PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Making the Most of Life
Miller, J. R. (James Russell), 1840-1912 · 50,222 words · 76 reading sections
A Word Of Introduction.
Produced by Al Haines Making the Most of Life AUTHOR OF "SILENT TIMES," "THINGS TO LIVE FOR," "BUILDING OF CHARACTER," "THE GOLDEN GATE OF PRAYER," ETC. "I am the Lord thy God Which teacheth to profit." ISAIAH. New York Copyright, 1891, by T. Y. CROWELL & Co. Alexander was accustomed to say; "Philip of Macedon …
272 wordsSECTION 2Making The Most Of Life.
I. MAKING THE MOST OF LIFE II. LAID ON GOD'S ALTAR III. CHRIST'S INTEREST IN OUR COMMON LIFE IV. THE POSSIBILITIES OF PRAYER V. GETTING CHRIST'S TOUCH VI. THE BLESSING OF A BURDEN VII. HEART-PEACE BEFORE MINISTRY VIII. MORAL CURVATURES IX. TRANSFIGURED LIVES X. THE INTERPRETATION OF SORROW XI. OTHER PEOPLE X…
774 wordsSECTION 3Making The Most Of Life.
These are simple illustrations of the law which applies also in human life. We must die to be useful--to be truly a blessing. Our Lord put this truth in a little parable, when he said that the seed must fall into the earth and die that it may bear fruit. Christ's own cross is the highest illustration of this. His frien…
659 wordsSECTION 4Making The Most Of Life.
The general assured him that it would be instant death for him to appear upon the field, but he begged so earnestly that the officer, admiring his noble devotion to humanity, could not refuse his request. Provided with a supply of water, the brave soldier stepped over the wall and went on his Christ-like errand. From b…
648 wordsSECTION 5Laid 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 wor…
703 wordsSECTION 6Laid On God'S Altar.
I look into the faces of a company of children, and I hear a whisper, saying: "By and by I will be a great blessing to many. By and by other lives will come and find nest and home in me. By and by the weary will sit in the shadow of my strength. By and by I will sit as comforter in a home of sorrow. By and by I will sp…
824 wordsSECTION 7Laid On God'S Altar.
There are many lives which to those who dwell close beside them seem to make no music. They pour out their strength in hard toil. They are shut up in narrow spheres. They dwell amid the noise and clatter of common task-work. They appear to be only striking wooden hammers on rattling, noisy keys. There can be nothing pl…
718 wordsSECTION 8Christ'S Interest In Our Common Life.
"So still, dear Lord, in every place Thou standest by the toiling folk With love and pity in thy face, And givest of thy help and grace To those who meekly bear the yoke." One of our Lord's after-resurrection appearances vividly pictures his loving interest in our common toil. While waiting for him to come to Gali…
677 wordsSECTION 9Christ'S Interest In Our Common Life.
Or our circumstances may have been rudely changed by some providence that has broken in upon our happy life. It may have been a death that cut off the income, or a reverse in business that swept away a fortune, and luxury and ease and the material refinements and elegances of wealth have to be exchanged for toil and pl…
801 wordsSECTION 10Christ'S Interest In Our Common Life.
Men, too, in their busy life, are continually called to struggle, ofttimes to suffer. Life is not easy for any who would live truly. Work is hard; burdens are heavy; responsibility is great; trials are sore; duty is large. Life's competitions are fierce; its rivalries are keen; its frictions sometimes grind men's very …
412 wordsSECTION 11The Possibilities Of Prayer.
"Ask and receive--'tis sweetly said; Yet what to plead for know I not, For wish is worsted, hope o'ersped, And aye to thanks returns my thought. If I would pray I've naught to say, But this, that God may be God still: For time to live So still to give, And sweeter than my wish his will." --DAVID A. WASSON. W…
664 wordsSECTION 12The Possibilities Of Prayer.
We need not trouble ourselves, therefore, if we cannot get our wishes into words when we pray, for God hears wishes, heart-longings, soul hungerings and thirstings. The things we cannot say in speech of the lips, we may ask God to take from our heart's speech. There is not the feeblest, faintest glimmer of a desire ris…
668 wordsSECTION 13The Possibilities Of Prayer.
Many of the richest possibilities of prayer lie beyond valleys of pain and sorrow. The best things of life cannot be gotten save at sore cost. When we pray for more holiness, we do not know what we are asking for; at least we do not know the price we must pay to get that which we ask. Our "Nearer, my God, to thee," mus…
694 wordsSECTION 14Getting Christ'S Touch.
"Unanswered yet? Faith cannot be unanswered. Her feet are firmly planted on the rock; Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted, Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock. She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer, And cries, It shall be done--sometime, somewhere." "This is life--to pour out love unstinted;…
697 wordsSECTION 15Getting Christ'S Touch.
