has many thoughts. then what does one find? And he who does find one. like that woman. for when one has but one thought. and in the meantime allows the other ninety-nine to shift for themselves. but from that it does not follow that he cannot cling with his whole heart to man and to the human. and if one of them is lost. and scarcely less room. confidence resting in a childlike intimacy. seeking a man. who does not have to seek among many things to find it. for it was a delusion. one lights a candle and goes and searches for it. Sometimes he wears one suit. he thought he would ridicule the others. for what indeed follows farther from that except that which lies so near that it does not seem to result from it. youth has always the same place to hide his thoughts as does the older man. But youth has just one thought. and all the rest he has known so well at home? And what- . Such things cannot happen to youth. then one has many thoughts. There was a pagan sage. Youth does not have many thoughts. one has not found a man. even less to follow farther from it. sometimes another. then one can always get a good and ample place. and yet hides it the deepest. then. On the other hand. Ridiculed by many. for whoever while young has not found a man. He went about with his lantern by day. but if from his youth up. Youth does not see many men. individually and collectively. When one becomes older. then one sees many men. But when one has only one thought. and he does not waste time in choosing. whom does he find except the preacher and the schoolmaster. his equals. for he really thinks a thought best who has it always near at hand.already begun on the last. he.
physically speaking. like the lovers who grew together. with the thought about God. and. and. For one grows best in concealment. what does he find different from that which he had found in his youth! He thought it in his youth. men say. But youth is the time of abundance. but youth is the season of growth. but woe also to the one who defrauds youth of this thought. never so much as in the secret life of youth. and everything is parcelled out. When one becomes older. when these are thus separated: the thought of youth about the Creator and the Creator? Human language says little . to separate those who were formerly united. and yet that thought of the Creator is the one which the schoolmaster of childhood talked so much about. then is one's whole calculation wrong. the years think it with more difficulty. but how much harder is it not. then one often reflects on one's thoughts. with respect to this thought one often lives meagerly enough. which will prevent it from losing the best. too. O God. when he grows to a divine stature. but woe also to the one who removes the landmarks of youth! Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Compared with such an imperishable memory. and he grows together with his one thought. When one is older. then this thought has frequently only its own season. And if in other respects one has an abundance. Other thoughts have their times and seasons. one never grows as much as during the nine months when he lies in his mother's womb. even if he gave it everything else! Woe to the one who removes the landmarks of the poor. that he gradually loses. So. When the older man finds this thought again. must be determined individually.ever he finds which replaces the best. So let childhood then keep the angels who always behold the face of God. then one ceases to grow. for this thought comes repeatedly. and if one ever forgets the number to be carried. 104 It is hard. and it may sometime later help you to think best and most naturally about the Creator. it was as if he had already thought it an eternity. how it may help you in a more intimate way. but grant to youth. it is the number to carry. Woe to the one who defrauds the widow and the fatherless. When one grows older. and this is as REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR 103 it must be. the more complicated the reckoning becomes. spiritually speaking. a friendly care. and becomes absorbed in them. and the first time he thought it. The older one becomes.
for not only men's speech but practically their language is selfish. and since without this guidance he must act for himself. which would provide another kind of understanding. victory in death. still fortifies himself by means of the lie that he still retains his youth. love in life. which that man has indeed done who spends his days and nights in wishing it back. Or that helpless one who has no other defense against the years except the impotent wish that he might still be young. and ought not the individual to know what it was which separated him from God. and with understanding knowledge. as they are REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR 105 separated from what belonged to their youth. and he is farthest from having forgotten his youth. and with knowledge sorrow. the more his eye lost the power of vision to find its way back in the finite. as they leave their father's house and their mother's solicitude. which separates them? My hearer. The more he stared at it. Whether a man will succeed in becoming older in such a way that he never notices the separation. even if the cause of the separation differed for different individuals! Perhaps it was age which separated them. and with the years came understanding. Perhaps pleasure blinded him. until at last the infinite appeared before him and made him giddy. and let enthusiasm talk in vain about battle and conflict.about this concern. Or that wretched one who. he let this propagate itself. Perhaps he chose the guidance of thought. little about God's. to him the separation is least noticeable. the more. on the contrary it is worthy of commendation. On the contrary. he who recognizes the time and the hour and the opportunity. But as he was thus developed and educated. but it happens with most men. But what is it. life became a jest. whose concern the separation is. if a man in this respect recognizes the time and the hour. and he let God sorrow in heaven while he chose gladness. about courage in danger. perhaps a man became older. and in order not to owe anyone anything. everything became more and more complicated. too. and with increased knowledge increased sorrow. we do not know. although advanced in years. it speaks only about their own affairs. patience in affliction. and the one thought develop out of another. Hence. rewards . are they separated from God. the simple became to him more difficult. He was not to blame for growing older. the more they are separated from these. in that he grew old while God always remained the same. that. and nothing is more disgusting than to see the unhappy beggar whose eyes and expression beg everyone for the flattering untruth that he still seems young. ought you not yourself to know what it was which separated you. then.
Perhaps it was sin and perdition which lay divisively between him and his youthful thought about God. but to what end? When the separation exists. overlooked. experimented with everything before he resolved to return. carry this course of reasoning farther. Perhaps worldly concern about food and clothing diverted his mind. reduced to the last extremity. and yet to which everyone. forgotten. remember Him for the sake of the return. so that he did neither one thing nor the other. . has destroyed much of what lay behind him: merely a memory of this thought must always help him somewhat. resorts for refuge. in that he. even if a man. when the evil days come. polluted. or when the retreat must begin. Perhaps there was someone who. about which the Preacher speaks. For as the first book in the Old Testament is called the Birth. We do not deny that the return of one person can be very different from that of another.in heaven. And the shame is certainly a cheap price for him to pay. but which later came to be despised. God in heaven to a strict task-master. but it is the Preacher who says: "Remember therefore thy Creator in the days of thy youth. while he permitted every day to have its own pleasure. whatever the error of his way had been. His will into a terrifying law. so we might certainly say that there is a third book in human life which is called the Retreat. with a certain degree of shamefacedness. that of the one may be a more peaceful return." Even if the moment when the retreat must begin is sufficiently terrifying. only endeavored to concentrate his bitterness. at enmity with himself. We might. Hence there appears to be a necessity to return to what was once so beautiful. and his resentment at the separation seemed to make an un- io6 demanding impossible. his wrath. But then was it not a blessing that he had something to which he could return? Was it not fortunate that the blind man had a child who could lead him? And so one goes his little hour like a blind man who is led by a child. and so he wandered about in a wilderness without finding any refreshment. indeed. the second the Departure. Perhaps he subjected himself to a sorrowful earnestness which transformed life down here into slavery. then it is not so important to scrutinize the reason for it as to sorrow over the separation which may appear in so many different ways. that of the other an escape from a pursuing terror.
by entwining itself within it. and we speak about how to have remembered the Creator in the days of youth is the angel of salvation of the retreat. it saves the despairing soul from seeing the despair through the frankness which understands nothing. as if memory were everything in life. so there is again joy in heaven and on earth. it disperses the mists of the busy concern in a resigned freedom from care. thus it does help him. Perhaps there was one whose plans always gained the victory for him and the adulation of men. and sought vainly in the shrewdness which ordinarily understands life's emptiness and nothingness. until at last. We do not praise the retreat. as he stood there austere and dominating. until at last he burst forth: "Oh. or about the beauty which human art produces. and with it awakened a saving recollection. always discovered a little irregularity. It dissolves the spell of brooding earnestness. Perhaps there was someone who had pondered deep and long about the divine. which does not understand the specious assertion of self-accusation. which whispered the simple truth to him. even less do we disparage the honest work of manhood. it dissolves the troublesome evil in quiet wonder over the dark saying of hoping against hope. when he compared the results with his calculations. as if this were the sole significance of life. . We do not speak presumptuously and slightingly about the truth which the more mature human wisdom discovers. while he still sometimes even understood what he had found out far more simply than he had discerned it. he was softened by listening to the memory of youth which softly hummed io8 the simple truth to him and. which still called to him with the faithfulness of youth: "but God's word endureth forever. but understands only God's mercy.REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR 107 in a single passionate outburst. this word then awakened like a memory in his soul. he could smile at his long meditation by giving heed to the memory of youth. as he sat thoughtful and brooding. until at last. while he himself. the world and the lust thereof perish!" but lo. we speak only about the beautiful significance of the retreat for human life." Thus the youthful memory helped him where there was no other help. and thus through its intervention transformed for him the beautiful earnestness into a still more beautiful jest. transfigured his beautiful earnestness into an even more beautiful jest.
And there is no youth. there is still no youth so God-forsaken that the crumbs when they are carefully gathered together so that nothing shall be wasted. oh. spiritually speaking. and. so God-forgotten that the memory of or the deep inward sorrow for it. his time and his industry. O God. . would not be able to rejuvenate the one who never was young. For. just as God is already in the sorrow which is near Him. If there be someone whom this meditation merely painfully reminds of his own lack. forsaken. may not become through the blessing of God an abundant compensation. and youth is past. the discourse has certainly understood him. he yearned for his youth. preserve Thou a memory of his youth which preserves for him the youthful thought about the Creator.So let a man's work exact from him what belongs to it. if it were without sympathy. because it knows neither times nor seasons. then it would in truth be unseemly and unworthy to be an edifying discourse. and perhaps he sometimes deceives himself. spiritually speaking. on the contrary. Even if such a man will not understand himself. the bride's most glorious adornment. depressed because he had had no youth. especially unfortunate for itself. the soothing of the concern in the concern. then the discourse is reassured. and the dance ends. But the thought of youth about the Creator is a rosebud that does not wither. If. but would have been deceived by the accidental. and would not have found the universal truth. Woe to him who separates what God has joined together. REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR IO9 If this is the case." and the flighty mind goes forth with short-lived hope. and chooses the pain of want instead of the sorrow of repentance. woe to him who separates manhood from its youth. and the jest is forgotten. In another sense youth is only vanity. but in the advancing years. It is indeed seldom that a man can truly feel this lack. his mother an admonition. for then it would not be edifying. poorer than the one to whom his father still bequeathed a blessing. there was a man whose youth had preserved for him no affectionate solicitude. And spiritually he understood his need. deceives it with good intentions. helpless. and the longing for it an even greater vanity: for "beauty is deceitful and favor is vain. so that its place knows it no more. and the best raiment for the dying. repels the sense of guilt. and it is the child's most beautiful ornament. however brief it is. and strength wanes. if he had gone out into life poorer than the son of the poor to whom his parents had bequeathed only poverty. the fulfillment is always in the wish. maintains his soul in cowardice.
In this connection someone has said that wishing is a foolish art. He will not spoil the beauty of the gift. they both are irresponsible. he examines it to see if it can legitimately be wished. and he knows you. but at the things which are not seen: for things which are seen are temporal. in which things were as they are in childhood. then he knows not only your wish. 4:17. then he might rightfully give himself up to the fun of wishing. For whoever is rightly thankful and humbly understands the profundity of the thought that all his activity. and :hat this thought. When in those stories a man or woman was granted the satisfaction of having three wishes. Who has forgotten that priceless diversion of childhood: wishing. . That is. However. he will also lave time for the innocent jesting which is acceptable to God² he will also know how to wish. which is but for a moment. and he understands you. Now of course the whole thing was only a jest. When he had assured that. that a man should first wish for us a far the the seen ETERNAL HAPPINESS m himself eternal happiness. but let us never forget that in the midst of life's seriousness there is and ought truly to be time for jesting. rich and poor alike! Who has forgotten those beautiful stories from a vanished age. or the certainty of the bestowing grace. but he will also see through you in another way. II Cor. If this is not the case. where a wish is the meaning of life. wishing may also display a more attractive side. it was the custom. and we are tempted to compare one who has the habit of wishing with one who resorted to the beggar's staff through laziness: they both live on charity. worketh for more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. they both have nothing but importunities. confide to him your wishes. they both are suspect in the eyes of justice. but the things which are not are eternal. is an edifying reflection. but he draws an inference as to the confusion of your mind. for not only is your soul revealed in your wish. while we look not at things which are seen. while you are voicing your wish. 18 TIELL a man who your friends are. too. a sacred custom.VI THE EXPECTATION OF AN ETERNAL HAPPINESS For our light affliction. and a blessed pastime. divinely speaking. which is enjoyed by all children. only proves the disparity between that activity and :hat which he must accept as a gift from life. since the wish cunningly betrays to him what you are in yourself.
And whereas in the old days one acquired eternal happiness by the grace of God. he will simply learn from the ex:essiveness of the gift the quiet gladness that is not importunate in its unremitting activity. with whom shall he take counsel? Everyone in our time is very familiar with civic affairs. so let us for a moment speak about them. As the heathen offer long and superfluous prayers about what God already knows beforehand. is this also merely an epigram. It is to its advantage. who believe that one should rely 112 upon God in the same way that one relies upon men. has one thereby tried to incite men to work the harder in order to acquire it? This seems by no means to be the case. as the wish for the assistance of heaven has become to the frivolous. but is humble even in its gratitude. It is a merit of our age that in many ways we have known how to work the wish weary. But the wish for the happiness of heaven. a loose and idle word. sometimes almost forgotten. so it is also a heathen fault always to be busy.by taking his own merit into account. so that if one helps himself. Nor does he call together idle and irresponsible vagabonds. anxious life. who have no connection with the fortunes of the country whose welfare they must consider. which for the sake of the good renounces the deceitfulness of wishing. We do not reproach the age because it has made the idea about the power of the wish into an epigram. if it thereby stimulates someone to work with his own hands instead of borrowing strength from the wish. now too often the eternal happiness seems to have become like an aged and infirm pensioner who sustains his life in the house of the rich on the wretched crust of poverty. then God does the rest? And if the wish about the happiness of heaven has become a proverbial expression. if it has thereby developed an honest seriousness. Rather the eternal happiness seems to have become what the thought about it has become. but only retains because of its oddity. "who learned to be idle and to wander . If someone in the state wishes to have one or another matter considered and acted upon. and thus to divorce the soul from its habit of wishing. always enslaved in earnest activity. or impudently dropped from the language. or indifferently pushed to one side as an outmoded form of expression one no longer uses. let us use them to illustrate the answer to that question. he does not summon strangers and aliens. To whom then shall that man go who wishes to consider what consequences the expectation of an eternal happiness has for the earthly. he will not even be:ome confused about it.
"whose idle speech eats as does a canker.about from house to house. is in conflict with that future. the man whose longing . for decisions by such people will only raise more questions. Therefore. so that he is not only as ignorant as the alien and the foreigner. then we must leave him to seek fellowship and cooperation among the like-minded. no matter for what reason. the man who here on earth acquired friends who are able to welcome him in the next world. the man who owns treasure in heaven and whose soul is bound up in this treasure. the man whose thought has preceded him and precedes him to prepare a place for him. in order to give them opportunity to consider at ETERNAL HAPPINESS n leisure how they may best devour the land. the man whose concern anticipates an explanation which life denies. then we must leave him to follow the precepts of a prudence which accords with his view of life. but who wishes with all his might to destroy it. not only a sowing but also a harvesting. but that it is precisely this which makes him capable of reflection. So one chooses otherwise. one assumes that a certain kind of interest is desirable. One assumes that personal concern not only does not make a man biased. Finally. If anyone believes that this present life is not merely a life of labor but also of reward. then he would certainly be least fitted to take part in a deliberative council. On the other hand. is the best assurance that the opinion rendered will not come to be as homeless as the inventor of the opinion. we should not care to ask advice from him. Therefore one chooses quite a different course. who has no acquaintance with and maintains no connection with that remote country about which we ask. instead of producing a decision. curiously and unstably occupied with the future. So." Finally. One assumes that the fact that his welfare is intimately connected with that future. the consideration of the matter about which we are speaking calls for similar precautions. one does not call together robbers and evildoers. not only idlers but tattlers also and busybodies". If someone merely thoughtlessly and to pass the time allows his thoughts to wander about. is just what makes him qualified ii4 to consider it. for he is an alien and a stranger. not only as irresponsible as that romantic knight of thought. that' one whose own welfare is as closely linked with that of the country as possible. too. if someone.
except ETERNAL HAPPINESS 115 that the individual does not call attention to the fact that he is wishing. the man whose feeling would revolt at the terrible thought of cancelling out the happiness of heaven. Some of them harden their hearts in indifference. but just on that account it would be foolish if the individual wished to set himself apart and rejoice in the fact that he can breathe. in what does this consist? In this. is a matter of course. nothing follows from it. that he. whether he wished it or not. and does not release him in death. as it were. whether he wanted it or not. for you have certainly already noticed that this speech is foolishness. almost through its very cleverness. to a certain degree. He owns one or another good. but the difference. But whether it is a matter of course or not. almost make fun of the weak man. it is notorious that he distributes it to everyone. the man whose sorrow continues to follow the dead to the grave. and finally waste time on the consequences of the concern of doubt. perhaps eternal happiness is something which. whether one wishes it or not. And at bottom every man wishes. or rather let us for a moment continue to speak foolishly. Eternal happiness is a matter of course. they pursue their own affairs. so that it is foolishness to speak about something which follows of itself. and then by setting at rest the doubt through which we never attain the certainty we do when we accept it as a matter of course. an answer to his question. They all get this good² this they have in common. and can only disapprove of the wish for it insofar as the wish expresses a kind of concern which is not needed. let us for a moment speak foolishly. a well-intentioned man. would rebel more than a citizen on earth if someone should wish to destroy his native land: every such man is a good citizen. and in the smaller circle which constitutes the sphere of his activity. for in the same way every man breathes. unconcerned about him. My hearer. from whom the questioner may dare to expect guidance and assistance. so weak. forced it upon everyone. this view still does not deny that the happiness of heaven is a good. excuse themselves from every antecedent concern as to whether they were worthy and had not accepted his . in fact.holds the beloved fast. since eternal happiness comes of itself. Let us then foolishly assume that God in heaven is like a weak man who could never find it in his heart to deny anyone eternal happiness. Such a weak character is sometimes seen in life. let us therefore not waste time first by raising a doubt about that which goes without saying. But perhaps we have gone about the whole matter in the wrong way.
many an hour. to be wellpleasing to the Giver. they absolve themselves from every subsequent concern as to whether their gratitude truly appreciates the giver and the gift. a man whose thought had been as distant from it as the abyss is from heaven: it seems to me that this man must die again from shame. my hearer. must wish himself away. we have sometimes pictured the horror which must have seized upon the rich man when he awakened in hell. accept the good doubtfully in the form of a wish. on the other hand.goodness in vain. It seems to me that this man must feel as unhappy as one who in a foreign land wishes only to leave it. you would still feel a deep sense of shame whenever you compared your life with theirs for whom concern about this matter filled many a moment. their heart and good will are yet favorably disposed toward that man through whose goodness they received it. or the mind which they disciplined according to their best insight and with all their strength. We have spoken foolishly. but if it were the case with eternal happiness. We have sometimes imagined how terrible it must be for the intoxicated suddenly to awaken with all his thoughts in confusion. and a gift it remains. believe themselves justified and under obliga- n6 tions to behave in this way. and even if they regard that goodness as weakness. Others. how would you wish to accept it? Would you wish to accept it as that first man accepted the earthly gift? Even if you believed your eternal happiness was absolutely assured. for a gift it is. and by means of which they prepared for the transition. because gratitude is the only expression which indicates their relation to him. because the bliss of heaven and his own unworthiness could not tolerate each other. but even so it has certainly shown that a man would not dare to become indifferent to the thought about an eternal happiness. and even if they think they do not deserve the gift. they conceal the thought from him and from themselves. How then could eternal happiness become a matter of indiffer- ETERNAL HAPPINESS "7 ence to one for whom the speech did not need to venture . For a sudden transition is a terrible hazard. or the heart which was moved in gratitude. If this held true about the reception of eternal happiness. whether it was the wish which engaged their attention. that the instant a man breathed out his last sigh he awakened to this bliss.
but let us this time continue to reflect on the result as it concerns the present life. his labor not without its reward. and these other things are added to it. then. in spite of its glory. then it is deceitful. maturity of understanding enough to realize that eternal happiness is as little to be taken by violence as it is to be redeemed like a forfeit in a game. and the result of this expectation a blessing to him in time. Then it is not an expectation of the eternal. whose soul is wellprepared to consider what would entirely overcome that confusion. even if he does not deserve the happiness of heaven. but whose soul was well disposed to listen to the earnest word of earnestness. a sick soul's craftiness that would sneak out of life. his anxiety will not be an unfruitful trouble. or the improvidence of the birds who do not gather into barns. that "love for the world is enmity toward God"? Such a one has the spiritual sense to be disgusted with the idea that eternal happiness. his prayer not without blessing. it n8 "seeks the kingdom of God and His righteousness. then man does not rest in the trustworthiness of the eternal. For the expectation of an eternal happiness is able to do what ordinarily seems impossible." If the expectation does not do this. Such a one truly has time to consider the one thing needful. like the inactivity of the lilies which do not spin. but jests with the possibility of the future. The result of the expectation is. since he will hate the one and love the other". to be in two places at once: it works in heaven and on earth.out to the extreme limits of thoughtlessness. not a sound soul's frank presence in the temporal. But then his thought about this eternal happiness will not be wasted. for the more profoundly earnestness understands the fear of the separation² if this does not destroy the responsibility and force the soul. let us in our reflection always keep the . And this occupation will also become a reward to him in this life. fear and trembling in his soul to be terrified at the thought of breaking with heaven. as it were. earnestness to reject the flattery of lightminded thinkers. that "God is not mocked". or his wish be in vain. courage to desire eternal happiness. that "no man can serve two masters. but only becomes fitted to inherit it through the vigilance of expectation. to surrender²the truer is the expectation. but a superstition about the future. might be nonsense. or taking it in vain. whose soul is fully awakened from its sleep to understand what would certainly plunge the sleep-walker into the abyss. two-fold. like the solving of a riddle. which is merely intriguing. Then is the expectation an insidious craving which has not taken counsel with earnestness about the various decisions of fulfillment.
since its goal is too insignificant for him. a man's soul is expectant of an eternal happiness. the Apostle Paul. and even if this happens. But neither the impetuosity of youth nor the giant strides of the imagination will help him.words of the apostle. It has a standard for strength and endurance. and when it estimates the extent of the finite. experience has the advantage of being strong in detailed reflection. it is important as a guide in life. and perhaps does not even last as long. and yet he cannot get along without a goal and a standard. clear-sighted at ETERNAL HAPPINESS "9 a distance. on the contrary. Even if one's life passes quietly and . it soon collects itself and measures again. its standard too low. he who has only the standard of the temporal existence goes down with the temporal. it knows how to get along. which is at the service of the imagination. It is not easily taken by surprise. In contrast to the precipitancy of youth. it will cause him to despise experience. We often and with reason praise the tested look of experience because it is far better able to help one to the right way of life than is that of youth. which is best understood when it is understood gradually. which we read at the beginning. and. active in the service of the temporal existence. for without these life is desolate and confused. If. deluded by mental illusions. and so let us speak about: THE EXPECTATION OF AN ETERNAL HAPPINESS AND THE SIGNIFICANCE THIS EXPECTATION HAS FOR THE PRESENT LIFE The expectation of an eternal happiness will help a man to understand himself in the temporal existence. in proportion as life appears favorable or disturbing. Perhaps many a human life is passed in this way. before our eyes. a goal toward which it strives. but also belonging absolutely to such existence. while still its deceptive second sight cannot endure the inspection of an observer. to determine the length of the way and the time. it estimates the uncertain. for dangers and difficulties. it always knows how to gauge the individual. and when it progresses from the certain. It knows how to strike a trial balance. The advantage of experience is that it always has a standard by which it measures. for opposition. Precisely because of this. therefore. then will this expectation certainly disturb him for a moment. while our thought lingers with that concerned and powerful witness of the future. for life in the temporal existence is seen only in part and as a dark saying. Still.
by means of this goal and this standard he may always understand himself in the temporal existence. so neither shall sorrow nor the false goal of suffering teach him to sorrow in despair as one who has no hope. and give him the false goal of vanity in its place. teaching him wrongly to rejoice as one who has no hope. remote from the great decisions of life. imagine this. in peril of the soul's temptation. Then you would doubtless scrutinize the words. indeed. then. but still not put to the extreme test in earthly distress. but the beautiful meaning of the happily chosen words is about like this: that the earth is beautiful enough as a halting place for one . and valid in itself. so far from being what it has been to you from earliest childhood. you might perhaps use a not unfamiliar verse. a man preserves that expectation in his soul. on the contrary. he is still a child of the temporal existence. then he has a goal that is always valid." These are the apostle's words. if he has learned nothing higher in life. which we are not able to quote here because it is in a foreign language. if this name. such a testimony. not. My hearer. for whom the eternal does not exist. And. worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. the favor of men. If you were asked to substitute a similar expression for this one. you would compare them with the testimony of others about life's distress and eternity's glory. and then consider that these words are submitted to you with the request that from them you infer what the lot of the man must have been who could give life on earth and eternal happiness hereafter. if he succeeds in slipping through life without any such dispensation of Providence upsetting his calculations. will not trick him out of his goal. if you had never heard Paul's name mentioned. on the other hand. he becomes the prey of despair. which we read in the beginning. absolutely unacquainted with the secret wisdom of suffering which exists for those initiated into its secret.120 peacefully. As success and prosperity. "For our light affliction which is but for a moment. a standard which is always valid. victory and gain. events may still take place which his experience has not exhausted. If. If this happens to a man. and then you would certainly conclude that this man must have lived a fairly quiet and un- ETERNAL HAPPINESS I2 I disturbed life in honorable obscurity. were unknown to you. a name revered and sacred.
and hence was indeed tempted to acquire a distaste for the earthly life. if we dare to speak thus. in prison. When he is sitting in prison. measured with it. what certainly no one needs to tell you. which are but for a moment"? And yet Paul was certainly not without a goal and not without a standard. and its ideas are no less swift. and quickly adds it up. and its eternal happiness his measuring-stick. and merely deludes itself. in peril of life. then it quickly reaches 122 the goal. that for forty years he was tossed about in the world. that Paul was halted on the way of offense. then was heaven his goal. oh. Even if it is inspired by the thought of Paul. Let experience spell its way forward. Would not this amaze you? Would it not make you giddy. that Paul took out his measuringstick. not to be endured. because it goes backward. When the intensity of the suffering deprives his soul of its com- . it would doubtless say: "Such a life is a perpetual affliction. When the community went astray. a stumbling block to the Jews and to the Greeks foolishness. with no certain dwelling-place. because your standard was not equal to such a scale! Let youth try its hand at this! Aye. in nakedness. when the goal of his activity is foolishness to experience. and hence was certainly tested in the perils of the soul. and lo. in hunger. and finally executed as a felon. then I think. when error grows and flourishes while he can do nothing. When it gets a round number. then is heaven his goal. youth is swiftly stimulated to admiration. its enthusiasm does not understand him. rejected by the world. when the soul would fail from fear and anxious expectation. and there was no goal.who expects an eternity." and that he told you. When the thunder clouds of affliction began to gather and to threaten with their terror. when false doctrines and human instability drifted about it so that the way of truth became impassable. that he was carried up to the third heaven. the affliction was brief and light. that he had borne witness with such passion that to his listeners he seemed mad. but not beautiful enough to make a man forget that he is still only on the way. Imagine now that at the same moment a man entered who said: "These words are by the apostle Paul. for eternity was his goal." A perpetual affliction² is this the clarifying interpretation of the words of our text: "our light afflictions. outlawed and abandoned. And this expression would no doubt satisfy you and others.
