Sermon Illustration

I know that there is such a thing as peace to seek and find. But here is my work to do, to worry over whether I am doing it right, to keep myself restless over how it will turn out. “My work,” I say; but if I can know that it is not my work but God’s, should I not cast away my restlessness, even while I worked on more faithfully and untiringly than ever? If I could pour through all the good plan over which I am laboring the certainty that all that is good in it is God’s and must succeed, how that certainty would drive the darkness out of it! And while I worked harder than ever, my work would have something of the calmness with which he labors always. To every poor sufferer, to every discouraged worker, to every man who cannot think much of himself, and yet is too brave to despair, this is the courage that the gospel gives. —Phillips Brooks

About the year 441 a.d., St. Patrick, who has since been called the Apostle of Ireland, went over there bent upon carrying out his long-cherished plan of converting the Irish to Christianity. On one occasion, when preaching before one of their petty kings, he spoke of the Holy, Blessed, and Glorious Trinity, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, as being not three Gods, but Three Persons in One God. The king listened in amazement, and at length interrupted him, to ask in the words of one of old, ‘How can these things be?’ St. Patrick stooped and picked a leaf of the shamrock, with which the ground was there carpeted. Then, holding it up, he said, “Do you see this leaf, O king?” “Certainly I do,” replied the king. And now, touching each lobe of the trefoil in succession, Saint Patrick asked the King, “What is this?” “A leaf.” “And this?” “A leaf.” “And this?” “A leaf.” “As, then, O King, you see and confess that this leaf consists of three leaves, and yet nevertheless is

A gentleman’s watch was once out of order, and it was examined. It was found that in one of them the main-spring was injured; the glass which protected the dial-plate of the other was broken; while the machinery of the third had become damp and rusty, although the parts were all there. So the lack of holiness, in some cases, arises from the lack of a desire to love God; another man has not the glass of watchfulness in his conduct; another has become rusty with backsliding from God, and the sense of guilt so clogs the wheels of his machinery, that they must be well-brushed with rebuke and correction, and oiled afresh with the divine influence before they will ever go well again.

Rev. F. B. Meyer once related how, in olden days, amid the Roman Forum, there was a little brooklet, called the “Girl’s Fountain,” which sang merrily as it broke into the light and passed on its way toward the yellow Tiber. For centuries, however, it was lost sight of; not that it had ceased to exist, but that it had become covered and almost choked by tons of rubbish, accumulated thickly on the spot, as the proud city was subjected to repeated and ruthless violence at the hands of many spoilers. But when the debris was removed, that fountain, so long choked and hindered, freed from all restraints, again took up its song and recommenced its useful ministry. Is not that a type of the work of the Mighty One within us? He has not left us; but his gracious power, which would have been put forth in us and for us, has been rendered almost inoperative and dead. What shall now hinder us from ridding ourselves of all which has hindered Him from doing His mighty works, so that He may do that whi

In the diamond fields of South Africa a diamond was found, celebrated lately under the title of “fly-stone”; placed under magnifying glass, you see enclosed in all its brilliancy a little fly, with body, wings, and eyes, in the most perfect state of preservation. How it came there no one knows, but no human skill can take it out. So in Holy Scripture the spirit of God is found in a place from which no power of man can remove it.

Learn a lesson from the eye of the miner, who all day long is working amid the flying coal dust. When he emerges in the light of day his face may be grimy enough; but his eyes are clear and lustrous, because the fountain of tears in the lachrymal gland is ever pouring its gentle tides over the eye, cleansing away each speck of dust as soon as it alights. Is not this the miracle of cleansing which our spirits need in such a world as this? And this is what our blessed Lord is prepared to do for us if only we will trust Him. —F. B. Meyer

In South America the wind from the marshes comes charged with the germs of intermittent fever, and often the most deadly cholera accompanies stillness in the atmosphere. A storm is the best purifier of the air, and the inhabitants long eagerly for it. From the marshy places of our lower nature the fever of lust and the unsanctified passion comes. The stillness of inactivity and do-nothingness is always favorable to the cholera of doubt and unbelief. The great preventive is the soul-stirring breath of the Holy Ghost. When He comes as a mighty, rushing wind, the whole atmosphere of the life is purified.

A man has lost his way in a dark and dreary mine. By the light of one candle, which he carries in his hand, he is groping for the road to sunshine and to home. That light is essential to his safety. The mine has many winding passages, in which he may be hopelessly bewildered. Here and there marks have been made on the rocks to point out the true path, but he cannot see them without that light. There are many deep pits into which, if unwary, he may suddenly fall, but he cannot avoid the danger without that. Should it go out that mine will be his tomb? How carefully he carries it! How anxiously he shields it from sudden gusts of air, from water dropping on it, from everything that might quench it! The case described is our own. We are like that lonely wanderer in the mine. Does he diligently keep alight the candle on which his life depends? Much more earnestly should we give heed to the warning, “Quench not the Spirit.” Sin makes our road both dark and dangerous. If God gave us no light,

Ugly Christianity is not Christ’s Christianity. Some of us older people remember that it used to be a favorite phrase to describe unattractive saints, that they had “grace grafted on a crab stick.” There are a great many Christian people whom one would compare to any other plant rather than a lily. Thorns and thistles and briars are a good deal more like what some of them appear to the world. But we are bound, if we are Christian people, by our obligations to God, and by our obligations to men, to try and make Christianity look as beautiful in people’s eyes as we can…. Do you remember the words, “Whatsoever things are lovely; whatsoever things are of good report, … if there be any praise [from men] think on these things” (Phil. 4:8). It may be a modest kind of beauty, very humble, and not at all like the flaring reds and yellows of the gorgeous flowers that the world admires…. But unless you, as a Christian, are in your character arrayed in the “beauty of holiness,” and in the holiness

To quote the great leader of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, “The believing man hath the Holy Ghost; and where the Holy Ghost dwelleth, He will not suffer a man to be idle, but stirreth him up to all exercises of piety and godliness, and of true religion, to the love of God, to the patient suffering of afflictions, to prayer, to thanksgiving, and the exercise of charity towards all men.”

Not long ago an enormous fire became kindled in Virginia’s famous Dismal Swamp. It was started by hunters and spread rapidly through the undergrowth and frost-bitten shrubbery, giving forth great clouds of thick smoke. So extensive was it that hundreds of wild animals, such as bear and fox and deer, as well as many smaller animals, were driven out into the farming settlements, where they were speedily killed by hunters. When the refining fire of the Holy Spirit goes through a heart that has been the abode of sinful passions and lusts, it drives them out from their hidden lairs to be destroyed.

“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13). The absolute necessity of the indwelling Spirit of God is demonstrated by the forester. Whitewashing and spraying never reaches some parasites attacking the tree, so the forester bores into the very heart of the tree, and introduces chemical solutions which mingle with the sap and circulate through every branch and leaf. Thus is the old tree rendered absolutely safe from its foes. Is this not exactly the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers—to so indwell them as to render them safe from their foes? His ministry is very much like that of the antiseptic. To be effective the antiseptic must come in direct contact with the putrefaction in the flesh. Just so the Holy Spirit must be permitted direct access to the innermost secret sins of the believer if there is to be real spiritual blessing.

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:22, 23). 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 around and around, toiling and toiling, but nothing comes of it. There is no progress. There never can be until you have the motive power within, till the breath of life comes from God, which alone can give you power to work for others. A great many think that we need new measures, new churches, new organs, new choirs, and a host of other things new. That is not what the church of God needs. It is the old power that the apostles had that men need today. At a prayer meeting in Chicago years ago, D. L.

“Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3) A famous and beloved university professor, in referring to an experiment in electromagnetism which he performed every year for his class, said that he never repeated the experiment without the increasing sense of the mysterious powers about and above him. The experiment was this: On an oak table was placed a pile of horseshoe nails. In one corner of the room was a powerful dynamo. When the electric current was turned on and the poles of the battery were brought up under the table, although they did not touch the nails themselves, immediately there was constituted around them a field of magnetic force. So long as this field of force was maintained the loose horseshoe nails could be built up in various forms, such as a cube, a sphere, or an arch. So long as the current was on, the nails would stay in exactly the form placed, as if they had been soldered together. But the second the current was cut off, the

On the Saturday night when Chicago was destroyed, I was preaching in Farwell Hall. We had an after meeting, and while the bells were ringing the alarm of fire, we were singing that verse— Today the Savior calls; For refuge fly; The storm of vengeance falls, And death is nigh. Many of the young men present, who sung that hymn, were burned to death before morning—a thousand people lost their lives that night. It seemed to me that fire burnt out all my prejudices and dislikes, and I love the whole world. —D. L. Moody

A benevolent person gave Mr. Rowland Hill a hundred pounds to dispense to a poor minister, and thinking it was too much to send him at once, Mr. Hill forwarded five pounds in a letter, with simply these words within the envelope: “More to follow.” In a few days’ time, the good man received another letter by the post—and letters by the post were rarities in those days; this second messenger contained another five pounds, with the same motto: “And more to follow.” A day or two after came a third and a fourth, and still the same promise: “And more to follow.” Till the whole sum had been received the astonished minister was made familiar with the cheering words: “And more to follow.” Every blessing that comes from God is sent with the self-same message: “And more to follow.” “I forgive you your sins, but there’s more to follow.” “I justify you in the righteousness of Christ, but there’s more to follow.” “I adopt you into my family, but there’s more to follow.” “I educate you for Heaven,

The pearl-diver lives at the bottom of the ocean by means of the pure air conveyed to him from above. His life is entirely dependent on the life-giving Spirit. We are down here, like the diver, to gather pearls for our Master’s crown. The source of our life comes from above. —Henry Drummond

Once a man who owned a beautiful house invited one of his friends to come and live with him. He provided for his guest a room, a bed to sleep in, and a place at his table. By and by, though, he met another man, who charmed him, so he invited this one also to come and stay with him. He went to the one that he had invited first and asked that he share his room with the stranger; a little while afterward he was asked to give up his bed for the same purpose; then to surrender his place at the table. We are not surprised to know that, deeply grieved, he left the house altogether. Thus had many a man crowded the blessed Guest from his heart. When the world begins to war with the Spirit for the possession of your heart, beware lest the Holy One be grieved and take His departure.

When Nansen started on his Arctic Expedition he took with him a carrier pigeon, strong and fleet of wing; and after two years—two years in the desolation of the Arctic regions—he one day wrote a tiny little message and tied it under the pigeon’s wing, and let it loose to travel two thousand miles to Norway; and oh! what miles! What desolation—not a living creature! Ice, ice, ice, snow, and death. But he took the trembling little bird and flung her up from the ship, up into the icy cold. Three circles she made, and then, straight as an arrow she shot south; one thousand miles over ice, one thousand miles over the frozen wastes of ocean, and at last dropped into the lap of the explorer’s wife. She knew, by the arrival of the bird, that it was all right in the dark night of the North. So with the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Heavenly Dove, the disciples knew that Christ was alive, for his coming and his manifest working were proofs of it.

Thank God! He not only separates our sins from us, but He blots them out of His book of remembrance, and remembers them against us no more forever.” I never knew the real significance of those words, “I will blot them out of the book of remembrance forever,” until I was preaching for Brother James Morris, at the Fifth and Walnut Streets Methodist Church, Louisville, Kentucky. After my sermon, Brother Morris got up and told of the sins of his early years, how he had been a gambler, a drunkard and a sinner in the sight of God. While he was talking, I looked over at his old mother. She was twisting and turning, and it seemed to me that she could not control herself. She seemed to go to pieces like a jointed snake. When he sat down and the service was dismissed, she ran up, threw her arms around his neck and said, “Jimmie, what made you say that? What made you say you were a gambler and a drunkard? You know you have always been good.” That precious old mother had forgotten that her boy had

The president of the Pennsylvania Railway, was making a quiet tour over one of the branches of the system, and wandered into an out-of-the-way switch-yard, where something one of the yard men was doing did not meet with his approbation. He made some suggestions to the man, who asked: “Who are you that’s trying to teach me my business?” “I am an officer of the road,” replied the president. “Let’s see your switch-key, then,” said the man, suspiciously. Mr. Cassatt pulled from his hip-pocket his key-ring, to which was attached the switch-key, which no railroad man in service is ever without. It was sufficient proof for the switchman, who then did as he was told. This story suggests a great spiritual lesson. If you are going to have any real leadership in dealing with the souls of men, they must see in your conversation, in the tone of your character, in the spirit of your life, that you possess the “switch-key” of the Holy Spirit.

“Who took him on the other side?” A pair of soft blue eyes, full of tenderness and tears, looked up into mine. “On the other side! What do you mean, my darling”; and I looked wondering at the child. “My baby brother, I mean. He was so small and weak, and had to go all alone. Who took him on the other side?” “Angels,” I answered, as steadily as I could speak; for the child’s question moved me deeply—“loving angels, who took him up tenderly and laid his head softly on their bosoms, and sang to him sweeter songs than he had ever heard in this world.” “But every one will be strange to him. I’m afraid he’ll be grieved for mother and nurse and me.” “No dear. The Savior, who was once a baby in this world, is there; and the angels who are nearest to him take all the little children who leave our side, and love and care for them just as if they were their own. When Bobby passed through to the other side, one of these angels held him by the hand all the way, and he was not in the least a

Some years ago there was a crossing-sweeper in Dublin with his broom, at the corner, and in all probability his highest thoughts were to keep the crossing clean and look for the pence. One day a lawyer put his hand upon his shoulder and said to him, “My good fellow, do you know that you are heir to a fortune of ten thousand pounds a year?” “Do you mean it?” said he. “I do,” he said; “I have just received the information. I am sure you are the man.” He walked away, and forgot his broom. Are you astonished? Why, who would not have forgotten a broom when suddenly made possessor of ten thousand a year? So, poor sinners, who have been thinking of the pleasures of the world, when they hear that there is heaven to be had, may well forget the deceitful pleasures of sin and follow after higher and better things. (Phil. 3:13, 14).

To encourage us in our battles and give us joy the Bible sets before us the wonderful riches of heaven. Listen to Paul, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed….” (Rom. 8:18 niv). Listen to Hebrews 12:2, 3 (niv): “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus … who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God the father.” Critics of heaven, some of whom call themselves Christians, mock us who long for heaven and call us weak. They say we should serve God and man because it is right, not because we get paid back in eternity. Like all lies this has an element of truth, but I’m so glad the couple from our church who just learned their precious three-year-old has only a few weeks to live (unless God intervenes), can be told they will see her again in heaven. What a motivation to keep on believing and serving.

To encourage us in our battles and give us joy the Bible sets before us the wonderful riches of heaven. Listen to Paul, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed….” (Rom. 8:18 niv). Listen to Hebrews 12:2, 3 (niv): “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus … who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God the father.” Critics of heaven, some of whom call themselves Christians, mock us who long for heaven and call us weak. They say we should serve God and man because it is right, not because we get paid back in eternity. Like all lies this has an element of truth, but I’m so glad the couple from our church who just learned their precious three-year-old has only a few weeks to live (unless God intervenes), can be told they will see her again in heaven. What a motivation to keep on believing and serving.

“My kingdom is not of this world,” said Christ (John 18:36). And why is it not? The apostle tells us it is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. These three principles are not of this world; they came down from the Father of lights and of mercies. But are the kingdoms of this world under no obligation to receive them? Is it come to this, that because a principle is not of this world, the world has no concern with it? Truth, love, holiness are all from above, and on that very account their claim on men is stronger, and they are to be accepted gladly by the children of men.