But before we can be in the place of Christ to sorrowing, suffering, and struggling ones, we must have the mind in us that was in him. When St. Paul said, "The love of Christ constraineth me," he meant that he had the very love of Christ in him--the love that loved even the most unlovely, that helped even the most unwo…
681 wordsSECTION 16Getting Christ'S Touch.
She woke up with a sudden start, and looked into the boy's face. He had waked, too, and was looking very earnestly into her face. Sorry for her past disgust, and feeling in her heart a new compassion for him, she bent her face to his, and kissed him as tenderly as ever she had kissed babe of her own. With a startled lo…
723 wordsSECTION 17The Blessing Of A Burden.
"Then welcome each rebuff, That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand nor go. Be our joys three parts pain! Strive, and hold cheap the strain; Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe!" --ROBERT BROWNING. It is not always the easiest things that are the best thin…
684 wordsSECTION 18The Blessing Of A Burden.
Take again life's struggles and conflicts. There are, in the experience of each one, obstacles, hindrances, and difficulties, which make it hard to live successfully. Every one has to move onward and upward through ranks of resistances. This is true of physical life. Every baby that is born begins at once a struggle fo…
757 wordsSECTION 19The Blessing Of A Burden.
I saw a beautiful vase, and asked its story. Once it was a lump of common clay lying in the darkness. Then it was rudely dug out and crushed and ground in the mill, and then put upon the wheel and shaped, then polished and tinted and put into the furnace and burned. At last, after many processes, it stood upon the tabl…
662 wordsSECTION 20The Blessing Of A Burden.
There is no need to try to solve that old, yet always new, question of human hearts, "Why does God permit so much suffering in his children?" It is idle to ask this question, and all efforts at answering it are not only vain, but they are even irreverent. We may be sure, however, of one thing, that in every pain and tr…
612 wordsSECTION 21Heart-Peace Before Ministry.
"Like the star That shines afar, Without haste And without rest, Let each man wheel, with steady sway, Round the task that rules the day, And do his best." --GOETHE. Peace in the heart is one of the conditions of good work. We cannot do our best in anything if we are fretted and anxious. A feverish heart makes …
719 wordsSECTION 22Heart-Peace Before Ministry.
But there are other fevers besides those which burn in men's bodies. There are heart-fevers which may rage within us, even when our bodies are in perfect health. We find people with feverish spirits--unhappy, discontented, fretted, worried, perhaps insubmissive and rebellious. Or they may be in a fever of fear or dread…
842 wordsSECTION 23Heart-Peace Before Ministry.
There are many busy mothers to whom this lesson may come almost as a revelation. No hands are fuller of tasks, no heart is fuller of cares, than the hands and the heart of a mother of a large family of young children. It is little wonder if sometimes she loses her sweetness of spirit in the pressure of care that is upo…
262 wordsSECTION 24Moral Curvatures.
"I think we are too ready with complaint In this fair world of God's. Had we no hope Indeed beyond the zenith and the slope Of yon gray blank sky, we might grow faint To muse upon eternity's constraint Round our aspirant souls; but since the scope Must widen early, is it well to droop, For a few days consumed in…
749 wordsSECTION 25Moral Curvatures.
There is also a bending of the life by sorrow. The experience of sorrow is scarcely less perilous than that of temptation. The common belief is that grief always makes people better. But this is not true. If the sufferer submits to God with loving confidence, and is victorious through faith, sorrow's outcome is blessin…
719 wordsSECTION 26Moral Curvatures.
Men never break down so long as they keep a happy, joyous heart. It is the sad heart that tires. Whatever our load, we should always keep a songful spirit in our breast. There are two ways of meeting hard experiences. One way is to struggle and resist, refusing to yield. The result is, the wounding of the soul and the …
433 wordsSECTION 27Transfigured Lives.
"The lives which seem so poor, so low, The hearts which are so cramped and dull, The baffled hopes, the impulse slow, Thou takest, touchest all, and lo! They blossom to the beautiful." --SUSAN COOLIDGE. Every Christian's life should be transfigured. There is a sense in which even a true believer's body becomes tr…
664 wordsSECTION 28Transfigured Lives.
If, therefore, we live with Christ, abide in him, the close, continued companionship with him will change us into his likeness. Personal friendship with Christ in this world is as possible as any merely human friendship. The companionship is spiritual, but it is real. The devout Christian has no other friend who enters…
757 wordsSECTION 29The Interpretation Of Sorrow.
"Wonderful the whiteness of thy glory; Can we truly that perfection share? Yes; our lives are pages of thy story, We thy shape and superscription bear; Tarnished forms--torn leaves--but thou canst mend them, Thou thine own completeness canst unfold From our imperfections, and wilt end them-- Dross consuming, tur…
697 wordsSECTION 30The Interpretation Of Sorrow.
