Christ-like character in preaching emphasizes the believer's transformation to reflect Jesus' love, humility, and holiness, setting them apart in conduct and attitude (Galatians 5:22-23). Illustrations often use images of mirrors, fragrant trees, and enduring meekness to portray a life marked by compassion, patience, and moral integrity (Ephesians 4:1-2).
A Christian is different only when Jesus rules their life, reflecting His character and love.
The Christian sees through kinder eyes-like Jesus.
He gives from a bigger heart-like God.
He speaks with a purer tongue-like Christ.
He serves with more willing hands-like Jesus.
He walks with a greater faith-like his Lord.
He loves with agape love-like the Father in heaven.
He thinks with a spiritual mind-like Christ.
He sees the needs of others with a compassionate view-like Jesus.
He heals the wounds of others with love-like the Master.
The Christian is different only when Jesus rules his life.
True goodness shows in compassion, forgiveness, thankfulness, and self-sacrifice like Christ.
If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island ent off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them; if he be compassionate towards the afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it gives the balm; if he easily pardons and remits offences, it shows that his mind is planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot: if he be thankful for small benefits, it shows that he weighs men's minds, and not their trash; but, above all, if he have St. Paul's perfection, that he would wish to be an anathema from Christ for the salvation of his brethren, it shows much of a divine nature, and a kind of conformity with Christ himself.
— Lord Bacon
Jesus' life is like a polished mirror that resists lasting defilement.
His life resembled a polished mirror, which the foulest breath cannot stain nor dim beyond a passing moment. Dr. Guthrie.
A believer should carry himself with fragrant, attractive character like a walking orange tree.
A man ought to carry himself in the world as an orange-tree would if it could walk up and down in the garden,—swinging perfume from every little censer it holds up to the air.
— Beecher
The enduring influence of a holy character blesses humanity and pleases Christ.
"The evil men do lives after them;" but we do not believe that "the good is oft interred with their bones." No: it is as immortal as the divine Being in whom it originates. The good must ever live, and "walk up and down the earth," like a living spirit guided by the living God, to convey blessings to the children of men. It lives in humanity, in some form or other, like the subtle substance of material things, which, though ever changing, never perishes, but adds to the stability, the beauty, and the grandeur of the universe. The influence of the holy character passes also beyond the stars, giving joy to our angel brothers, and to our elder brother Jesus Christ, who in seeing his own love to his God and our God, to his neighbor and ours, reflected in his people, beholds the grand result of the travail of his soul, and is "satisfied." Dr. Macleod.
Saints are likened to various precious and living things illustrating their spiritual beauty.
Saints are compared to the sun, to the stars, lights
# SAINTS.
Mount Zion, Lebanon, treasure, jewels, gold, vessels of gold and silver, stones of a crown, lively stones, babes, little children, obedient children, members of the body, soldiers, runners in a race, wrestlers, good servants, strangers and pilgrims, sheep, lambs, calves of the stall, lions, eagles, doves, thirsting deer, good fishes, dew and showers, watered gardens, unfailing springs, vines, branches of the vine, pomegranates, good figs, lilies, willows by the water-courses, trees planted by rivers, cedars in Lebanon, palm-trees, corn, wheat, salt. Date.
True singularity comes from genuine virtue, not mere desire to stand out.
Let those who would affect singularity with success first determine to be very virtuous, and they will be sure to be very singular. Colton.
Mr. Deering endured insults with meekness, overcoming evil with good.
Mr. Deering, one of the puritan ministers in the sixteenth century, being at a public dinner, a young man, who sat on the opposite side of the table, indulged in profane swearing, for which Mr. D. sharply reproved him. The young man, taking this as an affront, immediately threw a glass of beer in his face. Mr. Deering took no notice of the insult, but wiped his face, and continued his dinner. The young gentleman presently renewed his profane conversation; and Mr. D. reproved him as before; upon which, but with increased violence, he threw another glass of beer in his face. Mr. Deering continued unmoved, still showing his zeal for the glory of God, by bearing the insult with Christian meekness. This so astonished the young gentleman, that he rose from the table, fell on his knees, and asking Mr. Deering's pardon, declared that if any of the company had offered him similar insults, he would have stabbed them with his sword. Here was practically verified the New Testament maxim, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."