Are you in the “Golden October” of your life? If so, you may be susceptible to the frightful disease of “age-phobia.” The symptoms are easy to spot. You reach the age of fifty-nine, a year passes and you can’t say “sixty.” When folks ask your age, your hand mysteriously reflexes to cover your mouth as you answer. Not a day goes by that you aren’t gripped with fear that someone will discover your birth date and begin the subtraction process. Speed limit signs are cruel reminders of your age. Full price is preferable to admitting that you’re eligible for a senior citizen discount. And when birthdays roll around, only inner-circle friends are invited. A man, who lived a full life and avoided “age-phobia” once wrote, “I enjoy celebrating birthdays. And I am not worried about the alternative because I’m ready any time to leave this world and head for a perfect place.” The Apostle Paul agreed: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). Do you have the kind of confi

Heaven is not only real because His humanity is there, not merely glorious because His greatness is there. It is dear because His love is there—the love which filled His earthly life, the love of the miracle and of the wayside teaching and of the cross. The nearness and the glory might be there, and yet heaven does not lay hold of our hearts. We might be well content to stand far off and gaze. We might not want to go there. We might not listen for messages, nor send our feeble voices forth in prayer. But now our Christ is there, our Savior, no wonder if the earth a thousand times seems dull and wearisome, and always gets its best brightness from that other world in which He is, of which this is the vestibule! —Phillips Brooks

A sorrowing mother, bending over her dying child, was trying to soothe it by talking about heaven. She spoke of the glory there, of the brightness shed around, of the shining countenances of the Holy Angels; but presently a little voice stopped her, saying, “I should not like to be there, mother, for the light hurts my eyes.” Then she changed her word picture, and spoke of the songs above, of the harpers harping with their harps, of the voice as the voices of many waters, of the new song which they sang before the Throne; but the child said, “Mother, I cannot bear any noise.” Grieved and disappointed at her failure to speak words of comfort, she took the little one from its bed of pain, and enfolded it in her arms with all the tenderness of a mother’s love. Then, as the little sufferer lay there, near to all it loved best in the world, conscious only as its life ebbed away of the nearness of love and care, the whisper came, “Mother, if Heaven is like this, may Jesus take me there!”

I remember, once, when I was treading a Western forest at twilight, I came towards a little opening, I saw a man lurking on the edge of the forest, with a rifle drawn at me. Although I was a really brave man, my blood ran cold. There I was, sitting up on the horse, a fair mark for a man that was standing and taking deadly aim at me; and I was at a great disadvantage. I did not laugh, for I had not gotten over my shock, when I came up to the spot and found, instead of a man with a rifle, only a tree with a branch pointing towards me; but afterwards I laughed, to think what I had been so frightened at, and what a shock it sent through me. When men get to heaven, and find what many of those things were which stood aiming at them in this life; when they find what sort of make-believe dangers those were which threatened them, I think they will laugh. And we shall look back on the vision of life, and all its fantastic imaginings, with wonder and gladness—with sorrow for ourselves, but with

A story is told of a little girl, who one evening wanted to sit up with the family while they were visiting with their pastor. As the little one became very sleepy, her mother begged her to retire to her room. But she pleaded to remain, because she was so delighted to be with the preacher. Finally, she fell asleep in her mother’s arms and was gently carried upstairs to her bed without awaking. She did not know she was in the upper room till she opened her eyes in the morning. So Enoch visited with God one day and was not, for God took him, carried him away in everlasting arms. What a delightful way to refer to death! So we might say of our loved ones, carried by angels, or in the arms of Jesus, into the heavenly mansion. They fell asleep in Jesus and did not know they were in the upper room till they awoke in the morning. This is our resurrection hope. This is what Easter morning means.

A banquet was to be given to a number of notable people. One of the projectors of it went to a friend, who was in greater authority than himself, and asked with some anxiety what the menu was to be. “I really don’t know,” was the reply. “And you are not concerned about it?” “No; B—,” mentioning the name of a famous caterer, “is to prepare the feast, and that is assurance enough that it will be all right.” He did not have to explain the details. He would not have fully understood them if he had. It was enough to know that the matter was in the hands of one who never made a mistake. When Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you,” He told all that we need to know. He knows our needs and our longings as we do not know them ourselves. It is enough. If His hand is to make ready the feast, we have no need to question as to whether or not it will fully satisfy.

When Shackleton was driven back from his quest of the South pole, he left his men on Elephant Island, and promised to come back to them. Working his way as best he might to South Georgia, he tried to get back to fulfill his promise, and failed; tried again and failed. The ice was between him and the island; he was not able to come, but he could not rest; though the season was adverse, and they told him it was impossible, yet in his little boat “Yalcho” he tried it again. It was the wrong time of year, but strange to say he got nearer the island; there was an open avenue between the sea and the place where he had left his men; he ran his boat in at the risk of being nipped, got his men, all of them, on board, and came out again before the ice crashed to. It was all done in half an hour. When the excitement was partly over he turned to one of the men and said, “Well, you were all packed and ready!” and the man said, “You see, boss, Wild (the second in command) never gave up hope, and whe

A Christian woman was once talking to a servant of Christ about the assurance of her safety in the Savior and said, “I have taken a single ticket to glory, and do not intend to come back.” Whereupon the man of God replied, “You are going to miss a lot. I have taken a return ticket, for I am not only going to meet Christ in glory, but I am coming back with him in power and great glory to the earth.

A scoffing infidel, of considerable talents, being once in the company of a person of slender intellect, but a real Christian, and supposing, no doubt, that he should obtain an easy triumph in the display of this ungodly wit, put the following question to him: “I understand, sir, that you expect to go to heaven when you die; can you tell me what sort of place heaven is?” “Yes, sir,” replied the Christian, “heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people; and if your soul is not prepared for it, with all your boasted wisdom you will never enter there.”

An old Scottish elder had been disputing with his minister at an elders’ meeting. He said some hard things, and almost broke the minister’s heart. Afterwards he went home, and the minister went home too. Next morning the elder came down, and his wife said to him, “Eh, Jan! ye look very sad this morning. What’s the matter wi’ ye?” “Ah!” said he, “you would be sad, too, if you had had such a dream as I’ve had.” “Weel, and what did ye dream about?” “Ooh! I dreamed I had been at an elders’ meeting, and I said some hard things and grieved the minister; and as he went home I thought he died and went to heaven. A fortnight after, I thought I died, and that I went to heaven, too. And when I got to the gates of heaven, out came the minister and put out his hand to take me, saying, ‘Come along, Jan, there’s no strife up here, and I’m happy to see ye.’” The elder went to the minister to beg his pardon directly, but he found he was dead; and he laid it so to heart that within a fortnight the elder

There are no more melancholy words in the language than these. Too late! I have heard them uttered by a brother, as he hurried home to see a dying father, he arrived only to be told that he had breathed his last; and not soon shall I forget the agony they then expressed. Too late! I have known them uttered by a skillful surgeon, when he was summoned to the bedside of a dying man, and I have marked the sadness to which they have given birth. Too late! I have heard them uttered by an anxious crowd, as they stood gazing on a burning building and sadly saw the failure of those who sought to save the inmates from destruction. Too late! I have known them uttered by the noble crew of the lifeboat, when, as they put out to the sinking ship, they beheld her go down before their eyes, and “the frightened souls within her.” But, oh! none of these circumstances are half so heart-rending as those in which the sinner who has despised his day must find himself when the terrible discovery is made that

Can you be kind when you put your mind to it? December 26 is a legal holiday in both Canada and Great Britain. Come on America, join the crowd. Today is “Boxing Day” in some parts of the world. No, it’s not a day to honor George Foreman and his cronies. Rather, it’s a day to show kindness to those who provide valuable services to you. In the days when the holiday first began, people would share “gift boxes” with their milkman, postman, lamplighter, iceman and other service givers. Many of those occupations are extinct, but without a doubt, you can think of others whom you truly appreciate throughout the year. What about the clerks who handle your dry cleaning or service station needs? Well, you get the idea. Your Creator will be impressed with your kindness as He inspired: “Be kind and compassionate to one another” (Eph. 4:32 niv) However, if you are one of those people who need a little more incentive, here’s a proverb that God also inspired: “A kind man benefits himself” (Prov. 1

A pastor was getting his hair cut. The barber and those in the barbershop didn’t know he was a pastor. Those in the shop were talking about giving to the church. The barber said, “I feel one should give what they feel is proper.” When it was time to pay for the haircut, the pastor handed the barber one dollar instead of the usual ten dollars. The pastor said, “You said a person should give to the church what they feel is proper, so I feel the one dollar is proper for your work.” Of course, the pastor paid the full amount, but the men in the barbershop got his message.

