True religion will manifest itself in every phase of life. We sit down in the quiet and read our Bible–and get our lesson. We know it now–but we have not as yet got it into our life–which is the thing we must really do.
Knowing that we should love our enemies, is not the ultimate thing–actually loving our enemies is.
Knowing that we should be patient, is not all–we are to practice the lesson of patience, until it has become a habit in our life.
Many know the cardinal duties of Christian life–who yet have not learned to live them. It is living them, however, that is true religion.
It must always be our aim, to live our religion–to get Christ’s love of our heart, wrought out in a blessed ministry of kindness to others. Christ lives in us; and it is ours to manifest the life of Christ in our daily living.
We worship God on Sunday–in order to gather strength and grace to live for God in the six days that follow. It is evident therefore, that it is in the experiences of weekday life, far more than in the quiet of the Sunday worship and the closet, that the real tests of religion come.
It is easy to assent with our mind to the commandments, when we sit in the church, enjoying the services. But the assent of the life itself can be obtained, only when we are out in the midst of temptation and duty, in contact with others. There it is, alone, that we can get the commandments wrought into ways of obedience, and lines of character. This is the final object of all Christian teaching and worship–the transforming of our life into the beauty of Christ!
James Russell Miller (March 20, 1840 – July 2, 1912)
was a popular and prolific Christian author.