If, told to give up his slavery, the poor starved child cry, “How Lord?” the answer will depend on what he means by that how. If he means, “What plan wilt thou adopt? What is thy scheme for cutting my bonds and setting me free?” the answer may be a deepening of the darkness, a tightening of the bonds. But if he means, “Lord, would wouldst thou have me do?” the answer will not tarry. “Give yourself to me to do what I tell you, to understand what I say, to be my good, obedient little brother, and I will wake in you the heart that my father put in you, the same kind of heart that I have, and it will grow to love the Father, altogether and absolutely, as mine does, till you are ready to be torn to pieces for him. Then you will know that you are at the heart of the universe, at the heart of every secret—at the heart of the Father. Not till then will you be free, then free indeed!”  

Christ died to save us, not from suffering, but from ourselves; not from injustice, far less from justice, but from being unjust. He died that we might live—but live as he lives, by dying as he died who died to himself that he might live unto God. If we do not die to ourselves, we cannot live to God, and he that does not live to God, is dead. 

Commentary

Obedience
by George MacDonald

I said: “Let me walk in the fields.”
    He said: “No, walk in the town.”
I said: “There are no flowers there.”
    He said: “No flowers, but a crown.”

I said: “But the skies are black;
    There is nothing but noise and din.”
And He wept as He sent me back –
    “There is more,” He said; “there is sin.”

I said: “But the air is thick,
    And fogs are veiling the sun.”
He answered: “Yet souls are sick,
    And souls in the dark undone!”

I said: “I shall miss the light,
    And friends will miss me, they say.”
He answered: “Choose tonight
    If I am to miss you or they.”

I pleaded for time to be given.
    He said: “Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem so hard in heaven
    To have followed the steps of your Guide.”

I cast one look at the fields,
    Then set my face to the town;
He said, “My child, do you yield?
    Will you leave the flowers for the crown?”

Then into His hand went mine;
    And into my heart came He;
And I walk in a light divine,
    The path I had feared to see.