A pastor was getting his hair cut. The barber and those in the barbershop didn’t know he was a pastor. Those in the shop were talking about giving to the church. The barber said, “I feel one should give what they feel is proper.” When it was time to pay for the haircut, the pastor handed the barber one dollar instead of the usual ten dollars. The pastor said, “You said a person should give to the church what they feel is proper, so I feel the one dollar is proper for your work.” Of course, the pastor paid the full amount, but the men in the barbershop got his message.

What is the best gift you could give this Christmas? Church members in Essex, Maryland were despondent. They were virtually unable to dispense any holiday cheer, on Christmas Eve last year. Samuel Booth, the pastor of the Tabernacle Church, had just been killed by someone who was in the process of receiving food and shelter from the generous shepherd. One of his flock believed that Booth “would want us to forgive this man, he really would. And we have to. But it’s very hard.” The reason Jesus was born in a manger is lost in the tinsel of this holiday’s celebration. From his very lips came these words: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matt. 6:14 niv). The converse is also true. If you don’t—He won’t! The Christ-child would grow up to set the example. As he was being crucified, the cruelest of deaths, he cried, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Christ came into this world to give forgiven

The Christian who begins to tithe will have at least six surprises. He will be surprised— 1. At the amount of money he has for the Lord’s work. 2. At the ease in meeting his own obligations with the nine tenths 3. At the deepening of his spiritual life in paying the tithe. 4. At the ease in going from one tenth to a larger giving. 5. At the prudent disposal afforded to a faithful and wise steward over the nine tenths that remain. 6. At himself in not adopting the plan sooner.

Why is it more blessed to give than to receive? 1) Because the act itself is more salutary. The act or habit of giving forever reminds us why we were sent into the world; disperses our regard from self on others; keeps up a tender spirit, a wakeful conscience, an onward look of hope for more opportunity of good, an earnest endeavor to better society, to promote happiness, to become a blessing to the world in the largest sense. 2) To give is more blessed than to receive, because it is more Christian—more the calling of the follower and imitator of Christ. 3) To give is more blessed, as being more in accordance with the teaching of the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Love. 4) Again, it is more blessed as being more like the Father Himself, who giveth us all things freely to enjoy; who gave us His own Son and through Him His unspeakable gift of the Holy Spirit. It is likeness to Him, partaking of the Divine nature by being lifted into the likeness of all His glorious attributes,

During the Spanish-American War some transports with supplies for General Shafter’s army found it impossible to secure anchorage off the coast of Cuba, and were compelled to steam slowly back and forth. This made it difficult to land the horses and mules, and it was finally decided upon to push them overboard and allow them to swim ashore. So they were pushed into the water, and soon the sea was black with animals. Some instinctively swam toward the shore; others completed circles in the water; still others, more frightened than the rest, started out to sea. It was a distressing situation, and the ship’s officers showed much concern. Finally the men who were aboard the transports espied a soldier on shore hastily making his way toward a rocky promontory. The stripes upon his uniform denoted the bugler. The jutting rocks reached, he placed the bugle to his lips and emitted one after another of the calls which the army horses and mules had learned to know so well. The sound traveled far

We are assured in the New Testament that the Lord loves a cheerful giver, and nothing is more discouraging than to see people give grudgingly for noble causes. A story told by the late Eugene Field illustrates the thought. When Lawrence Barrett’s daughter was married, Stuart Robson sent to the bridegroom a check for five thousand dollars. Miss Felicia Robson, who attended the wedding, conveyed the gift. “Felicia,” said her father, upon her return, “did you give him the check?” “Yes, father,” answered the dutiful daughter. “What did he say?” asked Robson. “He didn’t say anything,” replied Miss Felicia, “but he shed tears.” “How long did he cry?” “Why, father, I didn’t time him; I should say, however, that he wept fully a minute.” “Fully a minute!” roared Robson. “Why, I cried an hour after I’d signed it!”

A Glasgow minister was sitting on a coach beside the driver on a lonely Highland road, and saw in the distance an old woman, who looked wistfully toward the coach. As it came near her face showed by turns anxiety, hope, and fear, and as the coach passed, the driver, with downcast eyes and sad expression, shook his head, and she returned disappointed to her cottage. Being much affected by what he saw, the minister asked an explanation of the driver. The driver said that for several years she had watched daily for the coach, expecting either to see her son or to receive a letter from him. The son had gone to a large city, and had forgotten the mother who loved him so dearly. But the mother went every day to meet the coach, trusting that one day her son would return to her. Such a tale makes our hearts bleed for the parent who was cruelly forsaken, but many forget how badly they are treating their heavenly Father when they forsake Him and refuse to return to Him.

A doctor was hurrying along a lonely road at a late hour one night, thinking only of reaching home as soon as possible. As he neared a small house by the roadside, he heard what seemed to be a cry of distress. Alighting from his horse, he found that a little child had been calling to him from the doorway. Inside was a man who would have died but for his timely aid. He remained all night with the man, and thought nothing of it, except that he had saved the man’s life. He never knew that down the road that night two men had lain in wait to rob and murder him. So those of us who have given ourselves to God will never know the full story of our deliverance. Saved means saved from the evil that awaited us, had we pursued our own way.

It has been stated by scientists that the eucalyptus tree is destined to save the world from a famine of wood. Its growing powers are marvelous. A certain large plantation on the Pacific coastline, set out some twenty-five years ago, has been cut down three times, and is again high in the air. It is most serviceable. It produces cordwood and piling; makes excellent fuel, protects orange and lemon groves along the coast from the ocean winds. Above all, its medicinal value for its oil extract is remarkable. In California it is a home cure for almost every ailment from simple cold to consumption. A wonderful tree, full of promise for mankind. There is another tree, however, that is destined to save the world in a higher and truer sense. The tree of shame—the Cross of Calvary—whose healing power has been proved on millions of souls, and under the Shadow of which they were shielded and sheltered from the fierce, piercing blasts of awful temptation. That is like the tree in the Paradise of G

A merchant of St. Petersburg at his own cost supported several native missionaries in India, and gave liberally to the cause of Christ at home. On being asked how he could afford to do it, he replied: “Before my conversion, when I served the world and self, I did it on a grand scale and at the most lavish expense. And when God, by His grace, called me out of darkness, I resolved that Christ and His cause should have more than I had ever spent for the world. And as to giving so much, it is God who enables me to do it; for at my conversion I solemnly promised that I would give to His cause a fixed proportion of all that my business brought in to me, and every year since I made that promise it has brought me in about double what it did the year before, so that I easily can, as I do, double my gifts for His service.” And John Bunyan tells us, A man there was, some called him mad, The more he gave, the more he had. And there are truth and instruction in the inscription on the Italia

Do you consider yourself among “the forgiven”? British Nurse Edith Cavell was executed in 1915. German authorities claimed she had assisted Allied soldiers in escaping from Belgium to the Netherlands, a neutral country. This First World War witnessed the deaths of 9.7 million combatants during its duration. So what makes Nurse Cavell stand out? It was the spirit in which she died. True she had allowed the hospital under her control to be used by the underground. But the execution of a civilian nurse was not within the rules of war. Nevertheless, just before her death, she breathed these words, “Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness toward anyone.” Could you have been that forgiving? Perhaps you are struggling just to forgive some neighbor, coworker, or family member who has barely slighted you. Although forgiveness is tough, we must not forget the words of Christ: “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your F

After a pastor had counseled with an eleven-year-old boy one Sunday during the invitation, he happily told the congregation that the lad had accepted Christ and wanted to follow Him. The Pastor then made and unusual request. In addition to the parents and teachers of this boy, every person who had been his superintendent, leader or teacher was asked to come to the front of the auditorium. Among those who responded to this call were the following: A nursery worker who recalled singing, “I like to go to church” when the boy was just a toddler. A Beginners superintendent remembered the smiling face of a five-year-old as the child saw seeds sprouting in their Nature Center. A Primary superintendent of the Junior Department rejoiced that he had made those extra visits last year to the home of the lad confined with the measles. For several minutes people moved to the front of the building: thirty-seven adults gathered around the young lad! Each obviously had had a share in the child’s de

There was once a horse that ran away in the morning and did not return till the evening. When the master upbraided him the horse replied, “But here am I returned safe and sound. You have your horse.” “True,” answered the master, “but my field is unplowed.” If a man turns to God in old age, God has the man, but He has been defrauded of the man’s work. And the man himself has been defrauded worst of all.