it does not know. an order that need and sufferings cannot cancel. which is blotted out by the waves. but Paul understands that the blessedness of heaven has an eternal overweight. and lo. which the wind blows away. when even the one ordinarily resigned to the will of God. When the burdens of life rest heavily upon him. un- . When the demands of life exceed the judgment of experience." Experience indeed understands about weights and measures. a standard which is always valid. when thought adds the burden of past days to these. and only he was the most wretched who "had hope for this life only. and especially strength- 124 cned when the purpose of his striving is not to wean him self from this nourishment. And yet the life which is without a goal and a standard is comfortless and confused. then life becomes confused and comfortless. while it would have been unendurable if he had sought for guidance on the basis of human consolation. Experience indeed knows how to comfort in many ways. I think. Experience knows all the many inventions of the human heart.posure. the suffering becomes brief and light. a battle in the clouds. and yet the life whose experience did not end with verifying that experience is not enough. And the expectation of an eternal happiness is a refuge in time of need. And constant association with this idea nourishes a man better than the mother's milk the nursing babe. For the bliss of heaven is above and beyond all measure a great and eternal weight of happiness." no other alleviation than the satisfaction of knowing how heavy the burden was: then Paul weighs it. but a joy which does not originate in any human heart. is only a race of the uncertain. will certainly search for a goal which is always valid. and he almost sinks beneath the weight. which gets lost on the wrong way. Experience has long known how to bring gladness to the anxious. he takes out his measuring-stick. but to accustom himself to it. when experience has long lost courage and is willing to declare him "the most wretched of men". and from this concept he returns strengthened. but what can it do? It is scarcely able even to lift the apostolic sufferings and place them on the balance. but a joy beyond all understanding it naturally does not know. a writing in the sand. and lo. it becomes light. then. He who has experienced this. but only the blessedness of heaven knows how to comfort beyond all measure. I2 3 has no other consolation than to wish "that all his calamity were laid in the balance. a fortress life cannot take by storm.
my hearer.o the king. what support does experience have for him. but he is in a covenant of eternal happiness with the God who will dry all :ears. like every. for he does not hear the shriek of anguish.less the expectation of an eternal happiness regulates and calms it. to his . The child wants everything it sees. And he whose mouth was bound as not even the mouths of the oxen were bound that threshed out the grain for others. When it is demanded of the rich young man that he shall go away and sell all of his goods and give the money to the poor. even when he made others glad. the experience of another will not comfort the sufferer. to his neighbor what belongs to him. is not heard except by the One who sees in secret and understands from afar. and this covelant is not seen. and the youth is not much bet:er. inseparably. And there is a fellowship of suffering with God. like the :ovenant God Himself has blessed? The expectation of an eternal happiness will reconcile wery man with his neighbor. then what does experience know about it? And he who does not need first to go and bury the dead because they were buried long ago. ind the whole world to humor his wishes. if the thought does not comfort him that there are always more born than die? And if there is a solitary pain. and he whose soul was anxious. for the demand was not for just a part of his wealth. the door of whose lips was locked. fruitfully. even if he knew that his words would attract the attention of the curious. and the one. it gives to the king what belongs . he wants everything to accommodate itself to him. because the pain could not be understood. which indeed gnaws deepest.² An eternal happiness hereafter? Do you ask. he could not judge the intensity of the pain by the shriek. for that is why the shriek was stifled. then experience does not know how to help.hing which God has joined together. whose secret is the assurance of an eternal happiness in :onfidence with God. since his possession was of such a quality that hardly any one would buy it from him. it makes a difference between mine and thine. And if there was someone of whom it was not required that he must sell everything in order to become perfect. and even if he heard it. ETERNAL HAPPINESS 125 There is a covenant of tears with God. his own experience will not help him. and with his enemy in understanding of the essential. But experience mows how to shift and divide. but whose sorrow has only increased with the years. that it is able to join your mxious soul to the inward joy. but scarcely gain him sympathy in the pain² how will experience be able to comfort him? But the expectation of an eternal happiness consoles beyond all measure. what this is and what it will bring? [s it not enough for you that it is even here able to make :he affliction brief and light. with his friend.
and impresses upon them the need of compromise. then is such a life merely wretched. It indicates that if human life wishes to pass in this way. or with anything earthly. has always present in himself that which is valid in itself. and the compromise forced upon them through necessity sometimes bears within itself the germ of a more profound disunity than that which had been thrust aside. he whose soul expects an eternal happiness. it still does not really belong to him but to the one who reflects upon it. pitiful as a childish jame. But this beautiful moment of the temporal existence is still. But when the danger is past and the misfortune blows over. is the fruit of the temporal existence. whether it occupies itself with millions or with pennies. then its loss will make the difficult easier. as if under a spell. On the contrary. and to the observer who succeeds to the reflection. silvery gleam of counterfeit metal. so ETERNAL HAPPINESS 127 hat a camel can go through the eye of a needle. lowever much it is bedizened. if it ought to be earnest. He is constantly influenced by an aspiration which does not bring him into conflict with anyone. when a common misfortune teaches men to cooperate.memy his due. and the most one can say of it is that it was a beautiful moment. and how this reconciliation benefits them collectively and individually. and against which all the petty appears as the petty. When the common danger stands at every man's door alike. in 126 which the nobler and better qualities of a man sink down in lethargy. Even if it is attractive to look at. but is also the prey of the temporal existence. whose possession does not exclude anyone else. and retains its own. But if it is Dassed in this way. then it is fortunate if dis:ress and danger interrupt this monotonous security. until the story about it is also forgotten. and if he loses it in the right way. then it is indeed seen how they are reconciled by an understanding of the common danger. that it has thus arranged life which in he realm of temporal existence passes in sheer reciprocty. in comparison with the eternal. he can lose the earthly. For this reason we Draise experience. and he . only like the brief. such a life still belongs to the temporal existence. Perhaps many a human life is thus tirelessly engaged jintil it is finished with temporal existence. That is. And even if that reconciliation casts a beautifying radiance over a period of the individual's life. then they return only too soon to the old mode of living. petty.
and he in whose sight the earthly ecomes too important. and > concerned for his own eternal happiness. and reconciled with everyone. "While we look not at the things seen.nil not wish to exclude anyone. if a man in his zeal to exclude others is so soothed by the idea that he does not . They did not notice that this temporal assurance was only an illusion. this is why the new wine bursts the old containers. But e who turns away from the temporal to the eternal. will gradually lose the ability to rize the heavenly. and therefore it must be dissolved and cannot ndure. because of this great certainty. and so we may /ell go on. and he temporal is not only perishable. For he who egards the temporal will gradually become incapable of onsidering the eternal. they did not notice that it was a bird in the hand they had caught." These are the apostle's words we ead at the beginning of this discourse. But while. drew up conditions. and through the help of these they were assured of eternal happiness. in truth. to let them pass or what they are. instead of being the eternal medicine which heals all sickness. would brave its way into eternity. For he eternal is always in harmony with itself. he is reconiled with himself. for the things seen are temporal. which. and its harriony excludes only that which excludes itself. owerless as it is. pain while he possesses it. but it is at variance /ith itself. but the things lot seen are eternal. a bird which wanted to fly. this is why time onsumes the earthly affection and even the hate. it would doubtless be better to do this in the ase of the earthly and temporal things. they did not notice that they "hung eternity in a cobweb". s well as the great toil and sorrow through which a man elieves that he attains importance. This is why the prodigal :atters without pleasure what the stingy hoards without 3y. they forfeited more and more the eternal happiness. it would still be. but at the things lot seen. if he himself is anxious n the right way. the right to exclude others. They employed a particular criterion. his is why forgetfulness wipes out the vain achievements. and not consider them. ain when he must abandon it. the most distressing misunderstanding. This is why his treasure causes pain to the miser ven while he is gathering it. 128 Still "concerned for his own eternal happiness"² is this expectation not a new burden one assumes. in the same way that one is assured that what he holds in his hand exists. Let them retain this right. even when it is unto death? Sometimes men have chosen another kind of certainty than that of concern. But the things seen are temporal. While ordinarily one leaves the happiness of leaven for a later consideration as to what it may someime be. they won ² the right to let the determinations be decisive for others.
and wishes that its festal entrance shall be decisive for others. the individual to whom this happens is excluded from the reflection. he must still confess that from a finite standpoint he cannot decide what the conditions are. And yet. then. an enclosure where finite thoughts. "which Decame a prey to worldly wisdom. even if the concern did not procure for a man the humble entrance into heaven. might be preferable. for it is precisely the finite which the anxiety takes . as the expectation is not. becomes reconciled with itself and thereby with the inequalities of life. abandons the world. then. that hate and wrath and earthly partiality and worldly considerations again intruded on the eternal to set it at odds with itself and make it contentious! Who is not terrified by such perversity? For my part. What wonder. it night perhaps again seem. However. which would triumphantly enter heaven. Even when he has considered it most intensively. as soon as the concern ceases. did not lie in the fact that one accepted the conditions. through a misunderstanding. a holy of holies in the soul. ETERNAL HAPPINESS 129 shuts itself into itself.he other hand. the one who is truly concerned understands very well that there must be a condition. where consciousness draws back. let us earnestly consider this matter. But." was due to the fact :hat it joined the bliss of heaven to finite conditions. That misunderstanding.even dream that he is himself excluded. :hat the thoughtlessness. that the temporal existence again delighted in its rights. On . it would still be worth while to strive after it. but in the fact that the concern for discovering these conditions was so quickly satisfied :hat the individual even gained time and opportunity and purpose to decide the question for others concerned. Insofar as that distressing misunderstanding. this is very far from being the case. but finitely he will never be able to fathom this. the careless foolhardiness which s not troubled by any condition. and we are igreed that everyone who is without concern. I have always tried in vain to understand it. is once and For all excluded from considering a matter for whose conideration concern affords the only approach. are found overthrown (like the statue 3f Dagon before the ark of the covenant) before the sublimity of the concern which is solely concerned about it in its validity. still. for the concern prevents a finite understanding. so that there may still be an inwardness. insofar as they presumptuously wish to push themselves in. Moreover. for the bliss of heaven is and continues to be the decision which decides everything.
and so . how could it then occur to him to wish to decide this question for others? For before one begins on others. on account of which he must take refuge in grace. too.i 3 o from him. then everything would be vanity). and I hope nothing similar ever will happen) whom the thought of being chosen for this group occupied as much as the thought of inheriting the eternal happiness of heaven ought to concern everyone. definite conceptions. how could he ever with finite certainty decide whether these conditions were present within him? These conditions being then acts. moods. again. and this uncertainty nourishes the concern. In everything he finds out there will always be a residuum of uncertainty. the concern will soon transform itself into earthly confidence. something we indeed wish for the ETERNAL HAPPINESS 131 individual. humanly speaking. and in time of war it is regarded as a great honor to be selected to belong to it. Suppose now there were a man (we know very well that this is an unhappy aberration which never happened. The conditions for eligibility were familiar to everyone: there was required prowess in battle. and then. But whoever through grace is absolutely certain. how could he. he is. that there were certain conditions which one could accurately state in words. if he was again concerned (and if he were not. too. but also constantly saved through grace. physique. But. and by means of which the observant thought might test what the condition of the individual was. but in addition there were certain external conditions² a stipulated height. how could he ever get enough vain assurance to decide this question for another? Still. not by virtue of some finite condition. absolutely uncertain. and through the imperfection of the metaphor direct attention to that eternal validity of which we speak. If he is now constantly concerned in this way. he expects God's grace. and who must not be truly concerned if he would consider the question seriously! But if an uncertainty constantly remains behind in his soul. Let us for a moment speak metaphorically. and the concern nourishes the uncertainty. not bastard children of doubtful parentage! Who could do this if he were truly concerned. for then it is not grace. who knows himself so intimately that on his own responsibility he would dare to vouch that these conditions were present in himself just as they ought to be. one must first be absolutely certain himself. suppose. There is sometimes found in an army a little selected group which is called the band of the immortals. if he constantly perceives that it would be a distressing sign if the concern should cease. This uncertainty may be expressed in this way² that he expects eternal happiness by the grace of God.
And. for . for he was too concerned for that. for all the conditions might be separately present. nor to be disturbed in his happiness by any irrelevant thought. or whether everything was present in the right proportion. so this irrelevant thought may well cause a man to lose his eternal happiness. be sympathetic enough to wish another chosen? Oh. And the question as to whether something was lacking. just as the consciousness of having done a good deed may cause one to lose the reward. On his own judgment. it indubitably proves that he is not considering eternal happiness. if he was as much concerned about being selected for this group as every man ought to be about inheriting the eternal happiness of heaven? Still. as is sometimes suggested. He must then prove whether he satisfies all these requirements. One who was himself concerned would scarcely wish to exclude anyone. So if a man who believes that his own eternal happiness is assured. What might not 132 happen during these days! And even if these passed without any bad luck. nevertheless considers some such thing. spare your sympathy for a better cause. that he felt perfectly confident. he would be rejected. and he knew that if he lacked the slightest of these requirements. yet suppose at the moment he entered the palace of the commander he should happen to stumble! I wonder if such a man would have the time or the opportunity or the disposition to go around and observe the other candidates in order to see whether they might fitly be chosen for this band. not in general. however. then do it. perhaps. I wonder if in his deep concern he would understand that to have been almost selected was still a rejection. he must wait several days. and understood that he fulfilled them unequivocally (let us assume this)² still would he have time and opportunity and serenity of mind enough to wish to decide the question for others? How? Is not the happiness of heaven so great a good that it needs no augmentation through any external circumstance? He who possesses eternal happiness can neither wish to become happier through some irrelevant thought. Would he not with deep concern realize this. but would he. I think this judgment might well become to him the unrest of concern. Suppose. even if a man knew the conditions to the last letter. and if you can do anything for a man. but not united in that vital harmony which determined the choice. but we still do not forget that he was as much concerned about this selection as a man ought to be about the eternal happiness of heaven. would be decided by the commander of the army on his own judgment. modestly as is becoming to you. One difficulty would still remain. not in a slip-shod manner. The choice was not to be made immediately.on.
should it disturb my eternal happiness if he. "What is truth. were a wise man who profoundly asked. to confess that it was through grace. I wonder if that righteous man would continue to be so unfair. and offend heaven itself. on the contrary. And if there were. and that the infinite happiness of heaven made you both equal. were saved? Or should I be vain enough to wish to assist him by my sympathy! Oh." and restlessly meditated upon the question with ability and success² I wonder if it could disturb you that he became equally as happy as you. Even if there were a man (something I truly have not experienced) who embittered my life for me early and late. when he considered that the compensation was eternal salvation! He indeed had richly and in abundance. and this is equally near every man.ETERNAL HAPPINESS 133 we are all unprofitable servants. And if there was a righteous man who from his youth up had kept the commandments. nor would he get more by my being excluded. and you. and made me think evil of everything. . too. so that I should again be thrust out. and I were a robber who "yet today. then it might indeed offend him. and our wage proved to be the same. and throughout a long life had expected the eternal happiness of heaven (which truly is a rarely honorable distinction). if I were to believe that it was because of my worthiness. Certainly. not what one in the more exact sense calls so. And let no third party who has himself received grace mar this by unwarranted meddling. frail and very ambiguous. so near. not to me. with the observance of all the forms and without any mental reser- 134 vations. But if I am now willing. and if I were not called until the eleventh hour." hence at that very instant. However every man acquires the eternal happiness of heaven only through God's mercy and grace. that it is a matter between God and himself. the concern about an eternal happiness! It turns the thoughts away from all unseasonable considerations! Even if there was someone who had borne the heat and toil of the day. and even our benefactions are only human inventions. I wonder if it would disturb him. but what in the plain daily speech one rightly calls a simple man. for I had certainly been admitted² but to himself through retaining his anger. my hearer. had come as far as he: I wonder if that would be able to disturb him.
should I not. and what is more blessed than the equality which makes all equally happy? Is this not so. that learning sorrows. then I do not bring out the reckoning. then it will be said. not even the best. who had let his heart rejoice with other men. for it is a beautiful custom that men clothe the dead in his best apparel. the equality of death. even if being clever is commended more highly than believing. And your funeral will be different. when you come to die. so that the glory of the intellect shall not deceive me and injure my soul: should I not be willing to do it for Thee. then there will be a difference. and in this faith expect Thy eternal happiness!" . if God held in His right hand eternal happiness. my soul from the pettiness that would disparage Thee and Thy gift. and said with reason. when I consider the matter of my eternal happiness. even if you still became like one who chose the right? There must still be an equality. what I shall continue to do. "Oh. for only Thou dost know whether it was a good deed. my hearer? And because of this you said to God in your heart: "Father in heaven. what I have done later. and I also know that Peter stood more securely upon the waves of the sea. and what is indeed more disheartening than the equality to which men sometimes flee. have done. what I shall strive to do with all my might. And if it should be what we call a husband. that I cannot answer one to a thousand. which makes all equally ETERNAL HAPPINESS 135 poor. for I know. indeed. have believed a man against reason. if God held all truth in His right hand. Preserve my soul from the reflection which would penetrate what is not given me to understand. but had seldom been stirred by thoughts which have made you oblivious to everything by day. than does the one who stands on his own righteousness against Thee. in that I believed without understanding. I know. disparage myself by making myself greater than others. And I will not build my eternal happiness on any deed I may have done. a man who had lived happily with his wife and had begotten children by her in contentment. and in His left the eternal striving"² no. and its votaries deplore the loss. for only Thou dost know whether it might become a good deed. What as a child I did easily and naturally. Tear out from my soul the sophistry which cunningly takes the best and leaves me the poorer. then. and which have kept sleep from your eyes at night: I wonder if it would disturb you if he became as happy as you. wish for concern and confidence and sincerity in believing Thee. Preserve.Certainly. and not upon the best that I might do. but still the question is whether death will not reclothe him. and in His left also the concern which had become your life's content. since I can still do nothing of myself. would not you yourself choose the left.
We quote it for the benefit of some needy person. But in this we serve ourselves as little as we honor the saying. even though life and time be short. perhaps for the sake of offering him some degree of consolation in passing. cannot in general terms determine how much that little is. Indeed. our need is not for long. proud of needing little² while using much. until at length the sufferer perceives with astonishment that he needs even less than what he once regarded as the absolute minimum. and we immediately hasten ahead in order to receive ourselves at the goal² when we shall have realized the lofty task. Even one who has had the experience. so even when it persists in taking away it nevertheless deals solicitously with the sufferer." so it is always the case that the winter of our deprivation and discontent can make the day seem long. But as it sometimes happens that "when the day begins to lengthen. but only little by little. nor wants that little long" is a high-minded saying. and worthy also of being accepted as it desires to be accepted. For it is too earnest in its intent to wish to be admired merely as a beautiful sentiment or a neat bit of phrasing.VII MAN'S NEED OF GOD CONSTITUTES HIS HIGHEST PERFECTION MAN wants but little here below. well worthy of acceptance. perhaps merely for the sake of saying something. How much then is the little that a man needs? It is quite impossible to answer this question in general terms. though in this he did not think very clearly. since it is certainly not the smallness of the want that is the truly terrifying thing. We say it to ourselves in the day of our need. As such it is indeed sometimes present in our speech. for the human heart is deceitful and only too prone to take even high-mindedness in vain. the cold begins to strengthen. Just as time often brings new consolation to the sorrow- MAN S NEED OF GOD 137 ing. It rarely takes everything all at once. thus gradually accustoming him to do without. He sees that his wants are now so small that he can remember how he once shrank back in terror from the thought of needing so little. if not of needing little then at least of having to make a little suffice. new gains to those who had experienced great losses. new restoration of vigor to the abject. We say it to ourselves in the heyday of our prosperity. He remembers how he once ex- .
and the flattering attention of the throngs. and the deceitful service of false friendship. readily perceives that the man is about to be clothed upon. namely the stripping a man of his possessions in order to discover how little he needs." Indeed. And do you also lend your aid. and leads it into the desert to its destruction. however. can make him unrecognizable to other men. and let this discourse do what the sorrows and tribulations of life sometimes effect. and the obedient subjection of his pleasures to the whim of his desires. my hearer. seeing that it is engaged in trying to find consolation. How much then is the little that a man needs? Let life itself answer the question. Now he has lost it. it cannot terrify you if you have made trial of the process it is about to describe. as "when the ice and snow of despair create the delusive mountain stream that lures the caravan from the way. and the triumphs of his vanity over the admiration of his worshipers. For what folly there is in the notion that a human being should be known solely by his clothes.cited and heated his spirit by reflecting upon the contradiction involved in needing so little merely in order to go on needing so little. since when misfortune really comes it helps him little that the occurrence was a rare one. the discourse which confronts you with it. so he finds it hard to recognize himself² so changed is he: that he who once needed so much now needs so little. But who then is the more unfortunate? Is it the man who has made trial of the experience? Or is it not the soft and cowardly fool who can not perceive that his consolation is an illusion. though in this he did not fully understand himself. can terrify you only if your strength lies in the view that such things happen but seldom. Let us then take it away from him: wealth and power and influence. In truth. Just as the world cannot recognize him on account of the great alteration in his circumstances. and the envied magnificence of his entire presence. so that men do not recognize him when he is unclothed. and is content with less. and . since the contradiction could surely not be removed merely by needing more. and if you have thus found the consolation. Nor does it wish to deceive you. in the degree to which your special circumstances make you able and willing to participate. For the discourse does not wish to overwhelm you with sudden fear. the change in his circumstances. it is far easier to understand and much more cheerful to contemplate how this latter change can make him unrecognizable to himself. i 3 8 And if you have not made the trial. than how that other change. and is it not a melancholy thing that our admiration is reserved for the clothes and not centered upon the man! A more godly view of life.
"Man wants but little. though not necessarily more excellently. Whether he owns the grave in which he lies. A man needs no more if it is true that he needs only a little² in order to live. all need equally little. either in the evening when he falls asleep from his anxiety. or in the morning when he wakes to live with it. namely to have the satisfaction of his few wants assured to him. . if perchance he merely renounced one form of vanity in order to acquire another and a greater. he must hear applied to himself. and this phrase which it is so hard to hear. even if you never had occasion to see him wearily walk the path to the grave in order to make conquest with his eye of the little country he intends after death to make his own. his wants are somehow supplied. He is not like a man who renounced his wealth in order to try an experiment. the little that he needs in order to live. He feels the burden of his poverty doubly. and who perhaps therefore finds himself more easily in his self-chosen poverty. since it is not selfchosen. He does not suffer want. He does not even need that which nevertheless is something. and failed to understand at times that man wants but little here below. But he does not know from whence his needs are to be supplied. of which the saying speaks. But to know that one's wants are few. Nevertheless. and all need it only for a little while. had you nothing else to say to him than merely to repeat in his ear this one saying? Or did you perhaps have something else to say." says the proverb. without in any moment knowing with certainty that these few wants will be supplied² whoever is able to carry this burden needs but little. for the earthly wedding-garment and the heavenly are very different. But a little with contentment is great gain. but the little he has left. and in the grave all men need equally little. might not the way in another sense be very long indeed? And if he sometimes lost his courage. or has a leasehold for a hundred years (strange contradiction this!) or has had to force his way in among others. But the short time before. For even if the way that leads 140 to the grave is short. he is not compelled to go hungry to bed. may perhaps seem long. has had to struggle even in death to find for himself a little place: all have the same amount. for when the time comes he will doubtless find for himself a grave. Let us then MAN S NEED OF GOD 139 take that too away from him² not the contentment. He is a poor man.to be clad in festal garments.
and is not happy in its employment. so that it is the other who has the consolation while you lack it. To let the grace of God suffice us! The grace of God is surely the greatest of all good gifts. our discourse. Now and then this comes to his attention. lest everything be thrown into confusion: the thought. this belief is at bottom the most earnest and blessed conviction of every human being. But we so rarely evoke the thought. and he senses that there is something wrong about the use which he makes of the word. to his customary speech and habits of thought. the entire sum of all the treasures in the world. we quietly apply to this conception the old adage that "too much and too little spoils everything. and turn everything upside down. intermingled as it is with all sorts of worldly speech. And this is something that a man cannot long endure. which wounds unto death in order to save the life. And yet. Hence he falls back to the lower level of earthly things. in that the roles are reversed though the relationship remains the same. imagining and desiring. "Then you will have to be content with the grace of God. namely. and the human language itself. it really is the truth that the grace of God is the most precious of all good gifts. and you were to be so bold as to admonish him ." For if a man were really to think this thought in its eternal validity it would at once nullify all his worldly thinking. especially one so markedly different. If a man had what is less precious indeed than the grace of God. Perhaps the word did not even win your attention. for we often use many a word in this manner. namely." Let us pause here a moment. the other who is rich while you are needy. on this point we do not propose to raise a controversy.something that came so naturally and so easily to your lips that you found yourself perhaps not fully trusting the consolation you offered him. He thus acquires a bad conscience with respect to it. as the child uses the significant word without becoming aware of the spear-point of the thought. though the very opposite seemed to be the case until you heard the little magic word that changed all. And the older he is in years the harder it is for him to learn a new language. Confused. namely the familiar phrase. and if we wish to be honest with ourselves we must admit that in the last analysis. although without fully becoming MAN S NEED OF GOD I 4 I aware of what we do.
When a man comes to us in the name of the king. If. Whatever we are engaged in trying to make suffice. And further. How strange that the giver could appraise his gift so modestly as to match it with the advice to be content! Is it not as if a man were going to a banquet. which are already quite sufficiently insistent upon being taken at their own evaluation. must surely be something that is little. and met on his way a humble person who was not invited. he would doubtless smile at you. I am not invited by the great man. and in such a manner as to show that it is at bottom really excluded. invited by some great personage. admonishing him to be content with the gift. and to strive to be content with the most precious of all possessions seems indulgence in a strange mode of speech. nor could I accept the invitation even if I were. and for the sake of consoling him after a fashion. and the servant failed to make out on what errand he came. we thoughtlessly permit the distinction of the divine also to make its appearance." Or if the humble man himself said: "Alas. and the great man himself came to the door in impatience. and must content myself with sitting at meat in the kingdom of heaven"² would it not be a strange form of speech? The more one thinks about it. although the fact was that this coin was one which made its possessor the owner of the entire world. this authorization opens every door. If someone came to a great man's door. the stranger does the earthly life and the human language become. for what more could he ask to possess? And how great the insolence of "trying to be content" when one has everything." such speech would doubtless seem repugnant. this consolation is offered to the other by a man who does not himself appear to understand it. This is as strange as if someone were to offer a needy 142 person the gift of a coin. for I have a previous engagement. he were himself to say: "Now I shall try to be content with what I have. But it is a last desperate recourse for a man to come to us in God's name. and saw standing there a humble man who presented himself as coming in God's . and whoever is compelled to be content with such an authorization must be content with little. said to him: "You will have to rest content with the privilege of sitting at table in the kingdom of heaven.to rest content with this. Intermingled with all of life's earthly and worldly differences. on the other hand.
the mere fact of his friendship with the great man would nevertheless mean much to him. but this powerful friend could do nothing to alleviate his suffering (which is comparable to the grace of God being without external confirmation) . enjoyed the friendship of a great man. He will not grieve over what God has denied to him. and he will give thanks for it so as not merely to find it barely sufficient. If it is possible for a human being to persuade himself of the grace of God without the intermediation of any temporal testimony. my hearer. and cried out most loudly . and it is because of man's impatience that the language speaks of trying to rest content with the grace of God. then indeed it is quite certain that for him the grace of God is the highest good. but how could any man in any finite sense be persuaded that Almighty God could do nothing for him! Hence it results that our thoughts in their impatience steadily insist that God can surely do for us what we wish Him to do." 144 If someone suffering from some deprivation. when this impatience was at its height.MAN S NEED OF GOD j^ name² would not the door in all probability be shut in his face? But the discourse does not wish to startle you. One need not on that account omit to train oneself in the truer and more difficult interpretation while there is still time and opportunity. or finds it easy to understand. the reason doubtless is that the grace of God does not express itself in our experience as a human being would like. but happy and grateful. nor to shock you out of your continuity with yourself. That this is a misunderstanding. is certain enough. however. In the beginning. When the grace of God grants to a man what he likes and desires. to the refutation of which. under such circumstances he deems himself fully capable of understanding that God is good and gracious. The sufferer might readily persuade himself that the great man really was unable to do anything for him. in that "his heart is strengthened by grace and not by meat. When we speak of being content with the grace of God. he is not merely content. or without leaning upon that interpretation of God's providence which makes it profitable for him according to his own ideas of what is profitable. For now this difference in language no longer exists. he will not be overmuch concerned with the difference in mode of expression which formerly existed between God's everlasting faithfulness and his own childish littleness of faith. But here perhaps we touch the difficulty. And he will then strive to rejoice in God's grace so as not merely to rest content with it. but speaks instead a more difficult language. no one need leap too promptly and eagerly.
little by little. more and more burning with desire. For when a human being has fully awakened to its import it calls him aside. if it again seems to him that it requires a contented spirit to find the grace of God sufficient for his needs. now all things have become new. everything is changed. and in proportion as he needs less and less he becomes more and more perfect. of the divine glory ²the divine glory which had taken upon itself so humble a form. aye. And if this glorious vision vanishes. has said that God was happy because He needed nothing at all. nor the customary speech of men. he began to understand this more and more. because he needed little. and the sufferer found rest and peace in the serene incorruptibility of the inner man. as in truth he was even while he beheld the vision. The word which speaks of letting the grace of God suffice us is by no means intent merely upon offering us consolation. for the grace of God can never be seized by force. it could scarcely be made to understand that the contentment of which we speak could be praiseworthy. In the case of the earthly goods of life the principle obtains that man needs but little. for the assurance of the grace of God. that to be in need of God is no shameful embarrassment. But in the relation between a human being and God this principle is reversed: the more a man needs God the more perfect he is. he nevertheless sometimes admits to himself with shame that the grace of God is something that one may well find worthy of one's contentment. namely. even if only intermittently. that it is of all things most worthy to be desired. MAN S NEED OF GOD 145 So then it happens. A pagan who knew only how to speak of earthly things. to a place where he no longer hears the earthly mother-tongue of the worldly mind. But he stands now where the word is glorified. that it is of all things most blessed to possess. and he came to behold a vision. so that he again becomes a sufferer. but precisely the perfection of human . more and more filled with longing. and upon re-affirming this consolation whenever earthly want and deprivation makes it seem necessary. But as the impatience subsided. and confides to him the secret of perfection. and next to Him in happiness was the wise man.to be satisfied. nor the alarums of the actors on the stage of life. that the human heart becomes in a very beautiful sense more and more discontented. until at last his heart was moved. aye. And behold.