Mr. Dodd responded to violence with meekness, showing Christ-like love and patience.
It is said of Mr. Dodd, one of the puritan divines, that a person being enraged at his close and awakening doctrine, raised a quarrel with him, smote him in the face, and dashed out two of his teeth. This meek and lowly servant of Christ, without taking the least offence, held the teeth out in his hand, and said, "See here, you have knocked out two of my teeth without any just provocation; but if I could do your soul good, I would give you leave to dash out all the rest." Thus he was not overcome of evil, but overcame evil with good.
Bishop Leighton consistently displayed a meek and gentle spirit throughout his life.
Of Bishop Leighton, Bishop Burnet declared that during a strict intimacy of many years, he never saw him for one moment in any other temper than that in which he would wish to live and die.
Jesus' boyhood exemplifies growth in wisdom, grace, and obedience to God and parents.
Constant growth, physical, intellectual, spiritual (v. 40, 52), filled with wisdom, crowned with grace (v. 40), loved house of God (43, 46, 49), pondered the Word (47), conscious of divine fatherhood (49), obedient to human fatherhood, faithful in present work (51), fitting for larger work (v. 52)
Christ is the Shepherd King who laid down His life and now reigns in resurrection power.
David here a type of the Son of God after the flesh (Mt. 1:1; Rom. 1:3)—the shepherd king. In His first coming He took the shepherd's place in death (Jn. 10:11), now in resurrection power (Heb. 13:20)
True greatness is shown by how one treats those who have wronged them.
Joseph exalting those who have mistreated him. Measure of truly great man is way he treats men who have been small toward him
Serving in humility aligns with Christ's dignity and is the way to true leadership.
What was consistent with the dignity of Christ is much more consistent with ours, His servants. To serve in humility is the way to rule
Christ is the only perfect example, sinless though tempted like us.
It is said that thinking to amuse him, his wife read to Dr. Judson some newspaper notices, in which he was compared to one or another of the apostles. He was exceedingly distressed; and then he added, “Nor do I want to be like them; I do not want to be like Paul nor any mere man. I want to be like Christ. We have one safe Exemplar,—One, who, tempted like as we are, was still without sin.”
Those most fruitful in grace and gifts are often the most humble and self-effacing.
Those boughs and branches of trees which are most richly laden with fruit bend downwards and hang lowest. Generally those that have the most grace and the greatest gifts, and are the most useful, are the most humble, and think the least of themselves.
True love is Christ loving us, not just our love for Him.
A man over ninety years of age was asked by his pastor: “My dear aged friend, do you love Jesus?” His deeply furrowed face was lit up with a smile that sixty-seven years of discipleship had imparted, and said: “Oh! I can tell you something better than that.” “What is that?” “Oh’ sir! He loves me.”
True godliness is shown by doing good and enduring evil with grace.
Augustine has said, “One of the goodliest spectacles, able to attract angels to the grates of Heaven to behold it, is neither theaters, amphitheaters, pyramids, nor obelisks, but a man who knoweth how to do well and bear ill, and to vindicate himself from ill by doing well.”
True character shines from within, not just outward appearances.
As I was passing along the street the other day I saw on the window of a bootblack's parlour the words, "Shine Inside." I want to turn these words around and make a motto of them for you boys and girls. For I think that if every boy and girl would shine inside, our homes, and the world in general, would be a much happier place. Of course there are some boys and girls who shine only on the outside. A little while ago I read a story about Byron, a great poet, of whom you will learn later in school. A man said to Sir Walter Scott that he wished he might have seen Byron when he was alive. He said he had only seen a photograph of him. Scott said, "Yes, the luster is there [in the photograph], but it is not lighted up." Now, there are some boys' and girls' faces that have a luster, but it is not lighted up. Or their faces are like a mirror that shines brightly only when there is sunlight or some other light falling upon it. The mirror only shines outside. The luster is not always lighted up. I know boys and girls who shine outside only when other boys and girls play the game which they want them to play, or when they get the clothes they want to wear or the food they want to eat, or when they are out in pleasant company. But when they don't have their own way, then their faces are very cloudy. But the boy or girl who shines inside is one who "irons out his wrinkles with a smile" even though things do not exactly please him, and he thinks of other people instead of himself. Now, how can boys and girls shine inside so that they will always shine outside whether they have their own way or not? Well, you remember that the Bible says that when Moses came down from the mountain his face shone, because he had been talking with God. That is the secret, boys and girls. When a man or a woman or a boy or a girl talks often enough with God in prayer and asks to be made like Christ, then a light is lighted within him which causes his face to shine. You remember Christ said, "I am the Light." Let Him into your heart, and you will shine inside. "The man worth while is the man with a smile
When everything goes dead wrong."
