“Heaven whispers wisdom to the wayside flower,
Bidding it use its own peculiar dower,
And bloom its best within its little span.
We must each do not what we will, but can,
Nor have we duty to exceed our power.”
Nothing is more striking to a close observer of human life than the almost infinite variety of character which exists among those who profess to be Christians. No two are alike. Even those who are alike revered for their saintliness, who alike seem to wear the image of their Lord, whose lives are alike attractive in their beauty, show the widest diversity in individual traits, and in the cast and mould of their character. Yet all are sitting before the same model; all are striving after the same ideal; all are imitators of the same blessed life. There is but one standard of true Christian character, — the likeness of Christ. It is into his image that we are all in the end to be transformed, and it is toward his holy beauty that we are always to strive. We are to live as he lives: we are to copy his features into our lives. Wherever, in all the world, true Disciples of Christ are found, they are trying to reproduce in themselves the likeness of their Master.
Page 1