To be near unto God - pagina 17

you

are forgotten

by those who once knew you. In

this utter forsakeness of soul ask yourself: What have I left? What do I now possess? This will

be our state in the hour of death.

We

will go into eternity alone. What will we take with us? must leave money and houses behind. must part even from our body. There will be nothing to us but the soul, our spiritual self. Shall we be rich then? If so, it can only be in spiritual goods. When we die we are either rich in God or poor in God. It will not do, therefore, to defer searching self-examination. When I am alone with my soul, what have I; what is there of me? Does money impart to me my worth as a man, or am I something myself? Are there treasures stored up in my heart? Apart from all material interests has my personal self any significance worthy of mark in God's sight, or am I actually nothing? Let us not deceive ourselves. Apart from covet eousness it is quite possible to enlarge one's intellectual equipment, to cultivate the aesthetic nature, and to excel in cleverness and in achievement. All this has worth of its own, and is not acquired apart from God. But it belongs to the life of this world, and loses its significance the moment life on earth fails us. There remains of it only so much as has imparted a higher and nobler bent to our person, and has established and broadened our character and our spiritual powers, and thereby has become our property, which can not be taken from us by either catastrophe or death. And without more, even this will not do. Personality that is well developed, character that is firmly established, inner strength of spirit and of

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We

my

13

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