highest, there will be detachment from, and abandonment of, many
lower ones. Nothing worth doing is done, and nothing worth being is
realised in ourselves, except on condition of resolutely ignoring
much that attracts. 'They went forth'; Haran must be given up if
Canaan is to be reached. Artists are content to pay the price for
mastery in their art, students think it no hardship to remain
ignorant of much in order to know their own subject thoroughly; men
of business feel it no sacrifice to give up culture, leisure, and
sometimes still higher things, such as love and purity, to win
wealth. And we shall not be Christians after Christ's heart unless
we practise similar restrictions. The stream that is to flow with
impetus sufficient to scour its bed clear of obstructions must not
be allowed to meander in side branches, but be banked up in one
channel. Sometimes there must be actual surrender and outward
withdrawal from lower aims which, by our weakness, have become rival
aims; always there must be subordination and detachment in heart and
mind. The compass in an iron ship is disturbed by the iron, unless
it has been adjusted; the golden apples arrest the runner, and there
are clogs and weights in every life, which have to be laid aside if
the race is to be won. The old pilgrim fashion is still the only
way. We must do as Abram did: leave Haran and its idols behind us,
and go forth, ready to dwell, if need be, in deserts, and as
sojourners even when among cities, or we shall not reach the 'land
that is very far off.' It is near us if we forsake self and the
'things seen and temporal,' but it recedes when we turn our hearts
to these.

'Into the land of Canaan they came.' No man honestly and rightly
seeks God and fails to find Him. No man has less goodness and
Christ-likeness than he truly desires and earnestly pursues. Nearer