y in the spiritual condition of the average Christian of
this day is precisely that he has not burning ever before him there, the
great aim to which he ought to be tending. So he gets loose and
diffused, and vague and uncertain. That is what Paul tells you when he
proposes himself as an example: 'So run I, not as uncertainly,' The man
who knows where he is running makes a bee-line for the goal. If he is
not sure of his destination, of course he zigzags. 'So fight I, not as
one that beateth the air'--if I see my antagonist I can hit him. If I do
not see him clearly I strike like a swordsman in the dark, at random,
and my sword comes back unstained. If you want to make the harbour, keep
the harbour lights always clear before you, or you will go yawing about,
and washing here and there, in the trough of the wave, and the tempest
will be your master. If you do not know where you are going you will
have to say, like the men in the old story in the Old Book, 'Thy servant
went no whither.' If you are going to endeavour, endeavour first to keep
the goal clear before you.

And endeavour next to keep up communion with Jesus Christ, which is the
secret of all peaceful and of all noble living. And endeavour next after
concentration. And what does that mean? It means that you have to detach
yourself from hindrances. It means that you have to prosecute the
Christian aim all through the common things of Christian life. If it
were not possible to be pursuing the great aim of likeness to Jesus
Christ, in the veriest secularities of the most insignificant and
trivial occupations, then it would be no use talking about that being
our aim. If we are not making ourselves more like Jesus Christ by the
way in which we handle our books, or our pen, or our loom, or our
scalpel, or our kitchen utensils, then there is little chance of our
ever making ourselves like Jesus Christ. For it is these trifles that
make life, and to concentrate ourselves on the pursuit of the Christian
aim is, in other words, to carry that Christian aim into every
triviality of our daily lives.

There are three Scripture passages which set forth various aspects of
the aim that we have before us, and from each of these aspects deduce
the one same lesson. The Apostle says 'giving all diligence, add to your
faith virtue,' etc., 'for if ye do these things ye shall never fail.' He
also exhorts: 'Give diligence to make your calling and election sure.'
And finally he says: 'Be