1.H 07. Healthful Views of Christianity

Healthful Views of Christianity.

Then there is a relation of this question in another direction. I think the minister of a parish, who has been there for five years, ought to impress upon the young people of his parish the practical idea, that to be a Christian is to be the happiest person in the world. Men say, " Let us have our enjoyment here, and have a good time; then, when we have had it, and tasted what there is to be tasted, we had better be pious." That is about the idea of it, It is a gloomy and dismal thing; but, to a certain extent, we are to blame for this false notion.

Now it seems to me that we ought to make known what is unquestionably the truth, namely, that Christianity aims only at a nobler style of manhood, and at a better and happier style of living. Christianity means friendship carried up into a sphere where by the natural man you could never elevate it. It means the purest enjoyments of earth as well as heaven. It means that life shall blossom like Aaron’s rod. And every man who is a true Christian is one who has lived up to the measure of his competency, in a bright and joyful life, compared with which all other lives are low and ignoble. The Apostle Paul, after going through a long line of exhortations to virtue, finally wound up l>y saying, " Whatever is lovely and of good report, think on these things." A true minister, in order to inspire his congregation with this noble conception of a Christian character and a Christian life, must have something in him. He cannot go around with lead in his shoes, nor yet in his head. He cannot drudge and complain. A man of God ought to strike men among whom he moves as being more manly than anybody else; certainly, never less. You should bear in mind that you are twice ordained, once, when your mother laid her hand in love upon your just born head, after giving you your organization and nature; and again, by the Holy Ghost, later in life, to give you a fuller development. If you are not a man, what business have you in the ministry?

You have mistaken your vocation. You may do to make some other things, but you will not be a maker of men. It takes a man to refashion men.

You cannot do it unless you have some sort of vigour, vitality, versatility, moral impulse, and social power in you. And if you have these things, how they will win! How men will want to come to you: They tell me that the pulpit is losing its power; that religion is going under, and that science is to rule. I will put genuine manly religion against all the science in the world.