God nevertheless thinks of each individual separately. since these are sufferers. to concern Himself particularly with him. it may nevertheless not unbecomingly enlist the thoughts of many. the most powerful in the land. while it is only in general terms that the sick and the sorrowing are mentioned. But such a concern will scarcely prompt anyone to pray or at any rate not prompt anyone to pray. this is still the last resort of every human being in his misery. and his death disturbs its life? Wholly worldly as such a concern is. and holds the fate of many in his hands? Is it because his well-being determines that of countless others? Is it because every shadow of misfor- man's need of god 147 tune that passes over the ruler's house also darkens the homes of all the people? Is it because his illness interferes with the functions of the state. But why is prayer offered especially for the ruler? Is it because he has earthly power. even then he says: God help me endure this thought. though the church hopes and trusts that God in His heaven will understand the petition in a quite particular manner. in spite of all. But the ruler is a great man. one which may serve at least as a passing reminder. that standing in need of God constitutes a perfection. to pray for the ruler and the members of the ruling house. would seem to be attested by a familiar circumstance. and thus gets God. so that though the church does not specify any particular person. In the churches of the various countries it is customary. after the sermon. that God's providence for individuals should be merely general in its character. and yet intercession is made especially for him. then may God help us! Ah. and that it would be the saddest of all tragedies if a man passed through life without discovering that he needed God. Even when he cannot endure this last thought. That prayers are also offered for the sick and the sorrowing cannot prove that being in need of God constitutes a perfection. And if God's understanding is of a different sort. Let us then strive to interpret to ourselves more clearly this edifying thought: 146 man's need of god constitutes his highest perfection The truth of this principle. if His cares and responsibilities for the government of the world permit him too to concern Himself with individuals only in a general way² aye.life. except with the res- .
alas. When the believer says enthusiastically that his suffering is light and brief and the yoke of self-denial easy. lest the enthusiastic words of the believer should make us downcast. precisely because it makes intercession. even if such intercessory prayer is offered in all churches. It is God Himself who best knows how to utilize a man's own anxieties for the purpose of extirpating all his self-confidence. And let us hope to God that the time may come when we too may venture to speak enthusiastically. It is only too easy for the great to take such prayer in vain. namely. for from this point of view a ruler constitutes just such an earthly good. if a man 148 rightly and earnestly understands this thought. And even if the individual church-goer tacitly consents to the intercession. or that the cross of suffering is pre-eminently ennobling. on his own responsibility and initiative. does not yet understand it earnestly enough. in the sense. just as the wife's prayer for her husband can scarcely be called intercessory. because it is convinced that the higher a man stands the more he needs God. it does not follow that the ruler on whose behalf it is offered has himself an understanding of the truth that his need of God constitutes man's highest perfection. and if. until at last the prayer ceased to be intercession. wishing to receive in our sleep what others have had to earn by labor and exertion. his life inevitably tends to become more difficult: this we do not deny. it is again God Himself who can best keep him from continuing to maintain a diver's under-water connection with his earthly self. that the higher one rises in the scale of earthly power and greatness the nearer one merely comes to the need of intercession. And one who tries to produce this consciousness experimentally. On the other hand. to utter such prayer in vain. when we discover that we do not at . it does not follow that all these understand it in a godly manner. Nevertheless. let us not take this profession in vain. and it makes intercession for the ruler. When understood in this manner the prayer would become more and more earnest and personally pressing. not leaving it to God to teach him. Let us then admit that this thought renders life more difficult. and when he is about to sink down into his own nothingness. But let us not too soon demand this degree of advancement for ourselves. the more closely the petitioner's own life was tied to the life of the ruler. On the other hand let us not doubt that the yoke of self-denial really is profitable. and it lies only too near at hand for those who pray. the many who do not go to church have no objection to this prayer being offered.ervation necessary whenever we pray for earthly goods. doubtless. without on that account becoming dispirited or cowardly. But the church cannot pray in this manner.
a claim that becomes increasingly valid in proportion as his complaint becomes increasingly loud. in order finally. and that it can never MAN S NEED OF GOD 149 be possessed except so as to give one occasion again and again to be reminded of how dearly it was bought. then he still has a bitter cup to drink.once succeed. Each miracle of truth is like the wonder at the wedding-feast in Cana: Truth pours out the poor wine first and keeps the best to the last." as he perhaps says of himself. to make it easier. it by no means follows that the understanding of life which constitutes a condition for the acceptance of the consolation. Hence it is always a matter of considerable difficulty for any one to offer another a consolation of this nature. I know where consolation may be had. and thinks to conquer at once in the joy of the word. aye. Because a man became unhappy. It frequently happens that a man imprints upon his memory one or another strong word or phrase. since the understanding in question does not by any means exercise a magic potency. Then when suffering comes to him he remembers the word. while the deceitful world pours out its best wine first. not only for the thoughtlessness of the fortunate man and for the many who yearn to be like him. and he were to reply: "Indeed. has come to full growth and maturity within him. 150 For if a troubled soul were to make an appeal to a man for help. begins by making life more difficult. or desire it double-mindedly? Nevertheless it must give us pause to note that what is offered to us as a consolation. or affect life in any outwardly decisive manner² should we on this account recommend it doubtingly. If he believes that it is only the means that are lacking to him. even "infinitely unhappy. he too is sometimes weak. before the consolation can come to him. finally in truth. or the admiration of men. but also for the unfortunate. But even an apostle does not always use strong expressions. or the attainment of his wish. he too is filled with anxiety. If he believes that he could help himself if given power. if he thinks that his complaining constitutes a just claim upon anything temporal. Thus he gives us to understand that the strong expression is dearly bought. But though this understanding makes life more difficult. humanly speaking. an indescribable comfort. and what is more. then he still believes in himself. the understanding that he can do nothing of himself. this consolation gradually transforms it- .
self within your soul into the highest of human joys. and because such a way out seemed harder to endure than the doubting soul's multifarious unrest. like the rich young man of the many possessions. though himself having few possessions. and another were to counsel him in these terms: "I know a way out of your difficulty which will give you full assurance of victory. so that he could not act because it seemed to him that the considerations on either side balanced each other exactly. while it was perhaps precisely on the advice of this enemy that he shut himself in² but a man must retire into himself so as to sink down into his own nothingness. What then is man? Is he but another jewel in the great chain of being? Or has he no power. and yet resembling the rich youth of the many possessions so much that it would have been quite impossible to tell them apart. you will nevertheless have conquered. act in the con- MAN S NEED OF GOD 151 viction that even if the opposite of what you wish results from your action." the anxious individual would no doubt be willing to listen attentively. Or if some anxious soul had run riot in overmuch deliberation. with that which is wished. You must cut down the bridge of probabilities which seeks to connect the wish. not as into a fastness that still bids defiance to the world. you must renounce the intercourse which the worldly mind has with the future. If millions of men fell by the wayside and forgot the task. nor do we intend to conceal the fact that it is seldom attained. the expectation. I am nevertheless resolved to achieve it. when the daring of youth and the power of manhood combine to ask. For the highest . when this glorious union of courage and strength holds itself ready to sacrifice everything in order to realize the great ambition. aye. the impatience. can he himself do nothing? And what is this power? What is the highest he can will? What will be the answer to this question. while the individual keeps his most dangerous enemy with him in the fortress. because it seemed to him that such a victory was not to be distinguished from a defeat." there would doubtless be one or another who would turn his face away in impatience. I will nevertheless persist in striving² but what is the highest of human tasks?" For our part we do not propose to cheat the highest aim of its true cost. you must learn to understand that you are absolutely nothing in yourself. desired and expected. making an absolute and unconditional surrender." there would doubtless be one or another who would go home sorrowful. Yield your wish and act. and had become the prisoner of his many thoughts. But when the speaker goes on to say: "Before this consolation can be yours. and speaks of its purpose in terms of burning zeal: "If no one else in all the world has achieved it. the desire. you must retire into your self.
But all his glory is. played upon by the world. which is not debased through being offered to all. could realize what would concentrate upon itself the jubilant admiration of men. as such. or rather. but desires first to control the eye before it marks out something that it desires to conquer. This is indeed a rare kind of greatness. is not his arm outstretched? Is not his mind attuned to a hymn of conquest? But if he is unwilling to be a weapon in the service of unclarified cravings. in order that the eye may belong to him and not he to the eye.of human tasks is for a man to allow himself to be completely persuaded that he can of himself do nothing. because the movements of his soul are determined by the manner in which the world plucks the strings. existing in and for and by outward things. It is not rare in the sense that only an exceptional individual is born to the purple. But the rare and lofty greatness of which we here speak is not well suited to be admired. for everyone is born to it. since it is offered to all. and if he wills this with such MAN S NEED OF GOD 153 earnestness that he does not hesitate if necessary to pluck . but external. absolutely nothing. it condemns as a fool every would-be admirer. in the world's service. if he wills to lay hold of the hand before it is outstretched to seize some outward thing. or it judges him to be a deceitful soul. It cannot tempt the sensuous man. but it is not rare in the sense that it is offered only to a few. It bids him go home. It is indeed a rare kind of wisdom. if he does not wish to be a mirror that reflects the world or in which the world reflects itself. Wonderful rarity. if he is unwilling to be a stringed instrument played upon by unclarified moods. in order that the hand may belong to him and not he to the hand. who does not understand what it is that he admires. or in being shared by all! When a man turns his mind to outward things it may seem to him as if he could 152 accomplish what exceeds the measure of human astonishment. aye. Does not the eye aim its arrows outward every time passion or desire stretches the bowstring? Does not the hand seek to grasp some external thing. could achieve what would satisfy him as nothing else would. and bids him retire into himself. if he is unwilling to play this passive role. because the world upon which he fixes his desire itself awakens this desire. On the contrary. To a merely external contemplation man is indeed the jewel of creation.
This struggle is not only exceedingly strenuous. This is the highest and most difficult task that a human being can perform²but what do I say. He is himself the only one who could bring consolation to bear. as over a treasure intrusted to his keeping. for he is his own witness. circumstances cannot decide the outcome. unless indeed he has plunged himself into the struggle of his own accord. This knowledge he will find it impossible to evade. is man's highest and most difficult achievement. is a misunderstanding. His powerful figure is held in a close embrace by another equally powerful figure. To brood over this understanding. For every other understanding of life. and he is also the only one who cannot bring consolation to bear. though the acceptance of such an interpretation may . his own judge. in terms of which he understands that he can help himself. that the wrestling cannot even begin. In this way man becomes a helpless creature. but it is at the same time fearful. and this annihilation is his truth. for it is as if the other figure would instantly overwhelm him. so that a man becomes something at the expense of the truth. they press upon one another with such equal suppleness and strength. not even this is in his power. his own accuser. He no longer strives with the world.out the eye. To achieve an understanding of this annihilation is the highest task for every human being. intrusted to him by God Himself as the secret of the truth. Behold him now. But this other figure is himself. and even the weakest of men. can do far more than he. Man can at the most will to understand that this fire only burns until the fire of the divine love lights the flames in that which the first fire could not consume. for he is himself the sole instrument 154 of his annihilation. following the dictates of his fancy. Thus he can do absolutely nothing. to cut off the hand. to close the windows of sense² then all is changed. in which case it is not the struggle of which we here speak. For the deceptive and falsifying interpretation of life is easy enough. the power is taken away from him and the glory. since he understands the need of the annihilation. It is impossible to say that the individual might have more power under other circumstances. for when the individual strives with himself. When life under the providence of God forces a man out of the shelter and security of its routine and elects him to be strengthened in this annihilation. They enfold one another so fast. untried in this struggle. but with himself. This is man's annihilation. the experience is one which knows no illusion and permits no evasion.
bold through having the courage to remain in a misunderstanding. in comparison with an eternal understanding! It is in this sense that man is great. . what importance could they possibly attach to the brief if bitter moment of separation which is called death.make him seem bold in the eyes of the world. Or would you rather be as one who is not at all suited to God. are well suited to one another? But if they are so suited to one another. It may perhaps seem hard to become as nothing. and Thou art MAN S NEED OF GOD 155 too near men in Thy omnipresence to permit them to see Thee. For Thou art too far removed from the thoughts of men in Thy wisdom that they should see Thee. God and man. for then he would himself become as nothing! But God in heaven can do all things. He dwells everywhere. Thou dost conceal Thyself from man in Thy goodness. then wouldst Thou be a suitable object to engage our low and brutish thoughts!" But now it is not so. that is. by not having the courage to understand the truth. the only remaining question is wnether you will consent to be glad over this wonderful piece of good fortune. and it is precisely Thy greatness which makes Thee invisible. that these two. For if misfortune came and taught two human beings that they were suited to one another either in friendship or in love. "O Lord. my hearer. and Thy omnipotence causes him not to see Thee. if Thou wert an impotent and lifeless body. namely. like a fading flower. dwells the God who can do all things. namely that you two are so well suited to one another. if Thou wert like a building that suffers decay with the passing of time² then would men take note of Thee. and he arrives at the highest pitch of perfection when he becomes suited to God through becoming absolutely nothing in himself. my hearer. or rather. and man can do absolutely nothing. how slight does not the distress that misfortune brought them seem to be in comparison with the joy that the same misfortune also brought them. though men fail to perceive His presence. so that He should not be able to do all things. But in the heavens above. and hence is not altogether suited to God? For you can neither change God nor could you wish to change Him. Does it not seem to you. but even in human affairs we nevertheless speak otherwise. the discovery that they were suited to one another! And if two human beings in the very hour of death made the discovery that they were suited to one another for all eternity. if Thou wert like a brook that runneth past. or as one who can himself do something.
and he does not know what will happen even at the moment when his last words have already reached heaven. If the people were to say to him: "Go to Pharaoh. just as he always sees merely the back of the Lord. I cannot even sacrifice my life for your sakes. Did not Moses as the Lord's messenger address himself to a degenerate people for the sake of emancipating them from themselves. he will doubtless reply: "I can do nothing at all. for what is it to level mountains and to fill up rivers in comparison with letting a darkness fall upon the whole face of Egypt! But these were only so-called the works of Moses. and from their slavery under a tyrant's yoke? What are even the greatest of heroic achievements over against what we call the works of Moses. but since the people so desire it. or merely a stick of wood. from their slavish minds. saying: "But in your hand this staff is a mighty instrument." He makes his appearance before Pharaoh. your voice is triumphant in persuasion. and the deeds were the Lord's. while the wise men in council listen to him attentively." then Moses will doubtless say: "I really cannot do anything." Moses will doubtless answer: "What is my staff other than a stick?" man's need of god 157 And if the people continue to press. and appeal to Moses for help. or take our admiration of it in vain. and since I cannot myself endure the sight of their misery when they languish from thirst. of this he is ignorant even in the very moment that he brings it down upon the rock. I can only refer everything to God. your eloquence irresistible. Humanly speaking. So Moses does not know beforehand whether the staff he holds in his hand is to be the finger of the Almighty. for your word is strong. but what is his weapon? It is the weapon of the impotent: prayer. because they recognize this leader as the wisest among them. The difference is worth noting. I will smite the rock. saying.i 5 6 But let us beware lest we admire this greatness frivolously. he could do absolutely nothing of himself. Moses does not form resolutions or outline plans. He knows it only afterwards. Moses can do nothing. for the weakest . unless the Lord so wills it. He returns to his people. but if they make as if to praise him and offer him their gratitude. "Take your staff and bid the rock give forth water to drink. though I have no faith that the water will gush forth"² and the rock gave no water." Or when the people are overcome by thirst in the desert." would not Moses have to answer: "Ye fools! I can do nothing at all. the weakest individual in all Israel has more power than Moses. He merely believes that whatever happens will be for the best.
and understands how to invest himself so as to yield the maximum return. insofar as even the weakest person still clings to the belief that there is at least something that he can do² such greatness will not tempt the ambition of the vain soul. that he does not value himself truly. provided it takes the time to understand wherein the greatness consists. namely. makes it more difficult to live. Whoever knows himself knows how much he is worth to the last penny. in the next. in nauseous cowardice. in accordance with what riches are really his. but even if a man knew himself ever so well after this fashion. Men rarely fail in this. What we call a man's self has a value like the value of money. And in this worldly-wise age of ours. or rather the same moment. And the life of each human being who does not know himself. But if this view of life.person in the land still thinks that there is something that he can do. for in the absence of such an understanding it would doubtless be prompt. they are not like a happily gifted child who does not know how much is entrusted to it. that he has not known how to make himself significant. to wish itself in Moses' place. or a thoughtless youth of great wealth who does not understand the significance of riches. In one moment to be as if stronger than the strongest. it does so only in so far as it considers man from the point of view of his perfection. then he does not know himself and is deceived. Ah. If he does not know how to do this. as the worldly wise will doubtless tell him. the consequent mission to seek their development to the greatest possible extent in accord with the circumstances of his life. stronger than all others. The failure to discover whatever talents have been entrusted to him. They avoid dealing frivolously with themselves and their powers. for 158 through this view of life a man learns to know himself. while Moses knows that he can do absolutely nothing. so that the roots of his life may penetrate ever deeper into the fibres of existence² such self-delusion is doubtless seldom encountered. is it really so very rare a thing . if he thoroughly understood how to put himself out at interest² could he on this account be said really to know himself? But if he does not know himself his life is in a deeper sense delusion. stronger than the whole world. to be weaker than the weakest. and seeks to stimulate men to view themselves in this light. inasmuch as the wonder is performed through him. and persist in telling him step by step as his life unfolds itself. that being in need of God constitutes man's highest perfection. They will tell him that he does not extract the joy of life from the spring-time of youth. and thus to make life significant for himself. is in a deeper sense mere delusion. that he fails to see that men will take him at his own valuation.
For instead of the entire world he gets merely himself. so that he became poor. dreaming that one is now awake.for a man to involve himself in such delusion? MAN S NEED OF GOD 159 The prudential self-knowledge we have just described ²what is its nature? Is it not a knowledge of a man's self in its relation to something else? But is it a knowledge of a man's self in its relation to himself? This means that in spite of its seeming trustworthiness such self-knowledge is ultimately a very dubious thing. In a certain sense it is also a complicated task. after having praised it in perhaps the strongest possible terms. ugly. just as it is difficult to rouse oneself from a dream without continuing the dream. Along this road one cannot reach a point of view which has regard to man's perfection. because the deeper selfknowledge begins with that which one who refuses to understand it must call an anxiety-breeding deception. he is deceived even if it is not actually taken from him. say that it is at the same time a delusion. because a i6o man's real self seems so distant from him that the entire world appears to him to be nearer than his self. because the entire meaning of his life was based upon a something of this precarious nature. so that someone else became stronger. This other could suffer alteration. For it would surely be a strange sort of perfection of which one must finally. If this other. impotent. but rather must we say that there is a deception when it does not. in relation to which he calculates his wealth. is taken away he is deceived. and such a change might take place at any instant. lacking in any solid foundation. and is far from regarding man from the point of view of his perfection. There is no deception when that which can disappoint us does disappoint us. And it is also a terrifying occupation. . Such self-knowledge is thus very imperfect. since it concerns only a relation between a doubtful self and a doubtful other. And if it is something that can be taken from him. and in order even to begin to consider man from the point of view of his perfection one must emancipate oneself from all such considerations. and his own self could suffer alteration. richer. This is difficult enough. more beautiful.
when all is lost. When man turns about. it cannot move. every moment admitting of a change to its very opposite. he calls the first self away from external things. and with its pursuit of it. and that is to silence the deeper self by letting its voice be drowned in the roar of the world's changes. how difficult here again not to fall into dreams. It is indeed the truth that the world about us is unstable. He interferes with its movement outwards. The environment may actually be quite favorable. For to assert stability of that which constantly changes is a contradiction. or it must admit that the deeper self is right. so evidently steadfast. provided only a beginning be made: it boots nothing. The deeper self thus proceeds to picture the outer world.instead of being master of his fate he becomes a needy petitioner. provided the deeper self is permitted to give itself expression. and it is so clear that it needs only to grasp the means at hand to achieve . dreaming that one does all this of himself. with its yearning for the surrounding world which is its object. there has never lived so clever a phrase-maker or so subtle a sophist that he can refute the eternal insistence on this point of the deeper self. so favorable. ah. in such terms that it no longer seems desirable to the first self. to plunge it into oblivion. Never in all the world has there been so nimble a tongue that it could beguile the deeper self. must acknowledge that the deeper self is in the right. The man has never lived who by the exercise of his power or by the magic of his wish could hold this variableness within the bonds of restraint. For the purpose of inducing the first self to acquiesce in this recall. Either the first self must contrive to slay the deeper self. it may seem so palpably reliable. this very minute everything may be changed. it follows that it may change man's need of god 161 at any moment. Ah. This is indeed a painful state: the first self sits there and gazes at the alluring fruits displayed all about it. instead of being able to do everything he can do nothing at all. and whoever does not discover this truth is always engaged in basing his life upon what is uncertain. with its elusiveness and its mutability. Whoever witnesses this struggle in his own soul. that almost anyone would be willing to forecast a favorable outcome. it is as if he blocked the way for that first self of which we have been speaking. namely as uncertain and precarious. There is only one way out. the deeper self makes the surrounding world reveal itself as it really is. However much the first self may shrink from this acknowledgment. What has now happened? The first self has been brought to a standstill. As soon as it is admitted that it is of the nature of the outer world to change. so as to confront himself in order to acquire an understanding of himself.
For so men say. and yet it seems stricter than the strictest father. what a merry life! But the deeper self refuses to retreat. What sort of unnatural state is this. But this does not yet happen. it does not bargain. that if one does not seize the moment while it is there it will soon be too late. a specific wish. let us say. as it understands it. But the deeper self sits there thoughtful and serious. the fortunate self and the favors of fortune. as everyone must admit. they are both aware of it. what follows? It follows that the first self cannot move a single step forward.a complete success. and that he is one of them. were merely waiting for one another² oh. is something that cannot be helped. But he is no child. Then there is danger in the offing. But it also wears an air of translucent gentleness. the surrounding world. like a physician at the bedside of the sick. does it not mean that this mind is beginning man's need of god 163 to give way? Ah no. They call upon him to seize the means. that they ought to enjoy life. And whose fault will that be. because it knows that this sickness is not unto death but unto life. like the experienced pilot. Then his heart beats fast within him. it either speaks quite unreservedly or not at all. That a child whose father is strict must remain at home. since he brings contrary winds. while a secret council is being held to determine whether it were not better to throw the pilot overboard. and he longs to make a start. it means something quite different. it makes no compact. The latter sits there anxiously concerned. it withholds its assent. both the first self and the deeper one. since the father is the stronger. namely. what does it all mean? When something of this kind takes place in a man's soul. that fortune is already in flight. yet it is clear that the moment of happiness hastens to depart. It merely says that even in this moment everything may be changed. and the deeper self is merely his own self. They explain to him that such is the law of life. if not the fault of the deeper self? But this cry again is of no avail. For it is . it means that the child is about to be weaned. Other men come to the assistance of the first self with suggested explanations. And yet. It is as if these 162 two. It is quite impossible to ingratiate oneself with the deeper self. The first self has. It knows that it is in possession of the conditions necessary for the realization of its ambition. that some men are the favorites of fortune. is as favorable as possible.
it is even possible to die as a child of advanced years. is it not to gain?" "The little secret that we two share with one another. and its cheeks redden again with the glow of new wishes. and still be only a child. in the death hour of self-denial. and a figure called probability sits at the side of the cradle and sings a lullaby to the child. This was what I impressed upon you. Then perhaps the deeper self will say: "Let me see. and you know it might have done so. At the present moment I believe that there is nothing to prevent the fulfillment of your desire. So now you can be well content. If the wish fails of fulfillment. as I was when my soul was filled with yearning. and become companions on the way. while I go out to buy something for you. I feel that I shall never be as happy as I was before. and it would have appeared that it was not probability that sat at the side of the cradle. To be sure. so beautiful." "Neither do I believe so: do you really think it would be desirable if I understood you in such fashion that I desired this thing as much as you? But have you lost anything by no longer caring so much about it? Consider on the other hand what might have happened if the world had deceived you." Perhaps the first self will then reply: "But now I do not care so much about it. aye. and thereby implied indeed that what you regarded as a certainty was really only a possibility² what then? In that case would you not have been the prey of despair? And then you would not have had me to rely upon. to be a child! And so the child lies at the breast of time in the cradle of the finite. I had almost forgotten it over our long struggle. and the child becomes restless. and through having gained instead the assurance that life cannot deceive you? To lose in that manner. Are you not better off through having lost something of your burning desire. had he not been a child the man could not have forgotten the pain so easily. next time you may be sure that it will be your turn. probability hushes it and says: Now just lie still and sleep." . fully forty years. oh. what it was namely that you wished so intensely. but the deeper self sitting at his deathbed. To tell the 164 truth.quite possible for a man to be thirty years old and more. I do not believe that you understand me. when this self arose to an eternal life. I said only that it was possible. So the child falls asleep. When the first self thus yields to the deeper self they are reconciled. But it is so enchanting. and the pain is forgotten. provided you do not forget the little secret that we two share with one another. for you will recollect that the ship's council was almost on the point of deciding to throw me overboard. though it once seemed as if it would be impossible ever to forget the pain.
