But bear in mind, the time is coming when Christ will be worth more to you than ten thousand worlds like this. Bear in mind that He is offered to you now. This is a day of grace; it is a day of mercy. You will find, if you read your Bible carefully, that G.o.d always precedes judgment with grace. Grace is a forerunner of judgment. He called these men in the days of Noah in love. They would have been saved if they had repented in those one hundred and twenty years. When Christ came to plead with the people in Jerusalem, it was their day of grace; but they mocked and laughed at Him. He said: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" Forty years afterward, thousands of the people begged that their lives might be spared; and eleven hundred thousand perished in that city.
In 1857 a revival swept over this country in the east and on to the western cities, clear over to the Pacific coast. It was G.o.d calling the nation to Himself. Half a million people united with the Church at that time. Then the war broke out. We were baptized with the Holy Ghost in 1857, and in 1861 we were baptized in blood. It was a call of mercy, preceding judgment.
Are Your Children Safe?
The text which I have selected has a special application to Christian people and to parents. This command of the Scripture was given to Noah not only for his own safety, but that of his household, and the question which I put to each father and mother is this: "Are your children in the ark of G.o.d?" You may scoff at it, but it is a very important question. Are all your children in? Are all your grandchildren in? Don"t rest day or night until you get your children in. I believe my children have fifty temptations where I had one. I am one of those who believe that in the great cities there is a snare set upon the corner of every street for our sons and daughters; and I don"t believe it is our business to spend our time in acc.u.mulating bonds and stocks. Have I done all I can to get my children in? That is it.
Now, let me ask another question: What would have been Noah"s feelings if, when G.o.d called him into the ark, his children would not have gone with him? If he had lived such a false life that his children had no faith in his word, what would have been his feelings? He would have said: "There is my poor boy on the mountain. Would to G.o.d I had died in his place! I would rather have perished than had him perish." David cried over his son: "Oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would G.o.d I had died for thee!" Noah loved his children, and they had confidence in him.
Someone sent me a paper a number of years ago, containing an article that was marked. Its t.i.tle was: "Are all the children in?" An old wife lay dying. She was nearly one hundred years of age, and the husband who had taken the journey with her, sat by her side. She was just breathing faintly, but suddenly she revived, opened her eyes, and said:
"Why! it is dark."
"Yes, Janet, it is dark."
"Is it night?"
"Oh, yes! it is midnight."
"Are all the children in?"
There was that old mother living life over again. Her youngest child had been in the grave twenty years, but she was traveling back into the old days, and she fell asleep in Christ asking, "Are all the children in?"
Dear friend, are they all in? Put the question to yourself now. Is John in? Is James in? Or is he immersed in business and pleasure? Is he living a double and dishonest life? Say! where is your boy, mother?
Where is your son, your daughter? Is it well with your children? Can you say it is?
After being superintendent of a Sunday school in Chicago for a number of years, a school of over a thousand members, children that came from G.o.dless homes, having mothers and fathers working against me, taking the children off on excursions on Sunday, and doing all they could to break up the work I was trying to do, I used to think that if I should ever stand before an audience I would speak to no one but parents; that would be my chief business. It is an old saying--"Get the lamb, and you will get the sheep." I gave that up years ago. Give me the sheep, and then I will have someone to nurse the lamb; but get a lamb and convert him, and if he has a G.o.dless father and mother, you will have little chance with that child. What we want is G.o.dly homes. The home was established long before the Church.
I have no sympathy with the idea that our children have to grow up before they are converted. Once I saw a lady with three daughters at her side, and I stepped up to her and asked her if she was a Christian.
"Yes, sir."
Then I asked the oldest daughter if she was a Christian. The chin began to quiver, and the tears came into her eyes, and she said,
"I wish I was."
The mother looked very angrily at me and said, "I don"t want you to speak to my children on that subject. They don"t understand." And in great rage she took them all away from me. One daughter was fourteen years old, one twelve, and the other ten, but they were not old enough to be talked to about religion. Let them drift into the world and plunge into worldly amus.e.m.e.nts, and then see how hard it is to reach them. Many a mother is mourning to-day because her boy has gone beyond her reach, and will not allow her to pray with him. She may pray _for_ him, but he will not let her pray or talk _with_ him. In those early days when his mind was tender and young, she might have led him to Christ. Bring them in. "Suffer the little children to come unto Me."
Is there a prayerless father reading this? May G.o.d let the arrow go down into your soul! Make up your mind that, G.o.d helping you, you will get the children in. G.o.d"s order is to the father first, but if he isn"t true to his duty, then the mother should be true, and save the children from the wreck. Now is the time to do it while you have them under your roof. Exert your parental influence over them.
I never speak to parents but I think of two fathers, one of whom lived on the banks of the Mississippi, the other in New York. The first one devoted all his time to ama.s.sing wealth. He had a son to whom he was much attached, and one day the boy was brought home badly injured. The father was informed that the boy could live but a short time, and he broke the news to his son as gently as possible.
"You say I cannot live, father? O! then pray for my soul," said the boy.
In all those years that father had never said a prayer for that boy, and he told him he couldn"t. Shortly after, the boy died. That father has said since that he would give all that he possessed if he could call that boy back only to offer one short prayer for him.
