'A great workshop
A great workshop in which to make godly men
( J.R. Miller , "Young People's Problems" 1898)
This world is not a place merely to live in, nor a place in which to do certain kinds of business; it is a great workshop in which to make godly men .
It is not easy for us to be holy and to grow into beautiful life and noble character. It is not hard to take a lump of clay, and shape it into any form we desire.
It is fairly easy to take a piece of soft wood, and carve it into a figure of beauty.
It is harder to cut a block of marble into a form of loveliness, for the stone is hard.
But it is harder still to take a block of marred and sinful humanity, and make it into a godly man, bearing the divine image.
Yet that is what God is doing with every Christian who lies in his hands.