{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_12799/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_12799","id":"gutenberg_12799","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12799","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Christian life"],"text":"Produced by Distributed Proofreaders\n\n\n\n\n\nQuiet Talks with World Winners\n\nBy\n\nS. D. Gordon\n\nAuthor of \"Quiet Talks on Power,\" \"Quiet Talks About Jesus,\" \"Quiet Talks\non Personal Problems,\" Etc.\n\n\n\n\nContents\n\n\n\nI. World-winning\n\n  1. The Master Passion\n  2. The Master's Plan\n  3. The Need\n  4. The Present Opportunity\n  5. The Pressing Emergency\n  6. The Past Failure\n  7. The Coming Victory\n\n\nII. Winning Forces\n\n  1. The Church\n  2. Each One of Us\n  3. Jesus\n  4. The Holy Spirit\n  5. Prayer\n  6. Money\n  7. Sacrifice\n\n\n\n\nThe Master Passion\n\n\n\n  The Earliest Calvary Picture.\n  The Love Passion.\n  Mother-love.\n  The Genesis Picture.\n  God Giving Himself.\n  God's Fellow.\n  The Genesis Water-mark.\n  A Human Picture of God.\n  On a Wooing Errand.\n  Jesus' World-passion.\n\n\n\n\nThe Master Passion\n\n\n\n<u>The Earliest Calvary Picture.</u>\n\n\nThere's a great passion burning in the heart of God. It is tenderly warm\nand tenaciously strong. Its fires never burn low, nor lose their fine\nglow. That passion is to win man back home again. The whole world of man\nis included in its warm, eager reach.\n\nThe old home hearth-fire of God is lonely since man went away. The family\ncircle is broken. God will not rest until that old home circle is complete\nagain, and every voice joining in the home songs.\n\nIt is an <i>overmastering</i> passion, the overmastering passion of God's\nheart. It has guided and controlled all His thoughts and plans for man\nfrom the first. The purpose of winning man, and the whole race, back again\nis the dominant gripping passion of God's heart to-day. Everything is made\nto bend to this one end.\n\nWhen Eden's tragedy came so early, to darken the pages of this old Book,\nand, far worse, to darken the pages of human life, there is a great\nglimpse of this passion of God's heart in the guarding of those Eden\ngates. The presence of the angels with their sword of flame told plainly\nof a day when man would be coming back again to the old Eden home of God.\nThe place must be carefully guarded for him.\n\nThis is a <i>love</i> passion, a passion of love. And love itself is the master\npassion both of the human heart and of God's heart. Nothing can grip and\nfill and sway the heart either of man or God like that.\n\nWe would all easily agree that the greatest picture of God's marvellous,\novermastering passion of love is seen in the cross. All men as they have\ncome to know that story have stood with heads bowed and bared before the\nlove revealed there. They have not understood it. They have quarrelled\nabout its meaning. But they have acknowledged its love and power as beyond\nthat of any other story or picture.\n\nHowever men may differ as to why Jesus died, and how His dying affects us,\nthey all agree that the scene of the cross is the greatest revelation of\nlove ever known or ever shown. All theories of the atonement seem to be\nlost sight of in one thought of grateful acknowledgment of a stupendous\nlove, as men are drawn together by the magnetism of the hill-top of\nCalvary.\n\nBut there is a wondrously clear foreshadowing of that tremendous cross\nscene in the earliest page of this old Book. Nowhere is love, God's\npassion of love, made to stand out more distinctly and vividly than in the\nfirst chapter of Genesis. The after-scene of the cross uses intenser\ncoloring; the blacks are inkier in their blackness; the reds deeper and\nredder; the contrasts sharper to the startling-point; yet there is nothing\nin the cross chapters of the Gospels not included fully in this first leaf\nof revelation. But it has taken the light of the cross to open our eyes to\nsee how much is plainly there. Let us look at it a bit.\n\n\n\n<u>The Love Passion.</u>\n\n\nWhat is this greatest of passions called love? There is no word harder to\nget a satisfactory definition of. Because, whatever you say about it,\nthere comes quickly to your mind some one who loves you, or you think of\nthe passion that burns in your own heart for some one. And, as you think\nof that, no words that anybody may use seem at all strong enough, or\ntender enough, to tell what love is, as you know it in your own inner\nheart.\n\nYet I think this much can be said--love is the tender, strong outgoing of\nyour whole being to another. It is a passion burning like a fire within\nyou, a soft-burning but intense fire within you, for some other one. Every\nmention of that name stirs the flame into new burning. Every passing or\nlingering thought of him or her is like fresh air making the flames leap\nup more eagerly. And each personal contact is a clearing out of all the\nashes, and a turning on of all the draughts, to feed new oxygen for\nstronger, fresher burning.\n\nThere are many other things that seem like love. Kindliness and\nfriendliness, and even intenser emotions, use love's name for themselves.\nBut though these have likenesses to love, they are not love. They have\ncaught something of its warm glow. A bit of the high coloring of its\nflames plays on them. But they are not the real thing, only distant\nkinsfolk. The severe tests of life quickly reveal their lack.\n\nLove itself is really an aristocrat. It allows very, very few into its\ninner circle, often only one. The real thing of love is never selfish. Now\nwe know very well that in the thick of life the fine gold of love gets\nmixed up with the baser metals. It is very often overlaid, and shot\nthrough with much that is mean and low. Rank selfishness, both the coarse\nkind and the refined, cultured sort, seeks a hiding-place under its cloak.\nBut the stuff mixed in it is not love, but a defiling of it. That is a bit\nof the slander it suffers for a time, from the presence in life of sin.\n\nWeeds with their poison, and snakes and spiders with their deadly venom,\ndraw life from the sun. That is a bit of the bad transmuting the good,\npure sun into its own sort. The sun itself never produces poison or any\nhurtful thing.\n\nLove itself is never mean, nor bad, nor selfish. The man who truly loves\nthe woman whom he would have for his own lifelong, closest companion is\nnot selfish. He does not want her chiefly for his own sake, but for her\nsake, that so he may guard and care for her, and her life be fully grown\nin the sunlight of the love it must have. And, if you think that is\nidealizing it out of all practical reach, please remember that true love\nwill steadily refuse the union that would not be best for the loved one.\n\nWhat is the finest and highest love that we know? There are many different\nsorts and degrees of love revealed in man's relation with his fellow:\nconjugal, the love between husband and wife; paternal, the love of a\nfather for his child; maternal, the mother's love for her child; filial,\nthe love of children for father and mother; fraternal, or brotherly,\nmeaning really the love of children of the same parents for each other,\nboth brothers and sisters--the same word is used for love between friends\nwhere there is no tie of blood; and patriotic, or love for one's country.\nAnd under that last word may be loosely grouped the love that one may have\nfor any special object, to which he may devote his life, outside of\npersonal relationships, such as music or any profession or occupation.\n\nThis is putting them in their logical order. Though in our experience we\nknow the father-and mother-love for ourselves first; and then in turn the\nothers, so far as they come to us, until we complete the circle and reach\nthe climax of father-and mother-love in ourselves going out to another.\n\n\n\n<u>Mother-love.</u>\n\n\nNow of these sorts and degrees which is the highest and finest? Well, your\nanswer to that question will depend entirely on your own experience; as\nevery answer and every thought we have of everything does. All children\nhave mothers, or have had, but thousands of children don't know a mother's\nlove.\n\nI was speaking one time in New York City about the conception, of which\nthe Bible is so full, that God is a mother. And the English evangelist\nGypsy Smith, who lost his mother when very young, but who had an unusually\ndevoted father, said with charming simplicity that he could not just see\nhow God could be called a mother, but he knew He was a father. And then he\nwent on to speak very winsomely of God as a father.\n\nMany times love is not born in the heart at all, until there comes into\nthe life some one clear outside of one's own kin. Many a woman never knows\nlove until it is awakened in her heart by him who henceforth is to be a\npart of herself.\n\nBut the common answer, that most people everywhere give to that question,\nis that <i>a mother's love</i> is the greatest human love we know. And if you\npress them to tell why they think so, this stands out oftenest and\nstrongest--that it is because she gives so much of herself. She gives her\nvery life. If need be, she sacrifices everything in life, and then\nsacrifices life itself, going out into the darkness of death that her\nchild may come into fulness and sweetness of life. This is the mother\nspirit, giving one's very self to bring life to another.\n\nThe mother gives her very life-blood that the new life may come. And, if\nneed be, will gladly give her life <i>out</i> to the death that the new life\nmay come into life. And yet more, she gives her life out daily and yearly,\nthroughout its length, that so the full strength and fragrance of life may\ncome in her child's life.\n\nYet, when all this has been said, I am strongly inclined to think that the\nmother's love, though the greatest that can be found in any one heart, is\nnot the perfect, fully grown love. The human unit is not a man nor a\nwoman, but a man <i>and</i> a woman. Perfect love requires more than one or two\nfor its matured growth into full life. It cannot exist in its full\nstrength and fragrant sweets except where three are joined together to\ndraw out its full depth and meaning.\n\nThere must be two whose hearts are fully joined in love, each finding\nanswering and ever-satisfying love in the other; and so each love growing\nto full ripeness in the warm sunshine of the other love. And then there\nneeds to be a third one, who comes as a result of that mutual love, and\nwho constantly draws out the love of the other two.\n\nFor love in itself is creative. It yearns to bring into being another upon\nwhom it may freely lavish itself. That other one must be of its own sort,\nupon its own level. Nothing less ever satisfies. And so the love poured\nout draws out to itself an answering love fully as full as its own. And\nthen, having yearned, it does more. It creates. It must create. It must\nbring forth life; and life like its own in all its powers and privileges.\nThis is the very life of love in its full expression.\n\nYet to say all this is simply to spell out fully, in all its letters and\nsyllables, the great, the greatest of passions, mother-love, which we\nagreed a moment ago was the highest. For mother-love is not restricted to\nwoman, though among us humans it often finds its brightest expressions in\nher. It knows no restriction of sex. It is simply love at its fullest and\nhighest and freest and tenderest; free to do as it will, and to do it as\nfully as it will. Love left to itself, free to do as its heart dictates,\nwill give its very self, its life, that life may come to another. This is\nthe great passion called love, the greatest of all passions.\n\n\n\n<u>The Genesis Picture.</u>\n\n\nNow, maybe you think we have swung pretty far away from that first chapter\nof the Genesis revelation. No; you are mistaken there. We have been\nwalking, with rapid stride, by the shortest road, straight into its inner\nheart. Let us look a bit at the picture of God sketched for us in this\nearliest page of revelation.\n\nThere are two creations here, first of the earth, man's home; and then of\nman himself who was to live in the home. Here at once in the beginning is\nmother-love. Before the new life comes the mother is absorbed in getting\nthe home ready; the best and softest and homiest home that her mother-love\ncan think of, and her fingers fix. The same mother instinct in the birds\nspends itself in getting the nest ready, and then patiently broods until\nthe new occupants come to take possession.\n\nThe Bible never calls God a mother, though the mother language, as here,\nis used of Him many times. It takes more of the human to tell the divine.\nYou must take many words, and several of our human relationships, and put\nthem together, in the finest meaning of each, to get near the full meaning\nof what God is. Up on the higher level, with God, the word \"father\" really\nincludes all that both father and mother mean to us.\n\nThe word \"father\" is even used once of God in what we think of as the\nstrict mother sense. In speaking of God's early care of the Hebrews Paul\nsays, \"as a <i>nursing-father</i> bore he them in the wilderness.\"[1] That word\n\"nursing-father\" is peculiar in coupling the distinctive function of the\nmother in caring for the babe with the word father.\n\nThe word \"father\" applied to God includes not only our meaning of father\nin all its strength as we know it at its best; but all of the meaning of\nthe word \"mother,\" in all its sweet fragrance, as we have had it breathed\ninto our own very life.\n\nWe have come commonly to think of the word mother as a tenderer word than\nfather. Though I have met many, both men and women, who unconsciously\nrevealed that their experience has made father the tenderer, and the\ntenderest word to them. Father stands commonly for the stronger, more\nrugged qualities; and mother for the finer, gentler, sweeter, maybe\nsofter qualities, in the strong meaning of that word soft.\n\n\n\n<u>God Giving Himself.</u>\n\n\nHere in this Genesis story the creation of the whole sun-system to give\nlife to the earth, and of the earth itself, was the outward beginning of\nthis greatest passion of love in the heart of God. And if you would know\nmore of that love in this early stage of it, just look a bit at the home\nitself. It has been pretty badly mussed, soiled and hurt by sin's foul\ntouch. Yet even so it is a wonder of a world in its beauty and\nfruitfulness. What must it have been before the slime and tangle of sin\ngot in! But that's a whole story by itself. We must not stop there just\nnow.\n\nWhen the home was ready God set Himself to bringing the new life He was\nplanning. And He did it, even as father and mother of our human kind and\nof every other kind do:--He gave some of Himself. He breathed into man His\nown life-breath. He came Himself, and with the warmth and vitality of His\nlife brought a new life. The new life was a bit of Himself.\n\nThat phrase, \"breathed into his nostrils,\" brings to us the conception of\nthe closest personal, physical contact; two together in most intimate\ncontact, and life passing from one to the other. The picture of Elijah\nstretching his warm body upon that of the widow's son until the\nlife-breath came again comes instinctively to mind. And its companion\nscene comes with it, of Elisha lying prone upon the child, mouth to\nmouth, eye to eye, hand to hand, until the breath again softly reentered\nthat little, precious body.\n\nAnd if all this seems too plain and homely a way to talk about the great\nGod, let us remember it is the way of this blessed old Book. It is the\nonly way we shall come to know the marvellous intimacy and tenderness of\nGod's love, and of God's touch upon ourselves.\n\nHow shall we talk best about God so as to get clear, sensible ideas about\nHim? Why not follow the rule of the old Bible? Can we do better? It\nconstantly speaks of Him in the language that we use of men. The scholars,\nwith their fondness for big words, say the Bible is anthropomorphic. That\nsimply means that it uses man's words, and man's ideas of things in\ntelling about God. It makes use of the common words and ideas, that man\nunderstands fully, to tell about the God, whom he doesn't know. Could\nthere be a more sensible way? Indeed, how else could man understand?\n\nSome dear, godly people have sometimes been afraid of the use of simple,\nhomely language in talking about God. To speak of Him in the common\nlanguage of every-day life, the common talk of home and kitchen, and shop\nand street and trade, seems to them lacking in due reverence. Do they\nforget that this is the language of the common people? And of our good old\nAnglo-Saxon Bible? Has anybody ever yet used as blunt homely, talk as this\nold Book uses? And has any other book stuck into people's memories and\nhearts with such burr-like hold as it has?\n\nThat breathing by God into man's nostrils of the breath of life suggests\nthe intensest concentration of strength and thought and heart. The whole\nheart of God went out to man in that breath that brought life.\n\n\n\n<u>God's Fellow.</u>\n\n\nThe whole thought of God's heart was to have a man <i>like Himself</i>. Over\nand over again, with all the peculiar emphasis of repetition, it is said\nthat the man was to be in the very image, or likeness, of God. God gave\nHimself that the man might be a bit of Himself. Here is the love-passion,\nthe mother-passion, the father-mother-passion, in its highest mood, and at\nits own finest work.\n\nThe man was to be the very best, that so he might have fellowship of the\nmost intimate sort with God. Of course, only those who are alike can have\nfellowship. Only in that particular thing which any two have in common can\nthey have fellowship together. Let me use a common word in its old, fine,\nfirst meaning: man was made to be <i>God's fellow</i>, His most intimate\nassociate and companion.\n\nAs you read this early story in Genesis of God's passion of love, you\nknow, if you stop to think into it, that if ever the need for it came, He\nwill climb any Calvary hill, however steep, and receive the jagging nails\nof any cross, however cutting, for the sake of His darling child--man.\n\nThis love-passion never faileth. There is no emergency that can arise\nthat is too great for love's resources. Any danger, however great, every\nneed, no matter how distressing, is already provided for by love. The\nemergency may sorely test and tax love to its last limit, but it can never\noutdo it, nor outstrip it in the race. No matter how great the danger,\nlove is a bit greater. No matter how strong the enemy threatening, love is\nalways yet stronger. However deep down into the very vitals of life the\npoison-sting may sink its fangs, love goes yet deeper, neutralizing the\ndeadly influence with its own fresh life-blood.\n\nHave you ever looked into a single drop of water and seen the sun? the\nwhole of that brilliant ball of fire there in one tiny drop of water?\nWell, there's one word on this first leaf of the Book which contains the\nclear reflection, sharply outlined, of the whole creation story; ah! yes,\nmore than that, of the whole Gospel story.\n\nCome here and look; you can see in its clear surface the form of a man\nclimbing a little, steep hill, and being hung, thorn-crowned, upon a cross\nof pain and shame. It is in chapter one, verse two, the word \"brooding.\"\nThe old version and the Revision, both English and American, have the word\n\"moved.\" The Revisions add \"brooding\" in the margin. And that is the root\nmeaning of the word underneath our English--\"brooding,\" or, rendered more\nfully, \"was brooding tremulous with love.\"\n\n\n\n\n<u>The Genesis Water-mark.</u>\n\n\nThat English word \"brooding,\" as well as the old word underneath, is a\nmother word. The brooding hen sits so faithfully, day after day, upon the\neggs, bringing the new lives by the vital warmth of her own body. The\nmother-bird nestles softly down upon the nest in the crotch of the tree,\npatiently, expectantly brooding, by the strength of her own life giving\nlife to the coming young. She who, in the holiest, greatest function\nentrusted to her, comes nearest to God in creative power and love--the\nmother of our human kind, broods for long months over her coming child,\ngiving her very life, until the crisis of birth comes; and then broods\nstill, for months and years longer, that the new life may come into\nfulness of life. That is the great word used here.\n\nNow, will you please notice very keenly the connection in which it occurs.\nIt was because the earth was \"waste and void, and darkness upon the face\nof the deep,\" that the Spirit of God was brooding. It is only fair to say\nthat our scholarly friends who think in Hebrew are divided as to the\nmeaning here. Some think that these words, \"waste and void,\" simply\nindicate a stage, or step, in the processes of creation.\n\nBut others of them are just as positive in saying that the words point\nplainly to a disaster of some sort that took place. In their view the\nwhole story of creation is in the ten opening words of the chapter. Then\nfollows a bad break of some sort; then the brooding of God in verse two;\nand the rest of the chapter is taken up in what is practically a reshaping\nup again of the whole affair. Some of this second group of Hebrew scholars\nhave made this translation,--\"the earth became a waste,\" or \"a wreck,\" or\n\"a ruin,\" or \"without inhabitant.\"\n\nIf we may so read it now, it gives a world of additional meaning to this\nword \"brooding.\" Here was love not merely giving life, but giving itself\nto overcome a disaster. The brooding was to mend a break. Love creates. It\nalso redeems. It stoops down with great patience, and washes the dirt and\nfilth thoroughly off, in the best cleansing liquid to be found, and brings\nthe cleansed, redeemed man back again.\n\nLove does indeed create. It gave man the power to choose freely, without\nany restriction, whatever he would choose to choose. Redeeming love does\nmore. It woos him to choose the right, and only the right. It gets down by\nhis side after his eyesight has become twisted, and his will badly kinked\nby wrong choosing, and patiently, persistently works to draw him up to the\nlevel of choosing right. Love makes us like God in the power of choice.\nBut there's a greater task ahead. It makes us yet more like Him in the\ndesire to choose only the right, and in the power to choose it, too. All\nthis is in that marvellous world of a word--\"brooding.\"\n\nThe whole story of the sacrifice of Calvary is included in this wondrous\nfirst leaf of revelation. If we had lost the Gospels, and didn't know\ntheir story, nor the history of man, we yet could know from this Genesis\npage that, if ever the need arose, God would lavishly give out His very\nlife, at any cost of suffering and pain, that His man might be saved.\nJohn, three, sixteen is in the first chapter of Genesis. Calvary is in the\ncreation. God gave His breath to man in creation, and His blood for man on\nCalvary. He gave His blood because He had given His breath. Each was His\nvery life.\n\nYou know the way publishers have of putting an imprint in a book by means\nof what is called a water-mark. By the skilful use of water in\nmanufacturing the paper, a name or trade imprint is made a part of the\nvery paper of which the book is made.\n\nHave you ever noticed God's water-mark on the paper of this first leaf of\nHis Book? Hold your Bible up as we talk; separate this first leaf and hold\nit up to the light and try to see through it. The best light to use is\nthat which came from Calvary. Can you see the water-mark plainly imprinted\nthere? Look closely and carefully, for it is there. In clear-cut outline,\nevery bit of it showing sharply out, is a cross. And if you look still\nmore closely you will find this water-mark different from those in common\nuse, in this--<i>there is a distinct blood-red tinge to it</i>.\n\n\n\n<u>A Human Picture of God.</u>\n\n\nIllustrations of God from our common life are never full, and must not be\ntaken too critically, but they are sometimes wonderfully vivid and very\nhelpful. Anything that makes God seem real and near helps.\n\nA few years ago I heard a simple story of real life from the lips of a New\nEngland clergyman. It was told of a brother clergyman of the same\ndenomination, and stationed in the same city with the man who told me.\n\nThis clergyman had a son, about fourteen years of age, who, of course, was\ngoing to school. One day the boy's teacher called at the house and asked\nfor the father. When they met he said:\n\n\"Is your son sick?\"\n\n\"No; why?\"\n\n\"He was not at school to-day.\"\n\n\"You don't mean it!\"\n\n\"Nor yesterday.\"\n\n\"Indeed!\"\n\n\"Nor the day before.\"\n\n\"Well!\"\n\n\"And I supposed he was sick.\"\n\n\"No, he's not sick.\"\n\n\"Well, I thought I should tell you.\"\n\nAnd the father thanked him, and the teacher left. The father sat thinking\nabout his son, and those three days. By and by he heard a click at the\ngate, and he knew the boy was coming in. So he went to the door to meet\nhim at once. And the boy knew as he looked up that the father knew about\nthose three days.\n\nAnd the father said, \"Come into the library, Phil.\"\n\nAnd Phil went and the door was shut.\n\nThen the father said very quietly, \"Phil, your teacher was here a little\nwhile ago. He tells me you were not at school to-day, nor yesterday, nor\nthe day before. And we thought you were. You let us think you were. And\nyou don't know how bad I feel about this. I have always said I could trust\nmy boy Phil. I always have trusted you. And here you have been a living\nlie for three whole days. I can't tell you how bad I feel about it.\"\n\nWell, it was hard on the boy to be talked to in that gentle way. If his\nfather had spoken to him roughly, or had taken him out to the wood-shed,\nin the rear of the dwelling, it wouldn't have been nearly so hard.\n\nThen the father said, \"We'll get down and pray.\" And the thing was getting\nharder for Phil all the time. He didn't want to pray just then. Most\npeople don't about that time.\n\nAnd they got down on their knees, side by side. And the father poured out\nhis heart in prayer. And the boy listened. Somehow he saw himself in the\nlooking-glass of his knee-joints as he hadn't before. It is queer about\nthat mirror of the knee-joints, the things you see in it. Most people\ndon't like to use it much. And they got up from their knees. The father's\neyes were wet. And Phil's eyes were not dry.\n\nThen the father said, \"My boy, there's a law of life, that where there is\nsin there is suffering. You can't get those two things apart. Wherever\nthere is suffering there has been sin, somewhere, by somebody. And\nwherever there is sin there will be suffering, for some one, somewhere;\nand likely most for those closest to you.\"\n\n\"Now,\" he said, \"my boy, you have done wrong. So we'll do this. You go\nup-stairs to the attic. I'll make a little bed for you there in the\ncorner. We'll bring your meals up to you at the usual times. And you stay\nup in the attic three days and three nights, as long as you've been a\nliving lie.\" And the boy didn't say a word. They climbed the attic steps.\nThe father kissed his boy, and left him alone.\n\nSupper-time came, and the father and mother sat down to eat. But they\ncouldn't eat for thinking of their son. The longer they chewed on the food\nthe bigger and drier it got in their mouths. And swallowing was clear out\nof the question. And the mother said, \"Why don't you eat?\" And he said\nsoftly, \"Why don't <i>you</i> eat?\" And, with a catch in her throat, she said,\n\"I can't, for thinking of Phil.\" And he said, \"That's what's bothering\nme.\"\n\nAnd they rose from the supper-table, and went into the sitting-room. He\ntook up the evening paper, and she began sewing. His eyesight was not very\ngood. He wore glasses, and to-night they seemed to blur up. He couldn't\nsee the print distinctly. It must have been the glasses, of course. So he\ntook them off, and wiped them with great care, and then found the paper\nwas upside-down. And she tried to sew. But the thread broke, and she\ncouldn't seem to get the thread into the needle again. How we all reveal\nourselves in just such details!\n\nBy and by the clock struck ten, their usual hour of retiring. But they\nmade no move to go. And the mother said quietly, \"Aren't you going to\nbed?\" And he said, \"I'm not sleepy, I think I'll sit up a while longer;\nyou go.\" \"No, I guess I'll wait a while too.\" And the clock struck eleven;\nthen the hands clicked around close to twelve. And they arose, and went to\nbed; but not to sleep. Each one pretended to be asleep. And each knew the\nother was not asleep.\n\nAfter a bit she said--woman is always the keener--\"Why don't you sleep?\"\nAnd he said softly, \"How did you know I wasn't sleeping? Why don't you\nsleep?\" And she said, with that same queer catch in her voice, \"I can't,\nfor thinking of Phil.\" He said, \"That's the bother with me.\" And the clock\nstruck one; and then two; still no sleep. At last the father said,\n\"Mother, I can't stand this. <i>I'm going up-stairs with Phil.</i>\"\n\nAnd he took his pillow, and went softly out of the room; climbed the attic\nsteps softly, and pressed the latch softly so as not to wake the boy if he\nwere asleep, and tiptoed across to the corner by the window. There the boy\nlay, wide-awake, with something glistening in his eyes, and what looked\nlike stains on his cheeks. And the father got down between the sheets, and\nthey got their arms around each other's necks, for they had always been\nthe best of friends, and their tears got mixed up on each other's\ncheeks--you couldn't have told which were the father's and which the\nson's. Then they slept together until the morning light broke.\n\nWhen sleep-time came the second night the father said, \"Good-night,\nmother. I'm going up with Phil again.\" And the second night he shared his\nboy's punishment in the attic. And the third night when sleep-time came\nagain, again he said, \"Mother, good-night. I'm going up with the boy.\" And\nthe third night he shared his son's punishment with him.\n\nThat boy, now a man grown, in the thews of his strength, my acquaintance\ntold me, is telling the story of Jesus with tongue of flame and life of\nflame out in the heart of China.\n\nDo you know, I think that is the best picture of God I have ever run\nacross in any gallery of life? It is not a perfect picture. No human\npicture of God is perfect, except of course the Jesus human picture. The\nboy's punishment was arbitrarily chosen by the father, unlike God's\ndealings with our sin. But it is the tenderest and most real of any that\nhas come to me.\n\nGod couldn't take away sin. It's here. Very plainly it is here. And He\ncouldn't take away suffering, out of kindness to us. For suffering is\nsin's index-finger pointing out danger. It is sin's voice calling loudly,\n\"Look out! there's something wrong.\" So He came down in the person of His\nSon, Jesus, and lay down alongside of man for three days and nights, in\nthe place where sin drove man.\n\nThat's God! And that suggests graphically the great passion of His heart.\nSin was not ignored. Its lines stood sharply out. The boy in the garret\nhad two things burned into his memory, never to be erased: the wrong of\nhis own sin, and the strength of his father's love.\n\nJesus is God coming down into our midst and giving His own very life, and\nthen, more, giving it out in death, that He might make us hate sin, and\nmight woo and win the whole world, away from sin, back to the intimacies\nof the old family circle again.\n\n\n\n<u>On a Wooing Errand.</u>\n\n\nJesus was a mirror held up to the Father's face for man to look in. So we\nmay know what the Father is like. When you look at Jesus and listen to Him\nyou are looking into the Father's heart and listening to its warm\nthrobbing. And no one can look there without being caught by the great\npassion burning there, and feeling its intense soft-burning glow, and\ncarrying some of it for ever after in his own heart.\n\nJesus was on <i>a wooing errand</i> to the earth. The whole spirit of His\ndealings with men was that of a great lover, wooing them to the Father. He\nwas insistently eager to let men know what His Father was like. He seemed\njealous of His Father's reputation among men. It had been slandered badly.\nMen misunderstood the Father. He would leave no stone unturned to let men\nknow how good and loving and winsome God is. For then they would eagerly\nrun back home again to Him. This was His method of approach to the world\nHe came to win.\n\nJesus is the greatest wooer the old world has ever known, and will be the\ngreatest winner of what He is after, too. Run thoughtfully through these\nGospels, and stand by Jesus' side in each one of these simple, tremendous\nincidents of His contact with the common people. Then listen anew to His\nteaching talks, so homely and so gripping. And the impression becomes\nirresistible that the one thought that gripped at every turn, never\nforgotten, was to woo man back to the Father's allegiance.\n\n\n\n<u>Jesus' World-passion.</u>\n\n\nHave you not marked <i>the world-wide swing</i> of Jesus' thought and plan? It\nis stupendous in its freshness and bold daring. The bigness of His idea of\nthe thing to be done is immense. To use a favorite phrase of to-day, He\nhad <i>a world-consciousness</i>. It is hard for us to realize what a startling\nthing His world-consciousness was. We are so familiar with the Gospels\nthat we lose much of their force through mere rote of familiarity.\n\nIt takes a determined effort, and the fresh touch of the Holy Spirit, too,\nto have them come with all the freshness of a new book. And then we have\ngotten sort of used in our day, and in our part of the world especially,\nto talking about world-wide enterprises.\n\nWe don't realize what a stupendous thing a world-consciousness was in\nJesus' day. He certainly did not get it from His own generation; not from\nthe Jews. It stands out in keen contrast to their ideas. They lived within\nvery narrow alleyways. They supposed they were the favorites of God; and\neverybody else--<i>dogs,</i> and <i>damned</i> dogs, too; not in the profane usage,\nbut actually.\n\nBut Jesus thought of a <i>world</i>, and yearned for a world. The words \"world\"\nand \"earth\" are constantly on His lips. He said He came \"into the world;\"\nnot to Palestine; that was only the door He used for entrance. It was from\nHim that John learned, what he wrote down, that He was to \"lighten <i>every\nman</i> that cometh into <i>the world</i>.\"\n\nTo the Jewish senator of the inner national circle He said plainly in that\ngreat sentence that contains the gist of the whole Bible--John, three,\nsixteen--that it was <i>a world</i> he was after. <i>A saved world</i> was the one\npurpose of His errand to the earth. He had come to \"<i>save the world</i>,\"[2]\nand would stop at nothing short of giving His very self \"for the life of\n<i>the world</i>.\"\n\nHe tells His own inner circle that \"the field\" is a <i>world</i>. And that it\nis to be won by the means He Himself was using; namely, men, human beings,\n\"sons of the kingdom\"[3] were to be sown as seed all over its vast extent.\n\nYou remember, that last week, the request of the Greeks for an\ninterview?[4] The outside non-Jewish world came to Him in the visit and\nearnest request of those Greeks. And His whole being became greatly\nagitated. It was as when one, at last, after years of labor without any\nseeming success, gets a first faint glimpse of the results he longs so\nearnestly for. Here was a touch, a glimpse of the very thing on which His\nheart was so set. The great outside world was coming to Him.\n\nThe realization of its tremendous meaning, the sure promise it held of the\nday when <i>all the world would be coming</i> seems to set Him all a-tremble\nwith intensest emotion. The delight of the possible realizing of His\nlife-dream, His earth errand, and yet the terrific conviction that only by\ntravelling the red road of the cross could that world be won, made a\nfierce conflict within. It was the world-vision that agitated Him.\n\nAnd it was that same world-vision that held Him steady. He would not\nscatter. By concentrating all in one act He would generate and set off a\ndynamic power on Calvary that would shake and then shape a world. The\nknowledge that all men would be irresistibly drawn by the loadstone of the\ncross steadied His steps.\n\nA few days later, as He sat resting a bit, on the side of the Hill of\nOlivet, the disciples earnestly ask for some idea of His plan. And He\nexplains that the Gospel was to be \"preached to the <i>whole inhabited\nearth</i>.\"[5] That conception was never out of His mind. How could it be!\n\nBut the great purpose and passion of His life stands out most sharply in\nthe words of that last imperial command. He shows the whole of His heart\nin that stirring \"Go ye into <i>all the world</i> and make disciples of <i>all\nthe nations</i>\"; \"preach the gospel to <i>the whole creation</i>.\" The passion of\nJesus' heart was to win the world. And that passion has grown intenser in\nwaiting. To-day more than ever the one passion of yonder enthroned Man is\nto win His world. Everything else bends to that with Him. Nothing less\nwill satisfy His heart.\n\nNow, the God-touched man is always swayed by the same purpose and passion\nas sway God. The passion of every God-touched man, fresh from direct\ncontact with Him, is to win the whole world up to God. Everything will be\nheld under the strong thumb of this, and made to fit and bend and blend\ninto it.\n\n\n\n\nThe Master's Plan\n\n\n\n  Will the World Be Won?\n  Some Bad Drifts.\n  Great Incidental Blessings.\n  The World Really Lost.\n  God's Method of Saving.\n  The Programme of World-winnng.\n  Early Moorings.\n  Service Unites.\n  The World-winning Climb.\n\n\n\n\nThe Plan\n\n\n\n<u>Will the World Be Won?</u>\n\n\nThe great passion of God's heart is a love-passion. Love never fails. It\nwaits and, if need be, waits long; but it never fails to get what it is\nwaiting for. Love sacrifices; though it never uses that word. It doesn't\nknow it <i>is</i> sacrificing, it is so absorbed in its gripping purpose. There\nmay be keen-cutting pain, but it is clean forgotten in the passion that\nburns within. God means to win His world of men back home to Himself.\n\nBut some earnest friend is thinking of an objection to all this talk about\na world being won. You are taken all anew with the great picture of God's\npassion of love in the opening page of this old Book. But all the time we\nhave been talking together you have been having a cross-cutting train of\nthought underneath. It has been saying, \"Isn't this going a bit too far?\nwill the whole world be won?\"\n\nLet us talk over that a bit. We have been used all our lives to hearing\nabout <i>soul-winning</i>. We have been urged, more or less, to do it. A\nfavorite motto in some Christian workers' convention has been, \"Win one.\"\nBut this idea of winning the world has not been preached. At first it\ndoesn't seem exactly orthodox.\n\nThe old-time preaching, of which not so much is heard now, except in\nrestricted quarters, is that the whole world is lost; and that we are to\nsave people out of it. We used to be told that the world is bad, and only\nbad; bad beyond redemption, and doomed. In his earlier years Mr. Moody\nused to say often with his great earnestness that this was a doomed world,\nand that the great business of life was to save men out of it.\n\nBut of late years there has been a distinct swing away from this sort of\npreaching and talking. Everything we humans do seems to go by the clock\nmovement, the pendulum swing: first one side, then the other. Now we hear\na very different sort of preaching. This is really a good world. There is\nsome wickedness in it, to be sure. Indeed, there is quite a great deal of\nit. But in the main it is not a bad world, we're told.\n\nThe old-time preaching was chiefly concerned with getting ready for\nheaven. Now it is concerned, for most part, with living pure, true lives\nright here on the earth. And that change is surely a good one. But it is\nalso the common thing to be told that the world is not nearly so bad as we\nhave been led to believe.\n\n\n\n<u>Some Bad Drifts.</u>\n\n\nIt is striking that with that has come a change of talk about sin, the\nthing that was supposed to be responsible for making the world so bad. Sin\nis not such a damnable thing now, apparently. It is largely\nconstitutional weakness, or prenatal predilection, or the idiosyncrasy of\nindividuality. (Big words are in favor here. They always make such talk\nseem wise and plausible.) Heaven has slipped largely out of view;\nand--hell, too, even more. Churchmen in the flush of phenomenal material\nprosperity, with full stomachs and luxurious homes and pews, are well\ncontent with things as they are in this present world, and don't propose\nto move.\n\nAnd with that it is easy to believe what we are freely told, that there is\nreally no need of giving our Christian religion to the heathen world.\nThose peoples have religions of their own that are remarkably good. At\nleast they are satisfactory to them. Why disturb them? They are doing very\nwell. This talk about their being lost, and needing a Savior, is reckoned\nout of date. The old common statements about so many thousands dying\ndaily, and going out into a lost eternity, are not liked. They are called\nlurid. And, indeed, they are not used nearly so much now as once.\n\nThis swing away has had a great influence upon the mass of church-members,\nand upon their whole thought of the foreign-mission enterprise. There is a\nvaguely expressed, but distinctly felt idea both in the Church and outside\nof it, for the two seem to overlap as never before--that the sending of\nmissionaries is really not to save peoples from being lost. That sort of\ntalk is almost vulgar now.\n\nMission work is really a sort of good-natured neighborliness. It is\nbenevolent humanitarianism in which we may all help, more or less (usually\nless), regardless of our beliefs or lack of beliefs, our church-membership\nor attendance. We should show these heathen our improved methods of\nliving. We have worked out better plans of housekeeping and schooling, of\nteaching and doctoring, and farming and all the rest of it. And now we\nwant to help these poor deficient peoples across the seas.