By J.R. Miller
We receive help in our Christian lives, through many channels. But more, perhaps, than we are aware of, does God use other human hearts and lives as his agents in blessing and helping us. Every true Christian is sent among men to be an interpreter of Christ. No one can see Christ in his invisible glory, and therefore we who know him and love him, and in whom he dwells--are to be his interpreters. Every faithful follower of the Master is the bearer of blessings, from the great fountain of infinite life and love. In every pure, true, worthy friend whom God gives to us, he sends to us a little measure of his own love and grace.
If this divine affection is in us--we shall desire to be a blessing to everyone we meet, to impart to him some good. If this meaning of Christian love is realized, even imperfectly, it will make the followers of Christ mutually and reciprocally helpful to each other. There are many ways in which Christians should minister to each other's happiness and good.
There is help in fellowship. When two walk together--one strengthens the other. One log will not burn alone--but when two or more are laid together, one kindles the other and the flame grows hot. Christian life cannot reach its best, in solitude. Jesus had a reason for sending out his disciples two by two. One helped the other in many ways. If one was discouraged, the other would hearten him. If one was growing indifferent, the other would quicken his love. Then the value of their work was more than doubled, for the strength and skill of one--would supplement the weakness and inadequacy of the other. In prayer two are better than one, for faith inspires faith and fervency kindles fervency.
Example also has its value. We see one person living sweetly, beautifully, victoriously, and there arises in us--a desire to live as he does. There is an influence of life upon life, which is pervasive and resistless.
There is an education of great value, which results from the contact of life with life. Students often get more from each other and from their personal relations with their teachers--than they get from books. It is so in all association. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17
Thus people are means of grace to us. Some think, that in order to be holy--one must flee away from the world, even from friends--and live alone! But this is a totally mistaken concept of godly living. We grow best among people. Even the keen, sharp contacts which bruise and hurt--have their part in making godly men of us. There are lessons we never could learn--but in the midst of people, tied up in human fellowships. We could not learn patience--if we had not calls for exercising patience in our daily associations. We could never grow to be thoughtful, if the duty were not set for us, with abundant opportunity for practice, in our home, in our friendships, in our comradeship with others.
Some of us could never have been cured of our insane self-conceit, if we had not been hurled into the dust and trampled upon. We could never become sympathetic, kindly, gentle--if there were nothing in our associations to call out and exercise these qualities in us.
Sometimes we pity certain people, because in their natural human relationships, they are required to practice self-denial, to carry heavy burdens, to make great sacrifices, to endure much suffering. But it is in just such experiences, that they grow. The exacting requirements of their life, are means of grace, and in meeting them--they become more and more like Christ. There are some whose lives are so set apart for ministry to others, and so filled with calls for service--that they seem to have no opportunity to be ministered to by others. They are always giving--and never receiving. They spend their days in helping others--but no one helps them. They carry the burdens of many--but no one comes to carry their burden. They are comforters of the sorrow of all their friends--but in their own grief, no one ministers consolation to them. They share their bread with the hungry--but when they are hungry, no man gives unto them. Yet these find their help in the very serving to which they devote their lives! In feeding others--they are fed. In comforting others--they are comforted. In blessing others--they are blessed. It matters not that no others come to serve them; they are served--in their service!
Association with other Christians has its immeasurable help, in time of need. This is one of the benefits of ideal church membership. The strong--help the weak. Much has been said of the way the poor help each other. The experienced hold the lamp for the feet that are new on tangled paths. But even help in trouble is not the best that love has to give. Better far is the help which it may give continually in the way of inspiration and in asking for the best that is in us. The church does the most for its young people--when it holds up a lofty standard of excellence in character, and urges them to attain it; when it sets large tasks for them and expects these tasks to be achieved. We should welcome all such demands upon us--for they are divine calls, bidding us to be worthy of the vocation with which we are called.
