When I was a young man I was clerk in the establishment of a man in Chicago, whom I observed frequently occupied sorting and marking bills. He explained to me what he had been doing; on some notes he had marked B, on some D, and on others G; those marked B, he told me, were bad, those marked D meant they were doubtful, and those with G on them mean they were _good_; and, said he, you must treat all of them accordingly. And thus people indorse G.o.d"s promises, by marking some as bad and others as doubtful; whereas we ought to take all of them as _good_, for He has never once broken His word, and all that He says He will do, will be done in the fullness of time.
Throw Out the Ballast
When men go up in a balloon, they carry with them what they call ballast--that is, small bags of sand, and when they want to rise higher they just throw out some of the sand. So we, if we want to rise nearer heaven, must just throw out some of the sand, and cast aside every weight. We won"t rise higher till we do so.
A Mother"s Love
The closest tie on earth is a mother"s love for her child. There are a good many things that will separate a man from his wife, but there isn"t a thing in the wide, wide world that will separate a true mother from her own child. I will admit that there are unnatural mothers, that there are mothers that have gone out of their heads, mothers that are so steeped in sin and iniquity that they will turn against their own children, but a true mother will never, never turn against her own child. I have talked with mothers when my blood boiled with indignation against the sons for their treatment of their mothers, and I have said:
"Why don"t you cast him off?"
They have said: "Why, Mr. Moody, I love him still. He is my son."
I was once preaching for Dr. G. in St. Louis, and when I got through he said that he wanted to tell me a story. There was a boy who was very bad. He had a very bad father, who seemed to take delight in teaching his son everything that was bad. The father died, and the boy went on from bad to worse until he was arrested for murder.
When he was on trial, it came out that he had murdered five other people, and from one end of the city to the other there was a universal cry going up against him. During his trial they had to guard the court-house, the indignation was so intense.
The white-haired mother got just as near her son as she could, and every witness that went into the court and said anything against him seemed to hurt her more than her son. When the jury brought in a verdict of guilty a great shout went up, but the old mother nearly fainted away; and when the judge p.r.o.nounced the sentence of death they thought she would faint away.
After it was over she threw her arms around him and kissed him, and there in the court they had to tear him from her embrace. She then went the length and breadth of the city trying to get men to sign a pet.i.tion for his pardon. And when he was hanged, she begged the governor to let her have the body of her son, that she might bury it.
They say that death has torn down everything in this world, everything but a mother"s love. That is stronger than death itself. The governor refused to let her have the body, but she cherished the memory of that boy as long as she lived.
A few months later she followed her boy, and when she was dying she sent word to the governor, and begged that her body might be laid close to her son. That is a mother"s love! She wasn"t ashamed to have her grave pointed out for all time as the grave of the mother of the most noted criminal the State of Vermont ever had.
The prophet takes hold of that very idea. He says: "Can a mother forget her child?" But a mother"s love is not to be compared to the love of G.o.d.
Rest.i.tution
I was preaching in British Columbia some years ago and a young man came to me, and wanted to become a Christian. He had been smuggling opium into the States.
"Well, my friend," I said, "I don"t think there is any chance for you to become a Christian until you make rest.i.tution." He said, "If I attempt to do that, I will fall into the clutches of the law, and I will go to the penitentiary." "Well," I replied, "you had better do that than go to the judgment-seat of G.o.d with that sin upon your soul, and have eternal punishment. The Lord will be very merciful if you set your face to do right."
He went away sorrowful, but came back the next day, and said: "I have a young wife and child, and all the furniture in my house I have bought with money I have got in this dishonest way. If I become a Christian, that furniture will have to go, and my wife will know it."
"Better let your wife know it, and better let your home and furniture go."
"Would you come up and see my wife?" he asked; "I don"t know what she will say."
I went up to see her, and when I told her, the tears trickled down her cheeks, and she said: "Mr. Moody, I will gladly give everything if my husband can become a true Christian."
She took out her pocketbook, and handed over her last penny. He had a piece of land in the United States, which he deeded over to the government. I do not know, in all my backward track, of any living man who has had a better testimony for Jesus Christ than that man. He had been dishonest, but when the truth came to him that he must make it right before G.o.d would help him, he made it right.
No amount of weeping over sin, and saying that you feel sorry, is going to help it unless you are willing to confess and make rest.i.tution.
Willie and the Bears
I said to my little family, one morning, a few weeks before the Chicago fire, "I am coming home this afternoon to give you a ride."
My little boy clapped his hands. "Oh, papa, will you take me to see the bears in Lincoln Park?"
"Yes."
I had not been gone long when my little boy said, "Mamma, I wish you would get me ready."
"Oh," she said, "it will be a long time before papa comes."
"But I want to get ready, mamma."
At last he was ready to have the ride, face washed, and clothes all nice and clean.
"Now, you must take good care, and not get yourself dirty again," said mamma.
Of course, he was going to take care; he wasn"t going to get dirty! So off he ran to watch for me. However, it was a long time yet until the afternoon, and after a little he began to play. When I got home, I found him outside, with his face all covered with dirt.
"I can"t take you to the park that way, Willie."
"Why papa? you said you would take me."
"Ah, but I can"t; you"re all over mud. I couldn"t be seen with such a dirty little boy."
"Why, I"se clean, papa; mamma washed me."
"Well, you"ve got dirty again."
But he began to cry, and I could not convince him that he was dirty.
"I"se clean; mamma washed me!" he cried.
Do you think I argued with him? No. I just took him up in my arms, and carried him into the house, and showed him his face in the looking-gla.s.s. He had not a word to say. He would not take my word for it; but one look at the gla.s.s was enough; he saw it for himself. He didn"t say he wasn"t dirty after that!
Now, the looking-gla.s.s showed him that his face was dirty--_but I did not take the looking-gla.s.s to wash it_; of course not. Yet that is just what thousands of people do. The Law is the looking-gla.s.s to see ourselves in, to show us how vile and worthless we are in the sight of G.o.d; but they take the Law and try to _wash_ themselves with it, instead of being washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Christ For All
An old Welshwoman said Christ was Welsh, and an Englishman said:
"No, He was a Jew."
She declared that she knew He was Welsh, because He spoke so that she could understand Him.
Starting Right