THE WHEELS OF LIFE
‘For the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood.’
I. Though the movement referred to by the prophet is the movement of the life of the universe, yet it applies also to the lives of the world and our own lives.—Remember the picture by Burne-Jones of the wheel of fortune, to which two men are lashed—the one going up and the other going down. You see the living creature bound to the wheel. That is fate. Ezekiel’s picture is the reverse of that. The wheel must carry on the living creature, round and up. There is a necessary routine in life. Is not every year a great wheel, and every day a little wheel within it? Making a living is routine. Is there no escape from its dull circle? Some never try to escape, but allow themselves to be bound upon the wheel of life, and round and round they go. Look at Ezekiel’s vision. The wheels don’t carry the spirit round, but the spirit carries them on, and lifts them up. Let us have the right spirit in our routine work.
II. Two things seem of special importance in regard to the spirit of life.—(1) Conscience must be clear. The spirit of life is first a spirit of righteousness. Be ye of the incorruptible sort, young men! whom money cannot buy, whom flattery cannot seduce, who would rather die than lie. Here is the well-spring of life. Better lose all than tamper with conscience. Keep thyself pure, and you will not merely hold your own. Temptations in the spiritual are like difficulties in the natural sphere. They are made that we may overcome them. (2) The heart must be free. At first it looks as if making a living must be a selfish business, and very often it is.
If the heart is free and consecrated to the service of God and our fellow-men, life becomes an onward march, not a routine. I hope that as we turn the wheel of life day by day we shall move upward, ‘Nearer our God, to Thee, nearer to Thee.’ Let us have onward progress; not the making of ruts, but the laying of rails. See that the spirit of life be in all the wheels thereof.
Illustration
‘What a blessing it would be if our life were as obedient to the Divine impulse as these wheels to the spirit of the living creature. Too often when the Spirit moves we lag behind; and when He would lift us up to heaven, we cling to the earth. We need that the Spirit of Life, which is in Christ Jesus, should enter into us, and inspire us with His own purpose. Oh that there might be between Jesus and us something of that immediate and almost automatic response which subsists between the will and the members of our body!’