Again turn to heathenism, see the apathetic indolence, the unprogressive torpor. Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.' Sin lames for service of God; it leaves the lower nature free to act, and that freedom paralyses all noble activity.
Christianity brings the Energising of the Soul-
(a) By its reference of everything to God--our powers and our circumstances and our activities.
(b) By its prominence given to Retribution. It speaks not merely of vita brevis--but of vita brevis and an Eternity which grows out of it.
(c) By its great motive for work--love.
(d) By the freedom it brings from the weight that paralysed.
It takes away sin. Lifting that dreary load from our backs, it makes us joyful, strong, and agile.
The true view of Christianity is not, as some of its friends, and some of its foes, mistakenly concur in supposing, that it weakens interest in, and energy on, the Present, but that it heightens the power of action. A life plunged in that jar of oxygen will glow with redoubled brilliance.
