There can be a personal going to some in words tactfully spoken. There is the life of sweet purity and gentle patience always so winsome, that speaks all the time in musical tones to one"s circle. There is an enormous, unconscious aggressiveness about such a life. Then there can be the going through gold. And the entire planet can be brought under one"s thumb of influence through the strangely simple power of prayer.
I have been running across some new versions of this last word of Jesus. A sort of re-revisions they are. I have not found them in the common print, but printed in lives, the lives of men. The print is large, chiefly capitals, easily read. These lives are so noisy as to quite shut out what the lips may be saying. There are variations in these translations.
Sometime the message is made to read like this: "All power hath been given unto Me, therefore go ye, and make--coins of gold--oh, belong to church of course--that is proper and has many advantages--and give too. There are advantages about that--give freely, or make it seem freely--give to missions at home and abroad. That is regarded as a sure sign of a liberal spirit. But be careful about the _proportion_ of your giving. For the real thing that counts at the year"s end is how much you have added to the stock of dollars in your grasp. These other things are good, but--merely incidental. This thing of getting gold is the main drive."
Please understand me, I never heard any of these folks talk in this blunt way with their _tongues_. So far as I can hear, they are saying something quite different. But what their tongues are saying is made indistinct and blurred by some noise near by.
Other translations I have run across have this variation: "Make a place for yourself, in your profession, in society. Make a comfortable living;--with a wide margin of meaning to that word "comfortable"--belong to the church, become a pillar, or at least move in the pillar"s circle, give of course, even freely in appearance, but remember these are the dust in the scale, the other is the thing that weighs. All of one"s energies must be centered on the main thing."
May I ask you to listen very quietly, while I repeat the Master"s own words over very softly and clearly, so that they may get into the inner c.o.c.kles of our hearts anew? "All power hath been given unto Me; therefore go ye, and _make disciples of all nations_." These other translations are wrong. They are misleading. _The one main thing is influencing men for Jesus_.
The Perspective of True Service.
It is not the only thing by any means. There is a mult.i.tude of things perfectly proper and that must be done and well done. But through all their doing is to run this one strong purpose. These other things are details, important details, indispensably important, yet details. The other is the one main thing toward which the doing of all the others is to bend and blend.
Please mark keenly that there are three lives here; three in one. The secret life of prayer, the open life of purity, the active life of service Not one, nor the other, not any two, but all three, this is the true ideal. This is the true rounded life. And note sharply that this gives the true perspective of service. The service life grows up out of the other two. Its roots lie down in prayer and purity. This explains why so much service is fruitless. It isn"t rooted. There is no rich subsoil.
It seems to be a part of the hurt of sin that men do not keep the proportion of things balanced, and never have. In former days men shut themselves up behind great walls that they might be pleasing to G.o.d. They shut out the noise that they might have quiet to pray. They thought to shut out the sin that they might be pure, forgetting that they carried it in with them.
In our day things have swung clean over to the other extreme. Now all is activity. The emphasis of the time is upon doing. There is a lot of running around, and rushing around. There is a great deal of activity that seems inseparable from dust. The wheels make such a lot of noise as they go around. _Doing_ that does not root down in the secret touch with Jesus, may be quite vigorous for a time, but soon leaves behind as its only memory withered up branches. This is a _practical_ age, we are constantly told. Things must be judged by the standard of usefulness. That is surely true, and good, but there is very serious danger that the true perspective of service be lost in the dust that is being raised.
The imprint of this disproportion or lack of proportion can even be found in the theological teaching of long ago and now. At one time religion was defined as having to do with a man"s relation to G.o.d. That was emphasized to the utter hiding away of all else. In our own day the swing is clear over to the other side. Definitions of religion that make everything of helping one"s brother and fellow, are the popular thing. There seems to be a sort of astigmatism that keeps us from seeing things straight. Though always there have been those that saw straight and lived truly.
Mark keenly that true touch with G.o.d always brings the longing to be pure, and the loving of one"s fellow. The nearer one gets to G.o.d the nearer will he find himself getting to men. Often we find ourselves getting new wonderful glimpses of G.o.d as we are eagerly helping somebody. Up seems to include out, as though the line that drew us up to G.o.d led through men.
Yet with that always goes the other fact that touch with G.o.d makes one long to be alone with Him.
There are always the three turnings of a true life, upward, inward, outward. Upward to G.o.d, inward to self, outward to the world. The more one knows G.o.d the keener is the longing to get off with Himself alone, the deeper is the yearning to be pure, and the stronger is the pa.s.sion to help others regardless of any sacrifice involved.
A Long Time Coming.
There is an old story that caught fire in my heart the first time it came to me, and burns anew at each memory of it. It told of a time in the southern part of our country when the sanitary regulations were not so good as of late. A city was being scourged by a disease that seemed quite beyond control. The city"s carts were ever rolling over the cobble-stones, helping carry away those whom the plague had slain.
Into one very poor home, a laboring man"s home, the plague had come. And the father and children had been carried out until on the day of this story there remained but two, the mother and her baby boy of perhaps five years. The boy crept up into his mother"s lap, put his arms about her neck, and with his baby eyes so close, said, "Mother, father"s dead, and brothers and sister are dead;--if _you_ die, what"ll I do?"
