Everyday Life.
Note a few things that combine to make up what we call our everyday life.
I. Conversationis a large element of everyday life. The power of speech is one of the grand distinctions of man, and of his life upon the earth. It is thus that he clothes invisible thoughts with form, and confers upon the subtle intangible reality an immortality of earthly recognition. Our daily conversation determines all the tone of our mind: it stamps and it stereotypes our temper. It reveals whether charity and virtue, manly or womanly grace dignify our character, or whether we are frivolous, vain, heartless, and worldly. Who can measure the unkindness that may be crowded into a single word, or the thoughtlessness, the selfishness, the pride, the vanity, the cruelty, the crime, that may be condensed into a syllable? Everyday life means everyday talk.
II. Wishis an equally extended department of everyday life. It is in our nature to be conscious of desires after a great many things, and these desires are not in themselves sinful; they are even necessary to the maintenance of life, to the onward progress of mankind, to the subduing and replenishing of the earth which God has lent to us, and in which He has given us a life-interest. These desires of all kinds are the spring of nearly all we do in life. Everyday life means everyday wish.
III. Workis another main element in life. The business of life, the daily toil and drudgery of a man these help to constitute his everyday life: not simply what he talks of or wishes for, but what he actually does in this world. Everyday life includes all the things that are done by us, either as duty or necessity, under the inspiration of the lowest as well as the highest motives. It must be possible to bring all this under the empire of religion, to supply a set of motives that can dignify the commonest occupation, consecrate the humblest toil, and make daily drudgery Divine.
IV. But there is another large department of everyday life I mean recreation. That which is recreation to one man would be a complete penance to another; that which some think a most enjoyable relaxation is to others an intolerable weariness. That religion which does not enter into these four regions of a man's life his talk, his wishes, his work and his recreation is as yet utterly inoperative. "We should live," says the Apostle, "soberly, righteously and godly in this present world." In other words, in our conversation, our desires, our occupation and our pleasures, we should do three things (1) Gain the victory over our passions, "live soberly." (2) Respect the claims of our neighbours, "live righteously." (3) Derive all our motives from the highest source, "live godly." Sobrietymeans the chastisement of all our passions, the resolute endeavour to gain and keep the control of all our desires, the determination to repress all angry feelings, as well as impure fancies, to subdue inordinate affections quite as much as depraved taste. Righteousnessis clearly something more than a refusal to commit an act of cruelty or dishonesty. In our talks, in our wishes, in our work, and our pleasures, we are to do the just and righteous thing.
V. Godliness.We must date and draw our motives from the highest source. The government of all our passions, the recognition of every just claim upon us, must spring from no mere vague notion that it is right to do this; but from the discovery of the ground of our nature, our relation to the living God, our obligation to the suffering Saviour, and our responsibility to the Spirit of Grace.
H. R. Reynolds, Notes of the Christian Life,p. 262.
References: Titus 2:11-15. Church of England Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 145; Homilist,2nd series, vol. iii., p. 101.