Life and Literature Part 24

--_From Thoughts for Every-day Living._

311

He that thinks he hath no need of Christ hath too high thoughts of himself. He that thinks Christ can not help him hath too low thoughts of Christ.

--_John Mason._

312

A Christian is the highest style of man.

--_Young._

313

He that is a good man, is three-quarters of his way towards the being a good Christian, wheresoever he lives, or whatsoever he is called.

--_South._

314

There is no fire without heat, No light without brightness, No voice without sound, No water without moisture, And there is no Christian Who is not Christlike.

--_Rev. L. W. Irwin._

315

As Henry Drummond, on board a government packet, was steaming away from that group of islands known as the New Hebrides, after having visited the missions there, he was asked by a fellow-pa.s.senger who had been visiting the islands for a very different purpose, what good the missionary had been to those people. "My dear young man," said Drummond, "only for the missionary, you and I, instead of being in this cabin, would probably by this time have been inside some of those savages, as you call them, who waved us such an affectionate farewell from their sh.o.r.es." Yes, Christianity is now recognized the world over, as foremost among the moral forces that are civilizing the dark corners of the earth. Even Matthew Arnold was forced to admit that there is no civilization without it. "Show me," he said, "ten square miles outside of Christianity where the life of man or woman is safe, and I'll throw over Christianity at once."

--_From the Missionary Outlook._

316

Christmas is truly merry only to those who think of others.

317

PLENTY OF ROOM.

A visiting bishop, in Was.h.i.+ngton, was arguing with a senator on the desirability of attending church. At last he put the question squarely: "What is your personal reason for not attending?"

The senator smiled in a no-offense-intended way, as he replied: "The fact is, one finds so many hypocrites there."

Returning the smile, the bishop said:

"Don't let that keep you away, senator; there's always room for one more."

--_Evening Post._

318

Some bring their clothes to church rather than themselves.

319

Bare communion with a good church can never alone make a good man.

--_Dr. South._

320

HOW THE CHURCH MUST GROW.

It has seemed sometimes in recent years as if the deaths were more than the births. This has brought home to the Church the absolute need of the revival of religion if Christianity is not to perish from the world which it has re-made. The Church is not an establishment in the world, but an encampment. She has no natural increase. She lives only by capture, by winning over from the world the citizens that make her number. One must arm another with the Christian panoply, if the Church is to continue.

--_The British Weekly._

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HOW TO WARM UP THE CHURCH.

I was once preaching in Scotland, and when I got to the church it was so cold that I could see my breath three feet away, said Rev. D. L. Moody.

I said to the "beadle," as they call him:

"Aren't you going to have any heat in this building?"

He said they had no stoves or any other provision for heat.

"Well, how do you expect people to get warm?"

"Oh!" he said, "we expect the pulpit to warm us up."

NOTE: _In Dr. Guthrie's Autobiography_, vol. I, page 125--Describing the first church he became pastor of, in Arbirlot, in 1830, he says: "As to stoves, they were never thought of--the pulpit had to keep the people warm."

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