half-way, but not the other half. They will give up possessions,
friends, and honors, but it touches them too closely to disown
themselves." It is just this astonishing life which is willing to
follow Him the other half, sincerely to disown itself, this life
which intends complete obedience, without any reservations,
that I would propose to you in all humility, in all boldness, in
all seriousness. I mean this literally, utterly, completely, and I
mean it for you and for me--commit your lives in unreserved
obedience to Him.
If you don't realize the revolutionary explosiveness of this
proposal you don't understand what I mean. Only now and then
comes a man or a woman who, like John Woolman or Francis of
Assisi, is willing to be utterly obedient, to go the other half, to
follow God's faintest whisper. But when such a commitment
comes in a human life, God Breaks through, miracles are wrought,
world-renewing divine forces are release, history changes. There is
nothing more important now than to have the human race endowed
with just such committed lives. Now is no time to say, 'Lo, here.
Lo, there.' Now is the time to say, 'Thou art the man. To this
extraordinary life I call you--or he calls you man.' To this extra-
ordinary life I call you--or he calls you through me--not as a lovely
ideal, a charming pattern to aim at hopefully, but as a serious
concrete program of life, to be lived here and now, in industrial
America, by you and by me.
....The life that intends to be wholly obedient, wholly submissive,
wholly listening, is astonishing in its completeness. Its joys are
ravishing, its peace profound, its humility the deepest its power
world-shaking, its love enveloping, its simplicity that of a trusting
child. It is the life and power in which the prophets and apostles
lived. It is the life and power of Jesus of Nazareth, who knew that
'when thine eye is single thy whole body is full of light' (Luke 11:34)
It is the life and power of the apostle Paul, who resolved not to
know anything among men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It
is the life and power of Saint Francis, that little poor man of God
who came nearer to re-living the life of Jesus than has any other
man on earth. It is the life and power of George Fox and of Isaac
and Mary Pennington. It is the life and power and utter obedience
of John Woolman who decided, he says, 'to place my whole trust in
God,' to 'act on an inner Principle of Virtue, and pursue worldly
business no farther than as Truth opened my way therein.' It is the
life and power of myriads of unknown saints through the ages. It
is the life and power of some people now in this room who smile
knowingly as I speak. And it is a life and power that can break
forth in this tottering Western culture and return the Church to its
rightful life as a fellowship of creative, heaven-led souls.
Who is Thomas R. Kelly? Kelly lived 1893 to January 17, 1941.
He was an American Quaker. He taught and wrote on the subject
of mysticism.
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