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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
‘A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.’
Luk_12:15
I. In itself.—A man’s life, capable of almost infinite happiness, and capable of almost infinite misery—to what heights may it not climb, and to what depths descend, and to what in the great future may not your life here open! and all that future, coloured for better or worse in the way that you spend your man’s life.
II. In its effect upon others.—And if your life may mean so much to you, how much may it not mean also to other men, to those with whom you daily work, to the circle of your home, to the circle of your neighbourhood, and to the wider circle of the State? A man’s life, if he be a Napoleon, may blast the lives of myriads; a man’s life, if he be a Luther, or a St. Francis, or a Gordon, or a Shaftesbury, may bless the lives of uncounted thousands.
III. Once to live.—And this wonderful thing which is capable of so much usefulness, or of injuring and blasting the lives of others, is in your disposal, and you have but one chance. It is appointed unto man once to die, and it is appointed unto each man once to live. You have but one die to cast, and upon your casting it will depend the epitaph that will be written upon your existence here and hereafter.
Illustrations
(1) ‘Whatever crazy sorrow saith,
No life that breathes with human breath
Has ever truly longed for death.
’Tis life whereof our nerves are scant,
Oh, life, not death, for which we pant,
More life and fuller that I want.’
(2) ‘Must we not confess each to ourselves that we are apt to live at random? We are swayed by the circumstances which we ought to control. We find it a relief when we are spared (as we think) the necessity for reflection or decision: a book lightly taken up, a friend’s visit, a fixed engagement, fill up the day with fragments; and day follows day as a mere addition. There is no living idea to unite and harmonise the whole. Of course we cannot make, or to any great extent modify, the conditions under which we have to act; but we can consciously render them tributary to one high purpose. We can regard them habitually in the light of our supreme end. This is, as it seems to me, the first result of zeal, and it is in spiritual matters as elsewhere, that great results are most surely gained by the accumulation of small things. If we strive continuously towards a certain goal, the whole movement of our life, however slow, will be towards it, and as we move, the gathered force will make our progress more steady and more sure.’
WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH YOUR LIFE?
I. Take care of your object.—What is your object? Is it to get on? Let it be to get up. Choose for what you will live.
(a) The lowest grade of man is the man whose object is to get and scrape together gold, silver, precious stones, bank shares, stocks, always watching the money markets.
(b) There are the men who do—politicians, legislators, and the men who like to be called practical men—they are useful men; their object is to do.
(c) The third grade are the men whose object is to know. It seems sometimes to me as if they have got such a pile of information upon their brains, that they have lost the power of real knowledge. Information is not knowledge. But there are men who seek to know. It is a lofty and a great object to seek to know.
(d) But there is a fourth grade beyond. The men whose object is to be. These are the saints of all the ages, who are always seeking to build up strong and, beautiful, and holy character. These are the men of the cloister; these are the men of the Church
(e) But there is a loftier grade than this; for the man who lives to build a noble character may be a selfish man. It is much to be a saint, but the highest and noblest grade is to be a saviour, to live for others, to be unconscious when your face shines, because you are seeking to win the world, by your death, if it must be so, for Christ.
What is the object of your life? To get, to do, to know, to be, or to give up your lives to save other men? For if this last be your object, a man who lives for others is a man who is, and the man who knows, and the man who does, and the man who has. Be the last, and you include the other four.
II. As to your ideal, read biography if you will. Some of us have learned our noblest lessons from good biography. But make no man your ideal. Let your ideal be the great Brother Man Who has trodden our world, and Who always goes before us, giving us an example that we should follow His steps. Never rest until you have made the life of Jesus not only your study but your ideal. And as for the power of your life, let it be gotten from yielding your life to Him.
III. Lay your man’s life at His feet.—I ask that you should lay that life at His feet, and whilst I speak, ask Him to wash away the stain which your young manhood may have contracted, to put your sins beneath His most precious blood, that it may sweep them away for ever. Then present your object to Him, your mind, that He may think through it; your eyes, that He may weep through them; your voice and lips, that He may speak by them; your hands and feet that He may work through them; your whole body, that it may be used by Him for His own higher purposes; your manhood for Jesus, your young life for Jesus. In the name of Jesus I beseech, I entreat, I implore you, young man, to give yourself to Him, for he that loses his life at the feet of Jesus finds it for always; whilst a man who keeps his life for himself loses it utterly, utterly and for ever. ‘A man’s life.’ ‘I knew a Man in Christ’—that completes, and only completes, a man’s life.