“May I reach
That purest heaven, be to other souls
The cup of strength in some great agony,
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,
And in diffusion ever more intense!”
Usefulness is the true measure of living. Our Lord made fruit the test of discipleship. What is fruit? Is it not something which the tree bears to feed men’s hunger? In discipleship, then, fruit is something that grows upon our lives which others may take and feed upon. It is anything in us or that we do which does good to others. A fruitful Christian life is one, therefore, which is a blessing to men — one that is useful and helpful.
No one cares for a tree to be covered with fruit merely to make a fine appearance; the object of fruitfulness is to feed hunger, to satisfy men’s cravings. Our Lord does not ask us to have lives full of fruit merely to be looked at, merely to realize a certain standard of spiritual completeness. He does not want marble statues, however perfect in their cold whiteness. Moral excellence is not character merely, however faultless it may be. The stern old Puritan was right when, finding the silver images standing in dusty niches and learning that they were the twelve apostles, he directed that they should be taken down and coined and sent out to do good. Charles Kingsley said, “We become like God only as we become of use.”
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