| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 12 |
Page 3 |
From all this it is evident that the object of grace in a life is not merely to make one day in seven a holy day, and to hallow a few moments of each morning and evening, but to absorb and fill the man’s whole nature. The Sabbath has served its true purpose only when it has spread its calm and quiet through all the other days. We worship god, especially on that one day, in order to gather strength and grace to live for God in the six days that follow. It is not worship for worship’s own sake that we are to render, but worship to get more of God down into our life to prepare us for duty and struggle, for burden bearing and toil, for service and sorrow.
It has been said by a distinguished English preacher that direct worship is a small part of life, and that every human office needs to be made holy. True religion will manifest itself in every phase of life. We sit down in the quiet and read our Bible and get our lesson. We know it now, but we have not as yet got it into our life, which is the thing we have really to do. Knowing that we should love our enemies is not the ultimate thing – actually loving our enemies is. Knowing that we should be patient is not all – we are to practice the lesson of patience until it has become a habit in our life. Knowing that we should always submit our will to God’s is to have a clear mental conception of our duty in this regard; but this is not religion. There are many who know well this cardinal duty of Christian life who yet continue to chafe whenever they cannot have their own way, and who struggle and resist and refuse to submit to the divine will whenever it appears to be opposed to their own will. They know their lesson, but they have not learned to live it. It is living it, however, that is religion.
Even the best of striving will not get all the heavenly vision wrought into life. It is not possible that we with our clumsy hands can ever put into act or word or carve into visible beauty all that we dream when we kneel before Christ or ponder his words. None of us live any day as we meant to live when we set out in the morning.
“What hand and brain went ever paired?
What heart alike conceived and dared?
What act proved all his thought had been?
What will be felt the fleshy screen?”
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