How to Live a Holy Life.
by C. E. Orr.
INTRODUCTION.
We have only one life to live, only one. Think of this for a moment. Here we are in this world of time making the journey of life. Each day we are farther from the cradle and nearer the grave. Solemn thought. See the mighty concourse of human lives; hear their heavy tread in their onward march. Some are just beginning life"s journey; some are midway up the hill, some have reached the top, and some are midway down the western slope. But where are we all going? Listen, and you will hear but one answer--"Eternity." Beyond the fading, dying gleams of the sunset of life lies a boundless, endless ocean called Eternity. Thitherward you and I are daily traveling.
Time is like a great wheel going its round. On and on it goes. Some are stepping on and some are stepping off. But where are these latter stepping? Into eternity. See that old man with bent form, snow-white locks, and tottering steps. His has been a long round, but he has made it at last. See the middle-aged. His round has not been so long, but he must step off. See the youth. He has been on only a little while, but he is brought to the stepping-off place. He thought his round would be much longer. He supposed he was fairly getting started when that icy hand was laid upon him and the usher said, "Come, you have made your round, and you must go." The infant that gave its first faint cry this morning may utter its last feeble wail tonight. And thus they go. But where? Eternity.
If you were to start today and ask each person you met the question, "Where are you going?" and, if possible, you were to travel the world over and ask each one of earth"s inhabitants, there could be but one answer-- "Eternity."
"Oh, eternity, Long eternity!
Hear the solemn footsteps Of eternity."
Only one life to live! Only one life, and then we must face vast, endless eternity. We shall pa.s.s along the pathway of life but once. Every step we take is a step that can never be taken again. With this fact in mind, who does not feel like calling upon the All-wise to direct his every step. If when we make a misstep we could go back and step it over, then there would not be such great necessity to step carefully. But we can never go back.
We are leaving footprints. Just as our steps are, so will the footprints be which will tell the story of our life. If we had a score of lives to live, how to live this one would not be of such great moment. We should then have nineteen lives in which to correct the errors and sins of this one; but alas! we have but one. What, then, should we seek more earnestly than to know how to live?
We doubt not but there is in the heart of the reader a strong desire to live life as it should be lived. Thank G.o.d, you can. You desire your life to be like the fertile oasis, where the weary traveler refreshes himself.
You have seen the rays of light lingering upon the hillside and treetop and gilding the fleecy cloud after the sun had gone down. You desire the beautiful rays of light from your life to linger long after your sun has gone down. You can have it that way. The deeds you do will live after you are gone. They are the footprints. Some one has said that we each day are here building the house we are going to occupy in eternity. If this be true, nothing should concern us so much as how to live. Some men are devoting their time and the power of their intellects to invention; some are studying statesmanship; some are studying the arts, others the sciences; but we have come to learn a little more about how to live. Many are thinking much about how they wish to die, but let us learn how to live. If we live well, we shall die well.
Since we have but one life to live and with it we must face eternity, I am sure there are many who want to make the most of life. There are many who want to be their best in life. This is not a play-ground, or a place to trifle with time. It is a place of work and effort, a place of purpose and earnestness, a place to do something. Life is not given us to squander nor fritter away, but was given us to accomplish a purpose in the mind of the Creator. If we will set ourselves to live as we should, G.o.d will help us and no man can hinder us. We are purchasing treasures for eternity by making a proper use of time. To trifle away time is indeed to be the greatest of spendthrifts. If you squander a dollar, you may regain it; but a moment wasted can never be regained.
There is great responsibility in life. It means much to live. The time was when you and I were not, now we are. We are, and there can never come a time when we shall not be. You and I shall always exist somehow, somewhere. One sweet thought to me is that I have time enough to do all that G.o.d intends for me to do, and do it well. Then comes another thought--a thought that awes: the good that I do, the sum of my usefulness, will be less than it should be if I spend a moment of time uselessly. G.o.d will give us all the time we need to accomplish all he purposes us to accomplish, but he does not give us one moment to trifle away.
The mission of this little volume is to strengthen and energize and help you to spend life as you should. May it please the Great Teacher, who has promised to "show us the path of life," to bless this little work and by it help some one to a pure and n.o.ble life and to the accomplishment of all G.o.d"s design in giving them life.
The Author.
THE WAY THE SAIL IS SET.
I stood beside the open sea; The ships went sailing by; The wind blew softly o"er the lea; The sun had cloudless sky.
Some ships sailed eastward, some sailed west, Some north, some southward trend.
How can ships sail this way and that?
But one way blows the wind.
An old sea-captain made reply (His locks with salt-spray wet): ""Tis not the wind decides the course; "Tis way the sails are set."
I stand beside the sea of life; The ships go sailing by; The winds blow fair from heaven"s land; No clouds bedim the sky.
But one sails eastward, one sails west, One north, one southward goes: How can ships sail this way and that With selfsame wind that blows?
A voice made answer to my soul: ""Tis not how blows the gale; Each voyager decides the goal By way he sets the sail."--Selected.
How to Live a Holy Life
THE MODEL LIFE.
