Article December 4, 1954 Issue

UNLABORED MOTION

[Original article in German]

FRIEDRICH PRELLER

Nature is full of convincing illustrations of unlabored activity. Take, for instance, the unfolding of a leaf, the rising of the sun, blossom time, growth, fruition, dancing snowflakes, and the gentle summer rain, refreshing the earth and promoting fruitfulness. Moses must have been thinking of similar examples when, after numerous futile efforts, in a final attempt to persuade the children of Israel to follow his teaching and prosper, he began by saying (Deut. 32:2), "My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb."

Undoubtedly Moses had learned from experience that gentleness, patience, and tenderness can achieve much more than anger, impatience, and human forcefulness are able to accomplish. He could hardly have illustrated more impressively than with these poetic words how effortlessly all that is divine is revealed in human consciousness. Solomon expressed it thus (Prov. 10:22, German Bible): "The blessing of the Lord maketh rich without labor." The King James translation is as follows: "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." Thus unlabored motion is a characteristic of all that is divine.

Jesus' Sermon on the Mount breathes the spirit of unlabored activity. It was and still is to human consciousness like gentle rain and refreshing dew. It illustrates how, through spiritualization of thought, one's highest goal may be reached without toil. His counsel was addressed primarily to the weary and heavy laden. He turned their attention from the cares of daily life to the effortless existence of birds and flowers. Living as close to nature as he did, Jesus said (Matt. 6: 26-29): "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. ... Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

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