| Week-Day Religion |
Chapter 21 |
Page 4 |
It is worth our while to study closely the character of true manliness as we have its type and pattern in the life of our Lord. We soon learn that while in him love blossomed out in all that is rich and beautiful in human tenderness and gentleness, it did not leave him weak and strengthless. Never was any other man so full of compassion, so pitiful toward those who had wandered, so patient in bearing wrong or so forgiving toward his enemies. But you seek in vain in all his life for the faintest trace of moral feebleness. To him sin in any form was unutterably abhorrent. Truth shone in every lineament of his soul. He was the embodiment of courage. All the active virtues, as well as the passive, were exhibited in him. He was not merely a patient sufferer; he set a going in the world the mightiest forces of divinity – forces whose resistless momentum has penetrated all the world’s life, and which even at the distance of nineteen centuries have lost none of their energy or vitality. He was not a weak man swept along by the strong currents of the world’s passions to an unavoidable destiny. So he sometimes appears to superficial observation, but so he was not. Every step was voluntary. His was the sublime march of a king. He had all power and was always active, never passive even in what seem the most helpless hours of his life. He laid down his life; he had power to lay it down. Even in dying he was active, voluntarily giving up his life.
We cannot study enough this sometimes neglected phase of Christ’s life – the force and positiveness of his character. Patient to endure, there was yet power enough in his gentlest word to make it a living influence for uncounted centuries. His most passive moments were marked by exhibitions of omnipotence. Submitting to the arresting band, he yet put forth his hand to work a miracle of healing. On his cross he opened heaven’s gates to a penitent soul.
Then he was in every way the manliest of men – large hearted, noble spirited, generous to the very uttermost of self sacrifice. No microscopic eye can find in all his life a trace of selfishness or one token of meanness.
Such is the Pattern, and a Christian man must be strong as well as tender. The active virtues must be cultivated as well as the passive. Meekness must not be weakness. The soft speech must not be the timid utterance of moral feebleness. Like the mighty engine which can polish a needle or cut a bar of iron, a Christian man must have a touch as gentle as an infant’s and yet possess the courage of a hero to smite evil and to do the Lord’s work. With the charity that beareth all things and endureth all things he must have the force of character which will make his influence a mighty positive power for good. Truth must be wrought into the very grain and fibre of his manhood. His word must be pure as gold. His lightest promises must be sacredly kept as his most solemn engagements. He must be a large hearted, generous man, unselfish, noble spirited, above all suspicion of meanness. He must be scrupulously exact in all his dealings, promptly returning what he has borrowed, paying his debts the very day they are due, never seeking to evade them, never forgetting them, nor postponing payment till the very latest time. He must not be a hard man, close, oppressive, domineering, and despotic. In a word, he must combine unflinching integrity, unvarying promptness and punctuality and conscientious truthfulness with generosity and liberality.
Such a man will grow into a marvelous power in the community in which he lives. People will believe in his religion because he lives it. No one will sneer when he exhorts others to be honest, upright and true, prompt and punctual, and faithful to the utmost scrupulousness to their engagements. His life is one unflawed crystal. He is a manly man. Even the enemies of religion respect him. His simplest words are weighty. His whole influence is for truth and nobleness. His daily life is a sermon. God is honored and the world is blessed by his living.
Page 4
<< Prior Page 1 2 3 4 Next Page >>