Christlike | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 24, 1859

Christlike.

CHRISTLIKE is a plain and simple word, but full of meaning to the thoughtful mind, for it is the sum of all that man ought to be. It is the burden of many a secret heart-sigh and longing aspiration known but to God alone. Those professing religion bear it indelibly impressed upon their very name of Christian. But what is it to be Christlike? who can be called such? Is our so-called Christianity real Christlikeness! These are practical questions, that it behooves each, Bible in hand, to settle candidly for himself. Christ, we are told, prayed; but he did not cease there; action accompanied his prayers. He preached, but that was not all; he practiced. He contributed his portion into the treasury, but he also gave more than money—himself. His life was given. He reproved the Scribes and Pharisees for their sins and hypocrisies, but he was not guilty himself of like sin. And he had other language than that of denunciation; these were blest, winning voices of peace and pardon, free forgiveness and love. His was no censure-loving spirit, that always chillingly, haughtily said, "Stand back, for I am holier than thou," though if any may, he most surely might use this language. He blazoned not abroad his many deeds of mercy. He did not oppress or pass by in scornful neglect the afflicted, sorrow-stricken, and poor, but delighted to raise the bruised reed. His wonted place of preaching was not between frescoed walls, nor his preaching opiate words to an opulent, sin-flattering charge. His was the grandly arched sky dome, and his pulpit carpet the flowing grass, and his most attentive audience were the poor. "They heard him gladly." His life was an overflowing of his divine love welling up in a sympathetic human heart. No weekly charity-donation measured that. He was content with nothing less than constant sacrifice, self-denial and bestowal of his all. His life was one incessant

personal mission of humanity. He shunned not the tenderest of all sensibilities, nor shrank from the contact of suffering in its most revolting forms. The sick, diseased, and afflicted of all classes flocked to him, and he healed them all. It was his meat and drink to do his Heavenly Father's will. Having loved, he loved unto the end. He forgave the deadliest enemies, for them was his last prayer uttered; reviled, he reviled not again. Christ with his disciples, teaching, healing at Jerusalem, Gethsemane, and Calvary, these all preach to us. Like Christ in kind, for we cannot in degree, must each become ere ready for entrance into the world of bliss.

Reader, art thou Christlike? Think.—Cong. Jour.