This short essay discusses how being a true Christian means reproducing the likeness and beauty of Christ in one's character and conduct. It argues that any aspect of religion that is not beautiful does not adequately express God. To be truly Christlike, one's life must have features that are lovely and winning, as anything lacking this misrepresents Jesus. The unlovely is not due to religion itself, but how humans interpret and live it out through their disposition and actions.

1. Christlikeness
By J.R. Miller

2. Every true Christian life is
beautiful, so far as it fairly and
truly represents Christ.

3. Anything in religion that is not
beautiful is not a just or
adequate expression of the
Divine thought.

4. Holiness of character is simply
the reproduction in human life
of the likeness of Christ,

5. And any feature that is not
lovely and winning is not
truly Christlike, and hence
misrepresents Christ.

6. It is not the Christian religion
itself that is unlovely in any
case,

7. But the human interpretation of
it in disposition and conduct.
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