February 5
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeNew Year's Day.—The Circumcision
Not as I will, but as Thou wilt. S. Matthew 26:39.
SELF-WILL is the antagonist of the will of God, for thou wert formed for God.
Be this our watchword, for this year, for the Church, for those we love, for our own souls. Be this our rule in action, "Not what I will, but what Thou;" this in suffering, "Not what I, but what Thou." This shall hallow our hopes; this shall hush our fears; this shall ward off disquiet; this shall still our displeasure; this shall preserve our peace; this shall calm anxieties; this (if so it must be) shall soothe our heartaches; this shall give repose to our weariness; this, the deeper our trouble, shall be the deeper foretaste of everlasting peace and rest. For it shall "transfuse our will into His supreme good pleasure," and we shall be "the friends of God;" for friends have but one will: yea, we shall be changed into "one spirit with Him, sinking our own bounded will in His, receiving into ourselves His almighty will."
Whate'er my God ordains is right, His will is ever just;
Howe'er He order now my cause, I will be still and trust.
He is my God;
Though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall,
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.
Whate'er my God ordains is right, Here will I take my stand;
Though sorrow, need, or death make earth For me a desert land,
My Father's care
Is round me there,
He holds me that I shall not fall,
And so to Him I leave it all.