The Pulpit Speaks: January 25, 1958

An article written by my father, the Rev. C. Thomas Paige, as it appeared in the Tri-State Defender on the date shown.

One has said, and wisely so, “What a man does when he is alone is the measure of the man.” No one knows this better than the man who spends many lonely hours working for some worthy project.

One day, a rich young man come to Jesus and asked of Him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”Jesus went down the Ten Commandments, reminding him that eternal life could only be realized through keeping these. After this was cited, Jesus told the young man to go away and sell all that he had and give it to the poor. Incidents thereafter told this young man that this was too high a price to pay for anything, so he went back into the world, presumably to assume his same old way of life.

We don’t know what happened to this young man but tradition has it that he was the same young man who later became one of the great disciples of Jesus. Maybe somewhere down the line he had a new outlook on the life and works of Jesus. Maybe during his hours of intent he re-evaluated the real meaning of Jesus ad saw Him as he had never seen Him before. Maybe something had happened to make him realize that his way of life was not the real way, after all.

IT’S DISTURBING

There are many things happening to people every day that force us to look back over life and realize that there is more in life than the money we have or which we expect to get. One of the most tragic things of our day is wrapped up in the fact that many of us are so wrapped up in what we are going to get out of this or that that we never have time to think in terms of putting anything into it. It disturbs me to no end when I come in contact with those people who think only in terms of what they are going to get out of life. In most of these cases, they end up bitterly surprised.

Oh, yes, many of us like that rich young man can say, “after all, I am doing better than this one or that one.” But how does that fit into the picture? In the final analysis, we are going to be judged on that we are able to do in proportion to what we have.

What a great world this would be if all with whom we come in contact were living life at the fullest of which they are capable.

This man, like many of us, was gloating over the fact that he had gone a part of the way. Life is not going to amount to much to anyone who is satisfied with only going a part of the way.