| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 12 |
Page 4 |
Yet it is to be the aim of our striving always to live our religion, to get the love of our heart wrought out in a blessed ministry of kindness. Christ lives in us; and it is ours to manifest the life of Christ in our daily living.
It is evident therefore that it is in the experiences of week day life far more than in the quiet of the Sabbath and the closet that the tests of religion come. It is easy to assent with our mind to the commandments, when we sit in the church, enjoying the services; but the assent of the life itself can be obtained only when we are out in the midst of temptation and duty, in contact with men. There it is, alone, that we can get the commandments wrought into ways of obedience and lines of character. And this is the final object of all religious teaching and worship – the transforming of our life into the beauty of Christ.
In modern days the thought of Christianity has been greatly widened. It is no longer supposed, by most Christians at least, that its sphere is confined to a small section of life. We claim all things now for Christ. Our belief is that the whole world belongs to our King. We claim heathen lands for him, and we are pushing the conquest into the heart of every country. We claim all occupations and trades, and all lines of activity for him. The vocation of the minister of the gospel is in one sense no more holy than that of the carpenter or the merchant. We all are living unto the Lord, whatever we are doing, just as much in working at a trade as in preaching, and on Monday as on the Sabbath. Religion claims all our common life and insists on dominating it. It asserts its power over the body, which is holy because it is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
In one of St. Paul’s letters is this counsel: “Let each man abide in that calling wherein he was called.” This would seem to teach that, as a rule, men are not to change their vocation when they acknowledge Christ as their Master, but are to be Christians where they are. The business man is not to become a minister, that he may serve Christ better, but is to serve him by being a Christian business man. The artist, when he accepts Christ, is to remain an artist, using his brush to honor Christ. The singer is to sing, but is to sing now for Christ, using her voice to start songs in this world of sorrow and sin. We are saying now, also, that Christian men should take part in politics, infusing into this department of life the spirit and the holiness of Christ that the kingdom of heaven may come in the state as well as in the church. They are likest Christ who go everywhere in his name.
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