The other father had a boy who had been sick some time, and he came home one day and found his wife weeping. She said:
"I cannot help but believe that this is going to prove fatal."
The man started, and said: "If you think so, I wish you would tell him."
But the mother could not tell her boy. The father went to the sick room, and he saw that death was feeling for the cords of life, and he said:
"My son, do you know you are not going to live?"
The little fellow looked up and said: "No; is this death that I feel stealing over me? Will I die to-day?"
"Yes, my son, you cannot live the day out."
And the little fellow smiled and said: "Well, father, I shall be with Jesus tonight, shan"t I?"
"Yes, you will spend the night with the Lord," and the father broke down and wept.
The little fellow saw the tears, and said: "Don"t weep for me. I will go to Jesus and tell Him that ever since I can remember you have prayed for me."
I have three children, and if G.o.d should take them from me, I would rather have them take such a message home to Him than to have the wealth of the whole world. Oh! would to G.o.d I could say something to stir you, fathers and mothers, to get your children into the ark.
HUMILITY.
"Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart."--Matthew 11:29.
There is no harder lesson to learn than the lesson of humility. It is not taught in the schools of men, only in the school of Christ. It is the rarest of all the gifts. Very rarely do we find a man or woman who is following closely the footsteps of the Master in meekness and in humility. I believe that it is the hardest lesson which Jesus Christ had to teach His disciples while He was here upon earth. It almost looked at first as though He had failed to teach it to the twelve men who had been with Him almost constantly for three years.
I believe that if we are humble enough we shall be sure to get a great blessing. After all, I think that more depends upon us than upon the Lord, because He is always ready to give a blessing and give it freely, but we are not always in a position to receive it. He always blesses the humble, and, if we can get down in the dust before Him, no one will go away disappointed. It was Mary at the feet of Jesus, who had chosen the "better part."
Did you ever notice the reason Christ gave for learning of Him? He might have said: "Learn of me, because I am the most advanced thinker of the age. I have performed miracles that no man else has performed.
I have shown my supernatural power in a thousand ways." But no: the reason He gave was that He was "meek, and lowly in heart."
We read of the three men in Scripture whose faces shone, and all three were noted for their meekness and humility. We are told that the face of Christ shone at His transfiguration; Moses, after he had been in the mount for forty days, came down from his communion with G.o.d with a shining face; and when Stephen stood before the Sanhedrim on the day of his death, his face was lighted up with glory. If our faces are to shine we must get into the valley of humility; we must go down in the dust before G.o.d.
Bunyan says that it is hard to get down into the valley of humiliation, the descent into it is steep and rugged; but that it is very fruitful and fertile and beautiful when once we get there. I think that no one will dispute that; almost every man, even the unG.o.dly, admires meekness.
Someone asked Augustine, what was the first of the religious graces, and he said, "Humility." They asked him what was the second, and he replied, "Humility." They asked him the third, and he said, "Humility." I think that if we are humble, we have all the graces.
Some years ago I saw what is called a sensitive plant. I happened to breathe on it, and suddenly it drooped its head; I touched it, and it withered away. Humility is as sensitive as that; it cannot safely be brought out on exhibition. A man who is flattering himself that he is humble and is walking close to the Master, is self-deceived. It consists not in thinking meanly of ourselves, but in not thinking of ourselves at all. Moses wist not that his face shone. If humility speaks of itself, it is gone.
Someone has said that the gra.s.s is an ill.u.s.tration of this lowly grace. It was created for the lowliest service. Cut it, and it springs up again. The cattle feed upon it, and yet how beautiful it is.
The showers fall upon the mountain peaks, and very often leave them barren because they rush down into the meadows and valleys and make the lowly places fertile. If a man is proud and lifted up, rivers of grace may flow over him and yet leave him barren and unfruitful, while they bring blessing to the man who has been brought low by the grace of G.o.d.
A man can counterfeit love, he can counterfeit faith, he can counterfeit hope and all the other graces, but it is very difficult to counterfeit humility. You soon detect mock humility. They have a saying in the East among the Arabs, that as the tares and the wheat grow they show which G.o.d has blessed. The ears that G.o.d has blessed bow their heads and acknowledge every grain, and the more fruitful they are the lower their heads are bowed. The tares which G.o.d has sent as a curse, lift up their heads erect, high above the wheat, but they are only fruitful of evil. I have a pear tree on my farm which is very beautiful; it appears to be one of the most beautiful trees on my place. Every branch seems to be reaching up to the light and stands almost like a wax candle, but I never get any fruit from it. I have another tree, which was so full of fruit last year that the branches almost touched the ground. If we only get down low enough, my friends, G.o.d will use every one of us to His glory.
"As the lark that soars the highest builds her nest the lowest; as the nightingale that sings so sweetly, sings in the shade when all things rest; as the branches that are most laden with fruit, bend lowest; as the ship most laden, sinks deepest in the water;--so the holiest Christians are the humblest."
The _London Times_ some years ago told the story of a pet.i.tion that was being circulated for signatures. It was a time of great excitement, and this pet.i.tion was intended to have great influence in the House of Lords; but there was one word left out. Instead of reading, "We humbly beseech thee," it read, "We beseech thee." So it was ruled out. My friends, if we want to make an appeal to the G.o.d of Heaven, we must humble ourselves; and if we do humble ourselves before the Lord, we shall not be disappointed.