♦The Harvest of the Self-life♦ The harvest of the self-centred life is the subject of some of His most solemn words. “One thing thou lackest yet,” He said to one of warm enthusiasm and blameless life. “Free yourself from the self life. Come out into the open.” But the great renunciation seemed too costly. “How hardly shall such enter the Kingdom,” was the sorrowful after-word. Again,--and note the first personal pronoun in this story:-- “The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he reasoned within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, because I have not where to bestow my fruits?’ And he said, ‘This will I do: I will pull down my barns and build greater; and there will I bestow all my corn and my goods. And I will say to my soul (life), Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.’” “But God said unto him, ‘Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be?’” “_So is he that layeth up treasure for_ HIMSELF _and is not rich toward God_.” THE REMEDY. ♦The Sacred Truth of the Cessation of Suffering♦ The third sacred truth points the direction in which man must look for the only possible remedy. He has broken away from his only true Home, and finds himself a sufferer under the rigour of the very law which should be his life and joy. The self-life, with its desires and forthgoings, is the seed of separation. The self-life must therefore be subdued. Self must cease to sow the seed of evil deeds, however pleasant; for every such seed sown is adding to the harvest of evil. Not only so, but Self must cease to sow the seed of any deeds good or evil, of which self-desire is the motive. Self must be rigorously disciplined and denied. Deeds of mercy and love, having no selfish end, are indeed good; these hasten the at-one-ment of the broken universe; for the universe, in its unity, is pure truth and pure mercifulness. “_Now this, O recluses, is the noble truth concerning the destruction of suffering. Verily, it is the destruction, in which no craving remains over, of this very thirst; the laying aside of, the becoming free from, the harbouring no longer of, this thirst._” ♦CHRIST♦ Read in the light of the third sacred truth, the words of Christ:-- “If thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee.” “If thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee.” “If any man cometh unto Me, and hateth not his own father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” “Whosoever he be of you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.” “If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast ... and come, follow Me.” “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.”