The Ideal Christian
Napoleon said, “Imagination rules the world.” Certainly there can be no great achievement where there is no ability to conceive a great ideal. If our day-dreams do not make us content simply with reverie, they will stir us to heroic action. Castles in the air may become solid structures.
In Col. 1: 9-13 we have a picture of the ideal Christian and every young Christian will be profited by a careful study of his features:” For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suf-
8S fering with joy fulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.”
The ideal Christian is “filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” It is not the knowledge of astronomy, botany, philosophy or geology that develops Christian character, though these are important in their places. A man who knows all science and history may still be a bad man. But if he is filled with a knowledge of God’s will, such fulness will make him wise and spiritual. We learn God’s will from the Bible, and hence the importance of persistent Bible study. A Christian can afford to miss breakfast, dinner, or supper rather than to neglect his Bible. Starving the body is not so fatal as starving the soul. Let not the newspaper or the magazine, however attractive, push aside the Word of God, and the business, however prosperous, that causes the Christian to neglect his Bible study impoverishes more than it enriches.
“That ye might walk worthy of the Lord in all pleasing.” Nothing can please Christ more than seeing His people in their Worthy daily lives maintaining a standard Walk
worthy of Him. This does not mean that we are to be worthy Christians only in crises and emergencies. WalJiing is the daily hum-drum of life. We should “run with patience the race that is set before us,” and strive to be the first to reach the goal, so as to receive the victor’s crown. We may mount up with wings as eagles, but such running and flying are not the tests of character that every-day drudgery is. The man who is faithful in the common places is sure to be faithful in the crises. “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.”
A man in Chicago heard a rescue mission worker make an earnest address, urging upon his hearers to become Christians. The man, who had been a detective in former years, made up his mind that he would shadow the speaker for twenty-four hours, in order that he might decide whether or not he was really what he claimed to be. On the following night he returned to the mission and said,” I am now ready to become a
Christian. I heard our brother make his earnest plea last night, and I determined to watch him for twenty-four hours. I believe he is sincere, and I want you to pray for me.” How many of us could stand the detective’s shadowing? Would he find us going to places and doing things unworthy of the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, you may be certain that he would not become a Christian upon our testimony.
To walk worthy of Christ is the highest possible standard, and the motive to please Him in all things will make the Christian consecrated and self-sacrificing. Rev. F. B. Meyer, of London, tells of a man whose income is $10,000 a year. He lives on $1,000 and gives the remaining $9,000 to foreign missions. He tells of another whose income is $10,000; he lives on $1,250 a year and gives away the remainder. Dr. Meyer knows of a governess who earns $500 a year, and gives away $250; he speaks of another man with a comfortable competence, who remains in business and gives all his profits to the Lord. Sarah Hosmer, working in a factory and living in a garret, gave $50 a year for the spread of the gospel. Are these people fanatics, or have they not caught a glimpse of the vocation which is worthy of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself
on the cross for them?
“Fruitful in every good work.” A life that
is full of the knowledge of Christ cannot fail
to bear good fruit, and there is
nothing artificial about it. It is ^^”^^^^l^ss
not fruit hung upon the branches, but growing
out of them. I saw at an “Exposition” apples, peaches, grapes, and oranges made of papier mache, and they looked just like fruit. But there was no odor and no lusciousness. They simply appeared to be fruit. There is so-called Christian fruit like the papier mache not produced by internal life. It is not grown, but is put on. In Galatians 5: 22 is described a cluster of fruit produced by the Christ life within us: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” It is the business of every Christian to grow fruit of this kind.
“Fruitful in every good work” means much fruit rather than great fruit. The world is fed, not by the rare specimens which we see at the “Fair,” but by the little grapes and the little grains of wheat and corn. “Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit.” We may be too ambitious to bear big fruit. “Do good unto all men.” Let no opportunity pass, and it may be in eternity you will find that the little deeds were the great deeds in their results.
On the national arms of Scotland is the engraving of a thistle, and it means that one little thistle was the salvation of the nation. During the invasion of Scotland by the Danes the enemy were advancing in the dark, when one of them, pricking his bare foot by a sharp thistle, cried out with pain. The cry was heard by a sentry who sounded the alarm, and the Scottish soldiers, roused by the cry, gained the battle. If I can only be a little thistle, pricking the foot of evil, I may bear fruit to the glory of God.
