The Discipline of Distinction

''But when he was strong'' (II Chron. 26:16)

   There are disciplines of the soul that are deeper and more difficult to learn and that determine character more than those that are obvious. To be sure, there is the discipline of dismay when we know not which way to turn, but there's also that of delight when the pathway is picturesque and appealing; there is the discipline of darkness when we stand humanly alone in the shadows, and also that of life when we think we walk by sight and not by faith; there is the discipline of difficulty when the road is uphill and when our heart fails, but also that of ease when we are drugged into a false sense of security, and like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress we sleep in Pleasant Arbor, with consequent loss of time and testimony for Christ; there is the discipline of disease, when in weakness and pain we make our tryst under the shadow of His wing, and also that of health when we seem sufficient to ourselves and think we have little need of Him; there is the discipline of obscurity and neglect when we are overlooked by others, but there

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is also the discipline of distinction when we come to a place of large opportunity and responsibility.

   Disciplines must be learned, inasmuch as they are not naturally a part of our mental and moral makeup. The Apostle Paul could say, ''for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need'' (Phil. 4:11, 12). The pathway of pleasure and the plains of ease are more dangerous to our spiritual welfare than are the Hill Difficulty and the Valley of the Shadow of Death. There is danger in the terror by night and the pestilence that walketh in darkness; there is also danger in the arrow that flieth by day and the destruction that wasteth at noonday; and these latter are the more subtle and serious.

   King Uzziah illustrates the discipline of distinction, and his experience should search out our soul. Of him we read, ''for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong; but when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.'' He had begun well. As a youth he carried large responsibilities, and performed them carefully and conscientiously. He would have understood what Jeremiah meant when he wrote later, ''It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth'' (Lam. 3:27).

   Youth has dangers as well as delights; while on the one hand, there is diligence, duty, deference to counsel of elders, and demands that challenge the

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best in us; there is on the other hand, possibility of defeat. Often young people do not understand themselves nor are they entirely appreciated by others; and happy are you, Sir Youth, and you, Miss Maiden, if you discipline your soul to plan with purpose, to prepare with patience, to study with seriousness, to serve with spirit, to love with lilt of laughter, and to keep looking unto your Lord, the meek and lowly in heart. You will be tempted to take short-cuts that will prove to be dead-end streets, to shoddiness of study and work habits that will be a handicap to you, to selfishness and self-interest that will shrivel your soul and sear your conscience with the thought, ''Why do others have accomplishment and ease that I have not achieved?'' Youth is the time to study, to struggle, to strive, to serve, to be strong in mind and body, ''to bear the yoke.''

   King Uzziah knew the toil and travail of youth: ''He warred against the Philistines . . . he built towers in the desert, and digged many wells . . . he had much cattle . . . he loved husbandry . . . his name spread far abroad'' (II Chron. 26:6, 10, 15). In all this, ''he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord . . . he sought God . . . and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper . . . and God helped him against the Philistines . . . he strengthened himself exceedingly'' (vss. 4, 5, 7, 8). Blessed is that young person that learns in tender years to trust God and to obey Him, to forget self and to serve others, to lose his life for Jesus' sake,

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and to find that ''them that honor me I will honor,'' saith the Lord (I Sam. 2:30).

   The discipline of distinction comes to us when we have achieved a place of prominence, a plane of privilege, a plateau of prosperity, and pleasure of plenty. In prominence do we have the humility of heart that marked us when we followed closely after the meek and merciful Man of Sorrows? Then we perceived that ''the meek will he guide in judgment: and the meek will he teach his way'' (Ps. 25:9). In privilege do we have the concern for the rights and feelings of others that we had when we were ourselves obscure and unimportant? Then we learned ''kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another . . . even as Christ forgave'' (Col. 3:12, 13). In prosperity do we have the same tenderness, even tearfulness, of heart and trust in the provision of the God of all grace and comfort that we had when we were penniless in purse and poor in spirit? Then we knew that ''the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry . . . The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.. . . none of them that trust in him shall be desolate'' (Ps. 34:15, 18, 22).

