He has so much to do for us, so many things to show us, so many grounds to urge for our more earnest seeking of sanctity.  The true point of our Bible reading is that it is the opportunity of the Holy Spirit to exhibit truth to us so that in us it will become energetic.  We already are familiar with the incidents of our Lord’s Passion.  If it be a matter of knowledge there is no need to-night to take up the Gospel and read the chapters which tell of the Crucifixion.  There is not much point in reading through a chapter as a matter of pious habit.  It is extraordinary how many there are who speak with contempt of “mediaeval prayers” such as the recitation of the Rosary, who yet “read a chapter” once a day in the shortest possible time and with the minimum of attention.  We can think of all religious practices as opportunities that we offer to God the Holy Ghost.  The few verses of Holy Scripture we read may well be the medium of His action upon us.  He may give us new insight into their meaning, He may stir our wills to correspondence with their teaching, He may kindle our hearts by the evidence of the divine love that He presses home.  Who does not remember moments when new meaning seemed to flash from the familiar pages, when we felt ourselves convicted of inadequate response to the knowledge we have, or when we felt our heart stir and send us to our knees in an act of thanksgiving and love?

Our constant need is the clear knowledge of ourselves.  We may, we often do, see clearly God’s will, and then we deceive ourselves as to the nature of our response.  We think we are seeking for God when in reality we are seeking our own ends.  We make our own plans and then seek to impose them on the will of God.  Self-seeking, which we mistake for something else, is at the root of much spiritual failure.  We try to believe that God’s will is our will, and we succeed in a measure.  We need therefore to be constantly examining ourselves by the revealed standard of God’s will, to let in the light of the Spirit on our judgments and acts.  For the struggle of the Spirit for control is a struggle with a resisting and sluggish will.  We see, but we do not move; we know, but we do not act.  The horrible inertia of spiritual sloth paralyses us, and the call of the Spirit is heard in vain.  Like the man in our Lord’s parable we plead the lateness of the hour, and our unwillingness to disturb others as our excuse for not rising at the Spirit’s summons.  But the Spirit, like the Friend at midnight, still knocks at the door, and the sound of the summons penetrates the quietness of the house and breaks in upon our slumbers.  Well is it for us if in the end we rise and open to Him.