The
life we live is being read. We are not going through the
world unnoticed. Some one is looking on, and some one is
to some extent fashioning his life after ours. Our life
each day is being written down in some one's memory. My
own dear children group around me at times and talk of
their mother, who has gone to heaven. Her pure and holy
life written in their memory is read over and over to each
other and to me. She still lives as an epistle in their
hearts. They read her daily life while she was with them,
and they continue to read it since she is gone. Christians
are said to be the epistle of Christ (2 Cor. 3:3). To read
their life is to read the life of Jesus. All the Bible
that many will ever read is what they read in the lives of
Christians.
Life will be read just as it is,
not as it may pretend to be. It is not what we pretend to
be, but what we really are, that will go down in the
memory of others. Those who read our lives have a way of
reading between the lines. We should strive not so much to
make life holy as to be holy. If you are holy, then live
just what you are. We should never strive to be what we
are not. The only way whereby the Bible may be read in the
life is to get it in the heart. People will never read the
Word of God in your life simply because you have a neat
little Testament in your pocket or a large family Bible on
your center table. The Bible can get into the life only by
beginning at the heart. There is power in the Word of God,
but it works from within. "Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly." It will transform the life so
that the life will read just like the Holy Scriptures.
The Word of God is a lamp to light
us into a holy life. If we follow its instructions in
righteousness, it will make us perfect. It reveals our
imperfections and thus gives us an opportunity to make
improvements. To discover an imperfection in the life is
not a bad thing, and we need not think we are any the
worse for the discovery. It is only when we let the
imperfection remain after it is revealed to us, that we
become worse.
The heart that comes under the
influence of the Bible will bear the image of Jesus, but
of this I shall have more to say elsewhere. So I conclude
here by saying, live upon the Word of God, desire the
sincere milk of the Word, and you will be an epistle of
Christ. We should feel the responsibility that is upon us,
remembering that all the Bible some will ever read is what
they read in your life and mine. Oh! let us see that it
reads in our life as it does in the book, lest those who
follow us will not walk in the footprints of Jesus.