\n\nWe think we are a superior people in ourselves, as well as in our type of\ncivilization, decidedly so. And having taken good care of ourselves, and\nlaid up a good snug sum, we can easily afford to help these backward\nfar-away neighbors a bit. It is really the thing to do.\n\nSuch seems to be the general drift of much of the present-day talk about\nforeign missions. The Church, and its members individually, have grown so\nrich that we have forgotten that we were ever poor. The table is so loaded\nwith dainties that we are quite willing to be generous with the crumbs,\neven cake crumbs.\n\n\n\n<u>Great Incidental Blessings.</u>\n\n\nNow, without doubt the sending of the missionaries has vastly improved\nconditions of human life in the foreign-mission lands. The missionaries\nhave been the forerunners of great improvements. They have been the\npioneers blazing out the paths along which both trade and diplomacy have\ngone with the newer and better civilization of the West. Civilization has\ndeveloped marvellously in the western half of the world. And the\nmissionaries have been its advance agents into the stagnant East, and the\nsavage wilds of the southern hemisphere.\n\nFull, accurate knowledge of nature's resources and laws, and adaptation of\nthat knowledge to practical uses, have been among the most marked\nconditions of the western world during the past century. And, as a result,\neducation, medical and hygienic and sanitary science, development of the\nearth's soil, and resources above and below the soil, have gone forward by\nimmense strides. So far as is known, our progress in such matters exceeds\nall previous achievements in the history of the race.\n\nAnd some of all this has been seeping into the heathen world. It hasn't\ngotten in far yet; only into the top soil, and about the edges, so far.\nThe progress in this regard has seemed both rapid and slow. When the great\nmass of these peoples have not yet gotten even a whiff of the purer,\nbetter civilization air of the western nations the progress seems slow.\nBut when we remember the incalculably tremendous inertia, and the\nstrangely stagnant spirit of heathen lands, it seems rapid.\n\nThe effort to get the heathen world simply to clean up; to open the\nwindows and let in some fresh air, and use plain soap and water to scrub\noff the actual dirt makes one think of the typical small boy's dislike of\nbeing washed up. It has been a hard job. Yet a great beginning has been\nmade. The boy seems to be beginning to find out that his face <i>is</i> dirty,\nand <i>feels</i> dirty. And that is an enormous gain.\n\n\n\n<u>The World Really Lost.</u>\n\n\nYet while this is good, and only good, it isn't the thing we are driving\nat in missions. While it would fully warrant all the expenditures of\nmoney, and vastly more than has yet been given, it should be said in\nclearest, most ringing tones that all this is <i>merely incidental</i>. It is\nblessed. It is sure to come. It is remarkable that it always has come\nwhere the Gospel of Jesus is preached.\n\nYet this is not the thing aimed at in missions. The one driving purpose is\nto carry to men <i>a Saviour from sin</i>. And to take Him so earnestly and\nwinsomely that men yonder shall be wooed and won to the real God, whom\nthey have lost knowledge of.\n\nIt cannot be said too plainly that the world <i>is</i> lost. It has strayed so\nfar away from the Father's house that it has lost all its bearings, and\ncan't find its way back without help. The old preaching that this is a\nlost world, is true.\n\nBut we need to remember the different uses of that word \"world.\" In the\nold-time conception it was used in a loose way as meaning the spirit that\nactuates men in the world. The scheme of selfishness and wickedness and\nsinfulness which has overcast all life is commonly spoken of in the Bible\nas the world spirit. In that sense the world is bad, and only bad. Men\nare to be saved out of it, as Moody said.\n\nBut, in the other commoner use of it, that word \"world\" simply means the\nwhole race of men. And we must remind ourselves vigorously of the plain\ntruth that this is a lost world. That is to say, men have gotten away from\nGod. They completely misunderstand Him. Then they do more, and worse, they\nmisrepresent and slander Him. The result is complete lack of trust in Him.\nThey have lost their moorings, and have drifted out to deep sea with no\ncompass on board. Thick fogs have risen and shut out sun and stars and\nevery guiding thing. They are hopelessly and helplessly lost, and need\nsome one to bring the compass so as to get back to shore, back home to\nGod.\n\nBut this world of men is to be won. Jesus said He came to save a world.\nAnd He will not fail nor rest content until He has done it, and this has\nbecome a saved world. He said that He gave His life for the life of the\nworld. And the world will yet know the fulness of that life of His\nthrobbing in its own heart.\n\nThis does not mean that all men will be saved. There seems to be clear\nevidence in the Book that some will insist on preferring their own way to\nGod's. And I am sure I do not know anything except what the Book teaches.\nIt is the only reliable source of information I have been able to find so\nfar. It must be the standard, because it is the standard.\n\nThere will be a group of stubborn irreconcilables holding out against all\nof God's tender pleading. John's Patmos vision of glory, with its\nmarvellous beauty and sweep, has yet a lake of fire and a group of men\ninsisting upon going their own way. If a man choose that way, he may. He\nis still in the likeness of God in choosing to leave out God. He remains a\nsovereign in his own will even in the hell of his own choosing.\n\n\n\n<u>God's Method of Saving.</u>\n\n\n<i>The method of saving</i> is by <i>winning</i>. The Father would not be content\nwith anything else. Such a thing as might be represented by throwing a\nblanket over the head of a horse in a burning stable, and so getting it\nout by coaxing, and forcing, and hiding the danger, is not to be thought\nof here. Sin is never smoothed over by God, nor its results, their badness\nand their certainty.\n\nHe would have us see the sin as ugly and damning as it actually is, and\nsee Him as pure and holy and winsome as He is; and then to reject the sin\nand choose Himself. The method of much modern charity, the long-range\ncharity that helps by organization, without the personal relation and warm\ntouch, is unknown to God. He touches every man directly with His own warm\nheart, and appeals to Him at closest quarters.\n\nMan's highest power is his power of choosing. It is in that He is most\nlike God. God's plan is to clear away the clouds, sweep down the cobwebs\nthat bother our eyes so, and let us get such a look at Himself that we\nwill be caught with the sight of His great face, and choose to come, and\nto come a-running back to Himself. The world will be saved by its own\nchoosing to be. It will be saved by being won. Men will choose to leave\nsin and accept God's Saviour Jesus Christ.\n\nIt is a great method. It is the only method God could use. The creative\nlove-passion of His heart was that we should choose Himself in preference\nto all else, and choose life with Him up on His level as the only life.\n\nAnd the method of winning is by getting each man's consent. The old cry of\nsoul-winning is the true cry. It tells the method of work for us to\nfollow. Each man is to be won by his own free glad consent. There is to be\nno wholesaling except by retailing. In business the wholesale comes after\nthe retail. It is the child and servant of the retail.\n\nHere the method is to be one by one; and the results, a great multitude\nbeyond the power of any arithmetic to count. Soul-winning is the method,\nand world-winning is the object and the final result.\n\n\n\n<u>The Programme of World-winning.</u>\n\n\nThere is <i>a programme of world-winning</i> repeatedly outlined in this old\nBook of God. That programme has not always been clearly understood.\nIndeed, it may be said that for the most part it has been misunderstood,\nand still is by many. And, as a result, many churchmen have lost their\nbearings, and strayed far from the Master's plan for their own lives and\nservice. It helps greatly to get the programme clear in mind, so we can\nsteer a straight course, and not get confused nor lost.\n\nThe first item of that programme is world-wide evangelization. That is the\ngreat service and privilege committed to the Church, and to every\nChristian, for this present time. Every other service is second to this.\nThis does not mean world-wide conversion. That comes later. It does mean a\nfull, winsome telling of the story of Jesus' Gospel, to all nations and to\nall men.\n\nIt means the doing of it by all sorts of helpful, sensible means; the\nhospital and medical dispensary, the school and college, the printed page,\nand the practical helping of men in every way that they can be helped.\nAbove all, it means the warm, sympathetic, brotherly touch. Not simply by\npreaching; that surely, but in addition to that the practical preaching of\nthe Gospel by all of these means..\n\nWhen that has been accomplished the Kingdom will come. The King will come,\nand with Him the Kingdom. There will be radical changes in all the moral\nconditions of the earth. It will be a time of greatly increased\nevangelization, and of conversions of people in immense numbers. It will\nseem as if all were giving glad allegiance to Jesus the King. The world\nwill then seem to be indeed a won world.\n\nBut there will be many who have simply been swung into line outwardly by\nthe general movement among the mass of peoples, just as it always is. And\nour King wants whole-hearted love and service.\n\nAnd so, at the end of the kingdom period, there will come another crisis.\nIt is spoken of by John in his Revelation vision[6] as a loosing of Satan,\nand a renewal of his activity among men. That used to puzzle me a good\nbit. I wondered why, when that foul fiend had once been securely fastened\nup, he should be loosed again. But I'm satisfied that the reason is that\nat the end of the Kingdom time there is to be full opportunity for those\nwho are not at heart loyal to Jesus, and who simply bow to Him because the\ncrowd is doing so, to be perfectly free to do and go as they choose.\n\nJesus wants a <i>heart</i> allegiance, and only that. The great thing is that\nevery man shall freely choose as he really prefers. This it is that both\nmakes and reveals character. And so there will be a final crisis. All who\nat heart prefer to do so may swing away from Jesus.\n\nThat crisis ends with the final and overwhelming defeat of Satan and all\nthe forces of evil. He goes to his own place, the place he has chosen and\nmade for himself; and all who prefer to leave God out will go by the moral\ngravitation of their own choice to that place with him.\n\nThen follows the full vision of a won world, which John pictures in such\nglowing colors in these last two chapters of Revelation, as a city come\ndown from God out of heaven.\n\n\n\n<u>Early Moorings.</u>\n\n\nThere are two leading passages that speak of this programme. You remember\nthat during the last week of His life Jesus told His disciples of the fall\nof Jerusalem. They came earnestly asking for fuller information regarding\nthe future events. They asked when the present period of time would come\nto an end. And in answering He said--and the answer became a pivotal\npassage around which much else swings--that the Gospel of the Kingdom\nwould be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony unto all\nnations. And then the end of the present age or period of time would\ncome[7].\n\nThe first council of the Christian Church was held as a result of the\nremarkable success attending the beginning of world-wide evangelization.\nIt was held in Jerusalem to consider the serious question of what to do\nwith the great multitude of foreign or Gentile converts.\n\nThe Church had been practically a Jewish church. But Paul had commenced\nhis remarkable series of world-wide preaching-tours. Great numbers of the\noutside peoples had accepted Christ, and been organized into Christian\nchurches. Some of the Jewish Church in Jerusalem thought that all of these\nshould become Jewish in their observance of the old Mosaic requirements.\nBoth Paul and Peter, the two great church leaders, object to this.\n\nIt is at the close of the conference that James, who was presiding,\noutlines in his decision the programme of world-winning of which we are\ntalking together[8]. He quotes from the prophecy of Joel. He says there\nare to be three steps or stages in working out God's plan.\n\nFirst of all is the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus to all the nations,\nin which work Paul had been so earnestly engaged, and the remarkable\nsuccess of which it was that had given rise to the whole discussion. When\nthis has been completed the kingdom is to be established with the nation\nof Israel in the central place, the tabernacle of David set up, as he\nquotes it. The purpose of this is that all the rest of the peoples on the\nearth, all the nations, \"may <i>seek</i> after the Lord.\"\n\nThe purpose of the Kingdom is the same, in the main, as is now the purpose\nof the Church. It is to push forward on broader lines, and more vigorously\nthan ever, the work of bringing all men back to the Father's house.\n\nThere are many other passages that might be referred to, but these will\nanswer our purpose just now. There is to be a won world, and the old Book\noutlines plainly just how and when it will be won.\n\n\n\n<u>Service Unites.</u>\n\n\nNow, I know that all ministers and Christian teachers are not agreed about\nthis. There has been a controversy in the Church, both long and sometimes\nbitter, unfortunately, about the Lord's return and the setting up of the\nKingdom. And I have no desire to take any part in that, but instead, a\nstrong desire to keep out of it. There is too much pressing emergency\namong men for helpful service to spend any time or strength in\ncontroversy.\n\nIn a word it may be put this way. There are those who believe that Jesus'\ncoming is a thing to be expected as likely to occur at any time, or within\nour lifetime, within any generation. His coming is to be the beginning of\nthe Kingdom period, when all peoples will be loyal to Him.\n\nThe others believe that the preaching of the Gospel will bring the whole\nworld into allegiance, and that will be the Kingdom, and then Jesus will\nreturn. Both agree fully that the thing to be desired, and that will come,\nis the world-wide acknowledgment of Jesus as Saviour and King.\n\nIt may be added, however, that of later years there is a third great group\nin the Church, which is really the largest of the three. These people\npractically ignore the teaching about an actual return of Jesus to the\nearth. They believe that He has already come, and is continually coming in\nthe higher ideals, the better standards, and nobler spirit that pervade\nsociety.\n\nIf it be true that the present preaching of the Gospel is to result in\nwinning the whole world at once, without waiting for this programme of\nwhich I have spoken, then there is in that a very strong argument for\nworld-wide evangelization. For only so can the desired result be secured.\nAnd so we can heartily join hands together in service regardless of what\nwe believe on this question. I make a rule not to ask a man on which side\nof the question he stands, but to work with him hand in hand so far as I\ncan in spreading the glad good news of Jesus everywhere.\n\nThe difference of view regarding the Lord's return need not affect the\npractical working together of all earnest men. We are perfectly agreed\nthat the great thing is to have the story of Jesus' dying and rising again\ntold out earnestly and lovingly to all men. And we can go at that with\ngreatest heartiness, side by side.\n\nThe great concern now is to make Jesus fully known. That is the plan for\nthe present time. It is a simple plan. Men who have been won are to be the\nwinners. Nobody else can be. The warm enthusiasm of grateful love must\nburn in the heart and drive all the life. There must be simple, but\nthorough organization.\n\nThe campaign should be mapped out as thoroughly as a Presidential campaign\nis organized here in our country. The purpose of a Presidential campaign\nis really stupendous in its object and sweep. It is to influence quickly,\nup to the point of decisive action, the individual opinion of millions of\nmen, spread over millions of square miles, and that, too, in the face of a\nvigorous opposing campaign to influence them the other way. The whole vast\ndistrict of country is mapped out and organized on broad lines and into\nthe smallest details.\n\nStrong brainy men give themselves wholly to the task, and spend hundreds\nof thousands of dollars within a few months. And then, four years later,\nthey proceed as enthusiastically as before to go over the whole ground\nagain. We need as thorough organizing, as aggressive enthusiasm, and as\nintelligent planning for this great task which our Master has put into our\nhands.\n\nAnd we have a driving motive power greater than any campaign-manager ever\nhad or has--<i>a Jesus</i> who sets fire to one's whole being, with a passion\nof love that burns up every other flame. We need a Church as thoroughly\norganized, and every man in it with a burning heart for this great\nservice.\n\n\n\n<u>The World-winning Climb.</u>\n\n\nAn old school-master, talking to his class one morning, many years ago,\ntold a story of an early experience he had had in Europe. He was one of a\nparty travelling in Switzerland. They had gotten as far as Chamounix, and\nwere planning to climb Mont Blanc. That peak, you know, is the highest of\nthe Alps, and is called the monarch of European mountains. While it is now\nascended every day in season, the climb is a very difficult task.\n\nIt requires strength and courage and much special preparation; and is\nstill attended with such danger that the authorities of Chamounix have\nlaid down rigid regulations for those who attempt it. One's outfit must be\nreduced to the very lowest limit. And, of course, nothing else can be done\nwhile climbing. It absorbs all one's strength and thought.\n\nThere were two parties in the little square of the town, making their\npreparations with the guides. One young Englishman disregarded all the\ndirections of the guides. He loaded himself with things which he\npositively declared were absolutely essential to his plans.\n\nHe had a small case of wine and some delicacies for his appetite. He had a\ncamera with which he proposed to take views of himself and his party at\ndifferent stages of the climb. He had a batch of note-books in which he\nintended recording his impressions as he proceeded, which were afterward\nto be printed for the information, and, he hoped, admiration of the world.\nA picturesque cap and a gayly colored blanket were part of his outfit.\n\nThe old toughened guides, experienced by many a severe tug and storm in\nthe difficulties ahead, protested earnestly. But it made no impression on\nthe ambitious youth. At last they whispered together, and allowed him to\nhave his own way. And the party started.\n\nSix hours later the second party followed. At the little inn where they\nspent the first night they found the wine and food delicacies. The guides\nlaughed. \"The Englishman has found that he cannot humor his stomach if he\nwould climb Mont Blanc,\" one of them said grimly. A little farther up they\nfound the note-book and camera; still higher up, the gay robe and fancy\ncap had been abandoned. And at last they found the young fellow at the\nsummit in leather jacket, exhausted and panting for breath.\n\nHe had encountered heavy storms, and reached the top of the famous\nmountain only at the risk of his life. But he reached it. He had the real\nstuff in him, after all. Yet everything not absolutely essential had to be\nsacrificed. And his ideas of the meaning of that word \"essential\"\nunderwent radical changes as he labored up the steep.\n\nThen the old teacher telling the story suddenly leaned over his desk and,\nlooking earnestly at the class, said, \"When I was young I planned out my\nlife just as he planned out his climb. Food and clothing, and full records\nof my experiences for the world's information, figured in big. But at\nforty I cared only for such clothes as kept me warm, and at fifty only for\nsuch food as kept me strong. And so steep was the climb up to the top I\nhad set my heart upon that at sixty I cared little for the opinions of\npeople, if only I might reach the top. And when I do reach it I shall not\ncare whether the world has a record of it or not. That record is in safety\nabove.\"\n\nWe laugh at the ambitious young Englishman. But will you kindly let me\nsay, plainly, without meaning to be critical in an unkind sense, that\n<i>most of us do just as he did</i>. And will you listen softly, while I say\nthis--many of us, when we find we can't reach the top with our loads, let\nthe top go, and pitch our tents in the plain, and settle down with our\nsmall plans and accessories. The plain seems to be quite full of tents.\n\nThe plan of the Swiss guides is <i>the plan</i> for the life-climb. It is <i>the</i>\nplan, and the only one for us to follow in the world-winning climb. That\nwas Jesus' plan. He left behind and threw away everything that hindered,\nand at the last threw away life itself, that so the world might find life.\nWe must follow Him.\n\n\n\n\nThe Urgent Need\n\n\n\n  Three Great Groups.\n  The Needle Of The Compass Of Need.\n  A Quick Run Round The World.\n  West By Way Of The East.\n  Christian Lands.\n  The Greatest Need.\n  Groping In The Dark.\n  Living Messages Of Jesus.\n  The Great Unknown Lack.\n\n\n\n\nThe Need\n\n\n\n<u>Three Great Groups.</u>\n\n\nThe human heart is tender. It answers quickly to the cry of need. It is\noftentimes hard to find. In Christian lands it is covered up with\nselfishness. And in heathen lands the selfishness seems so thickly crusted\nthat it is hard to awaken even common humanitarian feeling.\n\nBut that heart once dug out, and touched, never fails to respond to the\ncry of need. We know how the cry of physical distress, of some great\ndisaster, or of hunger will be listened to, and how quickly all men\nrespond to that. When the terrible earthquake laid San Francisco in\nburning ruins the whole nation stopped, and gave a great heart-throb; and\nthen commenced at once sending relief. Corporations that are rated\nsoulless and men that are spoken of as money-mad, knocking each other\npitilessly aside in their greed for gold and power, all alike sent quick\nand generous help of every substantial sort.\n\nBeside expressing their sympathy in kindest and keenest word, they gave\nmillions of dollars. Yet this might seem to be a family affair, as indeed\nit was. But the great famines in India and in other foreign lands farthest\nremoved from us, have awakened a like response in our hearts. Great sums\nhave been given in money and supplies to feed the hunger of far-away\npeoples, and help them sow their fields and get a fresh start.\n\nThere is a need far deeper and greater than that of physical suffering.\nAnd there is a heart far more tender than the best human heart. That need\nis to know God, whom to know is to enter into fulness of life, both\nphysical and mental; and into that life of the spirit that is higher and\nsweeter than either of these lower down. And that tender heart is the\nhuman heart touched by the warm heart of God.\n\nMany of us Christian people who are gathered here to-night have had\nunusual blessing in having our hearts touched into real life by the touch\nof God. And there's much more of the same sort waiting our fuller touch\nwith Him. And now we want to see to-night something of the needs of God's\ngreat world-family, which is our own family because it is God's. Then we\nshall respond to it as freely and quickly and intelligently, as He Himself\ndid and does.\n\nI am going to ask you to come with me for a brief journey around the\nworld. We want to get something of a clear, even though rapid view, of the\nwhole of this world of ours. For the whole world is a mission field.\nMissionaries are sent everywhere, including our own home-land, and\nincluding all of our cities.\n\nOur cities are as really mission fields as are the heathen lands. There\nis a difference, but it is only one of degree. The Christian standards\npresent in our American life, and absent from these foreign-mission lands,\nmake an enormous difference. But, apart from that great fact, the need of\nmission service is as really in New York as it is in Shanghai.\n\nIf we are to pray for the whole world, and to help in other ways to win\nit, we ought to try to get something of a clear idea of it, to help us in\nour thinking and praying and planning.\n\nIt will help toward that if we remember at the outset that the world from\nthe religious point of view, divides up easily into three great groups.\nFirst there are the great non-Christian, or heathen, lands and nations.\nThis includes those called Mohammedan; for, while that religion is based\nupon a partial Christian truth, it is so utterly corrupt in teaching and\nmorally foul in practice that it is distinctly classed with the heathen\nreligions.\n\nThen there are the lands and nations under the control of those two great\nmediaeval historic forms of Christianity, the Roman and Greek Churches, in\nwhich the vital principles of the Christian life seem to have been almost\nwholly lost in a network of forms and organization. The essential truths\nare there. But they are hidden away and covered up. There are untold\nnumbers of true Christians there, but they live in a strangely clouded\ntwilight.\n\nThe third great group is of lands and peoples under the sway of the\nProtestant churches.\n\n\n\n<u>The Needle of the Compass of Need.</u>\n\n\nLet us look a little at these peoples. Where shall we start in? The old\nrule of the Master's command, and of the early Church's practice, was to\nbegin \"at Jerusalem,\" and keep moving until the outmost limit of the world\nwas reached. I suppose that practically, in service, beginning at\nJerusalem means beginning just where you are, and then reaching out to\nthose nearest, and then less near, until you have touched the farthest.\n\nBut the old Jerusalem rule will make a good geographical rule for us\nEnglish-speaking people, with an ocean between us, in getting a fresh look\nat this old world that the Master asks us to carry in our hearts and on\nour hands. So we'll begin there.\n\nThe needle of a magnetic compass always points north. The needle of the\ncompass of progress has always pointed west; at least always since the\nMedo-Persian was the world-power. But it is striking that the compass of\nthe world's <i>need</i> always points its needle toward the east. And so,\nstarting at Jerusalem, we may well turn our faces east as we take our\nswing around the world to learn its need.\n\nIt may be a relief to you to know at once that there will not be any\nstatistics in this series of talks. We want instead just now to get broad\nand general, but distinct, impressions. Statistics are burdensome to most\npeople. They are a good deal of a bugbear to the common crowd of us\nevery-day folks. They are absolutely essential. They are of immense, that\nis, immeasurable, value. You need to have them at hand where you can\neasily turn for exact information, as you need it, to refresh your memory.\nAnd an increasing amount of it will stick in your memory and guide your\nthinking and praying.\n\nThere are easily available, in these days of such remarkable missionary\nactivity, an abundance of fresh statistics, in attractive form. We are\ngreatly indebted to the Student Volunteer Movement and the Young People's\nMissionary Movement and the Church Societies for the great service they\nhave done in this matter of full fresh information.\n\nBut the thing of first importance is to get an intelligent thought of the\n<i>whole world</i>. And then to add steadily to our stock of particular\ninformation, as study and prayer and service call for it. It is possible\nto get a simple grasp of the whole world. And it helps immensely to do it.\n\nIt helps at once to this end to remember that two-thirds of all the\npeoples of the earth are in the distinctly heathen, or non-Christian,\nlands. This in itself is a tremendous fact, telling at once of the world's\nneed. At the beginning of the twentieth hundred-years since Jesus gave His\ncommand to preach His Gospel to all men, two-thirds of them are still in\nignorance of Him and under the same moral sway as when He went away.\n\nI might add that there are a billion people in these two-thirds. But that\nfigure is so big as only to stagger the mind in an attempt to take it in.\nThe important thing is to see that it doesn't by its sheer bigness,\nstagger our faith or our courage or our praying habit. We want to be like\nthe old Hebrew who \"staggered not\" at God's promise to do for him a\nnaturally impossible thing. Yet it is well to repeat that word \"billion,\"\nfor it brings up sharply and gigantically the staggering need of the world\nfor Christ.\n\nOne-third is in lands commonly called Christian. Though we must use that\nword \"Christian\" in the broadest and most charitable sense in making that\nstatement.\n\n\n\n<u>A Quick Run Round the World.</u>\n\n\nBeginning at Jerusalem, then, means for us just now beginning with the\nTurkish Empire. And with that, in this rapid run through, we may for\nconvenience group Arabia and Persia and Afghanistan. This is the section\nwhere Mohammedanism, that corrupt mixture of heathenism with a small\ntincture of Christian truth, has its home, and whence it has gone out on\nits work throughout the world.\n\nGreat populations here have practically no knowledge at all of the Gospel,\nfor missionary work is extremely scant. The land of the Saviour, with its\neastern neighbors, has no Saviour, so far as knowing about Him is\nconcerned, though it needs His saving very sorely.\n\nNext to it, on the east, lies the great land of India, with the smaller\ncountries that naturally group with it. And here are gathered fully <i>a\nfifth</i> of the people of the earth. These are really in large part our\nblood-brothers. Their fathers away back were brothers to our fathers. And\nso missionary work here ought to be reckoned largely as a family affair.\nBritish rule has had an immense humanizing influence here. Missionary\nactivity has been carried on aggressively for years, and great and blessed\nprogress has been made.\n\nYet it is merely a preparation for the work now so sorely needed. These\nyears of faithful seed-sowing have made the soil dead ripe for a harvest\nin our day. A strange religiousness utterly lacking both in religion and\nin morality, abominably repugnant in its gross immorality, honey-combs the\nlife of these people. The cry of need here is deep and pathetic.\n\nPushing on still to the east, the great land of China with its\ndependencies, looms up in all its huge giant size. Roughly speaking,\nalmost <i>a third</i> of the world's people are grouped here. There are\npractically almost as many in what is reckoned Chinese territory as in all\nChristian lands. Here is found the oldest and best civilization of the\nnon-Christian sort. The old common religion of Confucius is practically\nnot a religion at all, but a code of maxims and rules, and utterly lacking\nin moral uplift or power.\n\nThe peculiarly impressive thing about China, as indeed about nearly all\nof the heathen world, <i>is the spirit of stagnation</i>. There is a deadness,\nor sort of stupor, over everything. It is as if a blight had spread over\nthe land, checking all progress. Habits, customs, and institutions remain\napparently as they were a thousand years ago. This stands out in sharp\ncontrast with the spirit of growth that marks Christian lands.\n\nIt seems strange to us because the spirit of growth is the atmosphere of\nour western world, breathed in from infancy. The one word that seems\npeculiarly to describe China is that word \"stagnant.\" The people\nthemselves are remarkable both for their mental power and their habits of\nindustry. The Chinese may well be called the Anglo-Saxons of the Orient,\nin latent power and mental character.\n\nIn our modesty we think the Anglo-Saxon, the English-speaking, the\ngreatest of living peoples. Certainly the leadership of the world is in\nAnglo-Saxon hands, and has been for centuries. And the marvellous,\nunprecedented progress of the world has been under that leadership.\n\nWell, when these Chinese wake up we are very likely to find the race\ngetting a new leadership, and the history of the world a new chapter\nadded. What sort of leadership it will be morally, and what sort of a\nchapter, will depend on how much statesmanship there is in our praying and\ngiving and missionary service. But the need is enormously intensified by\nthe unawakened power of these Chinese.\n\n\n\n<u>West by Way of the East.</u>\n\n\nStill moving east, we come to the newly awakened and very attractive\nisland-nation of Japan, which, because of its geographical and territorial\nsituation, has been called the Great Britain of the Orient. Japan stands\nat present as the exception to the common stagnation of the heathen world.\nIt has made a record nothing less than phenomenal as a student of Western\nlife. It has absorbed, and imitated, and adapted to its own use, the\nWestern knowledge and spirit with a wonderful power and intelligence.\n\nJapan is both bright and ambitious to an almost abnormal degree, and as\ntricky in its dealings, and morally unclean in its life, as it is bright\nand ambitious. They have been called the Frenchmen of the Orient, and that\ncharacterization fits remarkably in many respects. Great progress has been\nmade in giving the Gospel to Japan, but the present moral need is\nimmensely intensified by the very aggressiveness of the Japanese spirit.\n\nWith Japan, the island-kingdom, it is easy to group the whole island-world\nlying to the east and south, though these are utterly different peoples.\nThis includes the great number of islands scattered throughout the Pacific\nOcean. The conditions are largely those of savagery except where affected\nby Christian civilization through the missionary enterprise. The Gospel\nhas done some wonderful feats of transformation here. And there is plenty\nof room for more. Australia, the \"island continent,\" is a British colony,\nand of course now reckoned among Christian lands; as is also the large\nisland of New Zealand, also a British colony, which has been a leader in\nsome of the most advanced steps of modern civilization.\n\nCrossing the Pacific to the east brings up the South American Continent;\nand Central America, the connecting stretch of land with our own\ncontinent; and Mexico, which is commonly grouped with foreign-mission\nlands. South America has been spoken of both as the \"neglected continent\"\nand as the \"continent of opportunity.\" The common characteristic\nreligiously of all this vast section from Mexico to the \"Land of Fire,\" at\nthe southernmost toe of South America, is that it is under the sway of the\nRoman Catholic Church. Some parts of it have been spoken of as \"baptized\nheathenism.\" A vast network of church forms and organization, practically\nlifeless, holds these peoples in an iron grasp. The need of the Gospel of\nJesus is fully as great as in civilized China or savage Africa.\n\nOne more long easterly stride, across the Atlantic, brings black Africa,\nand completes this rapid run around the globe, so far as distinctly\nheathen lands are concerned. Africa is peculiarly the savage continent,\nthough it has the oldest civilization in its northeast corner, and the\nnewest British civilization rapidly developing on its southern edge. It is\nthe \"dark continent,\" both in the color of its inhabitants and in its sad\ndestitution and degradation. About <i>a tenth</i> of the world's population is\nhere; with as many missionaries as in civilized India, but unable to reach\nthe people as effectually as there because of the lack of national\norganization and the absence of great highways of travel.\n\nAfrica is essentially a great mass of separate tribes, larger and smaller,\nmost of them in deepest savagery, with sorest need not only of salvation,\nbut of civilization. The sore need of its very savagery has seemed to make\nit a magnet to missionary enterprise. And yet all that has been done, and\nis being done, seems almost swallowed up in the depth of its degradation\nand savagery.\n\nI have taken you with me in this very rapid run that we might try to get a\nsimple practical grasp of the heathen world. And if you and I might often\ntake just such a run, with map or globe and Bible at hand, and our knees\nbent, it would greatly help us in getting close to the world our Lord died\nfor; and which He means to win; and to win through you and me; and which\nHe <i>will</i> win.\n\n\n\n<u>Christian Lands.</u>\n\n\nBut I must talk with you a bit about our Christian lands, Europe and\nAmerica, with huge Russia sitting astride both Europe and Asia, with a\nfoot dangling on each side of the globe. For these, too, are mission\nlands. <i>Foreign</i>-mission lands, would you call them? Well, that depends\nentirely on what spot you happen to call home. They are all mission\nfields. The whole world is a mission field to God. <i>Foreign</i>-mission\nfield? or <i>home</i>-mission? Which? It makes no practical matter which term\nyou choose to use.\n\nIt will be well to remember just what that common phrase, \"Christian\nlands,\" really means. It may help us in our praying. And it may help us,\ntoo, to keep humble as we think about heathen lands. It means, of course,\nthe lands where Christian standards are commonly recognized as the proper\nstandards of morals and of life.\n\nIt does <i>not</i> mean that the people are all Christian. Only a minority so\nclass themselves; the great majority do not. Neither does it mean that\nthat minority called Christian is <i>controlled</i> in daily life and in\nbusiness by the principles of Jesus. For by pretty general consent they\nare not so controlled. It is not too much to say that there is more of\nthat same spirit of selfishness that marks the heathen world, dominating\nthe personal lives of people in Christian lands, than there is of the\nunselfish Christ spirit. That may sound unkind and too critical to you. It\nis not said in a critical spirit, but simply in the desire to get the\nfacts as they are. I am fully persuaded that the more you think about it\nthe more you will come to see that this is simply the truth.\n\nNor yet does that term, \"Christian lands,\" mean that these lands are as\ndistinctly Christian through and through as heathen lands are distinctly\nheathen, or non-Christian, through and through. As a matter of fact,\nChristian lands are not dominated as thoroughly by the Christian spirit\nas heathen lands are by the heathen spirit. We really don't deserve our\ndistinctive phrase as much as they deserve theirs.\n\nIt does mean chiefly this, that here in these lands the Christian Church\nhas its stronghold; that Christian standards are commonly recognized,\nthough in practice they are so commonly disregarded. It means that the\nenormous incidental blessings, in material and mental life, that always\nfollow the preaching of the Gospel are here enjoyed most fully. And it\nmeans, too, that much of the humanizing, softening, and energizing power\nof the Gospel of Christ has seeped and soaked into our common civilization\nand affected all our life.\n\nThis is true; yet the mass of persons living in this atmosphere, and\nenjoying its great advantages, are wholly selfish in the main drive of\ntheir lives, and so in being selfish are un-Christian. While Christian\nideals dominate so much of our life, the term \"Christian lands\" really\ndescribes our <i>privileges</i> more than it does our <i>practices</i>.\n\n\n\n<u>The Greatest Need.</u>\n\n\nA word now about these great Christian lands of Europe and America. The\nCatholic countries of Europe have been regarded as mission fields by the\nProtestant churches, and missionary operations have been conducted in them\nfor many years. Russia has likewise been commonly regarded as missionary\nterritory, and a very difficult one at that. In portions of Great Britain,\nin our own Western States and frontiers, in the Southern mountain States,\nand in other sections, and among special classes, missionary work has been\nregularly carried on.\n\nAnd the cities, those great, strange, throbbing hearts of human life, are\nall peculiarly mission fields. It is remarkable how the modern city\nreproduces world conditions morally. The city is a sort of miniature of\nthe world. All the varying moral conditions of the heathen world, atheism,\nsavagery almost, crude heathenish superstition, degradation of woman,\nneglect of children, and untempered lust, may be found in New York and\nChicago, in London and Paris, in Vienna and Berlin, and in varying degree\nin all cities of Christian lands. The grosser parts are hidden away, more\nor less.\n\nThese conditions are softened in intensity by the commonly recognized\nmoral standards of life. But they are there. The man immersed in mission\nservice in any of these cities is apt to think that there can be no\ngreater nor sorer need than this that pushes itself insistently upon him\nat every turn.\n\nThe slum ends and sides of our Christian cities and huge heathendom,\njostle elbows in the likeness of their moral conditions. The need is\neverywhere, crying earnestly, wretchedly out to us. There is good mission\nground anywhere you please to strike in.\n\nBut--<i>but</i>, by far the greatest need, with that word \"greatest\"\nintensified beyond all power of description, is in the heathen lands. The\nvastness of the numbers there, the utter ignorance, the smallness of their\nchance of getting any of the knowledge and uplift of the Gospel, all go to\nspell out that word \"greatest.\" The awful cumulative power of sin,\nunchecked by the common moral standards of life, with the terrific\nmomentum of centuries; the common temptations known to us, but with a\nfierceness and subtlety wholly unknown to us in Christian lands--and yet\nhow terrifically fierce and cunningly subtle some of us know them to\nbe!