Christian life is more than many take it to be. It does not consist wholly
in gentleness, patience, meekness, and kindliness. These graces are essential;
but there is need also of courage, force, energy, and perseverance. The path
that Christ marks out is a narrow, self-denying path. To enter that path and
press on through difficulties and discouragements requires men who are more than
weaklings.
Force of Character
Men of stamina are wanted, men who will not wait to have their way smoothed
and every obstacle removed, men who will inspire with fresh zeal the flagging
efforts of dispirited workers, men whose hearts are warm with Christian love and
whose hands are strong to do their Master's work.
Some who engage in missionary service are weak, nerveless, spiritless,
easily discouraged. They lack push. They have not those positive traits of
character that give power to do something--the spirit and energy that kindle
enthusiasm. Those who would win success must be courageous and hopeful. They
should cultivate not only the passive but the active virtues. While they are to
give the soft answer that turns away wrath, they must possess the courage of a hero to resist evil. With the
charity that endures all things, they need the force of character that will make
their influence a positive power.
Some have no firmness of character. Their plans and purposes have no
definite form and consistency. They are of but little practical use in the
world. This weakness, indecision, and inefficiency should be overcome. There is
in true Christian character an indomitableness that cannot be molded or subdued
by adverse circumstances. We must have moral backbone, an integrity that cannot
be flattered, bribed, or terrified.
God desires us to make use of every opportunity for securing a preparation
for His work. He expects us to put all our energies into its performance and to
keep our hearts alive to its sacredness and its fearful responsibilities.
Many who are qualified to do excellent work accomplish little because they
attempt little. Thousands pass through life as if they had no great object for
which to live, no high standard to reach. One reason for this is the low
estimate which they place upon themselves. Christ paid an infinite price for us,
and according to the price paid He desires us to value ourselves.
Be not satisfied with reaching a low standard. We are not what we might be,
or what it is God's will that we should be. God has given us reasoning powers,
not to remain inactive, or to be perverted to earthly and sordid pursuits, but
that they may be developed to the utmost, refined, sanctified, ennobled, and
used in advancing the interests of His kingdom.
None should consent to be mere machines, run by another man's mind. God has
given us ability, to think and to act, and it is by acting with carefulness,
looking to Him for wisdom that you will become capable of bearing burdens. Stand in your God-given
personality. Be no other person's shadow. Expect that the Lord will work in and
by and through you.
Never think that you have learned enough, and that you may now relax your
efforts. The cultivated mind is the measure of the man. Your education should
continue during your lifetime; every day you should be learning and putting to
practical use the knowledge gained.
Remember that in whatever position you may serve you are revealing motive,
developing character. Whatever your work, do it with exactness, with diligence;
overcome the inclination to seek an easy task.
The same spirit and principles that one brings into the daily labor will be
brought into the whole life. Those who desire a fixed amount to do and a fixed
salary, and who wish to prove an exact fit without the trouble of adaptation or
training, are not the ones whom God calls to work in His cause. Those who study
how to give as little as possible of their physical, mental, and moral power are
not the workers upon whom He can pour out abundant blessings. Their example is
contagious. Self-interest is the ruling motive. Those who need to be watched and
who work only as every duty is specified to them, are not the ones who will be
pronounced good and faithful. Workers are needed who manifest energy, integrity,
diligence, those who are willing to do anything that needs to be done.
Many become inefficient by evading responsibilities for fear of failure.
Thus they fail of gaining that education which results from experience, and
which reading and study and all the advantages otherwise gained cannot give
them.
Man can shape circumstances, but circumstances should not be allowed to
shape the man. We should seize upon circumstances as instruments by which to
work. We are to master them, but should not permit them to master us.
Men of power are those who have been opposed, baffled, and thwarted. By
calling their energies into action, the obstacles they meet prove to them
positive blessings. They gain self-reliance. Conflict and perplexity call for
the exercise of trust in God and for that firmness which develops power.
Christ gave no stinted service. He did not measure His work by hours. His
time, His heart, His soul and strength, were given to labor for the benefit of
humanity. Through weary days He toiled, and through long nights He bent in
prayer for grace and endurance that He might do a larger work. With strong
crying and tears He sent His petitions to heaven, that His human nature might be
strengthened, that He might be braced to meet the wily foe in all his deceptive
workings, and fortified to fulfill His missions of uplifting humanity. To His
workers He says, "I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have
done." John 13:15.
"The love of Christ," said Paul, "constraineth us." 2
Corinthians 5:14. This was the actuating principle of his conduct; it was his
motive power. If ever his ardor in the path of duty flagged for a moment, one
glance at the cross caused him to gird up anew the loins of his mind and press
forward in the way of self-denial. In his labors for his brethren he relied much
upon the manifestation of infinite love in the sacrifice of Christ, with its
subduing, constraining power.
How earnest, how touching, his appeal: "Ye know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that
ye through His poverty might be rich." 2 Corinthians 8:9. You know the
height from which He stooped, the depth of humiliation to which He descended.
His feet entered upon the path of sacrifice and turned not aside until He had
given His life. There was no rest for Him between the throne in heaven and the
cross. His love for man led Him to welcome every indignity and suffer every
abuse.
Paul admonishes us to "look not every man on his own things, but every
man also on the things of others." He bids us possess the mind "which
was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in
fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross." Philippians 2:4-8.
Paul was deeply anxious that the humiliation of Christ should be seen and
realized. He was convinced that if men could be led to consider the amazing
sacrifice made by the Majesty of heaven, selfishness would be banished from
their hearts. The apostle lingers over point after point, that we may in some
measure comprehend the wonderful condescension of the Saviour in behalf of
sinners. He directs the mind first to the position which Christ occupied in
heaven in the bosom of His Father; he reveals Him afterward as laying aside His
glory, voluntarily subjecting Himself to the humbling conditions of man's life,
assuming the responsibilities of a servant, and becoming obedient unto death,
and that the most ignominious and revolting, the most agonizing--the death of
the cross. Can we contemplate this wonderful manifestation of the love of God
without gratitude and love, and a deep sense of the fact that we are not our
own? Such a Master should not be served from grudging, selfish motives.
"Ye know," says Peter, "that ye were not redeemed with
corruptible things, as silver and gold." 1 Peter 1:18. Oh, had these been
sufficient to purchase the salvation of man, how easily it might have been
accomplished by Him who says, "The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine"!
Haggai 2:8. But the sinner could be redeemed only by the precious blood of the
Son of God. Those who, failing to appreciate this wonderful sacrifice, withhold
themselves from Christ's service, will perish in their selfishness.
Singleness of Purpose
In the life of Christ, everything was made subordinate to His work, the
great work of redemption which He came to accomplish. And the same devotion, the
same self-denial and sacrifice, the same subjection to the claims of the word of
God, is to be manifest in His disciples.
Everyone who accepts Christ as his personal Saviour will long for the
privilege of serving God. Contemplating what heaven has done for him, his heart
is moved with boundless love and adoring gratitude. He is eager to signalize his
gratitude by devoting his abilities to God's service. He longs to show his love
for Christ and for His purchased possession. He covets toil, hardship,
sacrifice.
The true worker for God will do his best, because in so doing he can glorify
his Master. He will do right in order to regard the requirements of God. He will
endeavor to improve all his faculties. He will perform every duty as unto God.
His one desire will be that Christ may receive homage and perfect service.
There is a picture representing a bullock standing between a plow and an
altar, with the inscription, "Ready for either," ready to toil in the
furrow or to be offered on the altar of sacrifice. This is the position of the
true child of God--willing to go where duty calls, to deny self, to sacrifice
for the Redeemer's cause.