perfectness of His character, and the unselfishness and holiness of His
earthly life. Since these three-and-thirty years He walked with men many
new Christs have risen, many new creeds and dogmas been offered for the
world's acceptance; but all have passed away, disappeared into
nothingness, and Christ remains, the mainstay and salvation of human
souls. His teaching is still the very best we can obtain for our
guidance here. Take the Sermon on the Mount, for instance. How perfect
it is, how comprehensive, how full of little things, and yet how
wide-reaching in its limit! There is nothing forgotten; nearly nineteen
hundred years old, and yet it is adapted for every need of the human
soul. If we could get the spirit of that blessed teaching more firmly
planted in our hearts, we could make the world a happier place for
ourselves and others. We are all fond of laying plans for the future;
and there are few of us who do not at least once a year review the past,
and make new resolves for the future. Some of us are constantly taking
retrospects, and sometimes feel hopeless. We seem to be making so little
progress in that higher life which we desire, and strive after in some
degree. In a twofold sense this looking back may be made profitable to
us. It must always, unless we are very hard of heart, make us grateful
for past mercies; and when we consider how wonderfully and tenderly we
have been led through difficulties and trials, or dangers, or guided
through the more perilous waters of prosperity and success, it will give
us greater heart to go forward to whatever may lie before us. When we
look back on lost opportunities, it must make us more watchful of those
present with us, and help us to give to each new day as it comes
something upon which we shall afterwards look back without regret. The
older I grow the more strongly do I feel that religion is a matter of
daily living--of practice, not precept; and that unless the Spirit of
Christ animate us in all our relations one to the other we name His name
in vain. And what a lovely spirit it was, unsullied by any trace of
selfishness, gentle, forbearing, long-suffering, just to the last
degree!
It is this spirit alone that can sanctify and bless the home, and raise
all common life out of a sordid groove; that can make homely things
beautiful, and hard things, of which so many meet us on life's road,
easier to bear. Oh that we had a larger baptism of it; that we who so
long and strive for it could have it always with us! Human nature is so
perverse, and self so strong. Yet, even in its weakest efforts, this
earnest desire to live the religion Christ has taught us will not go
unblessed, but will make its little lesson felt wherever it is found.
Because it makes us more self-denying, more charitable, more forbearing
in every relation of life, it will make others inquire concerning the
hope that is in us.
"In hidden and unnoticed ways;
In household work, on common days,"
we may do the Master's work, and make our homes altars to His glory.
We want less talk and more action, less precept and more example, which
though reticent of speech is yet eloquent in testimony for good or for
evil. So, whatever be our lot or circumstances, whatever our joys and
sorrows, our losses or crosses, we may with confidence look ahead, and
our great compensation will not be lacking--"She hath done what she
could"; and again, "Well done, good and faithful servant: enter thou
into the joy of thy Lord."
Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.