We may keep our life if we will, carefully preserving it
from waste; but we shall have no reward, no honor from it, at the last.
But if we empty it out in loving service, we shall make it a lasting
blessing to the world, and we shall be remembered forever.
CHAPTER II.
LAID ON GOD'S ALTAR.
"My life is not my own, but Christ's, who gave it,
And he bestows it upon all the race;
I lose it for his sake, and thus I save it;
I hold it close, but only to expend it;
Accept it, Lord, for others, through thy grace."
We have to die to live. That is the central law of life. We must burn
to give light to the world, or to give forth odor of incense to God's
praise. We cannot save ourselves and at the same time make anything
worthy of our life, or be in any deep and true sense an honor to God
and a blessing to the world. The altar stands in the foreground of
every life, and can be passed by only at the cost of all that is
noblest and best.
All the practical side of religion is summed up in the exhortation of
St. Paul, that we present our bodies a living sacrifice to God.
Anciently, a man brought a lamb and presented it to God, laid it on the
altar, to be consumed by God's fire. In like manner, we are to present
our bodies. The first thing is not to be a worker, a preacher, a saver
of souls; the very first thing in a Christian life is to present one's
self to God, to lay one's self on the altar.
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