| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 13 |
Page 6 |
We sometimes read how certain persons have learned to overcome in temptation, and we try to get their method, thinking we can overcome, too, if we use the same formula that they use. We read the biographies of eminent saints to find out how they prayed, how they read the Bible, thinking that we can get the secret of their victoriousness simply by adopting their order of spiritual life. But as the music was not in the violin, but in the player, so the secret of victory in temptation is not in any method, not even in the Bible, nor in any liturgy of prayer, but only in Christ. The power that makes us strong is not in any religious schedule, it is not in any other one’s methods – we must have Christ with us, Christ in us.
There is a beautiful legend of Columba, the apostle of Christianity in North Britain. The saint wished to make a copy of the Psalms for his own use, but the one book was kept out of his reach, hidden in the church. Columba made his way secretly into the church, at night, and found the place where the volume was kept. But there was no light in the building, and he could not see to write. But when he opened the book and took his pen to write, light streamed out from his hand that flooded the page with radiance. With that shining hand he made a copy of the Psalter. It is only a legend, but it teaches that those who live always in communion with Christ have Christ in themselves and need falter at nothing. When we are serving him he helps us. The light of his life in us will make our lives shine so that where we go the darkness will be changed to day. Then we shall always be conquerors in him.
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