Julian Legrand, the great Paris merchant, relates that the firm to which he belonged was in financial straits. They decided in the morning that it would take $100,000 to tide them over. Legrand went out and sought a loan among his friends, but the times were so stringent that no one would lend him a dollar. He returned to his office dejected and despairing. While sitting there in a gloomy state of mind, there was a tap at the door. The man who entered came up to the desk and said, “I hear, Mr. Legrand, that you are in need of money.”
“Yes,” replied the merchant, “we certainly are.”
“How much do you need.’’” he asked.
“Not less than $100,000.”
“Draw me your note,” continued the stranger, “for that amount without interest for one year, and I will give you my check for it.”
Legrand looked at the man in astonishment, conscious that he had seen him before, but not able to identify him.
“But pray, why have you come to our re-Uef.?”
“When I was a small boy,” said the stranger, “attending the public school, you came as one of the commissioners on examination day. I was poor, shabbily dressed, and thought that you would, of course, pay attention to the rich men’s children, but after the exercises you put your hand on my head, spoke some kind words, told me to persevere, that I could do better if I would try, and assured me that the way to honor was open to all alike; all I had to do was to be resolute and push on. That, sir, was the turning point in my life. From that hour my soul has aspired, and I have never reached a goal without blessing you in my heart. I have prospered and am wealthy; I now offer you but a poor return for the soul-wealth you gave me in that by-gone time.”
Little did Mr. Legrand suppose when he was speaking to the poor boy in the school that he would reap such a fruitage from that little deed. And doubtless we shall meet many such surprises in heaven. What we thought were the great occasions on earth in God’s estimation may have been small and insignificant; what we thought was the trivial may have been in His sight the most important.
“Increase in the knowledge of God.” This
means growing by means of the knowledge of
^, God. It is the knowledee of God
Growth,, ^Mthat makes us grow. Many
Christians are dwarfs because they know so little
of God. To think God’s thoughts is to grow
intellectually, and to know and love God’s will
is to grow spiritually. An old infant is a sad
sight. For a child to be deprived of its growth
is a great calamity. I saw such a pitiful object
in the hospital. From four years of age there
had been no growth for thirty -five years. Christians many years old may be infants in size, simply because they have not learned more of
God.
“Strengthened with all might according to His glorious power unto all patience.” The power is not inherent. It comes from God, and the measure of it is not our ability, but His might; and the need of it is for patience. We are apt to think that we need power only for work, but there may be more need of power to endure. A poor mother whose drunken son was before a court in New York charged with crime fell dead in the witness box, when she was asked to testify against her son. The strain was more than her nerves could stand. What she needed was the power of God in her moments of greatest weakness. A daughter, who went from her place of business in New York to a New Jersey town, found her mother intoxicated, and in a fit of despair committed suicide. The poor girl had power to work, but not power to endure so great a shock. If she had called upon Christ, He would have strengthened her for even that ordeal.
Barney Barnato, the millionaire of North Africa, committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea. He saw that his great fortune was dissipated, and he could not bear the thought of becoming again a poor man. The sense of failure broke his heart. I wish I could have stood beside him on the deck of the vessel, beneath the clear sky, and whispered to him of God in Christ who could give him strength to endure, not with melancholy and moroseness, but with joy fulness. Under the heaviest burdens we may sing. In the darkest night we may shout His praise. When Susannah Wesley was dying, she said to her weeping children at the bedside, “When I am gone, sing to God a hymn of praise,” and when her spirit departed, the children with trembling voices and weeping eyes sang their song of praise for a mother now glorified with Christ. The ideal Christian is the person who can be sorrowful and yet rejoice, cast down and yet lifted up, patient and longsuffering with joy.
“Giving thanks to the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
., of the saints of liht.” We thank
Gratitude •, ^,. i
God not simply for the inheritance which is “incorruptible, undefiled and that fadeth not away,” but for the fitness to enjoy it.
Going to heaven unfit for the place would be a calamity. Christ is preparing a place for us while the Holy Spirit is preparing us for the place. Thanks be to God for heaven! Thanks be to God still more for the preparation of heart which makes heaven everywhere!
“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” Death to a Christian is a translation, but we have not to wait until we die to be translated from one kingdom to another. We leave “the prince of the power of the air” for the kingdom of His dear Son. The chains of darkness which bind us have been broken and we walk in the light. The emigrant comes from Russia to America and becomes a citizen by renouncing the sovereignty of the Czar of Russia, and acknowledging his allegiance to the Constitution of this country. So we renounce the rule of the world, the flesh, and the Devil, when we acknowledge the allegiance of Christ. The Lamb who died to redeem us is the King who lives to rule us. If the young Christian will let Christ reign in him, He will always give deliverance and his life will be ideal.