For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died (Rom. 7:9). Let us illustrate how it is that sin revises. You have seen a carpenter take a straight-edge, as it is called, to see whether boards are straight. He takes a board, and looks at it, and says, “I guess that is straight”; but when he applies the straight-edge to it, he finds that it is full of bends. He could not see the inequalities till he laid the straight-edge along the board; but then he saw them plainly. Now, God’s word is a straightedge; and if a man lays it on his course of conduct, it shows him that what he thought was right is wrong.

Travelers, who have ascended very high mountains, tell us that they were able to determine their altitude by the productions of nature around them. Fruits and flowers at the base; higher up, those of the temperate variety; and still higher, those of the frigid zones. The fruit you bear will reveal your relation to Christ.

Alexander I of Russia told Mr. Venning that when he began to read the Bible, he understood but little; what little he understood he marked; next time he had to mark more—beauties having escaped his observation at first reading; and by laying aside his own prejudices and reasonings, he had come to love the Bible.

The grandest operations both in nature and in grace are the most silent and imperceptible. The shallow brook babbles in its passage and is heard by everyone, but the coming on of the seasons is silent and unseen. The storm rages and alarms, but its fury is soon exhausted and its effects are partial and soon remedied; but the dew, though gentle and unheard, is immense in quantity and the very life of large portions of the earth. And these are pictures of the operations of grace in the Church and in the soul.

A friend once showed an artist a costly handkerchief on which a blot of ink had been made. “Nothing can be done with it now, it is absolutely worthless.” The artist made no reply, but carried it away with him. After a time he sent it back, to the great surprise of his friend, who could scarcely recognize it. In a most skillful and artistic way he had made a fine design in India ink, using the blot as a basis, making the handkerchief more valuable than ever. A blotted life is not necessarily a useless life. Jesus can make a life beautiful though it has been marred by sin.

The medical staff at the hospital were puzzled why a patient was not improving. The nurses were giving the proper medication. Yet, there was no improvement. The following day the nurse gave the medication and hid. Thinking the nurse had left, the patient spit it out. Too many Christians act similar when hearing the word of God. They retain it for a short time, then spit it out. As the result, there is no improvement in their Christian life.

2 Corinthians 12:9 Remember it is not just compensation, but transformation, that you are to seek. Not heaven yet that looms before us always, tempting us on; but now the earth, with all its duties, sorrows, difficulties, doubts, and dangers. We want a faith, a truth, a grace to help us now, right here, where we are stumbling about, dizzied and fainting with our thirst. And we can have it. One who was man, yet mightier than man, has walked the vale before us. When He walked it He turned it all into a well of living water. To them who are willing to walk in His footsteps, to keep in His light, the well He opened shall be forever flowing. Nay, it shall pass into them and fulfill there Christ’s own words: “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). —Phillips Brooks

It is wonderful that an infinite creator and Ruler of the world and a fallen, sinful human being can be in fellowship—the Creator showing Himself to the creature, and the creature leaning, as it were, upon the arm of the Creator. It is a wonder of grace. It comes about through One who is fittingly called Wonderful. Why should we not say hourly, “Lord, what will you have me to do?” yes, or to bear, for it is possible for us to “endure as seeing him who is invisible” (see Heb. 11:27). —John Hall

One warm summer afternoon, a bird flew through the open door into a chapel, where service was being conducted. Full of fear it flew backward and forward near the ceiling and against the windows, vainly seeking a way out into the sunshine. In one of the pews sat a lady, who observed the bird, while thinking how foolish it was, not to fly out through the open door into liberty. At last the bird’s strength being gone, it rested a moment on one of the rafters. Then seeing the open door, it flew out into the sunshine, venting its joy in a song. Then the lady who had been watching the little bird thought to herself: “Am I not acting as foolish as I thought the bird was? How long have I been struggling under the burden of my sin in the vain endeavor to get free and all the while the door of God’s grace has been wide open?” Then and there the decision was formed to enter in. “I am the Way,” says Jesus, “no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

Take, for instance, the eucalyptus tree. It seems especially adapted to antidote the gaseous effects of a polluted atmosphere. It is the loftiest timber tree of Australia; it grows especially in malarious districts, sometimes to a height of five hundred feet. It absorbs moisture to a very remarkable extent, and grows with extraordinary rapidity, covering vast barren districts with a huge forest in a few years. And you may enclose seed enough in an envelope to plant an acre. How like the blessed Gospel, making the tree of life to grow in the worst moral marshes, rapidly, beautifully, gloriously covering the deserts with the foliage and fragrance of heaven! And you may distribute the seed so easily and cheaply.

One cannot think that any holy earthly love will cease, when we shall be like the angels of God in heaven. Love here must shadow our love there, deeper because spiritual, without any alloy from our sinful nature and in fullness of the love of God. But as we grow here by God’s grace will be our capacity for endless love. So, then, if by our very suffering we are purified, and our hearts enlarged, we shall, in that endless bliss, love more those whom we loved here, than if we had never had that sorrow, never been parted.

Do you reign in life? If not, the reason may be that you do not distinguish between praying and taking. There is a profound difference between entreating for a thing and appropriating it. You may admit that God’s abundant grace is near you through Jesus Christ, and yet you may not quite see the necessity of learning how to take it. Some people are always telegraphing to heaven for God to send a cargo of blessing to them; but they are not at the wharf-side to unload the vessel when it comes. How many of God’s richest blessings for which you have been praying for years have come right close to you, but you do not know how to lay hold of and use them! Note—“They which receive the abundance of grace shall reign” (see Rom. 5:17) The emphasis is not on grace, not on abundance, but on receiving it; and the whole grace of God may be around your life today, but if you have not learned to take it in, it will do you no good. —F. B. Meyer

A little boy made himself a boat and went off in high glee to sail it on the water. But presently it got beyond his reach, and in his distress he appealed to a big boy for help, and asked if he could get it back for him. Saying nothing, the big boy picked up stones and seemed to be throwing them at the boat. The little chap thought that he would never get his boat again, and that instead of helping the big boy was annoying him. But presently he noticed that instead of hitting the boat, each stone went beyond it and made a little wave, which moved the boat nearer to the shore. Every throw of the stones was planned, and at last the toy was brought within reach, and the little boy was happy again in the possession of his treasure. Sometimes things in our lives seem disagreeable and without sense or plan. But if we wait a while, we shall see that each trial, each striking of a stone upon the quiet waters of our lives, has brought us nearer to God.

God’s promises are ever on the ascending scale. One leads up to another, fuller and more blessed than itself. In Mesopotamia, God said, “I will show thee the land.” At Bethel, “This is the land.” In Canaan, “I will give thee all the land, and children innumerable as the grains of sand.” It is thus that God allures us to saintliness. Not giving us anything till we have dared to act—that He may test us. Not giving everything at first—that He may not overwhelm us. And always keeping in hand an infinite reserve of blessing. Oh, the unexplored remainders of God! Who ever saw His last star? —F. B. Meyer

Do you feel that you have lost your way in life? Then God Himself will show you your way. Are you utterly helpless, worn out, body and soul? Then God’s eternal love is ready and willing to help you up, and revive you. Are you wearied with doubts and terrors? Then God’s eternal light is ready to show you your way; God’s eternal peace ready to give you peace. Do you feel yourself full of sins and faults? Then take heart; for God’s unchangeable will is to take away those sins and purge you from those faults. —Charles Kingsley

Are you extremely proud of your lifetime accomplishments? It was on November 21 of 1877 that Thomas Edison announced to the world that he had invented the phonograph. Edison’s accomplishments are often forgotten. In his Menlo Park, New Jersey fix-it shop he designed the following items: the household light bulb, a motion picture device, the telephone transmitter, stock ticker improvements, the mimeograph machine, the dictating machine and much more. If anyone had a right to brag, Edison did. However, he humbly acknowledged he couldn’t create the simplest form of life. The Creator of everything and everyone has this perspective on bragging rights. He inspired: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord” (Jer. 9:23, 24 niv). When you understand how incomparable your Creator is and then realize how your knowledge, t

