Article November 29, 1913 Issue

From Our Exchanges

with contributions from W. E. Orchard, Asa Sleeth

[Rev. W. E. Orchard, D.D., in The Christian Commonwealth]

How vast and absolutely infinite are the ideals which can be discerned within, if we only care to bear the sight; the purity, infinity, and worshipful loveliness we can know, if we dare. Untrodden by most beyond the merest fringe, there nevertheless touches our nature on its ideal side something which is as vast as the thought of God, and which, however neglected by us, is still the characteristic of human personality. And if we are sincere all round, in the light of this how we loathe, hate, and mourn what we actually are! We are compelled to brush aside every excuse, and admit that we are this lower thing, because we do not care, because we do not desire anything else with any vehemence, and because we are unwilling to pay the price. Why this should be I have not the faintest idea. I know nothing that explains it at all; but the facts are clear enough. There is a duality in us which was reconciled in Christ.

And whatever the secret of reconciliation was in Christ, that secret is the only thing that can bring reconciliation to us. There is nothing for us but to grow conscious of God, until in worship and love we become like Him. It is incorrect to say that with us this has to be attained, while with Christ it was given, merely received, begotten in him by the Father's good pleasure. A very little experiment with the way of struggle shows that with us, too, it is more a matter of receiving than of attaining, and the New Testament speaks of the Christian nature also as a thing begotten of God. And on the other side stands love to man as the one purpose of life and the one source of happiness. Until we, too, have learned to identify ourselves with others, any search for human happiness is waste of time. There is no other way but the way of Jesus. It is useless to look elsewhere. He has our secret.

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