Living for the BestMcClure, James G. K. (James Gore King)
Religion
Living for the Best
McClure, James G. K. (James Gore King)
Christian life; Spiritual life
There is nothing weak in this character of Jonathan. Let him who can
reproduce it. Christ said of John the Baptist, "There hath not been born
of women a greater than he," because John, free from envy, was so full
of love that he rejoiced to see Christ come into a recognition that
absolutely displaced John. By these words of Christ John is made to loom
up as no other character of his day. Jonathan was John's prototype--a
massive man, a man of momentum, a man of absolute fearlessness, whose
virtues were crowned by his generous, protecting, self-effacing love. No
wonder that when word reached David that Jonathan had been slain in
fierce battle his heart poured out the greatest elegy of history--an
elegy that has been sung and resung for thousands of years--"How are the
mighty fallen! I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; very
pleasant hast thou been unto me. Thy love to me was wonderful, passing
the love of women. How are the mighty fallen and the weapons of war
perished!" Noticeable it is that the supreme elegy of the Old Testament
is on the man who had a heart of unselfish devotion, Jonathan; and that
the one elegy of the New Testament pronounced by Christ, is likewise on
the man who had a heart of unselfish devotion, John the Baptist. The
greatest possession any one can have is a loving heart--a heart that
generously recognizes worth in another and tries to make place for that
worth; a heart that guards another's interests, even though such
guarding costs intercession; a heart that gladly surrenders its own
advantage that another may advance to the place which might be its own.
No one can tell another how and when the heart of love should show
itself. All that can be told is this: "Let any one be pervaded by love
as Jonathan was, and in that one's home, in that one's business, and in
that one's pleasures God will provide him occasion upon occasion for
living that love." The love that a man gives away is the only love his
heart can retain. The man that has such a heart of love has the
sweetest, happiest, gladdest possession that can be obtained on earth or
in heaven. All the money in the world leaves a man poor if his heart is
bitter. All the poverty that can come to a man finds him rich if his
heart is glad and strong. Love is the only possession that a man can
carry with him to heaven and always keep with him in heaven. He lives
for eternity who lives for love.
"The one great purpose of creation--love,
The sole necessity of earth and heaven."
USING ARIGHT OUR BEST HOURS.
CHAPTER VIII.
USING ARIGHT OUR BEST HOURS.
Every writer who has described what we call opportunity has insisted
upon the necessity of seizing opportunity as it flies. We are told that
there is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at its proper moment
leads us on to fortune. It is also asserted that once at least there
comes into every one's life a special hour which used aright has much to
do with assuring his permanent welfare.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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