For it is a far more imperfect thing not to need God. is nearer to perfection. if he still thought it had all been done in his own strength.Thus spoke the deeper self. that he cannot even rejoice in the happiest eventuality without God. and he will not be deceived even if it changes. as if it were an imperfection to be in need. with the consciousness that it is subject to alteration. for he has the consent of the deeper self. and finds i66 . whoever perceives that he cannot do even the least thing without God. he will not be deceived even if it all comes to naught. that in relation to external things a man can do absolutely nothing? If he moves immediately to grasp the external it may change in that very instant. And whoever understands himself thus. when the need is a need of God. If he proposes to act immediately in relation to outer things. Even if a man had realized the greatest and most glorious of feats. when the need is a need of God. when the need in question is a need of God. there has as yet been realized only the first condition necessary for self-knowledge. and when it seems to a man that he does not need God. he is in truth merely mistaken. and unless his enthusiasm was stirred by meditation upon it. if by curbing his spirit he had become greater than one that conquers a city. He may on the other hand accept it. and yet believed that he had done this in his own strength. for he has the consent of the deeper self. my hearer? What else than the truth. nor let it consider it a sad necessity which one seeks to put a better face upon by avowal. when the first self and the deeper self thus become reconciled. leaving him deceived. But such a perfection would be little praiseworthy. What is this secret. But the first and superficial sense of depression evoked by this thought would deter a man from beginning. A more profound selfknowledge teaches one precisely that one needs God. In order that a man may really know himself. and their common mind is turned away from outer things. unless his attention was directed in time to the thought that this need constitutes his perfection. Let it not entertain the thought that its need is a shameful secret it were better to hide. then his perfection would virtually be merely a misunderstanding. Only let not the aspiring soul be deterred or terrified. But if he acts. and in this fashion to accomplish something. On the other hand. man's need of god 165 Nevertheless. not immediately but in the light of this consciousness. new dangers must be met and new conflicts must be won. everything may in an instant come to naught.
It may seem strange that this is what a man must learn from a study of himself. man can do nothing. he cannot learn from the world that he can do absolutely nothing. but they often refuse to understand that he who truly knows himself. whose mind feels no shame in letting other people see that he can do nothing of himself. the opposition can come only from himself. whom the apostle Paul describes better and more briefly as one who "glories in his weakness. can he do nothing here? In order that a power should really be a power it must have opposition. But if he does discover this man's need of god 167 struggle. as it were. Thus in relation to outward things. But inwardly. from whence is it to come? Inwardly. The man who fails to discover the existence of this inward struggle is involved in a misunderstanding. whose heart hides no secret wish or preference for a happiness which should be a happiness on its own responsibility. but in whose heart joy always conquers because he jubilantly. who seeks no special compact with God. if it has no opposition it is either omnipotence or an illusion. Even if the entire world united to crush and annihilate the weakest of human beings. Whether . But if a man is to have opposition. Men say indeed that not to know oneself is to be deluded and imperfect. and his life is consequently imperfect. and if the entire outer world conspired to teach him. throws himself into the arms of God in unspeakable wonder over God who can do all things² aye. not even stipulating that his impotence should be concealed from the eyes of men. such a man is indeed the perfect man. he could still preserve in his mind a feeble notion that he might have been able to do something under other circumstances.nothing at all painful in the awareness. That he can do nothing at all is something he can discover only by himself. why then praise self-knowledge? And yet it is so. when the deeper self strove with the first self to prevent it from concerning itself overmuch with outward things. when the power opposed to him was not so overwhelmingly superior. but only a superabundance of happiness." and who has not even had so many and so dubious experiences that he has learned to express himself more voluminously. knows precisely that he can do nothing of himself. but not now as before. he will here again be made to understand that he can do nothing of himself. So then a man strives with himself in inward conflict.
he understands himself. When we speak of a man's overcoming himself by himself we usually think of something different. that he is engaged in a struggle with himself. then he merely strives with an accidental degree of temptation. If he does not strive in this manner. Inwardly he creates in his mind the temptations of glory and fear and despondency. and perhaps there lives or has lived a man of whom one might say that he surpasses all others in strength. every time a man grasps this brief and pithy truth. By this he does not mean that evil has once for all achieved a power over him. But has one who says this proved himself or understood himself in what he asserts? For how can I be stronger than myself? I may be stronger than the weakest. Thus when it happens that a man who was once tempted by the lure of the world's honors overcomes himself. of something merely external. when a man who feared the dangers of life. But can a man not overcome himself in his own strength? This is indeed sometimes asserted. but no man was ever i68 stronger than himself. when a man who had lost his courage and confidence overcomes himself to the extent of standing fast. and to safeguard himself against driving out devils with the help of the devil. where the combatants are not equal. let him remember that he has to do solely with himself and not with others. that he can of himself do nothing. The self-knowledge of which we speak is not so complicated. and that by his utmost endeavor. especially when one has many talents and is equipped with a multitude of capacities and dispositions. he can in either case know in himself that he can do absolutely nothing. but rather praise him. and his victory proves nothing with respect to what he could do in a . But if he wishes to save his soul from a new form of vanity. of withstanding himself. or stumbles over a wisp of straw. and must acquire an adequate understanding of all this. so that he no longer stretches out his hand to seize them. No. not absenting himself from the arena of decision: then we do not speak in depreciation of such a man.he conquers the world. greater than the temptations that meet him outwardly. and those of pride and pleasure and defiance. then every evasion will at once be detected. so far drives out his fears that he no longer flees the dangers. and this is not the same thing as overcoming himself. Men think it a difficult thing to learn to know oneself. If someone wishes to propose a different explanation. he will promptly confess than he cannot overcome himself inwardly. It is because he thus creates his temptations for himself. but inwardly he can only reach the point.
If he conquers the temptation which his environment presents to him. is this the fashion in which we ought love God and men? To offer God thanks for an imagined preferential love is to deceive Him. 170 why should not such a man be glad? The perfect is always a source of joy. is to wish to ignore the fact that he too is a human being. surely you are not one of those who think that these are merely the dark and somber thoughts of a melancholy temperament. On the contrary. for when this is admitted it becomes a very different matter to thank God that one has escaped being tried in the more difficult struggle. But only when it man's need of god 169 presents itself to him in this magnitude does he really learn to know himself. this does not prove that he would conquer if the temptation came in the most terrible form that his mind can conceive. and you surely do not wish to thank God because you have never been visited by such melancholy? If it really were the case that such thoughts are a symptom of melancholy. In this manner it is present to his inner self. And this joy of which we here speak is not based upon God's imaginary preference for some particular person. when the truth is that he is the only one who is really glad. My hearer. what he has perhaps failed to learn from the world. you might not have been able to believe in His love. For whoever is happy in God. And so it is in very truth. . in this joy a human being loves everyone who is beset by sorrow. and hence he knows in himself.greater temptation. To flee from the sight and consciousness of the individual you are pleased to call melancholy. which you show him by asking him to take up his habitation among the tombs like a leper. and it must be deemed a still greater folly to rejoice in this perfection. And yet. You will not wish to stamp such a person as melancholy. while you dare not acknowledge him as a fellow human being² is this to love God and man? But if it is regarded as an evidence of melancholy to speak as we have done about understanding oneself. And since you dare not call him an evil-doer you must admit that he is an unfortunate being. my hearer. nor does it flee from the sight of the sorrowing. that he can do absolutely nothing. as such precisely needing your sympathy. then it must also be regarded as a folly inseparable from such melancholy to consider this view of life as one that conceives man from the standpoint of his perfection. and to give Him to understand that if the heavier burden had been laid upon your shoulders.
in order to allow his joy to gain a perfect victory: "and again I say unto you. Though he may at times use the name of God. and how precarious often is not the result. nor understand that he can of himself do nothing. In so far as a man does not know himself. in the great crises of his life MAN S NEED OF GOD 171 perhaps thinking to see Him.and over God. or thinks that God's existence ought not to make itself manifest in this earthly life with a very different emphasis² in this life whose meaning is always confused unless God's presence is continually implied. and read and read. But at the same time it views human life according to its perfection. We call such self-deception well-meaning. does indeed make life more difficult. This method may perhaps succeed. we do not intend to break out into heated condemnation. before again for the second time he bids the believer rejoice? Because he has in the intervening moment. We sometimes speak of learning to know God from history. how near to the misunderstanding which is the sensuous man's wonder over what is ingenious! But whoever knows in himself that he can do nothing. he rejoices. that God exists. has each day and each moment the desired and indubitable occasion to experience the living . or without coming to notice that there is a God. we bring out the chronicles. he summons the terrifying thought that a man can do absolutely nothing. and in this understanding. and again I say unto you. rejoice. and occasionally invoke Him. taken time to listen to all the terrible things that may be said in contradiction. man learns to know God. as it were. But nevertheless we wish for every man that God's existence may become clear to him with a certainty of a very different order. Whoever can do nothing of himself. as it is impossible to catch even a glimpse of God without being moved² nevertheless. we use as beautiful a name for it as possible. and with a decisiveness that leaves no room for vagueness. but how much time is not required. That is to say. and again I say. in any deeper sense." why does he pause a moment and cease to speak. he is in a manner piously deceived if he deems himself on this account clearly conscious of God's existence. rejoices. cannot undertake the least enterprise without God's help. he does not really become aware. and be moved by the vision. through that gradual joining of experience to experience which constitutes a good understanding with God. Why does the apostle Paul. when he gives us this beautiful admonition: "Rejoice. rejoice!" The view of life which holds that man's need of God constitutes his highest perfection.
Then God is with him. And if it were not so. swifter than the thought that dispels the fog. its suddenness like a flash of lightning. Alas. when in danger of his life. But whoever knows himself in the manner described above. When he goes to the house of the Lord. and thinks that he can do something of himself. when he listens in vain for a word that might save him. he knows that God is not there. present as promptly as only He can be. But he also knows that God is with him in the night. but who nevertheless do not omit to go to church. some time must still elapse! But this is not the case. coming more quickly than the light that penetrates the darkness. in the tumultuous chaos of his thoughts. It is possible indeed to come to know God in precisely the same way on the day of gladness. in the crisis of his despair. He knows that God is with him when anxiety seeks to overwhelm him. and without help from the world. who was already there. And if he does not have this experience often enough. in anxiety when he fears himself. But it is just as difficult to hold fast to this thought on the day of gladness as it is to hold fast to it in the hour of sorrow. when he works out his salvation with fear and trembling.God. but at home God does not exist for them at all. so that God must be there if he is really moved to devotion. and when he wakes in anxious dreams. that he cannot even put himself in a I 7 2 spirit of devotion. he knows very well the reason. when it is as if it were already too late. when he is refreshed by sleep. When a man is at the height of his happiness the thought suddenly tempts him: would it not be still more glorious if . when he vainly looks about him for comfort. The reason is that he has become involved in a misunderstanding. He does not live in a house built with hands. and there is no time to go to the house of the Lord. provided we also un- MAN S NEED OF GOD 173 derstand that we can do absolutely nothing. they say to one another: "God is not here. there are many who live in all other respects without a concern for God. in the day of need. But he also knows that he can of himself do nothing. only he believes it who thinks that he can do something of himself." Then they go home. What a strange contradiction! They gather in the house of prayer. where could be found the messenger who could move quickly enough to fetch the Lord for the troubled mind! And before He could come. knows indeed that God does not dwell in temples made with hands.
and what is still harder to bear. but I confided everything to you. But this could never happen to one who has taken God as his witness. and transform the entire content of his life into a terrible delusion. things which. perhaps he became an object of disgust to himself when he learned that his confidant had not understood his need though he listened to him. These things he has entrusted to God. although because he does not dare to think such things of God. when memory threatens to give notice and refuses any longer to serve. achieving patience and winning peace of mind through trust in God. when the thoughts seethe in a welter of confusion. When everything again becomes uncertain. commands the confusion. explain the past to me. But in and with this understanding God is immediately present. would annihilate him forever." But if a man has no such friend he will doubtless have recourse to God² if he has ever confided anything to Him. when even the most sincere purpose is through the treason of anxiety transformed into insincerity toward oneself² then one understands again that a man can do absolutely nothing of himself. and the accusing thoughts rise up in all their strength against him² then. In the chaos of his anguish and temptation. when no one else understood him. he hastily entrusted to God what lay upon his mind. if God has been his witness in the critical hour of decision. if he himself forgot them. until with God's help he again fights his way through the terrors in his breast. when the past comes before the mind only in the form of fearful anguish. he may be cowardly enough to forget God altogether² until he stands before the judge who condemns him. For the tried individual has doubtless confided in God. as he strives to win back to his former understanding of himself. If a man whose life had been involved in some critical difficulty has a friend. he will doubtless go to this friend and say: "My soul is sick.he could do it all himself? Then his joy acquires a false bias. had not suspected the reason of his anguish. it does not swing upward to God but swerves away from Him. and this is a sign that new exercises are needed. when the outcome threatened to be more terrible than death. 174 when anxiety creates confusion. and if in some later moment he finds that he cannot hold fast the meaning of his past. but had merely listened out of curiosity to the story of his remarkable collision with life. and God in His heaven also forgot them. You remember it. But such a thing could never happen with God. for where God is the . and remembers everything that has been confided to Him. Who would dare to think of God in such manner. He who had recourse to a friend was perhaps not understood. and nothing is clear to me.
But it does not by any means follow that life becomes easy for a man who thus learns to know God. that while of himself he can do nothing he can with God's help do more and man's need of god 175 more² that he can gain a victory over himself. or on a contemplation of history or of the order of nature? To understand these things is certainly far greater. but He . Or shall we perhaps say that it has no significance for him that God is always present in his thoughts.judge. for with God's help he can indeed do this! Shall we say that it has no significance for him that he learns more and more to die away from the world. finds these easier? Shall we finally say that it is without significance for him. for the understanding with God. and for the learning to know God as the power that makes all things work together for good when he loves God? Shall we say even that it is without significance for him that it makes the adversities of life easier. and that His goodness passeth all understanding. and it will certainly become more difficult than the sensuous man's contemptible life of ease. since it is always true that a man who has something else to think of and is thereby prevented from dwelling on his sorrows. and that he does not need to depend on the testimony of others in this respect. to that which it is given him outwardly to accomplish²but learns also to care more and more for the things of the inner man. Just as the self-knowledge which reveals one's own nothingness is the necessary condition for knowing God. but the problem is to understand them in such a way as in truth to profit from the understanding. On the contrary. there is no judge when God is the witness. learns to cling less and less to external things. it may become very hard. We do not wish to be understood as saying that a knowledge of God which consists of an absorption in dreamy wonder and enthusiastic contemplation of Him is alone of the highest worth. for the privilege of remaining in this understanding. Wherever God exists in truth there He is 176 always creative. so the knowledge of God is the condition for the sanctification of each human being in accordance with his specific end. that he comes to understand that God is love. his blessed reward. It is not His will that men should bask in the contemplation of His glory in spiritual sloth. for God cannot thus be taken in vain. But in and through this difficulty his life constantly gains deeper and deeper significance. to that which life brings and takes away.
Without God he would perhaps scarcely be able to grasp the most elementary secret of the truth. What a change. and the word of guidance portentous! And yet it must be spoken. whether knowing God does not have in itself the highest significance? And if a choice were conceivable. secure in love's beautiful assurance. my hearer. could by himself be ennobled and developed to the same degree. let us assume it to be so. no. love must here become duty. and only their echoes again move the soul. and what is so mysterious as the impulse of love! And yet. even less would he be able to understand that it is his need of God that constitutes his highest perfection. so that a man could progress equally far either by himself or by knowing God. The most beautiful significance² ah. For the knowledge of God is the most decisive factor in every human life. it is quite otherwise. which would you choose? Even in the minor human relationships you would choose the latter. you are well aware that at least when we speak of God. For if it were possible that you could be developed in solitude as much as by learning to know some other human being. How poor the words from his lips must seem in comparison with the wealth of feeling in the beautiful and sacred emotion! May not the spoken word be disturbing. the organ tones have ceased to sound. the fact that you learned to know him would have in itself the most beautiful significance for you. and without this knowledge.wishes. to create in him a new man. a man would become absolutely nothing. VIII LOVE CONQUERS ALL (on the occasion of a wedding) UNCLARIFIED moods rest in the depths of the soul. must extract from the word its utmost significance. and it must be spoken with decisiveness. to whom you were drawn with your whole soul. the well-meant word inopportune. I nevertheless ask you. the word must be named. through coming to be known of man. And what is more transparent and . that he is of himself absolutely nothing. that a man without knowing God. clarity without in the least wishing to disturb. desiring to translate the beautiful assurance into sacred feelings: now is the time for speech! The voice of an individual will be heard. what commensurability in this incommensurability! For what is so clear and precise and definite as a man's duty is and ought to be. The indeterminate wealth of feeling must be expressed. If it were so.
but love weaves it. and duty says it must be woven² each day from the blossoms of the moment. . And the speech shall be addressed to you. and he has authority to demand an earnest answer. A pact forever. and just as the lovers become free by being bound to one another. but the speaker asks you an earnest question. And what is so terrible to mention as a curse. since it is as if death came between. The spoken word must be definite. whom life has joined together in the happiness of love. and it is love's happiness to weave it. it does not offer congratulations. are at this moment resolved. but it must not be spoken with veiled words or disparagingly about the marriage pledge. The eternal resolution and the duty must forever remain with the wedded pair throughout time in the union of their love. on the contrary. as if it were something less significant because it is a free act. And so now these two.intent upon the future than a sacred promise. with power in its remembrance and hope in its promise. nor is it indifferent to it. so is this step a resolve of the free will. far from it. it is the one thing needful in connection with the most beautiful form of human happiness. and it must also be uttered with authority. respected bridegroom. if you answer deliberately. The ques- LOVE CONQUERS ALL *79 don is not intended to dissipate your happiness. Eternity is not here through with time. and it is asked in earnestness for your own sake. Forever² is not this word by its very strength almost portentous. The marriage pledge is indeed like a garland of everlastings. He does not ask you about your happiness. and what is so remote from this as the pure joy of the lovers! And yet this word must be mentioned in connection with love! i 7 8 But it is a free matter. whom love has made free in their union. and what is less concerned with the future than the presence of love in the lovers! And yet love here demands a promise. The question desires only to make your happiness secure. for this ominous word is a beautiful announcement. since. and duty says it must be woven. lest you answer frivolously. We are glad with those who today rejoice. but the pact of love is eternity's beginning in time. and a pact is to be instituted between them. and it is upon the grave one lays the garland of everlastings? Oh. and each anniversary shall be a solemn holiday. And though it seems to you so wholly natural. but whether you have consulted God and your conscience.
and the speaker has the authority to require it. the question will not make your happiness precarious. a wealth of happiness: nevertheless. For the act itself has its own earnestness. And next the speech shall be directed to you. it will make you.so completely in harmony with the order of things. When this has been done. a dowry of security. that which. that you should be bound to one whom the early wishes of parents and relatives had selected. it would make you pause with a sense of the responsibility of duty. in the freedom of earnestness. and took over the preparation into its glorious possession: nevertheless though our earnest question need by no means give pause to a hectic and surprised resolution. it would still imbue you with the sense of the responsibility of duty to lay the emphasis of choice upon the almost imperceptible transition of this quiet experience. it will not disturb you with its question or trouble you by arousing difficult thoughts. when here expressed. which often enough gives rise to late regrets. respected bride. it will not make you weak. that which it is sweet to communicate to a confidant. the act is desecrated. but it will ask you with the same earnestness as the equality of the pact re quires. the officiating authority will unite the happy pair and make earnestness of what is already earnest. to one with whom you felt yourself united in an anticipation that finally passed over into certainty. and when this is not found in the wedded. receives its consecration. until love revealed itself as the ultimate ground. It will give the worthy a solemn opportunity to announce freely and in the sight of God that which it is hard for the lovers to keep silent about. to lay the emphasis of choice upon the quiet experience. Oh. that it could not be otherwise than that you should be united with him whom long association and the close relationship. to one to whom you felt yourself drawn in so many ways. equally strong with the husband to whom as a wife you are to be submissive. for marriage is not merely a temporal event. and mutual sympathy bound to you until love i8o came and explained all that went before as a beautiful preface. And though you feel with a joyous confidence and perfect trust that happiness could not have come for you in any other way. whether you have consulted with God and your conscience. the officiating authority . And then there is required a promise. and participation in so many things. though the earnest question is far from wishing to interrupt the many thoughts. But the requirement is in all its earnestness a challenge to the lovers. But when the earnestness exists.
my hearer. If it came into being only in that moment of the ceremony. perhaps wisely. the act has its own seriousness. upon which the privileged.gives to the act the stamp of earnestness. for it is something irrelevant only to a fool. and the pact is concluded. viewed as the resolution that constitutes marriage. will you also hold that solemn moment fast before your thought. it may be that for you the marriage pact is something in the future or something past. I shall consider the theme: LOVE CONQUERS ALL. while the master or overseer only too well understands. l82 . for the godly consideration of the heart's concerns. though this past is also the present? Or. he must say much which it is risky to say now at the last moment. And surely here we are in agreement. when he must gather in toilsome care and take many a weary step in order to get the necessities together. To such a thoughtful consideration. my hearer. my hearer. then must he speak quite otherwise. that a discourse about godly matters should never be contentious or discordant with anything except that which is ungodly. that some curious people have come as witnesses. without on that account being excluded from the happiness of love. and this does not consist in external happenings. or one who in a humble situation works for his bread. But still. and with the marriage ceremony in mind. when there is left only the scanty opportunity. the unauthorized discourse has no lovers to unite. that the duties of the service must first and foremost be attended to. On the other hand. For as was said above. that two persons have effected an outward change in the circumstances of their lives. When therefore the poor man. you can give it your attention. if the speaker in that moment must develop this earnestness in the lovers. who would dare to answer the LOVE CONQUERS ALL l8l question which asks about something past. then. perhaps foolishly. difficult to say to just these two. I invite you. the sparingly measured time. though it would have been profitable for them to have considered it. and that it is thus mature. perhaps. Hence there is given a reflection which in earnestness of thought already stands before the altar. and not concern yourself with the deliberation in any other manner than as if it concerned yourself. And that earnestness the authorized speaker presupposes in the wedded pair. And you.
be inhuman enough to find the sacred observances too simple. when love awakens it is older than everything. and thinks earnestly about himself. it presupposes itself far back in the distant past. not only as a witness but to grant His blessing upon it. does he know how he ought to have spoken: only after he has lived. clothed in gold or in linsey. that only after he is finished and has already spoken. and many a beautiful and profound thought has been linked with this word. my hearer. man or woman. for then would he already have experienced that of which the resolution is the beginning. when he earnestly thinks himself in relation thereto. that the simple finds everything therein. but if no resolution is taken. does not in His blessing make a distinction like that in the speech of men. for when it is. attacked by an aristocratic distemper. So in the life of an individual. then are we agreed. wise or simple. Because He alone is rich. and no preparation precedes. If love does indeed sometimes generate pain. bitter wisdom. does he know how he ought to have lived (sorry profit from life's experiences!) . and how he ought to have made the beginning with the good resolution. rich in thoughts or poor in spirit. so it is also valid wherever love is present: it is older than all other things.spend so much time² when these two lovers finally also stand before the altar and in all brevity are declared wedded: Oh. the beginning its difficulty. and at one and the same price for all. He has but one blessing. my hearer. While one generally says about all beginning that it is difficult. then such a man will doubtless share the experience that sometimes comes to a speaker. Miraculous beginning!² But LOVE CONQUERS ALL 183 the life of freedom requires a beginning. The individual conceiving a resolution cannot be finished. this does not hold true of love. and a beginning is here a resolution. Its happy awakening knows no labor. and the wise more than he can fathom. and the resolution has its own labor and pain. that this is the miracle of the godly ordinance. we are surely agreed that God. in order by the aid of the adage to explain existence. An old adage says that love is older than everything else. it is not itself born with pain: lightly and jubilantly it breaks forth in its mysterious becoming. now that there lies an entire life between the beginning and the dying man! . until all search for its origin ends in the inexplicable. if anyone wished to invent new rites. But if anyone. be the believer great or humble. it is as if it had been there a long time. who is present when the pact is made. But just as the adage is valid in relation to great things.
It is thus it would be understood. gracing the wedding day with his high presence. with a man's intrepidity and with a woman's sympathy. a curse if it is not borne in harmony as a blessing. is there perhaps no time for this² in the urge of danger there is surely less time! Alas. does not greet the lovers as victors. but it desires to make its home with them. But it desires to be understood in earnest. is it the right place here to evoke such sorry considerations. that her young soul was tested gold. For he who became old in the faithful service of love. encloses them in the arena of a state well-pleasing unto God. which is not a festive congratulation but a godly challenge. it takes little by little. the last thing which might help him to gain new strength for a renewed resolution. danger to be experienced. faithful with a man's courage and with a woman's tenderness. tested as gold is tested and found true² for the noble poet says of the maiden. in earnest the saying means very much. promises them victory as it also takes a promise from them. strengthens their striving by means of the marriage pact. but invites them to a struggle. but the announcement of an actual victory which shall be gloriously won! And is the place so unsuitable²the holy place? Is it so inopportune for joy to think about the danger. to answer for everything. encourages them to fight the good fight. that come soon enough with the dark thoughts and the sad experiences: in the moment of joy to call to mind the days that have no pleasure in them? But is it then sad that this high-minded word actually means something. but only by one who begins with the good resolution. he does not discover that it has already long since taken away from him the thing of greatest importance: the ability to form a resolution. it does not wish to visit the wedded couple as an unexpected guest. trouble to be endured. indeed it means everything to the truly wedded pair. to meet the test of the years. not a jubilation over an imaginary victory which is badly won. and only thus can it be said: it must be said by a beginner. and that he has become so familiar with this condition that there is no dismay over its loss. gives them a blessing for the long journey² but also informs them that the struggle is there: a struggle to be fought through. and his pain is great. No. it takes from a man one good whose loss he feels. And yet. alas. or still bad if it is supposed 184 already won.So the word says that love conquers all. and therefore the marriage ceremony. time comes and time goes. loyal to his pledge as his own conscience required. that it is not sounding brass. with the . a little in love. but the years and the dangers are the testhence the venerable figure who in the course of years won the rich and incorruptible beauty of faithfulness.
instead of including in his resolution a real conception of it. how does it help to flee? The justice which watches over existence cannot be evaded. dares to begin the journey without including in the resolution a real conception of God's assistance. when you grasp it. then the experience that comes in life's struggle. the creditor will refer the matter to the civil authority.sober reflection of the understanding in the inwardness of the heart. Nor is he resolved who runs as if uncertainly." And he moves youth. who excludes the danger from his thoughts. how illusory is not all eloquence beside such a witness! Has conquered all! This is the last word. pause to consider this difference. it is often the case that if anyone would travel to a foreign country. about the veteran in the service. no. but learn first what the difficulties are. and almost deceives it. and of its sufficiency. he will doubtless say with the mild. learn respect for the venerable. is it not like an objection that makes the last journey the flight of a defaulter² but. intervenes between youth and venerable age. for when he says it. and the journey will be prohibited. Nor is he resolved who. because the victory anticipated it. whom the marriage pact called to the good fight. you will doubtless be a man of resolve! Has conquered. of its necessity. Stay your course. whose life leaves no irregularity behind. whose courage has therefore lost its victory. and he owes someone a debt. here. so says experience engaged in the struggle of life. love conquers all. Oh. respectfully." and then he points to him with this word. then it seems so easy. since he became no man's debtor. and is indeed somewhat different from the first. O wanderer. But if youth accepts the saying vain-mindedly. "See. if the obligation of a sacred pledge is left unfulfilled. improvidently trusting in some mysterious power. how beautiful to be old. or but poorly fulfilled. Nor is the resolution of which we speak. and would frivolously weave a bridal-wreath from it. LOVE CONQUERS ALL 185 unassuming admonition of age: "My little children. And so it ought to sound in the beginning. just as good deeds lose their reward. and so it is rightly said by the resolving individual. that love has conquered all!" Oh. a com- . saying: "Step aside. and who certainly misses the goal when he believes he has attained it. But our theme says: Love conquers all. In civil life. But no one can be said to be resolved who is ignorant of i86 the danger. and it is so pleasant to hear him say it again. because he loved much. friendly. So much for has conquered all.
