An artist, a fisherman, and an oarsman were once gazing on the swift waters of a river. It was a lovely evening, and the sun ere he sank to rest was lighting up the whole scene with the richest hues, and the brown waters shone and sparkled as they tumbled along down the little rapid at our feet, while further across the river, in the shallower part, the water was apparently as still as a lake, reflecting back all the coloring of the evening sky.
"What a picture this would make," said the artist, "with that old castle in the distance, and these birches and rapid waters in the foreground!"
"Well, I was just thinking," said the fisherman, "that there must be some fine large trout lying yonder in that still pool under that old tree on the farther bank. I should think this was a fine river for salmon. What do you say?" he continued, addressing the boating man.
"Well," he said, "I am not much in the fishing line. I was just wondering which would be the best part to run down this rapid. I should think there was hardly enough water for a heavy boat unless it is just where you see the current runs strong without breaking into foam."
How strange it is, I thought, to hear three such various opinions about the same river! It certainly makes all the difference from what point of view you look at it. To one it is a subject for his canvas, to another a place for his rod, while a third would launch his boat upon it.
Certainly there is a very great deal in the point of view from which we regard things. Indeed, everything depends on this. An artist scans a landscape for a picture, a shepherd for his sheep, a farmer for the chances of the weather, a traveler for his road.
In nothing is the point of view more important than in the way in which we look at this world. People naturally regard it in various ways; one sees in it a scene for pleasure, another a field for ambition, while a third looks on it as a sphere for mere self-indulgence. How do you regard it, beloved reader? Scripture is quite clear as to how we are to view the world. "As Thou hast sent Me into the world," says the Lord, "even so have I also sent them into the world." We know how Christ regarded it. We know it was not to Him a place of pleasure, but rather a scene of sorrow and suffering to which He had come to do His Father's will and gather out His own. Our object then is the same, and it is very helpful clearly to grasp this from the very onset of our Christian career-that we are left in the world to do our blessed Master's will, and to please Him. It is a wonderful thing when we really grasp the purpose for which we are left down here.
A Christian then surveys this world as a foreign scene in which he has a very definite work to do for his Lord, but to which he no longer belongs. He scans it to look for those he can help and befriend, for broken hearts to heal, for burdened souls to relieve, for straying feet to restore, for fainting sheep to sustain, for lambs to feed, for pilgrims to cheer on their journey.
What a blessing in this world is the Christian who surveys it from this true standpoint, the only right point of view for one who belongs to Christ!
May God grant that both you and I, beloved reader, may look at this scene from God's point of view, and thus learn to fill our true place in it to His glory.