In doing anything, it is always well to have a model by which to fashion our work. In fact, nothing is done without a pattern, either real or imaginary. The little boy making a toy has in in his mind a model by which he is framing his work. Likewise, the sculptor has in his mind a model, and as the "marble wastes, the image grows" into the likeness of the vision in his soul.
To live this one life of ours as it should be lived, we must have a perfect model after which to pattern. Thank G.o.d, this perfect model of life can be found. Of all the vast number of lives that have been lived since Adam down to this present day, there has been only one that we can take as a model. This one is the life of Jesus. He says, "I am the life."
To live this life of ours well, to live it to the highest degree of perfection, we must fashion it according to the glorious life of Christ.
The life of Jesus is the model life for every other human life. He invites us, yea, commands us, to follow him, to step in his steps, to walk as he walked.
There have been many good men in the world, but none of them afford us a true pattern of life. There was a man who said, "Be ye followers of me,"
but he immediately added, "even as I also am of Christ." Man may so live as to reveal to us the life of Christ. We can then follow, not them, but the Christ-life they manifested through them.
Let me here say a word on a subject on which we may have more to say hereafter. The grandest, n.o.blest work man has ever done is by his life to reveal the life of Christ to another, thereby helping that person to be fashioned more after the image of Jesus. A little flower grew in a place so shaded that no ray from the sun could fall directly upon it. A window was so situated that at a certain time in the afternoon it refracted the sun"s rays and threw them upon the flower, thus giving it color and beauty, and aiding it to bloom. Some people are living in the dense shade.
No light from Christ has ever shined upon them. If you so live as to refract the life of Christ and turn it upon them and thus stamp upon them a holier life, you have not lived in vain. To set the life of Christ in its purity and beauty before some one and influence him, though only a little, to live better and love Jesus more, is a work the worth of which can never be computed. He who helps another to a better way of living does more than he who gains great worldly honor and riches. Blessed indeed is that life which causes some other life to be more like Christ. Oh, may this thought seize upon our hearts and fill us with a greater pa.s.sion to live the life of G.o.d.
We are told by the voice of Scripture to be "followers of G.o.d as dear children." When children are dear to the heart of the parent, he loves to have them obey him. G.o.d"s children are dear to him, and he would have them follow him. To follow G.o.d is to imitate him, or be like him. This is the true way of life.
A text of Scripture as rendered by the Revised Version is very appropriate here: "Like as he which has called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living." 1 Pet. 1:15. Only those who live G.o.dly in their entire manner of life are spending the days of their pilgrimage as they should. Jesus has walked the true way of life; we are told to walk in his steps. If we will step each day just where Jesus stepped, then on looking back, we can not see a footprint of our own; but if we take a single misstep, our footprint will show our departure from the true way of life.
How deep and awful are the words of Scripture wherein we are commanded to walk even as "Jesus walked"! Jesus says, "I am the way." There is no other right and perfect way. If we will walk as Jesus walked, then we shall walk in the true path of life. This only is the pathway that leads up to the golden gates of glory and the sweet fields of heaven. That bright world of bliss encourages us on. If we will follow Jesus and live as he lived, G.o.d"s approval will be upon us, and his outstretched hand will help us along life"s way and finally over the turbulent river of death to the sunlit sh.o.r.e of eternal rest.
Many times we may become wearied and think the toils of the way almost too heavy; but when we remember that it is the way that Jesus trod, then the heavens open to our view, we look forward to the mansion prepared for us, and the toils of the way grow lighter.
See that aged pilgrim journeying down the western slope of life. The sun is nearing the setting. Long and toilsome has been his pilgrimage, but he has walked in the path his Savior trod. For many years his life has been hid with Christ in G.o.d. In Him he has lived and moved and had his being.
Now he is making his last step on the sh.o.r.e of time; he pa.s.ses out of our sight through the gates into that land where toils are ended and the sun never sets. But his life was the life of Jesus. He was holy as G.o.d is holy; he walked as Jesus walked. This is how to live. This is the true way of life and the only way to life eternal. He who does not live with Christ on earth can not live with him in heaven, and he who does not live as Jesus lived does not live as he should. The life of Christ was the perfect life. Ours is perfect to the degree that we imitate him.
Take my life, O Christ divine, Make it holy, just like thine; Every act and thought and word Be an outflow from my G.o.d.
Guide my feet and keep my heart; Let me not from thee depart; Let me breathe thy warming love, That my soul be drawn above.
Draw me, Jesus, closer draw; Thy strong arm around me throw; Draw me to thy pierced side; In thy bosom let me hide.
Teach me all thy will and word, That my life be filled with G.o.d; Teach me, Lamb of Calvary, How to live this life for thee.
HOW TO LIVE THE CHRIST-LIFE.
Man can not naturally live the Christ-life. But Christ has promised to come into our hearts and live in us. In order that we may have Christ dwell in our hearts and that we may live his life, there must be a giving up of our self-life. There must be annihilation of self that Christ may live. It is truly wonderful and as glorious as it is wonderful that man can live the life of Christ in this world. But here is the secret: it is man ceasing to live the self-life and Christ living in him.