The comfort in such a grief, is that which comes through faith in God even in the sore pain. The child was given to God in his infancy, and was brought up as God's child along his early years. Who will say that he may not yet, in some way, at some time, be brought back to God? The daily burden may then daily be laid in…
777 wordsSECTION 31The Interpretation Of Sorrow.
Has not this writer in his own last suggestion stated what should be done by those who are perplexed with questions as to the interpretation of sorrow? They should not anxiously inquire concerning the specific lessons, but rather let God show in due time what he designed. No doubt every sorrow has a mission. It comes t…
684 wordsSECTION 32The Interpretation Of Sorrow.
Beyond these two wide, general lessons of all sorrow, it usually is not wise to press our question, "Why is it?" It is better for us so to relate ourselves to God in every time of trial, that we may not hinder the coming to us of any blessing he may send, but on the other hand, may receive with quiet, sweet welcome wha…
399 wordsSECTION 33Other People.
"We need--each and all--to be needed, To feel we have something to give Towards soothing the moan of earth's hunger; And we know that then only we live When we feed one another, as we have been fed From the hand that gives body and spirit their bread." --LUCY LARCOM. There are other people. We are not the only o…
668 wordsSECTION 34Other People.
"Dear Lord, will it not do, If we return not wrong for wrong, And neither love nor hate? But love--O Lord, our souls are far from strong, And love is such a tender, home-nursed dove-- How can we, Lord, our enemies bless and love? "Fasting--Oh, one could fast-- And praying--one could most pathetic pray; But love…
704 wordsSECTION 35Other People.
We begin to felicitate ourselves upon some special prosperity, and the next moment some human need knocks at our door, and we must share our good things with a suffering brother. We may build up our fine theories of taking care of ourselves, of living for the future, of laying up in the summer of prosperity for the win…
643 wordsSECTION 36The Blessing Of Faithfulness.
"It must be done by both; God never without me, I never without God." --JOHANNES SCHEFFLER. "Faithful servant" will be the commendation on the judgment-day of those who have lived well on the earth. Not great deeds will be commended, but faithfulness. The smallest ministries will rank with the most conspicuous, if t…
836 wordsSECTION 37The Blessing Of Faithfulness.
So we may apply the principle to all kinds of work. The faithfulness which God requires must reach to everything we do, to the way the child gets its lessons and recites them, to the way the dressmaker and the tailor sew their seams, to the way the blacksmith welds the iron, and shoes the horse, to the way the plumber …
650 wordsSECTION 38Without Axe Or Hammer.
"Souls are built as temples are,-- Based on truth's eternal law, Sure and steadfast, without flaw, Through the sunshine, through the snows, Up and on the building goes; Every fair thing finds its place, Every hard thing lends a grace, Every hand may make or mar." We read of the temple of Solomon, when it was in…
681 wordsSECTION 39Without Axe Or Hammer.
We are the stones, and the world is God's quarry. The stones for the temple were cut out of the great rock in the dark underground cavern. They were rough and shapeless. Then they were dressed into form, and this required a great deal of cutting, hammering, and chiselling. Without this stern, sore work on the stones, n…
651 wordsSECTION 40Without Axe Or Hammer.
So it is of all great thoughts. Thinkers brood long in the silence and then come forth and their eloquence sways us. So it is with art. We look at a fine picture and our hearts are warmed by its wondrous beauty. But do we know the story of the picture? Years and years of thought and of tireless toil lie back of its enr…
486 wordsSECTION 41Doing Things Fob Christ.
"We can best minister to him by helping them Who dare not touch his hallowed garment's hem; Their lives are even as ours--one piece, one plan. Him know we not, him shall we never know, Till we behold him in the least of these Who suffer or who sin. In sick souls he Lies bound and sighing, asks our sympathies; Th…
731 wordsSECTION 42Doing Things Fob Christ.
"And in my dream I saw you there, And heard you say, 'No hands can bear A gift, that are so filled with care.' "What care?' the King said, and he smiled To hear you answer, wailing wild, 'I only toil to feed a child.' "And then with such a look divine ('Twas that awaked me with its shine), He whispered, 'But th…
662 wordsSECTION 43Doing Things Fob Christ.
The records of Christian ministry are full of such good work done unintentionally. Failing to leave a blessing where it was hoped a blessing would be received, it blessed some other life. We may not say that any good work has failed until we know in the last great harvest all the results of the things we have done and …
502 wordsSECTION 44Helping And Over-Helping.
"As we meet and touch each day The many travellers on our way, Let every such brief contact be A glorious, helpful ministry; The contact of the soil and seed, Each giving to the other's need, Each helping on the other's best, And blessing each as well as blest." Even kindness may be overdone. One may be too gen…
708 wordsSECTION 45Helping And Over-Helping.
