CHAPTER II.
LAID ON GOD'S ALTAR.
"My life is not my own, but Christ's, who gave it, And he bestows it upon all the race; I lose it for his sake, and thus I save it; I hold it close, but only to expend it; Accept it, Lord, for others, through thy grace." We have to die to live.

That is the central law of life.

We must burn to give light to the world, or to give forth odor of incense to God's praise.

We cannot save ourselves and at the same time make anything worthy of our life, or be in any deep and true sense an honor to God and a blessing to the world.

The altar stands in the foreground of every life, and can be passed by only at the cost of all that is noblest and best.
All the practical side of religion is summed up in the exhortation of St.Paul, that we present our bodies a living sacrifice to God.
Anciently, a man brought a lamb and presented it to God, laid it on the altar, to be consumed by God's fire.