THE POSSIBILITIES OF LIFE.
By M. A. G. Greenhalgh
LIFE is power to know, but the profoundest knowledge of all is the knowledge of eternity and of our eternal destinies; it is to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. Life is power to develop; therefore he is but half alive whose soul never grows, whose spirit is deprived of the destiny, and the purposes of its being; he is like a seed forgotten in a drawer. Life is power to love; but the deepest of all fountains from which love can flow is the story of Christ crucified and enthroned—of the sacrifice and the priest. Life is self-control and activity. Death is the complete absence of all self-control and energy. Christ comes to souls which are helpless, as to the grave of Lazarus, and calls, and he that was dead comes forth. Each day of our lives brings new possibilities, new light, new inspirations, new opportunities of doing good, getting good, and being good, and, if we are faithful to these possibilities, life will enrich us beyond all imagination. Each morning is a bright angel coming from the presence of God, bearing to us spiritual, immortal treasure, and we cannot afford to lose the gift of one radiant visitor. Each day is designed to add something to our knowledge and sanctity. The indifferent, the selfish, and the sensual soon find the charm of living vanish, and they grumble, saying, "I have reached far over to the tree of promise, and have eaten of all, but it tastes like ashes and gall." But the true137children of God give another description of life than this. Our Father in heaven gives them a pure heart, and a new song is put into their lips. Their white robe never becomes threadbare; their garlands are never withering flowers. The riches, the glories, of Christ's life pass into the life of the faithful, and become a new joy in their heart; and this resemblance to Christ will continue through time and eternity. So when we are shrinking from religion as from a burden, Christ, who sees us, knows we are refusing to live. He says, "Ye will not come unto me, that ye might have life." When one does put himself frankly into the Master's hand, his existence is changed as completely as when a pestilential swamp is covered with bright and clear waters, in which living creatures rejoice, and on which the sun-beams dance. His dry and thirsty soul is flooded with the pure water of life, clear as crystal, which proceeds from the throne of God, and of the Lamb. There is nothing in religion to rebel against, except on principles which would rend the world asunder, and make life impossible, or as barren as the sands of an African desert. Is it any wonder that the divine life calls upon us to dare to make the grand venture of Peter, who fixed his eye on Christ, sprang from the deck of the vessel upon the abyss of water, into which, nevertheless, he did not sink?