I. Man the worker, who knows all the labour, all the skill of work, thinks much of work. Man the seer, who gathers in all his knowledge by sight, thinks much of sight. Man the speaker, who carries on all his projects by speech, thinks much of speech. And deeds done, and things seen, and powers of speech, so possess the world, so fill up its space, that few ever stop to examine what more there may be, and whether works and sight and speech are indeed the grand realities they claim to be; the all in all, which their size and pretensions make them seem to be. Men deal with themselves in the same way. They take the things done and seen, the words and actions, and call them their lives. And a great man is a man who has made a great noise in the world by the rush of his thoughts, or his words, or his deeds, and his life is written, strange contradiction of terms, his life is written, a catalogue that is of the most important sayings of the man, with the writer's reflections of them; I do not say that more can be done in writing; neither do I say that it is not sometimes good to do this; but to call it a man's life, that is indeed a curious trick of language, a strange untruth.
II. What is a man's life? The life, I mean, which really is himself; the life which, for good or evil, moves in the world; that life of which it is said, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he reap." Let me draw your attention to all having it.All in God's kingdom have God's life. This was what stirred the heathen world so when the first message of life came. Philosophy, if true, only touched a few learned, favoured men, whilst the whole world lay in emptiness and misery and hunger of soul. They knew what it was to have life offered to all. What then is life in its practical human sense? I answer, practically, life is not doing, but bearing; life is the inward patience which every minute is content to bear what that minute brings to be borne, whether it bring movement or non-movement, work to be done or the waiting without work. The readiness to bear and obey is life. Life lives, is always living, always quietly waiting on its day, gently bearing each little annoyance, and so learning to bear; firmly meeting each little task, and so learning to work; and so at length the hero is made God's hero, the man who bears and does all things gently, easily, lovingly; and men marvel, as time passes, how silently he has taken his place in the hearts of men; and when he is gone, even like his Lord, he becomes known in the parting, in the evening, and hearts burn within them as they think of him.
E. Thring, Church of England Pulpit,vol. ix., p. 209.
Reference: Mark 12:28-34. R. Lee, Sermons,p. 156.