CHAPTERXFINAL WARNINGSOURLord concludes the Sermon on the Mount with three emphatic and striking warnings. We may paraphrase them thus:—There are two ways in life, the easy way of self-pleasing and the hard way of self-denial. Many are found to seek the first, few to tread the second. But they lead directly away from one another: and the first is the way to death, the second is the way to life.There are many voices of teachers in the world, speaking fair-sounding words. But not by their words, nor by the results they seem to win, shall men be judged by the Son of Man, but by their characters.There are many spiritual fabrics which men are raising. They seem the one very much as good as the other; but the test lies in their capacity to last. And no spiritual fabric that is built on anythingelse than the teaching of the Son of Man can endure the strain and stress which will come upon it before the end.Let us direct our attention to each of these three warnings in turn.
OURLord concludes the Sermon on the Mount with three emphatic and striking warnings. We may paraphrase them thus:—There are two ways in life, the easy way of self-pleasing and the hard way of self-denial. Many are found to seek the first, few to tread the second. But they lead directly away from one another: and the first is the way to death, the second is the way to life.
There are many voices of teachers in the world, speaking fair-sounding words. But not by their words, nor by the results they seem to win, shall men be judged by the Son of Man, but by their characters.
There are many spiritual fabrics which men are raising. They seem the one very much as good as the other; but the test lies in their capacity to last. And no spiritual fabric that is built on anythingelse than the teaching of the Son of Man can endure the strain and stress which will come upon it before the end.
Let us direct our attention to each of these three warnings in turn.
THETWOWAYS“Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.”This is the “doctrine of the two ways.” Human instinct has seized on the metaphor in many parts of the world; the easy way of self-pleasing, the difficult way of duty. It speaks home to every heart, to every intelligence, and nothing needs to be said about it. But I would ask your attention to one question which in our time arises instantly as we read these words—Are we to suppose that our Lord is here saying that at the last issue many will be “lost” and few “saved”? Is this the meaning of “Few be they that find it”?To this question we may reply thus: On one occasion the disciples categorically asked our Lord, “Are there few that are being saved?” and our Lord replied,“Strive to enter in by the narrow door.” And on another occasion Peter asked the question about John, “What shall this man do?” and was answered,“What is that to thee? Follow thouMe.”86Beyond all question, our Lord does not intend us to know the answer to the questions which our curiosity raises as to the ultimate destinies of men. He fixes our attention, we may say, on three great principles: the character of God our Father, and His impartial, individual, disciplinary love: the final and universal victory of His kingdom over all resisting forces within and without: the critical character of our present life with its capacities for good or for evil, and the limitless consequences for good or evil which flow from the present attitude of each individual towards his personal responsibilities.It is not unfair to translate our Lord’s words here, “Many there be thatare enteringthe broad way; few there be thatare findingthe narrow way.” Thus they embody what is always found to be true in the experience of men. Always, to one who wants to do his duty, itwill become plain in the long run that he has to be prepared to stand alone, or at any rate to go against the majority. He cannot tell the opportunities and responsibilities that others may have. He knows that God is infinitely considerate, and will do the best possible for every soul that He has created; but he can, he does, know his own responsibility and his own duty, and in following that he will have to bear the burden of going with the few and watching the spectacle, so depressing or staggering to the imagination, of the multitude running to do evil.
“Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many be they that enter in thereby. For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few be they that find it.”
This is the “doctrine of the two ways.” Human instinct has seized on the metaphor in many parts of the world; the easy way of self-pleasing, the difficult way of duty. It speaks home to every heart, to every intelligence, and nothing needs to be said about it. But I would ask your attention to one question which in our time arises instantly as we read these words—Are we to suppose that our Lord is here saying that at the last issue many will be “lost” and few “saved”? Is this the meaning of “Few be they that find it”?