--these all make every letter in that word \"greatest\" stand out in\nbiggest capitals, and in blackest, inkiest ink.\n\n\n\n<u>Groping in the Dark.</u>\n\n\nThat is a bare suggestion of the need of the world <i>in bulk</i>. But we want\nto get a much closer look than that. These are <i>men</i> that we are talking\nabout; our <i>brothers</i>, not merely hard, unfeeling, statistical totals of\nmillions. Each man of them contains the whole pitiable picture of the sore\nneed of the world vividly portrayed in himself.\n\nThe very heathen religions themselves are the crying out, in the night, of\nmen's hearts, after something they haven't, and yet need so much. Strange\nthings these heathen superstitions and monstrous practices and beliefs\ncalled religions! It has been rather the thing of late to speak somewhat\nrespectfully of them, and rather apologetically. They have even been\npraised, so strangely do things get mixed up in this world of ours. It\nhas been supposed that God was revealing Himself in these religions; and\nthat in them men were reaching up to God, and <i>could</i> reach up to Him\nthrough them.\n\nThey really are the twilight remnants of the clear direct light of God\nthat once lightened all men; <i>but</i> so mixed through, and covered up with\nerror and superstition and unnatural devilish lust, that they are wholly\ninadequate to lead any man back home to God. In almost all of them there\nis indeed some distinct kernel of truth. But that kernel has been\ninvariably shut up in a shell and bur that are hard beyond any power of\ncracking, to get at the kernel of truth for practical help, even if the\npeople knew enough to try.\n\nThey tell pathetically of the groping of man's heart after God. But the\ngroping is in the pitch dark, and amid a mass of foul, filthy cobwebs that\nblind the eyes with their dust, and grime all the life. I have no doubt\nthat untold numbers of true hearts in heathen lands are feeling after God,\nand in some dim way coming into touch with Him. He is not far from any one\nof them; but they find Him chiefly in spite of these religions, rather\nthan through any help found in them.\n\nThe story is told of a Chinese tailor who had struggled hopelessly for\nlight, and had finally found it in finding Jesus. He put his idea of the\nheathen religions that he knew, and had tried, in this simple vivid way:\n\n\"A man had fallen into a deep, dark pit, and lay in its miry bottom,\ngroaning and utterly unable to move. He heard a man walking by close\nenough to see his plight. But with stately tread he walked on without\nvolunteering to help. That is Mohammedanism.\n\n\"Confucius walking by approached the edge of the pit, and said, 'Poor\nfellow! I am sorry for you. Why were you such a fool as to get in there?\nLet me give you a piece of advice: If ever you get out, don't get in\nagain.' 'I can't get out,' said the man. That is Confucianism.\n\n\"A Buddhist priest next came by and said: 'Poor fellow! I am very much\npained to see you there. I think if you could scramble up two-thirds of\nthe way, or even half, I could reach you and lift you up the rest.' But\nthe man in the pit was entirely helpless and unable to rise. That is\nBuddhism.\n\n\"Next the Saviour came by, and, hearing his cries, went to the very brink\nof the pit, stretched down and laid hold of the poor man, brought him up,\nand said, 'Go, sin no more.' This is Christianity.\"\n\nThe awful moral or immoral conditions prevalent throughout the heathen\nworld are the most graphic comment on the influence of these religions. It\ncan be said thoughtfully that, instead of ever helping up to God and the\nlight, they drag down to the devil and to black darkness. There is not\nonly an utter lack of any moral uplift in them, but a deadly downward\npull. The very things called religions point out piteously the terrible\nneed of these peoples.\n\n\n\n<u>Living Messages of Jesus.</u>\n\n\nNow, what is it that these people need, and that we can give to them? May\nI first remind you what they don't need? Well, let it be said as plainly\nas it can be that they don't need the transferring to heathen soil of our\nWestern church systems, nor our schemes of organizations. It is not our\nWestern creeds and theology that they stand in need of.\n\nOf course, there need to be both churches and organizations. Only so will\nthe work be done, and what is gotten held together. But these are in\nthemselves temporary. They are immensely important and indispensable, but\nnot the chief thing. The great need is of <i>the story of Jesus</i>. That is,\nplain teaching about sin--the hardest task of all for the missionary,\nwhether in Asia or America--and the damnable results locked up in sin.\nThen the winsome telling, the tirelessly patient and persistently gentle\ntelling of the story of love, God's love as revealed in Jesus. The telling\nthem that Jesus will put a new moral power inside a man that will make him\nover new.\n\nBut they need even more than this, aye, far more. They need <i>men</i>--human\nbeings like themselves, living among them in closest touch--whose clean,\nstrong, sweet lives spell out the Jesus-story as no human lips can ever\ntell it.\n\nTo live side by side with men who like themselves are tempted sorely, but\nwho show plainly in their lives a power that downs the temptation--this is\ntheir great need. The good seed, after all, is not the message of truth\nmerely, but the \"sons of the kingdom,\"[9] men living the message of Jesus,\nand more, the power of Jesus, daily.\n\nA kindergarten teacher opened a mission among the slum children of a very\npoor section of Chicago. She began her work by gathering a number of\ndirty, unkempt children of the street into the neat mission room. Then,\ninstead of preaching or praying or something of the conventional sort at\nthe first, she brought in and set on a table a large beautiful calla lily,\nbewitching in its simple white beauty.\n\nThe effect of the flower on one child, a little girl, was striking. No\nsooner had she looked at it than she looked down at her own dirty hands\nand clothes, with a flush creeping into her face. Then she quickly went\nout into the street. In a little while she was back again, but with her\nface washed, her hair combed, her dress tidied up, and a bit of colored\nribbon added. She walked straight up to the lily again, and looked long,\nwith deep wondering admiration in her eyes, at the beautiful white flower.\n\nThe flower's purity was a mirror in which she saw her own dirtiness. It\nwas a magnet drawing her gently but strongly up to its own higher level.\nIt was an inspiration moving her irresistibly to respond to its own upward\npull.\n\nA simple, pure, human life is the greatest moral magnet. Jesus Himself\ndown here was just such a magnet. Such a life is impossible for us without\nJesus. It tells His power as no tongue can. It spells out loudly a\nstandard of life and, far more, a power that can lift the life up to the\nstandard. It doesn't simply tell what we should be. That may only\ntantalize and tease. But it tells what we actually can be.\n\nJesus is more than a message. He is a living power in a man's life. This\nis the great need of men's hearts,--the message of Jesus' purity and of\nJesus' power <i>embodied in live men</i>, living side by side, in the thick of\nthings, with their brothers of the great world.\n\n\n\n<u>The Great Unknown Lack.</u>\n\n\nThe greatness of men's need stands out most pathetically in this, that men\ndon't know their need. They have gotten so used to the night that they\ndon't care for the sunlight. They have been hungry so long that the sense\nof hunger and the call of appetite have wholly gone.\n\nThere is a simple, striking story told of two famous Scandinavians, Ole\nBull, the great violinist, and John Ericsson, the great inventor, who\ntaught the world to use the screw in steam navigation. The one was a\nNorwegian, the other a Swede. They had been friends in early life, but\ndrifted apart and did not meet again until each had become famous. The old\nfriendship was renewed on one of Ole Bull's tours to this country.\n\nAs Bull was leaving his friend, after a delightful visit, he gave him a\ncordial invitation to attend his concert that evening. But the\nmatter-of-fact, prosaic Ericsson declined, pleading pressure of work, and\nsaying that he had no time to waste on music.\n\nBull renewed his invitation, time and again, finally saying, \"If you won't\ncome, I'll bring my violin down here to your shop, and play.\" \"If you do,\"\nreplied the famous engineer laughingly, \"I'll smash the thing to pieces.\"\nThe violinist, knowing the marvellous, almost supernatural, power of his\ninstrument to touch and awaken the human heart into new life, felt curious\nto know what effect it would have on this scientific man steeped in his\nprosaic physics. So he planned a bit of diplomacy.\n\nTaking the violin with him, he called upon Ericsson at his workshop one\nday. He removed the strings and screws and apron, and called Ericsson's\nattention to certain defects, asking about the scientific and acoustic\nprinciples involved, and discussing the differing effect of the different\ngrain of certain woods. From this he went on to a discussion of sound\nwaves. Finally, to illustrate his meaning and his questions, he replaced\nthe parts, and, bringing the bow softly down upon the tense strings, drew\nout a few marvellously sweet, rich tones.\n\nAt once the workmen in the shop dropped their tools, and listened with\nwide-eyed wonder. Ole Bull played on and on, with his simple great skill,\nmaking the workshop a place of worship. When finally he paused, Ericsson\nlifted his bowed head, and showed eyes that were wet. Then he said softly,\nwith the touch of reverent awe in his voice, \"Play on! Don't stop. Play\non. <i>I never knew before what it was that was lacking in my life.</i>\"\n\nThat is what men everywhere say when they come to know Jesus. They fight\nagainst knowing Him because of their ignorance of Him. At home, prejudice\nagainst theology of this sort and that; against some preaching, or church\nservice, or some Christian people they have unpleasant memories of\nperhaps, bar the way. Abroad, prejudice against their treatment at the\nhands of Christian nations, or against anything new, shuts the door with a\nslam and a sharp push of the bolt.\n\nIt takes great diplomacy, love's diplomacy, the combination of serpent and\ndove, subtlety and harmlessness, to get an entrance. But when the door is\npried open, or coaxed open enough for some sound or sight of Jesus to get\nin, they passionately cry out, \"This is what I need. This Jesus is the\nlacking thing in my life!\"\n\n\n\n\nThe Present Opportunity\n\n\n\n  Somebody's Knocking at the Door.\n  They're Standing in the Dark.\n  Who's There?\n  The Coming Leaders.\n  What They're After.\n  Returning Our Call.\n  \"Inasmuch.\"\n\n\n\n\nThe Present Opportunity\n\n\n\n<u>Somebody's Knocking at the Door.</u>\n\n\nThere's a soft, tender passion in the heart of God. Its flame burns\nsteadily. It never flags nor dims. It's a passion for His child-man. And\nthat very passion itself draws man to Himself with a drawing power that is\nirresistible. They can't resist being drawn, even though they may refuse\nto yield to it.\n\nThere is an answering passion in man's heart for God. It is often a sort\nof dumb longing, not clearly defined nor well understood. It is a mute\nyearning of his heart for God, though often he doesn't think of it that\nway. But it is there; for these two, man and God, belong together. They\nwere together until sin drove its ugly wedge in between. They are a part\nof each other. Neither one is complete nor happy without the other.\n\nThe heart of God can be satisfied only as man comes back home to Him. And\nman's heart never rests until it finds rest in comradeship with God. These\ntwo are always drawing toward each other. God is always drawing man by the\ngreat master-passion of His heart. And man is always responding to that\ntender, strong pull in the underneath, mute yearning of his heart.\n\nBy and by the thing that keeps them apart will be gotten rid of. Sin will\nbe shipped overboard, to fall by its own dead weight to the bottom of the\nsea. Then there will be glad reunion of God and man, their hearts in full\nglad accord again. To-night we want to talk together a bit about this\nanswering passion of man's heart for God.\n\nThe heathen world is knocking to-day at the door of the Christian Church.\nIt has found out who has the fullest and truest information about God. And\nit is knocking loudly and earnestly at that door. And it keeps on\nknocking, though the door seems to be barely open yet; and a good\nmany--most?--inside don't seem to have heard the knocking.\n\nThe most remarkable thing about the present time from the Church point of\nview is that the heathen peoples are asking for what the Master has told\nus to give them. The centre of Church attraction and of Christian action\nto-day is on the swing toward heathen lands.\n\nWhen the Church began again, a hundred years ago, to enter the great\nheathen world, it had to use pick and axe, jimmy and chisel. It seemed\nlike using burglar's tools. Certainly it was working in the dark, with\nonly the burglar's dark-lantern to show the way. But now the heathen door\nis wide open. Instead of our knocking at their door, the heathen world is\nknocking at our door.\n\nOur billion brothers stand in the night-time of their darkness blindly\nfeeling for our door, and knocking, now timidly, now earnestly and loudly,\nay, imperiously, for the light that we have. It has been a cold night for\nthem, and a long night, too. But the darkest hour of it is already\nthrobbing with the flood of coming light. They have found the door and are\nusing it. The whole foreign non-Christian world is knocking with\nincessant, insistent clamor at our church door.\n\n\n\n<u>They're Standing in the Dark.</u>\n\n\nI do not mean that actually every country in the world is open to the\nGospel. For there are a few countries with comparatively scanty\npopulations that are not open; except, indeed, on the edges, to the man\nprying earnestly around for a way to get in.\n\nI don't mean that every man in these open countries is actually asking us\nto send him some word of Jesus. For vast numbers of them have never heard\neither about us or about Him. They don't know there is a Jesus to ask\nabout; or, judging by others, they would be asking.\n\nNeither do I mean that these multitudes who are asking are, in every case,\nasking for the Gospel itself. For many times that is not so. They ask for\nthat which appeals to them strongly as something that they want. They want\nour Western science and learning. They want to get from us the secret of\nharnessing nature up to their wagon to pull their heavy loads.\n\nIn many cases, without doubt, they don't want our Christianity at all.\nThey regard it simply as something that goes along inseparably with the\nthing they do want. They are willing to put up with some of it for a\nwhile, if only they can get the thing they are after. Their eyes have been\ncaught by the bright light of our Christian civilization. They don't\nunderstand how it came to us. They haven't wakened up enough, most of\nthem, to think into that.\n\nThey want the light we have, as we might want something that we could\norder a shipment of. They haven't learned enough yet to want to get the\nlight-generating plant installed in their midst. The great fact that all\nour civilization has come to us through the partial presence of the Light\nof the world hasn't dawned upon their minds yet.\n\nBut, however selfish motives and a crude understanding or misunderstanding\nmay enter in, the great strange unprecedented fact still remains true that\nthe world of heathenism is knocking at the door of Christendom as never\nbefore in the world's history.\n\nAnd then, too, everywhere some of them are asking plainly and piteously\nfor the real thing. Great numbers in all the foreign-mission lands are\nasking that Christian teachers be sent to them with Bibles and other books\nto teach them the way back home to God. Wherever they find out that there\nis a knowledge of God to be gotten, from there comes the insistent\nknocking that it be brought to them.\n\nI remember Bishop Bashford, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, stationed\nin China, telling of one of his thrilling experiences out there. He had\ngone inland quite a bit into China on one of his tours. One day he was\npreaching the story of Jesus to a crowd of Chinese gathered in the open\nair. As his interpreter turned his words into Chinese the crowds listened\nwith great respect and keenest interest.\n\nAs he finished he asked them if they had ever heard the Gospel before. No;\nnone of them had. He was turning up absolutely fresh soil. And they\npressed in about him, earnestly asking that men be sent to tell them. And\nthis experience of Bishop Bashford's is being repeated, over and over\nagain, throughout the foreign-mission world.\n\n\n\n<u>Who's There?</u>\n\n\nBut there is yet more than this. Everywhere among these peoples, as one\ncomes into close enough touch to find their hearts, there can be found\nunderneath the inarticulate, inexpressible yearning for something they\nhaven't. And they don't know enough to know what it is they long for. But\nthey are conscious of the constant, weary, yearning tug within. The great\nheart of the non-Christian world to-day is asking dumbly, but earnestly,\nas only the heart can ask, for the light we have. Its knocking at our\nfront door is growing louder in its insistent earnestness.\n\nSince Commodore Perry steamed into the harbor of Yokohama, fifty years\nago, with open Bible and American flag, and knocked at the front door of\nthe Orient, the whole situation has completely changed. Then we knocked\nfor admission to these shut-in lands. Now they are knocking at our door,\nfor the knowledge and light that we have in Christian lands because we\nhave Jesus.\n\nMay I call your attention to some of the louder of these knockings?\n\nFor years students in great numbers, thousands, have been coming from\nthese heathen nations to our country to get our Western learning.\nThroughout the colleges and lower schools of the land, both East and West,\nin the greater universities, and in the more modest small church colleges\nthey can be found.\n\nI remember a sight that never failed to thrill me in my visitations among\nthe colleges of our Central West. Almost always I saw one or more of these\nyoung men, from Japan, and less frequently from China and India and other\ncountries, and sometimes young women, too; studying in these institutions.\nQuite frequently they came from the better families of their people; often\nfrom old wealthy families of position and influence. So that by blood ties\nand position they will be the future men of influence and leaders of their\npeople. And it is a notable fact that many of them are to-day the leaders\nin Japan. Literally thousands of them have come, these thousands of miles\naround the world, to knock at our doors, and ask for what we have and they\nhaven't.\n\nEven more striking is the recent visitation to us of official commissions\nfrom the non-Christian lands. One after another, these national\ngovernmental deputations have come to us. They have been composed of the\nstrongest men in these lands, men in leading official position. They have\ncome by government appointment, and at government expense, to learn the\nsecret of our marvellous Western progress.\n\nAnd in addition to these official deputations others have come, men of\nlike prominence and influence, coming on their own account, to witness our\ncivilization and learn its secrets.\n\n\n\n<u>The Coming Great Leaders.</u>\n\n\nOne of the most remarkable incidents of this most remarkable movement has\nbeen the great migration of young Chinese men to study in the colleges of\nJapan. Within a very short space of time, as though by a concerted\nmovement, fifteen thousand Chinese young men have flocked to Tokyo. The\ninevitable sifting process has sent many back, but fully ten thousand\nremain, engaged in earnest, hard study.\n\nWill you mark very keenly why they went to <i>Japan</i>? Because to them Japan,\nin its new life, stood for the new light and life of the West. Their\nlittle, but mighty, aggressive neighbor on their eastern shore had brought\nto their very door the new civilization of the Christian West.\n\nHere was an unusual opportunity. Where hundreds had come clear around the\nearth to us, thousands have seized this opportunity close at hand. They\ncome from every province of China; even that farthest away, on the border\nof Tibet, sending hundreds.\n\nThe travel involved thousands of miles. And if their slow means of travel\nbe taken into account, it meant what would be to us practically hundreds\nof thousands of miles. Hundreds of them have been sent by the provincial\nand local governments. Others have come through private funds made up for\nthe purpose. And wealthy men have sent their sons. They have gone to Japan\nonly because Japan has opened her doors so widely to our Christian\ncivilization. It is not to their conqueror, Japan, they have come, but to\nthe civilization which Japan has imported from Christian lands.\n\nWas there ever such a knocking at the door of the Christian Church as\nthis? Ten thousand picked men, of the best and keenest young manhood of\nChina, representing all parts of the empire, and in large part\nrepresenting the government, settling down to years of close study of our\nChristian civilization as found in Japan--a tremendous fact for the Church\nto-day! Things are crowding in on us. It is the non-Christian world\nknocking at our back door. It was too far around to the front. So they\nhave commenced their knocking at the nearest and handiest door they could\nfind.\n\nThen there are direct requests coming constantly to the missionaries, from\nthe peoples in all these lands, earnestly asking and even pleading that\nmen be sent to teach them of God and of Christ. Whole villages have been\nfound in the fastnesses of Africa's wilds spending days together, and all\nday long, on their knees in prayer; most of ten mute prayer with upturned\nfaces--their very bent bodies their prayer--that news of the white man's\nGod might be sent to them.\n\nIn Korea and other lands it is no uncommon thing for men and women to\ntravel hundreds of miles by their slow transportation, or even to come\na-foot, to attend gatherings where the story of Jesus is being preached.\n\nAnd then, too, there is the indirect knocking in the imitation of our\nWestern ways, and throwing away of their own. Imitation is the highest\nform of compliment that can be paid. It tells of admiration, and of a\ndesire to be as those imitated. The adapting of Western learning by these\nconservative Oriental peoples, the establishment of thousands of colleges\nand schools on the model of Christian countries is so radical a thing as\nto be nothing short of startling. The abandoning of bad customs, as well\nas of their old systems of education, is as startling. Where there were\nantagonisms there is now the friendliest imitation.\n\nIf to this we add the remarkable immigration to our shores, of a million a\nyear, it intensifies enormously the opportunity of service brought to us\nby foreign peoples. Yet please notice that this latter is not Asia nor\nAfrica coming to us, but Europe.\n\nHowever crying their need may be, these are, nominally, not heathen\npeoples, but chiefly from Christianized Europe. The Asiatics would have\ncome in great numbers, but that door was promptly shut and carefully\nlocked by official hands.\n\nAs you swing your eye over these seething masses of the heathen world, and\nlisten to their voices, let me ask you, with the earnest softness of tone\nthat belongs to the heart, could there be a louder knocking at the door of\nthe Christian Church?\n\n\n\n<u>What Do They Want?</u>\n\n\nThere can be no doubt about the knocking. But--<i>but</i> what is it they are\nafter? Well, in plainest talk, they are after the thing that has made\nChristian nations great, great to the point of world-leadership and\nworld-supremacy.\n\nDo you remember the famous reply, often quoted, given to a foreign visitor\nat the English court? He had asked the secret of the greatness of England,\nwhich impressed him so forcibly. And her gracious majesty, of blessed\nmemory, Queen Victoria, placed her hand upon a Bible, and replied in the\nmemorable words, \"<i>This</i> is the secret of England's greatness.\"\n\nJust how much that wise woman had in mind I am sure I do not know. I feel\nvery sure she did not refer to the church system of England. But to\nsomething far more and deeper than that, of which the church system is\nonly one expression. Where the Bible has gone, and where it has so\nlargely dominated the life of the people, as in England, there has been\nboth a moral regeneration <i>and</i>, mark it keenly, a <i>new mental life</i>. Its\ntouch has awakened the mental powers. There has been aroused and released\ninto activity that <i>spirit of energy</i> which has become the most marked\ncharacteristic of the Western world.\n\nThese two, the mental life and the remarkable energy, lie at the basis of\nall our wonderful modern science. And this, in turn, lies at the basis of\nall our phenomenal development. It is this that makes the West different\nfrom the East. The leading nations are Christian nations. The germ of\nvigorous life is in the Gospel of Christ.\n\nThis is the thing the heathen world is knocking so earnestly at our door\nfor to-day. I do not say that they think of it in that way. They are just\ncoming, groping out of the darkness, with eyes blinking and blinded by the\nbrightness of our light. They stretch eager, reaching fingers out toward\nthe light, without knowing much about it. The glare of it has caught them.\n\nAnd if they are caught, moth-like, and hurt by its flame--if they copy our\nvile vices, which are no part of our Christianity, but the remnants of our\nown original savagery cropping out in spite of Christianity--if so, is it\nsurprising? Their eyes are bothered by the sudden change from black\ndarkness to brilliant light.\n\nBut there's a deeper asking. Underneath all, the thing they are really\nasking for, all unconsciously most of them, is that which lies at the\nroot of all our Western progress. They ask unknowingly for the Gospel of\nChrist, the heart of this precious old Bible. When they get that they will\nfind that it brings the new awakening of mental life and the new\naggressive energy that has made us Christian nations what we are.\n\n\n\n<u>Returning Our Call.</u>\n\n\nWill you please remember that their knocking at our door is a direct\nresult of our knocking at their door? They are very polite, these far-away\nkinsfolk of ours. They are simply returning our call.\n\nThe missionary, from Great Britain, and America, and Europe, has been the\nWest's pathfinder in these foreign-mission lands. He has blazed a way into\nthese thick woods, and beaten down narrow foot-paths through them. It's\nbeen hard, heroic work. The pathfinder has often gotten his hands and face\nbadly torn by the thick brambly thorn bushes as he pushed resolutely on.\n\nThen diplomacy entered and broadened the roads. And commerce quickly came\nand beat them down into good hard shape for easy travel. And in turn the\nmissionaries have freely used the broader, better roads.\n\nAnd now these roads are being trodden by other feet, and in an opposite\ndirection. Along the pathways made by the Church, and made better by\ndiplomacy and commerce, these peoples are coming, coming a-running, to ask\nus to give them what we have. We received it from Another. He bade us\ngive it as freely as we received it.\n\nHere they come eagerly knocking at our doors, front door, and back door,\nand wherever there is a door. Do you hear them?\n\nAh! The great question to-day is not a question for the heathen world, but\nfor the Christian Church--shall we respond to the opportunity they are\nflinging in our faces? To-day there are more hands in heathen lands\nstretched out <i>for</i> the Gospel of Jesus than there are Christian hands\nstretched out <i>with</i> the Gospel. More hearts in those far-away lands are\ndumbly praying for the light than there are of us praying that they may\nreceive the light--far more.\n\nThe greatest question for the Church to-day is--shall we enter the open\ndoor? And this is a key-question, too. Its answer includes a full\nsatisfactory answer to all the other questions we are discussing. All\nquestions of finance, of uncertain wabbling pulpit voices, of careless and\nindifferent or empty pews, and of city evangelization will quickly find an\nanswer as the Church fully and faithfully answers this. Here is the work\nthat, if done, and well done, will bring a new circulation of blood into\nthe whole life of the Church.\n\nHave you noticed the sharp contrast that there is gradually growing up\nbetween the way people at home and these foreign peoples are receiving the\nGospel? Out there there is an openness to the truth, an eager willingness\nto believe it simply, and to act upon it, that suggests the way they did\nin the Book of Acts. In our home-lands of America and Great Britain and\nGermany there seems to be either indifference, or an atmosphere of quibble\nand criticism. With questions and doubts naturalistic explanations are\nsought that do away with much of the simple force of God's truth.\n\nA like difference is showing itself between the results there and here.\nHere they are scantier, and gotten with great difficulty; there much\nlarger, and with greater ease. There the door is wide-open, and people\ncrowding in; here there is a feeling that the door is closing, surely and\nnot slowly people turn away elsewhere. There has come to be an unusual\nproportion of pickles and salads and other relishes served with every\nspreading of the Gospel meal here. There, just plain unbuttered bread is\neagerly and thankfully sought for. They are hungry. And their hunger is a\nwide-open door to us. We need the exercise of foreign travel, and a great\ndeal of it, to bring back our zest.\n\n\n\n<u>\"Inasmuch.\"</u>\n\n\nMay I speak very softly of another side of this knocking at our door?\n<i>Who</i> is it that is knocking? Aye, <i>Who</i>?\n\nDo you remember Jesus' words in Matthew, chapter twenty-five? He is\nspeaking of the settling-up time that is to come at the close of things.\nAnd He does something there that is startling. He <i>identifies Himself</i>\nwith the hungry and cold and poor. That is, He puts Himself in their\nplace. They are reckoned as though they were He. He says that when they\nasked for some food and warm clothes <i>it was really Himself asking for\nfood and warmth!</i> We have been really dealing with Him when we have met\nthese needy ones. The one test question He makes for all is this--What did\nyou do for these hungry people? Because what you did, or didn't do for\nthem, was done or refused to <i>Me</i>. Jesus comes in the guise of the needy.\nWho is it knocking at our door so loudly to-day?\n\nI suppose if you could think of Jesus actually coming to-day to New York,\nthe human Jesus I mean, coming as a man just as He came to Jerusalem, but\nknown to us as He is now--I suppose there is hardly a door that would not\nopen to Him. He might not be any better understood in New York than He was\nin Jerusalem, but the doors of the wealthy would quickly open to Him. I\nmean the Christian wealthy, the Church wealthy; other doors, too, no\ndoubt, but these surely. He would have a great welcome.\n\nAnd I suppose, too, that if in some wealthy home on Fifth Avenue or\nMadison Avenue He were to ask His host to give some large sum, a million\ndollars or ten millions, for sending the Gospel to China or Japan His\nrequest would likely be granted. It seems to me rather probable that it\nwould. Well, how can it be put plainly enough that He does come to our\ndoors, rich, and less rich, and poor. He's at the front door now, knocking\nand asking our help.\n\nIn these heathen peoples of His, <i>Jesus</i> comes to us. And we have been\ngiving Him--shall I say it very softly for sheer shame?--we have given,\nnot all, but most of us, what is practically the loose change in our\ntrousers' pocket; not actually, of course; sometimes even that. We have\nspent more on everything else. We have made up boxes of cast-off clothes\nand old shoes for--<i>Jesus!</i> This has been a large part of our answer. Is\nit any wonder the hot blood sends the color climbing into our cheeks at\nthe thought, and that we instinctively seek for some explanation that will\nsoften the hard rub of the truth!\n\nI found a bit of a poem in a magazine some time ago that caught fire as I\nread it. It was written, I judge, in a personal sense; but it came to me\nat once with a wider meaning; and it persists in so coming at every\nreading of it.\n\nIn this poem there is some one knocking at a door for admission, and a\nvoice without calls,\n\n    \"'Friend, open to <i>Me</i>.' Who is this that calls?\n    Nay, I am deaf as are my walls;\n    Cease crying, for I will not hear\n    Thy cry of hope or fear.\n    What art thou indeed\n    That I should heed\n    Thy lamentable need?\n    Hungry, should feed,\n    Or stranger, lodge thee here?\n\nBut the voice persists--\n\n    \"'Friend, My feet bleed.\n    Open thy door to Me and comfort Me.'\n    'I will not open; trouble me no more.\n    Go on thy way footsore,\n    I will not arise and open unto thee.\n\nAnd still the pleading,\n\n    \"'Then is it nothing to thee? Open, see\n    Who stands to plead with thee.\n    Open, lest I should pass thee by, and thou\n    One day entreat My face\n    And cry for grace,\n    And I be deaf as thou art now;\n    Open to Me'\n\n    \"Then I cried out upon him: Cease,\n    Leave me in peace;\n    Fear not that I should crave\n    Aught thou may'st have.\n    Leave me in peace, yea, trouble me no more,\n    Lest I arise and chase thee from my door.\n    What! shall I not be let\n    Alone, that thou dost vex me yet?\n\n    \"But all night long that voice spake urgently--\n    'Open to Me.'\n    Still harping in mine ears--\n    'Rise, let Me in.'\n    Pleading with tears--\n    'Open to Me, that I may come to thee.'\n    While the dew dropp'd, while the dark hours were cold--\n    'My feet bleed, see My Face,\n    See My hands bleed that bring thee grace,\n    My heart doth bleed for thee--\n    Open to Me.'\n\n    \"So, till the break of day;\n    Then died away\n    That voice, in silence as of sorrow;\n    Then footsteps echoing like a sigh\n    Pass'd me by;\n    Lingering footsteps, slow to pass.\n    On the morrow\n    I saw upon the grass\n    Each footprint mark'd in blood, and <i>on my door</i>\n    <i>The mark of blood forevermore</i>.\"[10]\n\nThat same voice still comes with a strangely gentle persistence--\n\n    \"Inasmuch as ye did it\n    Unto one of these my brethren, even these least,\n    Ye did it unto Me.\n\n    \"Inasmuch as ye did it <i>not</i>\n    Unto one of these least,\n    Ye did it <i>not</i> unto Me.\"[11]\n\n\n\n\nThe Pressing Emergency\n\n\n\n  The October Panic.\n  Danger and Victory Eying Each Other.\n  Spirit Contests.\n  A Crisis of Neglect and Success.\n  A Westernized Heathenism.[A]\n  A Powerless Christianity.\n  Death or Deep Water.\n  Saved by Saving.\n\n\n\n\nThe Pressing Emergency\n\n\n\n<u>The October Panic.</u>\n\n\nA man walked up the steps of a well-known bank in lower New York one\nmorning, about a half-hour before opening-time, and stood before the shut\ndoor. In a few minutes another came, and stood waiting beside him. Others\ncame, one by one, until soon a small group stood in line, waiting for the\ndoor to open.\n\nA messenger boy, coming down the street, quickly took in the unusual\nsight. He wasn't old enough to have been through any of New York's notable\npanics, and he had never witnessed a run on a bank; but quick as a flash,\nor as a Wall-Street messenger boy, he knew as though by instinct that a\nrun was on at that bank. Instantly he started running down the street to\ntell others.\n\nNo prairie wild-fire ever spread so quickly as the news ran over 'phone\nwires of the beginning of that run. As though by some sort of invisible\nether-waves, the news seemed to spread through the financial district.\nEvery bank president seemed to know at once. Then it spread throughout the\ncity, and the greater city.\n\nSo began what has been called the October panic of last year, which\nquickly spread through the land, and then throughout the world until every\ncountry bank here, and every capital city abroad, felt the sharp\ntightening of the money-bag strings.\n\nIt was a strange panic. You couldn't just tell what was responsible for\nit. The very variety of explanations, editorial and other, told of the\nlack of a common understanding of what caused it. There had been no famine\nor drought. The crops, the chief financial barometer of the country's\ncondition, had been remarkably abundant. There had been no overproduction\nor glutting of the industrial world. Indeed, great numbers of concerns had\nbeen embarrassed by orders that they couldn't fill fast enough. The cause\nseemed to be wholly in people's <i>minds</i>. A spirit of distrust of some of\nthe great money leaders and of their methods was abroad. That feeling of\nfear sent a few men, by an unplanned concert of action, to a certain bank\nbefore ten o'clock one morning.\n\nThe unusual sight of a few men standing in line waiting for the opening of\nthat bank door was like a lighted match to a barn full of dry hay. At the\nfirst inkling of a suggestion of a financial panic money began to\ndisappear. Nothing is so cowardly in its cautiousness as money.\nScholarship comes next to it. The savings of years have the tightest grip\non most human hands. As though by magic, money began hunting dark holes in\nstockings and cellars and safety-deposit boxes. And the hard grip of the\npanic was quickly felt everywhere. It was a fear panic. A terrible danger\nwas at hand.\n\nAt once the regular habit of life was disturbed for great numbers of men.\nThe Secretary of the Treasury quit his Washington desk and spent several\ndays in New York so as to be able to give the help of the Government's\nfunds and enormous prestige where they would count for most, and to give\npromptly. Bank officials and other financial leaders cut social\nengagements and everything else that could be cut, and devoted themselves\nto meeting the sudden emergency. They ate scantily, both to save time and\nfor lack of appetite, and to help keep their heads clear for quick\ndecisive thinking and action. The tension was intense. Men sat up all\nnight conferring on best measures.\n\nA group of the leading money men met in the private quarters of one of\ntheir numbers, about whose rugged personality and leadership they\ninstinctively rallied. More than one night the gray dawning light of the\nmorning found them, with white, drawn faces, still in conference. The\nemergency gripped them. An emergency always does. The habits of life are\nupset, helter-skelter, in the effort to avert the threatening danger. That\nwas an emergency in the money world. Grave danger threatened. Everything\nelse was forgotten, and every bit of available resource strained to turn\nthe danger aside. It <i>was</i> turned aside. That was a splendid achievement.\nAnd even though men have been feeling the effects for this whole year,\nwhat they have felt is as nothing compared with what might have come.\n\n\n\n<u>Danger and Victory Eying each other.</u>\n\n\nAn emergency means a great danger threatening, perhaps the very life. But\nit means, too, that if the danger can be gripped and overcome there will\nbe great victory. Two possibilities come up close and stare each other\nangrily in the face; the possibility of great disaster impending, and of\ngreat victory over it within grasp, if there be a reaching hand to grasp\nit. The deciding thing is the human element, the strong, quick hand\nstretched out. If strength can be concentrated, the situation gripped,\nthen great victory is assured. But it takes the utmost concentration of\nstrength, with rare wisdom and quick steady action, to turn the tide\ntoward flood. If this is not done, either because of lack of leadership or\nof enough strength or enough interest, disaster comes.\n\nJust such emergencies come to us constantly. A severe illness lays its\nhand upon a loved one in the home. The crisis comes. Death and life stand\nin the sick-room eying each other. Either one may be victor. No one can\ntell surely which it will be. And every effort is strained, the habit of\nlife broken, other matters forgotten and neglected, that death may be\nstaved off, and life wooed to stay. And when the crisis passes safely the\njoy over the new lease of life makes one forget all the cost of strain and\neffort.\n\nWho of us cannot recall some time back there, when some emergency came in\npersonal business matters, and personal and home expenses and plans were\ncut down to the lowest notch, to the bleeding-point, that the emergency\nmight be safely met.\n\nTeachers and parents know that moral emergencies come at intervals in a\nchild's life, until young manhood and womanhood are reached. One of the\ngreatest tasks in child-training is to note the emergency, and meet it\nsuccessfully. And what keenness and patience and subtlety it does take\nonly he knows who has been through the experience.\n\n\n\n<u>Spirit Contests.</u>\n\n\nEmergencies come in spiritual matters, too. They are the hardest kind to\nmeet. It is hardest to make people see them and grip them. In the life of\nmany a church a spiritual emergency has come, but has not been met. The\nchurch goes on holding services, raising money and paying it out, going\nthrough all the proper forms, but with the life itself quite gone out of\nit. The thing is being kept in motion by a humanly manipulated electric\ncurrent; there is no free life-movement.\n\nEvangelistic leaders say that such emergencies come in their campaigning.\nThere has to be a struggle of spirit forces. And the victory that comes,\ncomes only as a result of close hand-to-hand conflict of soul by the\nleaders.