The Common Things of Life
By Alexander McKenzie
JESUS gave a high value to everything which was done in love. I have never heard of any one who appreciated every favor, however small, so much as he. You give a cup of water to a man in his name, and it will appear to your credit in the day of judgment. His memory of love holds every loving thing we do. “Inasmuch” has become the chain by which reluctance is drawn into Christly service. The whole life of Christ was healthful, simple—natural. . . . He was thorough, yet we do not call him an extremist, or think him radical and visionary. He believed in life, and enjoyed it. He was not an ascetic in any degree. He did not seclude himself from men, but walked among them, and sat at their tables. His herald in the wilderness had a life of austerity. This well became him. But Christ began his miracles at a wedding, and saved the marriage feast. His works took a common form. He fed men with bread; he saved the fisher's boat; he gave the palsied man strength to carry home the bed he lay upon. They called him the “friend of publicans and sinners,” and the name pleased him. . . . His parables interpreted common things,— sparrows, grass and flowers, leaves and seed, money and pearls. He gave a new value to all that men handled. There is no great teacher who approaches him in this use of common things, in the hallowing of the ways of men, in the ennobling of our daily life.— Alexander McKenzie, D. D.