To this question we may reply thus: On one occasion the disciples categorically asked our Lord, “Are there few that are being saved?” and our Lord replied,“Strive to enter in by the narrow door.” And on another occasion Peter asked the question about John, “What shall this man do?” and was answered,“What is that to thee? Follow thouMe.”86Beyond all question, our Lord does not intend us to know the answer to the questions which our curiosity raises as to the ultimate destinies of men. He fixes our attention, we may say, on three great principles: the character of God our Father, and His impartial, individual, disciplinary love: the final and universal victory of His kingdom over all resisting forces within and without: the critical character of our present life with its capacities for good or for evil, and the limitless consequences for good or evil which flow from the present attitude of each individual towards his personal responsibilities.
It is not unfair to translate our Lord’s words here, “Many there be thatare enteringthe broad way; few there be thatare findingthe narrow way.” Thus they embody what is always found to be true in the experience of men. Always, to one who wants to do his duty, itwill become plain in the long run that he has to be prepared to stand alone, or at any rate to go against the majority. He cannot tell the opportunities and responsibilities that others may have. He knows that God is infinitely considerate, and will do the best possible for every soul that He has created; but he can, he does, know his own responsibility and his own duty, and in following that he will have to bear the burden of going with the few and watching the spectacle, so depressing or staggering to the imagination, of the multitude running to do evil.
CHARACTER THEONETHINGNEEDFUL“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out devils, and by thy name do manymighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”There is nothing against which our Lord warns us so terribly as against hypocrisy. The discernment of Frenchmen and Germans has detected, or fancies it has detected that Englishmen are specially liable to be hypocrites, to profess what they do not practise, to care for the outward appearance of morality and religion while they neglect their inward essence. Whether this be specially true of us or no, it behoves us to look to ourselves. In literature, in journalism, in the pulpits, in political life, there are so many “prophets,” so many professors, so many remedy-mongers. They speak fair words, and brilliant success often seems to attend them. “Have we not prophesied in Thy name,” they cry, “and in Thy name cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works?” But not all the fair-seeming words, not all the brilliant, even miraculous successes, can compensate for the absence of personal character. That is the one thing to which our Lord looks. He warns us that not the most brilliant results canavail anything if we lack that inner character which is like Christ’s.This is a tremendous warning for days of wide and somewhat vague philanthropy, of restless activity, of nervous anxiety for successes and results, for days such as our own day. It is a tremendous warning for days of journalism, when every one is tempted to advertise himself or allow himself to be advertised, when everything is dragged prematurely into publicity, and even those who are working for Christ are apt to be morbidly anxious to produce results which can be tabulated in parish magazines or even proclaimed in newspapers. We need to remember that all these results in Christ’s eyes will not bear looking at, except so far as they are the product of inward Christian character, a character which He can recognize as His own. For He cannot accept anything, whatever its orthodox profession, in which He does not trace the lineaments of His own character.There are two other points which may be overlooked in this paragraph but which are of great importance. First, our Lord does encourage us or evencommand us to believe that wherever there is the good character, the Christlike character, there the Holy Spirit is at work. God works far beyond His own appointed channels. The principle of loyalty and obedience binds us who know His will to use His sacraments, His instituted ordinances; but God is not tied to His own ordinances. He can work wherever He sees the good disposition; and it is blasphemy against His Spirit to deny that He is at work anywhere where we witness the forming of the Christian character. The good fruit cannot come from anything else than the good tree.Then, secondly, we should notice the claim which our Lord here makes for Himself. Without preface, without emphasis, as a matter of course, He implies that He is the final judge of all men, not only as to the outward results they achieve, but also as regards the secret inner motives of their hearts and the character of their lives. “Many shall come to me in that day,”i.e.in “the Day of Jehovah,” the day of final assessment—“They will come toMe; they will profess loyalty toMe, saying, ‘Lord,Lord’; they will plead their good works: but I shall discern the true inner character of their lives.” Many Jews of our Lord’s day in Palestine believed that the Son of Man, the Messiah, would act as the vicegerent of God in “the day of judgement,” at “the end of the world.” In implying that He would so act our Lord is, in other words, professing that He is the Messiah: but, more than this, He gives to the Messianic claim a depth and fullness of meaning which makes it identical with a properlydivineclaim. Can one conceive men living, as the Apostles lived, with one who they were led to believe was the ultimate judge of their outward conduct and of their secret thoughts, the ultimate arbiter of their destinies, the final Justice, without passing into an attitude towards Him of awe, trust, and worship, which would be idolatrous and disastrous if He to whom it was directed was not truly divine?Again, is it even conceivable that any man could claim to be in this inner introspective sense the final judge of all men without being either (with reverence be it spoken) a tremendous blasphemeror the very Son of God, of the Father’s own nature?
