The Louisiana cotton-boll. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], Attakapas, La.) 1872-1883, 1878-01-02
he like Christ.

When the sculptor seeks to carve q
work of rarest merit, he first go:s to
some master piece of genius and pauses
before it until his soul is filled with the
beautiful conception, and then he turns
to his task, and the marble block be-
comes a thing of beauty. Follow his
example. Do you wish to shape char
acter which temptation cannot destroy,
and which will endure forever? Go,
then, and pause before the perfect man,
Jesus Christ. Take Him as your con-
slant model, and let it be said of you,
and said truly, that your life is Christ
like. Ali other models are, at the best
weak and imperfect, and have some
guilty stain which mars their purity and
excellence. If you pattern after these,
you will be more likely to have their
faults than their virtues. But in Jesus
perfection centers, and His spirit is always
safe to initiate.
Read the words of Jesus with care, and
mark his miracles; but do much more
than this. Go back of His words and
deeds, and mark the spirit that prompted
them; else you dc not know Him. Not
what he said, or what he did, but what
He was; that is the important thing for
you to know. You must know the mind
of Christ before you attempt to be like
minded.
There are some points in which you
cannot initiate Christ. and it would be
folly to attempt so to do. His work was
peculiar and can never be reproduced.
1t is not for us by miracle to feed five
thousand, to make the blind see or the
lame walk, or to raise the dead to life.
1t is not for us to suffer such agonies as
He did in Gethsemane and Calvary. Not
the outward, but the inward life which:
after all, is the true one we can initiate.
This inward life we ought to reproduce
and thus be able to say to all the world !:
live, yet not 7, but Christ liveth in
me-"
He was the "meek aud lowly One :"
so you ought to be. He had a forgiving
disposition so you ought to have. He
prayed to the Father, SO you ought to do.
He C went about doing good, and that
ought to be said of you. oh, study the
character OF the Son of God until it
stands before you in all its fair proper
tien; not a description, but sublime
reality; and then think no effort too
great that will help YOU to show others
What Christian may become!
Be not discouraged. Do not shrink
back and cry in despair, ~ cannot be
like Christ! The stttdy of His gharac
ter makes me feel how vain is the at,
tempt" Vain, indeed, it is, if you trust
in your own unaided strength, but re-
member that nothing is impossible with
God" If He commands you to be like
Christ, He will give you help to keep
the commandment, if you really and
earnestly wish to keep it. Be not faith
less, but believing.
Oh, what Joy there Is when you feel
that you are becoming more and moFe
like Christ Hard is the struggle over
siUful sell, but sweet is the victory. The
waves OF passion cease to roll; and joy
and peace come to you and abide. Now,
as you read the gospels, you know Christ
through your likeness to Him. You
walk not in the saflie path iii which he
walked. You walk in your own path of
duty, but you have the same mind which
He had. You are like unto Him. And
it there should come to You poverty, loss
of friends, persecution in any shape or
form-what does it matter? Jesus will
help vou bear al! things, and it you are
one with Him 10 scenes Of trial, you will
be one with Him forever and forever
one with Hmm scenes of glory THE
NethoRist