CHRISTIAN GROWTH BY LABOR.
HEALTH of body can be preserved only by suitable exercise, and cheerful labor gives a tone both to mind and body. Spiritual health is equally dependent on labor, and the idle professor is exposed to many moral perils. An exchange says:— “We have tried to make Christians without giving them anything to do, which is like trying to make swimmers without use of hands or feet. The churches are all full of religious dyspeptics, feeble of purpose, weak in faith, indifferent, languid, listless, of little use to themselves or anybody else, and all for want of the natural exercise which would come from doing God’s waiting work in the world. Admit that Christian character is the great thing; that piety and personal holiness are the very highest states and attainments; but to acquire those qualities, and rise up to that secure elevation, we must do something more than to sit even in a closet, and muse, and meditate, and try to magnetize our souls by pious exercises. We must go out into the world and put our heavenly thoughts into heavenly deeds of love and mercy.”