\n\nWe all know that such crises come in our personal experience. And those\nwho know about changing things by prayer do not need to be told of the\nemergency that comes at times; nor of how it requires a tightening of all\nthe buckles, a new reviewing of the promises on which prayer rests, a new\nsteadying of one's faith, a quietly persistent hanging on, an intenser\ninsistence of spirit in prayer and more arrow-praying in the daily round\nof work--sending out the softly breathed heart-pleadings while busy with\ncommon duties, until the assurance comes that the danger is past and the\nvictory secure.\n\nIt is remarkable to what an extent the great events of history have been\nemergency events. With the greatest reverence, it can be said that\nhistory's central event, the dying of Jesus, was an emergency action. Even\nthough we understand clearly that it was known and counselled from before\nthe foundation of the world, that He was to shed His precious blood for\nour salvation, His dying can never be fully understood save as a great\nemergency measure, <i>the</i> great emergency measure, because of the crisis\nmade by sin.\n\nNow that is the sort of thing--an emergency--that is now on in this great\ntask of world-wide evangelization which Jesus has committed to our hands.\nSome of you may be strongly inclined to lift your eyebrows and ask--Is\nthere really any such emergency? I know that people don't like those words\n\"crisis\" and \"emergency.\" It is much more comfortable to think that things\nare going on very smoothly and well. Even though all is not just as we\nmight choose to have it, yet we like to think that it will turn out well.\nThere is a sort of optimism that is very popular. Things will all come out\nright somehow, we like to think. But the fact is that things don't turn\nout right of themselves. They have to be turned by somebody who gives\nheart and life to the turning.\n\nIt can be said with sane, sober sense that without doubt there is an\nemergency, and a great one, in this foreign-mission enterprise. It is, of\ncourse, true that in a sense there is <i>a continual emergency</i> here. There\nare thousands of these foreign brothers of ours slipping the tether of\nlife daily. The light might easily have been taken to them, and have\nchanged their choices. But then it hasn't been, and the dark shadow of the\npossibility of their separating themselves forever from God, through wrong\nchoice persisted in, hangs down over each one of them. There can be no\ndarker shadow except the actual knowledge that they have so separated\nthemselves from life in Him.\n\n\n\n<u>A Crisis of Neglect and Success.</u>\n\n\nBut quite distinct from that, and in addition to it, it is quite safe to\nsay that there is <i>an emergency now on</i> in the heathen world such as it\nhas never known before. Such is the mature judgment of our missionary\nleaders.\n\nAnd we do well to remind ourselves that we have some remarkable men among\nthese leaders. There are men on the foreign fields and at the missionary\nhelm at home of most remarkable ability and genius. There are to-day men\nof statesmanlike grasp and power, who could easily have taken front rank\nin public life, in diplomacy, and professional life, men fully able to\nfill the Presidential chair and do it masterfully, who are giving their\nlife-blood to this great missionary task.\n\nThe sober judgment of these men, taken from every angle of vision, is that\nthe present is a time of unparalleled emergency. It exists peculiarly in\nAsia, the greatest of all foreign-mission lands. It has been caused by a\nnumber of things that now come together with such force as to make a\ncrisis, <i>the</i> crisis of missions, the gravest that has yet come, and that,\nit is probably safe to say, will ever come. For the future will be largely\nsettled, one way or the other, within a few years.\n\nAt the basis of all is <i>the great need</i>, of course. That looms big and\ngaunt and spectral in any survey of the matter.\n\nThen <i>the neglect</i> by the Church for many generations has greatly\nintensified the present situation. The Master's plan plainly is that every\ngeneration of the Church shall give the Gospel to its generation; that is,\nto all the people living in the world at that time. Every generation of\nmen must have the Gospel afresh. No land is beyond the need of a fresh\ngospelizing. If Christian America were to lose its churches and the\nGospel, it would surely revert to the heathen type from which we sprung.\n\nBut many generations went by with practically nothing of this sort being\ndone. These generations of inactivity have piled up on the present\ngeneration. The undone work of the past adds greatly to the task of the\npresent. The present situation is abnormal because of what hasn't been\ndone.\n\nThen <i>the success of the present</i> has played a big part. Modern missionary\nactivity has had a big share in making this emergency. A century of\nmissions is reaching a tremendous climax. The splendid aggressiveness of\nchurch leaders and missionaries is now an embarrassment to a Church, or\nany one in the Church, who doesn't want to keep up the pace. It is an\nemergency of success, the logical result of what has been accomplished. So\nmuch has been done, and been done so well by a comparatively few, that now\nmore must be done by the rest of us.\n\nIt's because the heathen world is awake that there is an emergency. Their\nawakeness is the thing that crowds in on us. And we waked them up. We must\nnow do more and better, because we have done so well. We have indeed waked\nthem up, but--to what? A business man would stamp it as rank foolishness\nto fail to take advantage of the splendid opening that we have made in the\nforeign-mission world.\n\n\n\n<u>A Westernized Heathenism.</u>\n\n\nNow, let us look just a bit at this present pressing emergency. There are\ngrave perils threatening, and a great victory possible.\n\nWell, first of all there is real danger of <i>a new aggressive heathenism;</i>\na new, energetic, but distinctly un-Christian civilization, in the heathen\nworld. Many thoughtful men who are keenly watching the world movement\nbelieve that without doubt there is to be a new leadership of the human\nrace in the Orient. It <i>may</i> be a heathen leadership. That danger is a\ndistinct possibility. The new world-leadership may have all the enormous\nenergy and mental keenness of Christian peoples, but without the Christian\nspirit.\n\nThat means practically a new heathenism, no longer asleep but wide-awake;\nno longer being manipulated by the Western nations, but maybe manipulating\nand managing them. An aroused, organized, energized heathen world, with\nall the science and inventiveness and restless aggressiveness of the\nwestern nations and, mark you--<i>and</i> all the spirit of the old, Godless,\nChristless heathenism dominating its new life--that is the danger.\n\nThe heathen world is awake at last after a sleep of centuries. It is\nsitting up, rubbing its eyes, and taking notice. It is entering upon a new\nlife. That's as clear as a sunbeam on a cloudless morning. What that life\nshall be depends entirely on the Church waking up. That means, to be more\npractical, that it depends on you and me waking up, just now, and doing\nwhat we easily can. It <i>may</i> be a new <i>Christian</i> life, shot through and\nthrough with the blessed principles and spirit of Jesus. It <i>may</i> be a new\nlife of energized, Westernized heathenism! They may get merely our energy\nand mental awakeness without the Christian spirit that gave these to us.\n\nThese two opposite things are standing by the bedside eying each other.\nWhich will get the patient? Who knows? If the Church fail--!\n\nThis is a real peril seriously threatening. It is probably far more grave\nand far more likely than the best-informed and keenest observer is aware\nof.\n\n\n\n<u>A Powerless Christianity.</u>\n\n\nThen there is a second danger climbing in fast on the heels of this, that\nis already being plainly felt. <i>These peoples may turn away from a\nChristianity that seems powerless to them.</i> As they come to know better\nthe simple principles of our faith they may see that we are not true to\nit. Our Master bade us go everywhere and tell all men of Him, and tell\nthem most and best by the way we live. But we haven't done it. The Church\nof the past nineteen centuries, taken as a whole, hasn't done it. The\nChurch to-day, taken as a whole, isn't doing it.\n\nHow many times have the missionaries been obliged to listen to the\nquestion, which is a reproach rather than a question, \"Why didn't you come\nbefore? My father lived and died in distress, seeking for this light you\nbring us now. <i>Why didn't your father come and tell my father?\"</i> If they\nfind that our faith hasn't gripped <i>us</i> enough to master our lives they\nwill naturally doubt if, after all, there is any more real practical\npower in it than in their own heathen beliefs.\n\nIt <i>seems</i> better in theory, but it seems to lose its ideals in the stiff\ntest of practice. They would be wrong in thinking that, of course. But\nwhat conclusion more natural to the crowd that never thinks deep. When all\nthe difficulties and hardships come in the way of their acceptance of\nChrist, and the easiest way is not to, how easy to throw the whole thing\naside.\n\nThe story is told of a Chinaman in this country who applied for a position\nas house-servant in a family which belonged to a fashionable church. He\nwas asked:\n\n\"Do you drink whiskey?\"\n\n\"No, I Clistian man.\"\n\n\"Do you play cards?\"\n\n\"No, I Clistian man.\"\n\nHe was engaged, and proved to be a capable servant. By and by the lady\ngave a bridge-party, with wine accompaniments. The Chinaman did his part\nacceptably, but the next morning he appeared before his mistress.\n\n\"I want quit,\" he said.\n\n\"Why? What is the matter?\"\n\n\"I Clistian man. I told you so before; no heathen; no workee for 'Melican\nheathen.\"\n\nThese heathen brothers of ours are not fools. They are a keen lot. They\njudge our religion by us who profess it, as we do with them and theirs.\nThere may come a wide-spread practical disbelief, or lack of belief, that\nthere is any practical power in Christ to change a man's life, and really\ncontrol his actions. And it will be a perfectly logical conclusion from\nwhat they find in us Christian nations as a whole.\n\n\n\n<u>Death or Deep Water.</u>\n\n\nAnd then there are some mighty bad dangers on the other side--<i>our</i> side.\nIf it be true that every generation <i>needs</i> the Gospel, it is just as true\nthat every generation of Christians <i>needs to give</i> the Gospel. It is the\nvery life of a Christian to give himself out in earnest service for\nothers. The man who is failing there has started on the down grade in his\nChristian life. If we lose the spirit of \"go\" we have lost the very\nChristian spirit itself. A disobedient church will become a dead church.\nIt will die of heart failure.\n\nIt was John's Man with eyes of searching flame, and tongue of keen-edged\nsword, and feet that had been through the fire, who said to a Christian\nchurch, \"I will move thy candlestick out of its place except thou change\nthy ways.\"[12] The candlestick isn't the light. It holds the light. The\nChurch's great mission is to be the world's light-holder.\n\nBut unsnuffed candles and cobwebby window-panes seem to have been in\nevidence sometimes. The Christian Church in some lands has plainly lost\nits privilege of service, and lost its life, too. The old organizations\nare kept up, but all life has gone. There's a grave danger threatening\nthe American Church and the British Church just at this present time.\n\nLong years ago, in the days before steam navigation, an ocean vessel came\nfrom a long sea voyage, up St. George's Channel, headed for Liverpool.\nWhen the pilot was taken on board, he cried abruptly to the captain, \"What\ndo you mean? You've let her drift off toward the Welsh coast, toward the\nshallows. Muster the crew.\" The crew was quickly mustered, and the pilot\ntold the danger in a few short words, and then said sharply, \"Boys, it's\ndeath or deep water, hoist the mains'l!\" And only by dint of hardest work\nwas the ship saved.\n\nIf I could get the ear of the Church to-day, I would, as a great kindness\nto it, cry out with all the earnestness of soul I could command, \"<i>It's\ndeath or deep water;</i> deep water in this holy service of world-winning, or\ndeath from foundering.\"\n\n\n\n<u>Saved by Saving.</u>\n\n\nAnd then there's a yet graver peril threatening. It's quite the common\nthing to appeal to selfish motives. It is striking that the great strides\nthat prohibition has made of recent years, have been due to a sort of\nlegislation and to business regulation that appeal to selfish motives. The\neconomic motive, and the disagreeable and injurious likelihood of a saloon\nbeing close to one's own home, have had greater influence than higher\nmoral motives. And we are glad of any motive that will put the damnable\ntraffic down and out.\n\nWell, I'm going to come down a step here, and remind you of a yet graver\nperil that threatens. There is serious danger of <i>a heathenized\nChristianity</i> dominating our boasted Christian civilization and Christian\nlands. And in time that would be a serious menace to our pocket-books.\n\nThat is to say, there may be the energy and keen mental life without the\nmellowing and sweetening influence of the Christian spirit. The restless\naggressiveness may come without the poise; the ceaseless activity without\nthe deeper steadying quality; the keenness without the softening touch of\nthe true life. In other words, if we don't Christianize heathendom, they\nwill exert an influence on us that will practically amount to their\nheathenizing Christendom.\n\nAlready such influences are seeping in at more than one crack.\nMohammedanism has an active propaganda in Great Britain. Heathen wedges\nare slipping their thin edges in, in our land. More and more it will\nextend, in time influencing our whole moral fabric, and affecting our\nwhole national life.\n\nDuring some recent researches among the ruins of Pompeii the explorers\nturned up a find that told its own story. It was the body of a crippled\nboy. He was lame in his foot. And around the body there was a woman's arm,\na finely shaped, beautiful, bejewelled arm. The mute find told its simple\nstory. The great stream of fire suddenly coming from the volcano, the\ncrowd fleeing for life, the little cripple unable to get along fast\nenough, the woman's heart touched, her arm thrown about the boy to aid\nhis escape; then the overtaking fire-flood, and both lost. The arm that\nwas stretched out to save another was preserved, and only that. All the\nrest of the brave rescuer's body had gone. The saving part was saved. Only\nthat mercifully outstretched to save another was itself saved.\n\nThe Church or the man that selfishly saveth his life shall lose it. He\nthat forgetteth about his own life in eagerly saving others shall find\nthat he has saved his own life, and that it has grown into a new fulness\nand richness of life.\n\nThese are some of the dark ugly faces peering into ours. But there's\nanother face among them. It is a very bright face, with eyes all aglow,\nand features all shining with light. It is the face of victory over every\ndanger and difficulty that threatens. Many believe that the emergency will\nbe met. The victory will surely be achieved. But the fact to mark keenly,\njust now, is that it will be achieved only by a vigorous, masterful\ngripping of the present pressing emergency.\n\nAh! God, may Thy Church--we men who make Thy Church, who <i>are</i> Thy\nChurch--may we see the emergency, and be gripped by it; for Jesus' sake;\naye, for men's sake; for the Church's sake; for our own sake; in Jesus'\ngreat name.\n\n\n\n\nThe Past Failure\n\n\n\n  Some of God's Failures.\n  Where the Reproach of Failure Lies.\n  God's Sovereignty.\n  The Church Mission.\n  \"Christ also Waits.\"\n  \"Somebody Forgets.\"\n\n\n\n\nThe Past Failure\n\n\n\n<u>Some of God's Failures.</u>\n\n\nGod fails, sometimes. That is to say, the plan He has made and set His\nheart upon fails.\n\nEden was God's plan for man. A weedless, thornless, world-garden of great\nbeauty and fruitfulness; a man and woman living together in sweet purity\nand strong self-mastery; their children growing up in such an atmosphere,\ntrained for the highest and best; the earth with all its wondrous forces\ndeveloped and mastered by man; full comradeship and partnership between\nman and all the living creation, beast and bird; and in the midst of all\nGod Himself walking and working in closest touch with man in all his\nenterprises--that was God's Eden plan for man. But it failed.\n\nThe Israel plan was a failure, too. The main purpose of Israel being made\nGod's peculiar people has failed up to the present hour. That plan\noriginally was a simple shepherd people, living on the soil close to\nnature. They were to be, not a democracy ruled by the direct vote of the\npeople in all things; nor a republic ruled by the vote of selected\nrepresentatives; nor yet a kingdom ruled over by the will of an autocrat;\nbut something quite distinct from all of these, what men have been pleased\nto call a theocracy.\n\nThat is to say, God Himself was to be their ruler in a very real,\npractical sense, directing and working with them in the working out of all\ntheir national life. They were to combine all the best in each of these\nforms of government, with a something added, not in any of them as men\nknow them.\n\nThey were to be wholly unlike the other nations, utterly unambitious\npolitically, neither exciting war upon themselves by others nor ever\nmaking war upon others. Their great mission was to be a teacher-nation to\nall the earth, teaching the great spiritual truths; and, better yet,\nembodying these truths in their personal and national life.\n\nBut the plan failed. The glitter of the other nations turned them aside\nfrom God's plan. They set up a kingdom, \"like all the nations,\" very much\nlike them.\n\nThen God worked with them where they would work with Him. He planned a\ngreat kingdom to overspread the earth in its rule and blessed influence,\nbut not by the aggression of war and oppression. Their later literature is\nall a-flood with the glory light of the coming king and kingdom. Yet when\nthe King came they rejected Him and then killed Him. They failed at the\nvery point that was to have been their great achievement. God's plan\nfailed. The Hebrew people from the point of view of the direct object of\ntheir creation as a nation have been a failure up to the present hour.\n\nGod's choice for their first king, Saul, was a failure, too. No man ever\nbegan life, nor king his rule, with better preparation and prospects. And\nno career ever ended in such dismal failure. God's plan for the man had\nfailed.\n\nJesus' plan for Judas failed. The sharpest contrasts of possible good and\nactual bad came together in his career in the most startling way. He\nfailed at the very point where he should have been strongest--his personal\nloyalty to his Chief.\n\nThere can be no doubt that Jesus picked him out for one of His inner\ncircle because of his strong attractive traits. He had in him the making\nof a John, the intimate, the writer of the great fourth Gospel. He might\nhave been a Peter, rugged in his bold leadership of the early Church.\n\nBut, though coached and companioned with, loved and wooed, up to the very\nhour of the cowardly contemptible betrayal, he failed to respond even to\nsuch influence as a Jesus could exert. Jesus planned Judas the apostle. He\nbecame Judas the apostate, the traitor. He was to be a leader and teacher\nof the Gospel. He became a miserable reproach and by-word of execration to\nall men. Jesus' plan failed.\n\n\n\n<u>Where the Reproach of Failure Lies.</u>\n\n\nWill you please mark very keenly that the failure always comes because of\nman's unwillingness to work with God? It always takes two for God's\nplan--Himself and a man. All His working is through human partnership. In\nall His working among men He needs to work <i>with</i> men.\n\nSome good earnest people don't like, and won't like, that blunt statement\nthat God fails sometimes. It seems to them to cast a reproach upon God.\nThey may likely think it lacking in due reverence. But if these kind\nfriends will sink the shaft of their thinking just a little deeper down\ninto the mine of truth, they will find that the reproach is somewhere\nelse.\n\nThere <i>is</i> reproach. Every failure that could have been prevented by\nhonest work and earnest faithfulness spells reproach. And there is\nreproach here. But it isn't upon God; it is upon man. God's plan depends\nupon man. It is always man's failure to do his simple part faithfully that\ncauses God's plan to fail.\n\nThere is a false reverence that fears to speak plainly of God. It seeks by\nholding back some things, and speaking of others with very carefully\nthought-out phrase, to bolster up God's side. True love has two marked\ntraits: it is always plain-spoken in telling all the truth when it should\nbe known; and it is always reverential. It can't be otherwise. The\nbluntest words on the lips combine with the deepest reverence of spirit.\nGod doesn't need to be defended. The plain truth need never be apologized\nfor.\n\nIt's a false reverence that holds back some of the truth, lest stating it\nmay seem to reflect on God's character. Such false reverence is a\ndistinct hindrance. It holds back from us some of the truth, and the\nstrong emphasis that the truth needs to arouse our attention and get into\nour some-time thick heads. We men need the stirring up of plain truth,\ntold in plainest speech. The Church has suffered for lack of plain telling\nof the truth. The deepest, tenderest reverence insists upon plain talk,\nand reveals itself in such talk.\n\nIt is irreverent to hold back some of God's truth. For so men get wrong\nimpressions of God. It is unfair as well as irreverent. Theology has\nsometimes been greatly taken up with adjusting its statements so as to\ndefend God's character. But the plainest, fullest telling of truth is the\ngreatest revealer of His great wisdom and purity and unfailing love.\n\n\n\n<u>God's Sovereignty.</u>\n\n\nThere has been a good bit of teaching about \"God's sovereignty\". Behind\nthat mysterious, indefinite phrase has crept much that badly needs the\nclear, searching sunlight of day. God's sovereignty is commonly thought of\nas a sort of dead-weight force by which He compels things to come His way.\nIf a man stand in the way of God's plan so much the worse for the man. It\nis thought of as a sort of mighty army, marching down the road, in close\nranks, with fixed bayonets. If you happen to be on that road better look\nout very sharply, or you may get crushed under foot.\n\nI do not mean that the theologians put it in that blunt fashion, nor that\nI have ever heard any preacher phrase it in that way. I mean that as I\nhave talked with the plain common people, and listened to them, this is\nthe distinct impression that comes continually of what it means to them.\nThen, too, the phrase has often been used, it is to be feared, as a\nreligious cloak to cover up the shortcomings and shirkings of those who\naren't fitting into God's plan.\n\nGod is a sovereign. The truth of His sovereignty is one of the most\ngracious of all the truths in this blessed old Book of God. It means that\nthe great gracious purpose and plan of God will finally be victorious. It\nmeans that in our personal lives He, with great patience and skill and\npower, works <i>through</i> the tangled network of circumstances and\ndifficulties to answer our prayers, and to bring out the best results for\nus.\n\nIt means further that, with a diplomacy and patience only divine, He works\n<i>with</i> and <i>through</i> the intricate meshes of men's wills and contrary\npurposes to bring out good now--not good out of bad, that is impossible;\nbut good in spite of the bad--and that finally all opposition will be\novercome, or will have spent itself out in utter weakness, and so His\npurposes of love will be fully victorious.\n\nBut the practical thing to burn in deep just now is this, that we can\nhinder God's plan. His plans <i>have</i> been hindered, and delayed, and made\nto fail, because we wouldn't work with Him.\n\nAnd God <i>lets</i> His plan fail. It is a bit of His greatness. He will let a\nplan fail before He will be untrue to man's utter freedom of action. He\nwill let a man wreck his career, that so through the wreckage the man may\nsee his own failure, and gladly turn to God. Many a hill is climbed only\nthrough a swamp road.\n\nGod cares more for a man than for a plan. The plan is only for the sake of\nthe man. You say, of course. But, you know, many men think more of\ncarrying through the plan on which they have set themselves, regardless of\nhow it may hurt or crush some man in the way. God's plan is for man, and\nso it is allowed to fail, for the man's sake.\n\nYet, because the plan is always made for man's sake, it will be carried\nthrough, because by and by man will see it to be best Many a man's\ncharacter has been made only through the wrecking of his career. If God\nhad had His way He would have saved both life and soul, both the earthly\ncareer and the heavenly character.\n\nLet us stop thoughtfully, and remember that God has carefully thought out\na plan for every man, for each one of us. It is a plan for the <i>life</i>,\nthese human years; not simply for getting us to what we may have thought\nof as a psalm-singing heaven, when we're worn out down here.\n\nIt is the best plan. For God is ambitious for us; more ambitious for you\nand me than we are for ourselves, though few of us really believe that.\nBut He will carry out His plan--aye, He <i>can</i> carry it out only with our\nhearty consent. He must work <i>through</i> our wills. He honors us in that\nWith greatest reverence be it said that God waits reverently, hat in hand,\noutside the door of a man's will, until the man inside turns the knob and\nthrows open the door for Him to come in and carry out His plan. We can\nmake God fail by not working with Him. The greatest of all achievements of\naction is to find and fit into God's plan.\n\n\n\n<u>The Church Mission.</u>\n\n\nNow, God had and has a plan for His Church. That plan is simply this: The\nChurch was to be His messenger to the nations of the earth. There are\nother matters of vast importance committed to the Church, without doubt:\nthe service of worship and the training and developing of the life of its\nmembers. But these, be it said very thoughtfully, are distinctly secondary\nto the service of taking the Gospel to all men.\n\nThese two, the chief and the secondary, are interwoven, each contributing\nto and dependent upon the other. But there is always a main purpose. And\nthat here, without question, is the carrying of the message of Jesus fully\nto all the earth. In each generation the chief plan, to which all else was\nmeant to be contributory, was that all men should hear fully and winsomely\nthe great thrilling story of Jesus.\n\nShall I say that that plan has failed? It hurts too much even to repeat\nsuch words. I will not <i>say</i> the Church has failed. But I will ask you to\nnote God's plan for the Church, and then in your inner heart to make your\nown honest answer.\n\nAnd in making it remember the practical point is this--the Church is <i>you.\nI</i> am the Church. Its mission is mine. If I say it has failed I am talking\nabout myself. I can keep it from failing so far as part of it is\nconcerned, the part that I am. My concern is not to be asking abstractly,\ntheoretically, about the Church, but about so much of it as I am.\n\nIn annual church reports, and triennial and quadrennial, much space is\ngiven to telling of the <i>wealth</i> of the Church. Of course, I suppose its\nwealth is meant to be an index of all its work. It may seem a bit odd to\nuse the world's index-finger to point out our faithfulness to our Master's\nwill. It is used, of course, to impress the world in the way the world can\nmost quickly and easily understand.\n\nBut the Church was not meant by the Master to be a rich institution in\nmoney and property; though it has grown immensely so. The Master's thought\nwas that its power and faithfulness should be revealed entirely in the\nextent to which all men of all nations know about Himself and have been\nwon to Him.\n\nIf we think only a little bit into the past history of the Church, and\nthen into present world conditions, we know the answer to that hurting\nquestion about the Church being a failure.\n\nI know that many of you are thinking of the triumphs of the Church; of her\nimperishable and incalculable influence upon the life of the world. And I\nwill join you heartily in that, some other time. Just now we are not\ntalking of that, but of just one particular fact of its history. One truth\nat a time makes sharper outlines and brings the whole circle of truth out\nmore plainly. I love to sing,\n\n    \"I love Thy Kingdom, Lord,\n    The house of Thine abode;\n    The Church our blest Redeemer saved\n    With His own precious blood.\"\n\nWe shudder to attempt to think into what these centuries would have been\nwithout the influence of the Church.\n\nBut at present we are talking about something else. Let me ask you,\nsoftly, if God's plan for the Church was that it was to be His messenger\nto all men, as you think back through nineteen centuries and then think\nout into the moral world conditions to-day, would you say the plan had\nsucceeded? Or had--?\n\n\n\n<u>\"Christ also Waits.\"</u>\n\n\nThere's a bit of light here on that vexed question of the Lord's second\ncoming, about which good, earnest people differ so radically. The Master\nsaid, you remember, that we were to be watching for His return. But many\nask, how can we be watching when it's been two thousand years since He\ntold us to watch, and the event seems as far off as ever?\n\nI remember one day in a Bible class the lesson was in the twelfth of\nLuke, about watching for the Lord's return. Some of the class seemed to\nthink that it means that we should be in a constant attitude of\nexpectancy, looking for His return. But one man, an earnest, godly old\nminister said, \"How can you be looking expectantly for a <i>thousand\nyears?\"</i>\n\nBut will you mark keenly that the teaching of Jesus Himself was that His\nreturn depended on His followers' doing a certain thing?[13] When all men\nhad been told fully of Jesus, then He was to return and carry out a\nfurther part of His plan. Clearly if the part we were to play has not been\ndone, it delays His part. The telling of all men about Jesus seems to bear\na very close connection with what will occur when Jesus returns.\n\nSome of our good friends have been much taken up with figuring out when\nthe Lord would come back. Some of them seem to have great skill in making\ncalendars. They even go so far as to fix exact dates. They seem to forget\nthat word of the Master, \"In such an hour as ye think <i>not</i> the Son of Man\ncometh.\" If you think He will come at a certain given time, then you can\nknow one thing certainly, that He won't come then.\n\nThe only calendar we men have is a calendar of <i>dates</i>, fitted to the\nmovements of the sun and moon. God has a calendar, too, but it is a\ncalendar of <i>events</i>, not of dates. The completion of His plans doesn't\ndepend on so many revolutions of the earth about the sun, but on the\nfaithful revolution of His followers in their movement around the earth\ntelling men of Jesus.\n\nIt looks very much as though the Master's coming has been delayed, and His\nplans delayed, because we have not done the preparatory part assigned us.\n\n    \"The restless millions wait the light,\n    Whose coming maketh all things new.\n    <i>Christ also waits;</i> but men are slow and late.\n    Have we done what we could? Have I? Have you ?\"\n\n\n<u>\"Somebody Forgets.\"</u>\n\nA little fellow, of a very poor family, in the slum section of one of our\nlarge cities, was induced to attend a mission Sunday-school. By and by, as\na result of the teacher's faithful work, he became a Christian. He seemed\nquite bright and settled in his new Christian faith and life.\n\nSome one, surely in a thoughtless mood, tried to test or shake his simple\nfaith in God by a question. He was asked, \"If God loves you, why doesn't\nHe take better care of you? Why doesn't He tell some one to send you warm\nshoes and some coal and better food?\"\n\nThe little fellow thought a moment, and then with big tears starting in\nhis eyes, said, \"I guess He does tell somebody, <i>but somebody forgets</i>.\"\n\nWithout knowing it, the boy touched the sore point in the Church's\nhistory. I wonder if it is the sore point with you or me.\n\n\n\n\nThe Coming Victory\n\n\n\n  Failure Swallowed By Victory.\n  The Revised Missionary Motto.\n  Ahead, But Behind.\n  In A Swift Current.\n  Power Of Leadership.\n  A Minority Movement.\n  A Great World-chorus.\n  The Oratorio Of Victory.\n\n\n\n\nThe Coming Victory\n\n\n\n<u>Failure Swallowed by Victory.</u>\n\n\nBut God's failures are only for a while. They are real. There is the\ntragic element in them. There is the deep, sad tinge of disappointment\nrunning throughout this old Book of God. Yet the failures are only for a\ntime. Sometimes it seems a very long time, especially if you are living\nthrough some of it. But the time reaches eagerly to an end. Victory comes.\nAnd God's victory will be so great as to make us completely forget the\nfailures that marred the road.\n\nThe Eden plan was more than a plan. It was a prophecy of the final\noutcome. The Book of God begins with failure, but it ends with a glowing\npicture of great victory, painted with rose colors. Every feature of\nbeauty and of good in Eden has grown greatly in John's Revelation climax.\nThe garden of Genesis becomes a garden-city. All the simplicity and purity\nof garden life, and all the development and power represented by city\nlife, are brought together. There is now a <i>river</i> of <i>life</i>, and the\n<i>tree</i> of life has grown into a grove.\n\nAnd God isn't through with that nation of Israel yet. The Jew can't be\nlost. In every nation under heaven he can be found to-day, a walking\nreminder of God's plan. Every Jew, in whatever ghetto he may be found, is\nan unconscious prophecy of a coming fulfilment of God's purpose. The\nstrange racial immortality of the Jew is a puzzle from every standpoint,\nexcept God's. He can't be killed off; though men have never ceased trying\nto kill him off. The Jew looms up bigger to-day than for many generations.\n\nThe present strange restless Jewish longing for national existence again,\nthat will not down, spells out the coming victory of God's plan after\ncenturies of failure. And even though the present tide may run out toward\nebb, it will be to gather force for a new and fuller flood. When God's\nplan works out the world will have a wholly new idea of national life, and\nof a world-power without army or navy or any show of force, touching all\nmen, and touching them only to bless.\n\nAnd though King Saul failed, there was already the ruddy David, out among\nthe sheep, waiting the anointing oil, and carrying about in his person his\nnation's greatest king.\n\nJesus' Judas failed to realize the promise of his earlier days. He struck\nthe record note for baseness. But Paul was being prepared by blood\ninheritance and scholarly training. Under the touch of the Master's own\nhand he became the Church's greatest leader in its life-mission. If Judas\nstruck the lowest note, Paul rang the changes on the highest note of\npersonal loyalty to Jesus and to His world-wide passion and purpose.\n\nAnd the Church has waked up. I said, you remember, last evening, that if\nyou look over the whole history of the Church since its birthday on\nPentecost, you are pained by the sore fact that the chief mission\nentrusted to it has been for the most part forgotten. There has been more\nforgetting of it, and neglecting it, than fulfilling it.\n\nYet always, be it keenly noted, in every generation of these centuries\nthere have been those whose vision of Olivet never dimmed. There have\nalways been those who have tried faithfully to carry out the Church's\ngreat mission. The darkest days have never been without some of the\nbrightest light, made all the brighter by the surrounding night.\n\n\n\n<u>The Revised Missionary Motto.</u>\n\n\nBut there's a new chapter of the Church's life being written as we talk\ntogether. Its writing began in the closing twilight of the eighteenth\ncentury. That chapter isn't finished yet. Some of its best pages are now\nbeing written, with more and better clearly coming.\n\nIts first lines were written by a very common pen. Carey's English\ncobbler-shop became a sounding-board whose insistent, ringing messages\nbegan to waken the Church. The Church is waking up, and shaking itself,\nand tightening on its clothes, for the greatest work yet to be done in\nfulfilling the life-mission entrusted to it.\n\nA hundred years ago the fire of God found fresh kindling stuff in the\nhearts and brains of a few young college fellows in an old New England\nvillage. The sore need of the world crowded in upon them by night and by\nday. But they were few, and young, and unknown. And the task was\nstupendous. The rain-storm of a Sabbath afternoon drove them to the\nshelter of a hay-stack. And the storm of the world's need drove them to\nthe shelter of prayer, and then to the shelter of a great purpose. With\nsimple faith in God, and strong devotion to the great neglected task, they\nspoke out to the Church the thrilling words, \"We can do it if we will\".\n\nAnd on that same spot a hundred years later the Church gathered. Those\nintense words had been heard. The Church had waked up. Men of long service\nin far-away lands stood with those of the home circle. They talked of the\npast, but far more of the present and future. They revised the century-old\nmotto. No group of scholars in the Jerusalem Chamber of Westminster Abbey\never did finer revision work. They said, \"We can do it, <i>and</i> we will\". No\ngreater tribute to the memory of the faithful little hay-stack group was\never made than in that changed motto.\n\nThe young collegians' bold cry had sounded out throughout the Church. And\nthe Church heard and roused up. The modern missionary movement of the\nChurch is the most marked development of the past century of church\nhistory. It can be said that the Church of our day in its missionary\nactivity far exceeds the early Church. That is to say, in certain\nparticulars we have exceeded.\n\nIt is common to refer to the missionary zeal of the first centuries.\nFresh from the Master's touch, the early Church was chiefly a missionary\nchurch. One great purpose gripped it, and that was to take the news of\nJesus everywhere. And they went everywhere. We know most about Paul's\njourneys in the Grecian and Roman worlds. But there is good evidence that\nthere is another \"Acts of Apostles\" beside the one bound up in this Bible.\nOut to the farthest reaches of the earth they seemed to have gone in those\nearly days, preaching and winning men and establishing church societies.\n\nThe <i>bulk</i> of the modern movement is without doubt greatly in excess of\nthe early movement. The number of men out in various fields, the amount of\nmoney being given annually by the Church in America and Great Britain and\nthe Continental countries is so much greater as to leave comparison\npractically out.\n\nIn the thoroughness of organization, the elements of permanency, the great\nvariety of means used such as hospitals, schools, literature, and\nindustrial helps, the present probably exceeds by far the early movement.\nThe statesmanlike study by church leaders of the whole world-field, the\nsteadiness of movement year after year, in spite of difficulties and\ndiscouragements, the careful systematic effort to inform and arouse the\nhome church--these are marked features of the present foreign-mission\ncampaign. They are such as to awaken the deepest admiration of any\nthoughtful onlooker. In all of this the modern Church is making a wholly\nnew record.\n\n\n\n<u>Ahead, But Behind.</u>\n\n\nYet, while all this is true, it can be said just as truly that the Church,\n<i>as a whole,</i> is so far behind the primitive Church as, again, practically\nto leave comparison out of the question. <i>They</i> were so far ahead in the\n<i>mass</i> of their movement that we are scarcely in the lists at all. Then\nthe <i>whole</i> Church was an active missionary society. <i>Every one</i> went and\npreached. The nearest approach to it in modern times probably is the\nmovement of the native Church of Korea. This foreign people seems to have\ncaught the early spirit. Our heathen brothers are taking their place as\npace-setters for the Church.\n\nBy contrast with that, the modern activity has been by a minority, really\na small minority, though a steadily growing one. The leaders have\nstruggled heroically against enormous odds in the backward pull of the\nmajority.\n\n<i>Then</i> they went <i>everywhere</i>. That is, they went everywhere that they\ncould, so far as open doors, or doors that could be pried open, let them.\nWe have gone actually farther, and to more places probably, but we haven't\nbegun to go everywhere that we could.\n\nOur ability to go, and the urgent requests for us to come, would carry us\nto thousands of places not yet touched. If we began to do things as the\nearly Church people did, it would stand out as one of the greatest\nmovements in the history of the race. If a small minority of us have made\nsuch enormous strides what could the whole of us do if we would!\n\n\n\n<u>In a Swift Current.</u>\n\n\nThe <i>momentum</i> of the present missionary movement has been startling. It\nsuggests that we are on the eve of an advance undreamed of by the most\nenthusiastic. The last twenty-odd years have seen progress clear\noutstripping that of the previous hundred, though all built upon the\nfoundations so well laid by the earlier leaders of the century.