then there is opportunity to show that one really loves. one may yield to a superior force but with the consciousness of being the stronger in comparison with the individual² and now the explanation that it is his own weakness he must fight against. What a difference between youthfully desiring to change the whole world and then discovering that it is one's self that is to be changed. and that it is this which he must do with enthusiasm! To desire victory. but such things happen only to those who were never in love. when no broad prospect tempts one to dare the venture. which becomes even more humble because time is wasted in dreaming youth's dream over again. and when this all is something real. if nothing else separates them. but sits there abandoned by the great expectation concerning oneself. or that the task is to preserve himself unchanged. and about life. they are nevertheless united. but does it follow that the speaker has even as much as a clear conception of what it means really to love. deprived of every evasion. but one sits inactive. and the requirement neither sympathizing nor regretful. When then the great requirement of the imaginary task does not give imaginary strength. does as the word says. Does life give evidence of only one kind of unhappy love in marriage. death does not have this power to make unhappy. and that the requirement is to do it with enthusiasm. that it should not have been permitted to become what it is. when death separates them and only the sorrowing one remains behind? Oh. despondent before the humble task of patience. well. or rather that the occasion has waited too long. and both without a resolve. whoever really loves. . and then when trouble comes. but cruelly uncompromising: that one must be enthusiastic in the struggle. "I know very well what you mean and what the discourse hints at. the discovering that it is the monotonous repetition of what has been experienced by others thousands and thousands of times! What a difference between youthfully wishing to fight. then one might have understood in time that things could come to such a pass. when one does not defy a world which cheated one's expectation." And it is impossible to deny that he who really loves. Yet perhaps someone says. aye. but it is in reality the small and despised task that is to be done. alas. and had the beginning been made with a resolution.mon resolution because in such a moment the two are of like mind. while everything changes! What a difference between the novel LOVE CONQUERS ALL 187 surprise of being the first inventor of everything. and the explanation that he must suffer. conquers all. and about the others? A clear conception of the change which takes place in the lover when he is called upon really to conquer all.
and thus every enthusiastic youth. but a self-questioning which from a distance apprehends the danger. and the shudder of the resolution gives courage. the brief misfortune of the moment of death is soon overcome. a real conception of life and of oneself. and the grief is overcome. and the last honor the . you need not even name it. and be enthusiastic in it: aye. when the task is not to traverse the world in easy flight. from attaining the goal? O Death. of interrupted plans.Consider one who resembles a lover. LOVE CONQUERS ALL 189 The first condition for a resolution is to have. aye. when the task is to feel the weakness. and he truly dies with honor. for the first loss is the best loss. and the strict upbringing the profitable one." And this is undeniable. in spite of all exertion. but it is required that one assume a strait-jacket. And if one has begun with a resolution. when abandoned. it will indeed appear with what profit this was done. although it seems so soothing. to hope against hope. that is to will to have." says perhaps an enthusiastic youth. of a sorry and miserable outcome of a brilliant beginning? Is this the only case where the striving individual was prevented by death from finishing the i88 work. dost thou presume to mock an enthusiast! No. and its chastisement awakens the attention. but does it follow that the speaker even has a clear conception of what it is to be really enthusiastic? What he will say when it is no longer his task to spring forward like a lion. with the glorious accomplishment of his task who dares say with truth. from perfecting the plan. and the early discipline the strengthening discipline. when it is of no avail to rush forward in wild abandon. one must even defend oneself against a sympathy which is the ruin of enthusiasm. and be misunderstood' because one does it. What is here sown in tears is reaped with songs of joy. Does life show only a single case of half-finished labor. but to remain in the same place and. but to endure in a dead calm in which the enthusiasm threatens to expire. I will not be disturbed or delayed or made despondent² but such things do not happen to the really enthusiastic. and the first pain the saving pain. since it was not the drawing in of a youth's refreshing breath of air. there is the opportunity to show that one is really enthusiastic. not to be able to move. "It was death that prevented me!" "But. an enthusiast. "I know what you refer to. and the final victory is the essential victory. when it is the task to endure in the long toilsome drudgery which is inseparable from every enthusiastic enterprise. thou art powerless. and yet not let go the enthusiasm.
to evoke horror. What significance do they have then? There is in the folk-life many a curious custom connected with a wedding. between whom the uniting wedding pact became a cime. into the impression. but might it not be an acceptable custom if the bridal couple before they go to the house of feasting should go to the house of mourning. even if it could do so. for this is why we speak about it. many a teasing roguery which is not without beauty. even of disgust. And yet the signs are there. and ended as they began. perhaps the old feelings are not wholly dead. is he only a bad husband who in cowardice and lack of manliness courted adoringly a woman's beauty. Many a one whom death has marked goes about among us. and yet. or for whom the wedding union became not a salvation but a snare that stimulated the craving of the senses.only true one! Oh. it is here as it is with death in life. It is not the purpose of the discourse. when he speaks with authority. and the real conception of the resolution makes her strong in holy weakness² strong to conquer all. no. that is. many a mocking jest. No separation has come between the married couple. Oh. because the years had taken youth and beauty away from her to whom he was wedded? Oh. but feeling seems to have withdrawn itself far from the daily intercourse. but they await an . And so there is many a marriage that divorce has marked. but an aloof indifference divides them and makes them alien to one another² and yet. until he ended with the ingratitude of a dastard. and whom the physician has given up. are they alone unworthy of the marriage state who made a wretched beginning by regarding the pact as a worldly agreement for earthly gain. which still has its significance. to the serious contemplation from which one does not fetch the bridal veil. to terrify by means of harrowing descriptions. Not only are they the prey of death who lie upon a sickbed. can give the sure effect of earnestness and prevent the intrusion of despondency and low spirits. but are those married people alone separated between whom a 190 divorce was effected. perhaps they love one another. death has no power to place saddening signs upon the path of marriage through life. aye. but the resolution? Let the bride appear before the altar in all her charm. There is no strife between them. to whose beauty he was himself a slave in jealousy. let the myrtle-crown grace the beloved. no hostile difference. to which only the serious speaker. and yet. who then slavishly ruled in a cowardly spirit over a slave. it is the humility of the resolution which alone makes her acceptable in the eyes of God.
through uncharitableness and precipitancy. exaggerated glamor for the two lonely people. But life is so long² and then the thought of death steals in. oh. as if on bread and water. 'instead of a candid discussion of the trouble. for the daily events are too insignificant. and yet so it is. and. in social position. They long perhaps for an understanding. how short a time is sometimes needed before this change takes place. and yet they abhor divorce as a sin. Was it always an original 192 disparity in age. and this consciousness which ought to strengthen them.event which will tense the bowstring of resolution and lure the feeling forth to expression. it is often evident that a rare good fortune in this respect did not help the parents. They wish themselves dead. They lose the zest and the courage to venture. And then one seeks to find the fault in the other. and consequently the opportunity goes unused because it is more LOVE CONQUERS ALL 191 difficult to reveal themselves to one another. the first admission which could unite them in a vigorous resolution. Was it always sorrow over incorrigible children which at last brought estrangement between the parents? Oh. They feel almost ashamed before each other because of this boredom with the insignificant events. sometimes the two are so well suited to one another that they only lack gratitude in order to be happy. now weakens them. one to the other. they fear to make. and death would perhaps make them realize it. a whole life lies there before them. in the midst of superfluity. for death looses all bonds. Was it always the years which led to this sorry condition? Oh. Was it always poverty and straitened circumstances and the troubles of life which produced these consequences? Oh. which at least ought always to be clear. precisely because there is an opportunity every day. a marriage of wealth and abundance is sometimes carried out. They were once so happy. while they still love one another. with reconciliation flaring up and nourishing the disease. Was it always environment and family relations and connections that . as if that were not unfaithfulness² and yet perhaps they still love one another. but they cannot rightly get to speak with one another. Time passes so slowly. which soon or late must generate misunderstanding? Oh. so happy. boredom takes the place of harmony. after the brief honeymoon is over. they scarcely dare admit it to themselves. misunderstanding conducts its sorry business and estranges them from one another in suspicion and distrust. in culture. and this vanished happiness acquires a sickly.
but lo. and found it so long when they were separated. desire? Will it stifle the joy because it wishes to save it. he does the little assigned for each day. if that is lacking the good seed dies² and then the weeds come up of themselves. and lo. and lo. that first enthusiasm went out as in the night. and the first enthusiasm awakens to a new and stronger life. when resolution came into being. and the resolution is won. it is successful. who in a decisive moment evokes this thought. but to a T as duty bids. the conception of life and of his own weakness so overwhelms him that he sinks in impotence. when duty bids it is always much. And now his enthusiasm is not a precipitate purpose or a continued impetuosity. Consider an enthusiast. what boots it to place the responsibility on others? The weed of evil has the peculiar property that all weeds have² it sows itself. which is the rebirth of love. it is successful. he would accomplish so much. drowsy in manhood. and not without a shudder. nor is it glowing hot in youth. is its care a false friendship because it is not immediately understood? Is it nothing but pain because its beginning is not without pain. since he understands that whether it is little or much. so that they felt the sweetness of surprise when love awakened. and so he is still enthusiastic. is it an eternal imprisonment because it in earnest and eternally binds the two lovers LOVE CONQUERS ALL 193 together? But its beginning is not without pain. And lo. he succeeds. Filled with a highminded purpose. it succeeds beyond expectation. and as smoking flax in the evening of life. and lo. found themselves glowing at the thought of being everything to one another?" Let him ask himself the question: "Dare I deny that the sad outcome may also have its explanation in the fact that in the time of youth and hope and surprise and precipitancy one lacked guidance and earnestness to renounce the softness and allure of the moment and the illusions of the imagination in order to subject oneself to the discipline of the resolve?" For what does the resolution. No. and then he gained a new enthusiasm and the blessed surprise . and the work is begun on a real scale. The good seed requires care and labor. under the labor of the resolution. What a change! Now he fights bravely under the strict surveillance of duty. felt the unrest of longing. let him ask himself this question: "Dare I say that all these wedded couples did not begin with what one calls a real love for one another. and the work goes forward. found time to vanish when they were together. Now let the observer who takes himself into account.ruined the well-begun marriage? Alas. and only the conception of his duty holds him in continued effort to win the resolve.
as time goes on." says the poet. "No. he seeks it burning in the craving of desire. that dangerous power which generates impulsiveness in the hearer? We show respect for the rare gift of the poet. We praise him. he creates by the power of his imagination the sought-for thought. as if it were found. and thereby the miracle. yet no." or "It was not she. There is the poet's sadness." Now. to show respect for a rare good fortune.of wonder from year to year. and will give the resolving individual new enthusiasm. if he uses it well. of considering with respect the lovers' rare good fortune. For the poet is no proud and haughty person. He sits weak in the whisper of longing. even if it were ever so rare. and love will secure its sure refuge within the impregnable fortress of duty. But perhaps someone says: "It is insulting to speak thus to the lovers. And when he must say to an individual. and the poet's happy gift is also rare. he loves existence and perhaps feels the most pain that this or that individual was not the rare example. he seeks in sadness of song this remembered rarity. and. aye. the most beautiful dream of an imperfect view of life. but I wonder if that love which inspires the poet to song is found thus in every day life and in every couple who are united by the marriage pact? The poet himself says that it is rare. And so will the wedding ceremony in the strict discipline of the resolution take away fancies and disappointments. would seem frivolous in an edifying discourse which is not even attuned to find edification in the variances of fortune in life. or of an individual. Therefore we must not be angry with the poet. "no LOVE CONQUERS ALL 195 one can make himself this rare thing. Himself distressed. he seeks the consolation of song. And could not that objection really be an outbreak of love's seductive persuasiveness. thus enviously and pessimistically to make their 194 good fortune suspect. just as is that love: the best wish of a perfect existence. He is a paragon. and a people is proud in the right place when it is proud of a distinguished poet! But the poet cannot help us ordinary folk." then he has no wish to offend. instead of admiring and eulogizing. a daily wonder over his happiness. "And yet. even to the evening of life. Therefore the poet explains nothing. for he cannot tell us how we should conduct ourselves to become the rare individual he seeks. but his soul extends into the infinite." . it is not he. he touches the strings powerfully in its honor.
its strengthening influence in the struggle. In seeking to make clear the sacred resolution of marriage. is concerned. and which every day requires fulfillment." And in this you are quite right² that there is much earnestness required. the strict words of the marriage rite. this he finds disturbing. And this real conception of him- . On the other hand.Now. Should it be offensive. the address is imperfect and without authority. an actual conception of oneself. and in this resolution an actual conception of himself. a delusive repetition of poetic works. You are then in agreement with it. but. then. who gave himself out² alas. and one should talk with him about what this address is concerned with. Just as there is needed for making a resolution an actual conception of life. for no speech can disturb so rare a genius. Who performs it? Is it a poet? No. lest it foster impatience and 196 disorder the spirit. and yet perhaps you say: "The address is right. but rather he seeks edification in religious reflection. There was perhaps one who sent his spying thoughts out to get a manifold impression of life. as if you gained something by accusing him? Let us consider this a little more closely. and the man of authority makes it earnest with the individual. and lost himself. and that only the resolved individual dares to say at the beginning that love conquers all? To me it seems offensive to assume about anyone that he had not considered this. and he is not disturbed by a speech reminding him of his concern. consider now the marriage ceremony itself. he who feels that he is not himself this gifted individual. the address has thus reminded you. by that pact enters into an obligation which no time can dissolve. of what you yourself have often considered. for the speech is far from being instructive. nor would he answer as that objector answered. verily to be a good reader or a good listener is just as great an art as to be a good speaker. but who could not take himself back. from him is required a resolution. if the address calls attention to the significance of the resolve. so there is also needed. if this paragon existed. as here. Further than this the address does not wish to go in meeting such an objection. my hearer. Even the happiest earthly love needs the rebirth of the resolve. Was not this your meaning? For you surely would not intend by this criticism to place the blame upon the speaker. and that is very great when. But whoever binds another human being to himself by the marriage pact. as was said at the same time. my hearer. it is a man of authority. But an illusory echo from poets' songs. he simply would not understand it. its blessing upon the way. but much earnestness is required for the speech to produce the right impression. And the rite lays everyone under sin. and lays each one under sin who is pledged by this rite.
and he does not perhaps consider that the liberty of action which the mental state thus attains may generate difficulties. But then comes the period of youth and of freedom. but is blown about by every puff of wind. even if unmarried. Sometimes he is not found in every generation. aye. and even if you are contemporaneous with such a highly worthy one. this is earnestness. consolation and evasions and appeals. the most varied patterns show themselves. In life there is confusion enough. which the poet sings. and show themselves again. a gifted man who has the gift of eloquence and the emphasis of persuasiveness. that is you must try to help yourself. that when the external circumstances of prosperity and happy relations of life favor love. love and marriage are things in which everyone is experienced. the most varied guidance is proffered. and this inwardness. Then it is important that this freedom and this choice do not become a snare.self. Every human being. a wish that desires what we might call a teacher and a guide in life. Now the young man thinks. or you had to leave² and so. aye. Now. and warnings and songs of victory and cries of complaint are heard in wildest confusion. and can in truth have if he earnestly wishes it. then it is secure. the respect the child has. As a child everything is easy. and cannot settle down to the simple labor of making a living. or he was there but had to leave. now another gives himself up too much to a bubbling over of the ig8 . should have an abiding place. even if a father was not as he should be. helps it sometimes to learn the good even from LOVE CONQUERS ALL 197 such a father. and disappoint. a tried man upon whom one can rely. to whom you are wholly willing to yield yourself. as it is doubtless true that as this love. and the time when with the beloved he seeks such a guide. Ah. so must you be content with less. and about which everyone has an opinion. he may not perhaps be in the same place as you. This guide which the longing seeks is a rare individual. and yet there is perhaps many a marriage which does not have it. one is free from the difficulty of choosing. a wise man who knows how to advise. so there is also in everyone a longing. the most varied things are proclaimed and praised and despised and repeated. misled by an accidental experience. his unconditional obedience. is a longing in every human heart. and always there is companionship on the way. Now one has an exaggerated conception of the depth of sorrow in loving. the serious man who guarantees the appropriation. a noble man who encourages by his example.
And when there is none such. Where is earnestness to be learned? In life. instead of becoming more and more judicious. and that is what is terrifying. and the state of marriage acceptable to God offers an exceptional opportunity. And in order to learn earnestness from what we call the earnestness of life. We wish for guidance. what then? Aye. now one of the parties has a little sober-mindedness and wishes to use it. and we must learn it all over again. Or is it not evident even in relation to this exceptional guide. Now someone has a power of eloquence and leads astray. but no human being can do it. and the other one does not understand it. Now one is proclaimed as wise. when he stood among us.feelings and distaste follows. Now one would tempt the wife. Quite true. that is resolution. now he loses² who could ever finish recounting all this. but rather in the position of an indifferent power in relation to that one who must himself be something of a schoolmaster in relation to himself as pupil. and admiration recognizes him as such because he cannot even understand what the common man understands. and cannot help himself. having the powerful works of untruth. now he remembers. and teach her to sigh under the heavy . and teach him to think slightingly about the sacred vocation of marriage. make him important through participation in great enterprises. no address can do it. now another's first happiness makes him impatient. The resolution itself is earnestness. For earnestness of life is not like a schoolmaster in relation to a pupil. and this makes little difference. now one party wishes to plan carefully and economize. Only one power is capable of doing it. the world never has a lack of guides. but the other misunderstands it and believes it is coldness and indifference. Now someone would tear a husband from his wife's side. and yet it holds true even in relation to this. Now what we learned in childhood has become old-fashioned. that we must have earnestness in order to be helped by it. Otherwise one might even learn from the earnestness of life indifference to everything. taking heed in time. here is a man who would guide everybody. as if one were not himself the loser by this. more and more inclined to reject. and ascribes it to a lack of sensitiveness for anything higher. earnestness is already presupposed. that one hit upon many things to weaken the impression he produced. Behold. Now one becomes despondent because the repetition about him makes him bored with his own. now he compares. Thus is earnestness learned² provided one joins the resolution with an actual conception of oneself. as if it were the wisdom of the years to LOVE CONQUERS ALL 199 become more and more fastidious.
or one is too old to satisfy the times. and only a fool runs after it. taking the children and therewith the cares of life away from them. although he means well. if you will. so that the parents can live for higher things. though there is force and unction in what he says. if you will. the earnest man still does not walk blindly. and we are free until he gets settled. be the reader who profits even from an unfortunate address. And if he who here speaks is too young. Now one dangles before the husband and wife a community fellowship that makes the marriage relation unimportant. my hearer. both married and unmarried. and then lived untroubled about the most sacred pledge. earnestness is within a man. Where then do we find guidance if we do not work out our own soul's salvation with fear and trembling. he is weak. But we are no longer school children. but not a trace of its power in possessing the least thing? What would you think of such a man if he were married. or. and striving after this. do the great thing. where the married couple belonged to one another. and only the fearful man is disturbed in a more noble striving by paying attention to the judgment of others. and another not. but not in earnest? Nay. and another is too young. and everyone shall give an account of himself before God. Aye. and the sacred obligation shall give every day its task and its responsibility. for thus we become really earnest? Otherwise it will soon appear 200 that one guide cannot be followed because. well. Oh. get a vacation. they say he does not really mean it. were perhaps incompetent. and we all. And then our expectations are tensed by something extraordinary. how could an address even come to an end if it tried to describe this confusion in life? But what do you think. and only a coward buys the indulgence of mediocrity by being like the majority. and had been married without forming a resolution. a new order of things to come.yoke of matrimony. that is to say without seriously troubling himself about it? Had not separation already marked such a marriage. Now one would teach the married couple to enjoy life. like children because the school master is moving. you may be the good auditor who still profits from the incompetent address. lay the address aside. as there may be a power of speech which can almost perform wonders. or if he perhaps does not express himself clearly. and even if the appointed guide in the place where you live. my hearer. . or if his thought is perhaps confused. well then. Verily. my hearer. of one who had the show of earnestness in rejecting everything. If there is no guide in life. for.
-"I know where you can keep your happiness secure"? A little coquettish sadness. what wonder then that he seeks consolation in the fact that others are caught in the same difficulty. when resolution exercises its restraint. but verily it goes out in adversity." and lo. and keeps the best for the last. if no resolution holds it fast. it guides through life when the resolution accompanies it. it suffices for the whole of life. it degenerates in the daily round. might perhaps stir the senses of a happy man. that even if love's richest happiness could be secured to you in some other way for your entire life. Love abides. but the resolution is its abiding place wherein it rests. if anyone thinks that resolution is a fragile thing. he says. if no resolution humbles it. it 202 conquers everything when the resolution is present in the day of battle² and the final honor is the only honor.LOVE CONQUERS ALL 201 so there is also a power in the listener which can work wonders if he will. ah. it is smothered in conceit. it perishes in prosperity. Love abides. you would still choose the life of resolution and the wedded companionship in danger. but resolution is a power in the heart of him who is imperfect. it gives life significance when resolution interprets it day by day. it conquers all. what wonder then that he must always have many about him to get courage to live? But you. Is this sort of speech insulting? Is it insulting to say to anyone. and look to right and left. love is the refreshing essence. "I wish to be edified. For the resolution works the miracle with marriage. But the earnestness lies in a resolution. it lays hold of the eternal if the resolution has made a place for it there. If someone fears this. my hearer. believe that the resolution offers the highest happiness. In such a listener there is earnestness. as with the wedding in Cana: it first pours the poorer wine. which precisely is envy. Aye. but it loses its way when the resolution does not guide. And love is the best adornment for the beloved. if no resolution heartens it. but resolution is the flask in which it is preserved. "I am convinced that you yourself know and have considered this. if no resolution holds it fast. Is this kind of talk envious? Is it envious to say to the happy. and that the resolved individual skates on thin ice. for which reason I merely remind you"? Is the speaker intrusive who stands aside and speaks half softly to himself? . So the resolution of marriage is that love conquers all. he is edified.
And then there is required for the resolution of marriage a real conception of life and of oneself; but herein there is already contained the second great requirement, which is like the first: a real conception of God. The one corresponds to the other; for no one can have a real conception of God without having a corresponding one about life and himself, nor can he have a real conception of himself without a similar one about God, and no real conception about life without a similar one about himself. A poetically creative imagination or a conception at the distance of an indifferent contemplation, is no real conception. Nor does the conception of God come as an accidental supplement to the conception of life and of oneself; on the contrary it comes and crowns the whole, interpenetrating everything, and it was present before it became manifest. The lovers are happy, and on the day of happiness, one is surely nearest to God. But there is required a real conception of God, there is required an understanding between God and the happy individual, and thus there is required a language in which they can speak with one another. This language is resolution, the only language
LOVE CONQUERS ALL 203 in which God wills to have intercourse with man. For if the happy individual were ever so enthusiastic in expressions of gratitude for his happiness (and where is the happy individual who does not feel this need of being grateful!) and if he even used God's name, it does not follow that he really spoke with God, had a real conception of Him, entered into an understanding with Him, and profited by the understanding. For the thanksgiving for the happiness, were it ever so remarkable, were the expression ever so filled with pathos, the soul ever so burning with zeal, God will not understand² only the resolution which takes over the happiness. And if the name of God be mentioned at the beginning and end, it does not therefore follow that one speaks with God, when the conception in which the worshipper offers his thanksgiving, is not of God, but of happiness, fortune, great profit, and other things; or about a mysterious power over whose intervention one stands amazed² and worships. The resolution should not make the happy individual ungrateful, on the contrary it should make him worthy, and only in the resolution does gratitude become earnest. Therefore the gratitude of the resolution knows that this happiness is a task, and that the grateful individual now stands at the beginning. Hence the thanksgiving of resolution is sober-minded; it understands that God has in this happiness spoken to the resolved individual, but also understands that this is the beginning of the conver-
sation. Is this to think deprecatingly of happiness? Is it not rather to think worthily about God? If someone talked with a wise man, and immediately upon the first words of the wise man, he interrupted him with his thanks, because he now needed no more help: what would
204 this show other than that he did not talk with a wise man, but with a wise man whom he himself transformed into a fool? A wise man is a human being, and so something external, and in so far someone may say with truth, even if he talked foolishly, that he had talked with a wise man; but God exists only inwardly. Whoever speaks with Him therefore, as this man did with the wise man, does not really speak with God. Just as there is an immature love that says, "True love conquers all," without having any conception of the struggle; just as there is an immature enthusiasm that says the same things with a similar rashness: so there is also an immature gratitude that would thank God, and yet only deceives itself into thinking that it thanks God, and defrauds God of the thanksgiving. The thankfulness of resolution is earnest, and therefore acceptable unto God; its thankfulness is also the good beginning by which the task is half done; and with God's help the resolution will certainly conquer all. It does not give thanks once for all, nor with earthly and deceptive selfconceit or folly; nay, the resolution is the beginning, and the thanksgiving of the resolution is the beginning of thankfulness, the beginning of the solemnity which will keep many an unnecessary danger at a distance, strengthen the soul in real danger, echo in paeans of praise on the day of victory; it is the beginning of the vigilance which will find the wedded pair preserving it in the evening of life, expectant after the wedding as the wise virgins were before the wedding, the watchfulness which will make the last thanksgiving the most beautiful, make the last response to God's voice, whose beginning was this happiness, into an acceptable and true thanksgiving. If anyone thinks that this is nevertheless disturbing, if without really understanding himself, he ventures in
LOVE CONQUERS ALL 205 confusion of mind to think slightingly of God, if he thinks that happiness loses by becoming earnest, that the happiness was made less by being the beginning of happiness: would it then be more beautiful, would it be wiser, would it better stand the test of life, if the beginning were without resolution? Would it be more beautiful if the happiness, so to speak, immediately separated the two who were united: would it be more beautiful if
a vain woman's heart listened with pleasure to the praise of an adorer who thought that he owed her all, in that, though grateful for his happiness, but confused in his thought, he knew no one else to thank for it? Or that the proud head voluptuously bent its ear to listen to the adoration of the weak, who glad in her happiness, humbled in gratitude, knew no one else to go to but to him, tiim to whom she owed everything and her happiness² him who defrauded her of the best life? Would it be more beautiful, would it be wiser? Would it better stand the .est² even then, when the yoke must be thrown off and :he struggle begin; or if this did not take place, then when the wretch never became a man, but without manly spirit went all his life tied to a woman's apron-strings? Dr when the pitifully faithful woman slaved through life, not as a wife, but without frankness loved her master, md that master was her husband? Or is idolatry at first nore beautiful, its foundations wiser, its progress in life nore trustworthy, than a rational worship of God? If anyone thinks that the conception of God which the resolution brings, is a check from which the happiness would rather be free: would it then be more beautiful, would it be wiser, would it better stand the test of life, if :he two without a resolution were unchecked in passing the brief moment in sentimental dreaming with one
another, if they danced away the health and vigor of love on their wedding-day? Was it more beautiful, was it wiser, did it better hold on to the best in life² then, when they stood weary at the beginning of the way, and lo, the jest was over, and it was not earnestness that remained, but distaste and boredom, and a confused awakening to a long life from a confused dream of youth? Should the brief lust of a pair of sensualists be more beautiful and wiser and more trustworthy in life, than the humble beginning of a true marriage? Is there anyone who thinks that the resolution can come later when it is really needed? So it is not needed then, not on the wedding-day, when the eternal pledge is entered into? But then, later? Can he mean that there was no thought of leaving one another, but of enjoying the first gladness of their union² and so united, of finding support in the resolution? Then when toil and trouble come, and need, be it physical or spiritual, stands at the door, then the time is there? Aye, indeed, the time is there² the time for the resolved individual to muster up his resolution; but not just the time to form a resolution. It is true that distress and failure may help a man to seek God in a resolution, but the question is whether the
and so no ennobling reflection of the trials of life. or may be common to every marriage: that love conquers all. that here is a marriage that life coddles. and is strongly armored thereby to conquer in the evil day. bought at the last moment. my hearer. The one must wearily pursue its narrow way through many difficulties. sought Him as a loan-association. is that more beautiful. and still farther from it. The poor man is helped. but when it must also be said that in the evening of life they were not essentially dif- . but the garment of salvation. and yet the garment is the same. worthily bears prosperity. Far be it from this address to terrify childish people. and yet there is one resolution that is. envious. but I wonder if that poor man has a pleasant conception of the loan-association. whether it is joyful. whether it does not have a certain wretchedness. suppose the marriage is fortunate. was not without shame and not without great danger. alas. whether it may not be out of humor. and every- LOVE CONQUERS ALL 207 one who first seeks God for the first time when in difficulties. Is then such a late resolution. and love has conquered all. O childish one. the other is borne as on the hands of fortune through life. a secret wish that it were not necessary. And so there may also be a marriage which first sought God when in difficulty. now they have both come to the end of life. to praise resolution as a means of serving something lower. Well. for the resolution itself is the best. and fortune smiles upon continuously² what then? Then this childish marriage has lost the best. so that the resolution is not needed. melancholy. and the resolved individual arrayed therein. There is in the state a loanassociation to which the indigent may apply. and thereby also of God ²so that the end may well be as the beginning. that love has conquered all. This resolution is the beginning.conception is always the right one. which even if it were a worthy one. then. and in this resolution there is contained a real conception of life and of oneself. It is not a wretched invention against the misery of life. the life of marriage and the circumstances of marriage are so very different in the world. always runs this danger. Alas. and wiser than the resolution at the beginning of marriage? But perhaps no distress and difficulty come in life. Of the first marriage it must be said that the wedded pair learned much 2C>8 in the strict school of life. who knows not the peril of the spirit. But imagine two marriages.
ferent in their earnestness than when in the beginning they gained earnestness in the strict discipline of the resolution: was this not most beautiful? And if of the other couple it must be said that in the evening of life they were not essentially different in their earnestness, but had also through a long life, been essentially as earnest as when on their day of happiness, resolution had made them mature in earnestness: was not this most beautiful? For the youthful earnestness of the resolution is not formed piecemeal, but with God's help it is formed of a conception of life, and of one's self, and of God, and is therefore an eternal soundness, and perhaps never gained later in this way.
