Benjamin teaches an important spiritual lesson. There are so many things to do in gaining exaltation that we might become discouraged at the magnitude of the effort required. But Benjamin assures us that, although the task is not less, the time pressures are. We may achieve our goals within our individual capacities. None of us will be required to “run faster than [we have] strength.”
Rhetoric: While this concept is tremendously important, why does Benjamin position it here? His immediate context has been the importance of caring for the needy. What is the connection between that concept and the need to do “all these things… in wisdom and order”? I suggest that Benjamin is here addressing, not the problems of individuals, but the larger problem of the community. While an individual might easily decide to share, it isn’t the movement of substance that is Benjamin’s concern, but rather the elimination of social stratification on the basis of substance. Because the ultimate problem is social, stemming from engrained concepts of rank and wealth, such attitudes cannot be changed overnight. Benjamin is proposing a radical social reorganization, which cannot succeed without the application of wisdom and order over time. Nevertheless, the people must “be diligent, that thereby [they] might win the prize.” They must keep their eyes on the ultimate goal even while dealing patiently and wisely with the prickly realities of unlearning the old social/economic order.