   In our pleasure of plenty do we remember that once we were in painfulness and weariness, that it was of the Lord's mercies that we were not consumed, that His grace was sufficient, that ''every good gift and every perfect gift . . . cometh down

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from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness''? (Jas. 1:17). Then we learned to take pleasure in the poverty that was rich in faith, in a new portion of physical strength, in provision for daily bread (without pleas for butter and strawberry jam), in prayers that were answered. Now that we have plenty, do we praise God for His many blessings, do we thank Him that our cup is sweet, do we pray for the needy of earth and provide for them out of what God has entrusted to us?

   The real test of Christian character comes not when we are toiling to the point of sheer exhaustion; rather it appears when we are exalted and extolled. This is the ''arrow that flieth by day,'' the destruction that may lay waste at noonday. King Uzziah was ''marvelously helped, till he was strong.'' But when he was strong, what then? ''His heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the Lord his God'' (II Chron. 26:15, 16). He could stand poverty but not prosperity, work but not wealth, toil but not triumph, struggle but not success, duty but not distinction. His heart was lifted up, only to his destruction.

   It is ever so: ''Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. . . . He that trusteth in his riches shall fall. . . . When pride cometh, then cometh shame. . . . An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin'' (Prov. 16:18; 11:28, 2; 21:4). The discipline of distinction speaks thus: Are we as tender toward sin as when we knew we were lost? As thankful toward

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the Saviour as when He saved us? As thoughtful toward others as when we shared a cup of cold water, all we had? As thorough in our study and our service as when we began to tell others about His grace? As trusting in His promises as when we were poor? As trustworthy in our stewardship as when we tithed joyfully our meager resources? Has prominence made us proud; privilege, presumptuous; prosperity, poor in faith; plenty, pitiless toward others? When we have become strong, is our heart being lifted up to our destruction?

   The best preparation for the discipline of distinction is the utter contrition of heart that will keep one always contemptible to himself, contrite before the Lord, cautious to hear any appreciation from others, concerned ever with the welfare of others and oblivious of his own pleasure. It is to be taught so deeply by adversity that prosperity is a mercy of the Lord rather than a merit that we deserve. It is to be aware always that whatever may be our success, we are yet ''unprofitable servants.'' It is to be so conscious of the meek and lowly Christ that in our heart we sit at His feet, irrespective of where we may stand in human prominence.

   May God grant us the stern discipline that will enable us to regard distinction as a stewardship to be used in His service, bringing with it deepened dependence upon Him, more definite devotion to duty, disinclination to hear the adulation of others, distaste for the praise of men, death to self-interest, and daily delight in doing His bidding. Thus with

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increasing lowliness of heart, and love to God and our fellow men, we shall serve Him all our days, in prosperity or in poverty, in pleasure or in pain, in prominence or in obscurity.

''Father where shall I work today?''

And my love flowed warm and free.

Then He pointed me out a tiny spot,

And said, ''Tend that for me.''

I answered quickly, ''Oh no, not that.

Why, no one would ever see,

No matter how well my work was done.

Not that little place for me!''

And the word He spoke, it was not stern,

He answered me tenderly,

''Ah, little one, search that heart of thine;

Art thou working for them or me?

Nazareth was a little place,

And so was Galilee.''

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Faith

Lord, give me faith!—to live from day to day,

With tranquil heart to do my simple part,

And, with my hand in Thine, just go Thy way.

Lord, give me faith!—to trust, if not to know;

With quiet mind in all things, Thee to find,

And, child-like, go where Thou wouldst have me

go.

Lord, give me faith!—to leave it all to Thee,

The future is Thy gift, I would not lift

The veil Thy love has hung 'twixt it and me.

                                                              —John Oxenham.*

*From BEES IN AMBER by John Oxenham.Used by permission of the publishers, American Tract Society, New York.

Chapter Twenty-seven  ||  Table of Contents