"My life is not my own, but Christ's, who gave it. And He bestows it upon all the race; I lose it for His sake, and thus I save it; I hold it close, but only to expend it; Accept it, Lord, for others, thru thy grace." We have to die to live. That is the central law of life. We must bum to give light to the world. We cannot save ourselves, and at the same time make anything worthy of our life, or be in any deep and true sense an honor to God and a blessing to the world. The altar stands in the foreground of every life, and can be passed by only at the cost of all that is noblest and best. All the practical side of religion is summed up in the exhortation of St. Paul, that we present our bodies a living sacrifice to God. Anciently, a man brought a lamb and presented it to God, laid it on the altar, to be consumed by God's fire. In like manner we arc to present our bodies. The first thing is not to be a worker, a preacher, a saver of souls; the very first thing in a Christian life is to present one's self to God, to lay one's self on the altar. We need to understand this. It is easier to talk and work for Christ than to give ourselves to Him. It is easier to offer God a few activities than to give Him a heart. But the heart must be first, else ever the largest gifts and services are not acceptable. "Tis not thy work the Master needs, but thee, — The obedient spirit, the believing heart." "A living sacrifice." A sacrifice is something really given to God, to be His altogether and forever. We cannot take it back. One could not lay a lamb on God's altar, and a minute or two afterward run up and take it off. We cannot be God's today and our own tomorrow. If we become His at all, in a sacrifice which He accepts, we are His always.
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