Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-06-22

40
POUR measurement. And never was this
;ruer than it is to-day. What power in
he religious world at this moment is the
nan who puts away railing and bitterness.
What power in ordinary life is the man
who is known to be free from covetous-
ness and all that can be called falsehood.
What force for all the well being of So
,iety, in the struggles of classes, and in
The great work of lifting up the degraded
and lost, is the man who truly has heart
Of compassion, kindness, meekness and
long suffering. What action can surpass
in its influence such genuine life? What
action can have its full influence without
such life? To be manly men-this is our
Imitation of God, As manly men we shall
be co-workers with God in and for the
world.
But what will your imitation of God
call upon you and impel you to do in the
way of positive action for the world2 It
will call upon and impel you in all your
life work to work for the world rather
than for yourself. The first lesson, which
the thoughtful son learns in his commun-
ion with the divine father is the lesson of
unselfshness. There is peculiar inter
mingling in our life of what sometimes
seem to be opposites: We are summoned,
as single example, to lay out our plans
fort towards 1t. We remain as thought
less children, and are not mature men, if
we do not act after this manner. And
yet, on the other hand, we are hidden to
have no anxious care for tomorrow, and
we are ever warned of the uncertainty as
to whether tomorrow will be ours. The
exhortation-to take a second exam
ple-is to seek Gods kingdom and
his righteousness and the provision,
for the earthly life will be added to us;
and yet, when the exhortation comes
and earnest workers, for the supply Of
our daily wants. Thus it is, also, in our
great working in life. The allurements
and the necessities of life demand of us
efforts on our own behalf, while the voice
of manliness and of God tells US that our
efforts are to be for others. What is the
truth in all this? 1t is that the highest
and final end-the aim and purpose
which enter the highest sphere of our
ife-should be outside of, and beyond
ourselves The Christian teaching does
not forbid our noble ambition, or our
working for personal success, or our en-
joying the fruits of our labors, or our
gaining more than others gain, or becom-
| w
be imitators of God, as his beloved chill
dren-to forgive others, the apos-
tie says in the accidents of
his sentence and context, as
God forgives us; to use our means and
gifts and powers for them-if we take tho
wide view of our whole life and its work
ings-after the manner in which God uses
his power to bless the world, making his
sun to rise on the evil and the good and
sending rain on the just and on the unjust.
It tells US to live not in the narrowness of
our own life-in the selfish filling out of
our own personal desires, but in the large
everywhere of what we are and what we
have, for the welfare of mankind. And so
it tells us, as in the apostles words, which
we find written in another letter, to do
good unto all men.
Giving forth everywhere, the Christian
teaching, as it bids US to be imitators of
God, summons us, wherever and what
ever our sphere of working may
be, to discover the end and aim
of all our efforts where God places
them. The followers of the Lord
Jesus, who were hidden to go into all the
world and maks disciples for him, were
not to be those proclaimers of the gospel
story alone, who made their preaching
their only work. They were to be all
whom he called into his service, and to
whom he opened the privilege of bearing
witness for him in whatever sphere of life.
There is but one imitation of God in the
spirit of our doing. But there are thou
sand ways in which the spirit may impel
the doing, and a thousand spheres in which
the doing may follow the impulse of the
spirit Whatever the manner or place of
your working, therefore-if so be you are
to be imitators of God-you must work,
my friends, as God works. You must
make your lives, in all their getting and
gaining and in all their forth putting and
fruitage, to be blessing in love for the
evil and the good.
The blessing in love, however, which is
to go forth for the good Of men from your
personal life, and through your personal
action on behalf of the world, must be, if
you are to initiate God as his children, in
! the line of truth and righteousness. The
| outworking Of Gods power and the move
ment of his thought as he comes into rela
| ton to the world are to the end of estab
fishing his kingdom, which is the kingdom
of righteousness and truth. AS he calls
US to be like him, he calls us to move il
our living and working towards the same
end. Your service for men cannot, there
| fore, be service only, or chiefly, for thei1
elevation in physical comfort, or materia
| prosperity, or intellectual culture, or 80
cial refinement. These things may not b.
lost sight of, but they must be given {
| secondary place in your purpose. They
| must be thought of as following after
rather than as going before, the culture Of
the soul. The true growth of the life
| according to the Christian teaching, is
from the center outward. Life, in its
highest meaning, begins in the soul, and il
/ L. h. Dc s,%0
through every part of the man. Yor
| must work for men-if you would yield tc
| the divine impulse-in the region of the
| souls life. Your influence and power
| must move from the central forces in your
| selves to the central forces in them.
The summons of duty accordingly
which comes to each one of you, lis to work
| for the deepest things, which are also the
| highest things. There must be something
| beyond that which you seem to be doing
| for those about you, and on which YOU
| efforts are primarily bestowed. The labors
of every sort must be for that which
makes manhood, and not simply for that
which, in one way or another, may helI
| men. They must look to truth and right
| eousness, and not alone to health and wis
dom.
I look backward at this hour, over the
Pnoo ooAo Vuo AoAi6 JoesAo, % L ooAAAooiitAo
think them; the very brief and rapidly
passing ones, as they more commonly seem
to my thought-to the time when my
friends of the college days and myself be
gan our manhood's life. What are the
| true value and meaning of these years fol
each and all of us, I say to myself. Are
| they to be found in the greater or smaller
| amount of work which we have done fol
the communities in which we have lived
as men. of business, or lawyers, or teach
ers, or physicians-work which has helped
these communities in their outward life, OF
their knowledge, and has brought to our
selves more or less of reward; Surely
| not, when We view the matter from the
loftiest standpoint and with the widest
| outlook. The significance of our living,
| if it have any significance which is
worthy of us as privileged and educated
men, lies in what we have done for
the inward life of these communicate
the witness which we have borne and the
results which we have accomplished for
righteousness and truth-in the final pur-
pose of our work as men of the different
walks and professions, rather than in the
immediate ends which our business or pro-
LESSONS have opened to us or placed be-
fore us. The lesson of truth and right
which has gone forth from each fulfilled
duty of our professional life, whatever
| that life may have been-and which has
| carried with it the impression of the spirit
in which the duty has been discharged
is the lesson that bears to others the sig
pifnapoa of our bioforu IT, 30 &bo 1o,,a,,