| Week-Day Religion |
Chapter 30 |
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Are men, then, after all, saved by good works? No; the meaning of the picture lies deeper than that. True love for Christ always opens men’s hearts toward their fellows. There is another feature of the picture which presents this truth in still clearer light. Christ appears accepting everything done to the needy as done to himself in person: “I was hungered, and, ye gave me meat. I was sick, and ye visited me.” The, when the righteous say, in amazement, “Why, we never saw thee hungry and fed thee, or found thee sick and ministered unto thee,” he explains by saying “Ah! you didn’t know it, but every time you fed a hungry neighbor, or gave a cup of water to a thirsty pilgrim, or visited a sick man, or clothed an orphan child, or wrought any ministry of kindness to one in need, you did it to me” – that is, the way he wants us to serve him is by serving those who need our ministry. The incense he loves best is that which is burned, not in a golden censer to waste its perfume on the air, but in the homes of need to cheer some human weariness or comfort some human sorrow.
The whole matter of practical consecration is ofttimes very unsatisfactory. We say that we give ourselves to Christ, making an unreserved consecration of all our gifts and powers to his service. We are not insincere, yet are we not conscious that in our actual living we utterly fail to make good our solemn covenants and honest intentions? It may help us to take our consecration out of the region of the emotional and make it real to remember that it is a living sacrifice we are to make of ourselves to God – that is, it is not merely hymn singing, praying and love rapture he wants, but a living service in his name and for him in this blighted world.
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