Who was the first one to see the continental United States? It is at this time of the year that we teach children about the Mayflower, Pilgrims and the Thanksgiving holiday. For two centuries, Americans have been coming away from that account with the idea that the Pilgrims were the first to land on our shores. But we all know that Indians migrated from the Asian continent across Alaska and into America, possibly as early as the biblical account of Babel. Although Vikings from Greenland and Iceland visited the Atlantic coast around the year 1000, they did not settle. Other Europeans would come and go in the 1500’s. When the Pilgrims arrived in 1607, they found a group of Polish artisans already hard at work. So who was the first to say, “Land ho!”? There are these inspired words: “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Ps. 90:2 niv). Before the earth was even formed, God could see the history and

One hundred Puritans sail across the ocean on the “Mayflower” and in New England find a home where they can serve God according to the dictates of their conscience. Persecution in England being continued, men cross the Atlantic to join the Pilgrim Fathers, in a land where religion and liberty have found a sure home. In ten years twenty thousand persecuted Englishmen find a refuge in that Western land. A Protestant colony is founded by sturdy, resolute men; not only were they religious men, but they were the noblest class of emigrants who ever left the shore of any land, and in that new land God’s Church prospered, and today Protestant America is the result of men flying from one land to another for liberty to serve God. He guided the Mayflower across the sea and watched over the infant colony and founded His church on free American soil.

There are times at sea when I’ve seen a beautiful morning after a stormy night. It is great to see the daybreak of a beautiful morning; it is just like the experience of the sinner after he accepts Jesus into his life. No longer tossed about under the storm of sin but all is calm in their lives now, the dawning of a new life in Jesus; like the dawning of a beautiful morning after a storm at sea.

Mr. Spurgeon once had a singular experience. He had been out in the country to preach, and, when traveling back to London, suddenly found that he had lost his railway ticket. A gentleman, the only other occupant of the compartment, noticing that he was fumbling about in his pocket, said, “I hope you have not lost anything, sir?” Mr. Spurgeon thanked him, and told him that he had lost his ticket, and that by a remarkable coincidence he had neither watch nor money with him. “But,” added Mr. Spurgeon, “I am not at all troubled, for I have been on my Master’s business, and I am quite sure all will be well. I have had so many interpositions of Divine Providence, in small matters as well as great ones, that I feel as if, whatever happens to me, I am bound to fall on my feet….” The gentleman seemed interested, and said that no doubt all would be right. When the ticket collector came to the compartment, the collector touched his hat to Mr. Spurgeon’s companion, who simply said, “All right, Wil

“God hath chosen the foolish things … the weak things … the base things of the world” (1 Cor. 1:27, 28). The Bible saints, who now shine as stars in the firmament of heaven, were men of like passions with ourselves. They were not always saints; they sinned, and murmured, and rebelled, as we do. Heaven’s rarest blades were not produced of finer metal than that which is in our own constitution. God’s choicest vessels were not turned from superior earth to that of which we are made. The jewels which now lie at the foundation of the new Jerusalem were once obscure, unnamed men of no finer texture than ourselves. Look to the quarry from whence they were hewn, and the hole of the pit whence they were digged, and say if there was much to choose between their origin and your own. Then take heart, for if God were able to take up such men and make them princes and kings surely He can do as much with you. The discipline may be keen as fire; but the result shall be glorious, and all eternity s

A rabbi was forced by persecution to leave his homeland, according to an ancient Hebrew story, and to wander about in distant countries. His only earthly possessions, other than the clothing he wore and a copy of the Scriptures, were a lamp by which he studied and a donkey upon which he rode. Late one evening, after a long day’s journey, he came upon a small village where he sought shelter for the night. The villagers, however, turned him away. The only shelter this weary rabbi was able to find was next to a wall which surrounded a well on the outskirts of the village. Trying to make the best of the situation, he lit his lamp and began to read from the Scriptures. Soon a violent wind arose and repeatedly blew out the lamp. Unable to read in the darkness, he reclined against the wall and tried to go to sleep. His rest was soon disturbed, however, by the nearby roar of a lion. He looked over the wall just in time to see the lion dragging his slaughtered donkey into the underbrush.

A few years ago we were fishing north of the oil rigs about ninety miles east-northeast from Peterhead for prawns and fish. It was October and fishing was good, with a large fleet of boats at work. Up to Wednesday night it had been a lovely week of weather, but that night the forecast was for storm-force winds on Thursday night. With the sea so calm and the fishing good, we, along with a lot of other boats decided to carry on fishing. Some of the fishing boats that never normally came out that distance went away in. We fished until six o’clock on Thursday evening when we heard the shipping forecast—severe gale 9 to violent storm 11: a very, very bad forecast. We arrived into Fraserburgh on Friday morning after a good pounding. The wind was so strong that the boxes on the pier were going everywhere. There were some record wind speeds recorded in different parts. We heard in the harbor that one of the boats we were fishing along with, and were only a couple of miles from us, when we

“…Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:36-40). We are hearing it backwards these days. This self-esteem stuff is getting way too much of the spotlight. God-esteem isn’t even a recognizable catch phrase: and what God thinks of me is infinitely more important than anything I could ever think about myself. Ponder this: Healthy self-esteem either comes as a by-product of doing right or else it is not healthy at all. So it would seem that we ought to quit focusing on how we feel about ourselves and simply set about the life of serving our Lord. Add this to the mix: Jesus said that even when we have done all the commandments, we are still unprofitable servants who have only d

Has loneliness ever hung around you, virtually unshakable? English poet John Milton died in 1674. Although the number of his works is large, his greatest writing is Paradise Lost, completed nine years before his death. For all his postmortem fame, Milton endured many difficulties in his life. Perhaps those trials refined his material. There was a painful period of separation from his wife. And at the end of his life, he was almost blind and was only able to navigate through each day’s tasks with assistance. His oppressive loneliness once prompted him to pen this truth: “Loneliness is the first thing that God’s eye named not good.” It was loneliness that prompted God to look at His Creation and make an adjustment by providing Adam and Eve. It was this same Creator that would later say, “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken” (Isa. 54:10 niv). No matter how distant you are from God now, know that by beginning a rel

J. R. Miller once said: “Mary’s ointment was wasted when she broke the vase and poured it upon her Lord. Yes; but suppose she had left the ointment in the unbroken vase? What remembrances would it then have had? Would there have been any mention of it on the Gospel pages? Would her deed of careful keeping have been told over the world? She broke the vase and poured it out, lost it, sacrificed it, and now the perfume fills all the earth. We may keep our life if we will, carefully preserving it from waste; but we shall have no reward, no honor from it, at the last. But if we empty it out in loving service, we shall make it a lasting blessing to the world, and we shall be remembered forever.

How beautiful and yet how rare is forgiveness! Christ taught His disciples to forgive their enemies, and in this respect as in all others, He is our great example. He said amid the agonies of the crucifixion, “Father forgive them.” A deaf mute being asked, “What is forgiveness?” took a pencil and wrote, “It is the odor which a flower yields when trampled upon,” and Sir William Jones has given us the following extract from the Persian poet Sadi— The sandal-tree perfumes when riven The axe that laid it low; Let man, who hopes to be forgiven, Forgive and bless his foe.

A little boy being asked what forgiveness is, gave the beautiful answer: “It is the odor that flowers breathe when they are trampled upon.” Philip the Good, when some of his courtiers would have persuaded him to punish a prelate who had used him ill, he declined, saying, “It is a fine thing to have revenge in one’s power; but it is a finer thing not to use it.”

