A beautiful statue stands in the market-place. It is that of a Greek slave-girl, but she is well dressed, tidy, and handsome. A dirty, forlorn ragged slave-girl passes by. She sees the statue stops, and gazes at it in rapt admiration. She goes home, washes her face and combs her hair. Another day she stops, in passing, to look at the statue. Next day her tattered clothes were washed and mended. Each day she stops to look at the statue, and each next day she has imitated some of its beauties, until the dirty, ragged slave becomes completely transformed--she becomes another girl. This is the way Christ teaches, He does not hurl His own individuality upon others; He simply lives, and works, and loves before men, not to be seen of them, but to inspire them to a holy emulation (2 Cor. 3:18).
