nearer objects and aims would be, if
once we clearly recognised what we are here for! The prostitution of
powers to obviously unworthy aims and ends is the saddest thing in
humanity. It is like elephants being set to pick up pins; it is like the
lightning being harnessed to carry all the gossip and filth of one
capital of the world to the prurient readers in another. Men take these
great powers which God has given them, and use them to make money, to
cultivate their intellects, to secure the gratification of earthly
desires, to make a home for themselves here amidst the illusions of
time; and all the while the great aim which ought to stand out clear and
supreme is forgotten by them.

There is nothing that needs more careful examination by us than our
accepted schemes of life for ourselves; the roots of our errors mostly
lie in these things that we take to be axioms, and that we never examine
into. Let us begin this new year by an honest dealing with ourselves,
asking ourselves this question, 'What am I living for?' And if the
answer, first of all, be, as, of course, it will be, the accomplishment
of the nearer and necessary aims, such as the conduct of our business,
the cultivating of our understandings, the love and peace of our homes,
then let us press the investigation a little further, and say, What
then? Suppose I make a fortune, what then? Suppose I get the position I
am striving for, what then? Suppose I cultivate my understanding and win
the knowledge that I am nobly striving after, what then? Let us not
cease to ask the question until we can say, 'Thy aim, O Lord, is my aim,
and I press toward the mark,' the only mark which will make life noble,
elastic, stable, and blessed, that I 'may be found in Christ, not having
mine own righteousness, but that which is of God by faith.' For this we
have all been made, guided, redeemed. If we carry this treasure out of
life we shall carry all that is worth carrying. If we fail in this we
fail altogether, whatever be our so-called success. There is one mark,
one only, and every arrow that does not hit that target is wasted and
spent in vain.

II. Secondly, let me say, concentrate all effort on this one aim.

'This one thing I do,' says the Apostle, 'I press toward the mark.' That
aim is the one which God has in view in all circumstances and
arrangements. Therefore, obviously, it is one which may be pursued in
all of these, and may be sought whatsoever we are doing. All