Christ saw good even in a despised dog, inspiring people to live up to His view.
My children's sermon to-day has to do with a legend. A legend is a story that has come down to us from the olden times, but which cannot be proved to be true. This legend is about Christ. It tells of how one day He was walking down a street in Jerusalem and saw a company of people gathered about a dead dog in the street. Now, city dogs in the land where Christ lived are not petted as they are in our own country. They act as scavengers, and live on whatever they can pick up. They are shaggy and dirty and yellow. The people stone them and kick them, and do not call them by kind names. So the people who had gathered about this dog were making unkind remarks about it, saying how ugly it was, when Christ came up, and looking at the dog, He said, "But do you see what beautiful, even, white teeth he has?" Then, it is said, the people knew this must be Christ, who could find something to praise even in a dog like that. But that was the way Christ always dealt with people. He always saw something good in them. And when people knew that Christ saw something good in them, they tried to live up to what He saw, and to be good. You remember how Zaccheus, the little, short man who had been robbing the people by collecting too much tax-money, climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Christ pass by. Christ told him that He was going to take dinner with him. And when Christ dined with him, Zaccheus felt that Christ thought he was better than he was, and he became so ashamed of what he had been doing that he went and gave the money back. And Christ's rule is a good rule for us to follow. If we wish people to be good, we must look for the good things in them. If we expect them to be good, they will try to be good. There is a jailer in Chicago who, when a man has served his term in jail, gives him a letter of recommendation so that he can get a job. And the men who get these letters are ashamed to do wrong and to get into jail again, because of the disappointment they will cause the jailer who believes in them. A girl once said to her mother, who was always finding something good instead of bad to say of people, "Mother, I believe you would have something good to say of the devil." "Well," said her mother, "we might all admire his perseverance." Try to see how many good things you can see in people. It's the best game of all to play.
Goodwill toward others brings peace, reflecting Christ's birth and love.
In England on Christmas eve boys and girls and men and women go about the streets singing Christmas carols, or songs, at the doors of people's houses, and the people for whom they sing give them tokens of their good-will. The first verse of one of the oldest and best Christmas carols is as follows: "God rest you merry, gentlemen;
Let nothing you dismay,
For Christ was born of Mary
Upon a Christmas Day." That is a very beautiful carol, but there is one still more beautiful. It is the one the angels sang the night that Christ was born: "Glory to God in the highest,
Peace on earth to men of good-will." This means that people who have good-will in their hearts toward other people will have peace on earth. And how very true that is! People generally act toward us the same way in which we act toward them. If we are cross, others are cross; but if we are warmhearted and loving, then people are warmhearted toward us. It is just like seeing your face in a looking-glass. If you frown, the face in the mirror will frown. If your face is smiling, the one in the mirror will be smiling. That is another way of saying that you get what you give. Christ came into the world to teach us how to have good-will to men, and from our good-will to get happiness. Any boy or girl who faithfully tries to be like Christ, and to do as he believes Jesus would do if He were in his place, will grow to have this good-will in his heart. Then some day he will sing as the angels did, "Glory to God in the highest," for he will know God's peace. Christ said, "Blessed are the peace-makers." Here is a verse for you to take as a motto: "Where are you going? Never mind.
Just follow the road that says, 'Be kind,'
And do the duty that nearest you lies,
For that is the road to Paradise."
Feeding on Christ alone shapes us into His holy and humble character.
