Quiet Talks on ServiceGordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Religion
Quiet Talks on Service
Gordon, S. D. (Samuel Dickey)
Christian life
That lonely-lifed, sore-hearted woman on the Nain road looked with
startled wonder out of those wet eyes of hers as Jesus begins talking to
her dead son. What love and faith must have been in her looking as Jesus
with fine touch brings her boy by the hand over to her warm embrace again!
We are Changed.
Looking at Jesus _changes us._ Paul's famous bit in the second Corinthian
letter has a wondrous tingle of gladness in it. "We all with open face
beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are changed from glory to
glory."[2] The change comes through our looking. The changing power comes
in through the eyes. It is the glory of the Lord that is seen. The
glorious Jesus looking in through our looking eyes changes us. It is
gradual. It is ever more, and yet more, till by and by His own image comes
out fully in our faces.
We become like those with whom we associate. A man's ideals mold him.
Living with Jesus makes us look like Himself. We are familiar with the
work that has been done in restoring old fine paintings. A painting by one
of the rare old master painters is found covered with the dust of decades.
Time has faded out much of the fine coloring and clearly marked outlines.
With great patience and skill it is worked over and over. And something of
the original beauty, coming to view again, fully repays the workman for
all his pains.
The original image in which we were made has been badly obscured and faded
out. But if we give our great Master a chance He will restore it through
our eyes. It will take much patience and a skill nothing less than divine.
But the original will surely come out more and more till we shall again be
like the original, for we shall _see_ Him as He is.
The old German artist Hoffmann is said to visit at intervals the royal
gallery in Dresden, where he lives, to touch up his paintings there. Even
so our Master, living in us, keeps touching us up that the full beauty of
His ideal may be brought out.
How often a girl growing up into the fullness of her mature young
womanhood calls out the remark, "You are growing more and more like your
mother." And the similar remark is heard of a young man developing the
traits and features of his father.
There is a law of unconscious assimilation. We become like those with whom
we go. Without being conscious of it we take on the characteristics of
those with whom we live. I remember one time my brother returned home for
a visit after a prolonged absence. As we were walking down the street
together he said to me, "You have been going with Denning a good deal"--a
mutual friend of ours. Surprised, I said, "How do you know I have?" He
said, "You walk just like him." What my brother had said was strictly
true, though he did not know it. Our friend had a very decided way of
walking. As a matter of fact, we had been walking home from the Young
Men's Christian Association three or four nights every week. And
unconsciously I had grown to imitate his way of walking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account