THERE is a commonly accepted figure of speech, used by everyone, which compares life to a way. The simile can certainly be used to advantage in many ways, but the necessary unlikeness implied in the figure is no less worth attention. In the material'sense the way is an external reality, indifferent as to whether anyone travels on it or not, indifferent as to how the individual travels it, the way is the way. In the spiritual sense, on the contrary, the way naturally cannot be physically pointed out. It does in a certain sense indeed exist, whether anyone travels it or not; and yet in another sense it only really becomes a way, or it becomes a way for each individual who travels it; the way is: how it is traveled. A man cannot point and say: "There runs the way of virtue"; he can only tell how to travel on the way of virtue; and if anyone does not wish to travel precisely this way, then he, in fact, goes another way. On the other hand, it would indeed be an absurd way of speaking, to define a highway by how it is traveled. Whether it is the youth who, with a confident spirit and head erect, walks easily and lightly, or it is one enfeebled by years, who with bowed head toils slowly forward; whether it is the fortunate man who hastens forward toward the goal of his desire, or the anxious individual who has turned his back on the wish, and goes slowly forward; whether it is the poor foot-sore wayfarer, or the rich man in his
comfortable carriage: the way is the same for all, the way is and remains the same, the same highway. The dissimilarity in the figure appears most clearly when there is at the same time talk about a way in the material sense, and a way in the spiritual sense. Thus when we read in the holy Gospel about the Good Samaritan, then the way in question is the one between Jericho and Jerusalem. We are told about at least three, and indeed really about five, men, that they went ''on the same way," whereas, in the spiritual sense, we may still say that each one went his own way² alas, the highway makes no difference; it is the spiritual which makes the difference and the difference of the way. The first was a peaceable traveler who went on the way from Jericho to Jerusalem, perhaps on an errand, perhaps on a devout mission, in any case, a peaceable traveler on a lawful way. The second was a robber who traveled "on the same way"² and yet on an unlawful way. Then there came a priest "on the same way"; he saw the unfortunate man who had been attacked by the robber; he was perhaps moved momentarily, but nevertheless he continued his walk with his usual thoughtlessness, swiftly moved by an impulse, but without depth. Then came a Levite "on the same way"; he saw the unfortunate man, he passed by unmoved, proceeding on his way² alas, the highway really belonged to none of the travelers, and yet the Levite walked "on the same way," his way, on the way of selfishness and hardness of heart. Last of all there came a Samaritan "on the same way"; he found the unfortunate man on the way of mercy, he knew by his example how one walks on the way of mercy, he knew that, spiritually understood, the way is precisely this: how one goes. Therefore the Gospel says to the learner: "Go thou, and do likewise,"
THE NARROWNESS IS THE WAY 211 that is, when you walk thus on the way, like that Samaritan, then you walk on the way of mercy, for the way between Jericho and Jerusalem has no advantage with respect to practicing mercy. All of this happened "on the same way," and yet once it was the law-abiding way, the second time the way of lawlessness, the third time of thoughtlessness, the fourth time of hard-heartedness, the fifth time of mercy. There were five travelers who, according to the evangelist, went "on the same way," and yet each went his own way. Consequently, the spiritual fact, how one travels on the way of life, makes the difference and the difference of the way. That is, in so far as life, in the common understanding of it, the fact of living, is compared with a way, the metaphor expresses only the commonplace, that
which all the living have in common through the fact of living; to that extent they all travel on the same way, they are all on the way of life. But when the matter of living becomes earnest, then the question becomes how a man is to walk, in order to walk the right way on the way of life. The wayfarer asks about it, not as one usually asks about where the way goes, but how one walks on that way, and how one is supposed to walk. Still, merely in order to ask this rightly, some power of reflection is required, for impatience will readily be deceived, and, spiritually understood, merely asking where the way is, is as if everything would then be decided, in the same sense as when the wayfarer has found the highway. And worldly wisdom is very willing to deceive by repeatedly answering the question of where the way is, while the difficulty is ignored, that, spiritually understood, the way is: how it is traveled. Sometimes worldly wisdom wishes to teach that the way goes over Gerizim,
212 sometimes over Moriah, sometimes that it leads through one or another science, sometimes that it consists in certain maxims, sometimes certain external acts. A man is not willing to admit to himself that all this is deception, because the way is: how it is traveled. For it is indeed true, as the Scriptures say: two men may be sleeping in one bed, the one is saved, the other lost; two men can go up to the same temple, the one goes home saved, the other lost; two men can recite perfectly the same confession of faith, the one may be saved, the other lost. How does this happen, unless just because, in the spiritual sense, it is a deception to know where the way goes, since the way is: how it is traveled? But even the one who has learned to ask correctly how one must go, still asks about one thing: whither the way leads. Any commendation regarding the perfection of the way can still mean nothing if the way does not lead to perfection²alas, the more perfect the way is, if it nevertheless leads to perdition, the more distressing it is. And on the other hand, however hard and toilsome the way which is to be followed, if it still is the way of perfection, it is nevertheless joyful. How now does one walk on the .way of perfection? For on the way of pleasure one moves easily, as in a dance. On the way of honor one walks proudly, crowned with garlands. On the accommodating way of fortune one walks humored in all his wishes. But how does one walk on the way of perfection? The one who asks earnestly, the one who stands on the way and asks about the old accustomed paths, he will also receive an earnest answer: that the way is narrow, that on the way of perfection a man walks in tribulations. Whether you consult the Old
the joy for a sufferer in this thought. how one is to walk on the way of affliction. that is. so that the answer by the help of this difference may win the different. That this second 2I 4 must never be forgotten. but they all say the same thing.Testament covenants or the New. moreover. or waste his strength. When affliction is the way. that "we must enter into the kingdom of God through much tribulation" (Acts 14:22). there are many answers. and the subject of this discourse is. So definite and decided is this single opinion of the Scriptures. but neither must it be forgotten. then is this the joy: that it is hence immediately clear to the sufferer. but rather rely upon the complete and perfect impression of the common teaching of the Scriptures. that perhaps concerning nothing else are there found so many scriptural passages which all say the same thing: that "he who wishes to serve God must dispose his soul to temptations" (Sirach 2:1). that the way of perfection is in afflictions. only the voice is different. BUT THE NARROWNESS WHICH IS THE WAY Consequently. In the spiritual sense the way is: how it is traveled. is certain enough. either first or last. the sufferer will be exactly strengthened for that purpose. This is the first how. the answer is constantly the same. but the joyful one for the sufferer. the way of perfection leads through tribulations. Therefore we shall not cite any particular Biblical passage. and therefore we shall for the edification of a sufferer (for these discourses are indeed the Gospel of Suffering). and that he immediately knows definitely what the task is. on the contrary it must be remembered. the second is. Hence the discourse is not this time the admonishing one of how one must walk on the way of affliction. when he has really found for himself the joy in the thought that the way of perfection is through afflictions² he who through being a sufferer is exactly in affliction. and so on. concerning this there THE NARROWNESS IS THE WAY 213 is only one opinion. that the affliction is the how which indicates the way of perfection. that we "are appointed to tribulation" (I Thess. consider the joy in the thought: THAT IT IS NOT THE WAY WHICH IS NARROW. how does one walk on the way of perfection? One walks in afflictions. in re- . 3:3). Which is then the way of perfection. that on the way of perfection one walks in tribulations. so he does not need to -use any time.
able to do what the vigorous man is hardly able to do. Who has not frequently looked with amazement at this amazing thing: what a child is able to do! If the father or mother. what it has to do² for the child has only to obey. then a child can do. it must obey at once. spend even a single moment on that kind of reflection. then this is the task. and what then is to be feared. The child is then indeed weak in comparison with a powerful man. The task is set with the emphasis and reliability of authority. How far it is right or wrong does not concern the child at all. he says: "What good does it do to lie here if I cannot sleep?" He gets up again. like the child who goes to sleep at once! Alas. that the child has no difficulty at all in learning definitely what the task is." I wonder too if he can. the weak who unconditionally comes to apply his whole strength in perfecting the task. take an adult. and yet there is only one. As soon as the child is told what it is to do. For if it is true that one rises up so refreshed from the rest of sleep that it is sometimes almost tempting to stay in bed and not get up. it not only must not. this is the THE NARROWNESS IS THE WAY 215 start. he says to himself: "You might as well go to sleep. of whom it is said that he was able to sleep when he would. The task is a matter for the thought and consideration of the parents and superiors. but is not able to. even a very strong one. who. in the opinion of its parents. what is it which helps by giving the child a start? Manifestly this. when he is ready to lay his head on the pillow. even if for comparison one uses a vigorous man. after a vain attempt to sleep. What is it that makes a child. but it is also the weak who has a very essential advantage. yet not to work. truly. At last he becomes impatient. when he again wishes to fall asleep. whether his work will not be neglected. what even an energetic adult is rarely enough able to do. then the opposite happens: the unruly thoughts at once awaken. on the contrary. he is in the same situation as the child. truly.flecting whether the task should not be different. aye. for now he can neither work nor sleep. needs to sleep. Then perhaps all his thoughts become promiscuously confused. it is in another sense difficult to get up. or merely the nursemaid. one . after a vain attempt to sleep. but then one still gives the child headway by adding: "Do it at once"² so the child does the amazing. and so effectively that there is not a single moment wasted in doubting about the task. but it dare not. not the least bit of strength lost in irresolution about the task. he who was called der Einzige (the only one). says with authority: "Now go to sleep at once"² then the child sleeps. For otherwise. then truly. There are current worldly stories about many amazing accomplishments of men. when he sometimes doubts whether it is right to sleep.
what can the driver do for them? Of course. hence the adult is at one and the same time master and servant. conversely. instead of being his own master. the driver causes a misunderstanding. In a certain sense he expends much time. fickle. much industry. and then he must work to discharge the task. so a man. The difficulty for the older person. If. he is tossed about by every gust. When a team of horses must pull a heavy load. it can so easily happen that the servant intrudes in the consideration of the task and. Alas. he tears down and builds up and begins from the beginning. that the master pays too much attention to the complaint of the servant over the hardships involved in performing his task. and it is all as if THE NARROWNESS IS THE WAY 217 wasted. because there is no master. yet without moving from his place. That the one commanding and the one obeying are one and the same is undeniably a difficult relationship. and the mediocre driver can whip them. because the task is not established. nor are they incapable² if only it could become indubitably clear to them what their task is. And that which makes it difficult consists exactly in getting the task clearly in mind. if he curbs them so that . as the parents and superiors do with respect to the child. then confusion enters. as can anyone. But it is the Lord and Master who will assign the task. he is to be his own master. the relationship at last becomes so preposterous that his whole strength is exhausted in hitting upon ever newer innovations in the task² like a plant which runs to seed. for he should indeed be his own master. Perhaps men are after all not so unwilling to spend time and industry. so he runs wild in fussy reflections or in unfruitful desires. what can he do for them? He can help them to get headway in pulling the wagon by concentrating their whole strength in a single moment and in a single start. but the competent driver. is that 2l6 he has a two-fold task: he must work to find the task and to get it definitely established. But the trouble is that the communication of this cannot in any decisive sense fall to one's lot from without. moreover. he cannot himself pull it. which doubtless is also the advantage of authority and maturity. doubtful. or in establishing what the task really is. the one who is to command and the one who must obey are one and the same. he runs from one thing to the other. The adult is indeed authoritative. it must come through the person concerned himself. on the contrary.gets up even more tired. becomes unstable. much energy.
but he has plenty to do with the burdensome: bungling through the task in order if possible to get it established. in discovering what the task is. The task does not become a burden. then naturally he never comes to bear the burden. even if the horses have plenty of strength. then must he succumb to affliction. because with their many energies they work against themselves. to a standstill. in spite of all this. so that one horse thinks that it is to pull. but that the one who is master. then much is already gained. but he wastes it. If he can only get the task established. the other. sees that there is strength enough. one must frequently say with sadness: "They do not themselves know what energies they have. demoralizes his energy² such a man works with scarcely one-third of his strength expended in the right place. now he foolishly pulls on the reins. he cannot get the task so firmly fixed that it is established. at the moment. and a man never really does. If this happens. the driver. not without a certain distress. But doubt will if possible prevent this. then the wagon does not move. if he immediately knows definitely what the task is. If this is the case. he who should be master (and that is certainly himself). that the driver is merely holding it in so that they will start together: aye. But as one. or if he pulls on the reins unevenly. and with more than two-thirds applied in the wrong place. The sufferer is in affliction: now for it. Is it not then a joyful thought that it is true that affliction is the way? For then it is indeed immediately clear . or in a thousand inventions with respect to what it might be. they more or less prevent themselves from learning. he will turn his back in order to take up the burden. as it were. if it fools him into striving where he should not strive. it wishes slyly to draw all his strength away from him. if doubt triumphs. now he wishes to do both things at once² and in spite of all this he never moves from the place. he cannot even once get it established. then he will surely succeed in holding out. when one observes human life. Alas. and he must again pile it up. sees this sight. it is as if the burden fell off. Now he stops the work in order to begin reflecting on it from the beginning. not without distress. so to speak. when a man behaves in a similar way." Let us then consider more carefully the subject of this discourse. now he works instead of reflecting. He does not lack strength.the horses think that they should merely be ready to pull together at a given signal² but the driver meant that they should pull now. wastes it: so one sees. while he may break 2l8 away from this labor and have his strength ready to perfect the task. or against himself. life comes. and to let it serve in the wrong place.
this. is to be used in additional reflection. however hard the affliction may be. But if affliction is the way. If a man has advanced so far that all illusions about wishing the good to a certain degree. But when affliction is the way. disappear. There is perhaps very rarely found a man who has not at some time made a beginning in willing the good. he goes forward in affliction on the way of perfection² but the affliction becomes harder and harder. We can easily make sure of this. that little by little it becomes easier on the narrow way. and the way still remain the same. Doubt wishes to make the THE NARROWNESS IS THE WAY 219 sufferer wonder if it were not possible that he had mistaken the way. But when the affliction is the way. that the fact that there is affliction might not mean that he is on the wrong road. and he still continue to walk on the same way² without affliction. and from now on harder and harder. only then does the 220 way really become hard. Now that is as it should be. but most men fall away just when it appears that the way is becoming'harder instead of easier. that affliction is the way. not one single moment. then it is indeed impossible to walk on some other way. that it is only the beginning that is narrow. The sufferer then holds out. on the contrary. So there must not be one single moment. makes it certain what the task is. establishes the task. and far be it from us to help to circulate the lying reports. And truly. then it is indeed impossible for it to be taken away. Consequently. One is always correct in saying this. The relation is precisely reversed. then much is already gained. Doubt wishes to make the sufferer wonder if it might not still be possible for the affliction to be taken away. this is the sign that he is on the right way. the fact that there is affliction on the way cannot possibly signify that he has gone wrong. But that which contains no deceit. entice them one moment in order in the next moment to make them even more impatient. not one bit of strength used . about the good to a certain degree having a worldly reward. there can be no doubt as to what the task is. if we only pay attention to men and wish to see. if he really becomes earnest in wishing the good. it becomes harder and harder. no affliction is still so hard as this affliction of restless thoughts in a doubtful and irresolute soul. But if only the task is established. the everlasting certainty is: that affliction is the way. lest one deceive men by fabulous stories. Doubt wishes to make him wonder if it would not be possible to go another way.what the task is. not the least bit of strength.
then he merely goes on another road. and too it is undeniably pleasanter to drive in a comfortable carriage than to walk so oppressed. If anyone then wishes to make the sufferer believe that others walk the same way so easily. too. is half the labor. But since the affliction is the way. then the affliction must be brought into an accidental relation to the way. the sufferer has but one answer: the affliction is the way. and then it would certainly be a strange thing if on the way of affliction there was the difference that there were some who walked on the way of affliction without afflictions. wincing at every step. when a poor wayfarer. But doubt cannot lay hold on the sufferer and make him doubtful by the thought that others walk on the same way without afflictions. Far be it from us. If someone travels without afflictions. that it is so different on the way of perfection. the sufferer at once knows definitely what the task is. that well begun is half done. There is a certain worldly prudence which does not like to break absolutely with the good. then it is also true that establishing what the task is." then something accidental . nevertheless. Lo. others in tribulation. affliction is the way. more than half. whose feet are possibly sore. the task is also established. then the task is again established.in further reflection: the task is established. not even Satan himself is able to smuggle in a doubt as to what the task is. while he walks in tribulation. For the highway is completely indifferent to the distinction of how one travels it. If doubt is to secure full scope. without afflictions. Let us recall what was explained at the beginning of this discourse. almost drags himself forward on the way: then there is. so carefree. for in that there is no untruth. for the affliction is the way. even if it is never right for him to be envious. which is his own affair. Thus if a wayfarer is speaking about a road and says: "This way is hard. But in the spiritual sense the way is: how it is traveled. If what the proverb says is true. much good sense in the thought of envy- THE NARROWNESS IS THE WAY 221 ing the rich who ride by him in comfortable carriages. he does not walk on the same way without affliction as the one who walks in affliction. For it is indeed possible that some walk without affliction. but truly. but also dislikes exceedingly to renounce absolutely the good days and worldly advantage of effeminacy. for the affliction is the way. this prudence is really very resourceful in the kind of invention. that in the spiritual sense the way is this: how it is traveled. aye. that it is so different² not in life. Thus the task is again established. so that some travel on the same way without tribulation. then so be it. this hypocritical talk about things being so different in life.
may be expressed by that, perhaps that there is another way which is easy, and which nevertheless leads to the same destination. Or the way may perhaps be easy at other times, but just at this time it is difficult. On the other hand, when affliction is the way, then every doubt about affliction being the task, is an attempt to go² on the wrong way, since there is only one single way, the way of affliction which the sufferer is on. The doubt concerning the task has its stronghold constantly in the idea
that there might be other ways, or that the way might be changed so that the affliction would be taken away. But when affliction is the way, then the affliction cannot be taken away without taking away the way, and there cannot be other ways, but only a wrong way. Is this then not a joyful thought, joyful for the sufferer, who is on the way of affliction, joyful because it does not need even the slightest reflection as to whether the way is the right one, joyful because he can immediately begin on the task, begin with the concentration which has all its strength collected and ready to endure the affliction. For when affliction is the way, then it is surely not in a disconsolate sense the unavoidable, by no means; he could not indeed wish to avoid it, since it is the way. With this thought the sufferer is at once under full headway to endure the affliction; he cannot so much as waste a moment or spare a glance to look about him; no, he is in affliction with all his might, joyful in affliction, rejoicing in the thought that the affliction is the way. That is, it is not really the task which gives strength, for the task is indeed that which is prescribed, for whose accomplishment the one to whom the task is assigned must use his strength; and yet we may say that the task gives strength. If the parents know how to set a task with authority, if a driver knows from experience how to set the task, then it helps indescribably. And so too for adults, when the task is fixed with the authority of eternity, then it helps indescribably in performing the task. If a child is so unfortunate as to have a father who does not know how to command, or a horse is so unfortunate as to have a mediocre driver: then it looks as if the child and the horse do not have half the strength they actually possess. Alas, and when the adult, who is a sufferer, gives
THE NARROWNESS IS THE WAY 223 his own soul into the power of the fickle and inconstant: then he is actually weaker than a child. But then it is also
joyful that the affliction is the way, for then it is immediately established, and established immovably, what the task is. The affliction is the way² and this constitutes the joy: that it is consequently not a characteristic of the way, that it is hard, but a characteristic of the affliction, that it is the way, so the affliction must consequently lead to something, it must be something practicable and appreciable, not superhuman. Each of these thoughts contains a more closely edifying determination of this joy, and therefore we shall pause to consider each separately. It is not a distinguishing quality of the way that it is hard, but a distinguishing quality of the affliction that it is the way. The more closely the affliction and the way are connected with each other, the more firmly established also is the task. When it is said: the way is hard, then the latter is a closer determination of the way; there are two thoughts: the way² and the fact that it is hard. Then we say: "It is indeed true, the way is actually hard." But then there are still two thoughts, so it is as if the doubt were granted a little concession, as if it might here squeeze itself in between the way and the fact that it is hard; as if the doubt might still have something for itself, when it wishes to make the sufferer wonder whether it might not be possible that there could be a way without its being hard, or without being as hard as it presumably is; for doubt whispers: "The question must be solved thus, the way, and after that: it is hard." But if the affliction is the way, then must doubt expire, then it cannot possibly recover. One determination is not then superior to the other; the whole assertion does not split itself, for the apprehension,
22 4 into a noun and an adjective, no, they are one and the same: the affliction is the way, and the way is the affliction; they belong together so exactly that doubt cannot even draw its breath between them, for they are one thought; they belong together so exactly that the relationship between the affliction and the way is one of inseparability. A closer relationship can never exist. Take the affliction away and you take the way away; take the way away, then you take the affliction away. So exactly do they belong together, so firmly is the task established. The affliction must lead to something. That is, one cannot draw an inference in this way: a way is hard, consequently it must lead to something. In so far as a way is a way, the inference is valid, that it must lead to something, for as soon as it does not lead to something, it also ceases to be a way. The inference is valid in so far as the way is a way, but not because it is hard; this adjective
makes it, for one who is not yet strong in the faith, almost, as it were, more doubtful whether the way can also lead to something. If, on the contrary, the affliction itself is the way, then the conclusion follows: it must lead to something. For here the inference is not drawn from the fact that it is hard, but from the fact that it is the way. These are the Master's own words: "Narrow is the way which leadeth unto life"; and when He has said that, it is everlastingly established. Truly, we do not commend the fact that someone has gone astray in a multiplicity of thoughts; oh, but if that were the case, then will we gladly assist him with a more imperfect expression of the same thing, more imperfect, because it is only understood by one who was not unacquainted with doubt, and therefore is also only temporarily serviceable to him, until he again
THE NARROWNESS IS THE WAY 225 learns the more perfect expression: to hold solely to the words of the Master. Certainly, the fact that the Master has said these words is still the most assured defense against doubt; for to believe it, in the sense of obedience, is still far more certain than the certain: that, in the sense of thought, it is impossible for the thought to doubt it. Alas, because it is impossible for thought, it does not follow from that that it is impossible for the thinking man; he can, for all that, despondently or defiantly, will to doubt. However, if it is not the Master's own word, that the affliction is the way, it is nevertheless His teaching, for does He not teach that affliction is profitable? So it is He, nevertheless, who vouches for the words. For this a man can do; he can clearly and with clear thoughts explain what the thought implies, but he cannot vouch for the thought² only the authority can do that; and only He, who is the sole authority, can vouch for all authority. When it is said: "Narrow is the way which leads to eternal life," then the thought is this: well, it is true that the way is narrow, the affliction an obstacle, a hindrance on the way; one must go through, but then it also leads to eternal happiness. Consequently, affliction is a barrier, a hindrance on the way, yet one must go through. But if the affliction itself is the way, what wonder then that one must go through, what wonder then that the affliction leads to something! Doubt will gladly deprive the sufferer of confidence, will let him stick in affliction, perish in the despondent, aye, the presumptuous thought, that he is forsaken of God, as if he had fallen into a way which could only circumscribe him, as if it were in a despondent sense that the Apostle said: "We are all appointed to afflictions" (I Thess. 3:3), as if there were no purpose in the affliction, but we were merely destined
But it is more than conquering to believe that the affliction is one's friend. But when the affliction is the way. "Faith is our victory. assuming that the affliction is one's enemy. has overcome the affliction. he says: "The affliction itself is a sign to me that I am well advised. Wonderful! The way of affliction is the only one where . then it helps one forward. the purpose of the affliction is to be the way." and in another place. not the hindering but the improving. but the way. and so it becomes impossible to imagine an affliction that can obstruct this way. the best relay. then this way must eternally lead to something. What is it that can appear on a road and block it. it can no doubt learn much. too." As long as the child still has a timid fear of the teacher. For what could prevent a way from leading to something. But if this cannot come as an obstruction on this way. The sufferer can. is the helper! The Apostle Paul says somewhere. to overcome affliction. if I may speak in this way. not the discouraging but the ennobling. It is not a difficulty on the way. Also one may see from this that the affliction may lead to something. And thus. for is not this in the higher sense overcoming affliction. The affliction must be something appreciable. imagine the affliction increasingly terrible. we are more than conquerors. but when confidence has driven out the fear. makes a new relay necessary. if one but lets it advise. no. then the sufferer breathes. then is this way unconditionally passable. for then the affliction itself is indeed preferment. prac- THE NARROWNESS IS THE WAY 227 ticable." But can one do more than conquer? Yes. If. on the contrary. and fearlessness has triumphed. as one overcomes an enemy. the affliction is my helper² for the affliction is the way. assured that the affliction is the way. which. That is what it means to conquer in affliction. then there is immediately a breath of air. "Yea. Is this not joyful! How confidently the sufferer can breathe in this thought! He not only commits himself into the hands of God and goes to meet the affliction. then it must lead to something. to be willing to believe that the affliction is the way. that it is not an obstacle on the way. so it becomes impassable? It is affliction. if before the strife begins he has transformed the enemy into a friend. if he so will. but the affliction itself is a relay.226 to affliction. when the sufferer. this makes no difference one way or the other² it is everlastingly certain that the affliction is the way. then the higher instruction begins. for the affliction is the way. what other than affliction.
