"Well," I said, "what made you bring them up?"
"Why, I supposed you didn"t believe in theaters."
"What made you think that?"
"Why," she said, "do you ever go?"
"No."
"Why don"t you go?"
"Because I have got something better. I would sooner go out into the street and eat dirt than do some of the things I used to do before I became a Christian."
"Why!" she said; "I don"t understand."
"Never mind," I said. "When Jesus Christ has the preeminence, you will understand it all. He didn"t come down here and say we shouldn"t go here and we shouldn"t go there, and lay down a lot of rules, but He laid down great principles. Now, He says if you love Him you will take delight in pleasing Him." And I began to preach Christ to her. The tears started again. She said:
"I tell you, Mr. Moody, that sermon on the indwelling Christ yesterday afternoon just broke my heart. I admire Him, and I want to be a Christian, but I don"t want to give up the theaters."
I said, "Please don"t mention them again. I don"t want to talk about theaters. I want to talk to you about Christ." So I took my Bible, and I read to her about Christ.
But she said again, "Mr. Moody, can I go to the theater if I become a Christian?"
"Yes," I said, "you can go to the theater just as much as you like if you are a real, true Christian, and can go with His blessing."
"Well," she said, "I am glad you are not so narrow-minded as some."
She felt quite relieved to think that she could go to the theaters and be a Christian. But I said:
"If you can go to the theater for the glory of G.o.d, keep on going; only be sure that you go for the glory of G.o.d. If you are a Christian you will be glad to do whatever will please Him."
I really think she became a Christian that day. The burden had gone, there was joy; but just as she was leaving me at the door she said:
"I am not going to give up the theater."
In a few days she came back to me and said: "Mr. Moody, I understand all about that theater business now. I went the other night. There was a large party at our house, and my husband wanted us to go, and we went; but when the curtain lifted everything looked so different. I said to my husband, "This is no place for me; this is horrible. I am not going to stay here, I am going home." He said, "Don"t make a fool of yourself. Every one has heard that you have been converted in the Moody meetings, and if you go out it will be all through fashionable society. I beg of you don"t make a fool of yourself by getting up and going out." But I said, "I have been making a fool of myself all of my life.""
Now, the theater hadn"t changed, but she had got something better, and she was going to overcome the world. "They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit, the things of the Spirit." When Christ has the first place in your heart you are going to get victory. Just do whatever you know will please Him. The great objection I have to these things is that they get the mastery, and become a hindrance to spiritual growth.
What a Sister Can Do
I want to say to young ladies, perhaps you have a G.o.dless father or mother, or a skeptical brother, who is going down through drink, and perhaps there is no one who can reach them but you. How many times a G.o.dly, pure young lady has taken the light into some darkened home!
Many a home might be lit up with the Gospel if the mothers and daughters would only speak the word.
The last time Mr. Sankey and myself were in Edinburgh, there were a father, two sisters, and a brother, who used every morning to take the morning paper and pick my sermon to pieces. They were indignant to think that the Edinburgh people should be carried away with such preaching. One day one of the sisters was going by the hall, and she thought she would drop in and see what cla.s.s of people went there. She happened to take a seat by a G.o.dly lady, who said to her:
"I hope you are interested in this work,"
She tossed her head and said: "Indeed I am not. I am disgusted with everything I have seen and heard."
"Well," said the lady, "perhaps you came prejudiced."
"Yes, and the meeting has not removed any of it, but has rather increased it."
"I have received a great deal of good from them."
"There is nothing here for me. I don"t see how an intellectual person can be interested."
To make a long story short, she got the young lady to promise to come back. When the meeting broke up, just a little of the prejudice had worn away. She promised to come back again the next day, and then she attended three or four more meetings, and became quite interested. She said nothing to her family, until finally the burden became too heavy, and she told them. They laughed at her, and made her the b.u.t.t of their ridicule.
One day the two sisters were together, and the other said, "Now what have you got at those meetings that you didn"t have in the first place?"
"I have a peace that I never knew of before. I am at peace with G.o.d, myself, and all the world." Did you ever have a little war of your own with your neighbors, in your own family? And she said: "I have self-control. You know, sister, if you had said half the mean things before I was converted that you have said since, I would have been angry and answered back, but if you remember correctly, I haven"t answered once since I have been converted."
The sister said, "You certainly have something that I have not."
The other told her it was for her, too, and she brought the sister to the meetings, where she found peace.
Like Martha and Mary, they had a brother but he was a member of the University of Edinburgh. He be converted? He go to these meetings? It might do for women, but not for him! One night they came home and told him that a chum of his own, a member of the university, had stood up and confessed Christ, and when he sat down his brother got up and confessed; and so with the third one.
When the young man heard it, he said: "Do you mean to tell me that he has been converted?"
"Yes."
"Well," he said, "there must be something in it."
He put on his hat and coat, and went to see his friend Black. Black got him down to the meetings, and he was converted.
We went through to Glasgow, and had not been there six weeks when news came that that young man had been stricken down, and had died. When he was dying he called his father to his bedside and said:
"Wasn"t it a good thing that my sisters went to those meetings? Won"t you meet me in heaven, father?"
"Yes, my son, I am so glad you are a Christian; that is the only comfort that I have in losing you. I will become a Christian, and will meet you again."
I tell this to encourage some sister to go home and carry the message of salvation. It may be that your brother may be taken away in a few months.
How one Man Treated Doubts
A wild and prodigal young man, who was running a headlong career to ruin came into one of our meetings in Chicago. Whilst endeavoring to bring him to Christ, I quoted this verse to him: "Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out."
I asked him: "Do you believe Christ said that?"
"I suppose He did."
"Suppose He did! do you believe it?"