The Chief End of Life # 1

The Chief End of Life # 1

"This one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14).

We meet you today, young men, with our sincere and friendly congratulations, and in no merely formal or simulated manner, offer you the compliments of the season, and "Wish you a happy new year," more than this, a happy life, and still beyond this, a happy eternity. Time, with ceaseless flow rolls onward, and is ever bearing you on its resistless stream to the boundless ocean of eternity. Yes, to eternity! Yet now to eternal annihilation, but to everlasting conscious existence. As you stand upon the threshold of another year pause and ponder - the past is forever gone. Survey the scene before you, and learn your destiny, your dignity, your duty. An interminable prospect of perpetual existence, a vista of endless ages, yes, and of bliss too, open before you if you adopt, in the meaning he attached to it, the motto of the Apostle which heads this address, and say, in reference to that object - 'this one thing I do.' He intended by it, not his office as an ambassador of Christ, but his final salvation as an immortal being.

There is something striking in seeing a rational creature select one object from the many which surround him, holding it up to public notice, with the declaration, "for this I live," and from that moment pursuing it with the ardor of a lover, the fidelity of a servant, the courage of a hero, and the constancy of a martyr. Such a power of abstraction and concentration is a fine spectacle. But then the object selected should be worthy of it - and should repay the great effort. man has but one life to spend, and he should be careful, anxiously, yes almost painfully careful, not to throw it away upon an undeserving object. Think of his coming to the close of his brief and troubled sojourn in this world with the melancholy confession, "Life with me has been a lost adventure."

We would help you to guard against this catastrophe, and assist you so to select your object, and lay your plan, that after a prosperous, happy, and useful life, even death itself, instead of being the wreck of your hopes, shall prove the consummation of your hopes, and be your eternal gain.

This address comes to you from a body of young men, entitled "The Young Men's Christian Association," who are banded together by the ties of a holy brotherhood to encourage and assist one another in pursuing and securing the highest and noblest end of human existence. We have made our choice; our judgment and conscience approve the selection; it stands continually before us in the wilderness of life, visible, grand, and distinct, like the Pyramids of Egypt to the traveler in the desert; and in the exercise of a benevolence which the object itself inspires, we are anxious to engage others of our age, gender, and circumstances in the same pursuit.

Our one thing, our chief end of life, is the same as the Apostle's, the pursuit of glory, honor, immortality; our hope is the possession of eternal life; and our way of seeking it "a patient continuance in well-doing." There it is before you in all its simplicity, and, we may add, in all its sublimity. Can language furnish such a more striking arrangement of words; or thought, such another association of things? "Glory," that after which millions have panted, and to which the strongest aspirations of the human soul have been directed.

"Honor," or renown, which has inflamed the ambition of many of the loftiest spirits of our race, and made them willing to sacrifice ease, time, wealth, and too often, principle and conscience. "Immortality," after which "the whole creation travails in pain together until now." And all these merging in that one immense and infinite possession, "Eternal Life." Such is our one thing. Have we any reason to be ashamed of our choice? If this be little, where in all the universe is anything great? If this be degrading, where can anything be found to elevate?

~John Angell James~

(continued with # 2)