Volume II Part 5 (1/2)
He smiled and came immediately with a bunch of Myosotis in his hand, which he threw into Eleanor's lap; and turning to her he repeated very seriously his question.
”What is it, to be a servant of Jesus Christ?”
”I know very little,” said Eleanor timidly. ”I am only just beginning to learn.”
”You know the words bring for our refreshment only the meaning that we attach to them--except so far as the Holy Spirit answering our prayers and endeavours shews us new meaning and depth that we had not known before.”
”Of course--but I suppose I know very little. These words convey only the mere fact to me.”
”Let us weight the words. A servant is a follower. Christ said, 'If a man serve me, let him _follow me_.'”
”Yes,--I know.”
”A follower must know where his Master goes. How did Christ walk?”
”He went about doing good.”
”He did; but mark, there are different ways of doing that. Get to the root of the matter. The young man who kept all the commandments from his youth, was not following Christ; and when it came to the pinch he turned his back upon him.”
”How then, Mr. Rhys? You mean heart-following?”
”That is what the Lord means. Look here--Paul says in the ninth verse,--'Whom I serve _with my spirit_ in the gospel'--Following cannot have a different end in view from that of the person followed. And what was Christ's?--'My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.' Are we servants of Christ after that rule, Miss Powle?”
The question had a singular intonation, as if the questioner were charging it home upon himself. Yet Eleanor knew he could answer it in the affirmative and that she could not; she sat silent without looking up. The old contrast of character recurred to her, in spite of the fact that her own had changed so much. She hung over the book, while her companion half abstractedly repeated,
”'My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.'--That makes a way of life of great simplicity.”
”Is it always easy to find?” ventured Eleanor.
”Very!--if his will is all that we desire.”
”But that is a very searching, deep question.”
”Let it search, then. 'My meat is to do the will of him--' No matter what that may be, Miss Powle; our choice lies in this--that it is his will. And as soon as we set our hearts upon one or the other particular sort of work, or labour in any particular place, or even upon any given measure of success attending our efforts, so that we are not willing to have him reverse our arrangements,--we are getting to have too much will about it.”
Eleanor looked up with some effort.
”You are making it a great matter, to be a true servant of Christ, Mr.
Rhys.”
”Would you have it a little matter?” he said with a smile of great sweetness and brightness. ”Let the Lord have all! He was among us 'as one that serveth'--amid discouragements and disappointments, and abuse; and he has warned us that the servant is not greater than his Lord. It is not a little thing, to be the minister of Jesus Christ!”
”Now you are getting out of the general into the particular.”
”No--I am not; a 'minister' is but a servant; what we call a minister, is but in a more emphatic degree the servant of all. The rules of service are the same for him and for others. Let us look at another one. Here it is--in John--”
And the fingers that Eleanor had watched the other morning, and with which she had a curious a.s.sociation, came turning over the leaves.
”'Ye call me Master, and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.'--One thing is plain from that, Miss Eleanor--we are not to consider ourselves too good for anything.”