| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 14 |
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If we remember this as we go about our dull task-work, it will grow bright under our hand. Every little fragment of it will grow bright under our hand. Every little fragment of it will appear as a lesson, which we shall add a new touch to the spiritual temple we are building. There is a blessing in the doing of even the smallest duty. It lifts us a little nearer to God.
This lesson has a very wide application. Our Lord said that he that willeth to do the will of God should know of the teaching. Doing is therefore a great deal more important in life than we sometimes think. In times past there has been a tendency to exalt believing, not unduly, for believing is always important, but to the disparagement of doing. Even now we are often told that being is more important than doing. But there can be no noble being without noble doing. Character is built up by doing. We can get to know more of our Father’s will only by doing what we already know.
We never get to understand the Bible merely by studying it. It will not reveal itself to us until we begin to do what it teaches. He that seeks to obey it shall know it. Many people have the impression that there is something occult and mysterious about the words of the Scriptures. But the impression vanishes if they accept the divine teachings and begin to fashion their lives according to them. Many Christians will readily recall how dim and obscure faith in Jesus Christ seemed to them before they believed, when they were trying to find the way, and then how simple and clear it appeared after they had begun to follow the Savior.
The same principle is found in other kinds of learning besides that of spiritual truth. A pupil wants to acquire music. He/she may get books and a teacher and learn all the principles. But they can never become musicians save by practice. So one will never become an artist merely by studying the rules and principles of art; they must take their brush and paint as they study.
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