A man is made by that which he feeds upon, and for the best manhood you need the best food. As certain silk worms have their silk colored by the leaves on which they feed, so if we were to feed on Christ, and nothing else but Christ, we should become pure, holy, lowly, meek, gentle, humble; in a word, we should be perfect even as He is.
Having a perfect model inspires greater effort and fulfillment in spiritual growth.
The artist must have a perfect model to copy; if he does not reach to it he will reach far further than if he had an inferior model to work by. When a man once realizes his own ideal, it is all over with him. A great painter once had finished a picture, and he said to his wife, with tears in his eyes, "It is all over with me, I shall never paint again, I am a ruined man." She enquired, "Why?" "Because," he says, "that painting contents and satisfies me; it realizes my idea of what painting ought to be, and therefore, I am sure my power is gone."
The Church sees Christ as perfect and lovely, worthy of reverence and love.
In calling the Lord Jesus "altogether lovely," the Church asserts that she sees nothing in Him which she does not admire. The world may rail at His cross and call it shameful; to her it is the very center and soul of glory. A proud and scornful nation might reject their King because of His manger cradle and peasant garb, but to her eye the Prince is glorious in this poor apparel. He is never without beauty to her; never is His visage marred or his glory stained. She presses His pierced feet to her bosom and looks upon their wounds as jewels. Fools stand by His cross and find full many a theme for jest and scorn; she discovers nothing but solemn reason for reverent adoration and unbounded love. Viewing Him in every office, position, and relationship, she cannot discover a flaw: in fact, the thought of imperfection is banished far away. She knows too well His perfect Godhead and His spotless manhood to offer a moment's shelter to the thought of a blemish in His immaculate person; she abominates every teaching that debases Him; she spurns the most gorgeous drapery that would obscure His beauteous features; yea, so jealous is she of His honor, that she will hear no spirit which does not witness to His praise. A hint against His undefiled conception or His unsullied purity would stir her soul to holy wrath, and speedy would be her execration, and relentless her execution of the heresy. Nothing has ever aroused the ire of the Church so sully as a word against her Head. To all true believers this is high treason and an offense which cannot be treated lightly. Jesus is without a single blot or blemish, "altogether lovely."
Jesus uniquely balanced radicalism with true conservatism in His mindset.
In our earth, the two hemispheres are balanced to a hair and leaf! But what man save Jesus has balanced his radicalism that was sound by a conservatism that is true?
— N. D. HILLIS
Christ empowers believers to chain sinful habits and triumph over enemies.
David had twenty-four columns of marble around his banqueting room, and he chained a bandit and an old enemy to each column, and in the presence of his enemies feasted. Christ enables the soul to chain hate, envy, lying, avarice, gluttony, jealousy, evil-speaking, sloth, and then the soul exclaims, Thou hast spread me a table in the midst of mine enemies! (Text.)
— N. D. HILLIS
Even in hostile cultures, Christ's goodness and persecution are uniquely unmatched.
A missionary was speaking with a Tibetan Lama about Christ. The Lama exprest himself charmed with the gospel story and then added, “Our saint Tsong K’aba was like Christ. He went about teaching and leading the people, and he was persecuted, too.” Then he added, “Even to-day it isn’t wise for a Lama to be too good!” (Text.)
Christ persistently seeks and shapes believers' lives through love and care.
From the _Catholic World_ we clip Cornelius Clifford’s sonnet on “The Indefatigable Christ”:
Go where thou wilt, His heart shalt find thee out;
Be thou in quest of wealth, or power, or fame.
Above life’s tumult shall He call thy name;
His care shall compass thee with grief about;
And thou shalt know Him in thine hours of doubt,
When faith shall pierce thy darkness like a flame,
O dull of sense to Time’s imperious claim,
His love shall prove thy rainfall after drought!
For He shall come in many a blinding shower
To dye thy sick leaves to a healthier hue,
Till the scant years of youth’s once ample dower
Requicken with late fruitage rare to view;
Yea, He must shape thee by thine own heart’s power,
And fashion all this ruined life anew.
Believers follow Christ faithfully as their Leader through life's battles to ultimate victory.
Mrs. A. E. Hawkins sings of “The March of Life” in these lines:
Sometimes the order comes to “Forward march!”