\n\nIn answer to the earnest persistent prayer of a few, the Spirit of God\nfound new stuff ready for His kindling fires among the colleges. The story\nof the prayer of a few that preceded the forming of the Student Volunteer\nMovement is thrilling. That great movement was literally conceived and\nbrought forth in the travail of prayer. Its wide-spread influence upon the\ncolleges, and then upon the churches; its early campaigning, its\nremarkable leaders, its great conventions, the steadiness of its growing\ninfluence through more than twenty years, and the distinct mark it has\nmade upon the whole mission propaganda abroad, make up one of the most\nthrilling chapters of church history, ancient or modern. To-day its\ninfluence encircles the earth. Its volunteers are found everywhere.\n\nIts reflex influence upon that other movement, the Young Men's Christian\nAssociation, has been no small part of its work. The two have been\ninterwoven from the beginning, each contributing immeasurably to the\nother. The practical power of the Young Men's Christian Association on\nforeign soil is recognized by the Church, and by foreign governments, as\nof a value clear beyond calculation or statement.\n\nIt has come to be one of the great expressions of the unifying spirit of\nthe Church on foreign-mission soil. Our churches at home may go their\nseparate ways, largely. But the pressure of the sore need of the foreign\nworld has been welding the churches there together remarkably. The\nChristian Associations, both of young men and young women, belonging to\nall the Church and representing all, have held a strategic position in\naction, and been of inestimable service to the Church in its missionary\npropaganda.\n\nThe Young People's Missionary Movement, whose long, warm fingers are\nreaching throughout the whole Church, and the newer Laymen's Missionary\nMovement with its aggressive campaigning, are both remarkable expressions\nof the new uprising.\n\nThe women of the Church were forehanded in their earnest working and\npraying. They were up at dawn of day. Their influence is mighty, clear\nbeyond any words to express. And now at last the men are waking up, and\nthe new life is showing itself anew within organic church lines. Men's\nmissionary conventions, with great attendances, are swinging into line,\nand revealing the awakeness of the Church.\n\n\n\n<u>Power of Leadership.</u>\n\n\nThe enormous power of personal influence and of devoted leadership has\nbeen most marked. In the throng of strong men that lead in all this\nactivity there are two men that by common consent stand out big in the\ngroup. Young men they are, both of them, not yet in the full prime of\ntheir powers. One has a genius for organization probably never surpassed,\nif equalled, by military general, or Jesuit chief, or modern captain of\nindustry. The other has mental grasp, keenness of thought, and power of\npersuasive speech not surpassed by any, if equalled. Both are marked by a\nsingularly deep, tender spirituality, a rare gift of leadership, a poise\nof judgment, and a devotion to the Church's great mission as true and\nsteady as the polar star.\n\nAround these two young men has grouped up in no small measure this later\nmissionary activity. And it is probably quite within the mark to say that\nno stronger, abler men can be found in any of the great activities of life\nto-day in either of these two great English-speaking peoples. It is surely\nsignificant that the modern missionary movement rallies around such\ngiants.\n\nIt is worthy of special note, too, that the body of men to whom is\nentrusted the administration of this vast network of foreign service, the\nforeign-board members and secretaries of the Church, have developed such\nremarkable power and skill. No body of men has problems more intricate and\nexacting and difficult. And no body of men in any sphere of activity has\nshown greater diplomacy and astuteness, hard sound sense, and untiring\ndevotion.\n\nSome good friends are sometimes disposed to be critical of methods and\nmanagement. They think the affair could be conducted better in some\ndetails which they think important. Well, it would be surprising if it\nwere not so. The same criticisms are made of every governmental and great\nindustrial enterprise. Everything human seems to make progress by\ncorrecting and improving. But the thing for you and me to keep a\ncritically keen eye upon is this: that no such detail be allowed to affect\nby so much as a hair's weight the steadfast ardor of our support.\n\nNo strong man in the thick of the great driving purpose of his life is\nturned aside or stopped by the biting or buzzing of a few insects. If even\nthey can't be brushed aside, let them buzz and bite, but don't let the\ngreat passion of a life be affected by them. Indeed, they will be clean\nforgot, even while they are remembered, by the man who has been caught and\nswept by the fire of his Master's passion for a world.\n\n\n\n<u>A Minority Movement.</u>\n\n\nYet, be it keenly marked, these great strides have been made by a\nminority, who have followed the strong leaders. The whole Church is not\nyet awake. Many protest strenuously against being waked up. The\nalarm-clocks bother them. Sometimes one is inclined to think that the\nforeign boards are peculiarly placed between a refrigerator and a furnace.\n\nMissionaries come back home fresh from the front fairly aflame with the\nfervor of their enthusiasm. Their convictions of what could be done, and\nshould be done, are apt to be spoken out with great positiveness. They\nseem to some to suggest in an uncomfortable way the thought of a glowing\nfurnace. And many in the home churches seem able to listen with such\nindifference as to suggest to these returned men and women the chilling\nair of an ice-box. In between the two sits the Church board engaging in\nthe difficult task of trying to equalize the temperature. But that's\nmerely a detail in passing.\n\nThe great fact to mark is that never has the missionary movement bulked so\nlarge. And never have such broad statesmanlike plans, such aggressiveness\nof spirit, coupled with deep devotion, marked the Church in its great\nlife-mission.\n\nOne morning at a popular summer resort on the Long Island Sound coast\nthousands of bathers were enjoying the surf-bathing. The life-saving crew\nwere stationed for duty, on the lookout for any accident. A gentleman\nstanding by one of the crew asked him how he could tell if help were\nneeded. There were thousands of bathers, and a perfect babel of noises.\nThe weather-beaten man, bronzed and toughened and trained to keenness in\nhis work by years of service, said, \"I can always hear a cry of distress,\nno matter how great the noise and confusion. There never yet has been a\ncry of need I haven't heard.\"\n\nFor a long time the confusion of noises bothered the Church ears. But now\nthe cry of distress from over the wide seas is being heard again\ndistinctly, and is being responded to splendidly. The very earnestness of\nresponse and effort is a forerunner of sure victory.\n\n\n\n<u>A Great World-chorus.</u>\n\n\nI recall vividly a scene in Albert Hall in London nearly fifteen years\nago. A remarkable gathering from all parts of the world had come together\nto celebrate the jubilee of the Young Men's Christian Association. About\ntwo thousand men had come from the ends of the earth. It was a\nworld-gathering. There were sturdy Englishmen, cosmopolitan Americans,\ncanny Scots, quick-witted Irishmen, sweet-voiced, fervid-spirited\nWelshmen, and courtly, suave Frenchmen.\n\nFair-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavians mingled with olive-skinned,\nblack-eyed sons of Italy. The steady-going Hollander and the intense\nGerman mingled their deep gutturals with the songs of praise and the\ndiscussions. A few turbaned heads, inscrutably quiet almond-eyes, and\nothers of energetic step and speech brought to mind the Great Orient,\nIndia and China and Japan. Men won up out of the savagery of Africa sat\nwith Islanders from the Pacific.\n\nThey came from many communions and represented many creeds, and spoke as\nmany tongues as the Jerusalem crowds on the day of Pentecost. But they\nwere drawn together not by their attractive diversity, but because of\ntheir oneness. The drawing-power of Jesus was the magnet that drew them.\nIt was the music of His Name that made all their tongues and languages\nblend and chord in sweet harmony.\n\nThis night I speak of they had gathered in the great oval-shaped Albert\nHall opposite Hyde Park. With the Londoners, probably, fully ten thousand\npersons were present. And I think I shall never forget the vast volume of\nsound, as, led by a chorus of Scandinavian students, they all united in\nsinging, \"All hail the power of Jesus' Name.\"\n\nThey didn't sing it to our American tune of \"Coronation,\" but to the old\nEnglish \"Miles Lane.\" That tune, you remember, repeats over four times the\nwords, \"Crown Him,\" in the last line, gradually increasing in volume, and\nthe fourth time touched with a bit of quieting awe.\n\nI can close my eyes now, and see that great world-gathering and hear again\nthe sweet rhythmic thunder of their singing:\n\n    \"And crown Him,\n    <i>Crown Him</i>,\n    CROWN HIM,\n    <i>Crown Him</i>, Lord of all.\"\n\nNo one can tell to another the thrill and thrall of such a sight and\nsound. It was all unconsciously a bit of prophecy acted out, faint but\ndistinct, of the great day of victory that is coming.\n\n\n\n<u>The Oratorio of Victory.</u>\n\n\nHave you ever noticed the Oratorio of Revelation? Lovers of music should\nstudy the book of the Revelation of Saint John, for its mighty choruses.\nIt is striking just now to notice the double key-note of that closing\nclimactic book of this old Bible. It is this: Satan chained, and Christ\ncrowned. But note for a moment the oratorio sounding its music through\nthese pages.\n\nIt opens with a <i>solo</i> in the first chapter.[14] John begins writing with\nsteady pen until he seems to get a glimpse of Jesus. Then his pen drops\nthe story, and he begins singing:\n\n    \"Unto Him that loveth us,\n    And loosed us from our sin by His own blood;\n    And hath made us a kingdom,\n    Priests unto His God and Father;\n    To Him the glory and the dominion\n    Forever and ever.\"\n\nIn chapter four[15] comes a <i>quartette</i>. The four living creatures round\nabout the throne take up the refrain of John's solo. And, as they sing,\ntheir song is caught up by a <i>sextuple quartette</i>, twenty-four\nwhite-robed, crowned men before the throne.[16]\n\nIn chapter five the <i>Angel Chorus</i> swings in.[17] They are grouped round\nabout the quartette, and the twenty-four elders. John begins to count\nthem. Then his figures give out. His knowledge of mathematics is too\nlimited. There were ten thousand times ten thousand, and unnumbered\nthousands of thousands. As far as his eye could reach, to left and right,\nbefore and behind, was one vast sea of angel faces.\n\nAnd John listened enraptured and awed, as their wondrous volume of rhythm\nrang and thundered out. Sweet sopranos and mellow contraltos; ringing\ntenors and deep basses; first one, then the other, back and forth\nresponding to each other, then all together; marvellous music it must have\nbeen.\n\nThen the refrain of their song is caught up by the <i>Creation Chorus</i>.[1]\nEvery living creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, as\nthough unable to resist the contagious sweep, catch up the music and add\ntheir own to it. We don't commonly associate music with the animal\ncreation, nor with nature. It has been said that all the sounds of nature\nare keyed in the minor, as though some suffering had affected them. We\ntalk of the sighing of the wind, the moaning of the sea-waves, and the\nmourning of the doves. Though the singing-birds must be excepted. They\nseem to have caught and kept some of the upper strains.\n\nBut evidently something has occurred to strike a new key-note. For now\nthey take up the refrain of the joyous song of the others, and increase\nthe mighty song by their own.\n\nIn chapter seven the music has ceased or softened down and is taken up\nafresh by the <i>Martyr Chorus</i>.[18] Again John's figures give out. He\ndeclares that nobody could count the multitudes that make up this chorus.\nIt is a polyglot chorus. They sing in many different languages, but all\nblend into full rhythm. It's a scarred chorus, too. These have been\nthrough great tribulation. Their scars tell the mute story of the\nfierceness of the fight, and the steadiness of their faith.\n\nThrough their singing runs a distinct strain of the minor. Its strangely\nsweet cadence, learned in many an hour of pain, runs as an under-chording\nthrough the song of triumph that now fills their hearts and mouths. And as\nthey sing, the angel chorus and the quartette drop to their knees, and\nswell the wondrous refrain.\n\nIn chapter fourteen comes the music of the <i>Chorus of Pure Ones</i>.[19] They\nare gathered close about the person of Jesus. They sing to the\naccompaniment of a great company of harpers. They sing with a peculiar\nclearness in their tones. Theirs is a new song. Purity always makes a\nmusic of its own, unapproachable for sweetness and clearness.\n\nThe <i>Victors' Chorus</i> rings out its song in chapter fifteen.[20] These\nhave been in the thickest of the fighting. The smoke of the battle has\ntanned their faces. They have struggled with the enemy at close range, hip\nand thigh, nip and tuck, close parry and hard thrust. And they have come\noff victors. The ring of triumph resounds in their voices, as to the sound\nof their own harps, harps of God, they add their tribute of song to all\nthe others.\n\nAnd at the last comes the great <i>Hallelujah Chorus</i>, in chapter\nnineteen.[21] In response to the precentor's call, they all join their\nvoices in one vast melody. The Quartette, the Sextuples, the Angels, the\nCreation, the Martyrs, the Pure-Ones, the Victors--all sing their song\ntogether.\n\nJohn tries to tell what it was like. His mind went quickly back to earlier\ndays in his home city, Jerusalem, when thousands of pilgrims crowded the\ntemple areas and narrow streets, and spread out over the hills. The\nunceasing sound of their voices in speech and in their pilgrim songs of\npraise comes back to him. He says it was like that.\n\nBut that isn't satisfactory. It is so much more. He thinks of how the\nocean-waves keep pounding, with cannon-roar, on the rocky beach of his\nPatmos prison isle. So he said it was like that. But still more is needed\nto give an idea of the vast volume of sound. And he remembers how\nsometimes the thunders crashed and boomed and roared above him as he lay\nin his solitude on that lonely bit of sea-girt land. It was like that. It\nwas like all of these together.\n\nAnd what is it they are singing? Well, there's a variety in the wording of\ntheir song, as well as in their voices. But through all runs a refrain\nthat brings back to me the great London chorus. It is this--\n\n    \"And crown Him!\n    <i>Crown Him!!</i>\n    CROWN HIM!!!\n    Yes, <i>Crown Him</i>\n    Lord of all.\"\n\nIt is the rehearsal of the great Oratorio of Victory that we are all to\njoin in singing.\n\n\n\n\nThe Church\n\n\n\n  Forces that Win.\n  The Divine Law of Leadership.\n  God's Messenger.\n  Reaching Out for a World.\n  \"Keep Step.\"\n  \"Find My World, And Win It Back.\"\n\n\n\n\nThe Church\n\n\n\n<u>Forces That Win.</u>\n\n\nGod's world is full of winning forces. The great ball of fire around which\nour earth revolves is the greatest winning force in the life of the earth.\nIt is constantly winning the earth to itself with a power unseen but\ntremendous, beyond anybody's power to calculate. The swing of the earth\naway from the sun is being continually overcome. By an immense drawing\npower it steadily holds the earth where it can pour down its wealth of\nwarmth and light and life into it.\n\nIt woos the moisture up from river and lake and sea, until its gravity\npartner in the centre of the earth woos it back again in refreshing rain\nand sheltering snow. It wins out of the earth's warm heart bounteous\nharvests of grains and fruits, the wealth of forests which affects the\nearth's life so radically, the flowers with their beauty and fragrance,\nand the soft carpeting of green to ease the journey for our feet. All the\nlife and beauty of the earth is due to the winning power of the sun.\n\nGod Himself is the greatest winning force in all our world. Everywhere men\nfeel the upward drawing toward Him. They may protest against church\norganizations and creeds, against teachings and long-settled practices and\nhabits of thought, as they do so much, but there is always everywhere a\nlonging in the human heart for God. It is the answer to the longing of His\nheart for us.\n\nAnd man is a great winning force. Everywhere men are attracted to each\nother. There is a winning power within each of us that draws certain\nothers irresistibly to us. And there are winning forces in life that each\none of us is powerfully affected by. The old home of earlier days has a\nmarvellous power of attraction for most men. The old fireside, the\nfamiliar rooms, the subtle aroma that seems inseparable from the very\nbricks and boards--who has not felt the tremendous drawing power of these?\n\nWhat a strange power of attraction a man's mother-tongue has for him. How\nthe heart will give a quick leap, in a foreign land, when, amid a\nconfusing jargon of strange sounds, all unexpectedly some one speaks the\ndear old familiar words. The person speaking may not be specially\ncongenial or attractive to us, but that sound his tongue gives draws us to\nhim.\n\n\n\n<u>The Divine Law of Leadership.</u>\n\n\nNow I want to talk with you a bit about the forces at hand for winning our\nold world back to our Father's heart and home. God means us to use all the\nattractive powers we have in this great world-wooing and world-winning\ntask. The world is to be <i>won</i> back, not driven. Men drive men, when they\ncan. But God woos and wins. Man's coming back must be by his own glad,\nsweet consent. God won't have it any other way.\n\nThere are certain strangely winsome forces at our command for winning man.\nThey are mighty in their drawing power. But there are counter-currents\nthat divert and hinder their influence. We need to be familiar with these\nwinning forces, and with the counter-currents, too.\n\nThere are seven great forces at our command for this blessed service of\nsoul-winning and world-winning. They are not peculiar to foreign-mission\nservice, for the foreign service itself is not essentially different from\nother service, except in the greatness of its need. They are the forces\nfor use in all our winning work.\n\nTwo of these are distinctly human forces. The first is an organization,\nthe Church. And then that of which the Church is made up, men and women; I\nmean the power of personality, developed and consecrated personality.\n\nThere are two divine forces that work through the human--Jesus and the\nHoly Spirit. I have put these second in order, because they work through\nthe human. The leadership is in human hands. The initiative of all action\nis with us. Of course, if you go a bit deeper in, the initiative is with\nGod who moves upon our hearts to make us act. But on the distinctly human\nlevel the beginning of service rests in human hands, and these two\nmighty, almighty, divine forces work through us.\n\nThe divine law of leadership and of cooperation in leadership has not\nalways been clearly understood. And there has been bad delay often because\nof the lack of understanding. Our Lord Jesus in the days of His humanity\nsurrendered Himself to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in His great\nmission to men. The Spirit worked through Jesus. After Jesus' Ascension\nthe order was reversed. The Spirit yielded Himself to the control of the\nglorified Son of God. Jesus worked through the Spirit. It was Jesus who\nsent down the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost for the special mission\nbegun that day.\n\nAnd now, with the greatest awe coming into our hearts at the thought, be\nit said that these two work through our human leadership. The leadership\nin service among men is human leadership. The wondrous Spirit of God works\nthrough our leadership to reveal Jesus to men in all His winsomeness and\npower.\n\nThere can be no power at all in our human action and leadership except as\nthe Spirit leads and controls us, and is allowed to. And, on the other\nside, we must not forget, though it has sometimes been forgotten, that\nGod's working waits upon human action and leadership. Memory quickly\nbrings up the fact, so often repeated in the history of the Church, that\nwhen men have failed to respond to God's call His work has fallen behind.\nWhenever a new chapter of earnest service has been begun it has always\nbeen through a new leadership. Some man has listened to God, and let Him\nhave the free use of himself in reaching out to other men.\n\nGod needs men. He needs you and me. We are the wire for the transmission\nof His current of power. The wire is useless without the current. And the\ncurrent must have the wire along which to travel to its place of service.\nThe divine power is through human action and human leadership. The power\nis all divine. And the means through which it works is all human. Jesus\nand the Holy Spirit work through the Church and through each one of us who\nis willing.\n\nThen there are three spirit forces, or influences, of mighty power in\nhuman hands; namely, prayer, and money, and sacrifice.\n\n\n\n<u>God's Messenger.</u>\n\n\nTo-night we want to talk about the first of the two human forces--the\nChurch.\n\nWe ought to remind ourselves of just what that word \"Church\" means in this\nconnection. It has many meanings. There are at least two that we should\nnote here in thinking of it as a great winning force. In its broadest\nmeaning, the word is commonly used for the whole group of church\norganizations taken together, the Roman Catholic and the Greek Orthodox,\nthe Protestant, and the few primitive societies that still retain their\nold original organization. In the deeper, less used meaning, it stands\nfor the body of those men and women everywhere who are trusting Jesus\nChrist, and are allied with Him in the purpose of their hearts.\n\nThese two meanings, of course, should be the same. All who trust Jesus\nshould be in the church organizations. And all who are in the\norganizations should be there because of their relation to Jesus. Whatever\nthe facts regarding that may be, the mission of each is the same. And it\nis with that mission that we are concerned just now.\n\nJesus planned that His Church should be a great man-winning and\nworld-winning organization. <i>The</i> mission of the Church is to take Jesus\nto all men. It is God's messenger of His truth to all. In that it is the\ndirect lineal descendant and heir of the Hebrew nation.\n\nThat nation was chosen to be a messenger or missionary nation. That was\nthe one purpose of its special creation as a nation. It was not to be as\nthe other nations, in the characteristics that commonly mark strong\nnations. It was to be a <i>teacher</i>-nation, receiving its message of truth\ndirect from God, embodying that message in its own life, personally and\nnationally, and giving it out clearly and fully and winsomely to all the\nnations of the earth. And, in spite of its failures and breaks, that\nmission was accomplished to a remarkable extent.\n\nThe Church is its heir. It was born in the Jewish nation. It became the\nheir to its world-wide messenger mission. The great commission given by\nJesus as He was leaving is the Church's commission for its great\nlife-work. It was spoken to the group of Jewish men who were the nucleus\nof that body called the Church, that came into being on the day of\nPentecost. That ringing, \"Go ye into all the world and preach my gospel to\nthe whole creation,\" is the Master's command to the Church which He\nbrought into being. That is the Church's marching order by which its life\nis to be controlled and its faithfulness judged.\n\nThe scene of the Church's birth gives a vivid picture of its\nworld-mission. It was born in a world-gathering. It was a world-church in\nits make-up at its birth. Men from all parts of the world became united in\none body by the Spirit's touch that great Church birthday. Its birth-gift,\nthe power of speaking many tongues, reveals at once the wide sweep of its\nservice.\n\nIt was the Master's plan that His Church should speak all the languages of\nthe earth then and now and always, as well as the language of heaven, the\nlanguage of love. So every man would learn of Jesus in his native speech.\nThe language of the cradle and of love-making and of the fireside, the\nlanguage that most quickly kindles the fires in a man's heart, that was\nthe language to be used in carrying Jesus to every man. That was Jesus'\nplan. The Church was rarely equipped with winning power for a\nworld-service on its birthday in the gift of tongues.\n\nOf course, this is not the only mission of the Church. That is to say,\nthere are other purposes necessarily included in this. Taking the Gospel\nof Jesus to all men means more than merely taking it and telling it. The\nteaching and training and developing of those won to Jesus is an\ninseparable part of the Church mission. The great service of worship has\nalways been recognized as a vital part of the Church life. Sometimes\nindeed these have been thought of, and still are thought of, as its only\nmission. But they grow distinctly out of the chief mission and are\ndistinctly contributory and secondary to it. Indeed, they come into being\nonly through the faithful doing of the chief task. Men were won. Then they\nmet for worship and for training.\n\n\n\n<u>Reaching Out For a World.</u>\n\n\nThe Church of those first years thoroughly understood what its great\nmission was to be. The first chapters of the Book of Acts vividly describe\nthe ideal Church as planned by the Master, and as understood by those who\nfelt His own personal touch upon themselves. Everybody went. They went to\neverybody. They went everywhere. There is pretty clear evidence that they\nactually went everywhere that men could go. They held their lives, and\neven their property, subject to the one great gripping purpose.\n\nThe greatest leader of the first century of the Church, Paul, who\ncontributed most to its literature and exerted the greatest influence\nupon its life, was above all else a missionary leader. He went practically\neverywhere. He didn't go hastily, but by carefully thought-out plans. He\nwon men to Christ, organized them into church societies, taught them, and\nsent them out to win others.\n\nHe worked in and out of the world's great city centres of his time.\nEphesus, the Asiatic centre, Corinth, the centre of Greek influence, and,\nRome, the centre of the world's governing power, were the scenes of his\nlongest and most thorough campaigns. His choice of the centres was a\nmaster's strategic choice. For these centres sent their influence out to\nthe ends of the earth. Paul's body might be in Ephesus or Corinth or Rome,\nbut his thought and heart were on the world these cities reached by\nconstant streams of influence.\n\nAnd to these churches which he had won out of the raw stuff of heathenism\nhe taught the same world-wide message. They became filled with this same\nworld-wide spirit. The Thessalonian and Corinth Churches made their\nwinning power felt throughout Greece and wherever Greek culture had gone,\nthat is to say, everywhere.[22] The Church in Rome sent out the message of\nJesus from its golden centre of all Roman roads, out to the farthest\nreaches of those far-reaching roads.[23]\n\nIt is striking, though not surprising, that the days of the Church's\nmissionary activity have been the days of its greatest purity and vigor.\nWhen the vision of the Master's face on Olivet, and the ringing sound of\nHis \"Go ye\" have been lost, the Church has written pages that would gladly\nbe blotted out.\n\nThe Church <i>has</i> been a winning force beyond any power of calculation or\nwords of description. All that has been done has been done through its\nactivity and leadership. It is to-day a tremendous winning force, reaching\nits warm hands out to the very ends of the earth, and drawing men to\nJesus. With our earnest prayer it will exert a yet mightier influence in\ntaking Jesus to all men and in winning men everywhere to Jesus.\n\n\n\n<u>\"Keep Step.\"</u>\n\n\nThe Church is organized Christendom. It stands for the power of\norganization in God's service. All the vast power of the men and women\nwhose hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit can be brought to bear\nat a given point with tremendous force through the Church. That was and is\nthe Master's plan.\n\nOrganization is rhythmic action, a crowd of men working by agreement as\none man. Never was the world so impressed with the almost magical power of\norganization as to-day. Never has organization been brought up to so high\na pitch of efficiency. The unparalleled progress of the world in our day\nis due to the marvellous skill that has been developed in organized\naction.\n\nNow, this almost omnipotent power of organization was meant to be used in\nwinning the world back home. That is the meaning of the birth of the\nChurch on that great Pentecost day. It is remarkable that the most\nperfectly matured bit of organization, in this day of matured and\nperfected organizations, is a church. For by common consent of thoughtful\nstudents the most finely adjusted and thoroughly matured bit of human\nmachinery is the Roman Catholic Church.\n\nIf such a masterpiece of organization were controlled by the Spirit that\ncontrols in these early chapters of Acts, what tremendous and thorough and\nrapid work would be done in world-winning! And that is the goal toward\nwhich we should be driving. The evangelization of the whole world is <i>an\neasy task</i> for the whole Church. It would be a stupendous, if not an\nimpossible task for the few. It has been a gigantic task for the leaders,\nwho by dint of great planning and persuasion and earnest pleading have\ndone as much as has been done. But if the whole Church or half of it were\nto go at it as earnestly as men go at other things, it would be an easy\ntask.\n\nI remember one October morning walking across an old smoke-begrimed bridge\nthat spans the Ohio at Cincinnati. My eye was caught by a dingy sign in\nlarge plain letters nailed up in a prominent place. It simply, said,\n\"Processions in crossing this bridge must break step.\" That was all. But\nit was imperative. It was a law. The processions <i>must</i> break step. The\nsame men might cross the bridge, in as large numbers, at the same time,\nbut they must not keep step.\n\nThe authorities knew perfectly well that for a body of men to march <i>in\nstep</i>, every left foot set down at once, the impact of every right foot\nstriking at the same moment, would so--I do not say, <i>add</i> to the force\nexerted--would so <i>multiply</i> the force exerted upon the bridge as to\nendanger its safety. The power of concerted action is immense beyond any\npower of conception. Every bit of power at command can so be brought to\nbear at one point with a force beyond any words to express.\n\nOur Master reverses for us the old bridge sign. Out from Pentecost rings\nthis word: \"Let my followers all form in line, close ranks, and move out\nto a world conquest, and--<i>keep step</i>.\" That command of His will make a\nwinning force so great as to shorten up the world's present calendars, and\nshorten up the world's pain, and lengthen out the new life that will come\nto untold numbers through Jesus.\n\n\n\n<u>\"Find My World and Win it Back.\"</u>\n\n\nNearly forty years ago David Livingstone, one of the Church's great\nworld-winning pioneers, was lost in the depths of equatorial Africa. That\nis to say, he had advanced so far ahead of everybody else that the rest of\nus lost track of him, and so we called him lost. Perhaps we got the use of\nthe word twisted, and we were the lost ones because we hadn't kept up. He\nhad gone where the Church was told to go, but the rest of us had lingered\nbehind, and so the main column became detached from its leader. Everybody\nwas talking about the lost leader.\n\nJames Gordon Bennett, the owner of the <i>New York Herald,</i> sent a telegram\nto one of its correspondents, Henry M. Stanley. Bennett was in Paris, and\nStanley at Gibraltar. The telegram summoned Stanley to come to Paris at\nonce. Stanley went, reached Paris at midnight, knocked at the great\nnewspaper-man's door, and asked what was wanted. \"Find Livingstone,\" was\nthe short, blunt reply. \"How much money do you place at my disposal?\"\nasked Stanley. \"Fifty thousand dollars, or a larger sum. Never mind about\nthe money; find Livingstone.\"\n\nStanley went. It took two years' time to get ready. It required a\nspecially planned campaign and thorough preparation. The planning was\ndone, and the world was thrilled when the bold missionary leader was\nfound.\n\nOur Master has sent a message to His Church. It is written down in a Book,\nand is being repeated by wireless messages constantly. He says, \"Find my\nworld, and bring it back; never mind about the expense of money and lives.\n<i>Find my world and win it back.</i>\" And the Church has the winning power to\ndo it.\n\n\n\n\nEach One of Us\n\n\n\n  Our Drawing Power.\n  Sowing Ourselves in Life's Soil.\n  Our Need of a World to Win.\n  Living Broad Lives in Narrow Alleys.\n  Giving God Free Use of Ourselves.\n  Growing Bigger for Service's Sake.\n  My Mission-field.\n  Our Spirit-touch.\n\n\n\n\nEach One of Us\n\n\n\n<u>Our Drawing Power.</u>\n\n\nThe greatest human winning force is a man swayed in every bit of his being\nby the Spirit of Jesus. Man himself is the most attractive thing on God's\nearth. He has the greatest drawing power.\n\nHe is attractive to God. He drew out of the creative power of God this\nworld of beauty and splendor. He drew Jesus down from the throne of God to\nthe earth, to poverty and hard labor, to the limitations of human life, to\nmisunderstandings and suffering and pain and death. These were gladly\nyielded to because it was all for man. How the crowds used to draw Jesus!\nHe would give His strength out to them without stint, until those closest\nto Him, not understanding, sought to interfere for the sake of his\nstrength.\n\nOne man was a sufficient magnet to draw him away from His rest, and to\ndraw out of Him the best of love and strength He had. Nicodemus' earnest\npresence wooed out of His busy life a whole evening, and drew out the\nmatchless words that the world has been feeding upon ever since. The woman\nof little half-breed Sychar, though an outcast, drew from Him the touch of\npower that transformed her life and her village.\n\nMan is attractive to his fellows. There is no power so attractive to a\nman as another man. The phenomenal growth of modern cities is one of the\nevidences of this. Everywhere men acknowledge the attractiveness that\ntheir fellows have for them. Every friendship, every leadership, every\nfamily circle, and gathering of men for whatever purpose tells of the\nwinning power that man has for his fellows. It is modified by all sorts of\nsurrounding conditions, and exists in many different degrees. The great\nleader and the great orator have it in unusual measure. Every man has some\nof it. Each man is a magnetic north pole. Every man of his spirit-current\nis drawn toward him with a steady pull.\n\nMan can win man. That fact at once brings out strikingly his winning\npower. For the hardest thing in all this world to win is a man. Of all\nluggage man is the hardest to move. He won't move unless he will move.\nOnly as the string is tied inside to his will can he be persuaded to move.\nThe heart may help open the door into the will. Most often that is the way\nto get in. Sometimes intelligence, the reasoning powers, open the way in,\nbut rarely; often these two, the heart and the reason, combined. But even\nthen they go tandem, with the heart in the lead; only man can get that\ndoor open, and tie the tether to the other man's will, and draw him out,\nwhither he will. He can do it. And only he can. Man yields to the drawing\npower of his fellow.\n\nWith the deepest reverence be it said that when God would redeem a world\nHe sent a Man. Aye, He came as a man. And, while Jesus was so much more\nthan man, we must always insistently remind ourselves that He was truly\nand fully a man. He was as really human in every bit of His make-up and\nlife as though only human. Because of man's power to win his fellow, Jesus\ncame to the man-level, as a Man, that so He might win men.\n\n\n\n<u>Sowing Ourselves in Life's Soil.</u>\n\n\nMan is winsome, wherever found, just as he is. He may be shackled and\nslimed over with sin, as he plainly is. He may have lost much of his\nwinsomeness, as probably he has, through deeply rooted prejudice and\nsuperstitions, and endless limitations of surroundings and education, but\nhe still remains a powerful magnet to his fellow.\n\nBut he is most winning in his winningness as he returns to the original as\nGod planned him. His native winning power comes out fully only as sin is\ntaken out of him, washed out, and burned out; the desire for it removed,\nand the hurt of sin upon his bodily and mental powers overcome. Jesus is\nthe sort of human that God planned. And only as He is allowed to come into\na man's life, and treat the sin trouble at the core, and rule from within,\ncan man come to his own in his rare winsomeness.\n\nOnly <i>won</i> men can win men, of course. Only the man who has felt the power\nof Jesus can tell some one else of that marvellous power. Nobody else\nwants to. Nobody else can. For nobody else knows that power. But that man\nmust. There is something inside that compels him to. The man who realizes\nmost keenly that he has been saved will be the most intent on getting\nothers saved, too. The passion for Jesus becomes a passion for telling\nothers about Jesus.\n\nJerry McCauley must spend out his life in Water Street because he had been\ngripped by the Man who spent out His life for him. The passion is\nirresistible. Splendid young Hugh Beaver must win the Pennsylvania\nstudents to Jesus because Jesus had become the magnet of his own life.\nLivingstone must plunge into the depths of the African wilds, and Duff\ninto India's heat, and Hudson Taylor into China's inner provinces because\nof the Jesus-passion that gripped them.\n\nNow the thing to mark very keenly is this: that God's chief reliance in\nHis passionate outreach for His world is <i>men</i>. He is counting on you and\nme. The power that actually wins men is the power of God. Only He can so\nplay upon human wills and hearts as to induce them gladly to open to Him.\nThat is true. But it is as true that only <i>through</i> the winsome power of\nmen can He use His winning power fully.\n\nI am not going to take up just now why this is so, though that is full of\nhelpful suggestion. But simply to have you mark that straight through this\nold Book, and through church history, and in actual experience this has\nbeen His way of reaching men. God's pathway to one human heart is through\nanother human heart.\n\nWhen men have failed Him God's plan has failed. His sovereignty doesn't\nmean that His plan doesn't fail. It means here that with endless patience\nHe clings to the failed plan until He can get the man through whom it can\nbe carried out. But meanwhile there has been serious delay and sad\nsuffering for man.\n\nThere is a most striking sentence spoken by Jesus in explaining the\nparable of the tares, in Matthew, Chapter thirteen. He said, \"The good\nseed are the sons of the kingdom.\" We think of the truth, the Gospel\nmessage, as the good seed that we are to sow, and so it is. But there's a\nfar better seed. It is men, saved men. We are to sow our saved selves, our\nlives, in the soil of men's lives. Our presence among men was meant to be\nGod's greatest sowing of the seed of life. Upon that seed He sends the dew\nand rain and sunlight of His Spirit. And through that sort of sowing He\nwins His greatest harvests.\n\n\n\n<u>Our Need of a World to Win.</u>\n\n\nNow I want to turn aside here a bit, and say this: we men need a world to\nwin. The world needs winning. There's no doubt of that. And just as really\nwe men need a world to win. We need the impetus and stimulus, the grip and\nthe swing of having a world to win. The Master's command fits with great\nexactness into the need of our lives.\n\nEvery man needs a great purpose to grip his life. So he is anchored and\nheld steady against the world's tidal movements. If he isn't tied to some\ngreat gripping purpose the wash of the sea will send him adrift, or the\nfierce undertow will suck him under. And many are adrift. And many are in\nthe deadly suction of the undertow.\n\nJesus' command provides the great purpose that every man needs to hold him\nsteady and to bring out, and bring out best, all the splendid powers with\nwhich we are endowed. When we are not gripped by the great purpose planned\nfor us we swing off into smaller, meaner purposes.\n\nI mean, of course, those of us who are awake. Many people are habitual\nsomnambulists. All their walking and moving about is done in a state of\nsleep. Some men never wake up. They go through the motions of life so far\nas they must. The mechanism of habit keeps certain motions going, but the\nreal man within is asleep or dozing, with occasional spells of being\nsleepily awake.\n\nBut men who are awake, and doing something, find a vent for their energy\non some lower level. The God-given energy will move out and stir itself to\naction. But, having somehow missed the real purpose planned for them, they\nallow the lower purposes to grip them. They organize great affairs, or\nless great, industrial, intellectual, political, fraternal, social, and\nspend their energy on these. It is the response they make to the call of\ntheir natures for some great gripping purpose. But it looks very much like\nanother case of meeting a request for bread with cold hard stones.\n\nThese things in themselves are right, of course; so far as they are\nright. They belong in the scheme of life. They should be given full place\nin one's life. But that place is always a distinctly secondary place. They\nbelong in as number two.