| Week-Day Religion |
Chapter 1 |
Page 2 |
Then there is another element in every true conception of life which is equally essential. No life hangs in mid air, without relations, connections or attachment, without dependences and responsibilities. A man may not tear himself out of the web of humanity and pass all his years on some solitary island in the sea, cutting every tie, casting off all responsibility, living without reference to God or man, law or duty, and fulfill in any sense the true meaning of life.
In every direction there are cords of attachment which reach out and bind every fragment of humanity fast in one great web; and these attachments are inextricable. We may ignore them, but we cannot break one of them. We may be disloyal to every one of them, but we cannot cut one thread of obligation.
A little reflection will show us what these connections are. Whence are we? What is the origin of this life we bear about with us? What are our relations to God the Creator? Our life sprang from his hand. Not only so, but it is dependent upon him. No more does the trembling leaf hang upon the bough and depend upon it for support and very life than does every human life hang upon God, depending upon him for stay and support and for its momentary existence.
Then, as we think of ourselves as Christians, this thought is infinitely deepened. What is a Christian life? We are accustomed to say that it is a life redeemed by Christ’s death. More closely defined, it is a life that is taken up out of the ruin of sin and attached to the life of Christ. Apart from him men are but dead and withering branches having no life, but when attached to him they become living branches covered with leaves and fruit. As we think of it we see Christ as the one great central Life of the world and ourselves living only in him, our little fragment of being utterly dependent upon him for every beauty, blessing and hope. We live only in him. He takes our sins and gives us his righteousness. He takes our weakness and unites it, like a branch grafted upon a tree, to his own glorious fullness of strength. Our emptiness he attaches to his divine completeness. Our lives feed upon him, and are in every sense dependent upon him. We have nothing and we are nothing which we do not receive from him.
Out of this relation come the most binding and far reaching obligations to God – obligations of gratitude, praise, trust, obedience, service. Our life is not in any sense our own. Its purpose is not fulfilled unless it is lived to accomplish the end for which it was created and redeemed. We begin to study the Scriptures and to ask what is the chief end of life, and we have not to read between the lines to find the answer. Everything has been made with some design. Even a grain of sand has its uses. It helps to build up the mountain, or it forms part of the great wall that holds the sea in its place, or it helps by its infinitesimal weight to balance the system of worlds. A drop of water has its purposes and uses. Creeping into the bosom of the drooping flower or sinking down to its roots, it revives it. It may help to quench the thirst of a dying soldier. It may paint a rainbow on the clouds. It may help to float great ships or add its little plash to the chorus of ocean’s majestic music.
“Each drop uncounted in a storm of rain
Hath its own mission; The very shadow of an insect’s wing–
For which the violet cared not while it stayed,
Yet felt the lighter for it vanishing–
Proves that the sun was shining by its shade.”
And if such minute things have their purpose, how grand must be the end for which each human life was made!
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