Hurlbut's Life of Christ For Young and Old: A Complete Life of Christ Written in Simple Language, Based on the Gospel NarrativeHurlbut, Jesse Lyman
Religion
Hurlbut's Life of Christ For Young and Old: A Complete Life of Christ Written in Simple Language, Based on the Gospel Narrative
Hurlbut, Jesse Lyman
Jesus Christ -- Biography
"In the shipyard stood the Master,
With the model of the vessel
That should laugh at all disaster,
And with wave and whirlwind wrestle."
Well, we are all builders. Each one of us, boy or girl, man or woman, is
building for himself what no one else can build for him: his character,
what he is to be, whether good or bad, whether wise or ignorant, whether
noble or selfish. And in building up ourselves we need a model, one
perfect man, on whom we can look and whose life we can copy. That model
we can find in Jesus. He lived our life, and in living showed us how we
should live. Even a little child may say, "Jesus was once a little
child; and I will try my best to be just such a child as he was." A boy
of twelve may think of Jesus as a boy and resolve to live as Jesus
lived. The young man, working in a shop, or office, or in the field, may
take Jesus the workingman for his pattern. When Jesus was on the earth,
he said many times, and to different people, "Follow me!" He says it to
every one of us. But if we are to follow Jesus and to be like him, the
best man that ever lived, we must study him, must know about his life,
must have every story of him in our mind and in our heart; and that is
another reason why every one should know the story of Jesus.
It is now almost two thousand years since Jesus lived on the earth and
walked among men. Since he came, the world has become a different world,
just as far as they have heard the story of Jesus and have learned to
follow him. People have become less selfish and more thoughtful of
others, more willing to help others, more generous in giving to others.
Think of all the homes for the poor, of all the hospitals for the sick,
of all the places where little children are cared for, of the
playgrounds, of the love shown at Christmas time, of ten thousand ways
in which the world is better. And then remember that all these good
things come from Jesus Christ and his love in the hearts of men. But for
Jesus, this would have been a dark world. The proof of this is that
these good things are to be seen only in the lands where Jesus is known
and loved and followed. Look at the lands where Christ is unknown and
you find them dark and sad. There is still much to be done to make this
a perfect world. We see terrible wars, and the poor still suffering
wrong, and many people still selfish and cruel to their fellow-men. What
can we do to make this a better and a brighter world? We can do as Jesus
did. It was said of him, "He went about doing good"; and that may be
said of us if we will follow Christ. But to make this world good, we
must know him who is its power for goodness; and that is another reason
why every one should know the story of Jesus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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