Too often our friendship is most short-sighted in this regard, and most hurtful to those we fervently desire to aid. We should never indulge or encourage weakness in others when we can in any way stimulate it into strength. We should never do anything for another which we can inspire him to do for himself. Much parenta…
652 wordsSECTION 46The Only One.
So all personal helpfulness should be wise and thoughtful. It should never tend to pamper weakness, to encourage dependence, to make people timid, to debilitate manliness and womanliness, to make parasites of those who turn to us with their burdens and needs. We must take care that our helping does not dwarf any life w…
756 wordsSECTION 47The Only One.
Or it may be in the workshop or in the school that the young Christian must stand alone. He returns from the Lord's Table to his week-day duties, full of noble impulses, but finds himself the only Christian in the place where his duty leads him. His companions are ready to sneer, and they point the finger of scorn at h…
784 wordsSECTION 48The Only One.
We can understand how that if the great prophet had failed God that day when he was the only one God had to stand for him, the consequences would have been most disastrous; the cause of God would have suffered irreparably. But are we sure that the calamity to Christ's kingdom would be any less if one of us should fail …
650 wordsSECTION 49Swiftness In Duty.
Mr. Sill illustrates this truth in one of his poems, where, speaking of the young, "led on by courage and immortal hope, and with the morning in their hearts," he says:-- "They to the disappointed earth shall give The lives we meant to live, Beautiful, free, and strong; The light we almost had Shall make them glad…
755 wordsSECTION 50Swiftness In Duty.
We ought to catch our Master's spirit in this celerity in the Father's business. Time is short and duty is large. There is not a moment to lose, if, in our allotted period, we would finish the work that is given us to do. We need to get our Lord's "straightway" into our life, so that we shall hasten from duty to duty, …
752 wordsSECTION 51Swiftness In Duty.
"Now, observe, Sustaining is no brilliant self-display Like knocking down or even setting up: Much bustle these necessitate; and still To vulgar eye, the mightier of the myth Is Hercules, who substitutes his own For Atlas' shoulder and supports the globe A whole day,--not the passive and obscure Atlas who bore,…
372 wordsSECTION 52The Shadows We Cast.
"The smallest bark on life's tumultuous ocean Will leave a track behind for evermore; The slightest wave of influence set in motion Extends and widens to the eternal shore." Every one of us casts a shadow. There hangs about us a sort of penumbra,--a strange, indefinable something,--which we call personal influence,…
770 wordsSECTION 53The Shadows We Cast.
"Alike are life and death When life in death survives, And the uninterrupted breath Inspires a thousand lives. "Were a star quenched on high, For ages would its light, Still travelling downward from the sky, Shine on our mortal sight. "So when a great man dies, For years beyond our ken The light he leaves beh…
784 wordsSECTION 54The Meaning Of Opportunities.
We should keep watch not only over our words and deeds in their intent and purpose, but also in their possible influence over others. There may be liberties which in us lead to no danger, but which to others, with less stable character and less helpful environment, would be full of peril. It is part of our duty to thin…
692 wordsSECTION 55The Meaning Of Opportunities.
There is something truly startling in this irreparableness of the past, this irrevocableness of the losses which we have suffered through our follies or our sins. About two centuries ago a great sun-dial was erected in All Souls' College, Oxford, England, the largest and noblest dial, it is said, in the whole kingdom. …
708 wordsSECTION 56The Meaning Of Opportunities.
Opportunities come to all. The days of every life are full of them. But the trouble with too many of us is that we do not make anything out of them while we have them. Then next moment they are gone. One man goes through life sighing for opportunities. If only he had this or that gift, or place, or position, he would d…
661 wordsSECTION 57The Sin Of Ingratitude.
"God broke our years to hours and days, that hour by hour And day by day Just going on a little way, We might be able all along To keep quite strong. Should all the weight of life Be laid across our shoulder, and the future, rife With woe and struggle, meet us face to face At just one place, We could not go, …
692 wordsSECTION 58The Sin Of Ingratitude.
"I've heard of hearts unkind, Kind deeds with coldness still returning; Alas! the gratitude of men Hath left me oftener mourning." However, Archdeacon Farrar, referring to these words, says, "If Wordsworth found gratitude a common virtue, his experience must have been exceptional." There certainly are hearts unkind…
699 wordsSECTION 59The Sin Of Ingratitude.
There is yet more of this lesson. Gratitude, to fulfil its gentle ministry, must find some fitting expression. It is not enough that it be cherished in the heart. There are many good people who fail at this point. They are really thankful for the good others do to them. They feel kindly enough in their hearts toward th…
678 wordsSECTION 60The Sin Of Ingratitude.
"Think of that moment, ye who reckon close With love--so much for every gentle thought, The moment when love's richest gifts are naught: When a pale flower, upon a pulseless breast, Like your regret, exhales its sweets in vain." But it is not enough that we be grateful and show our gratitude to the human friends w…
522 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.