Restraint of natural ambitions.
"Instead of fretting after what is too great for him, he quiets his ambition, and his spirit lies calm and gentle, like a child in its mother's arms, that, after the first trouble of weaning is over, is soothed and lulled by the maternal caress." The image is strikingly simple and true, of natural desire stayed and of a subdued quietness of rest rather than delight. Perowne quotes the following as a mother's experience: "The weaned child has for the first time become conscious of grief. The piteous longing for the sweet nourishment of his life, the broken sob of disappointment, mark the trouble of his innocent heart: it is not so much the bodily suffering; he has felt that pain before, and cried while it lasted; but now his joy and comfort are taken away, and he knows not why. When his head is once more laid on his mother's bosom, then he trusts and loves and rests; but he has learned the first lesson of humility, he is cast down, and clings with fond helplessness to his one friend."
I. NATURAL AMBITIONS ARE NOT WRONG IN THEMSELVES. They do but express a man's individuality and energy. They are but the sign of the intelligence that can fix an aim and a purpose for a life. It describes a helpless, hopeless man to say, "He has no ambition." Such a man wants nothing, tries for nothing, and gets nothing. Religious people often condemn ambition as an essential evil. All we need say is that it may be, but it need not be.
II. NATURAL AMBITIONS BECOME WRONG WHEN THEY ARE SELF-CENTERED. A man is a being in relations. There is a measure of health in every scheme he has for the benefit of another. A man is a dependent being, and his first consideration has to be the approval of him on whom he depends. Ambition to secure purely selfish ends is sin against our relationship, and against our dependence. Ambition that is self-centered is only too likely to inspire unscrupulous means.
III. NATURAL AMBITIONS NEED RESTRAINT WHEN GOD'S WILL IS KNOWN. It is not that God's will is either antagonistic to, or out of harmony with, our natural ambitions; it is that they are either exaggerated, or have become masterful. If we could read life aright, we should always find that God's will for our life is in strictest harmony with our own real and well-qualified ambitions. And precisely what the revelation of God's will does for us is help us in getting our ambitions into proper limitation and control. God does not want the service of men out of whom all heart and energy have been taken. It is not any crushing out of our individuality that honors God: restraint within wise limits means the retention of all good and right ambitions.—R.T.