of Jesus brought him
from heaven down to earth to be the lost world's Redeemer. Love in his
apostles took them to the ends of the earth to tell the gospel story to
the perishing.

It is not enough to try to hew and fashion a character into the beauty
of holiness, until every feature of the image of Christ shines in the
life, as the sculptor shapes the marble into the form of his vision.
The most radiant spiritual beauty does not make one a complete
Christian. It takes service to fill up the measure of the stature of
Christ. The young man said he had kept all the commandments from his
youth. "One thing thou lackest," said the Master; "sell all that thou
hast, and give to the poor." Service of love was needed to make that
morally exemplary life complete.

The lesson is needed by many Christian people. They are good, with
blameless life, flawless character, consistent conduct; but they lack
one thing,--service. Love for Christ should always serve. There is a
story of a friar who was eager to win the favor of God, and set to work
to illuminate the pages of the Apocalypse, after the custom of his
time. He became so absorbed in his delightful occupation that he
neglected the poor and the sick who were suffering and dying in the
plague. He came at last, in the course of his work, to the painting of
the face of his Lord in the glory of his second coming; but his hand
had lost its skill. He wondered why it was, and realized that it was
because, in his eagerness to paint his pictures, he had neglected his
duty of serving.

Rebuffed and humiliated by the discovery, the friar drew his cowl over
his head, laid aside his brushes, and went down among the sick and
dying to minister to their needs. He wrought on, untiringly, until he
himself was smitten with the fatal plague. Then he tottered back to
his cell and to his easel, to finish his loved work before he died. He
knelt in prayer to ask help, when, lo! he saw that an angel's hand had
completed the picture of the glorified Lord, and in a manner far
surpassing human skill.

It is only a legend, but its lesson is well worthy our serious thought.
Too many people in their life as Christians, while they strive to excel
in character, in conduct, and in the beautiful graces of disposition,
and to do their work among men faithfully, are forgetting meanwhile the
law of love which bids every follower of Christ go about doing good as
the Master did. To be a Christian is f