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out devils, and by thy name do manymighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
There is nothing against which our Lord warns us so terribly as against hypocrisy. The discernment of Frenchmen and Germans has detected, or fancies it has detected that Englishmen are specially liable to be hypocrites, to profess what they do not practise, to care for the outward appearance of morality and religion while they neglect their inward essence. Whether this be specially true of us or no, it behoves us to look to ourselves. In literature, in journalism, in the pulpits, in political life, there are so many “prophets,” so many professors, so many remedy-mongers. They speak fair words, and brilliant success often seems to attend them. “Have we not prophesied in Thy name,” they cry, “and in Thy name cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works?” But not all the fair-seeming words, not all the brilliant, even miraculous successes, can compensate for the absence of personal character. That is the one thing to which our Lord looks. He warns us that not the most brilliant results canavail anything if we lack that inner character which is like Christ’s.
This is a tremendous warning for days of wide and somewhat vague philanthropy, of restless activity, of nervous anxiety for successes and results, for days such as our own day. It is a tremendous warning for days of journalism, when every one is tempted to advertise himself or allow himself to be advertised, when everything is dragged prematurely into publicity, and even those who are working for Christ are apt to be morbidly anxious to produce results which can be tabulated in parish magazines or even proclaimed in newspapers. We need to remember that all these results in Christ’s eyes will not bear looking at, except so far as they are the product of inward Christian character, a character which He can recognize as His own. For He cannot accept anything, whatever its orthodox profession, in which He does not trace the lineaments of His own character.
There are two other points which may be overlooked in this paragraph but which are of great importance. First, our Lord does encourage us or evencommand us to believe that wherever there is the good character, the Christlike character, there the Holy Spirit is at work. God works far beyond His own appointed channels. The principle of loyalty and obedience binds us who know His will to use His sacraments, His instituted ordinances; but God is not tied to His own ordinances. He can work wherever He sees the good disposition; and it is blasphemy against His Spirit to deny that He is at work anywhere where we witness the forming of the Christian character. The good fruit cannot come from anything else than the good tree.
Then, secondly, we should notice the claim which our Lord here makes for Himself. Without preface, without emphasis, as a matter of course, He implies that He is the final judge of all men, not only as to the outward results they achieve, but also as regards the secret inner motives of their hearts and the character of their lives. “Many shall come to me in that day,”i.e.in “the Day of Jehovah,” the day of final assessment—“They will come toMe; they will profess loyalty toMe, saying, ‘Lord,Lord’; they will plead their good works: but I shall discern the true inner character of their lives.” Many Jews of our Lord’s day in Palestine believed that the Son of Man, the Messiah, would act as the vicegerent of God in “the day of judgement,” at “the end of the world.” In implying that He would so act our Lord is, in other words, professing that He is the Messiah: but, more than this, He gives to the Messianic claim a depth and fullness of meaning which makes it identical with a properlydivineclaim. Can one conceive men living, as the Apostles lived, with one who they were led to believe was the ultimate judge of their outward conduct and of their secret thoughts, the ultimate arbiter of their destinies, the final Justice, without passing into an attitude towards Him of awe, trust, and worship, which would be idolatrous and disastrous if He to whom it was directed was not truly divine?
