Draw Nearer
When I was a boy my mother used to send me out doors to get a birch stick to whip me with, when I had to be punished. At first I used to stand off from the rod as far as I could. But I soon found that the whipping hurt me more that way than any other; and so I went as near to my mother as I could, and found she could not strike me so hard.
And so when G.o.d chastens us let us kiss the rod and draw as near to Him as we can.
The Panorama Looks Brighter
"When a panorama is to pa.s.s before an audience, the artist darkens the room in which they sit, so that the picture may be more fully seen. So G.o.d sometimes darkens our place on earth, puts out this light and that, and then before our souls He makes to pa.s.s the splendors and glories of the better land."
All Things Work for Good
There is one pa.s.sage of Scripture which has always been a great comfort to me. In the eighth chapter of Romans Paul says: "All things work together for good to them that love G.o.d." Some years ago a child of mine had scarlet fever. I went to the druggist"s to get the medicine, which the doctor had ordered, and told him to be sure and be very careful in making up the prescription. The druggist took down one bottle after another, in any one of which there might be what would be rank poison for my child; but he stirred them together and mixed them up, and made just the medicine which my child needed. And so G.o.d gives us a little adversity here, a little prosperity there, and all works for our good.
It Takes Time
Suppose I should send my little boy, five years old, to school to-morrow morning, and when he came home in the afternoon, say to him:
"Willie, can you read? can you write? can you spell? Do you understand all about algebra, geometry, Hebrew, Latin and Greek?"
"Why, papa," the little fellow would say, "how funny you talk. I have been all day trying to learn the A, B, C"s!"
Suppose I should reply: "If you have not finished your education, you need not go any more." What would you say? Why, you would say I had gone mad!
There would be just as much reason in that as in the way that people talk about the Bible. The men who have studied the Bible for fifty years have never got down to the depths of it yet. There are truths there that the church of G.o.d has been searching out for the last nineteen hundred years, but no man has yet fathomed the depths of the ever-living stream.
Something G.o.d Cannot Do
In Ireland, some time ago, a teacher asked a little boy if there was anything that G.o.d could not do. The little fellow said:
"Yes, He cannot see my sins through the blood of Christ."
It Seemed Too Good to be True
Some time ago I read in one of the daily papers a thing that pleased me very much. When the new administration of President McKinley went into office some clerks in one of the departments were promoted. One young lady was offered a promotion, but she went to see the secretary, General b.u.t.terworth, and said that there was a girl sitting next to her that had a family to support. A brother who had been supporting the family had died, or sickened, and it had fallen upon her, and she asked the general to let her friend that sat next to her have the promotion in her place.
The general said that he had heard of such things in other generations, but he didn"t know that it would ever happen in his generation. He was amazed to find a person on duty in Washington that was willing to give up her position and take a lower one, and let some one else have it that she might be able to help her family.
In Colorado the superintendent of some works told me of a miner that was promoted, who came to the superintendent, and said:
"There is a man that has seven children, and I have only three, and he is having a hard struggle. Don"t promote me, but promote him."
I know of nothing that speaks louder for Christ and Christianity than to see a man or woman giving up what you call your rights for others, and "in honor preferring one another."
The Scarlet Thread
In the British Navy there is said to be a scarlet thread running through every line of cordage, and though a rope be cut into inch pieces it can be recognized as belonging to the government. So there is a scarlet thread running all through the Bible--the whole book points to Christ.
The First "Don"t Worry Club"
Mrs. Sangster says that we hear a good deal in this age, as if it were a novelty, about the futility of being anxious, and people have established "Don"t Worry Clubs." But the first "Don"t Worry Club" was begun by our blessed Lord Himself when He said: "Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." He bade us consider the lilies growing in their beauty and purity without a thought, and taught us the true way of living without care, without solicitude, bearing all burdens lightly, and having continual joy on our faces. Only those who have the indwelling Christ in their hearts can walk through this world with bright and glad looks, because they know that, let come what may, their Father is leading them safely.
The Story Followed Him
While I was at a convention in Illinois an old man past seventy years, got up, and said he remembered but one thing about his father, and that one thing followed him all through life. He could not remember his death, he had no recollection of his funeral, but he recollected his father one winter night taking a little chip, and with his pocket-knife whittling out a little cross, and with the tears in his eyes he held up that cross, telling how G.o.d in His infinite love sent His Son down here to redeem us, and how He had died on the cross for us. The story of the cross followed him through life; and if we tell children these truths, they will never forget them.
The Fatal Sleep
Some time ago a vessel had been off on a whaling voyage, and had been gone about three years. The father of one of the sailors had charge of the light-house, and he was expecting his boy to come home. It was time for the whaling-vessel to return. One night there came up a terrible gale. This father fell asleep, and while he slept his light went out. When he awoke he looked toward the sh.o.r.e and saw a vessel had been wrecked. He at once went to see if he could not yet save some one who might be still alive. The first body that came floating toward the sh.o.r.e was, to his great grief and surprise, the body of his own boy! He had been watching for that boy for many days. Now the boy had at last come in sight of home, and had perished because his father had let his light go out!
I thought, what an ill.u.s.tration of fathers and mothers to-day that have let their lights go out! You are not training your children for G.o.d and eternity. You do not live as though there were anything beyond this life at all. You keep your affections set upon things on the earth instead of on things above, and the result is that the children do not believe there is anything in Christianity. Perhaps the very next step they take may take them into eternity; the next day they may die without G.o.d and without hope.
That Love is Spontaneous
Some time ago, in an inquiry meeting, I said to a young miss who said that she could not love G.o.d, that it was very hard for her to love Him:
"Is it hard for you to love your mother? Do you have to learn to love your mother?"
She looked up through her tears, and said, "No; I can"t help it; that is spontaneous."
"Well," I said, "when the Holy Spirit kindles love in your heart, you can not help loving G.o.d; it will be spontaneous."
When the Spirit of G.o.d comes into your heart and mine, it will be easy to love and serve G.o.d.
The Summing Up of His Life
A man was taken into one of our insane asylums a few years ago from one of the Western cities. He had resolved to be rich. How he turned every stone to acc.u.mulate wealth! All his energy and every faculty were pushed toward that one end. "Wealth, wealth, wealth! money, money, money!" was his cry. At last it drove him mad, and they took him to the mad-house, where he threw himself into a rocking-chair, and cried:
"Millions of money, and in a mad-house!"
That was all there was of his life. Pretty short, wasn"t it? Sixty years gone, millions of money, and in a mad-house; and he died there.
That was the summing up of his life.
Beautiful Motion but No Progress
Many people are working and working, as Rowland Hill said, like children on a rocking-horse--it is a beautiful motion, but there is no progress. Those who are working for salvation are like men on a treadmill, going round and round and round; toiling and toiling and toiling; but nothing comes of it all. There is no progress, and there cannot be until you have the motive power within, till the breath of life comes from G.o.d, which can alone give you power to work for others.
Get It into Your Heart