| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 2 |
Page 6 |
We have been used so long to easy going self indulgent ways that our ideal of true Christian life is low. The best in us never has been called out. Perhaps none of us ever has risen to his best in anything. The boys and girls have not reached their best in school – they might have done better. The artist’s picture might have been a little more beautiful, a little more artistic in its technique, a little finer in its sentiment. The singer might have sung her song a little better, with more heart, more sweetly, with less of self consciousness. The best day any of us ever lived we might have made a little whiter, fuller of duties done, more sacred in its memories. In Christian life, not one of us is as good, as useful, as unselfish, as thoughtful, as holy in influence, as we might be. We should get this great word “glory,” as defining our life, so fixed in our minds that we shall never forget it. The word calls us to our best. No other living is worthy. Recently a Swiss vase, about sixteen inches in height, was put up at auction. It was dated 1763, A.D. No history of it was given. But the vase was so exquisite in its beauty and so surely genuine, that it brought more than twenty thousand dollars. Yet this rare thing was once a mere lump of common clay with a few moist colours on it. The value was in the toil and skill of the artist who shaped and coloured it with such delicate patience. He did his best, and the vase witnesses today to his devotion and faithfulness.
The frieze on the Parthenon at Athens was chiefly the work of Phidias. The figures were life size and stood fifty feet above the floor of the temple. For nearly two thousand years the work remained undisturbed. Near the close of the seventeenth century the frieze was shattered and its fragments fell upon the pavement. Then it was seen that in the smallest detail the work was perfect. Phidias had wrought for the eyes of the gods, for no human eyes could see his work. We should do perfect work, even when we work most obscurely, for nothing less is worthy the glory of our own life. We should set higher ideals for ourselves. We are not worms of the dust – we are immortal spirits, and this dignifies the lowest thing we do. Sweeping a room for Christ is glorious work. Cobbling shoes may be made as radiant service in Heaven’s sight as angel ministry before God’s throne. The glory is in ourselves and we must express it in all that we do.
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