“There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdest more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty” (Prov. 11:24) A teacher was once relating the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and he asked: “Now which would you rather be, boys, the rich man or Lazarus?” One boy answered, “I would rather be the rich man while I live, and Lazarus when I die.” This reminds me of the story I read of a wealthy farmer in the state of New York. He was a noted miser, but he was converted. Soon after his conversion, a poor man who had been burned out by a disastrous fire came to him for help. The farmer thought he would be liberal and give the man a ham from his smokehouse. But on his way to the little building, the tempter whispered, “Give him the smallest one you have.” Then and there he had a struggle whether he would give the poor man a small one or a large one. Finally he took down the largest ham he could find. “Fool! Fool! You are a fool!” the devil screamed. “If

“There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdest more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty” (Prov. 11:24) A teacher was once relating the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and he asked: “Now which would you rather be, boys, the rich man or Lazarus?” One boy answered, “I would rather be the rich man while I live, and Lazarus when I die.” This reminds me of the story I read of a wealthy farmer in the state of New York. He was a noted miser, but he was converted. Soon after his conversion, a poor man who had been burned out by a disastrous fire came to him for help. The farmer thought he would be liberal and give the man a ham from his smokehouse. But on his way to the little building, the tempter whispered, “Give him the smallest one you have.” Then and there he had a struggle whether he would give the poor man a small one or a large one. Finally he took down the largest ham he could find. “Fool! Fool! You are a fool!” the devil screamed. “If

In Proverbs 27:17 we read: “As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” John Wesley was such a friend to William Wilberforce, who tried again and again—with seemingly no success—to abolish Britain’s slave trade. In 1791 Wilberforce received a letter from Wesley which included this exhortation: “Go on, in the power of His might, till even American slavery…shall vanish away before it.” Though Wesley died four days after writing that letter, it remained an inspiration to Wilberforce through years of disappointment after disappointment. Finally, after 20 years, he was able to get a bill passed which abolished the slave trade. Shortly after, slavery was completely outlawed throughout the British Empire. Wilberforce might not have prevailed if it had not been for the encouragement of his friend who strengthened him in the Lord. Before you pray, “Lord, give me a friend like that,” try praying: “Lord, make me a friend like that.”

“And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God”—(2 Cor. 8:5). David Livingstone, before he had thought of being a missionary himself, devoted to foreign missions all his wages except so much as was required for his frugal needs. Many businessmen today turn over the major portions of their profits to the Lord’s work. And have you ever noticed—those that give the most are often those that do the most for Christ. It is not as though they permit their money to do the work while they sit idly by. No, no. These are those who first give of themselves to the Lord, and then of their substance.

There is a story of an incorrigible soldier who had been punished so often for so many offenses, without avail, that his commanding officer despaired of the man’s amendment. Again he was under arrest, and the officer spoke hopelessly of him, asking what more could be done to save him from his own undoing. A fellow-officer suggested, “Try forgiving him.” The man was brought in and asked what he had to say for himself. He replied: “Nothing, except that I’m very sorry.” “Well,” said the officer, “we have decided to forgive you.” The man stood dazed for a moment and then burst into tears, saluted, and went out to become the best and bravest soldier in the command.

Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye”—(Col. 3:13) Before Louis XII became King of France he suffered great indignities and cruelties at the hand of his cousin Charles VIII. He was slandered, thrown into prison, kept in chains and constant fear of death. When he succeeded his cousin to the throne, however, his close friends and advisers urged him to seek revenge for all these shameful atrocities. But Louis XII would not hear to any of the suggestions of these whisperers in his court. Instead they were amazed to see him preparing a list of all the names of men who had been guilty of crimes against himself. Behind each name they noticed he was placing a red cross. His enemies, hearing of this list and the red cross placed behind each name by the king himself, were filled with dread alarm. They thought that the sign of a cross meant they were thereby sentenced to death on the gallows. One a

God, the Father of men, is not satisfied if His children give Him simply gratitude for His mercies or the most loyal obedience to His will; He wants also, as the fulfillment of their love to Him, the enthusiastic use of their intellects, intent to know everything that it is possible for men to know about their Father and His ways. That is what is meant by loving God with the mind. And is there not something sublimely beautiful and touching in this demand of God that the noblest part of His children’s nature should come to Him? “Understand Me! Understand Me!” —Phillips Brooks

As a boy in Oklahoma my family would spend a lot of time on the creeks and rivers. As a small boy my Dad would take me by the hand and would wade out to the sandbar in the streams. The swift water was dark and often over my head, but how I loved and enjoyed the water, because of my father’s hand. My father is dead, and if asked, “What do you miss about your Dad?” it would be his hand. All of us today do have a hand we can hold on to. It is the hand of God. We can remember the words of the Psalms: “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me” (139:9, 10). Today we must take hold of the right thing in our life, for holding on to the wrong thing will end in death. The story is told of a sailor on one of the sailing ships of the last century. He tumbled out of the rigging. In his fall he caught with both hands a rope; and observers said, he is saved! But the rope itself had no faste

Travelers in the North Atlantic Ocean traffic have frequently observed icebergs traveling in one direction in spite of the fact that strong winds are blowing the opposite way. The icebergs were moving against the wind. The explanation is that the great bergs, with eight-ninths of their bulk under the water, were caught in the grip of mighty currents that carried them forward, no matter which way the winds raged. So the ideal Christian leader has the greater part of his being thrust down into the deep places of God. The currents move him toward righteousness no matter how the winds of passing opinion blow.

God is the only final dream of man. Door after door opens; there is no final chamber till we come where He sits. All that ought to be done in the world has a right to know itself as finally done for Him. It is God, and the discovery of Him in life, and the certainty that He has plans for our lives, and is doing something with them, that gives us a true, deep sense of movement, and lets us always feel the power and delight of unknown coming things.

Go where we may, we cannot get away from the calm, clear gaze of the divine Eye. Neither in the blue depths of the heavens nor in the dark abysses of the grave can one hide away from God. If we could take the morning sunbeams for wings and fly away on them with all the swiftness of light to the remotest bounds of space, we could not get beyond the reach of the divine Eye. If we creep into the darkness—darkness so deep and dense that no human eye can behold us—still God sees us as clearly as if we stood in the bright noonday sunshine. Darkness hides not from Him; night shines to His eye as brightly as day. When we know that God loves us, there is infinite comfort in this thought of His unsleeping watchfulness. It is our Father who watches. There ought also to be wondrous incitement and inspiration in the consciousness: while the Eye of divine love is looking upon as we should always do our best.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1). Death is mysterious and awful to man naturally. Hence it is feared, under the influence of natural religion, all the world, over, except where even natural religion is put aside by some attractive error. The religion of our Bibles recognizes its solemnity, but removes the terror, and shows how mortality is swallowed up of life. The disciple of Christ passes from death unto life. It is not merely that there is a Father’s house above, but the spirit enters into it in a state of perfection never reached on earth. The soul, absent from the body, is at home with the Lord.

The Holy Ghost is a divine Person. He can, therefore, be present everywhere. He can take our human nature, consecrate it to God, body and spirit. So even the body is honored as a temple of the Holy Ghost. Is such a temple to be desecrated by impurity, by drunkenness, and the like? Even the decorations given to the body, and the uses made of it—as in the games of heathen Greece and Rome—should be looked at and judged of in this light by all who count themselves Christians. Pray for grace to glorify God in your body and spirit.

We have each “the heart of the sons of men” (Eccl 8:11; 9:3), and even though, by grace, it has been made a new heart, there is, as Paul tells us, a force still within moving toward evil. So we have to guard against subtle temptations. God does not explain, day after day, His providence’s. Delayed punishment is no evidence that there will be no punishment. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing” until the time comes for the display of His judgment and justice. He protects, however, them that wait on Him, and makes all things, even the mysteries of life, to work together for their good. Reader, you may safely say, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

As the sun shines upon a bank of snow, no two of all the myriad particles catch His light alike or give the same interpretation of His glory. Have you ever imagined such a purpose for your commonplace existence? If you have, you must have asked yourself what the quality is in a man’s life which can make it reflective of God—capable of bearing witness of Him. There is some quality in the polished brass or in the calm lake that makes it able to send forth again the sunlight that descends upon it. What is it in a soul that makes it able to do the same to the God who sheds Himself upon its life? The Bible is not so much an action of the soul as it is a quality in the soul permitting God to do His divine actions through it. The love of God is a new nature, a new fiber, a new fineness and responsiveness in the soul itself, by which God is able to express Himself upon and through it as He cannot when He finds only the medium of the coarse material of an unloving heart.

Now under all outward rebellion and wickedness there is in every man who ought to be a friend of God—and that means every man whom God has made—a need of reconciliation. To get back to God, that is the struggle. The soul is God–like, and seeks its own. It wants its Father. There is an orphanage, a home-sickness of the heart which has gone up into the ear of God, and called the Savior, the Reconciler, to meet it by His wondrous life and death. I, for my part, love to see in every restlessness of man’s moral life everywhere, whatever forms it takes, the struggles of this imprisoned desire. The reason may be rebellious, and vehemently cast aside the whole story of the New Testament, but the soul is never wholly at its rest away from God.

