“Religion’s all or nothing; it is no mere smile
O’ contentment, sigh of aspiration, sir–
No quality o’ the finelier tempered clay
Like its whiteness or its brightness; rather stuff,
Stuff o’ the very strife, life of life, and self of self!”
There were two artists, close friends, one of who excelled in landscape painting and the other depicting the human figure. The former had painted a picture in which wood and rock and sky were combined in the artist’s best manner. But the picture remained unsold – no one cared to buy it. It lacked something. The artist’s friend came and said, “Let me take your painting.” A few days later he brought it back. He had added a lovely human figure to the matchless landscape. Soon the picture was sold. It had lacked the interest of life.
There are some people whose religion seems to have a similar lack. It is very beautiful, faultless in its creed and its worship, but it lacks the human element. It is only landscape, and it needs life to make it complete. No religion is realizing its true mission unless it touches life at its every point.
It seems to be the thought of many that the religion of Christ is only for a little corner of their life. They fence off the Sabbath and try to make it holy by itself, while they devote the other days to secular life, without much effort to make them holy. In like manner they have certain exercises of devotion each day, which they regard as religious, but which also they shut off in little closets, so that the noise from the great world outside cannot break in to disturb the quiet. These they regard as holy moments, but they do not think of the other long hours of the day as in any sense sacred.
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