where the discourse concerns the horror. if it were so. there is only a lying fable. transform him into a creeping thing. he is indeed a head taller. and affliction would not be the way." Consequently. invented by a timorous or a cunning individual. to justify himself by making the temptation superhuman. they say to the believer: "When this happens. aye.there is no hindrance. no. But. compared with the magnitude of the temptation. 228 The superhuman temptation will tower high above a man." But has God not made the temptation bearable when from eternity He has arranged it so that the affliction itself is the way? Then the affliction is made endurable once for all. The Apostle Paul says: "No temptations have befallen you except the human. But is not this good news! For what is more distressing than when a wayfarer must say: "Here there is no longer a path. the believer is taller by a head. the temptation has no superhuman magnitude. then is the believer also above the affliction. in expectation of which men's hearts shall fail them from fear. thank heaven. for they are . The Scriptures say exactly the opposite. they not only say that there is no superhuman temptation. No. And how can it be better assured that there is always a good way out of temptation. strutting haughtily. like the precipitous mountain which leads the wayfarer to despair. for the affliction itself prepares the way instead of blocking it. but God will make both the temptation and the escape such that you may be able to bear it. when he walks on it. so will the superhuman temptation. who wishes to shift the guilt from his own shoulders. on the contrary. The sufferer immediately knows definitely what the task is. and a good way out of the affliction. as he rises above the affliction. but they say in another place. for the way on which a man goes certainly does not go over his head. Thus there is a perpetual joy contained in the thought that the affliction is the way." And hence what is more joyful than that a wayfarer constantly dares say: "Here there is always a way!" The affliction is not superhuman. then lift up your heads. than when the affliction is itself the way? For then the affliction is always a way out. a head taller. proudly mock the poor sufferer. then he plants his foot on it. As a natural force belittles human effort. so the superhuman temptation will frighten the sufferer. there are no superhuman temptations. he can immediately begin on it with all his might. to diminish his own guilt by magnifying the temptation. no doubt can come sneaking in between the way and the affliction. then would the way be blocked. when the affliction is most terrible. And when the affliction is the way.
also establishes itself more firmly: then it is indeed profitable to consider some diversion for the troubled soul. so that he winces almost as much from the sympathy as from the pain: then if one leads him out into an environment where there is nothing to remind him of his sorrow² not even sympathy. because this confining and restricting presses too closely upon him. Oh. an environment which has the touching nearness of sympathy. where sympathy is. This is the way the Gospel read leads the concerned individual out into the field. And that with a sure spirit. although not in the sense that the world frequently and foolishly enough recommends² the wild restlessness or the noisy stupefaction of vain diversions. It must certainly never be forgotten. through a self-contradiction in his sorrow.eternally inseparable. and therefore it is eternally certain that this way must lead to something. which is always passable. as it were. it is evident that something must be done to get his eyes and mind diverted from it. . which will gain for him the great fellowship of existence. it must again be said here in conclusion. If then the concerned one feels himself forsaken and yet. for here no afflic- THE NARROWNESS IS THE WAY 229 tion can obstruct the way. is it not also the way to walk rightly on the way of affliction! X THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY IF IT is true that the sorrow of concern. and yet is not. into surroundings which will include him in the great common life. does not desire sympathy. without doubt in the belief that the affliction in which a man finds himself is the way. but if it is true that it will be of little use to a man with a cold heart to cling to a dead understanding: truly the understanding which keeps a man happy and warm in affliction will also strengthen him for the next step: to walk rightly on the way of affliction. or the longer it penetrates profoundly into the soul. in so far as it is sympathy. and also the soothing remoteness of sympathy. But since the concern has now established itself firmly within him. especially the longer and the more deeply it penetrates into the soul. that the second point still remains: how the sufferer is to walk on the way of affliction. in so far as it is not sympathy. as the affliction is never superhuman.
the more devoutly the concerned yields himself to its influence. then he looks up at it. For if the concerned "beholds the lily" at THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY 231 his feet. as science explains. And if.For this there are two exercises which the Gospel recommends." If. then. is it not then as if it were the bird that dried the tears! Even if the loved one sits by and wipes away the tears. it sees only its own seeing." And so the Gospel says: "Divert your mind. then he looks down at it. he dries the tears. and if he looks up at the bird. looked down and saw his concern. is it not as if it were the lily that dried the tears! When the wind dries the tears from the eyes that are following the bird. but if he looks down in order to see the lily. then he is looking away from his concern. he does not see his concern. since it . and yet the law for this kind of invention mocks the fruitless striving by the self-contradiction of the diversion. How can one better describe the fact of the concern having established itself in a man's soul. more and more impatiently it learns to compress the multitude of diversions into a short-lived moment: the more this ingenuity increases the more it works against itself. if the concerned one still continues to weep. because. This is what we venture to call a godly diversion. and when he looks down at the lily. than by saying that it is as when the eye stares? When the eye stares then it looks fixedly before it. he looks at the bird in the air. then he looks away from his concern. It is of course possible that in his sorrow he usually walked with bowed head. the tears stop while the eye is looking down at the lily. but if he looks up in order to see the bird in the air. not as the vain and worldly diversion excites impatience and 2 3 2 fosters the concern. according to the account in the Gospel. is this then really to dry the tears? But the one who causes the concerned to stop weeping. it constantly sees one thing. then he does not see his own concern. But then the physician says: "Move your eye. look down at the lily and refrain from staring at your concern. The art itself is at the service of impatience. look up at the bird and stop staring at your concern. soothes and persuades. but as the diversion which diverts. and followed it with a glance of concern. Human ingenuity has invented a great many things to amuse and divert the mind. Of course it is possible that in his sorrow he also sometimes looked up when he sent a concerned sigh up to God. and yet it does not really see that.
where year out and year in. into which you . insignificant. One pays money then for admittance to a tension of impatience in having to await the beginning of the entertainment. that the diversion. And yet. the diversion constantly lasts for a shorter and shorter time." Oh. so there is no prompting of impatience. But if the purpose of the diversion is to while away the time. unappreciated. more and more movingly it draws you away from the temporal. where the vain and worldly diversion shows itself as slight and self-contradictory as it is. not later than ten o'clock sharp. perhaps that is the reason why there are so many who have never really seen it. if it lasts merely one hour the spectator grows weary. how different are the godly diversions! For have you ever seen the star-lit heavens. alas. then the spectator grows weary. the most perfect performance consists in burning the whole display in a very few minutes. may only while away a few moments² the more fearfully it becomes precisely evident how long the time is. Oh. but if you stand quietly. and in the same moment it is over. Fireworks indeed delight the eye and divert the mind when the elaborate. then the contradiction appears clearly. As God makes Himself invisible. if accidentally you were to pause and turn your glance upward² you would still find it true that its persuasiveness increases with every moment. blazing ephemerality is lighted in the darkness of the night. the false obviousness. The task of ingenuity is therefore to speed it up faster and faster. if you perhaps went out there without any particular motive. as it were. no. it does not say. As those antic flames blaze and immediately vanish into nothing. even if in another sense they do not wait for you² as the twinkling stars shine in the night. "Tonight. so must the soul be of him who knows only such diversions: THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY 233 in the moment of diversion he despairs over the length of time it takes. and have you ever found any more authentic spectacle! It costs nothing. the highest. Ah.appears that as the ingenuity increases. alas. while with empty noise and driving impatience you are still in a covenant with boredom. if but one brief moment intervenes before each new ignition. The divine Majesty disdains the visible. so have they shone unchanged for thousands of years. the heavens wait for you. what is to be forgotten sinks into deeper and deeper oblivion with every moment you continue to observe the starry heavens. when it represents the most perfect art. it is visible. the solemnity of the starlit heavens is more than unostentatious. because of that there are many who perhaps have never really noticed Him: so the starry heaven makes itself. O godly diversion! You do not disloyally and treacherously call yourself a diversion. Let us take an example.
indeed it still waits for you that you may enjoy its beauty! See how it sways back and forth. when it is made. See where it now soars. while by yielding it still triumphs over the most violent storm. too. then let him not look at the lily at his feet. it seems insignificant. and weathers it! Behold the bird in the air. and then to stand still. hence it rests where . and yet. in order to observe the lily and the bird. if only you continue to look after it. it rests² in infinite space. he is not admonished. lest by pausing a moment you perhaps discover the persuasiveness in the uniformity of the swelling billows. on the contrary. you are in a covenant with the eternal. with the lily of the field and the bird in the air. for if your eye follows it. as in human recreations. take advantage of it! Hasten. Thus it is with everything in nature. If you are hurrying "to your fields. may divert the mind within which the concern has established itself. far away. perhaps it comes from far away. see where it flies. But the concerned. see how it stands in loveliness at your feet. you hear no invitation. to far more distant regions² then let it take your concern with it! And it does it without noticing the burden. there is neither the voice of approval nor the thunder of cannon. no.plunge men deeper and deeper² through the diversion. from far. the Gospel prompts him to go out into the field. to your trade. so that the godly diversion may cause the staring eye to move. so that quiet again it may rejoice in its happy existence! See how gentle THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY 235 it is. then the 234 quiet of the diversion increases and in it the persuasiveness. If it is during working hours. perhaps it flies away. Consider the lily. quivers with every movement. do not despise it. far happier scenes ²but then those indeed still exist. when one must give attention to his work. then you perhaps would pause too long watching the bird. to your wife"² and a bird flies past you. shakes everything from it so that it may continue to be lovely! See how it sports with the wind. and therefore only the beginning is difficult. if the harvest-hand whets his scythe briskly and swings it against the grain. and yet it is so infinitely right. lest it persuade him. If therefore you are going hastily on an important errand. always willing to jest and play. then do not watch its flight. And so. and your way leads you along the sea shore² then take advantage of it! It is indeed true that no one calls to you. so that both the lily and the harvest-hand remain standing.
and what way through all the adversities and afflictions of a human life is yet so difficult as the "mysterious way of a bird through the air"! Hence there is a way and a way to find. would not say. does not grieve. if we may speak in this way. but rather uplifts and gives confidence. the lovely shades of blended colors." but it says it so gently that the reproach does not wound. instead of being thankful for having it: I wonder if the mother. then the Gospel says not only that man is clothed like the grass of the field. then you will appreciate that you have it. moreover. and by forgetting his concern in the diversion he is led to consider: HOW GLORIOUS IT IS TO BE HUMAN "// then God so clothed the grass of the field . if you once come to understand better. that you asked for what you had. the fine veining of the blades. although forgivable. where no way seems possible. "O my dear child. you will get enough tomorrow. O ye of little faith!" Consequently God clothes the grass. when love does not have the heart to speak severely: with uplifted finger it reproachfully says to him. mildly reproachful. of ribbons and bows and pageantry² all this is part of the clothing of the lily.no rest seems possible! See how it finds its way." But if this is the meaning of the words. If a child aggrieved came to its parents and begged for something which the child had already and had had for a long time. does not dishearten. you of little faith! That is. but about the ingratitude of being willing to forget how glori- . the whole wealth. and that therefore it was a kind of ingratitude. O ye of little faith?" "Ye of little faith!" This is the mild approach of the admoni- 236 tion. . who looks at the lily and the bird. but that he is clothed far more gloriously. but had not been aware of having. gets something else to think of besides his own concern. suitable for a child. we shall now consider how the concerned. that you have always had it. or about the new coat one so greatly needs. should he not much more clothe you. dispels the mists by the aid of the godly diversion. thus it is said to the one who was in the wrong. and it is God who clothes it in this way. By the aid of the added reproof (ye of little faith) it is really said: Should not God much more have clothed you? So the discourse is not about the new coat one wishes to have for Sunday. or the grass is clothed. and therefore believed that it must beg in order to get it. the beautifully formed sheathes of the stalks. "You of little faith. as all diversion is intended not only to pass the time but also chiefly to give the concerned individual something else to think of. However. "Should He not much more clothe you. .
however. absolutely to forget the first clothing. simple first thoughts are perhaps forgotten more and more. "Should not God much more clothe you?" Would it not be incongruous if the latter was to be understood as referring to some articles of clothing a man may need? THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY 237 Let us. Learn from the ant how to be wise. Understood in this sense. says: "You will get enough in the morning. the concerned individual is reminded to compare his clothing with that of the lily² even if poverty has dressed him in rags. you of little faith!" The Gospel wishes first to remind even an indigent one that he must not completely forget how gloriously he is clothed by God. even if your need is great. we are all perhaps only too inclined to be concerned about clothes. 238 Ought not then the invitation to learn from the lilies to be as acceptable to everyone. O ye of little faith! O ye ungrateful. in the busy worldly life of the comparisons. that you are absolutely willing to forget how God has clothed you. But by considering the lily. mildly reproachful. rightly consider this question. Would there not be an incongruity in the discourse if the first statement was that the lily was more gloriously clad than Solomon. but this is not to be understood in such a way that the lily's existence is one thing and the fact of having raiment something different. on the other hand. how gloriously you are clad. but learn from the lily how glorious it is to be human. we are indeed very far from needy. not all in the more earnest and stricter sense. Being clothed means then being human²and so to be well clothed.ously man is clothed from the hand of God. Worldly concern occupies itself with clothes and with the distinctions of dress: is it not then like the child who aggrieved comes and begs for what it has. It is said that the lily is arrayed. and the last. should not the human be far more gloriously clad? Or should he be permitted. And next. no its raiment is the fact of being lily. ye of little faith! In the petty disquiet of the comparisons. the worldly concern always seeks to lead a man away from the elevated calm of simple thoughts. with your imagined need! O ye concerned. one generation compares it- . those great elevating. One man compares himself with another. out of concern for articles of clothing. but. and ungratefully forget those first thoughts² and the first clothing. as the admonition is profitable to him! Ah. and to whom the mother.
As everywhere ingenuity and busyness increase. there come to be in every generation more and more men who toilsomely labor throughout their whole life far down in the deep subterranean regions. consoled. Therefore God singled out the human. who never see the light of day. and belongs under what the most celebrated pagan thinker has called the animal classification: the herd. simple first principles. where every man is what God has made him. deceives the fortunate. and how does not envy itself strive to frustrate them! But out in the field with the lilies. there no one will be ruler! To be a prodigy! Ah. or to rule over a single man² besides oneself. the wonder of creation: aye. And up above. aye.self with another. like miners. so they get no impression of those elevated. the one who is willing to reconcile himself to disappearing and perishing in the insignificant service of the comparisons: he regards himself as an animal. there smiling vanity plays its false game. the shrill laughter of the crowd would mock the THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY 2^Q fool who in such a sense could speak about being a ruler. The individual animal is not singled out. And yet. edified and uplifted by the absoluteness of those first principles. whether it be to rule over kingdoms and countries. simple. he is ruler: moreover. whether in the comparative sense he was distinguished or humble. he regards himself as an animal. and thus the accumulated multitude of comparisons really grows above a man's head. what a strife is not carried on about this in the world. and about being a prodigy. But out in the field with the lilies. primary thoughts about how glorious it is to be human. what can the preacher really mean by those words: "that God separated the human in order to see whether he would regard himself as an animal. To be a ruler² aye. where every man who quietly and in solitude sucks the milk of those first principles is what he is according to the divine plan. in the high places of the comparison. whom no one is greatly concerned in ruling over. And the human being who turns away in despair from those first principles to plunge into the herd of the comparisons makes himself into a number. is not unconditionally a separate entity. the individual animal is a number. made every man into this separate entity which is implied in the absoluteness of those first principles. so these unfortunates never come to see the light: those elevating. what strenuous efforts are not made in the world to attain this envied place." For the one who is not separated is willing to be soothed. whether in a comparative sense he becomes the distinguished or the humble . over thousands. there no one will be a prodigy! The better individual would certainly smile.
to wonder about that simple first thought. which usually no one troubles himself over. but he believed it was the soul which. the erect one by means of his glance proudly lifts his head higher than the mountains. to what is man's distinction: the erect walk. Thus the man stands erect² commanding. THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY 241 not even the scholar and the scientist. in the beautiful mother-tongue of wonder. is called the erect. and even more at its glance. then was his mind uplifted. also. the apparel of the man. with the lilies the concerned one is set apart. no one has spoken more wonder ingly than that noble wise man. but only the human has a glance. like a weaver itself wove the body. with which no plant and no animal can endure any comparison.However. as it were. strangely enough. really began to wonder. He wondered over the ingeniousness of the human eye. has not left such a varied herd. such a tremendously confused manifold behind him as the one who turned his back on the inhuman comparisons² in order humanly to compare his raiment with that of the lily. 240 He did not know how to refer everything to God. even if the straight trunks of the trees rise higher. yet so that there is indicated the two-fold meaning. Many have perhaps spoken more learnedly. as he ingeniously says. A pagan has earlier been aware of this. In his thought he let it belong. when he became older. and when in thinking he imitated it. that in this way the erect one directs his glance upward. And now in beautiful wonder he praised the ingenious creation of the human body. its glory. the human who therefore. far away from all human or perhaps better inhuman comparisons between man and man: moreover. on the contrary. first the fact that the human form is erect like the straight trunks of the trees. And so too that wondering pagan knew many ways in which to speak gloriously about the human's glorious raiment. and therefore the fact of that wonder was deemed so glorious that the human was the only created thing which had hands. the one who turned his back on the greatest city in the world. for the ruler indeed stretches forth his hand when he commands. who did not begin by doubting everything. but. for an animal has an eye. By clothing then must certainly be understood the fact of being human. and next. when he had seen and heard and experienced much. for it still fails to . but. perhaps more scientifically about it. more skilfully.
and it cannot even retain the image. as if it were nothing. If God were visible. precisely through its visibility is powerless (precisely in the same way that the physical presence makes it impossible to be omnipresent). or is its image. so it cannot reflect itself in another in such a way that this other retains the image when the form removes itself. about purple and ermine. nothing is due to myself. for the sake of brevity. which absolutely forgets that solemn first injunction. so it takes as a matter of course and thoughtlessly the fact of being human for granted. then he himself sees his image. no. if such were the case. the discourse is foolish. The sea is not the image. Most imperfect. But the discourse is also imperfect which does take notice of the first. for no image of the visible exists. But since . Let us therefore rather speak briefly and concentrate everything in one single word. that is my raiment. which resembles another. it has a testimony. in order to praise the lily. but the lily does not resemble Him. God created man in His own image. it does not do that. is invisible. No. ought it not to be glorious to be thus clad! The Gospel says.interest those² as an object of wonder. and yet again. but it is glorious. But God is spirit." How are we now to speak about this glory? We could speak a long time without finishing. about trousers and jackets. merely understand that word about one thing. But this discourse of wonder is still imperfect in so far as it refers the clothing to the soul. then there would be no one who could resemble Him or be His image. and the image of the invisible is in turn invisible: thus the invisible Creator reflects Himself in the invisibility. which is a spiritual determination. 242 and when he goes away. How does this happen except because the visible form. if the human is to compare himself with the lily. aye. that it surpasses Solomon in glory² ought it not to be infinitely more glorious to resemble God! The lily does not resemble God. as God has indeed left nothing created without a testimony to Himself. and among all visible things there is nothing. takes it in vain. but the sea is not the man's image. not even a blade of grass. aye. but this is not the place for that. the image is gone. but is not really aware of God. then he must say: "All that I am is due to my being human. and immediately begins the foolishness about articles of clothing. the word which the Scripture itself uses with authority: God created man in His own image. and God's image is precisely the invisible glory. it has a little sign upon it whereby it reminds of God. If a man sees his image in the mirror of the sea. then the object itself would be the image.
and the man plays ruler in His absence. and therefore he sought the resemblance in the fact of ruling. for it can only remind the human to do it. that is man's invisible glory. So when the concerned person stands out in the field. you. it implores the . the master. and that is why the pagan still spoke imperfectly about the human. and therefore the act of worshipping is the resemblance with God. noble wise man. surrounded by all the witnesses. not that the man is to come and take over the control which is also gloriously appointed to him. little children. And paganism was like this. That is exactly why the lily does not resemble God. But the resemblance does not consist in this. it is then taken in vain. it cannot be seen. and all nature is like the great staff of servants THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY 243 who remind the man. cannot do that. but he could not worship. poor things. "I shall certainly do that. but the ability to cast one's self down in worship. To worship is not to rule. because the glory of the lily is the visible. It is glorious to be arrayed like the lily. do they then resemble one another. no. which nature does not do. it is even more glorious to be the ruler who stands erect. Therefore paganism was still like nature. but said nothing about the fact that the invisible God created every man in His own image. as it is the superiority over all creation. The upright walk was the distinction. and yet worship is precisely that whereby the man resembles God. and yet the visible glory of nature groans. but that in worshipping he is to praise the Creator. to worship God. Man and God do not resemble each other directly. even when he spoke most perfectly about the glory of the human body. on the contrary. It is this which is expected. but it is most glorious to be nothing through the act of worship. but conversely: only when God has infinitely become the eternal and omnipresent object of worship. "Remember God!" then the man answers. is the superiority of the invisible glory above all creation. The pagan was not aware of God." The erect one is consequently a worshipper. is still more glorious. It is in truth only within the infinite difference. when every blossom says to him. then he has forgotten God. and man always a worshipper. it was human life carried on in God's absence.God is invisible. I shall worship Him. But the fact of being able to worship is not a visible glory. and the hardest thing that can be said about it is: it could not worshipeven that simple. If a man wishes to resemble God through the fact of ruling. To be spirit. then God has gone away. no one can visibly resemble Him. and the fact of being able in truth to worship. he could keep silent in wonder.
to see it before the eyes. that is accorded the lily. is it a perfection to be carefree in danger. how glorious to be human! But so the concerned in his diversion with the lilies got something quite different to think of than his own concern. on the contrary. the wingbeat of the bird only a weak. But is this. So much for the instruction of the lilies. Then one must indeed say more truthfully that it is a perfection to know the danger.244 ruler. If he again forgets that in the worldly intercrossing of the comparisons and the collision of the distinctions between man and man: then it is not the fault of the lilies. so even the proudest. Moreover. then. a figurative foreshadowing. and something he must finally remember to do for them. That is. forgotten that there was something he was supposed to learn from them. to walk confidently² because one is walking in his sleep! No. boldest flight of the bird is only earthly and temporal languor in comparison with the lofty soaring of faith. nor gather into barns. is it a perfection to take assured steps ²because one walks blindly. does not know that it exists. as when the tired bird with weakened wingbeat slowly sinks to earth. and also a favor. . Oh. a slow sinking compared with the easy rise of faith. really a perfection. it is because he has also forgotten the lilies. to be awake: that it is a perfection to be able to have a care for the necessities of life² in order to overcome this fear." The bird is without care for the necessities of life. since. if we were to characterize the worldly concern in a single word. it incessantly reminds the man that finitely he must not forget² to worship. Therefore we also speak of lifting ourselves on the wings of faith. whose beautiful but imperfect symbol is the easy flight of the bird. must we not say: it is a concern about clothing. a concern about being seen? Just for that reason the edification through the invisible glory is the highest exaltation over worldly concern: the fact of worshipping is the glory. For only this freedom from care on the part of faith is in the divine sense the soaring. if one does not know it. We shall now consider how the concerned* learns from the bird how glorious it is to be human. neither does it reap. in order to let faith and confidence drive out fear. "The bird sows not. so that one is in truth with- THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY 245 out a care for the necessities of life in the unconcern of faith. and this wing-beat is in the divine sense the perfect. he came really to consider how glorious it is to be human.
Since now the man has consciousness. or rather from the fact that the human has conciousness. the fact of being able to have a care for the necessities of life is a perfection. there is only the question about the humble labor in the hours which are really absolutely lived for the temporal existence. as in the hours of which one says that they are lived for eternity. The temporal and the eternal can painfully touch one another in numerous ways in the human consciousness. for as high as God lifts up. some great thought. and with this he measures the moments. But. Therefore time can seem long to a man because he has the eternal in his consciousness. an enemy or a friend whose aspirations or whose intercourse the man cannot avoid. no bird flew so far away. far out beyond the moment. because he has the eternal in his consciousness. it never flew to the future and never returned from the future.We shall now consider this more carefully. the humble labor to produce the conditions for existing temporally. Ah. In the possession of consciousness he is eternally far. But is this indeed a perfection! On the contrary. some uplifting emotion. so deeply does He also depress. then a concern is discovered which the bird does not know. he is the place 246 where the temporal and the eternal constantly touch one another. An enemy? Aye. there is no question of filling out the time with some glorious achievement. where the eternal interests itself in the temporal. and the expression of dejection is merely the expression for man's elevation. the fact of being profoundly depressed also indicates the fact of being highly exalted. Its distance from the eternal seems so infinite. nevertheless. but consequently. and yet precisely thereby he becomes aware of the danger which the bird does not suspect: when eternity came into being for him. but one of the contacts at which the man particularly winces is the care for the necessities of life. Why does the bird have no worldly care for the necessities of life? Because it lives only in the moment. and must therefore measure it. Through his consciousness he discovers a world which not even the most traveled bird knows: the future. hence because there is no eternity for a bird. for however far it flew and from however far it returned. but time never seems long to the bird. and when this future through the consciousness is withdrawn in the moment. then the morrow also came into being. Therefore the man has a dangerous enemy which the bird does not know: time. And as God elevated the human being above the bird through the . how does the possibility of an anxiety about subsistence come about? From the fact that the temporal and the eternal touch one another in consciousness. no.
from the bird. then he will willingly be soothed. he can also call the bird his teacher. and in his quiet. to be without a nest. and the child only in a playful sense of jesting earnestness the parent's teacher. a childish instruction. which the bird does not even know. this is the exalted image of creation. without a place in which to seek refuge. The human can therefore indeed learn from the bird. so He depressed him again lower than the bird. essential 248 human symbol of perfection. But then it is indeed a perfection to be able to be anxious about the necessities of life. then² to be without anxiety: aye. thankful mind calls it his teacher. the true. this is . is far more perfect than the symbol. Therefore the human never dares forget that the One who referred him to the bird of the air. is then the symbol of the human. with the consciousness of this. but the Son of man has not where to lay his head. so to speak." And if the child then insisted. willingly. that is something which you do not yourself understand. according to the instruction of the Gospel. my dear child. and is also itself conscious of this. then the parent would certainly say gently: "Oh. how superior it seems for THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY 247 the bird not to have a care for the necessities of life² and yet. in his quiet. however. and who is there who would not gladly learn from a child! And when an imagined or an actual need makes a man in his concern despondent. the parent would say that it was a naughty child. and yet the human. and perhaps would not even hesitate to slap the teacher. the earthly. willingly learn from a child. humble anxiety. but not. and dejected: oh. so fundamentally the child is also. The bird that is without subsistence cares. and perhaps with justice. and why? Because seriously the parent is the child's teacher. and the human is far superior. through his knowledge of the anxiety. But if the child wished to accept the title and to speak instructively. thankful mind. Oh. how far more glorious it is to be able to know this care. "The birds of the air have nests and foxes have holes. in the highest sense. through being able to have these cares. For when it is said. As the bird is without care for the necessities. as to a pi imary. But then. even if he willingly learns. depressed. call the child his teacher.eternal in his consciousness." then there is mentioned a condition which is far more helpless than that of a bird. that precisely He in earnestness and truth is the real symbol.
that it is an advantage for the sleeper that he sleeps unconscious of the danger. THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY 249 that is something you yourself do not understand. is perhaps even dejected: oh. For the bird this pattern does not exist. and plays again! It is charming in the child ²ah. really a perfection. perhaps because of his wealth. thankful mind call the child a teacher. but consequently the fact of being able to know this care for the necessities is a perfection. and thus it sleeps and dreams its life away. not to work at all? Is it a perfection to steal the day-time in the same sense as sleep steals the night-time! For certainly the bird awakens early to song.man's divine pattern. But is this then a perfection. then he would certainly reply: "My little friend. to rebuke the teacher. it reaps not. nor for the child. aye. he looks at the bird and completely forgets his imagined concern. the bird does not labor. or we certainly say it is a perfection to be excluded from venturing to call the exalted his pattern! But why then is it said otherwise about the care for the necessities. the concerned cannot speak in this way. And why? Because the parent in the serious . that is to say. he is soothed. but is not happy in doing it. as if the prisoner were fortunate because the state supports him. will gladly learn from it. then he will readily be soothed by the child. Is this not so? We are accustomed to say that it is an advantage for a woman that as the weaker she cannot go to war. who would not willingly learn from a child! And if the parent sometimes indeed does his work. however. it really awakens to dream. he would himself become conscious that it is a perfection to be able to feel a concern for the necessities of life. But he will not hesitate. was barred from calling the God-Man his pattern! However. but if the bird were to presume to speak an instructive word. or as if that one were the most fortunate of all who. if it becomes necessary. and he will do it justly. yet when it has slept. he is edified. nor does it gather into barns". as if the woman were more fortunate because it is particularly her husband who must earn the living. will readily in his quiet. moreover. is it a perfection in the child that it plays and gets tired² as a man gets tired from working ²and sleeps. he even forgets the actual need momentarily. and yet. out in the field with the bird. even its most beautiful song is indeed a dream about an unhappy love. that it is an advantage for the prisoner that he cannot get out and risk his life. "The bird sows not. a happy or a melancholy jest." that is. as if that one were fortunate who acquired his wealth without effort. But is this.
then we do not commend him. a hard necessity to be obliged to work in order to live. The poor bird cannot work² do we speak in this way about a perfection? Perfection then consists in working. who also works. hence he is God's fellow-worker. if with skill and energy and persistence he combats the wind and storm. works himself out of danger. sluggish and yet hungry. The bird gets its food. we shall rather say. it is a perfection. then we do not speak of him as a perfect sailor. and knows nothing at all that it can do. that confused it lets itself fall to the ground and die? Ordinarily we do not speak in this way. no. If then God makes an exception of the bird. but the servant who works for his food calls the master his fellow-worker. it gets its food. then we admire him. see that he has already been there. simply in order to recall how glorious it is to be human: "He works with God for food. and in an innocent sense it spends its life in vain. and God too says this. But if the brave seaman knows how to steer. And if. It is not as we inadequately represent it. a man works for food. He works with God. and does not know anything at all to do.sense is the child's teacher. but it is not God's fellow-laborer. but if early in the morning we see the active worker. that He works hitherto! Is it a perfection in the bird that in a time of scarcity it sits and dies of hunger. 250 When a sailor lies in his boat and leaves everything to chance in the storm. then we commend the fisherman and the herdsman. both while they live and after they are . To work is the perfection of the human. we shall not foolishly say that he supports himself. Oh. waiting to get his food by chance. Is this indeed a perfection? Then is it also indeed an imperfection in God that He works. Through working the human being resembles God. not always to have parents to care for one. that the herdsman has already put away his churn. The bird does not toil. or even if we do not see him. then. then it is because the poor bird cannot work." The bird is not that. The bird does not work² and yet it gets its food: is this a perfection in the bird? Ordinarily we say that he who does not work shall not eat. not to be a child THE GLORY OF OUR COMMON HUMANITY 251 throughout one's whole life. just as out in the country a tramp gets support. that the fisherman has already been out with his net. its life in an innocent sense is in vain. the child only in the charming sense of playful earnestness the parent's teacher. If late in the forenoon we see a man who has arisen late.