Again, is it even conceivable that any man could claim to be in this inner introspective sense the final judge of all men without being either (with reverence be it spoken) a tremendous blasphemeror the very Son of God, of the Father’s own nature?
ENDURANCE THETESTAnd lastly, our Lord gives the warning that each spiritual fabric must be judged by its power of lasting.“Every one therefore which heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which built his house upon the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house: and it fell not; for it was founded upon the rock. And every one that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof.”Here, again, is the tremendous claim: the only solid foundation for life is Jesus and His words.We know how this necessity of a rock-like foundation for a spiritual structure, and the possibility of finding such a foundation only in His own words and person, were illustrated by our Lord’s method in the foundation of His Church. A crowd came round Him at the first, offering Him the same kind of allegiance which men will give to spiritual teachersand benefactors in moments of enthusiasm. “Many believed on his name, beholding the signs which he did.” And our Lord stood strangely aloof from them. “He did not trust himself unto them,”St.John says,“for that he knew all men, and because he needed not that any should bear witness concerning man, for he knew of himself what was inman.”87So He tested the would-be disciples, till at last by His strange self-withdrawing ways, by His severe words, by His enigmatic utterances, He had sifted out those who were really in earnest in following Him from those who were not; exhibiting in all this a strange contempt for majorities or mere numbers. At last He had gathered round Him the little band of those who were really ready to follow and obey to the uttermost, the band of His apostles. Here were men who had indeed got down to the rock, and were building on it and nothing short of it. Here were men who could trust Him and His word, and take as the basis for their life the confession of His name. Therefore, like that on which they built, theywere themselves rock-like, and not as the shifting sand of ordinary human nature. These then could be used as the foundations of Christ’s new society. So under circumstances where a special strain was put upon their loyalty, He asked the great question of the apostles; and Peter gave the great answer: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Then, as it were with a sigh of relief, our Lord turns upon him, and greets him with His supreme benediction, and recognizes in him—if not yet something which is ready to His hand, yet something which is capable of being made ready:“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter—rock-man—and upon this rock I will build mychurch.”88Thus our Lord illustrated in His own practice what He teaches here. He would have men dig down to the rock, and build their spiritual fabrics there; and the rock is nothing else than His own person and His own word. To hear Him, and go away without imbibingHis teaching and putting it into practice, to be nominally a Christian but in reality of the world, that is to build a house upon the sand.And the test of all spiritual fabrics is their capacity to stand the strain of wild and rough experiences. That is a formidable lesson for an age of rapid workmanship; an age which resents the necessity for underground work and silent preparation.It suggests a momentous question with regard to the spiritual fabric of our own personal lives, and also in regard to any spiritual enterprise in which we may be engaged: Have we dug deep enough and got down to the rock, or have we preferred quick results to solid foundations? Have we thought Christ’s words impossible of application, and so been content with something short of Him? If so, our work is doomed. It will not last. It will not stand the rain and the wind and the storm.We see how true this principle has proved in the history of the Church of Christ, which was built on the solid rock of His word and person. The Catholic Church through all vicissitudes hasyet endured. Body after body naming the name of Christ have arisen and seemed to succeed better than the Church for a time, generally through some defect in her teaching or character: for it has been generally through the fault of the Church that they have arisen, and on the neglect of the Church’s duty that they have spread. But these bodies have not exhibited lasting power. Any great catastrophe which, as it were, shatters the structure of human society down to its foundations, brings to naught multitudes of enterprises which seemed successful. But there is one society which has exhibited a marked capacity for lasting, which after whatever vicissitudes has shown that it has still the power of recovery and persistence. This is that Church which is rooted on the word of Christ, which has the succession from His apostles, in which are administered His sacraments according to His appointment, which holds to His apostolic tradition, and appeals back to His sacred Scriptures.That is the test—to last! We must apply it to our own lives. We know that temptation is both thorough andsearching, and that our moral and religious principles will in different ways be tested to the uttermost. To stand the test and carry our moral being through it all to victory—that is the one thing that matters; and to make this possible there is one sovereign expedient—that is thorough and whole-hearted conversion of our will, our intellect, our affection, to Christ and His word.