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addresses-第18章

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〃Well;〃 I know some boys will say; 〃we are going to have a good

time; enjoy life; and then we are going to seekLASTthe Kingdom

of God。〃



Now; that is mean; it is nothing else than mean for a boy to take

all the good gifts that God has given him; and then give him nothing

back in return but



His wasted life。



God wants boys' LIVES; not only their souls。  It is for active;

service that soldiers are drilled; and trained; and fed; and armed。

That is why you and I are in the world at allnot to prepare to

go out of it some day; but to serve God actively in it NOW。  It

is monstrous; and shameful; and cowardly to talk of seeking the

Kingdom LAST。  It is shirking duty; abandoning one's rightful post;

playing into the enemy's hand by doing nothing to turn his flank。

Every hour a Kingdom is coming in your heart; in your home; in the

world near you; be it a Kingdom of Darkness or a Kingdom of Light。

You are placed where you are; in a particular business; in a

particular street; to help on there the Kingdom of God。  You cannot

do that when you are old and ready to die。  By that time your

companions will have fought their fight; and lost or won。  If they

lose; will you not be sorry that you did not help them?  Will you

not regret that only at the last you helped the Kingdom of God?

Perhaps you will not be able to do it then。  And then your life

has been lost indeed。



Very few people have the opportunity to seek the Kingdom of God

at the end。  Christ; knowing all that; knowing that religion was

a thing for our life; not merely for our death…bed; has laid this

command upon us now:  〃Seek FIRST the Kingdom of God。〃



I am going to leave you with this text itself。  Every boy in the

world should obey it。



Boys; before you go to work to…morrow; before you go to sleep

to…night; resolve that; God helping you; you are going to seek

FIRST the Kingdom of God。  Perhaps some boys here are deserters;

they began once before to serve Christ; and they deserted。  Come

back again; come back again today!  Others have never enlisted at

all。  Will you not do it now?  You are old enough to decide。  The

grandest moment of a boy's life is that moment when he decides to

〃SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD。〃











The Changed Life:  The Greatest Need of the World。









God is all for quality; man is for quantity。  The immediate need

of the world at this moment is not more of us; but; if I may use

the expression; a better brand of us。  To secure ten men of an

improved type would be better than if we had ten thousand more of

the average Christians distributed all over the world。  There is

such a thing in the evangelistic sense as winning the whole world

and losing our own soul。  And the first consideration of our

own lifeour own spiritual relations to Godour own likeness to

Christ。  And I am anxious; briefly; to look at the right and the

wrong way of becoming like Christof becoming better men:  the

right and the wrong way of sanctification。



Let me begin by naming; and in part discarding some processes in

vogue already for producing better lives。  These processes are far

from wrong; in their place they may even be essential。  One ventures

to disparage them only because they do not turn out the most perfect

possible work。



1。  The first imperfect method is to rely on



Resolution。



In will power; in mere spasms of earnestness; there is no salvation。

Struggle; effort; even agony; have their place in Christianity; as

we shall see; but this is not where they come in。



In mid…Atlantic the Etruria; in which I was sailing; suddenly

stopped。  Something had gone wrong with the engines。  There were

five hundred able…bodied men on board the ship。  Do you think that

if we had gathered together and pushed against the mast we could

have pushed it on?



When one attempts to sanctify himself by effort; he is trying to

make his boat go by pushing against the mast。  He is like a drowning

man trying to lift himself out of the water by pulling at the hair

of his own head。



Christ held up this method almost to ridicule when He said; 〃Which

of you by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature?〃  Put down

that method forever as being futile。



The one redeeming feature of the self…sufficient method is thisthat

those who try it find out almost at once that it will not gain the

goal。



2。  Another experimenter says:  〃But that is not my method。  I have

seen the folly of a mere wild struggle in the dark。  I work on a

principle。  My plan is not to waste power on random effort; but to

concentrate on a single sin。  By taking



One at a time



and crucifying it steadily; I hope in the end to extirpate all。〃



To this; unfortunately; there are four objections:  For one thing;

life is too short; the name of sin is legion。  For another thing;

to deal with individual sins is to leave the rest of the nature

for the time untouched。  In the third place; a single combat with

a special sin does not affect the root and spring of the disease。

If you dam up a stream at one place; it will simply overflow higher

up。  If only one of the channels of sin be obstructed; experience

points to an almost certain overflow through some other part of the

nature。  Partial conversion is almost always accompanied by such

moral leakage; for the pent…up energies accumulate to the bursting

point; and the last state of that soul may be worse than the

first。  In the last place; religion does not consist in negatives;

in stopping this sin and stopping that。  The perfect character can

never be produced with a pruning knife。



3。  But a third protests:  〃So be it。  I make no attempt to stop

sins one by one。  My method is just the opposite。



I copy the virtues



one by one。〃



The difficulty about the copying method is that it is apt to be

mechanical。  One can always tell an engraving from a picture; an

artificial flower from a real flower。  To copy virtues one by one

has somewhat the same effect as eradicating the vices one by one;

the temporary result is an overbalanced and incongruous character。

Some one defines a PRIG as 〃a creature that is over…fed for its

size。〃  One sometimes finds Christians of this speciesover…fed

on one side of their nature; but dismally thin and starved looking

on the other。  The result; for instance; of copying Humility; and

adding it on to an otherwise worldly life; is simply grotesque。  A

rabid temperance advocate; for the same reason; is often the poorest

of creatures; flourishing on a single virtue; and quite oblivious

that his Temperance is making a worse man of him and not a better。

These are examples of fine virtues spoiled by association with

mean companions。  Character is a unity; and all the virtues must

advance together to make the perfect man。



This method of sanctification; nevertheless; is in the true direction。

It is only in the details of execution that it fails。


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