But to leave the home which is your peace, and
to be at enmity with those who are most dear to you,--this, if there be
meaning in Christ's words, one day or other will be demanded of His
true followers.
And there is meaning in Christ's words. Whatever misuse may have been
made of them,--whatever false prophets--and Heaven knows there have
been many--have called the young children to them, not to bless, but to
curse, the assured fact remains, that if you will obey God, there will
come a moment when the voice of man will be raised, with all its
holiest natural authority, against you. The friend and the wise
adviser--the brother and the sister--the father and the master--the
entire voice of your prudent and keen-sighted acquaintance--the entire
weight of the scornful stupidity of the vulgar world--for _once_,
they will be against you, all at one. You have to obey God rather than
man. The human race, with all its wisdom and love, all its indignation
and folly, on one side,--God alone on the other. You have to choose.
That is the meaning of St. Francis's renouncing his inheritance; and it
is the beginning of Giotto's gospel of Works. Unless this hardest of
deeds be done first,--this inheritance of mammon and the world cast
away,--all other deeds are useless. You cannot serve, cannot obey, God
and mammon. No charities, no obediences, no self-denials, are of any
use, while you are still at heart in conformity with the world.
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