* C. H. Sptu^eon.
444 GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD
little ones, are infinitely more sacred spots, so near are they seen to lie to the gate of heaven. Common business rises in import- ance when by it you have to glorify your Saviour and serve your brother-men. Social and political problems of the hour do not claim less attention from the Christian, but more, because in them is wrapt up the welfare of that humanity for which Jesus suffered and which He calls upon us to seek and save along with Him. Christianity is so far from being a deadening influence, dulling one's concern in everything which touches the well-being of society, that it is precisely Christianity that has elevated this mean life by letting in upon it the light of eternity. It has brought into relief all its possibilities, and has made every small thing grand and every dull person noble by linking them to the destinies of our race — to the everlasting God and to the solemn cross of His dear Son.
^ Christ came that we might have life, and life in all its range. He was not like some who have even boasted that they care for nothing but immortal souls. In a far deeper sense than the Roman ever dreamed of, nothing that is human can be foreign to its incarnate Lord. Every creature of God claimed His loving sympathy. He could rejoice in the glory of the lilies and the joy of the birds. The beginning of His mighty signs He did at the marriage feast, and the first of His royal gifts was of the wine that maketh glad the heart of man. He feeds the multitude, and does not forget to command that something be given to the child to eat. He passes through a short and bright career of doing good. To the sick, and even to the dead, He gives the bounding joy of life restored ; and yet it is no formal gift, but the natural outflow of the loving spirit of the sinless man.^
If Richard Le Gallienne, in The Religion of a Literary Man, tells of a friend of his who lost her husband by a sudden and violent death. It was a heart-breaking tragedy, and some of her friends looked to see her sink beneath the shock. But she did not. With courage and self-command she came back from the grave- yard to resume her work. And when some of her friends marvelled at it, one who knew her intimately said, " No — she is a woman of many interests." That sounded strange, " a woman of many interests." What had that to do with her loss ? Simply this : her life was too large to be defeated by any loss death could inflict. It was not that she did not love her husband with " the love that makes the world a temple." But the power that
1 H. M. Gwatkin.
ST. JOHN X. lo 445
made her capable of one intense affection, made her capable of inviolable attachments to children, and friends, and mission schools, and charities. So when death left her a widow, instead of withdrawing herself from life's activities, she enshrined in her heart the memory of the absent one, and gave herself anew to the work of her life.^
3. The abundant life is a life of deep enjoyment. — A man is not fully living, who does not enjoy living. It is when we are weak and only half alive that life is a burden and a sigh. Fulness of life is fulness of joy. This Christ came to confer.
Life is gladness, save where Death has touched it in sickness, in sin, or in what the lawyers call the Act of God; and the gladness takes higher forms as we move up the scale of life. Only the higher animals can play, and only man can laugh with gladness. Then come the higher joys of social life, with their chequering of sorrow ; and yet again, crowning all and blending with them all, the joy that overcometh sorrow, the joy of peace with God, the peace that passeth understanding, the peace of Christ, the peace our own good Lord has left us.
Nothing is more interesting or more remarkable in the history of Christianity than the radiant joy which filled the hearts of its first disciples. Eead how " with gladness and singleness of heart " they " broke their bread," how they took " joyfully " even " the spoiling of their goods " ; how they went singing to their martyr- doms as to a festival. Go into the Catacombs and read the inscriptions inspired by their simple, happy faith. It was because the word and life of Christ " dwelt in them richly " that for very gladness they broke out into incessant "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." That is the ideal Christian tempera- ment. " Eejoice, and again I say unto you rejoice." But the joy will come only as the life comes. You have seen the sportive lamb in the meadows in the springtime. He is full of life and consequently full of joy in life. He frisks and gambols all the day long. " He leaps in useless leaps ; he leaps with all his legs up at once into the air " ; in his abounding life and happiness he cannot help it ; " and to the wise man every leap of that little heart is a new note of the heavenly anthem — fulness of life." And truly those who can accept Christ's revelation of the Father