The summer is smiling around, and trees and flowers return the smile. Many have the charms of country life around them all the year. Now the dwellers in the cities begin to seek the clear air and the beautiful surroundings of the country home. Well, here is a fresh call to remember the Creator. It is not only that astronomy displays His power and wisdom. You consider the lilies how they grow. As the charms and beauties of these “products of nature,” as we sometimes say, forgetting that nature is only a name for what God has made—as these attract and delight us, let us look up and think of our Father, the maker of all.

Every act is made up of a purpose, a method, and a power. And so the purpose and the method and the power are here. What is the purpose or the end? “To the Father we all have access.” What is the method? “Through Christ Jesus.” What is the power? “By the Spirit.” In this one total act the end, the method, and the power are distinguishable; and, what is more, each is distinctly personal. This salvation, which is all the work of God, first, last, and mid-most, has its divine personalities distinct for its end and its method and its power. It is salvation to the Father, through the Son, and by the Spirit. The salvation is all one; yet in it method, end, and power are recognizable. It is a three in one.

“Moses was a true servant of God, called to and fitted for His great work. But Moses had times of great anxiety. Then he made his appeal to God, recalled God’s gracious words, and as we read the record we see how faithfully God fulfilled His promises to him. So God’s children, passing through a fallen world, and with remaining evil within—against which there must be watchfulness and war—have times of fear, of deep anxiety; and there is one way, and but one, of getting out of them: ‘Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me’” (Ps. 50:15).

Before any work for God there always comes the vision of God. To behold Him, to be lifted up above our troubled hearts, above our worries and discords, and to be absolutely sure that we have spoken with God, and He has spoken with us—this is the indispensable preliminary of doing anything in God’s service. If a servant of God is uncertain of his Master, he will be uncertain of everything that follows in his service. If you and I have no doubt about having seen God, then our divine service will grow sweeter and clearer and easier every year we live. I have had men say to me, “Didn’t Paul’s Christian life begin with the question, ‘What wilt thou have me to do?’” No, it did not; no life begins with that question. It began with the question, “Who art thou, Lord?” (Acts 9:5ff). When Paul had settled that it was the risen Christ who appeared to him, then came the much easier question, “What wilt thou have me to do?” We cannot feed the multitude out of an empty basket; we cannot present the L

So long as a man is living for himself and honoring himself, there is an association, however remote it may be, with all the lowest forms of selfishness in which men have lived; but the moment a man begins to live in genuine adoration of the absolute good, and worship God, he parts company from all these lower orders of human life …. When you say to God, “O God, take me, for the highest thing that I can do with myself is to give myself to Thee,” you sweep into the current of the best, the holiest, and the most richly human of our humanity, which in every age has dedicated itself to God.

People change, and so we often lose those whom we counted friends. We ourselves change; and how full of changes is the world around us! But God reveals Himself as without shadow of turning: whom He loves He loves to the end. And so it is that Christ, His Son, is set before us as “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Let us rejoice in this. At the same time let us remember that He is unchangeable in His holiness. Let us avoid the sins which He hates. Oh that we may be sanctified wholly!

Years ago a gentleman in Ireland had a farm, about a mile and a half from his house. It was situated on the side of a hill, and from his attic window he could get a view of every portion of the land. He would often go to this window, with a powerful telescope, and about five minutes every day he would spend in this way, examining what his workers were doing, and whether the work of the farm was being carried on properly or not. The men happened to know this, and it often quickened them in their various duties to know that the master’s eye from the little attic window might possibly at that very moment be resting upon them. Our Master’s eye is always resting upon us. He sees and knows all we think, or do, or say, and yet how many people act as though God were both blind and deaf!

One Sunday afternoon a clergyman was returning home from Church, which was at some little distance from his house, when a man in working clothes stopped him and said, “Beg pardon, sir, but have you seen my boy on the road?” “Was he driving a cart?” asked the clergyman. “Yes, sir.” “And were there some hurdles and a pitchfork in the cart?” “Yes, that’s it,” said the man. “A little boy with a short memory?” continued the clergyman. The man stared, and seemed surprised. “Well, I don’t know that he is specially forgetful; but what made you think he had a short memory?” “I know he had, and, more than that, I think he belongs to a family that have very short memories.” The man showed his extreme surprise at this statement, and said, “Why, what in the world makes you think so, sir?” The clergyman looked him full in the face, and replied with calm solemnity, “Because God has said, ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy’ (Ex. 20:8), and I think you have forgotten all about it.”

One Sunday morning an instructor in a theological school was sharing a seat with a small boy on a shuttle train, says the Philadelphia Bulletin. The boy was holding a Sunday-school lesson leaflet. “Do you go to Sunday school, my boy?” asked the man in a friendly way. “Yes, sir.” “Tell me, my boy,” continued the man, thinking to have some fun with the lad, “tell me where God is, and I’ll give you an apple.” The boy looked up sharply at the man and promptly replied, “I will give you a whole barrel of apples if you will tell me where He is not.”

Said a woman physician, “I came into an anatomy room to study. The dead body meant nothing at all to me. I could not visualize the man or woman it might have been. Life left few records on those immobile faces. For weeks I worked, and each day the wonder grew; and then, one day, I was working on an arm and hand, studying the perfect mechanical arrangements of the muscles and tendons—how the sheaths of certain muscles are split to let tendons of certain muscles through, that the hand may be delicate and small and yet powerful. I was all alone in the laboratory when the overwhelming belief came: a thing like this is not just chance, but a part of a plan, a plan so big that only God could have conceived it. Religion had been a matter of form, a thing without convictions and now everything was an evidence of God; the tendons of the hand, the patterns of the little blue butterfly’s wings—it was all part of a purpose.”

After the Mutiny, some wounded soldiers were brought home from India in a vessel that was found to have water rising in her hold before the voyage was half finished; and night and day the pumps had to be kept working. The noise of the machinery most sadly inconvenienced the sick men on board; and many times they begged the chief officer to stop the pumps, so that they could rest their shattered nerves. This, of course, he dared not do; but being a God-fearing man, he prayed most earnestly that God would send a stiff gale to hasten them on their way. But only calm weather accompanied them: the calmest weather ever experienced on that voyage by any of the crew. When at last the sad journey was over, and the ship safe in dock, she was examined for the cause of the leak, when it was found that a bad hole had been made in her side below the water line, which was only covered by a sheet of copper held by two rails. Only the calm weather had saved her. The “stiff gale” prayed for must certain

Matthew Henry, in his own quaint and striking way, says: “When Christ was about to leave the world, He made His will: His soul He committed to His Father; His body He bequeathed to Joseph, to be decently interred; His cloths fell to the soldiers; His mother He left to the care of John; but what should He leave to His poor disciples that had left all for Him? Silver and gold He had none; but He left them that which was infinitely better—His peace. ‘Peace I leave with you.’”

Many in this day set God aside, and hold the view that each man, in some sense, is another little god in himself. I have no sympathy with such a view. None shall go further than I in estimating the sacredness of man; but to my thought, what man is, he is by virtue of his connection with God. Broken off, he is like a branch broken off from the vine. No matter how fine those leaves are, no matter how beautiful those clusters are, they at once begin to wither and shrink, and tomorrow will be severed from the branch, fit for nothing but to be gathered up and burned. The man in whose veins flows the sap of the vine; the man who carries in him the blood of Christ; the man whose reason is daily summoned by the inspiration of God; the man whose affections are daily purified by the inflowing affections of God; the man who has the dependence of weakness and love jointly, and lies in the bosom of the great All-father, and is strong because God is strong, though weak in and of himself—that man is

I love knowledge; I rejoice to know how God packed the trunk of this world, and what things he put into it for its journey through time; I love to study the heavens that declare the glory of God, and the earth that shows his handiwork, everywhere and always; but an acquaintance with these things is not enough. I admire the majesty of the cathedral and the sanctity of the church, and the holiness of the altar, and the prayers and praises of the worshiping assembly; but these are not enough. My soul hungers and thirsts for God.