Page:Philochristus, Abbott, 1878.djvu/242

234 according to his Father's will, but submitteth himself unto them even more willingly than others submit themselves. For this cause he endureth to be cold, and an-hungered, and athirst, and homeless; neither doth he chide the frost, nor stamp on the ground to make the wheat spring up for him; nor strike waters from the rock; nor bid the stones come together at his word for to build him an house." "But is not this patience," asked I, "the condition of a slave?" "Yes, truly is it," replied Nathaniel, "but what saith our Master? He that is to be greatest among men must be as he that is least; he that is to rule must be as he that ministereth; he that is to be king over all must be as the slave of all. Only it is needful that we serve not unwillingly, but willingly. But whoso serveth the Lord in all things willingly, he is no slave, but a son.

"For this cause, in part methinks, Jesus calleth himself the Son of man; as if to shew that he is willingly subject to all the fleshly weaknesses wherewith the All-Wise hath encompassed the souls of men to the end that they may depend on Him. For he teacheth that he, being the weakness of man, shall be made strength and exalted to the very throne of God, and we with him; so that we shall reign with God, and the Kingdom of God shall also be a Kingdom of man, according as it is said, 'What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.'"

"Yea, but," said I, "the Psalmist speaketh only of the things of the earth, to wit, the 'sheep and oxen and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.'"

But to this Nathaniel made answer, "In the Kingdom