| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 14 |
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On every hand, and enforced by the holiest sanctions, we are urged to make the most of our life and our opportunities. Again and again we hear in the Bible the ringing exhortation, “Be strong.” More than one of our Lord’s parables teaches our responsibility for the development of every power of our being to its fullest possibilities, and the using of every particle of energy in our nature in worthy service. One who does not do one’s best falls under a ban. St. Paul, himself a magnificent type of the utmost strenuousness in living calls for the most vigorous Christian life in the followers of the Master. He exhorts a young man to stir up the gift that is in him, probably seeing plainly that his friend was not doing his best, making the most of his life. He uses the figure of the runner in the race, bending every energy to reach the goal and win the prize, to incite every Christian to the most eager stretching toward the highest possibilities in spiritual attainment. He employs the illustration of the soldier as the type of true manhood, and bids his friends quit themselves like men, and to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ. If we would realize the scriptural though of the worthiest life, we must call out all the latent power that is in us and develop it to its highest degree of vitality.
The lesson is strongly emphasized in the spirit of the days in which we are living. Every man is now called to do his best. No patience is exercised toward one who takes life easily. The man who works leisurely is left behind in the race. Literature is full of homilies on “success” and how to attain it. The men who are held up as examples to youth are those who began with nothing and by their won energy have risen to wealth or power. Strenuousness is everywhere glorified.
But not so universally nor so urgently is the duty of self culture taught. Yet the lesson is equally important. There are many people who are giants in strength, but are lacking in the qualities of refinement which belong to the truest character. Strength is sometimes rude. Too often it is ungentle and thoughtless. It is aggressive and resistless, but stops not to look what fair flowers it is trampling under its feet.
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