| Week-Day Religion |
Chapter 30 |
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The old monks used to hide away in deserts and mountains and in monastery cells, as far as possible from human sin and need, and thought that the kind of service Christ wanted. Sometimes they would torture themselves, lacerate their bodies, fast, and live in the cold and storms. Some of them dwelt for years on tops of pillars and monuments, exposed to rain and snow, to heat and tempest, and thought that they were offering most acceptable sacrifices to God.
But they were not. They were only wasting, in idle reverie, useless sacrifice, unavailing suffering and hideous self torture, the glorious gifts which God had bestowed upon them to be used in serving others. Only the living sacrifice is pleasing. We bring our natural endowment, our acquired powers or gains, our gifts and blessings, to his feet; and, touching them with his benediction, he gives them back to us and says, “Take these again and use them for me bearing joy, help, comfort, cheer or inspiration to those about you and in life’s paths who need your ministries.”
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