Article July 1, 1916 Issue

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with contributions from Joseph Fort Newton, Robert P. Doremus, Henry Kingman, L. George Buchanan

[Rev. Joseph Fort Newton, D.Litt., in The Christian Commonwealth]

The author of the epistle to the Hebrews — one of the most subtle and beautiful minds among all the writers of the New Testament — tells us that Christ was made perfect through suffering, and that he was made what he was by the power of an endless life. What is that endless life which by an incredible magic gave to a brief life lived long ago the power not only to endure and increase but to stir and exalt us today as no other power known among men? He himself told us when he said, in that sublime, ineffable prayer at the close of his earthly ministry, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Truly here is a truth which we have not enough considered, one worthy of a long pondering and attuned to all the sweet hopes and memories of this day, — the revealing, redeeming, and constructive power of an endless life.

Manifestly by the endless life is meant something more than extent of time, though there is a grandeur and a terror also in that outlook. That there is no escape from life, no hiding in death; that life will pursue us forever; that there is no rest till we learn to live nobly,—that is a thought to fill us with awe. But mere extent of time, in itself a colorless illusion, has no power except what we bring to it and put into it. In time, it is true, man amasses truth, trains his choices, and learns to beautify his days; but each day brings to us only what we bring to it.

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