The Stuff of Manhood: Some Needed Notes in American CharacterSpeer, Robert E. (Robert Elliott)
Philosophy
The Stuff of Manhood: Some Needed Notes in American Character
Speer, Robert E. (Robert Elliott)
Character; Christian life; Conduct of life; Moral education
And it is not only for great men that God is calling to do these
indispensable tasks for Him. He wants the great men, no doubt, but He
wants, more than that, the great mass of the common men. After all,
the great man is only one man, and every little man counts just as
many as one great man. Since God has to have all, one little man is
as indispensable to the all as one great man can be. And until He has
all, He cannot do what He purposes to do. It is only when we _all_ come
“unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” that any
one of us can come. It is only when we “comprehend with _all_ saints,
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the love
of Christ, that any one of us can comprehend it. It is only when we
_all_ reflect as in a mirror the character of Christ that any one of
us shall be “changed ... from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of
the Lord.” And the little men, as a matter of fact, are doing as much
as the great. The night that Gough stood alone, with all hope gone, a
drunkard in the gutter, an almost forgotten man laid his hand on his
shoulder and said, “Man, there is a better life than this for you.”
The name of that man is remembered by a few, but forgotten by the
multitudes who will never forget the name of John B. Gough, or cease to
feel the glow of the fires which he kindled to blaze until the Judgment
Day. Even a little man may fill such an indispensable place as that of
helping God lay hold of a great man who will be one of the unmistakable
forces of God.
And it is not only every man that is indispensable to God, but also
every bit of every man. We cannot take some sections of our lives and
eliminate them as though they were not indispensable to God. There can
be no schism between a man’s public and his private life. His hands
and what he does with them, his imaginings and where they go when
he is alone by himself without any coercing, these are just as much
indispensable to God as a man’s public worship or any of his activities
in the open ministry of Christ’s kingdom. It is every bit of the
man――body, soul, and spirit――that is indispensable to God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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