But in this way the concerned. how glorious it is to be human. If ever anyone could have given each hour significance for the many² then certainly Paul. brilliant or pitiful wretchedness of worldly comparisons. I have also had the honor of working with my own hands!" 252 Oh. an honor. others honor the medal by wearing it. If. then perhaps that lovable teacher. that which makes the difference is² that the bird cannot work. got something absolutely other than his own concern to think of. that with a woman's beautiful and an apostle's holy modesty he dared say: "I have not earned a farthing through the preaching of the Word. oh. he again forgets this. it would still be an imperfection for a human being to refrain from working. there the concerned understands how glorious it is to work. as he humbly before God proudly called his chains a badge of honor. under the strain of toil. one to accumulate a surplus. So let us cite a great example. the bird. The stern necessity which. If ever anyone might have been justified in wishing the day and the night doubly longthen certainly Paul. an honor with respect to the Gospel. will fly past him and remind him about the thing forgotten² if only he looks at the bird. so he also found it an honor to work with his own hands. another for bread. therefore. For that which makes the distinction is not that one works for wealth. I have not married a fortune through becoming an apostle. that with respect to the humblest man. nor have I through favor been excluded from any of its advantages. insulted. . and from that how glorious it is to be human. in the desperate. Even if. where one knows equally as little what honor is as what perfection is: there one speaks cowardly or treacherously in another fashion. still precisely recognizes the perfect in the human. another to guard against poverty. persecuted. It is said about the medals a king distributes that some wear the medal as an honor to themselves. however. If ever anyone could have permitted himself to be supported by the congregation² then cert'ainly Paul: and yet he preferred to work with his own hands! As he humbly thanked God that he could boast of the honor of having been scourged. no. diverted by the bird. he came rightly to consider how glorious a thing it is to work. and who is therefore unwilling to go to work. who can really be said to have honored the fact of working: the Apostle Paul. the socalled stern necessity were not there. But out there in the field with the bird. is needed only to force the man who will not by himself freely understand that the fact of working is a perfection. he dared say: "I have not been exempt from any of the vicissitudes of life.dead.
are uplifted above the mutabilities of the earthly life. my beloved brethren.XI THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD TEXT The Epistle of James i : 1 7-2 1 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. coming down from the Father of lights. who as the father of 'lights' or light is infinitely well equipped to make sure that what comes from Him really is a good and perfect gift. Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness. and of nothing else. He speaks of a 4 father of lights'. of human inconstancy. even alter it. and as a father He has no other ambition. He speaks of *54 good and perfect gifts' that come to us from above. from whence comes invariably only good news. to the changeableness of men. coming as it were from the lofty silences of the highest mountain peaks. let every man be 'swift to hear'. with whom there is no variableness. receive with meekness the implanted word. and especially . The words of the Apostle. especially in this spirit of dejection. but would depart from it. you. For the text speaks of the opposite. How near at hand does it not seem now to turn our thoughts in the opposite direction. that men are changeable. nor any other thought. with whom can be no variation. not even the shadow of any change. How depressing and wearisome to the spirit that all things are corruptible. to the mutability of temporal and earthly things. for our ordinary human talk. and I ! How sad that the change is so often for the worse ! Poor human consolation. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth. if we were to speak in this manner. than invariably to send good and perfect gifts. namely that it has an end! And yet. slow to speak. The spirit of the text is unmixed joy and gladness. not swift to listen to all sorts of loose talk. Let him be 'slow to speak' . he speaks of the unchangeablensss of God. Ye know this. But let every man be swift to hear. of the unchangeableness of God. that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures. you have listened to the reading of the text. and hence not in the spirit of an earnest consideration of corruptibility. from this father. which is able to save your souls. especially in relation to these things. then we would not only fail to keep close to the text. my beloved brethren. but yet a consolation. my hearer. aye. My hearer. but swift to direct his attention upward. slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. that there is still another change to which the changeable is subject. neither shadow that is cast by turning. who dwells above. And therefore.
festively awaiting the visit. and in the deepest sense truly willed our own welfare. slow to wrath'. as the simple sage said jestingly in earnest. in this context to make use of the word 'meekness'.' With meekness! In truth. Ah.that which comes first over our lips. The Apostle. But imagine the friendliest of beings. were it not the Apostle speaking. and so help him to a better insight. lest when the gifts do not seem to us good and perfect we become angry. and thus cause that which was good and perfect and intended for our welfare to become by our own fault ruinous to us ² this is what the wrath of man is able to accomplish. For suppose someone were about to strike me unjustly. which is able to save your souls. Thus so far as the Apostle is concerned. one who is love itself. and only a human being. and did we not immediately obey the injunction to be 'slow to speak. complains that whenever he proposed to take away from a man some folly or other. what does He not endure from morning until night from each of mankind's many millions ² for we are sometimes most wrath when He most intends our welfare. 'And receive with meekness the implanted word. For him the thought of God's unchange- . A pagan. he has selected a gift for me. that we need an admonition to be meek in relation to one who desires only our welfare? ² it is as if it were meant to mock us. if we men truly understood what conduces to our welfare. he comes to me and proposes to bestow this gift upon me ² and then another man stands by and says admonishingly: 'See that you accept this treatment meekly!' And yet. so it is with us human beings. on the other hand. Let him be 'slow to wrath'. that we may worthily receive the good and perfect gifts. and the 'wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God'. serves most frequently only to make the good and perfect gifts less good and perfect. 'Wherefore put aside all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness' ² as when we cleanse and decorate the house and bedeck our persons. And hence there is need of an admonition to be meek in connexion with our reception of the good and perfect ² so thoroughly is the Apostle convinced that all good and perfect gifts come from Him who is eternally unchangeable. and said admonishingly: 'Try to endure this treatment with meekness' ² that would be straightforward speech. we might well be tempted to say: This is a very strange mode of speech. then there would be no need to admonish us to be meek in this connexion. desires only and alone to speak of God's unchangeableness. are we then altogether fools. Indeed. thus THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD 255 bestowing a benefit upon him. as love itself. Different viewpoints! The merely human tendency (as paganism indeed gives evidence) is to speak less about God. and what has God not had to endure these six thousand years. he had often experienced that the other became so angry that he even wished to bite him. and to speak almost exclusively and with sadness about the mutability of human affairs. But we human beings (and who has not verified this in his own experience) are in our relationship to God as children. and the gift is good and perfect. and another stood by. the simple sage of antiquity.
in every instant prepared to change everything: the opinions of men. or about Thy unchangeableness. And this is indeed eternally true. In the world of events He is present everywhere in every moment. We are not in this manner clear. Himself unchanged. He changes all. peace. this is precisely why He is unchanged. God is omnipresent. and of the mutability of all temporal . He does not stand at the beginning. though never seen by any mortal. With us men it is not so. This aspect of it is in general perhaps less often emphasized . that he has already long since wholly yielded himself in unconditional obedience to God's unchangeableness. we complain of men and their mutability. When everything seems stable (for it is only in appearance that the external world is for a time unchanged. He remains equally unchanged. now changes take place about us. who are still beginners. He clothed Himself 256 in the visible world as in a garment. But let us not forget that the Apostle's joy has its explanation in the fact that the Apostle is the Apostle. and which no dimness can come near. God is unchangeable. and subject to discipline. and we are changed. happiness. in a truer sense than we can say of the most watchful human justice that it is present everywhere. In each moment every actuality is a possibility in His almighty hand. Thus in the world of sensible things. in that which can scarcely be called an event and in that which is the only event. in the death of a sparrow and in the birth of the Saviour of mankind. while under all this we are again changed within ourselves. Let us then speak. In unaltered clearness ² aye. in reality it is always in flux) and in the overturn of all things. not even the shadow of a change. This thought is terrifying. their judgements. joy. present everywhere. He changes it as one who shifts a garment ² Himself unchanged. in unaltered clearness He. who art unchangeable. a clarity which betrays no trace of dimness. human greatness and human abasement. He holds all in readiness. if possible to the promotion both of a wholesome fear and of a genuine peace. all fear and trembling. now something is dimmed. and the shadow of these changes glides over us to alter us . pursuing it invariably and without a backward look. and precisely for this reason we are subject to change: now something becomes clearer in us. in the least event as well as in the greatest. But we on the contrary.ableness is one of pure and unmixed comfort. the narrow but good way which he had chosen in renunciation of everything. no change touches Him. but rather at the end of the way. we readily run in danger of taking the lofty serenity of the Apostle in vain. now there falls upon us from the surroundings an altering light. and if we forget this. hasting towards eternity with stronger and ever stronger strides. because He is pure clearness. of Thee. In His omnipotence He created this visible world ² and made Himself invisible. the father of lights. for us the unchangeableness of God must have also another aspect. remains eternally unchanged.
an entirely comforting thought: so speaks even frivolity. and yet. for his wishes. no. his very soul. And so a new generation finds him. altered. but he has set his heart upon the crossing. But when the will is that of one eternally unchangeable ² if you are at odds with this will it means an eternity: how terrifying! Imagine a wayfarer. come into collision ² this immutable will. sooner or later. do you also have a good understanding with Him? Is your will unconditionally His will. this immutable will. everlastingly. which still stands there. tremendous. he now scarcely recognizes himself. . but the mountain stands there unalterably blocking his way. each one of them. that you should sincerely strive to attain this understanding ² what God's will for you may be ? Or do you live your life in such a fashion that this thought has never so THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD 257 much as entered your mind? How terrifying then that He is eternally unchangeable! For with this immutable will you must nevertheless some time. unchanged. sitting at the foot of the mountain. his desires. But now if he happens to be the stronger ² well. . Suppose it to have happened a thousand years ago: the altered wayfarer is long since dead. But perhaps you are the stronger. this is our consolation. He has been brought to a standstill at the foot of a mountain. In the second place. But first and foremost. It is this mountain . His thoughts ? If not. but the mountain still stands there. perhaps you think to have more endurance. unchanged. and also the mountain.things. and only a legend keeps his memory alive. which cannot but crush you if you come into hostile collision with it. impassable. it is the only thing that remains ² aye. in that case you will perhaps say to yourself: seventy years is no eternity. unchangeable! Consider but in this connexion what it means to be at odds with merely a human being. unchanged. his desires. his wishes. your wishes. impassable. how terrifying that God is unchangeable. and console yourself with the thought that the other will doubtless be compelled to change his attitude. but God is unchangeable. which has an easier mode of conveyance. God is in very truth unchangeable. which desired that you should consider this because it desired your welfare. are already on the other side. Let him become twice seventy years . his longings. And now think of Him who is eternally unchange- . first and last. impassable. it only remains for him to follow. unchanged. His commandments. impassable. But suppose it is an entire contemporary generation with which you are at odds. you who have some degree of understanding with God. Aye. eternally. Imagine him coming to be seventy years old. Under all this he undergoes changes. your thoughts. do you also have an understanding with God? Do you earnestly consider and sincerely strive to understand ² and this is God's eternally unchangeable will for you as for every human being. perhaps. he dies away from his longings. impassable. it is not his destiny to cross it.
if the will of all these many thousands happens to be not so entirely in harmony with God's will: things nevertheless take their course as best they may in the hurly-burly of the so-called actual world. He gives men time. who ² eternally unchanged! ² sits quite still and sees everything. if my will. and He is eternally unchanged. as if they did not even exist ² consider then. must needs feel disheartened because God does not seem to make Himself felt. while all the time. it may be also an expression for His mercy . where nothing is forgotten. It is rather as if a just man ² if there were such a man ! ² contemplating this world. so that it is as if God were being mocked.2 5 8 able. for whom a thousand years are but as one day ² ah. violence and wrong gain the victory. without altering a feature. But do you believe on that account that God has undergone any change ? Or is the fact that God does not seem to make Himself felt any the less a terrifying fact. as the Scriptures say. He gives time. is dominated by evil. and that with premeditation. almost as if He did not exist. it is as if God did not pay any attention. And yet. Only one who is eternally immutable can be in this manner so still. do you think. God the infinitely powerful. Anyone not eternally sure of Himself could not keep so still. and so represented when we say that God is not mocked. a world which. and then tell me which is the more terrible to contemplate: the picture of one who is infinitely the stronger. as long as it is nevertheless certain that He is eternally unchangeable? To me it does not seem so. the eternally unchangeable. not even a single one of the improper words that were spoken. as the just man must needs complain. if you have in the most distant manner a will to walk a different path than that which He wills for you: how terrifying! True enough. even this is too much to say. and He can afford to give them time. but would rise in His strength. lies achieve success and win to power. since THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD 259 He has eternity and is eternally unchangeable. and rises in his might to crush the refractory spirits ² a sight terrible indeed. to such an extent as even to tempt a better man to think that if he hopes to accomplish anything for the good he must in part use the same means. Consider the matter. they are for Him as an instant. And then there comes an accounting in eternity. is He so quiet? Because He knows with Himself that He is eternally unchangeable. pointing to the times when His annihilating punishments were visited upon the human race ² but is this really the most terrifying sight? Is not this other sight still more terrifying: one infinitely powerful. who grows tired of letting himself be mocked. if your will. who none the less is neither mocked nor changed ² is not this the most terrifying sight ? For why.
instead of thus giving men time. Indeed. and again the punishment is withheld. whoever you may be. and the man died. or immediately upon the commitment of the transgression ² then I think that frivolity might take heed. consider that you will never be able to evade Him. or as if at least it would be so long since the wrong was committed that it will become impossible to make an unaltered presentation of it before the bar of justice. death rolls down the curtain ² and to all this (it was only frivolity!) there 26o was an eternally unchangeable witness : is this also frivolity ? One eternally unchangeable. ask one who has had to do with transgressors ² and each one of us has at least once in his life gone astray. and goes astray for a longer or a shorter time. If then your will is not in harmony with His will. the pressure on a spring caused the punishment to follow instantly upon the seizure of the forbidden fruit. But how fearful if the time is not used for this purpose! For in that case the folly and frivolity in us would rather have Him straightway ready with His punishment. during all that time the clock of eternity has scarcely moved perceptibly: to such a degree is everything present for the eternal. and when it has become secure it becomes more daring. take time to consider what I say to myself. and so the years pass. and yet remaining eternally unchanged. and in another sense even the least significant is for Him infinitely significant. if transgression and punishment were so bound up with one another that. time for conversion and betterment.that men are thus afforded time. In the instant that the minute-hand of time showed seventy years. that for God there is nothing significant and nothing insignificant. as if the whole might perhaps be forgotten. forgetfulness intervenes. but new transgressions do not fail. Thus frivolity changes. seeming to take no cognizance of the wrong. Ask one experienced in bringing up children ² and in relation to God we are all more or less as children . And therefore. that it is a preventive of frivolity (and who dares wholly acquit himself of frivolity!) when the punishment follows if possible instantly upon the transgression. so that the memory of the frivolous may acquire the habit of associating the punishment immediately with the guilt. or rather. It comes to feel itself secure. and for Him who is unchangeable. that in a certain sense the significant is for Him insignificant. and it is with this witness that you must make your reckoning. or as if justice itself might alter and acquire different ideas with the passage of time. But the longer the interval between guilt and punishment (which when truly understood is an expression for the gravity of the case) the greater the temptation to frivolity. at longer or shorter intervals: you will find Him ready to confirm the observation that for the frivolous it is a great help. . and the old evil becomes still more malignant. as in a double-barrelled shooting weapon. Be grateful to Him if through the use of mildness or of severity He teaches you to bring your will into agreement with His ² how fearful if He makes no move to arrest your course. punishment is withheld. And then finally all is over. and by no means for the better.
only he promised. He is unchangeable. or upon His having been changed. listened and kept silence. Aye. forgotten that He forgets nothing. A man may. if as we say you have any matter outstanding with Him. You have perhaps promised Him something. for example. since He is eternally unchangeable. and remembering even the least thing. Oh. or that God forgets anything. He is eternally unchangeable. but in the course of time you have undergone a change. forgotten that it is precisely the inverted childishness of mature years to imagine that anything is insignificant for God. and if you do not will as He wills. that He remembers it unchanged for an eternity! There is thus sheer fear and trembling. when he poured out. let us suppose something still stranger: he had permitted himself to be moved inwardly by the thoughts that the first man had expressed under the influence of his mood. it is sometimes the case that the constancy of one party may come to seem like a tormenting affliction for the other. . and THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD 261 finally. . What he said may have been merely a little childish. or even upon His being too great to take note of what we call trifles ! For the truth is that God both exists and is eternally unchangeable. of the constancy of its feelings. and think that He does not concern Himself with the trifles of your life. But even in the relationship between man and man. too. In any case you have just about forgotten what you promised Him. only the other had not forgotten. in this thought of God's unchangeableness. not to forget what had been said. and of its purposes in this world. forgotten ² aye. he had in sincere endeavour shaped his life in accordance with these ideas. Aye. consider this. and the first man had long since forgotten all this. obligated yourself in a sacred pledge . for us frivolous and inconstant human beings. he let him speak on to the end. He is eternally unchangeable. have talked to another person about himself.how fearful if in the case of any human being it comes to pass that He almost defiantly relies either upon the notion that God does not exist. regarding such beliefs as childishness. you have forgotten. Then some time elapsed. one party accuses the other of having changed. and now you rarely think of God ² now that you have grown older. He who is eternally unchangeable! In human relationships we so often complain of inconstancy. the matter was more serious than this: the poor foolish vain heart was tempted to speak in lofty tones of its enthusiasm. as he was asked to do. What torment in this unchanged remembrance by one who showed only too clearly that . consider it well ! Whether God makes Himself immediately felt or not. so to speak. his momentary feeling. But perhaps. and His infinite greatness consists precisely in seeing even the least thing. and thereupon you have proceeded to forget that you promised Him anything. pardonably so. The other man listened calmly. he did not even smile. have you perhaps found more important things to think about? Or perhaps you now have different notions about God. or interrupt the speech.
we say: there lies God knows what. intentions. for we rarely think about what we say. unknown to others ² and that is the least of it ² but sometimes almost unknown to the individual himself! When a man has lived a few years it is almost as if it were a burial-plot. this human heart ! There they lie buried in forgetful ness. neither that of morning nor of evening. Oh. far beyond the to sustain a relationship to such an as if this thought must drive a man to . resolutions. as that He is Himself the reckoning. promises. resolutions. least of all in eternity : how fearful ! No. And this we say half in a spirit of frivolity. He does not remember it merely as having happened some time ago. and He is eternal clearness. If we are shadows that glide away ² my soul. something so to speak was said to Him about it ² and He is eternally unchanged and eternally unchangeable. complete to the last detail. knows what for your recollection has suffered 262 alteration. in a manner eternally unchanged. if the remembrance that another human being carries about with him may seem as it were a burden to you ² well. and also perhaps as if it were likely to be cluttered up with such an enormous mass of detail as to make it impossible to get the reckoning finished : O my soul. It is said that we must render up an account. But an omniscient witness and an eternally unchangeable remembrance. He is eternal clearness in eternal unchangeableness. one from which you can never free yourself. intentions. There is thus sheer fear unchangeableness of God. Hence it is not so much that He keeps a reckoning. as is sometimes said. look well to thyself. and who has forgotten nothing of the things that I have forgotten. the account is every moment complete! For the unchangeable clearness of God is the reckoning. what is not hidden in your secret recesses. who is eternally unchangeable ² and this human heart ! O this human heart. No shadow of variation. everything is for God eternally present. for whether you will it or not. knows what you have forgotten. in connexion with any of these wishes. and trembling in this thought of the almost as if it were far. and in any case it cannot endure for an eternity: some time I may expect to be freed from this other man and his remembrance. He remembers it as if it were to-day. neither that of youth nor of old age. He knows whether. and half weary of life ² and it is so fearfully true that God does know what to the last detail. this remembrance is after all not always so entirely trustworthy. always equally before Him. power of any human being unchangeable power.he had retained in his memory every last detail of what had been said in that moment! And now consider Him. entire plans and fragments of plans. you go to meet eternity. neither that of forgetfulness nor of excuse. nay. so say we men. remember some things otherwise than they really were. changes Him. aye. as if we perhaps had a long time to prepare for it. preserved by Him who is eternally unchangeable. and who does not. as I do. knows it all unchanged. If we human beings are mere shadows. to meet Him. for Him there is no shadow. and God knows what ² aye.
you must whether willing or resisting. I rest in the unehangeableness of God. perhaps quite as painfully. freely rest in God. for think how vain it is for your will to be at odds with an eternal immutability. when you submit yourself to discipline. so that you might rest and find complete repose: Oh. leaving it rather for the 264 manifold experiences of life to unfold for each one in particular. if you could become completely obedient in invariable obedience. wearied with all this human THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD 263 inconstancy. in the unehangeableness of God there is rest! When you therefore permit this unehangeableness to serve you according to His will. . But this we shall not further expound. You will learn how men change. And as for the rest. for your own welfare. On this subject of the mutability of all things one older than I would be able to speak in better fashion. how you yourself change. He says: my home is eternally secure. while perhaps what I could say might seem to someone very young as if it were new. so that your selfish will (and it is from this that the change chiefly comes. with the same necessity as that by which a heavy body sinks to the earth or a light body moves upward. and more and more blessedly. your weary spirit. This is a rest that no one can disturb for you except yourself.such unrest and anxiety of mind as to bring him to the verge of despair. this temporal and earthly mutability. your eternal welfare. more than from the outside) dies away. But then it is also true that there is rest and happiness in this thought. let all things change as they do. be therefore as the child when it profoundly feels that it has over against itself a will in relation to which nothing avails except obedience ² when you submit to be disciplined by His unchangeable will. and wearied also of your own inconstancy. you would each and every moment. as one is wont to speak who has a happy home. but even on a lesser stage. you might wish to find a place where rest may be found for your weary head. you will still experience the same. For that the thought of God's unehangeableness is a blessed thought ² who can doubt it? But take heed that you become of such a mind that you can rest happily in this immutability! Oh. so as to renounce inconstancy and changeableness and caprice and self-will: then you will steadily rest more and more securely. It is really true that when. so speaks such an individual. or on the smallest stage of all. all of which belongs to the upbringing. in the unehangeableness of God. your weary thoughts. sometimes it will even seem to you as if God Himself changed. If the scene of your activity is on a larger stage. you will experience the mutability of all things in greater measure. the sooner the better ² and there is no help for it.
O refreshing coolness! Now God be praised. and you will say to yourself: 'Change is not pleasant ² how could I ever have said that variety is a pleasure!' When this experience comes to you. the thought of God's unchangeableness will also soon be forgotten in the midst of life's changes. Nor can I say that you deceived me. Almost burned by the heat of the sun. but would preserve the same coolness unchanged. His first thought was of the spring ² but it was not. My hearer. And unless you yourself will it otherwise. for the waters of the spring do not freeze! In the midday heat of the summer sun you preserve precisely the same coolness. you will in this thought have found a sufficiency for your entire life. what then must not he say who found God! and yet he too must say: 'God be praised. for eternity. I have found God ² now I am well provided for. he says ² and yet it was merely a spring he found. Thou art always and . Unless you yourself will it otherwise. O beloved well-spring. (And he who chooses a spring as subject for his eulogy chooses in my opinion no ungrateful theme. languishing with thirst. Then he gathered himself together and said: 'No. aye. a desert wanderer. and solitude. and wept astray in the wide world. as anyone may better understand the more he knows what the desert signifies. you would not become colder. let me now also praise it when you have vanished. O beloved well-spring. he finds a spring. is not subject to any change. the life of our wanderer took a turn otherwise than he had thought. Many years later he returned to the same place. I am convinced that your coolness would have been quite unchanged ² and more you had not promised.in a manner intended especially for him. it had run dry. if winter visited this place. he lost touch with the spring. But for this He will surely not be responsible. Sometimes the changes will be such as to call to mind the saying that variety is a pleasure ² an indescribable pleasure! There will also come times when you will have occasion to discover for yourself a saying which the language has suppressed. He who is unchangeable ! But if you do not make yourself guilty of forgetfulness with respect to it.) However. had I found you. that which all other men have experienced before him. this hour is now soon past. you will have especial occasion (though you will surely not forget this in the first case either) to seek Him who is unchangeable.' But Thou O God. Your faithful coolness. In the cold of winter. and the discourse. in order that there may be some proof of unchangeableness in a human breast. it was all true. I will not retract a single word of all that I said in your praise. And if I praised your refreshing coolness while you were still in being. Imagine a solitary wayfarer. For a moment THE UNCHANGEABLENESS OF GOD 265 he stood silent in grief. no false exaggeration in his eulogy. who art unchangeable. for the waters of the spring do not become lukewarm !' There is nothing untrue in what he says. this hour and its discourse will soon be forgotten.
Whether in life or in death. like the spring. And besides ² overwhelming security! ² Thou dost not remain. no one journeys so far afield that Thou art not to be found by Him. It is not so with the well-springs of earth. And whenever any human being comes to Thee. of whatever age. Thou who art not merely as a spring that may be found ² how poor and inadequate a description of what Thou art! ² but rather as a spring that itself seeks out the thirsty traveller. like the spring's unchanged coolness. for they are to be found only in special places. and always to be found unchanged. Ah. and no one ever wanders so far astray that he cannot find the way back to Thee.invariably to be found. that Thou art not there. the errant wanderer: who has ever heard the like of any spring! Thus Thou art unchangeably always and everywhere to be found. O Thou who art unchangeable! Amen! . in whatever state: if he comes in sincerity he always finds Thy love equally warm. Thou who art everywhere. but Thou dost follow the traveller on his way. at whatever time of the day. in a single place.
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