CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK.
By Christian Worker
A RELIGIOUS life is more than a mere profession of faith, or an initiation into some church or religious society, however orthodox it may be. It strikes its roots into hidden depths, and unless there be something about it unseen by men and known only to God, it is far from being what it should be. It is not enough for persons to purchase a new Bible, learn a few Scripture texts, and talk and chatter, and think they are doing Christian work. He who really lives the Christian life and works the work of God, has a deeper hold upon eternal things. Those whose ideas touch only the surface, are like the morning cloud and the early dew that passeth away. They have never known true soul hunger and thirst, nor have they tasted the living bread and the living water. They know nothing of godly sorrow nor yet of godly joy. They have never felt the blackness of the horrible pit, nor do they know the gladness of singing the new song. They have never felt the anguish of crucifixion with Christ, nor the birth pangs of the better life. They have never rid themselves of their conceited emptiness, nor come to God and his word that they might be filled. Having never known their own weakness and insufficiency, they have failed to gain the everlasting strength of God. Our Lord, who loves us, seeks to win us from such shallow emptiness of spirit, and to bring us to be partakers of his own glorious life, and enable us to comprehend with all saints the height and depth and length and breadth of the love of God, which passeth knowledge.—Christian Worker.