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 Bro.
Ben F. Taylor, now 101 years old, wrote the material from which
the following is condensed. We took excerpts from the full text,
as published in Way of Life bulletin; and offer this as a
tribute to bro. Taylor's long life of Preaching Christ.
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I
feel deeply my responsibility as I stand in defense of that way
of life which is ridiculed and scorned by the skeptic, mocked by
the ignorant, disregarded by multitudes; and within its own
ranks is forsaken and besmirched by the carnally minded.
Christianity
may be said to be the sum total of the principles of life as
given by our Lord Jesus Christ and the Christian Life is the
translation of those principles into the activities of life.
Christianity is a life to be lived. It is not an empty
profession to enhance our social standing. It is not a
dress-suit to be worn on Sundays in which to parade our surface
piety. Neither is it a storm-shelter to be disregarded when the
sun shines again. Nor is it an asbestos suit to be put on at our
exit, as a protection against the fire of the world to come. It
is not an insurance policy which pays its dividends only after
death.
The
Christian Life is the highest type of life known to man and he
who conforms to it reaches the highest possible attainment in
this world. Christ opens to us an abundant life of purpose and
service. If man were wholly mortal and death made him no more
than brother to the insensible rock and clay,
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the Christian Life would pay the
highest possible returns for the moral investment made. But we
should have a fuller conception of the Christian Life. It is an
index of faith, an index of our belief of divine testimony. And
it is the means by which the world reads our faith. It is sheer
folly to make a loud profession of faith and then live an
indifferent, careless, or foul life and expect the world to
respect revealed Christianity.
The
Christian Life is a mold of our eternal destiny. I do not mean
to discredit the love and mercy of God, nor the redemptive power
of the blood of Christ. Without these no man can be saved. But
the choice of these and a faithful service to the Deity of
heaven lies within the volition of man. We must be judged
according to things done in the body (2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:12).
In the great day of judgment we must meet the life we have
lived, the character we have built.
And
the Christian Life is one of self-denial. Jesus said, "If
any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up
his cross daily, and follow me" (Lu. 9:23). Beware of that
way of religious life which offers the crown without the cross.
In the Christian Life we surrender our will to that of the Lord,
in personal life, in obedience, in worship, and in work. As the
muddy Missouri, the Beautiful Ohio, and the winding Cumberland
blend into the “Father of Waters” and we see only the
Mississippi; so we must become one in Him, and let the world see
Christ in us — the divine will, in what we are and do.
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