And falling into line my step I keep
Beside my comrades, o’er the toilsome road,
Nor think of rest or sleep.
Then suddenly the order comes to “Halt!”
And steadily I plant my feet and stand,
I know not why or wherefore--I can trust
The Captain in command.
* * * * *
But suddenly the bugle sounds, “To arms!”
I gird my armor on, and join the fray,
Following my Leader through the battle-smoke
Until we win the day.
For well I know that, march and battle o’er,
Will come the great Commander’s grand review,
And then the lights of home, and the reunion
Of loyal hearts and true.
Elevation of mind through literature and Christ's presence brings courage and nobility.
* * * * *
I remember an old woodsman in the Adirondack forest who used to say that he wanted to go to the top of a certain mountain as often as his legs would carry him because it gave him such a feeling of “heaven-up-histedness.” That is an uncouth, humble, eloquent phrase to describe the function of a great literature.
Unless above himself he can Erect himself, how mean a thing is man!
I want the books that help me out of the vacancy and despair of a frivolous mind, out of the tangle and confusion of a society that is busied in bric-a-brac, out of the meanness of unfeeling mockery and the heaviness of incessant mirth, into a higher and serener region, where through the clear air of serious thoughts I can learn to look soberly and bravely upon the mingled misery and splendor of human existence, and then go down with a cheerful courage to play a man’s part in the life which Christ has forever ennobled by His divine presence. (Text.)--HENRY VAN DYKE, _The British Weekly_.
To be God's children, we must love all and show patience and conquering love.
For the Father of all sends sun and rain
On the good and ill and shows that we,
If we would his perfect children be,
Must love not only the good and kind,
Must teach not only the true and wise,
But patience must open the eyes of the blind
And love must conquer her enemies.
(Text.)--CHARLES WILLIAM PEARSON,
“A Threefold Cord.”
King Edward’s kindness to a child illustrates genuine compassion and personal affection.
During one of King Edward’s visits to Marienbad in Austria, this incident occurred:
A little girl of thirteen named Vera Caro, who has always had a great wish to see the King, was walking in the Kaiserstrasse, when she suddenly came face to face with his Majesty, who was seated on a bench. The little girl impulsively walked up to the King, and curtseying presented to him a few roses which she was carrying. The King took the flowers, shook hands with the child, and thanked her. His Majesty then requested Colonel Ponsonby to place the flowers in the carriage which was waiting near. The little girl, radiant with joy at the King’s kindness, rushed home to inform her parents of her good fortune.
The glory of God shines through believers, surpassing human power or heroism.
In the oxy-hydrogen lantern the operator first lights the hydrogen burner, and it burns like any other gas-light. Then he turns slowly upon it a little jet of oxygen, under which at first the flame seems dying down. But presently the lime candle kindles, and its flame, concentrated by the condensers to a small jet, begins to glow with a brilliancy that darkens everything else and can not be endured to look on. So in the movement of the world--in the “coming age”--there is high character and grand heroism, and as one studies it he sees that it is not Stephen’s face that shone like an angel, or Moses’ which had to be veiled, but the ineffable Spirit that shone out in them both. The power of the coming age is not the power of any man, but the power of the God who made all things, and whose glory here glows and burns brighter than the sun, bringing out the littlest worthiness of human character in the concentrated light of love.--FRANKLIN NOBLE, “Sermons in Illustration.”
Believers should shine with Christlike character even in dark and difficult times.
Our characters ought to be like the luminous paint mentioned below and continue to shine in the night of misfortune and disaster just the same.
You have probably seen luminous paints applied to the surfaces of the match-boxes that are permanently fixt on the walls of a room. During their exposure to the light in the daytime, these paints are so affected that they will continue to shine during the greater part of the night, altho there is no other light in the room. One coming into the room can, therefore, readily see where the match-box is.--EDWIN J. HOUSTON, Ph.D., “The Wonder Book of Light.”
General Grant showed kindness and magnanimity to defeated enemies, reflecting Christ-like mercy.
