THE VALUE OF A GODLY LIFE.
THE character and potency of the Christian religion are revealed partly in the Bible, and partly in the lives of its adherents. The Word is the inspired exposition of the principles of Christianity. It is written by the Holy Spirit itself, so as to insure a faultless copy. There is nothing concealed about it; here the very heart of the Author may be read. He even courts investigation, “Search the Scriptures, for . . . they testify of me.” But the world generally does not read the Bible to form its opinion of Christianity. Men judge a system by its effect. They judge Christianity and Christianity’s Christ as they are reproduced in the every-day life of believers. Its value is reckoned by what it has done and is doing to mould life and character. It is a closed book to many; they do not, will not, come to it. The object of many of those who do look into it is not so much to read it as to read into it. Very few read the Bible honestly and diligently to form an opinion of Christianity; but, as a great evangelist once said, “For everyone that reads this book there’s a hundred that read you and me.” As a man’s autograph letter is an index of himself, so professing Christians are Christ’s living epistles, known and read of all men, and by them the Author is judged. “So let our lips and lives express
The holy gospel we profess;
So let our works and virtues shine,
To prove the doctrine all divine. “Thus shall we best proclaim abroad
The honors of our Saviour God,
When his salvation reigns within,
And grace subdues the power of sin.” “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God.”—Selected.