Romans 13:13-14 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.… The apostle meant, "Personify Christ; act His part" Never it is true, shall we be perfect as the Master was; but by patience, prayer, and effort we may come to resemble Him closely. A young artist may be twitted as he sits before his model with, "Are you vain enough to think that you can paint as well as Titian or Turner?" He will reply, "No, but I hope by industry to make fair copies of their pictures." I. DIRECTIONS. 1. Study your part well. No success without this. Alexander carried a copy of Homer with him in all his campaigns. Eminent orators have studied Demosthenes and Cicero. Lord Wolseley has made war his one study. How widely Dickens observed! So success in our line cannot be achieved without habitual regard to Christ. "Beholding as in a glass," etc. A saint had a vision of Christ on which he gazed so long that he afterwards found in his own hands and feet the marks of the nails. A mere fable, but one with an impressive moral. 2. Attend to private preparation. Solitary discipline has ever preceded public proficiency in musicians, soldiers, etc. Communion with God will keep us right in our fellowship with man. 3. Be an enthusiast. He who has no higher ambition than to get through his part will never be a good actor. "How comes it," asked a bishop of Garrick, "that I, in expounding Divine truths, produce so little effect, while you so easily rouse the deepest feelings of your audience by the representation of your fiction?" "Because," said the actor, "I recite fiction as if it were truth, while you deliver truth as if it were fiction." II. ENCOURAGEMENTS. 1. You have a prompter — the Holy Ghost, "He shall bring all things to your remembrance," etc. Napoleon III. wrote, "I always make my great uncle my model, his spirit accompanying me, and enabling me to succeed in the same." We may make a higher boast than that. 2. Others have acted their part well. 3. Never mind though you act badly at first. When Kemble made his first appearance he was laughed down; so was Disraeli. 4. You will be applauded if you act your part well — by God and the good. (T. R. Stephenson.) Parallel Verses KJV: Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. |
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