\n\nA Christian business man gives most of the day and year to his business,\nand gives of the best of his thought and strength to it. But if he have\ngotten his bearings straight, his business is not in first place. It is\nmade to serve something higher. It earns the gold with which to finance\nthe great purpose of Jesus' life, and of his own life, namely, the purpose\nof winning men, and of winning a whole world of them. How it would sweeten\nbusiness and fraternal and social contacts and friendships, if the salt of\nthis great purpose seasoned them!\n\n\n\n<u>Living Broad Lives in Narrow Alleys.</u>\n\n\nWe need the <i>bigness</i> of this great purpose. So many lives are dwarfed by\ntheir very littlenesses. We are bothered with being short-sighted. The\neyeglasses of the Master's purpose for us would wondrously widen out our\nscope of vision. And through the new eyes would come broader, farther,\nclearer views, and changed action. The littleness of our ideas would be\namusing if it were not so distressing.\n\nI recall one day riding on a Fort-Wayne train through Indiana. I chanced\nto overhear a bit of conversation. Two men, chance acquaintances, were\ntalking. One of them had his home in Elkhart. The other asked him where\nElkhart is. By the side of the Elkhart man there sat a little sweet-faced\nboy. Instantly, as the question was asked, he looked up with surprised\neyes, and said, \"Don't you know where Elkhart is? Why, Elkhart is down\nwhere I live.\"\n\nThe amusing childish words seemed to have a familiar sound. I seem to have\nrun across a few people whose idea of God's world is about on the level of\nthe small boy's. The world is where they live. The rest is a hazy, vague\nsomething, or--nothing. It exists for them, if it exists at all in their\nthoughts.\n\n    \"Living for self, for self alone, for self and none beside;\n    Just as if Jesus had never lived, as if Jesus had never died.\"\n\nIt would be pitiable and pathetic enough if only these people themselves\nwere concerned in their poor, stunted, narrow-alley living. But it is more\nthan that; it is tragic, because of the multitude of brothers, here and\nabroad, sorely needing the help that was meant to go out to them through\nus.\n\nThen most men live narrow lives so far as the daily round is concerned.\nThe home, or shop, or store, or office is their daily horizon, with\npractically the same round of duties day after day, year in and year out.\nThe very narrowness of the round tends to make narrow people. They get\ninto as much of a rut in their thinking as their daily action is apt to\nbecome. Their work runs in fixed grooves that are apt to become fixed\nruts. And this makes ruts in their thinking. Their souls seem to grow\nsmall by the very smallness and sameness of the daily tread. That is the\nlife of the great crowd of men all over the world.\n\nIt's an immense relief to see something big Big things always attract. Is\nit partly because our daily round is so narrow and small? Jesus plans a\nbigness that shall refresh us constantly. We have hearts big enough to\nhold a world, and brains able to plan for a planet, even while our feet\ntread the same old shut-in path.\n\nA young man may be going a commonplace, treadmill sort of grind, in a\nsmall corner of some great manufacturing concern, and be at the same time\ncarrying on a bigger enterprise than the president of his concern. For he\nmay be planning and praying for a world, and actually lifting it up in the\narms of his strong purpose toward the level of God.\n\nThe shipping clerk may be hammering in barrel-heads all day long, but each\nblow may help emphasize the prayer of his heart for China, or India, or\nhis Sunday-school class.\n\n    \"Forenoon, afternoon, and night,\n    Forenoon, afternoon, and night,\n    Forenoon, afternoon, and what? no more?\n    The empty song repeats itself. Yea, that is life.\n    Make this forenoon sublime, this afternoon a psalm,\n    This night a prayer, and time is conquered, and thy\n    crown is won.\"\n\nThe Master's gracious plan is that we shall have the refreshment of doing\nbig things. We are made for big things. They help us grow into the big\nsize that belongs to us. World-winning is a great boon to the crowd\ncompelled by the habit of life to tread a narrow path.\n\n\n\n<u>Giving God Free Use of Ourselves.</u>\n\n\nNow the great question every earnest man asks himself is, How can I be of\nmost use to God and my fellows? I want to suggest three things that have\nhelped me in answering that question. It may be that they will help you,\ntoo, in getting your answer to it.\n\nFirst of all is this: that we let God have the free use of us. Whatever I\nam, whatever gifts and opportunities I have--these I will turn over to\nGod, that He may have the fullest and freest use of them. God asks from\neach of us <i>a consecrated personality</i>. And \"consecrated\" simply means\nthat I give God the use of myself, and that He makes use of what I have\ngiven to Him. That's the double meaning of the word in the Bible.\n\nMy personality, that is, what I am in myself, is the chief thing I have in\nlife. It is through this personality, which men recognize as I, that the\nSpirit of God works in His reaching out for others. My personality is the\nmake-up of all that I am. My presence is that subtle something that\ncombines all that I am. It clings to me wherever I go. Men know it by my\nname. Out through it goes the power of the man within.\n\nThe body, the glance of the eye, the quality and intonation of the voice,\nthe way the body is carried, and the something more than these that\nunites them into one--these go to make up the presence, the outer shell of\nthe personality. All the power within makes itself felt through this. A\nman's mere presence is an immeasurable influence.\n\nThere is a subtle, intangible, but very real spirit influence breathing\nout of every man's presence. It is proportioned entirely to the strength\nof the man living within. With some it is very attractive. Sometimes it is\npositively repulsive. It is the expression of the man within. The presence\nbecomes the mould of the spirit within, large or small, noble or mean,\ncoarse or fine, as he makes it. The strength of a man's will or its\nweakness; the purity of his heart or its lack of purity; the ideals of his\nlife, high or low; the keenness or slowness of his thinking--all these\nexpress themselves in his presence.\n\nWe know the difference between a man of strong presence and one whose\npresence is weak; though very few of us are skilled in reading, except in\na very small way, the character it reveals; through our presence each of\nus is constantly influencing those with whom we come in contact. Now this\nis the chief thing we have for our winning work. This is the thing that\nJesus uses. It is this that the Spirit of God takes possession of, if He\nmay, and that He uses in His outreach to others. We win most and best\nthrough what we are.\n\nNow, of course, I do not mean that we are to be thinking of it that way\nall the time. The thinking that you have a winsome presence would itself\nrob you of the most winsome part of it. Winsomeness of presence is\ngreatest and sweetest when we are wholly unconscious that there is such a\nthing about us. As we are absorbed in Jesus, and in our fellows, the\nwinsomeness that is native to us shines out most attractively. It has been\ncovered up and hidden away a good bit by sin. Some men seem to have none.\nSome have a great deal, in spite of their ignoring of God.\n\nBut as He is allowed to play upon us, as we seek to let His Spirit rule\nour conduct and control our powers, the original God-image comes out. This\nis a return to natural conditions as planned by God. What has been lost\nthrough sin is restored and grown bigger and richer by the Spirit's\npresence. I can give God the full use of this precious gift of\npersonality.\n\n\n\n<u>Growing Bigger for Service's Sake.</u>\n\n\nThere's a second thing to do. This consecrated personality can be made <i>a\ndeveloped personality</i>. We don't start into life full size. We have to\ngrow. The greatest task of life, as well as one of the sweetest, is in\ngrowing fine in grain, and big in size, and skilled in action. The highest\nachievement of life and the rarest to find is self-mastery, that is, all\nthat one is in himself grown big and fine-grained, skilfully used and held\nsteadily to its true use. All other achievements are through this one.\n\nThe stronger I can make my body the more I can give God to use. The more\nthoroughly I can understand the great, simple laws of my body, and the\nmore I can get into the habit of obeying them, the more can God use me in\nHis plans. Such common things as eating and drinking, breathing and\nexercising, sleeping and resting and dress, may not be called common any\nmore, if through thoughtfulness here you and I can be of greater use to\nour Master and our fellows.\n\nThe keener and clearer and stronger we can make our thinking, by dint of\nself-discipline, the greater power have we with other men. The purer the\nheart, the loftier the practical ideals that control the personal habits,\nthe greater is the winning power at command.\n\nWe may not be conscious of the difference. We will not be thinking of\nthat. But the increased power of attraction is there, and is breathing out\nof one's presence, and is distinctly felt by others. And, more, it is\nmaking a distinct mark upon others, more than they know. We must set\nourselves to growing bigger and better for service's sake.\n\n\n\n<u>My Mission-field.</u>\n\n\nThe third thing is <i>a world-wide vision</i>. That is to say, our thinking and\nplanning and praying and giving shall be on a world scale. There is\nnothing remarkable about this. The strangely remarkable thing is that\nthere is so little of it. Man was made on the world size. It is natural\nto us to grasp the world in our thinking and action. This other thing of\nliving on a smaller scale is the cramping effect of sin. We were, made\nbig. We are big. We need a big world. We enjoy bigness. We get this from\nGod. We are truest to ourselves as we live on the world plan. The world\nwas given us originally to subdue, and now to win.\n\nThis does not mean to neglect anything or anybody nearby. It's a bit of\nthe cramping of sin that anybody thinks so. The man who spreads a map of\nthe world beside his open Bible in the morning or evening prayer-hour is\nlikely to have a warm hand for the fellow next him. We are made that way,\nto grasp the globe, <i>and</i> each thing close at hand that needs our care.\nThat's a bit of the image of God in us. As we allow Him sway, the original\npower is restored to us.\n\nOne result of this will be that many of us will go in person to some\nfar-away part of the great world-field. That's a serious thing to do,\nrequiring some special qualification of body and of training. For the task\nout there is a great one. There are trying conditions to be met. The very\nbest is called for.\n\nIf a man may go in person to the foreign field he is greatly favored. Let\nnothing hold him back. It is a privilege to serve anywhere. But the\nhighest privilege of service is out there. Many cannot go; and many may\nnot go. Some are plainly bidden to stay. The home administration of the\nmissionary enterprise requires strong men at home.\n\nA second result will be that wherever we are, will be a mission-field to\nus. We are, where we are, <i>to give</i>, not to get. Whether in far-off China\nor maybe in some disillusioned commonplace home town, we will be winning\nmen to Jesus all the time <i>by direct touch</i>. The mastering thought will be\nto let the wondrous Spirit reach out through us, freely and fully,\nunhindered by anything in us, and so touch every one whom we touch.\n\nIn any circle, business or social, our hearts will be saying, \"I am among\nyou as he that serveth.\" Consciously, by direct word, by indirect touch,\nwith love's rare diplomacy we will win men. Unconsciously, by our\npresence, we will as really be winning them.\n\nNo one has an imagination vivid enough, or words graphic enough, to tell\nthe power of that direct human touch. All life is athrill with its magic.\nEven when it becomes less direct, a bit removed from the personal, its\npower is indescribably great.\n\nJohn Eliot's work among the Massachusetts Indians kindled David Brainerd.\nBrainerd's flame touched Jonathan Edwards. Edwards' pamphlet on\n\"Extraordinary Prayer for a Revival of Religion and the Advancement of\nChrist's Kingdom on Earth\" suggested to William Carey the plan of an\norganized society. Fire spreads. Where the touch of God comes the fire of\nGod goes out through that human touch.\n\n\n\n<u>Our Spirit-touch.</u>\n\n\nA third result will be this: we will be reaching out and winning men in\nall the rest of the world by <i>our spirit-touch</i>. You may be in some\nAfrican fastness or in the midst of China's age-old civilization or just\nhere at home, but you can be exerting a tremendous spirit-power that can\nbe felt out to the ends of the earth.\n\nIt will all be in the Name of Jesus. It will be in the power of the Holy\nSpirit. Only in that Name and through the Spirit can such winning\ninfluence be exerted at all. So a man can have spirit-touch with the man\nby his side. And just as truly he can have spirit-touch with men at the\nfarthest reach of the earth.\n\nThere is a spirit influence going out from each of us in addition to that\nwhich goes through the direct personal touch. It is not a conscious\ninfluence. That is, we are not concsious that it is being exerted. It goes\nout from us as we pray. It goes out of us as our thought is centered on\nthose far-away parts and peoples. Its strength will depend on the strength\nof one's personality.\n\nWe are familiar with the fact that a man of strong personality has a\ngreater influence upon his fellows whom he touches directly than a weaker\nman has. It is just the same with regard to one's spirit-touch. The\nstronger and keener and purer I may become, the more I know of the\nself-mastery which comes through Jesus-mastery, the greater force can I\nexert as a winner of men, both by direct touch and by spirit-touch.\n\nWill you kindly come up nearer in spirit, as we close our talk together,\nand let me ask softly: Have we given the free use of ourselves to the\nMaster? Are we growing ourselves into bigger-sized, finer-grained,\nbetter-controlled men and women daily? For the Master is depending on us.\nHe is counting much on having the use of us. He can reach out to the very\nends of the earth <i>through each one of us</i>. May we not fail Jesus!\n\n\n\n\nJesus\n\n\n\n  Jesus Draws Men.\n  Jesus Draws Out the Best.\n  Many Doors, but One Purpose.\n  Make It a Story.\n  How Peter Told Paul.\n  \"A More Excellent Way.\"\n\n\n\n\nJesus\n\n\n\n<u>Jesus Draws Men.</u>\n\n\nThe great heart-magnet is God. No one is so winsomely attractive as He.\nHis winning power is beyond any other. Man is winsome. But it is because\nGod made him winsome, and re-makes him yet more winsome. He gave him a bit\nof His own self. That's the secret of all our human winsomeness.\n\nNow Jesus is God to us. We know God only as we know Jesus. Jesus is the\nheart of God beating in time and tune with human hearts. Nobody is so\nwinsome as Jesus. All the native winsomeness of man and all the divine\nwinsomeness of God combine and blend in Him. He has always drawn men to\nHimself. And He still does, and always will.\n\nHe drew men of all classes when He was down here. The reverent\nstar-students of far-away Babylon were drawn to His birth by a compelling\nthey could not resist. He drew the thoughtful, scholarly men of His own\nnation, such as Nicodemus of the inner, highest circle. And He drew\nmilitary officials of high rank and wealth in the service of imperial\nRome. By the same power the half-breed, despised Samaritans and the\nearnest seekers after truth from cultured Greece were drawn to Him.\n\nThe plain farmer people of Galilee, and the hardy fisherfolk, and\nhard-handed laboring-men came as eagerly to him. He drew the pure, fine\ngrained, gentle Mary of Bethany, with her unusual keenness of spirit\ninsight; and drew as well the unnamed outcast woman, steeped in sin, who\nwas forgiven much, and who loved much, and so gave much.\n\nPractical hard-headed men of sharp bargains and shrewd trading, like\nMatthew, felt His pull upon their hearts equally with men of pure heart\nand lofty ideals like Nathanael. By special effort, for a special purpose\nHe drew high-bred, high-strung, scholarly, intense Paul, out of his mad\nenmity into a lifelong devotion.\n\nThe crowds came until His daily routine and ministering help were\nrepeatedly and seriously interrupted. And strong men sought Him alone to\nlay bare the longings and questionings of their hearts. His Roman judge\nfelt the strange winsomeness of His presence and speech, though lacking in\nthe courage to follow his convictions regarding Him. And the Roman officer\nin charge of His execution was forced to admit the power of His presence.\n\nAll the world gathered about His cross. Representatives from all parts, in\nlarge numbers, were at the Jerusalem feast; and on that morning, by common\nconsent, they were drawn out to the place where He hung.\n\nHe even drew the arch-tempter. He came with his subtlest temptations, and\nbitterest enmity, and most malignant cunning. Could there be greater\nevidence, by contrast, of the drawing power of His purity and goodness and\nsteadfast devotion to His mission?\n\n\n\n<u>Jesus Draws Out the Best.</u>\n\n\nAnd Jesus had the power to draw out of men the best there was in them.\nPossibilities, traits, and powers that neither they nor their friends\nsupposed they had came out into strong life under the spell of His touch.\nThere seemed to be something in Him that drew the same sort of thing out\nof them.\n\nOut of Simon, the hot-headed, impulsive fisherman, He drew the steady man\nof rock. Out of fiery John, the son of thunder, He drew the man of tender,\nstrong love. And out of quiet, retiring Andrew He drew a man with a\nreputation for bringing others to Jesus.\n\nHe drew out of the Sychar outcast a sense of her sin, and then a winner of\nsouls; and out of that other woman of open sin, a longing for purity that\npaved the way to all else that came. Under His compelling touch there came\nout of the blind-born man a willingness to sacrifice all for such a\nMaster; and out of James, the other son of thunder, a courage to endure\nsuffering that men had not known he had.\n\nThat was when He was down here, a man. And ever since that fleecy cloud\nreceived Him out of sight He has been drawing men of all the world. And\ntime would as utterly fail me, as it did the writer of the Hebrews, if I\ntried to tell of the men He has drawn. Men of every rank, high and low, in\nevery nation, savage and civilized, in every generation of all these\ncenturies have felt the thrill of His power. And they have followed Him at\nthe cost of all that men hold most dear.\n\nAnd He is just the same to-day. He is as available now in all His drawing\npower wherever men meet, in city slum and savage wild, in college hall and\nbusiness street, among the philosophical and cultured, and among the\nignorant and untrained. If we will take Him to them, and let Him out\nthrough our lips and lives, He will draw men up the heights. He can draw\nagainst any power of downward suction, and He will. He promised to draw\nmen, if lifted up. And He has never failed to do it.\n\nNow, it is this drawing Jesus that men need and want. There is an enormous\nadvantage in taking Jesus to men, because there is a something inside men\neverywhere that responds to Jesus. That something may be choked and\ncovered up, crowded down and fought against, as it is. But it is there.\nWhen you take Jesus to a man you may know that you are taking a supply to\na demand. You are bringing a man the answer to his heart's questions. It\nis as the coming together of two parts that belong together, but have been\nheld apart by some hindrance.\n\nThat hindrance is stubborn. It has to be fought. It can be overcome.\nThat's the chief task. Then the part in man that answers to Jesus eagerly\nfits into its place in Him. That coming together is always blessed, beyond\nwords. Everywhere men of all sorts and ranks and degrees of savagery and\nculture eagerly respond to Him. And they declare that they find in Him the\nfull answer to their deepest longings.\n\n\n\n<u>Many Doors, but One Purpose.</u>\n\n\nIt is this marvellous magnet, Jesus, that we are to take to men; not\ntheology, nor education, nor medical skill, nor hospitals, nor industrial\nhelps, except incidentally. These are the tin cup which one is glad to use\nto give the thirsty traveller water from the spring.\n\nYou will understand at once that I have no thought of criticizing theology\nor of discrediting it, if I could. It has its place. But that place is not\nout in the thick of the crowd, but back in the quiet hall of study. There\nmust be thorough study and systematic putting together of the truth. There\nneeds to be patient plodding and mental drilling.\n\nYou have no need to be told of the immeasurable value of the splendid\nfoundation building of Christian scholars. But this is school work, in the\nmain. It is to make us better workmen. So a man gets his bearings and\npoise. But the people down in the dust and drive of the crowd don't want\ntheology. They want Jesus. It is striking that everywhere men want to hear\nabout Jesus.\n\nEducational work has played an indispensably great part in the scheme of\nmissions. But the purpose of it, of course, is to make an open door for\nthe entrance of Jesus into men's lives. It is invaluable in itself alone,\nregardless of any other purpose. But the teacher of any sort of learning\nin the mission school, who is chiefly absorbed in the teaching itself\ninstead of using it as a means to something higher, is missing the whole\npurpose of his work.\n\nAnd what words can be used strong enough in speaking of the blessed work\nof medical men in foreign-mission lands? These skilled, patient, faithful\nmen and women in hospital and dispensary and private service are doing a\nwork of incalculable value. It should be done even if the bodily results\nwere all. But the underlying purpose through it all is to lead men to know\nJesus. And no one has such a short, quick road into a man's heart as he\nwho can relieve his body.\n\nThese things are doorways into men's lives; and great doorways, too. They\nare well worth all the money and lives expended if they went no farther\nthan body and mind and better conditions. But the main purpose in them is\nto find a way into men's hearts, and take in Jesus; that so men may get\nthe greater as well as the less.\n\n\n\n<u>Make it a Story.</u>\n\n\nNow, how shall we best tell men of Jesus? Well, the modern newspaperman's\nrule in his work is this: \"Make it a story.\" This is his leading rule in\nall his writing work. Whatever the occasion may be, whether a meeting of\nscholars or an accident on the street, it is to be put into story-form.\nThat is the ideal toward which he works. All the descriptions, and\nquotations, and information, and philosophizings are to be woven into this\nweb. They know that a story is the easiest thing to read and to listen to,\nand also the hardest to tell well.\n\nThat should be our rule here: <i>Make it a story about Jesus.</i> When it comes\nto talking the Gospel to a group of people, large or small, in New York or\nShanghai, make it a story. Wherever you may begin the story, see that its\npurpose is to lead up to Jesus. You may use twenty-five minutes in getting\nyour story out, and then put the Jesus touch in the last five minutes. But\nas they go away that last five has given its flavor to the whole\nhalf-hour's talk. Or, you may begin with Him, and so run through. But the\nrule should be: Make it a simple, natural, attractive story, such as\npeople will want to listen to, because it interests them.\n\nThat means a lot of hard work in preparation. The simpler and easier and\nmore natural it seems to the crowd the more it will have cost you in\nstudy. You will have to study so carefully that they won't guess you have\nstudied at all. You must absorb this Bible story, bit by bit, through and\nthrough, until it becomes a bit of yourself.\n\nYou must use books that help make this Book clearer and plainer. That is\nreally the mission of biblical books, to make <i>the</i> Book plainer. If they\nsend you to the Bible they have fulfilled their mission. If you stay in\nthem, they have failed.\n\nThe Bible is an Oriental book in its way of putting things. Its story is\nbuilt upon the habits of those Eastern peoples. While it is full of simple\nteaching easily understood, one needs to understand those habits to get\nthe real meat of the meaning. This means a habit of hard work for him who\nwould be a winner of men. He should have an ambition to know the Bible\nstory thoroughly, and to get it from the Bible itself.\n\nBut, whatever your particular message may be at any time, let it lead up\nby a straight road to Jesus. Follow the rule of the Book itself here. The\nOld Testament all points to Jesus. It can be understood only as He is\nunderstood. And the New is aflame with His presence. Tell the story of\nJesus to men. They never tire of that. Tell it accurately. Tell it simply.\nTell it with endless variety. Put it in simple every-day words, so they\nthink about the story and not about you or your words.\n\nTell Jesus' life; His characteristics; how He mingled among men, and\ntalked with them. Take up the Gospel incidents, and give them their\nnatural flavoring and coloring in present-day speech. Tell of the Nazareth\nlife, in home and carpenter shop and village. Go through those wondrous\nthree and a half years, bit by bit.\n\nGo into the temptation wilderness, out on the blue waters of Galilee, and\ninto Gethsemane's olive-grove. Climb that bit of a rise of ground called\nCalvary. Wherever you are in that story, make sure that the coloring of\nCalvary gets distinctly in, by word or phrase or climax or somehow.\n\nNow, of course, there will be some theology in your telling. You will make\ncomments and explanations. And preachers call that theology. That is\nunavoidable. That is the place for such teaching, as it naturally grows\nout of the story. But the story should be the main thing. Men should be\nsent away thinking about a Man, Jesus; not about a theory of doctrine.\n\n\n\n<u>How Peter Told Paul.</u>\n\n\nI remember very distinctly one time Mr. Moody was speaking at the Ohio\nSunday-school Convention in Cleveland. He was saying that teachers should\nopen up the Bible and make it attractive. Then he told the story of how,\nin '84, in London he was talking with a lawyer friend who had just come\ndown from Edinburgh. He had been hearing Andrew Bonar preach up there, and\nwas greatly taken with his way of preaching.\n\nMr. Moody told the story something like this:\n\n\"Bonar was preaching in Galatians, where it says that Paul went to\nJerusalem to see Peter, and he said that he could imagine Peter saying to\nPaul, 'Would you like to take a walk?' and Paul said he would, so they\nwent down through the streets of Jerusalem, over the brook Kidron, arm in\narm, and Peter stopped and said, 'Look, Paul, this is the very spot where\nHe wrestled and where He suffered, and sweat great drops of blood. There\nis the very spot where John and James fell asleep, right there. And right\nhere is the very spot where I fell asleep. I don't think I should have\ndenied Him if I hadn't gone to sleep, but I was overcome. I remember the\nlast thing I heard Him say before I fell asleep was, \"Father, let this cup\npass from me if it is Thy will.\" And when I awoke an angel stood right\nthere where you are standing, talking to Him, and I saw great drops of\nblood come from His pores and trickle down His cheeks. It wasn't long\nbefore Judas came to betray Him. And I heard Him say to Judas, so kindly,\n\"Betrayest thou the Master with a kiss?\" And then they bound Him and led\nHim away. And that night when He was on trial I denied Him.'\n\n\"He pictured the whole scene. And the next day Peter turned again to Paul\nand said, 'Wouldn't you like to take another walk to-day?' and Paul said\nhe would. That day they went to Calvary. And when they got on the hill\nPeter said, 'Here, Paul, this is the very spot where He died for you and\nme. See that hole right there? That is where His cross stood. The\nbelieving thief hung there, and the unbelieving thief there on the other\nside. Mary Magdalene and Mary, His mother, stood there, and I stood away\non the out-skirts of the crowd.\n\n\"'The night before, when I denied Him, He looked at me so lovingly that it\nbroke my heart, and I couldn't bear to get near enough to see Him. That\nwas the darkest hour of my life. I was in hopes that God would intercede\nand take Him from the cross. I kept listening, and I thought I would hear\nHis voice.' And he pictured the whole scene, how they drove the spear into\nHis side, and put the crown of thorns on His brow, and all that took\nplace.\n\n\"And the next day Peter turned to Paul again and asked him if he wouldn't\ntake another walk. And Paul said he would. Again they passed down the\nstreets of Jerusalem, over the brook Kidron, over Mount Olivet, up to\nBethphage, and over to the slope near Bethany. All at once Peter stopped\nand said: 'Here, Paul, this is the last place where I ever saw Him. I\nnever heard Him speak so sweetly as He did that day.\n\n\"'It was right here He delivered His last message to us, and all at once I\nnoticed that His feet didn't touch the ground. He arose and went up. All\nat once there came a cloud and received Him out of sight. I stood right\nhere gazing up into the heavens, in hopes I might see Him again and hear\nHim speak. And two men dressed in white dropped down by our sides and\nstood there and said: \"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven?\nThis same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall come in like\nmanner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.\"'\"\n\nThen Mr. Moody said, \"My friends, I want to ask you this question: Do you\nbelieve that picture is overdrawn? Do you believe Peter had Paul as his\nguest and didn't take him to Gethsemane, didn't take him to Calvary and\nMount Olivet? I myself spent eight days in Jerusalem, and every morning I\nwanted to steal down into the garden where my Lord sweat great drops of\nblood. Every day I climbed Mount Olivet and looked up into the blue sky\nwhere He went to His Father.\n\n\"I have no doubt Peter took Paul out on those three walks. If there had\nbeen a man that could have taken me to the very spot where the Master\nsweat those great drops of blood, do you think I would not have asked him\nto take me there? Now, you ministers, don't you believe the people want\npreaching like that? They do. They want to hear about the Lord.\"\n\nI remember that I was sitting in that convention where I could easily see\nthe faces of the people. It was a sight not to be forgotten. I remember\nthat sea of eager upturned faces as distinctly as I remember Mr. Moody's\ntalk. The people sat so still, as though in a spell, with eyes big and\nshining with something wet, and occasionally a slight twitching of emotion\nand a handkerchief called into service.\n\nMr. Moody talked in that natural way of his, so quiet and yet so intense\nin its quietness. That's what people want--Jesus brought to them, simply\nand naturally. And Moody knew it. It took years of hard self-discipline\nfor him to be able to talk as he did. Such talking takes study and hard\nwork. But it's all worth while if we can make Jesus plain to men in all\nHis wondrous winsomeness.\n\n\n\n<u>\"A More Excellent Way.\"</u>\n\n\nThen there's another way of telling the story of Jesus to men. It's a yet\nbetter way. <i>Tell it with your life.</i> That was Jesus' own plan. He lived\nwhat He taught. He proposed coming down into each one of us and living His\nlife over again in us. He does just that now. Then as men meet us they are\nmeeting Him, too, in us. The things that marked Him will be noticed in us.\n\nThe intense hatred of sin, the purity, the gentleness and patience, the\nwarm sympathy, the constant self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice, the\neagerness to win men, the tireless going wherever men could be\nhelped--these may be in us as they were in Him, and will be, as we let Him\nlive in us. And men will recognize the Jesus-story being lived in their\nmidst. Jesus wants to reach out through us to men. And He will; He will;\nmore than we ever know or will know. This is the best telling of the\nstory.\n\nI am told that in the Palace of Justice in Rome there is a remarkable\nchamber where visitors are sometimes taken. The remarkable thing about it\nis the decorations. The ceiling and walls and even the floors are covered\nwith strangely painted frescoes. That is, they seem strange as one enters.\nThey seem grotesque. They do not harmonize. They are out of touch with\neach other, and make a bewildering maze of confusion. But there is one\nspot in the chamber, just one spot upon the floor, where, if you stand,\neverything falls into place. The artist's conception stands out perfect in\nperspective and color and beauty.\n\nTo the great crowd of men in this old world life seems a good bit like\nthat Roman chamber. Things seem out of harmony--sin, pain, confusion,\nunsatisfied longings, unconquered weaknesses, broken plans, and\ndisappointed ambitions. But there is one spot, a central point, just one,\nwhere all that concerns you will come into harmony, and bring heart-rest.\n\nThat one spot is where you take your stand side by side with Jesus. His\npresence clears everything up. He sweetens the life, and straightens the\npath, and leads you steadily on toward the dawning of the day. And that's\nas true for China and the Pacific islanders as for Britisher or American.\nMen need Jesus. He satisfies them. He is the great magnet. He draws men as\nno other can. He places Himself at our disposal to be taken to men. They\ncan't resist Him. Let us take Him.\n\nO Jesus Master, thou hast drawn me till I want to be Thy slave forever.\nHelp me take Thee to all other men that they may feel Thy wondrous drawing\npower, and satisfying power, too.\n\n\n\n\nThe Holy Spirit\n\n\n\n  The Last Talk Together.\n  The Partnership of Service.\n  The Power that Never Fails.\n  The Trinity of Service.\n  Living on the Top Floor.\n  Partial Weavings of the Strands.\n  Unbroken Connection Above.\n\n\n\n\nThe Holy Spirit\n\n\n\n<u>The Last Talk Together.</u>\n\n\nA little group of men were climbing the winding path that led up Olivet's\nslope. The Master was in the midst, and the others before and behind,\nwhere they could hear His voice. For they were talking together as they\nwalked along. That is to say, He was talking, and they were listening,\nwith an occasional question. They went on until they were over against\nwhere little Bethany nestles in among the blue hills. There they stood a\nlittle while, still talking together earnestly.\n\nIt was their last talk together. And there were two things the Master was\nsaying. Those two things came with all the tender emphasis of a last\nmessage. They were to go on an errand to the world; a lifelong errand, and\nto the whole world. That was being burned in. But they weren't to start on\nthe errand until the Holy Spirit had come upon them. The errand and the\nSpirit's presence were coupled together. That was to be their errand. And\nHe was to be their life-power as they went on the errand.\n\nThey were to go. The Spirit was to come. He would come before they went.\nThey must not go until He had come. Then they were to go in His presence\nand power. They would be able to go because of Him. Their going would be\nworth while, because wherever they went He would be at work in them and\nthrough them. The real work would be done by Him. But it would be done\nthrough them. His presence was essential to their work being done. Their\npresence was essential to His doing His work. He would work as they went,\nand where they went.\n\nThat was the new blessed partnership of world-wide service planned by the\nMaster as He went away. They would tell of Jesus. The Spirit would open\ndoors, guide their tongues, guard their persons, and make the message of\nJesus as a flame of fire in men's hearts.\n\nJust before this, Jesus had talked a great deal with His disciples about\nthe Holy Spirit. They didn't yet know how much this that He was saying,\nwould come to mean to them. But they remembered after the Master was gone,\nand then they understood. When they got down into the thick of the world's\ncrowds they understood the great significance of what He had said.\n\nThat last talk[24] they had together in the upper room and along the\nJerusalem streets, on the betrayal night, was full of teaching about the\nHoly Spirit. And the next time after that that they met, in the upper\nroom,[25] on the evening of the resurrection day, He breathed strongly\nupon them, and said, \"Receive ye the Holy Spirit.\" And the very last word\non the Olivet slope was, \"Wait; wait until the Holy Spirit comes.\" He\nburned in deep that their dependence must be entirely upon the Spirit.\n\n\n\n<u>The Partnership of Service.</u>\n\n\nJesus Himself is an illustration of what He told them about this. He was\non a missionary errand. He had been sent by His Father, even as later\nthese men and we have been sent. With awe ever growing, one remembers that\nthe divine Jesus in the days of His humanity gave Himself over to the\ncontrol of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was the dominant factor in His life\nand in all His activities. All His teachings and movements were at the\nsuggestion and direction and control of the Spirit. The power in speech\nand action, in healing, in raising the dead, and in the wondrous mastery\nof Himself was the Holy Spirit's power working upon and through Jesus.\n\nThen it was that as He was going away He said, \"As the Father hath sent\nme, even so I send you.\" And with that He coupled the significant\nbreathing upon them, with the word, \"Take ye the Holy Spirit.\" We are to\nbe as He, both in our utter dependence upon the Spirit and in our\nassurance of His power in us.\n\nEver since then that has been the effective partnership for world-service:\nmen and the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit and men. If you are thinking of\nthe human side you say, \"<i>Men</i> and the Holy Spirit.\" If you are speaking\nof the divine side, you say, \"<i>The Holy Spirit</i> and men.\" The two belong\ntogether. Where men have failed to go the Spirit has been hampered in\nspeaking to men. He has spoken, but the story of salvation through Jesus\nhas not been known. The Spirit's mouth-piece for the telling of that story\nwas lacking. That seriously hindered Him in His work.\n\nWhere men have gone without the Spirit, that is without yielding\nthemselves habitually to His control, they have been sorely hampered. It\nis like having the kindling wood set in order for a fire, but the fire not\nstarted. There is no heat, nor any of fire's results. The kindling must\nhave the flame, and the flame must have the coals. The two are partners in\nservice.\n\nThis partnership belongs peculiarly in the world-wide service of winning\nmen. If anybody needs the Spirit's presence, he does who attempts to win a\nman to Jesus anywhere. But if any man-winner needs that presence more than\nanother, he does who goes into the peculiar atmosphere of a non-Christian\npeople. And, on the other hand, if anybody can be sure of the Spirit's\npresence and power always with him, and working through him, he can who\nhas gone out on the world-errand.\n\nThat man is in the direct line of obedience to Jesus' command. The Spirit\nHimself is sent by Jesus, and comes to us in direct obedience to Jesus'\ndesire. These two, the man and the Spirit, are as one in the purpose that\ncontrols them. That man may depend on the gracious, irresistible Spirit's\npower at every turn. He is a thrice West man, if he have learned to\ndepend upon His unseen Partner.\n\n\n\n<u>The Power That Never Fails.</u>\n\n\nYou and I have to remind ourselves constantly that our chief dependence is\nnot upon organization, nor method, nor personal talent, nor personal\ntraining, but upon the Holy Spirit working <i>through</i> these. The better\norganized the human machinery, the better the methods used, the more there\nis of personal gift, and the more thoroughly one's powers have been\ndrilled, the more there is at the Spirit's disposal for Him to use. The\npractical bother is to remember this; to get it rubbed in until it is like\nan instinct in us, that the power is all from Him, through us. Not without\nHim, and not without us; the two together; but always His the far greater\npart--indeed, the real part.\n\nThe Holy Spirit has a double work to do: with us who go; and upon those to\nwhom we go. Within us He has to work out the character of Jesus. He opens\nthe Word, making its meaning stand clearly out. He wakens the mind up to\ndo its best work. He guides in our decisions, suggesting and directing and\ncontrolling our thoughts, and in our actions, in our dealings with men. In\nthings that are little in themselves, but on which so much hinges, He\nguides.\n\nIt constantly occurs that we are not at all conscious of His control at\nthe time. But afterward we can see how He has been deftly, softly\nguiding, with His rare light touch upon us. When, in the thick of work,\nwe may be pressed hard, and a bit wearied, and in doubt, He sends the\nquiet, quick suggestion into our thoughts that leads out of the tight\ncorner and into the achievement of the thing desired. He works through us,\nand through what we do, giving power that otherwise would not be there.\nWhile you are talking in conversation or in public address, He is working\nthrough what you are saying.\n\nAnd He works upon those to whom we go. He opens doors; the doors of\ncircumstances that we find locked and double-padlocked against us. He\nopens the yet tighter-shut, harder-to-open human doors. He inclines men\nfavorably toward us personally, and to our message. Under His touch the\nmessage becomes as a tongue of flame, kindling, disturbing, softening,\nburning down, and moulding over into new shape the inner man to whom the\nmessage comes.\n\nSometimes quarrymen find a very hard kind of rock in the stone quarries.