The poor mother had thought of it, of course, What could she say? Quieting her voice as much as possible, she said, "If I die, Jesus will come for you." That was quite satisfactory to the boy. He had been taught about Jesus, and felt quite safe with Him, and so went about his play on the floor. And the boy"s question proved only too prophetic. And quick work was done by the dread disease. And soon she was being laid away by strange hands.
It is not difficult to understand that in the sore distress of the time the boy was forgotten. When night came, he crept into bed, but could not sleep. Late in the night he got up, found his way out along the street, down the road, in to where he had seen the men put her. And throwing himself down on the freshly shoveled earth, sobbed and sobbed until nature kindly stole consciousness away for a time.
Very early the next morning a gentleman coming down the road from some errand of mercy, looked over the fence, and saw the little fellow lying there. Quickly suspecting some sad story, he called him, "My boy, what are you doing there?--My boy, wake up, what are you doing there all alone?"
The boy waked up, rubbed his baby eyes, and said, "Father"s dead, and brothers and sister"s dead, and now--_mother"s_--dead--too. And she said, if she did die, Jesus would come for me. And He hasn"t come. And I"m so tired waiting." And the man swallowed something in his throat, and in a voice not very clear, said, "Well, my boy, I"ve come for you." And the little fellow waking up, with his baby eyes so big, said "I think you"ve been a long time coming."
Whenever I read these last words of Jesus or think of them, there comes up a vision that floods out every other thing. It is of Jesus Himself standing on that hilltop. His face is all scarred and marred, thorn-torn and thong-cut. But it is beautiful, pa.s.sing all beauty of earth, with its wondrous beauty light. Those great eyes are looking out so yearningly, _out_ as though they were seeing men, the ones nearest and those farthest.
His arm is outstretched with the hand pointing out. And you cannot miss the rough jagged hole in the palm. And He is saying, _"Go ye."_ The att.i.tude, the scars, the eyes looking, the hand pointing, the voice speaking, all are saying so intently, _"Go ye."_
And as I follow the line of those eyes, and the hand, there comes up an answering vision. A great sea of faces that no man ever yet has numbered, with answering eyes and outstretching hands. From h.o.a.ry old China, from our blood-brothers in India, from Africa where sin"s tar stick seems to have blackened blackest, from Romanized South America, and the islands, aye from the slums, and frontiers, and mountains in the homeland, and from those near by, from over the alley next to your house maybe, they seem to come. And they are rubbing their eyes, and speaking. With lives so pitifully barren, with lips mutely eloquent, with the soreness of their hunger, they are saying, "You"re a long time coming."
Shall we go? Shall we _not_ go? But how shall we best go? By keeping in such close touch with Jesus that the warm throbbing of His heart is ever against our own. Then will come a new purity into our lives as we go out irresistibly attracted by the attraction of Jesus toward our fellows. And then too shall go out of ourselves and out of our lives and service, a new supernatural power touching men. It is Jesus within reaching men through us.
Yokefellows: The Rhythm of Service.
The Master"s Invitation.
Surrender a Law of Life, Free Surrender.
"Him."
Yoked Service.
In Step With Jesus.
The Scar-marks of Surrender.
Full Power Through Rhythm.
He Is Our Peace.
The Master"s Touch.
Yokefellows: The Rhythm of Service.
(Matthew xi. 25-30; Luke x:1, 17, 21-24.)
The Master"s Invitation.
It was about six months before the tragic end that Jesus sent out thirty-five deputations of two each. He was beginning that slow memorable journey south that ended finally at the cross. These men are sent ahead to prepare the way. By and by they return and make a glad exultant report of the good results attending their work. Even the demons had acknowledged the power of Jesus" name on their lips.
As He was listening Jesus looked up, and said, "Father, I thank Thee." And then, as though He could see those great crowds to whom they had been ministering in His name, He said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
There are two invitations here, "come" and "take." There are two sorts of people. Those who are tugging and straining at work, and carrying heavy burdens, and then those who have received rest, and are now asked to go a step farther. There are two kinds of rest, a given rest, and a found rest.
The given rest cannot be found. It comes as a sheer out gift, from Jesus"
own hand. The found rest cannot be given, may I say? It comes stealing its gentle way in as one fits into Jesus" plan for his life.
Many folks have accepted the first of these invitations. They have "come"
to Jesus, and received sweet rest from His hand. But they have gone no farther. At the close of that first invitation there is a punctuation period, a full stop. Some of the old schoolbooks used to say that one should stop at a period and count four. Well, a great many people have followed that old rule here, and more than followed. They have stopped at that period, and never gotten past it. I want just now to ask you to come with me as we talk together a bit about this second invitation, "Take My yoke."
Jesus used several different words in tying people up to Himself. There is a growth in them, as He draws us nearer and nearer. First always is the invitation "Come unto Me." That means salvation, life. Then He says, "Follow Me," "Come after Me." That means discipleship. "Learn of Me"
means training in discipleship. "Yoke up with Me" means closest fellowship. "Abide in Me" leads one out into abundant life. "As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you," means living Jesus" life over again.
And then the last "Go ye" is the outer reach of all, service for a world.