Michael Angelo had been busy in his studio for weeks. This old master had one of his greatest works in hand, and all his brilliant talent was brought into play. At last it was finished. The chisel was laid aside. The statue was unveiled and the studio thrown open to the public.
Crowds flocked to see the work of art, and stood in admiration before it, but the sculptor heeded not the praises of the multitude. His eye was upon one who was standing before the marble figure. What he thought was everything to Angelo, for he was the greatest critic of the day.
At length he speaks. “Michael,” he says, “it lacks one thing.”
“What is that?” eagerly asked the sculptor.
“Speech,” was the quiet reply. It lacked only one thing; this indeed was flattering to the sculptor. The statue was lifelike, a splendid. imitation of the natural, proving the great genius of the one whose hand had fashioned it.
But the critic’s remark can be justly applied to hundreds around us, and to them it is not flattering, for lacking the “one thing” they lack everything that is worth having. They are professors, BUT NOT POSSESSORS. They appear to be very like Christians, but they have never trusted Christ. The eye of the Judge is upon them, and He says—as He said to one in days gone by—”one thing thou lackest.” Is our reader one of this class? Then listen. With all your profession, you are like the marble figure—lifeless—dead toward God. It is life you lack, and this is not to be had in ordinances, ritual, or creeds, but in CHRIST alone. Life is to be found in the Son of God, and if you want life you must come to the living Saviour.
ML 05/21/1961