The exercise of magnanimity and charity was as natural to General Grant as breathing; and he demonstrated on this occasion that the hand that wielded the sword was moved by kindness as well as by patriotism. The prisoners of war, who so long lived in hunger, now received abundant rations. So much kindness was shown them that when the Union troops entered the city, both sides “fraternized as if they had been fighting for the same cause.” And when the Confederates passed out of town between two lines of Federal soldiers, the scene was solemn and pathetic. Under instructions from General Grant, not a cheer or a word came from the conquerors that would humiliate the fallen foe or give them pain.--NICHOLAS SMITH, “Grant, the Man of Mystery.”
General Grant’s magnanimity impressed even his defeated foe by showing humility and respect.
* * * * *
Gen. Fitzhugh Lee witnessed the memorable meeting between his uncle, Gen. Robert E. Lee, and Grant, and he frequently exprest his appreciation of the magnanimity displayed by the victorious commander on that occasion. The fact that General Grant refrained from asking for Gen. Robert E. Lee’s sword made a lasting impression on Fitzhugh Lee, who subsequently said: “General Grant not only refrained from demanding my uncle’s sword, as is customary, but he actually apologized to General Lee for not having his own sword on at the time.” (Text.)
Grant showed humility by remaining silent and calm amid harsh personal attacks.
Colonel Nicholas Smith, in “Grant, the Man of Mystery,” gives us the following side-light upon Grant’s character:
During a strenuous campaign, the opposition resorted to every means to discredit him and made the most virulent attacks upon his personal character. Grant remained silent and took no part in the campaign. He retired to his little home in Galena, received his friends, drove and walked about the streets, took tea and chatted in the most familiar way with his neighbors, and seemed totally unconscious of the fact that he was the central figure in one of the great political struggles of the century.
Grant's modesty was evident in his quiet demeanor after a great military victory.
* * * * *
Of Grant’s demeanor after the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, Colonel Smith says:
The little man, in the dress of a private soldier, who commanded the armies which brought about this glorious consummation, was not among those who joined in the demonstration of joy. When he reached his camp that night he was none other than the real Grant--modest, quiet, regardless of the greatness of the occasion. General Horace Porter, who was with him at the time, says Grant had little to say about the surrender.
A mother with her child symbolizes ultimate victory over evil, crushing the serpent.
I remember going one day into a great church in Paris and seeing, round back of the altar, in a little chapel sacred to the Virgin Mary and above a little altar in the little chapel, a bas relief. It represented the figure of a woman with a babe in her arms standing on the world; and under her feet, crusht and bleeding, was a serpent. It is only a woman with a babe in her arms that is going to crush the serpent after all.
— HUGH BIRKHEAD
Jesus is the perfect mold shaping true character, unlike flawed human virtues.
We must not look for truth from men and women whose souls are out of sympathy with truth. The trouble with us all as human beings is that none of our natural virtues are wholly sound and perfect. There is at least a little untruth in all our truth, a little jealousy even in our best praise, a little pride even in our piety, a little superciliousness in our forbearance. Jesus alone could properly claim to be a type for all human character.
In a bullet foundry the first anxiety does not concern the bullets themselves. Of course it is absolutely necessary that each one should be perfectly spherical in shape. The essential antecedent condition is a perfect mold. If the bullet-mold is deformed, every bullet will share its deformity. Therefore the first need is to make the mold right, and then every bullet will share its rectitude.
True beauty is reflecting God’s pure character without self-distortion like a diamond.
The beauty of character is to reflect God; and just so far as we color this reflection of God with anything of self, so far do we fail of that clarification of inward thought and outward life which makes us like Him. The diamond is the perfect type of character. Every other precious stone reflects the light colored by its own texture. Only the diamond reflects light in its essential purity. This is the secret of its superiority among gems. Other gems may be beautiful, but the diamond is transcendently beautiful.--_Zion’s Herald._
True nobility is shown by quiet, selfless kindness and a sinless, contented life.
A touching tribute to one of nature’s noblewomen appeared in the _Pall Mall Gazette_:
She walks unnoticed in the street.
The casual eye
Sees nothing in her fair or sweet.
The world goes by
Unconscious that an angel’s feet
Are passing nigh.
She little has of beauty’s wealth,
Truth will allow;
Only her priceless youth and health,
Her broad, white brow;
Yet grows she on the heart by stealth,
I scarce know how.
