THE MODEL LIFE.


In doing anything, it is always well to have a model by which to fashion
our work. In fact, nothing is done without a pattern, either real or
imaginary. The little boy making a toy has in in his mind a model by which
he is framing his work. Likewise, the sculptor has in his mind a model,
and as the "marble wastes, the image grows" into the likeness of the
vision in his soul.

To live this one life of ours as it should be lived, we must have a
perfect model after which to pattern. Thank God, this perfect model of
life can be found. Of all the vast number of lives that have been lived
since Adam down to this present day, there has been only one that we can
take as a model. This one is the life of Jesus. He says, "I am the life."
To live this life of ours well, to live it to the highest degree of
perfection, we must fashion it according to the glorious life of Christ.
The life of Jesus is the model life for every other human life. He invites
us, yea, commands us, to follow him, to step in his steps, to walk as he
walked.

There have been many good men in the world, but none of them afford us a
true pattern of life. There was a man who said, "Be ye followers of me,"
but he immediately added, "even as I also am of Christ." Man may so live
as to reveal to us the life of Christ. We can then follow, not them, but
the Christ-life they manifested through them.

Let me here say a word on a subject on which we may have more to say
hereafter. The grandest, noblest work man has ever done is by his life to
reveal the life of Christ to another, thereby helping that person to be