\nThey pick little grooves for the iron wedges, and then with great\nsledge-hammers drive these wedges into the hard rock. But sometimes this\nfails to split the rock. The iron wedges and big sledges have no effect at\nall on the stubborn stone. Then they go at it in another way. The iron\nwedges are removed from the narrow grooves. Then little wooden ones, of a\nvery hard fibre are selected. These sharp-edged, well-made wooden wedges\nare first soaked in water. Then they are put in the grooves tightly while\nwet, and water is kept in the grooves. The sledges are not used. They\nwould smash the wooden wedges.\n\nThe water and wedges are left to do their work. The damp wood swells. The\nparticles must have more room as they swell. The granite heart of rock\ncan't stand against this new pressure. It takes longer than with iron\nwedges and sledge, but after a while the rock yields and lies split\nwide-open. The water works on the wood, and that in turn on the stone. The\niron wedges sometimes fail, but the wood and water never fail.\n\nIt seems to be a part of our make-up to make plans, and to count on the\nplans. And planning does much. We don't want to plan less, necessarily,\nbut to learn to depend more <i>in</i> our planning on the soft, noiseless, but\nresistless power of the Holy Spirit.\n\n    \"The day is long, and the day is hard;\n    We are tired of the march and of keeping guard;\n    Tired of the sense of a fight to be won,\n    Of days to live through, and of work to be done;\n    Tired of ourselves and of being alone:\n    Yet all the while, did we only see,\n    <i>We walk in the Lord's own company.</i>\n    We fight, but 'tis He who nerves our arm;\n    He turns the arrows that else might harm,\n    And out of the storm He brings a calm;\n    And the work that we count so hard to do,\n    He makes it easy, for He works, too:\n    And the days that seem long to live are His--\n    bit of His bright eternities--and close to our need\n       His helping is.\"[26]\n\n\n\n<u>The Trinity of Service.</u>\n\n\nNow, we want to mark keenly that <i>full</i> power depends upon three things.\nThere is a trinity of service, a human-divine trinity. The full results\ncan come only through its working. The ideal winner of men needs to\nbelieve thoroughly in this trinity.\n\nFirst of all is <i>the message</i>. There needs to be a clear understanding of\nthe Gospel. That is the winner's message. That is the direct thing he uses\nin approaching and laying siege to some man's heart. It is a simple\nmessage, but very often it is grasped only partly by those who tell it.\n\nThat message needs to be understood clearly and fully by the man who would\nhave the greatest power in winning men. From its first plain teaching\nabout sin, on to the terrible results that sin left to itself works out;\nthrough the blessed teaching of love as shown most in the sacrifice for\nsin which Jesus made on the cross; the need of a clean cutting with sin,\nand clear-out surrender to Jesus as Saviour and Master; the work of the\nHoly Spirit in one's heart; and then the climax of service out among\nmen--this simple message needs to be grasped fully and clearly. This is\nthe first great essential hi the trinity of service.\n\nThere is a second thing, yet more important, that must go with this first.\nAnd that is <i>a man who embodies the message</i> in himself. It isn't enough\nto know the story of the Gospel, nor to tell it. It must be <i>lived</i>. That\nis the best telling of it. The man must be a living illustration of the\ntruth he is telling. He may be conscious of not illustrating it as he\nshould. The earnest man is never aware that he is as good an illustration\nof it as he is. He may think himself a poor illustration. He is quite apt\nto. But he is yet more apt not to be thinking of that side as he attempts\nto win men. He will be all taken up with Jesus, and with getting men to\nknow Him.\n\nThe man is more than the message, even when he is less than the message.\nWhen his life fails to live out the truth he is speaking, still even then\nhe is more. For the life is more than the lips. And, while he is talking,\nhis life is discounting his words and taking away some of the power that\nbelongs with them. I do not mean that those he is talking to are making\nthe comparison, necessarily. They may not know about his life, whether it\nembodies the message or not.\n\nI mean that the life that is true breathes a force and power into the man\nhimself and so into his words. <i>Or</i> it doesn't. The message takes on the\nquality of the man. One man's talking catches fire; another's doesn't. The\nlisteners know that it is so, though they don't usually know why. All the\nwhile you and I are trying to win others, in Sunday-school class or\nmeeting, in Gospel service or church preaching, in personal conversation\nor letter-writing, there's a subtle something that goes out of us, as an\natmosphere, that affects the power of the message we're giving out.\n\nAnd that something is actually greater in its power than the truth we are\nspeaking. It may be a touch of flame making the truth burn within him who\nis listening. It may be a deadly, dampening chill checking the fire that\nis naturally in the truth. The man is always more than the message.\n\n\n\n<u>Living on the Top Floor.</u>\n\n\nThen there is a third thing. It is yet more than the message or the man,\nor than both message and man together. It is this: <i>the Holy Spirit\ncontrolling the man who embodies the message</i>. I mean by controlling him\nthat he has surrendered himself to the Spirit's control. And, further than\nthat, that he cultivates the Spirit's presence.\n\nThere needs to be a habitual cultivation of the Spirit's presence and\nfriendship, even as we cultivate our human friendships. There needs to be\ntime spent alone, habitually, with the Book of God. I do not mean just now\nmerely studying the Bible to get better acquainted with its contents.\nSomething more than that--thoughtful meditation on its truths; the quiet,\nsteady holding of one's self open to the searching and stimulating and\nenlightening influence of this rare Book. The Spirit speaks through these\npages. Yet it is to be feared that many a careful student of its pages\ndoes not get deeper in than the print. He doesn't know and meet the Person\nwho speaks in the print and through it.\n\nThen, beyond the quiet time with the Book, there is the holding of one's\nwhole life open to the Spirit's suggestion and subject to His direction.\nHe guides through our thinking. <i>And</i> sometimes He guides us when our\nthinking, for some reason, has not gotten up high enough for Him to guide\nthrough it. Samuel thought that David's oldest brother was God's chosen\none. But into his rarely sensitized inner ear the Spirit said \"No.\" His\nthinking wasn't keen enough to be the channel through which he could be\nguided. But he had learned to hold his thinking subject to a higher power.\n\nOne time Paul thought it would be good to go over east into the province\nof Bithynia, and even tried to make a start that way. But the Spirit made\nplain His plan that they were to go in just the opposite direction, to the\nwest. Had Paul's thinking been more open to the Spirit's touch at that\npoint, he wouldn't have made the false start. But he was wise clear beyond\nthe great crowd of us. For at once he dropped his own thought-out plans,\nand did as he was bid.\n\nThe keener our mental processes are, the better informed we are, the\nbetter poised our judgment--the better can the Spirit reveal His plans to\nus through this natural channel, if it is open to Him. But there is one\nthing higher up than our thinking powers. And that is the\nspirit-perception. The mental isn't at the top. It's a step up to the\nspirit floor, the highest of all.\n\nSome men of splendid ability and training and consecration are constantly\nhampered because they insist on living on the mental floor. All their\ndecisions are made there, <i>not</i> subject to change from above. And the Holy\nSpirit, who is the Commander-in-chief of all the forces in this campaign,\nis unable to use them as He would.\n\nThey haven't got the sensitized inner ear of the quiet time that would\nlead them up into higher, broader service. They go faithfully plodding\nalong on the lower level. The Spirit can use them, of course. He does; but\nnever to the full The Spirit of God controlling the man who embodies the\nmessage--this brings fulness of power in winsome service; and only this\ncan. It is not by keenness of thinking, nor fulness of learning, nor\nshrewd, well-balanced judgment, but by the Spirit of God working through\nthese, and sometimes working higher up than they have reached.\n\n\n\n<u>Partial Weavings of the Strands.</u>\n\n\nNow it will help us, I am sure, and make the truth stand out more clearly,\nto recall a good many variations that belong in here. Running back over\nthese things brings up certain facts.\n\nThe truth has power of blessing in itself, regardless of who is speaking\nit. A bad man may preach the Gospel, and the truth itself will be felt in\nspite of the man. There is a life in truth itself, quite apart from the\nmedium of its transmission. This explains why men who have turned out to\nbe bad men have had good results attending their ministry. But it was the\ntruth making itself felt in spite of the handicap it suffered at the\nhands of the man talking.\n\nAnd men whose understanding of the truth is very one-sided and meagre have\nbeen greatly used and blessed in their work. It is striking how a man who\nhas been rescued from a life of open sin, and who goes into Christian\nservice with tremendous earnestness, will have great power. His emphasis\nof truth may be one-sided. It is quite apt to be. He tells what he has\nexperienced. The man himself is a living illustration of the truth spoken.\nAll the truth that can get out through him has the tremendous push forward\nof his life. But the extent of his service is limited.\n\nAnd there are men who have a clear, well-rounded grasp of the blessed\nmessage of Jesus, and who give it out clearly and fully. But they are\nhampered by their mental swaddling-clothes, in which they have been\nwrapped up in school-days. They never get up out of them into the freedom\nof strong action through the Spirit's control.\n\nThen, too, without doubt God's Spirit works alone, without using anybody.\nHe speaks through nature's beauty and power. He speaks in the inner heart\nof every man. He is speaking directly to men all the time everywhere. But\nthe message is a partial one. The direct revelation of God, in nature and\nin conscience, is a limited revelation. The full revelation of God was\nmade in Jesus. And so it is in this Book that tells of Jesus.\n\nThe Spirit of God can speak most fully where that Book is known. He can\nwork most fully and powerfully through the man who lives the Book. Every\nprinting of this Bible, or any part of it, is giving the spirit freer\nentrance into men's hearts. Every one of us who produces a new translation\nof it in the language of his life gives the Spirit a wide-open door where\notherwise the opening had been narrow.\n\nNow, whatever combination of these there may be, some of the blessed power\nof God will be seen and felt. The truth unembodied or even hampered; men\nwho embody the truth they know, but whose knowledge is small; men of much\nknowledge, but small practice; men of full knowledge, but who have not\nlearned to let the Spirit sway them fully; the Spirit Himself speaking\nwhere Jesus is not known, and without any man's help--through each of\nthese, power of life will go out to men.\n\nBut the fulness of power that runs like a mighty stream goes only as the\nthree things come into one. The <i>message</i>, full and clear, the <i>man</i> who\nlives it, the <i>Holy Spirit possessing and controlling the man</i> who lives\nthe message--this is the trinity of service through which alone the\nflood-tide flows.\n\n\n\n<u>Unbroken Connection Above.</u>\n\n\nThat blessed flood-tide of power may be much more common than it is. There\nneeds to be daily quiet time, alone with the Master, with the door shut,\nthe Book open, the knee bent, the will bent too, to a clear right angle,\nthe mind quiet and open, the inner spirit unhurried; broad, thoughtful\nreading; keen, clear, quiet meditation; the rigorous squaring of the life\nup to the standard of the Book; the cultivation of the Spirit's presence\nand friendship; and these habits steadily followed until they become\nsecond nature.\n\nThen will be fulfilled the promise, \"Out of His inner being <i>shall flow\nrivers of water of life</i>.\"[27] And men have always been drawn irresistibly\nto the rivers. And yet, while there will be fulness of power, there will\nnot be full knowledge of how full the power is. That is reserved for \"the\nMorning.\"\n\nFor hundreds of years men have used a contrivance called a diving-bell for\nworking under water. Practically it enables a man to live out of his\nnative element. For a man to live in water for any length of time is\nimpossible. Expert divers do so for a few minutes at a time, but must rise\nconstantly to get a fresh supply of air. But their work is dangerous, and\nvery trying on the body. By means of the diving-bell a man may live and\nwork for hours under the water; that is to say, in an element that of\nitself, unchecked, would quickly take his life.\n\nThe diving-bell is a sort of huge inverted cup, let down into the water by\nits own weight, opening downward, so that the man in the bell faces the\nwater directly with nothing between himself and it. Death by drowning is\nalways within arm's length, yet he remains safe. The simple principle on\nwhich the thing is constructed is that water and air can't occupy the same\nspace at the same time. The bell, being full of air, holds the water out.\n\nBut there needs to be a continual supply of fresh air sent down by means\nof a tube connected with the upper air. Death by drowning and death by\nsuffocation, both threaten constantly, and each is held off, one by the\nair, and the other by the continual supply of fresh air. The man's ability\nto work and his very life depend upon the uninterrupted connection with\nthe fresh air above.\n\nThe Christian man in this world is living out of his native breathing\nelement. He needs to have his own atmosphere with him, or else he will\ndie. And he needs to have a fresh supply continually from above, or his\nlife will be at very low ebb.\n\nMissionaries in foreign-mission lands speak much of the peculiar,\ndeadening, moral atmosphere there. There is a strange sense of depression\nin it. They always plan to have their children brought home at an early\nage that they may be brought up through the tender, impressionable years\nin a land where Christian standards of life are recognized.\n\nThere is no language strong enough to put this truth, that we <i>must</i>, each\nof us, whether here or there, carry our own atmosphere with us, and have\ncontinual uninterrupted connection with the upper air. And that \"<i>must</i>\"\ncannot be too strongly underscored.\n\nBlessed Holy Spirit, breath of God, and breath of my life, help me to let\nThee have full sweep within me, that so my life may be kept sweet and\nfull; and so Jesus can get freely and fully out of me to the great hungry\ncrowd.\n\n\n\n\nPrayer\n\n\n\n  The Greatest Doing Is Praying.\n  At the Other End.\n  A Weekly Journey Round the World.\n  Prayer a Habit.\n  A Praying Bent Of Mind.\n  The Man Is The Prayer.\n  Unseen Changes Going On.\n\n\n\n\nPrayer\n\n\n\n<u>The Greatest Doing Is Praying.</u>\n\n\nThe greatest of all things we can <i>do</i> is to <i>pray</i>.\n\nJesus lived a life of prayer. All that He did and said grew out of His\nprayer. There is no way of knowing exactly how far it was so. But the more\nI study His life the stronger grows the impression that His teaching and\nactivity, which form the greater part of these Gospel pages, were actually\nless than His praying. He seems to have put prayer first. All the rest was\nan outgrowth of it. He was on a world-winning errand. And this was what He\nthought of prayer. <i>The emphasis of Jesus' personal habit was laid upon\nprayer.</i>\n\nThe Holy Spirit is a prayer-spirit. He is the Master-Intercessor. He\nbreathes into us the spirit of prayer, and makes it glow into a passion.\nHe teaches us how to pray. It is a lifelong teaching. You who are teachers\nknow that patience and skill are more in a good teacher than the knowledge\ntaught. With greatest skill, and loving, tactful patience the Spirit\nteaches us to pray.\n\nAnd then He does more: He uses each of us as His praying-room, praying in\nus with yearnings beyond utterance the prayer to which we have not yet\nreached up, but which needs to be prayed down on the earth. All the power\nneeded in this great winning work is in the Holy Spirit and comes from\nHim. <i>And the chief thing He emphasizes is prayer.</i>\n\nThe greatest thing each one of us can do is to pray. If we can go\npersonally to some distant land, still we have gone to only one place. But\nour field is the world. It is impossible for us to reach our whole field\npersonally. But it can be reached, and reached effectually, by prayer. The\nplace where you and I are sent, whether at home or abroad, is simply our\n<i>base of action</i>. It is our field for <i>personal</i> touch. And that means\nvery much. But it is more than that. It is only a small part of our field\nof activity. It is most significant as our <i>base of action,</i> from which we\nsend out our secret messengers of prayer to all parts of the field.\n\nAnd then, in the particular town or city or country district to which we\nhave been sent, or in which we are being kept, the prayer properly comes\nbefore the personal activity. And it runs along side by side with the\nactivity, and follows along after. We give the personal touch which must\nbe given, and which may be so marvellous in power, but there's something\neven there greater than the great personal touch; and that is the power of\nprayer.\n\nIt is through the prayer that the personal presence means most. That\npersonal presence may become a positive hindrance. It may be a drag upon\nthe work. It often is just that for lack of prayer. For the real sweetness\nand efficiency of personal service out among men is in secret prayer.\n\nAnd if we give <i>money</i>, it needs even more the prayer to go with it. Money\nseems almost almighty. As a winning force, of course, it must be reckoned\nfar less than personal service. For it is less. It gets its almost\nomnipotence from human hands. If the personal touch depends for its subtle\npower on prayer, how much more does money! Money given to missions,\nunaccompanied by prayer, can no doubt be made to do great good. But it is\na very pauper in its poverty alongside the bit of money that is charged\nwith the spirit-current of prayer.\n\n\n\n<u>At the Other End.</u>\n\n\nOne day I ran across a party of about twenty Pittsburg men on their way to\na men's Christian convention in Cincinnati. There were a few ministers in\nthe party, but it was made up chiefly of business men, typical, keen,\nalert American business men. We got together and talked about things of\ncommon interest.\n\nAnd this question was asked: <i>Does prayer do things?</i> Then the question\nwas spread out some. I go into my room at night to retire. I read a bit\nfrom the Book, and kneel to pray. I pray for a man in Pittsburg or in\nHang-chow, China. Does anything take place in Pittsburg or in Hang-chow\nthat wouldn't have taken place if I hadn't prayed? Of course, the praying\ndoes <i>me</i> good. The very bending of knee and head before God, the good\nwishes in my heart going out to some one else--these influence me. I rise\nbetter for both.\n\nBut is that all? Does anything happen <i>at the other end?</i> Does my prayer\ndo anything in Hang-chow? If I write a business letter to Hang-chow,\nenclosing a foreign draft, the letter does something. A vast amount of\nbusiness is carried on that way. Would the prayer as really do something\nas the letter and the draft?\n\nThere was a good bit of talk back and forth, and questions asked. It was\ninteresting to find these men were ready to admit that they really\nbelieved that something would occur at the other end. They belonged to a\nchurch noted for its sound teaching, and came from the orthodox church\ncity of Pittsburg. The matter-of-fact power of prayer to do business \"at\nthe other end\" seemed to appeal to these business men. Apparently they had\nnot been looking at prayer that way. But they readily admitted that it\nmust be so. Then the next question asked itself: How much of this foreign\nbusiness are we doing? And so the little crowd talked along while the\ntrain pounded the rails at the rate of forty-odd miles an hour.\n\nPrayer does do things. Something happens at the other end that wouldn't\nhappen if the prayer were not made. The banker can touch London and Paris\nand Shanghai and Calcutta and Tokyo, without moving from the desk where he\nis dictating letters, with his correspondence spread out before him. The\npraying man can as really touch these cities as he kneels in his room,\nwith map and Book spread out before him.\n\nThings are changed out there that need changing. That banker does\nbusiness, too, in his home city and out in the home-land. But many times,\nwith many a house, the bulk of foreign business is in excess of that done\nat home. Now we want to do a large business abroad in soul-winning and in\nworld-winning, as well as at home.\n\n\n\n<u>A Weekly Journey round the World.</u>\n\n\nI use that word \"business\" in this connection thoughtfully and reverently.\nI know there is a sacredness, a hallowedness about prayer that never or\nrarely enters into business matters. We keep the two things apart in our\nthoughts; reckoning the one a common thing, and the other a holy thing.\nAnd I would increase, if I could, that sense of reverence in prayer. But\nthere is a great advantage in using the familiar language of business in\nthinking of the results of our praying.\n\nPrayer is doing business for God. It gives a practicality, a\nsomething-you-can-touch-and-feel feeling to think in that way. Shall we\nnot make plans at once to increase our foreign correspondence?\n\nYou can have a simple schedule or memorandum to guide your praying. I do\nnot mean a slavish hard-and-fast system, or set of rules, set down to be\nfollowed, with a feeling that you have been untrue if you forget. Nothing\nof that sort at all. But merely a simple something to glance at each day,\nand so serve as a reminder to guide your thoughts.\n\nA little memorandum can be made running through the days of the week. It\ncan be so planned as to run around the world during the week. The little\nschedule which I use is divided into the days of the week, Sunday to\nSaturday. There is a daily page containing notes, catch-words, about\npersonal affairs, and home, and friends, and church, and appointments, and\nsuch items. Then each day of the week has a page, and on it is marked\nhome-land items and foreign items.\n\nIn marking out the weekly world journey I had to begin somewhere. The\nMaster told the disciples to begin at Jerusalem and work out. So I\nfollowed that rule, and Sunday is marked Turkey and the lands grouped with\nit, Arabia and Persia. The memorandum moves east, following the\ncompass-line of greatest need. Monday is India day, including Ceylon and\nthe lands and islands lying adjacent. Tuesday is China day; Wednesday,\nJapan, the island kingdom; and the island world of the Pacific.\n\nThis brings me across the Pacific, and so Thursday is marked South\nAmerica, including Central America and Mexico. The easterly line takes me\nacross the Atlantic again to Africa on Friday. Saturday takes an upward\nturn to the papal lands of Europe, and to Russia, completing the\nworld-journey for that week. The matters for prayer here in the home-land\nare noted through the days of the week in the same way. Each page has\ncertain home and certain foreign items.\n\nA little prayer-book of that sort grows under constant use. Your reading\nof missionary news leads to the making of fresh notes. Names of persons\nare added, and dates of coming conferences, and so on, and verses of\nScripture that stand out in the daily reading. So the book becomes to you\na very precious little batch of leaves, lying inside the precious Book of\nGod.\n\nIt should be accompanied by a map of the world. For a good while I used\nthe one which was inserted in one of Dr. A. T. Pierson's mission books.\nThat copy has long since been replaced by others, larger, giving more\ninformation. It is an immense help to glance at the map daily, and look at\nthe part marked for the day. The lands get fixed in mind in that way\nwithout special effort. Gradually they stand out more and more clearly,\nand come to be very real to you.\n\nThat map may become dear to you, for it suggests the field that you are\ninfluencing. It is your prayer sailing-chart. It becomes fragrant with\nmemories. Experiences you have had alone with God over His Word, and over\nthis map of His World, come back to refresh and sweeten.\n\n\n\n<u>Prayer a Habit.</u>\n\n\nThere's a little sentence of Paul's that used to puzzle and bother me,\n\"Pray without ceasing.\" But it has become a great help to me. It puzzled\nme because I didn't see any practical way of doing it. It didn't seem to\nmean the repetition of prayers, with little mechanical helps, such as some\nuse. It surely doesn't mean staying on your knees a long time. But, as I\ntried to pray my way into its meaning, it came to mean four distinct\nthings to me. And I would not be surprised to find more yet coming out of\nit.\n\nFirst of all, it means that prayer should be <i>a habit</i>. There should be a\nfixed time every day, or times, for going off alone to pray. Into that\ntime the Book is taken. Quiet time is spent in reading it. For this is\nlistening to God. And that comes first in praying; listening first, then\nspeaking. The reading may be rapid and broad, or slower and more\nmeditative. Whichever it may be, there should be a cultivation of <i>the\nhabit of meditation</i>.\n\nI do not mean a sleepy trying to imitate what we suppose some holy men do.\nBut a keen thinking into the meaning of the words, and into their\npractical use in one's own life. Then the praying itself. The being still\nbefore God, and the definite prayer for particular things, and persons,\nand places. That habit can be fixed until it becomes second nature. It can\nbe cultivated until it becomes the sweet spot of the day to you.\n\n\n\n<u>A Praying Bent of Mind.</u>\n\n\nThen while the daily habit continues prayer may become an attitude, <i>a\nbent of mind</i>. Whatever comes up suggests prayer to you. The bent of your\nmind is to pray as things come up in the daily round. You can't stop your\nwork, but you <i>think</i> prayers. Your heart prays while your hands are busy.\n\nI shall never forget the school in which I learned to pray this way. A\ncase of protracted illness in my home required my personal attention\nconstantly for a time. It seemed as if no assistance I could get meant\nquite as much as what I could do personally. The life in peril was so\nprecious that all else dropped out of sight. My habits of life were\ncompletely broken up. I was up night and day. The early morning hour of\nreading and prayer was broken into, with everything else of a regular\nsort.\n\nBut as I went about my round of service I found myself praying constantly.\nI was much wearied, and things sometimes seemed desperate. I realized how\neverything depended on God's touch. And without any planning a habit of\ncontinual praying formed itself. I could be engaged in conversation,\nthinking intently into something needing great care, and yet there was an\nundercurrent of prayer constantly. I shall never cease to be grateful for\nthat trying experience, because in it this new habit of a praying bent of\nmind formed itself.\n\nDo you not know how as you go about your ordinary round there is a\nconstant undercurrent of thought? You may be talking, or reading, or\nwriting, or doing something more mechanical, and yet this underneath train\nof thought is running along apparently of its own accord, regardless of\nyou. It is broken at times, or you lose consciousness of it, as your work\nrequires closer attention. When you swing into the habitual things that\nyou have done over and over again until they almost do themselves, it\nreasserts itself.\n\nI remember years ago, in a banking-house where I served for a time, I had\nlong additions to make. Sometimes the rows of figures to be added up were\na foot in length. And I got so used to adding that often I was surprised\nto find that my thoughts had been far away, completely taken up with\nsomething else, while I had been adding the figures. And fearing that I\nhad been slighting my work, I would go back carefully all over the\nfigures, only to find the footings correct. The adding habit had become\nfixed, and left the undercurrent of my thought free.\n\nThat current is apt to reveal the heart's purpose or set of mind. Whatever\nyou are most set upon, whatever your favorite fads or hobbies or\ninclinations or moods are, they are apt to appear in that involuntary\ntrain of thinking. Now this can be cultivated. It can be cultivated\nchiefly by the cultivation of the controlling purpose of your life, and\nthen by trying to give directions to the undercurrent, and holding it to\nthat direction. If Jesus has gripped your heart the purpose of the life\nwill be for Him. And if you have come to realize the tremendous power of\nprayer, this undercurrent of thought can be made a prayer-current.\n\nI do not mean by any forced or artificial holding of one's self to such a\ncurrent by dint of main force, and then mentally whipping yourself if you\nhave forgotten. The power of all action lies in its being perfectly free\nand natural. You can cultivate the Jesus-passion, and the life-purpose,\nand the prayer-habit, and all of this will be a training of that\nundercurrent of thought toward prayer.\n\nThe shipping clerk, as he heads up his barrels and boxes, can be sending\nout and up his current of prayer. At intervals he is thinking closely\nabout something connected with his work. Then his thoughts free\nthemselves. As he hammers in the nails, his thought says, \"This is China\nday.\" Each ringing blow of the hammer rings out \"This is China day:--Thy\nblessing, Master, to-day upon the missionaries in Hang-chow;--upon Mr.\nBlank out there;--victory in Jesus' name to-day;--the physician\nmissionaries, the nurses;--Thy power upon them;--help the native workers.\"\n\nThe picture of his little prayer memorandum comes up before his mind's\neye. The map of China stands out more or less distinctly, according to how\nlong he may have been practising looking at it in his prayer-hour. His\nmind runs of itself from one point to another. And so, all the while, his\nundercurrent of praying goes on. It is broken into by newer or more\nexacting duties; then free again, and swinging more or less to the thing\nhis heart is set upon. It becomes a perfectly free, natural thing with\nhim. This is part of the meaning of \"Pray without ceasing.\"\n\n\n\n<u>The Man is the Prayer.</u>\n\n\nThen prayer is <i>a life</i>. The life is what you are in yourself. It is not\nthe mere span of years you live through. Your thoughts and loves, your\nheart's ambitions and gripping purposes, the things you will to do, and to\nbe--that is your life. That exerts an enormous influence upon the circle\nin which you live, and upon the world.\n\nIf underneath all else that driving purpose, that warm, intense\nlove-power, that yearning desire, is Godward, and manward, and world-ward,\nthat becomes a prayer, a continual prayer. You are not thinking of it that\nway. But that is your life, and that life is a prayer. Its influence\nagainst the evil one and for God is enormous.\n\nThat is a prayer unceasing, as long and as strong as your life itself.\nSatan fears it. It hinders him and thwarts him every day. The fragrant\nincense from the censer of your life rises up before the throne of God\ncontinually, and affects the events on the earth.[28]\n\nAnd then prayer is <i>a person</i>. That is to say, you yourself may be a\nprayer, a walking prayer offered up in Jesus' name. Your presence will\naffect the evil one, and change events, and help God in His plans. You may\nbe so allied with Jesus in the simple gripping purpose of your heart that\nyou yourself, where you are, by your mere presence, will be recognized by\nevil spirits, and by the Master Himself as a mighty power for God.\n\nYour presence disturbs the evil one's plan. It has an influence upon those\nyou meet. It is helping God. The whole effect of your presence is\nprecisely the same as a prayer. You are a prayer yourself, though\nunconsciously. The whole trend of your life says, \"Thy Kingdom come; Thy\nwill be done on earth as in heaven.\"\n\nA few years ago President Roosevelt's daughter was a member of the Taft\nparty that visited parts of the Orient. She did not go as the President's\ndaughter, of course. There could be no official significance attached to\nher presence. We Americans can understand better than some others that she\nwent simply as a young woman eager to see Japan and China, not as the\nPresident's daughter.\n\nBut everywhere she went in the Orient she was treated not merely as a\nmember of the party, but as the daughter of the President of the United\nStates. Presents were made to her, receptions tendered, and deference\nshown, because of her personal relation to her father. To the Orientals\nher presence stood for the head of our Government. They treated her in\nrelation to him.\n\nEven so it is with us Christians. The evil one doesn't think of you and\nme for ourselves simply. He thinks of us in relation to the Jesus, who is\nhis Victor. We stand to him down here for Jesus. He fears us as he fears\nJesus. That is, he can be made to fear us, by our being true to our Lord.\n\nThe final purpose of prayer is to defeat Satan and to bring about God's\nwill. And we do just that in our persons, by our presence; or we may.\nPrayer is a person. You are a prayer. The man himself becomes a tremendous\nprayer, off-setting evil influences, changing men and events, and helping\nGod in His plans.\n\nThese last two, the life and the person, may be called unconscious prayer.\nThe influence is constantly going out, though we are not aware of it. But\nit is great encouragement to recall that this prayer-power is going out of\nus constantly. And these two are not limited to the place where we are.\nThey act as a momentum to every wish we breathe, and every spoken prayer\nwe utter, sending these with renewed force out to the place involved.\nSpirit influence does not know anything about the limitations of distance.\n\n\n\n<u>Unseen Changes Going On.</u>\n\n\nAll this praying makes a difference at the other end, the place toward\nwhich it is directed. Things in Tokyo are made different. The copy of a\nGospel that some native in India is reading becomes a plainer book to him\nbecause of this praying. Your prayer is a spirit-force travelling\ninstantly through the distance between you and the place you are praying\nfor. And things occur that otherwise would not.\n\nOpposition lessens. Difficulties give way. The road some man is travelling\nclears and brightens. The truth on the printed page stands out in bigger\nletters. The health renews. The sickness or weakness gives way to a new\nhealth and strength. The judgment steers a straight course. The purpose\nholds its anchor steady. The man rides the rough seas of temptation\nsafely.\n\nThings are happening. And they are happening because some scarcely noticed\nyoung fellow hammering a barrel-head and marking the shipping directions,\nand some typewriter chopping her machine, are praying in the quiet time,\nand are praying softly in the undercurrent of their scarcely thought-out\nthoughts.\n\n    \"Oh, if our ears were opened\n      To hear as angels do\n    The Intercession-chorus\n      Arising full and true,\n    We should hear it soft up-welling\n      In morning's pearly light;\n    Through evening's shadows swelling\n      In grandly gathering might;\n    The sultry silence filling\n      Of noontide's thunderous blow,\n    And the solemn starlight thrilling\n      With ever-deepening flow.\n\n    \"We should hear it through the rushing\n      Of the city's restless roar,\n    And trace its gentle gushing\n      O'er ocean's crystal floor;\n    We should hear it far up-floating\n      Beneath the Orient moon,\n    And catch the golden noting\n      From the busy Western noon;\n    And pine-robed heights would echo\n      As the mystic chant up-floats,\n    And the sunny plain resounds again\n      With the myriad mingling notes.\n\n    \"There are hands too often weary\n      With the business of the day,\n    With God-entrusted duties,\n      Who are <i>toiling while they pray</i>.\n    They bear the golden vials,\n      And the golden harps of praise,\n    Through all the daily trials,\n      Through all the dusty ways.\n    <i>These hands, so tired, so faithful,\n      With odors sweet are filled,</i>\n    And in the ministry of prayer\n      Are wonderfully skilled.\n\n    \"There are noble Christian workers,\n      The men of faith and power,\n    The overcoming wrestlers\n      Of many a midnight hour;\n    Prevailing princes with their God,\n      Who will not be denied,\n    Who bring down showers of blessing\n      To swell the rising tide.\n    The Prince of Darkness quaileth\n      At their triumphant way,\n    <i>Their fervent prayer availeth</i>\n      <i>To sap his subtle sway.</i>\n\n    \"And evermore the Father\n      Sends radiantly down\n    All-marvellous responses,\n      His ministers to crown;\n    The incense cloud returning\n      As golden blessing-showers,\n    We in each drop discerning\n      Some feeble prayer of ours,\n    Transmuted into wealth unpriced,\n      By Him who giveth thus\n    The glory all to Jesus Christ,\n      The gladness all to us!\"[29]\n\n\n\n\nMoney\n\n\n\n  Limitations.\n  The Best Partnership.\n  Jesus' Teaching.\n  Be Your Own Executor.\n  Missing the Master's Meaning.\n  Money Talks.\n  Debts.\n  Rusty Money.\n  Are We True to Our Friend's Trust?\n\n\n\n\nMoney\n\n\n\n<u>Limitations.</u>\n\n\nMoney seems almost almighty in its power to do things, and make changes.\nIt can make a desert blossom as a rose. It can even defy death. Medical\nskill holds the life here that otherwise would have been snuffed out.\nGreat buildings go up. Colleges begin their life with apparatus and books,\nskilled instructors, and eager students. Mammoth enterprises spring into\nbeing. Hospitals and churches rise up with skilled attendants and talented\npreachers.\n\nWe have come, in our day, and perhaps peculiarly in our country, to think\nthat there is no limit to the power of money. Our ideas of its value are\nreally greatly exaggerated. That first sentence I used would be revised by\nmany to read, \"Money is almighty.\" The cautious words \"seems\" and \"almost\"\nwould be promptly cut out.\n\nYet money has great limitations. It will help greatly to remember what\nthey are. And many of us need the brain-clearing of that help. Of itself\nmoney is utterly useless, so much dead-weight stuff lying useless and\nhelpless. It must have human hands to make it valuable. It gets its value\nfrom our conception of its value and from our use of it. It must have a\nhuman partner to be of any service at all.\n\nIn bad hands it becomes devilish in its badness. And I needn't put an\n\"almost\" in that sentence. It may be as a very demon, or as the arch-devil\nhimself, as really as it may seem to be divine in its creative and\nchanging power.\n\nThen it is valuable only in this world, on the earth. At the line of death\nits value wholly ceases. Over that line it takes its place as a pauper. It\nis represented as being used for cobble stones in the streets of the new\nJerusalem. Yet it would need to go through some hardening process to make\nit of any account at all as paving material.\n\nWe ought to remind ourselves of something else, too, that the crowd\nconstantly forgets, and that we are tempted to forget when touched by the\ncontagion of the crowd. And that is, that money is always less in its\npower than a strong, sweet, pure life. Maybe you think that comparison\ncan't properly be made. You say that things so unlike can't be compared.\nBut, whether consciously or intentionally or otherwise, that comparison is\nbeing made constantly in practical life, and most times to the advantage\nof money. Commonly the crowd reckons money more than character.\n\nWe do well to remind ourselves that its influence for good is always\ndistinctly less than that of a life. To live a life pure and strong and\nwholesome in its ideals out among men is more than to be able to give\nmoney in any amount. To keep one's life up to such ideals in the heartless\ndrive and competition of modern life means more than to extract large\nquantities of gold out of the mine of barter and trade, and to give some\nof it away.\n\nAnd money is less than personal service. Great deference is paid to checks\nand subscriptions. The man who can draw a large check for some good\nobject, and who may by dint of much dexterous handling be induced to write\nhis name under some large figure, is treated with awe. But there's another\nman who stands higher up in the scale, and to whom hats should go farther\noff and more quickly. That is the strong man who gives personal service.\nThere may be a blessed partnership between the man of money and the man of\nservice. There often is. But he is an unfortunate man, to be pitied, who\nlets anything else crowd out of his life the privilege of giving some of\nhis self out in personal service for others. These are some of gold's\nlimitations.\n\n\n\n<u>The Best Partnership.</u>\n\n\nGive money good partners, and there is no end to what it can do. Let\nprayer and sacrifice and money form a life-partnership, and that first\nsentence can be revised, and greatly strengthened by the revision: Money\n<i>is</i> almost almighty. It gets all the good qualities of its partners as\nlong as it stays in the partnership, on good working terms.\n\nIt isn't the head of the firm, however. Prayer belongs in that place. It\nmust direct. It is the prayer's touch with God that hallows the gold and\ngives to it some of God's omnipotence. Money is the working partner, best\nwhen hard at work, and famous for the amount of work it can do in obeying\norders from the head of the house.