She does a thousand kindly things
That no one knows.
A loving woman’s heart she brings
To human woes,
And to her face the sunlight clings
Where’er she goes.
And so she walks her quiet ways
With that content
That only comes to sinless days
And innocent.
A life devoid of fame or praise,
Yet nobly spent. (Text.)
Christlike character forms a distinct type that will ultimately conquer the world.
Suppose we had Christ’s spirit as an ideal would we not also develop a distinct type? It is this type that is going to conquer the world.
It is said of the actors in the Oberammergau play that through loyalty to ideals the villagers have developed distinct types--the Christ type, the apostle type.
Reflecting on saints' lives and Christ's perfection humbles and inspires spiritual growth.
When we mix with dwarfs we think ourselves giants, but in the presence of giants we become dwarfs. When we think of the saints departed, and remember their patience in suffering, their diligence in labor, their ardor, their self denial, their humility, their tears, their prayers, their midnight cries, their intercession for the souls of others, their pouring out their hearts before God for the glory of Christ, why we shrink into less than nothing, and find no word of boasting on our tongue. If we survey the life of the only Perfect One, our dear Lord and Master, the sight of His beauty covers our whole countenance with a blush.
Greatness requires forgetting self and focusing on the true subject, not personal glory.
Was Rafael, think you, when he painted his pictures of the Virgin and Child in all their inconceivable truth and beauty of expression, thinking most of his subject or of himself? Do you suppose that Titian, when he painted a landscape, was pluming himself on being thought the finest colorist in the world, or making himself so by looking at nature? Do you imagine that Shakespeare, when he wrote “Lear” or “Othello,” was thinking of anything but “Lear” and “Othello”? Or that Mr. Kean, when he plays these characters, is thinking of the audience? No; he who would be great in the eyes of others, must first learn to be nothing in his own. (Text.)
— WILLIAM HAZLITT
Despite criticism, the figure of Christ remains pure, divine, and central to believers' hearts.
Monsignor Bonomelli, in a letter read at the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh, June, 1910, said:
Jesus has, in reality, not vanished either from history, or from the life of Christianity. He lives at all times in millions of souls, He is enthroned as King in all hearts. The figure of Christ has not the cold splendor of a distant star, but the warmth of a heart which is near us, a flame burning in the soul of believers and keeping alive their consciences. Putting aside certain opinions, which, honored at the moment, may possibly be abandoned to-morrow, criticism had hoped to effect a complete demolition of the conception of Christ, but what criticism really demolished was merely irrelevant matter. The figure of Christ, after all the onslaughts of criticism, now stands forth more pure and divine than ever and compels our adoration.
Christ actively seeks the lost with care and urgency, like a searching shepherd.
A pastor tells of a talk he once had with an artist over the unsatisfactoriness of the pictured faces of Christ. In reply, the artist took up a crayon and rapidly sketched the picture of a woman with a broom in one hand and a lighted candle in the other, and a look of intense anxiety on her face.
“It is a fine representation of the woman seeking for the lost bit of silver,” said the pastor.
“You do not understand my picture,” was the quick response. “That is my conception of the Christ.”
Ah, what a conception! A searching Christ! Seeking in dark, dusty corners for His own!
— SOPHIE B. TITTERINGTON
Christ’s suffering face inspires devotion and a life wholly committed to Him.
The hymn beginning:
Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress:
’Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head,
was written by Zinzendorf, whose culture and piety appear so conspicuously in the more than two thousand hymns which came from his pen. It was suggested by a picture in the Düseldorf Gallery, “Ecce Homo,” representing Jesus crowned with thorns. From the pathetic face above he turned to the legend beneath: “All this I have done for thee; what hast thou for me?” The vision and the question led him to adopt for his life motto: “I have but one passion, and that is He, and only He.” (Text.)
God's chastening love calls us to surrender fully, trusting His purpose in suffering.
mr. rutherford, writing to a lady who had lost five children and her husband, says to her, "Oh, how Christ must love you! He would take every bit of your heart to Himself. He would not permit you to reserve any of your soul for any earthly thing," Can we stand that test? Can we let all go for His sake?
