Perfection, the Christian’s Aim – Charles Spurgeon

ALTHOUGH a young artist, when he starts in his work, dare not hope that he shall come up to Praxiteles in sculpture, or to Apelles in painting; yet were he to set before himself anything short of the highest standard, he would not be likely to attain honor as an academician. When he begins to work, he studies, not imperfect pictures, but models. He studies Raphael; he wants to see what Michael Angelo could do. “Oh!” says one, “what are you trying to paint?” “Are you trying to be a Raphael?” “Will you ever paint like Raphael or Michael Angelo?—never.” What mean your sneers and jibes? Would you have him go and buy some worthless print at a pawnshop, and copy from that! What sort of an artist would he make then? The only possibility of his being a good artist is his taking perfect models. So with you, Christian. Your model is to be the perfect Savior, and this is to be what you are to aim at every day—”perfecting holiness.” And for all you may say, “Ah! I shall never come up to that; many failures have proved to me that I shall not reach it;” yet you will do better with that as your ambition than you could have done if you had selected some imperfect model, and had said, “Well, if I am as good as that man, that will suit me.” Nothing but perfection must content you. Beloved, press forward towards it, and God speed you in the race.