“And it came to pass, when Jesus ended these words, the multitudes were astonished at his teaching: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”And here we leave the great sermon. It is not, as some suppose, the whole of Christianity. Those who have been inclined so to esteem it have been apt to underrate the amount of theological doctrine which is to be found in it. It postulates, as we have seen, two central doctrines: that of the divinity of Christ’s person, and that of the sinfulness of human nature. But, even so, it is not the whole of Christianity. It begets in us, or develops and deepens, the sense of sin, and so may be said to point to what it does not teach, the atonement by which our Lord has expiated thesins of the world, and brought us back to reconciliation with our Father which is in heaven. But again an atonement which merely secured our forgiveness for past sins would be no real remedy. It would leave us weak as we were before. Nothing can satisfy us but actual and permanent redemption from the power and the taint of sin. Thus again the sermon may be said to point forward to that great supply of moral power which by the coming of the Spirit of God has been given inwardly in the hearts of His people. It is that inward grant of Christlike power—the administration of the Spirit—which is the real essence of Christianity. All else is a preparation for it. Christianity is not so much a statement of the true end or ideal of human life as it is a great spiritual instrument for realizing the end.The realizing of the moral end of life—that is the test of your Christianity. Be sure of that. The hold we have on our creeds, the use we make of the sacraments, can be judged by one test—do they lead to the formation in us of Christian character? The character may be cleansed and perfected after death,but here and now is our opportunity for laying its foundations deep and firm, and showing its power to absorb the whole of our being. That is the test which we cannot press home upon ourselves too often—am I becoming like Christ? Many will come to Him in that day with a record of their orthodoxy and of their observances, of their brilliant successes in His professed service; but He will protest unto them, “I never knew you.” He “knows” no man in whom He cannot recognize His own likeness.
And lastly, our Lord gives the warning that each spiritual fabric must be judged by its power of lasting.
“Every one therefore which heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which built his house upon the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house: and it fell not; for it was founded upon the rock. And every one that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof.”
Here, again, is the tremendous claim: the only solid foundation for life is Jesus and His words.
We know how this necessity of a rock-like foundation for a spiritual structure, and the possibility of finding such a foundation only in His own words and person, were illustrated by our Lord’s method in the foundation of His Church. A crowd came round Him at the first, offering Him the same kind of allegiance which men will give to spiritual teachersand benefactors in moments of enthusiasm. “Many believed on his name, beholding the signs which he did.” And our Lord stood strangely aloof from them. “He did not trust himself unto them,”St.John says,“for that he knew all men, and because he needed not that any should bear witness concerning man, for he knew of himself what was inman.”87So He tested the would-be disciples, till at last by His strange self-withdrawing ways, by His severe words, by His enigmatic utterances, He had sifted out those who were really in earnest in following Him from those who were not; exhibiting in all this a strange contempt for majorities or mere numbers. At last He had gathered round Him the little band of those who were really ready to follow and obey to the uttermost, the band of His apostles. Here were men who had indeed got down to the rock, and were building on it and nothing short of it. Here were men who could trust Him and His word, and take as the basis for their life the confession of His name. Therefore, like that on which they built, theywere themselves rock-like, and not as the shifting sand of ordinary human nature. These then could be used as the foundations of Christ’s new society. So under circumstances where a special strain was put upon their loyalty, He asked the great question of the apostles; and Peter gave the great answer: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Then, as it were with a sigh of relief, our Lord turns upon him, and greets him with His supreme benediction, and recognizes in him—if not yet something which is ready to His hand, yet something which is capable of being made ready:
“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I also say unto thee, that thou art Peter—rock-man—and upon this rock I will build mychurch.”88
Thus our Lord illustrated in His own practice what He teaches here. He would have men dig down to the rock, and build their spiritual fabrics there; and the rock is nothing else than His own person and His own word. To hear Him, and go away without imbibingHis teaching and putting it into practice, to be nominally a Christian but in reality of the world, that is to build a house upon the sand.