\n\nIt gives a strange sense of awe to realize that the bit of money you hold\nin your hand can be used to <i>change a life,</i> aye, more, to change many\nlives. That money is yours to control. It came to you in exchange for your\nlabor or your skill. It is yours, for the sweat of your brow or your brain\nis upon it. And now it can be sent out, and the result will be a life\nutterly changed, purified, and redeemed.\n\nThrough your partnership the money produces something greater than itself.\nAnd that changed life becomes the centre of a new power, changing other\nlives out to the far rim of an ever-widening circle. It may have cost you\nmuch. Some of your very life has gone out in the work that brought into\nyour hands that bit of gold. It is red with your blood. And now, if you\nchoose, it can be sent out and made to bring new life in to some one else.\nLife has gone from you in getting it, and life will come to another in\nyour giving it out, under the blessed Master's transmuting touch.\n\n\n\n<u>Jesus' Teaching.</u>\n\n\nJesus' teaching about money is startling. I mean that it stands in such\nutter contrast to the commonly accepted standards out in the world, and\ninside in the Church, that the contrast startles one sharply.\n\nThere are four passages in which His money teachings group, largely.\nThere's the \"Lay-not-up-for-yourselves-treasure-upon-the-earth\" bit in the\nsermon on the Mount;[30] with the still stronger phrase in the Luke\nparallel, \"Sell that ye have, and give.\"[31] There is the incident of the\nearnest young man who was rich;[32] the parable of the wealthy farmer in\nLuke, twelfth chapter;[33] and the whole sixteenth chapter of Luke, with\nthat great ninth verse, whose full meaning has been so little grasped. The\ntruth taught in each of these is practically the same thing.\n\nThe Master is evidently talking about what a man has over and above his\npersonal and family needs. It's a law of life, from Eden on, that a man\nshould work to supply his daily needs and the needs of those dependent\nupon him. Just how much that word \"needs\" means each man settles for\nhimself. It means different things at different times to the same man.\n\nIt is surprising how little it can be made to mean when the pinch comes,\nand yet a man have all actual necessities supplied. The man who would have\nhis life count for most for the Master, and the Master's plan, thinks over\nthat word prayerfully and sensibly with full regard to personal strength,\nand loved ones, and the future. Whatever it may be made to mean, this\nteaching is plainly about what is left over after the needs are met.\n\nNow, about that left-over amount the Master gives three easily understood\nrules, or bits of advice, or commands. First: <i>Don't treasure it up for\nthe sake of having it.</i> If you do it is in danger, and you are in danger.\nIt may be stolen. Every vault, and safe, and safety-deposit company, and\nlock, and key backs up that statement. Or it may be lost through rust or\nmoths, the two things that threaten all inactivity. The stuff that isn't\nin use wears away. The wear of use can't compare with the wear of disuse\nor neglect.\n\nThen <i>you</i> are in danger of your heart being affected. It will be wherever\nyour treasure is. It may get locked up, and so dried up for lack of air or\npoisoned by bad air. The blood must have fresh air. The heart must have\ntouch with men to keep its vigor. It may get all dried up with <i>things</i>,\ninstead of keeping vigorous by touch with needy men. That's the twofold\ndanger. That's the first thing Jesus says: Don't store it up, down here,\nin the ordinary way.\n\nThe second thing is this: <i>Store your surplus up.</i> Be careful of it. Keep\nstrict tally. Let the books be well kept and balanced. Let no\nthoughtlessness nor carelessness nor thriftlessness get in. Store it up.\nBut be careful where you store it. Keep it carefully guarded against the\naction of thieves and moths, and against the inaction of decaying,\ndestroying rust. That is the second thing. Store it up carefully.\n\n\n\n<u>Be Your Own Executor.</u>\n\n\nThe third thing is this: <i>Store it up by means of exchange.</i> Keep it safe\nby giving it away. The whole value of money is in exchange. It must be\nkept moving. But, <i>but</i>--and the whole heart of the teaching is here--be\nvery wary about your exchanges. Invest your money in <i>men</i>, wherever the\nneed may be. All that you invest wisely in men is stored up against any\nviolence or craftiness of thieves and any corroding of rust.\n\nAll that is not out in active use directly among men, for men, in Jesus'\nname, is in danger of being stolen, or of decaying, or of injuring you, or\nof being left behind, utterly worthless to you when you are through down\nhere. Be your own executor.\n\nSome years ago one of the religious papers of New York City told of the\ndeath of a maiden lady named Elizabeth Pellit. Her home was in the\nhall-room of a tenement-house, and at her death all her earthly\npossessions could be put into one common trunk. No executor or\nadministrator was needed. Living in narrow circumstances, her friends\nthought she had denied herself all luxuries and even many comforts. But in\nthe forty years of her Christian life she had been able to give over\nthirty thousand dollars to missionary work. She had supplied the money to\nsend out and sustain one missionary in Salvador, and also for another who\nwas to go out soon. She seemed to have grasped the meaning of the Master's\nteaching.\n\nGood common sense comes in for free play here, both in adjusting one's\npersonal and family schedule and in giving. Giving may be done foolishly,\nor not wisely. There is no place where there is more room for good sense\nin avoiding both the extreme of unwise giving and the other extreme of\nhandicapping one's gifts.\n\nIt is a question of personal judgment how far to give money out directly\nand how far to invest some of it and use the income wholly in gifts. You\nmay think that in some directions you can invest it better, and direct the\nincome better than some organization. That is an important detail. But the\nchief thing is that the money itself is dedicated wholly for use out among\nneedy men.\n\nNow you will please mark keenly that in all this I am not talking about\nwhat I think about money. I am simply putting into plain talk Jesus' own\nteaching about it, in these four great passages.\n\n\n\n<u>Missing the Master's Meaning.</u>\n\n\nChristian men, generally, seem to have missed the meaning of Jesus' words.\nI think it due largely to the lack of teaching in the Church that\nworld-evangelizing is a <i>first</i> obligation.\n\nRecently a fire destroyed the home of a man of large wealth who lives some\ndistance east of San Francisco. It was a beautiful palace, full of art\ntreasures. The value of house and furnishings and the art collection was\nreckoned at about two million dollars. He is a Christian man, prominently\nidentified with active Christian work, and reckoned a liberal giver. He\nhas visited foreign-mission lands, and made special gifts to missions.\n\nBut his gifts to missions seem like a copper cent or a silver quarter\ngiven to a beggar in contrast with the two million dollars tied up for\nhimself in the house that burned. Two millions stored up in a home, while\nmany millions of men have lived and died in ignorance of the light and\npeace that comes with Jesus! Yet this man calls Jesus his Master, and\nsincerely, I have no doubt. And his Master said the one great thing was to\ntell all men of His love and death.\n\nBy no extension of the meaning of that word \"need\" could he be said to\nneed a two-million-dollar home for himself and family. And there are other\nmillions under the same man's control. It looks very much as if this good\nman had missed the meaning of Jesus' words. The criticism, however, must\nbe first upon the Church and its leaders, with whose general trend of\nteaching this man is in accord. According to the Master's teaching, most\nof the money in his house, and stored up in other ways of the sort for\nhimself, is being lost. Far more serious, the opportunity of investment in\nmen is being lost. That money will be all loss to him when he reaches the\nline of departure over into the next sphere of life.\n\nIt is very difficult to use such an illustration from life. There is\ndanger that the words will sound critical in a bad or unkind sense. I\nearnestly pray to be kept from that. You will know that I am talking to\nmyself first of all; and speaking of this only to help. The bother is that\nthis man is not an exception. Rather he represents the habit and standard\nof his generation.\n\nI recall another Christian man as I speak, of large wealth, by inheritance\nand by dint of business keenness. His face showed plainly his fine\nChristian character. He gave liberally in many directions, sometimes very\nlarge sums. But he lived in a home whose value ran close to a half-million\nof dollars. When he died, full of years and honors, he left many millions\nto a son who does not inherit his father's generous hand with his wealth.\nOf course, the son didn't <i>need</i> the vast wealth.\n\nAnd I wondered, silently, within my heart, how things looked to that man,\nas he slipped out of life up into the Master's presence, and looked down\non the earth through the eyes of the One whose teaching we have been\ntalking about. He could see China and India and Africa then as plainly as\nAmerica.\n\nHow did the lost opportunity of laying up his treasure in the lives of men\nlook to him then, I wondered. He was a good man. I saw him smile once, and\nhis face seemed to shine as an angel's. I think probably no faithful\nfriend had ever talked to him of the plain meaning of Jesus' words, and of\nworld-winning being a <i>first</i> obligation. He hadn't been taught it from\nthe pulpit. And he hadn't thought into it himself.\n\n\n\n<u>Money Talks.</u>\n\n\nMany are losing a great opportunity of silently preaching Jesus to their\nfellows by their habit of giving. Two men were discussing the evidences of\nthe Christian religion. The one was a Christian; the other not, and\ninclined to be sceptical. Arguments were freely exchanged. At last the\nsceptic, who was a blunt, out-spoken man, said frankly, to his friend and\nneighbor: \"I think we might as well drop this matter. For I don't believe\na word you say. And, more than that, I am quite satisfied in my own mind\nthat you do not really believe it yourself. For to my certain knowledge\nyou have not given, the last twenty years, as much for the spread of\nChristianity, such as the building of churches and foreign and domestic\nmissions, as your last Durham cow cost. Why, sir, if I believed what you\nsay you believe I'd make the church my rule for giving, my farm the\nexception.\"\n\nThat Christian man's life was contradicting every word he uttered to his\nneighbor. Money talks. His was talking very loudly to his sceptical\nneighbor. His neighbor was unusually frank in saying out what thousands\nare thinking. He had lost a great opportunity of winning his friend.\n\n\n\n<u>Debts.</u>\n\n\nIn a simple little sentence Paul reveals how thoroughly he had grasped\nJesus' meaning. He said, \"<i>I am debtor</i> both to Greeks and\nbarbarians\"--to all men.[34] Now that word, \"debtor,\" commonly means two\nthings: that you have received something of value from some one, and that\ntherefore you owe him for what he gave to you.\n\nBut Paul hadn't gotten anything special from the men of whom he is\nspeaking. His birth and training and whatever else he had were Jewish. And\nthe Jews were a minority in the world. He was not under the debtor\nobligation of having gotten something from the men he is speaking of.\n\nIn his use of that word, \"debtor\" means <i>three</i> things: first, something\nreceived from God, and that something everything; then something owing to\nGod; and then that something <i>payable to man</i>. He counted himself in debt\nto all men on Jesus' account. And so are we. How much owest <i>thou</i> to thy\nLord? That's how much you are to pay to men on your Lord's account.\n\nWe are not even our own, much less our goods. We were bought up when we\nwere bankrupt A great price was paid for us, even the life-blood of Jesus.\nAnd our Owner bids us pay <i>up</i> by paying <i>out</i>. We are badly and blessedly\nin debt; badly, for we can never square the account; blessedly, because we\ncan be constantly paying on account, out to men in Jesus' name.\n\n    \"Over against the Treasury this day\n      The Master silent sits; whilst, unaware\n      Of that Celestial Presence still and fair,\n    The people pass or pause upon their way.\n\n    And some go laden with His treasures sweet,\n      And dressed in costly robes of His device\n      To cover hearts of stone and souls of ice,\n    Which bear no token to the Master's feet.\n\n    And some pass, gaily singing, to and fro,\n      And cast a careless gift before His face,\n      Amongst the treasures of the holy place,\n    But kneel to crave no blessing ere they go.\n\n    And some are travel-worn, their eyes are dim,\n      They touch His shining vesture as they pass,\n      But see not--even darkly through a glass--\n    How sweet might be their trembling gifts to Him.\n\n    And still the hours roll on; serene and fair\n      The Master keeps his watch, but who can tell\n      The thoughts that in His tender spirit swell,\n    As one by one we pass him unaware?\n\n    For this is He who, on one awful day,\n      Cast down for us a price so vast and dread,\n      That He was left for our sakes bare and dead,\n    Having given Himself our mighty debt to pay!\n\n    Oh, shall unworthy gifts once more be thrown\n      Into His treasury--by whose death we live?\n      Or shall we now embrace His cross, and give\n    Ourselves, and all we have, to him alone?\"\n\nIs not that the meaning of Paul's \"Owe no man anything, save to love one\nanother.\"[35] We owe a debt of love to all men on Jesus' account. We can\nbe paying on it continually, and yet never get a receipt in full that\ndischarges the debt. But then we get other things in full--peace, and joy,\nand a life overflowing in fulness.\n\nWith an honorable business man <i>a debt is a first obligation</i>. His\npersonal expenditures and his home schedule are shaped by his debt. The\nextras that he would feel quite free in allowing himself and his home are\nnot allowed until the debt is cleared. The debt controls his spendings\nuntil it is paid off in full. That's reckoned a matter of honor.\n\n\n\n<u>Rusty Money.</u>\n\n\nJames, the first bishop of Jerusalem, had caught the Lord's very language\nas well as His thought. He says, \"Your gold and silver are rusted, and\ntheir rust shall be for a testimony against you.\"[36] It would seem as\nthough there were quite a bit of rusty money entered in Christian names\nand controlled by Christian people. It is lying in vaults, and lands, and\nsavings-societies, and old stockings, gathering rust.\n\nIt is in sore need. It needs friction, the friction of use. Without that\nits real, rare value will be completely lost. It is furnishing food for\nmoths when it was meant to be furnishing food for men, bread of wheat and\nbread of life. There'll be many a striking scene when some men come up\ninto the Master's presence with loaded purses, \"caught with the goods,\"\nwhile millions of their brothers are living such pitiable lives because of\ntheir ignorance of Jesus.\n\nBut there are men who do understand. And their number is increasing. There\nare those who understand <i>the Master's basis</i> for conducting their\nbusiness matters. That basis is shrewd, faithful management of the\nbusiness itself as good stewards of God; full, proper provision for home\nand loved ones--simple, but ample and intelligent; and then all the rest\nout in active service for men in Jesus' name. If that basis were more\nlargely understood and accepted, what wondrous changes would come; changes\nout in the world, and changes in the home, and changes in the home church.\n\nMany men are supporting their own representatives in the foreign field.\nMany a church now sustains its own missionary or missionaries. The ideal\ntoward which the Church might well aim is that <i>every family</i> should have\nits own missionary. The real unit of life is the family. The children\nwould then grow up with the world-vision dearly and deeply marked. There\nare thousands of families in circumstances that are reckoned moderate that\ncould support a missionary by planning. But the relationship should be\ncarefully kept one of warm sympathy and prayer, as well as one of money.\nThe reflex blessing upon the home would be immeasurable in its sweetness\nand extent.\n\n\n\n<u>Are We True To Our Friend's Trust?</u>\n\n\nJesus admits us into the inner circle of friendship. He gives us the one\nrarest token of friendship, that is, a task to do for our Friend's sake.\nHe asks us to go out to all men, and tell them about His love and\nsacrifice for them. And He asks that everything we have be held and used\nfor this sacred friendship trust. Are we being true to our Friend's\ntrust? Is there more stored away for ourselves than is being sent out on\nHis errand? Is there any discoloration on our gold? Anything that looks\nlike rust, a dull-red color--ah, it looks strangely like the color--the\nstain--of blood.\n\nIs Judas so lonely, after all? He coupled a token of friendship with a\nbetrayal of his Friend's trust. In his heart he meant far less than the\nact actually involved. Is he so much alone?\n\n    \"The latest years shall tremble hearing this\n      And burn for human shame unto the end,\n      That one of us betrayed the tryst his Friend\n    Would keep with God. A sign that none might miss\n\n    He named--the pledge of love. The soul's abyss,\n      Christ saw, the heart of night, the <i>purse</i>, the end;\n      Knew all, a Man, and knowing stui could bend\n    With soul unpoisoned to receive the kiss.\n\n    Before the multitude have I kist Thee\n      Fresh come from my blood-barter--thou but come\n    From intercession for all souls--and me.\n        And, mocking Love Divine, amazed and dumb,\n    I learn Love's deathlessness, and trembling press\n    The lips that kiss away my faithlessness.\"[37]\n\n\n\n\nSacrifice\n\n\n\n  One Hank Over For the Candle.\n  Sin's Healing Shadow.\n  The Underground Way into Life.\n  A Rare Harvest.\n  The Fellowship of Scars.\n  \"Won't You Save Me?\"\n\n\n\n\nSacrifice\n\n\n\n<u>One Hank Over For the Candle.</u>\n\n\nThe light of a common candle in the window of a little cottage near the\ncoast shone far out over the sea. It was up north of Scotland, in one of\nthe Orkney Islands. Near the window sat a frail, gray-haired woman with\ncheery, thoughtful face. She was busy working at her spinning-wheel, and\nwatching the candle, turning now and again to trim it. All night long she\nsat at the spinning-wheel and watching the candle. Fishermen out on the\nwater, heading for home, knew that light could be counted on, and came\nsafely in, past all the dangers of their coast.\n\nFor more than fifty years that woman tended her little lighthouse. When\nshe was a young girl there had been a wild storm, and her father, out in\nhis fisherman's boat, lost his life. There were no shore-lights. His boat\nhad struck a huge, dangerous rock called Lonely Rock, and been wrecked.\nThe father's body was found in the morning washed up on the shore. She\nwatched by her father's body, as was the habit of her people, until it was\nlaid away. Then she laid down on her bed and slept the day through. When\nnight came she rose, lit a candle, put it in the window, drew up her\nspinning-wheel, and began her night vigil for the unknown out at sea.\n\nAll night long, and all her life long, her vigil of love and light\ncontinued. From youth to old age, through winter and summer, storm and\ncalm, fog and clear, that humble lighthouse beacon failed not. Each night\nshe spun so many hanks of yarn for her daily bread, and <i>one hank over for\nthe candle</i>. She turned night into day, reversing the whole habit of her\nlife, and holding every other thing subject to her self-imposed task of\nlove. And through the years many a fisherman out at sea, and many an\nanxious woman watching by hearth and crib, sent up heart-felt thanks to\nGod for that little, steady light. And many a life was saved, of which no\nrecord could be kept.\n\nThat tells the whole story of sacrifice. A need, nobody to meet it; the\nneed passing into an emergency; and that into the tragedy of an unmet\nemergency; a heart sore torn to bleeding by the tragedy thrust bitterly\nhome; then sacrifice, lifelong, that others might be saved where her loved\none was lost, and still others spared what she herself suffered. And that\nstory has been repeated with endless variations, and is being repeated, in\nevery land, on every mission-field, home and foreign, and in almost every\nhome of all the world.\n\n\n\n<u>Sin's Healing Shadow.</u>\n\n\nSacrifice has come to be a law of life. Wherever there is sin there will\nbe a <i>call for sacrifice</i>. For sin makes need, and need intensifies into\nemergency. And need and emergency mean sacrifice thrust upon some one in\nperil. And they call for sacrifice, volunteered by some one, who would\nsave the man in peril. And wherever there are true men and women, as well\nas need, there will <i>be</i> sacrifice.\n\nAnd sin is everywhere. Even nature is full of evidence of a bad break in\nall of its processes. The finger-marks of decay and death are below and\nabove and all around in all its domain. That is sin's unmistakable\near-mark. Man's mental powers, and his loss of a full knowledge of his\npowers, tell the same story. And so there is need. Everywhere you turn\nneed's pathetic face, drawn and white, looks piteously into yours,\npleading mutely for help.\n\nAnd so there is sacrifice. Sacrifice is sin's healing shadow. It follows\nsin at every turn, binding up its wounds, pouring in the oil and wine of\nits own life, and taking the hurt victims into its own warm heart. Nothing\nworth while has ever been done without sacrifice. Every good thing done\ncost somebody his life. The life was given out with a wrench under some\nsharp tug. Or it was given in the slower, more painful, more taxing way of\nbeing lingeringly given out through years of steadfast doing or enduring.\n\nEvery man who has done something worth while for others has spilled some\nof his life-blood into it. His work and name may have become known. Or he\nmay belong to the larger number of blessed faithfuls whose names are\nunknown here, but treasured faithfully above. Either way, the tinging red\nof his life is upon the thing he did. The nations that are freest cost\nmost in the making, in the lives of men. Every church, and every mission\nstation, has had to use red mortar as its walls went up.\n\nEvery bit of advance ground gained for liberty and truth has been stained\nwith the life-blood of the advance-guard. You can depend upon it that\nwhatever you are to do that will really help must have a bit of your own\nself, your very life in it. Immortality of action comes only by the\ninfusion of human blood.\n\nSacrifice attends us faithfully from the cradle to the body's last\nresting-place. The giving of one's self for others begins with the\nbeginning of life, and never ends till life ends. Each of us comes into\nlife through the sacrifice of the mother who bore us. That love-service of\nhers would not have been a sacrifice, but only a joy, had sin's cramping,\nrestricting atmosphere not been breathed into all life. Now, with much\npain, and great danger, and sometimes at the cost of life, it becomes a\nsacrifice. Yet it is a sacrifice of great sweet joy to her.\n\nAnd that same spirit of sacrifice attends our baby years, and childhood\nexperiences, and school-days, and times of sickness, and our matured\nyears. The more faithfully those who make up your life-circle yield to the\nlaw of sacrifice, and give of themselves out to you, the finer and\nstronger you grow to be, and the sweeter life becomes to you. And every\nselfish shirking and shrinking back by some one impoverishes your life by\nso much.\n\nA hush of awe comes over one's spirit as we recall that even for the Son\nof God there was no exception to this law, as He took His place down among\nhuman conditions. It was by His own blood that He saved men, and saves\nmen. It was the spilling out of His own life that brings such blessed\nnewness of life to us. His was a <i>living</i> sacrifice through all the years,\nand then greatest when that life, so long being given, was given clean\nout.\n\nThat sacrifice of His stands unapproached, and can never be approached by\nany other. His relation to sin was different from that of all other men.\nHe made a sacrifice for men in a sense that no other can. Yet, while that\nis true, it is equally true that every man who follows Him will drink of\nHis cup of sacrifice.\n\nBut it's a cup of joy now, for His drinking drained out all the bitter\ndregs. He asks us into the inner fellowship of His suffering. The work He\nbegan isn't yet done. He asks our help. We may fill up the measure of His\nsacrifice yet needed, in healing men's wounds and in throttling sin's\npower.\n\n\n\n<u>The Underground Way Into Life.</u>\n\n\nThe request of the Greek pilgrims, that last tragic week, drew out of\nJesus wondrous words about the law of sacrifice[38]. Their request made\nthe necessity for His coming sacrifice stand out more sharply to His\nview--with edgy sharpness. The realness of that sacrifice of His stands\nout very vividly in the intensity of His feelings, of which we get only\nglimpses.\n\nListen to Him talking: 'if the grain of wheat doesn't suffer death, it\nlives; but it lives alone. But through death it may live in the midst of a\nharvest of golden grains. The man who turns away from the appeal of need\nwill live a lonely life, both here and in the longer life. (Is there\nanything more pathetic and pitiable than selfish loneliness!) He who feels\nthe sharp tug of need, and can't resist the appeal that calls for his\nlife-blood, rises up through that red pathway into a blessed fellowship\nwith the lives that owe their life to his.'\n\nHe goes on: 'he that clingeth with strong self-love to his life will find\nit slipping, slipping insistently out of his fingers, leaving a dry husk\nof a shell in his tenacious clutch. But he who in the stress of the\nworld's emergency of need, and in the thick of the subtlest temptations to\nput the self-life first, treats that life as a hated enemy, to be opposed\nand fought, as he gives himself freely out to heal the world's hurt, <i>he</i>\nwill find all the sweets and fragrance of life coming to him. Their\nunspeakable refreshment will ever increase, and never leave.'\n\nThen follow the words that go so deep: 'if any man <i>would serve Me,</i> let\nhim come along, putting his feet into my prints. Let him come through a\nlong Nazareth life of common toil in home and shop, then along the crowded\npath of glad service for others, responding to every call of need. Let him\ncome down into the shadowed olive-grove beyond Kidron's waters, up the bit\nof a hill outside a city wall, and deep down into the earth-soil of men's\nneeds.\n\n'And where I am there I will surely have that faithful follower of Mine up\nclose by my side. He shall find himself rising up out of the common\nearth-life into a new life of strangely strong drawing power. And, while\nhe will be all wrapped up in love's service, My Father will give special\ntouches of His own hand upon his person, and upon his service.'\n\nIn one of his exquisitely quiet talks, Henry Drummond used to tell the\nstory of a famous statue in the Fine Arts Gallery of Paris. It was the\nwork of a great genius, who, like many a genius, was very poor, and lived\nin a garret which served as both studio and sleeping-room.\n\nOne midnight, when the statue was just finished, a sudden frost fell upon\nParis. The sculptor lay awake in his fireless garret, and thought of the\nstill moist clay, thought how the moisture in the pores would freeze, and\nthe dream of his life would be destroyed in a night. So the old man rose\nfrom his cot, and wrapped his bed-clothes reverently about the statue, and\nlay down to his sleep.\n\nIn the morning the neighbors found[B] him lying dead. His life had gone\nout into his work. It was saved. He was gone. But he still lived in it,\nand still lives in it. He saved not his life, and he found a new life in\nthe world of his art. He that saveth his life shall surely lose it. He\nthat gladly giveth his life up for the Master's sake, and for men's sake,\nwill find a wholly new life coming to him.\n\n\n\n<u>A Rare Harvest.</u>\n\n\nThere is a strange winsomeness about sacrifice, peculiar to itself, and\npeculiarly strong in its drawing power. Everywhere men acknowledge the\npeculiar fascination for them of the man who is not only wholly unselfish,\nbut who utterly forgets himself in doing for others. The feeling is very\ncommon that the man in public life is chiefly concerned with what he can\nget out of it for himself. And when, now and then, the conviction seizes\nthe crowd that some public man is not of that sort at all, but is devoting\nhimself unselfishly and unsparingly to their interest, their admiration\nand love for him amounts to a worship and enthusiasm that knows no stint.\n\nThere's a something in unselfish sacrifice in their behalf that draws the\ncrowd peculiarly and tremendously. Jesus said that if He were lifted up He\nwould draw men. And He has. He was lifted up as none other, and He has\nbeen drawing men ever since as none other ever has or can. Quite apart\nfrom other truths involved, that sacrifice of His had in itself the\ntremendous drawing power of all unselfish action.\n\nAnd sacrifice brews a subtle fragrance of its own that clings to the\nperson as the soft sweet odor of wild roses. No one is ever conscious that\nthere is any such fragrance going out to others. He knows the inner sweets\nthat none know but they who give sacrifice brewing room within themselves.\nSuch folks don't stop to think about themselves, except to be thinking of\nhelping and not hindering.\n\nThe very winsomeness of the sacrifice spirit has led men to the seeking of\nsacrifice. It seems strange to us that earnest men in other generations\nhave sought by self-inflicted suffering to attain to the power that goes\nwith sacrifice. And even yet some morbid people may be found following in\ntheir steps.\n\nDon't they know that out in common daily life the knife of sacrifice is\nheld across the path constantly, sharp edge out, barring the way? And no\none can go faithfully his common round, with flag at masthead, and needs\ncrowding in at front and rear and sides, without meeting its cutting edge.\nThat edge cutting in as you push on frees out the fine fragrance. Whenever\nyou meet a man or woman with that fine winsomeness of spirit that can't be\nanalyzed, but only felt, you may know that there's been some of this sort\nof sharp cutting within.\n\nBlood is a rare fertilizer. They tell me that the bit of ground over in\nBelgium called Waterloo bears each spring a crop of rare blue\nforget-me-nots. That bit of ground had very unusual gardening. Ploughed\nup by cannon-and gun-shot, sown deep with men's lives, \"worked\" never so\nthoroughly by toiling, struggling feet, moistened with the gentle rain of\ndying tears, and soaked with red life, it now yields its yearly harvest of\nbeauty. All life's a Waterloo and can be made to yield a rich growth of\nfragrant flowers.\n\n\n\n<u>The Fellowship of Scars.</u>\n\n\nAnd there's yet more of this winsomeness. There's a spirit power that goes\nout of sacrifice. It reaches far beyond the limited personal circle, out\nto the ends of the earth. It can't be analyzed, nor defined, nor\ndescribed, but it can be felt. We don't know much about the law of spirit\ncurrents. But we know the spirit currents themselves, for every one is\naffected by them and every one is sending them out of himself.\n\nYou pick up a book, and suddenly find there's a something in it that takes\nhold of you irresistibly. A flame seems to burn in it, and then in you.\nInvisible fingers seem to reach out of the page and play freely up and\ndown the key-board of your heart. Why is it? I don't know much about it.\nIt's an elusive thing. But I can tell you my conviction, that grows\nstronger daily.\n\nThere's a life back of that book; there is sacrifice in that life of the\nkeen, cutting sort; and Jesus is in that life, too, giving it His personal\nflavor. The life back of the book has come into the book. It's that life\nyou are feeling as you read. Spirit power knows nothing about distance.\nThe man who yields to sacrifice has a world-field, and is touching his\nfield in a sense far greater than he ever knows.\n\nAnd there is still more. The Master knows our sacrifices. He keenly notes\nthe spirit that would give all, even as He did. He can breathe most of His\nown spirit into such a life. For it is most open to Him. He can do most\nthrough that spirit, for it comes nearest to His own. His own winsomeness\nbreathes out of that life constantly.\n\nThere's a simple little tale that comes dressed in very homely garb. The\nstory has in it a bit of that that makes the heart burn. It has all the\nmarks of real life. It runs thus:\n\n    \"In one poor room, that was all their home,\n      A mother lay on her bed,\n    Her seven children around her;\n      And, calling the eldest, she said:\n\n    'I'm going to leave you, Mary;\n      You're nearly fourteen, you know;\n    And now you must be a good girl, dear,\n      And make me easy to go.\n\n    'You can't depend much on father;\n      But just be patient, my child,\n    And keep the children out of his way\n      Whenever he comes home wild.\n\n    'And keep the house as well as you can;\n      And, little daughter, think\n    He didn't use to be so;\n      Remember, it's all the drink.'\n\n    The weeping daughter promised\n      Always to do her best;\n    And, closing her eyes over weary life,\n      The mother entered her rest.\n\n    And Mary kept her promise\n      As faithfully as she might.\n    She cooked, and washed, and mended,\n      And kept things tidy and bright.\n\n    And when the father came home drunk,\n      The children were sent to bed,\n    And Mary waited alone, and took\n      The beatings in their stead.\n\n    And the little chubby fingers lost\n      Their childish softness and grace,\n    And toughened and chapped and calloused,\n      And the rosy, childish face.\n\n    Grew thin and haggard and anxious,\n      Careworn, tired, and old,\n    As on those slender shoulders\n      The burdens of life were rolled.\n\n    So, when the heated season\n      Burned pitiless overhead,\n    And up from the filth of the noisome street\n      The fatal fever spread,\n\n    And work and want and drunken blows\n      Had weakened the tender frame,\n    Into the squalid room once more\n      The restful shadow came.\n\n    And Mary sent for the playmate\n      Who lived just over the way,\n    And said, 'The charity Doctor,\n      Has been here, Katie, to-day.\n\n    'He says I'll never be better--\n      The fever has been so bad;\n    And if it wasn't for one thing,\n      I'm sure I'd just be glad.\n\n    'It isn't about the children;\n      I've kept my promise good,\n    And mother will know I stayed with them\n      As long as ever I could.\n\n    'But you know how it has been, Katie;\n      I've had so much to do,\n    I couldn't mind the children\n      And go to the preaching, too.\n\n    'And I've been so tired-like at night,\n      I couldn't think to pray,\n    And now, when I see the Lord Jesus,\n      What ever am I to say?'\n\n    And Katie, the little comforter,\n      Her help to the problem brought;\n    And into her heart, made wise by love,\n      The Spirit sent this thought:\n\n    'I wouldn't say a word, dear,\n      For sure He understands;\n    I wouldn't say ever a word at all;\n      But, Mary, <i>just show Him your hands!'\"</i>\n\nJesus knows every scar of sacrifice you bear, and loves it. For it tells\nHim your love. He knows the meaning of scars, because of His own. The\nmarks of sacrifice cement our fellowship with Him. The nearer we come to\nfellowship with Him in the daily touch and spirit the more freely can He\nreach out His own great winsomeness through us, out to His dear world.\n\n\n\n<u>\"Won't You Save Me?\"</u>\n\n\nTo outsiders, who don't know about the thing, that word \"sacrifice\" has an\nugly sound. It drives them away. But to the insiders, who have come in by\nthe Jesus-door, there is a joyousness of the bubbling-out, singing sort,\nthat makes the word \"sacrifice,\" and the thing itself, clean forgot even\nwhile remembered. It is remembered as a distinct real thing, but it is\npushed away from the centre of your consciousness by this song that\ninsists on singing its music into the ears of your heart.\n\nI said a while ago in these talks that it would be <i>an easy thing</i> for the\nwhole Church, or even half of the Church, to take Jesus fully out to all\nthe world. But may I tell you now plainly that it won't be an easy thing?\nSomebody will have to sacrifice if the thing's to be done. And that\nsomebody will be you, if you go along where the Master calls. If you\n<i>count</i> on the Church doing it, or on anybody else doing it, you may be\nsure of one thing: some part of what needs doing won't be done.\n\nBut if you and I will reckon that this thing belongs to us, as if there\nwere nobody else to do it, and <i>push on;</i>--well, there'll be sacrifice of\nthe real sort and, too, there'll be all of sacrifice's peculiar\nwinsomeness going out to draw men. And there will be men changed where you\nlive, and out where you will never go personally.\n\nAnd there will be a great joy in your heart, but with the greater joy\nbreaking out in the Morning, when the King comes to His own.\n\n    \"I hear the sob of the parted,\n    The wail of the broken-hearted,\n    The sigh for the loved departed,\n      In the surging roar of the town.\n\n    And it's, oh, for the joy of the Morning!\n    The light and song of the Morning!\n    There'll be joy in the Christmas Morning\n      When the King comes to His own!\n\n    \"Now let our hearts be true, brothers,\n    To suffer and to do, brothers;\n    There'll be a song for you, brothers,\n      When the battle's fought and won.\n    It won't seem long in the Morning,\n    In the light and song of the Morning\n    There'll be joy in the Christmas Morning\n      When the King comes to His own!\n\n    \"Arise, and be of good cheer, brothers;\n    The day will soon be here, brothers;\n    The victory is near, brothers;\n      And the sound of the glad 'Well done!'\n    There'll be no sad heart in the Morning\n    No tear will start in the Morning;\n    There'll be joy in the Christmas Morning\n      When the King comes to His own!\n\n    \"We're in for the winning side, brothers,\n    Bound to the Lord who died, brothers,\n    We shall see Him glorified, brothers,\n      And the Lamb shall wear the crown.\n    What of the cold world's scorning?\n    There'll be joy enough in the Morning\n    There'll be joy in the Christmas Morning,\n      When the King comes to His own!\"\n\nYears ago a steamer out on Lake Erie caught fire, and headed at once for\nthe nearest land. All was wild confusion, as men and women struggled for\nmeans of escape. In the crowd was a returning California gold-miner. He\nfastened the belt containing his gold securely about his waist and was\npreparing to try to swim ashore. Just then a little sweet-faced girl in\nthe crowd touched his hand, and looked up beseechingly into his face, and\nsaid, \"Won't you please save me? I have no papa here to save me. Won't\nyou, please?\"\n\nWhat would he do? He gave the belt of gold, that meant such a hard\nstruggle, one swift glance. But that soft child-touch on his hand, and\nthat face and voice strangely affected him. He couldn't save both;--which?\nThe quick-as-flash thoughts came all in a heap. Then he dropped the gold,\nand took the child, made the plunge, and by and by reached land, utterly\nexhausted, and lay unconscious. As his eyes opened the child he had saved\nwas standing over him with the tears of gratitude flooding her eyes. And a\nhuman life never seemed quite so precious. He had lost his gold, and his\nyears of toil, but he had saved a life, and in saving it had found a new\nlife springing up within himself.\n\nAs we close our talk together will you listen very softly. Listen: out of\nthe distance comes a murmur of voices, like a low, long heart-cry. It\ncomes from near-by, where you live. It comes most from far-away lands. Its\nwords are pathetically distinct: \"<i>Will you save me?</i> I have no one to\nsave me. Won't <i>you</i>?\" And we can do it. But the gold and the life must\ngo. <i>Shall</i> we do it, hand in hand with Jesus, the only Saviour? Shall we\n<i>not</i> do it?\n\n\n\n\nFootnotes\n\n\n\n[1] Acts 13:18, American Revision.\n\n[2] John 3:17.\n\n[3] Matthew 13:38.\n\n[4] John 12:20-33.\n\n[5] Matthew 24:14.\n\n[6] Revelation 20:7-8.\n\n[7] Matthew 24:14.\n\n[8] Acts 15:13-18.\n\n[9] Matthew 13:38.\n\n[10] Christina Rossetti, in <i>The Outlook</i>, slightly altered.\n\n[11] Matthew 25 40, 45.\n\n[12] Revelation 2:5\n\n[13] Matthew 24 14.\n\n[14] Revelation 1:5, 6.\n\n[15] Revelation 4:8.\n\n[16] Revelation 4:9-11.\n\n[17] Revelation 5:11-12.\n\n[18] Revelation 7:9-12.\n\n[19] Revelation 14:1-5\n\n[20] Revelation 15:2-4\n\n[21] Revelation 19:1-8.\n\n[22] Thessalonians 1:8. II Corinthians 1:1 l.c.\n\n[23] Romans 1:8.\n\n[24] John, chapters 14-16.\n\n[25] John 20:19-23.\n\n[26] Susan Coolidge.\n\n[27] John 7:38.\n\n[28] Revelation 8:3-5.\n\n[29] Frances Ridley Havergal.\n\n[30] Matthew 6:19-21\n\n[31] Luke 12:33,34\n\n[32] Matthew 19:16-29. Mark 10:17-31. Luke 18:18-30\n\n[33] Luke 12:13-21.\n\n[34] Romans 1:14\n\n[35] Romans 13:8\n\n[36] James 5:2, 3\n\n[37] Arthur Peirce Vaughn\n\n[38] John 12:24-26.\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes\n\n\n[A] The original chapter contents listing erroneously transposed \"A Crisis\nof Neglect and Success\" and \"A Westernized Heathenism\".\n\n[B] Original text read \"fond\" for \"found\".","title":"Quiet Talks with World Winners","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":59904}