The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-01-20

ergies on the pursuit; studs Of the laws Of
the subject; willingness to serve in the hall
OF patience ere passing into the palace Of
wisdom. 1T is unreasonable to expect that
the highest knowledge Of man. the Lnowl-
edge Of life, can be secured without paying
the price.
For it there is needed a desire which
shall overcome all other desires, There
must be purpose OF the will the lifelong
endeavor to attain. Paul counted not him
self to have attained, but he pressed on
for the prize. There must be a purifca-
ton Of life, for God is known through the
spiritual rather than the intellectual part
of man. Those who love sin do not know
Him, in this sense; they have no sympathy
with Him. they know not His mind, they
love not His things, and without this SYM
pathy there cannot be the knowledge Of
person TO person. Because of this neces-
ness of desire, the bending Of our will, the
obedience of our life, there comes the
struggle in mans life with trial, tempta-
ton, suffering. For if it be the life OF
Christ we are to know, then it is life of
truth, of holiness, of love, of self-sacrifice,
of conservation to the Fathers will. No
man can know that life in its fulness save
as he experiences it, He may discuss it,
and compare it with others, but only he
who lives it knows what it is. Two of the
disciples asked the Lord for the chief
places in the kingdom. He told them that
they knew not what they asked. Can We
drink the cup that drink, be baptised
with the baptism that am? They thought
they could. Later, in measure. they did.
But the places are reserved for those
to whom it is appointed, for those who
are fitted for it. 1t is the inner prize of
character, of holiness, of love, of truth,
after the likeness of Jesus Christ which
entities one to stand near Him in spiritual
power and dominion. This is not always
easy. Christ had His struggles, His agony,
His cross. The disciple is not above the
Master. 1t may not mean the giving up
of life. 1t does at times in mission lands.
But to gain that knowledge of Christ 77ill
cost Is righteousness gained without eff
fort? Is forgiveness of one who has in
jured us q mere bagatele? Do all the re-
wards go to the honest and high princi-
pied in politics? Is truth in business al
ways at premium? In the presence Of
the pleasure and the business of the day
is It simple matter to keep ones head
erect, and work as a son of God, and thus
acting know Christ in truth and love?
Does it demand much of us that we shall
give ourselves up for those who may scorn
or hate us, so following the example of
Christ. who gave Himself for us? All we
know in our daily life how great the task
is set for us in the school of character that
we may know Christ; that we may be like
Him; that we may grow in the knowledge
of human truth and love as we not only
see it in Him, but know it in ourselves.
1t costs much because it is life; and be-
cause it is life, it pays. For chief in the
joys and glories of truth, there stands this
excellency of the knowledge of Christ as
apprehended by man: it is the truth Of life,
the life Of God, the life of man, who is the
child Of God.
Read through the history OF the past of
those noble ones who have aided the moral
uplift Of the world through this personal
living knowledge of Christ. They know
truth and love, because they have lived
truth and love. They paid the price. It
might be poverty, persecution, martyrdom;
struggles within and trials without In
the power of Christ's strengthening them
to do the things which were right. in the
suffering for others that they might be
drawn unto God, they came into possession
the knowledge of Christ, through exper-
fence. With one accord that noble multi
tude which no man can number, of apos-
ties, prophets, martyrs, known and UNI
known, giving thanks unto God for His
goodness, ascribes to this knowledge pre-
eminence and surprising glory above all
others, crying out with Paul, We count all
things but loss for the excellency of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.