And the test of all spiritual fabrics is their capacity to stand the strain of wild and rough experiences. That is a formidable lesson for an age of rapid workmanship; an age which resents the necessity for underground work and silent preparation.
It suggests a momentous question with regard to the spiritual fabric of our own personal lives, and also in regard to any spiritual enterprise in which we may be engaged: Have we dug deep enough and got down to the rock, or have we preferred quick results to solid foundations? Have we thought Christ’s words impossible of application, and so been content with something short of Him? If so, our work is doomed. It will not last. It will not stand the rain and the wind and the storm.
We see how true this principle has proved in the history of the Church of Christ, which was built on the solid rock of His word and person. The Catholic Church through all vicissitudes hasyet endured. Body after body naming the name of Christ have arisen and seemed to succeed better than the Church for a time, generally through some defect in her teaching or character: for it has been generally through the fault of the Church that they have arisen, and on the neglect of the Church’s duty that they have spread. But these bodies have not exhibited lasting power. Any great catastrophe which, as it were, shatters the structure of human society down to its foundations, brings to naught multitudes of enterprises which seemed successful. But there is one society which has exhibited a marked capacity for lasting, which after whatever vicissitudes has shown that it has still the power of recovery and persistence. This is that Church which is rooted on the word of Christ, which has the succession from His apostles, in which are administered His sacraments according to His appointment, which holds to His apostolic tradition, and appeals back to His sacred Scriptures.
That is the test—to last! We must apply it to our own lives. We know that temptation is both thorough andsearching, and that our moral and religious principles will in different ways be tested to the uttermost. To stand the test and carry our moral being through it all to victory—that is the one thing that matters; and to make this possible there is one sovereign expedient—that is thorough and whole-hearted conversion of our will, our intellect, our affection, to Christ and His word.
“And it came to pass, when Jesus ended these words, the multitudes were astonished at his teaching: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”
And here we leave the great sermon. It is not, as some suppose, the whole of Christianity. Those who have been inclined so to esteem it have been apt to underrate the amount of theological doctrine which is to be found in it. It postulates, as we have seen, two central doctrines: that of the divinity of Christ’s person, and that of the sinfulness of human nature. But, even so, it is not the whole of Christianity. It begets in us, or develops and deepens, the sense of sin, and so may be said to point to what it does not teach, the atonement by which our Lord has expiated thesins of the world, and brought us back to reconciliation with our Father which is in heaven. But again an atonement which merely secured our forgiveness for past sins would be no real remedy. It would leave us weak as we were before. Nothing can satisfy us but actual and permanent redemption from the power and the taint of sin. Thus again the sermon may be said to point forward to that great supply of moral power which by the coming of the Spirit of God has been given inwardly in the hearts of His people. It is that inward grant of Christlike power—the administration of the Spirit—which is the real essence of Christianity. All else is a preparation for it. Christianity is not so much a statement of the true end or ideal of human life as it is a great spiritual instrument for realizing the end.
The realizing of the moral end of life—that is the test of your Christianity. Be sure of that. The hold we have on our creeds, the use we make of the sacraments, can be judged by one test—do they lead to the formation in us of Christian character? The character may be cleansed and perfected after death,but here and now is our opportunity for laying its foundations deep and firm, and showing its power to absorb the whole of our being. That is the test which we cannot press home upon ourselves too often—am I becoming like Christ? Many will come to Him in that day with a record of their orthodoxy and of their observances, of their brilliant successes in His professed service; but He will protest unto them, “I never knew you.” He “knows” no man in whom He cannot recognize His own likeness.