BIOGRAPHY:
INTERPRETATION OF

Biography may be either a help or a hindrance, depending upon how we interpret and apply it. The biographer usually accents the high, stirring moments in the life of his subject and of necessity passes over the days and years when nothing out of the ordinary happened. Yet without the thousands of common days there could have been no continuity between the uncommon ones to bind the life together. In reading the lives of great men we must beware that we do not become dissatisfied with our tame existence and hold lightly the countless treasures which through the mercy of God we all possess. A life that lasted 50 or 70 or 90 years must be condensed into a few pages with the result that the terrain is shoved together and the view distorted. From this out-of-focus picture we are likely to draw three erroneous conclusions: one, that the subject was greater than he actually was; two, that by contrast we are smaller than we really are, and three, that God respects persons and distributes His favors unevenly among His children.

Acts 10:34–35; Romans 2:11; Galatians 2:6; James 2:1–5

The Price of Neglect, 124.