{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_30740/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_30740","id":"gutenberg_30740","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30740","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Biography","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"Produced by Keith G. Richardson from pdf file kindly\nprovided at www.archive.org\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMEN OF THE BIBLE\n\n\nBY\n\n\nD. L. Moody.\n\n\nChicago: New York: Toronto\n\nFleming H. Revell Company\n\nPublishers of Evangelical Literature\n\n\n\n_Copyright, 1898, by The Bible Institute Colportage Association._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nI. ABRAHAM'S FOUR SURRENDERS\n\nII. THE CALL OF MOSES\n\nIII. NAAMAN THE SYRIAN\n\nIV. THE PROPHET NEHEMIAH\n\nV. HEROD AND JOHN THE BAPTIST\n\nVI. THE MAN BORN BLIND AND JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA\n\nVII. THE PENITENT THIEF\n\n\n\nMen of the Bible\n\n\nABRAHAM'S FOUR SURRENDERS\n\n\nA great many people are afraid of the will of God, and yet I believe\nthat one of the sweetest lessons that we can learn in the school of\nChrist is the surrender of our wills to God, letting Him plan for us\nand rule our lives. If I know my own mind, if an angel should come\nfrom the throne of God and tell me that I could have my will done\nthe rest of my days on earth, and that everything I wished should be\ncarried out, or that I might refer it back to God, and let God's\nwill be done in me and through me, I think in an instant I would\nsay:\n\n\"Let the will of God be done.\"\n\nI cannot look into the future. I do not know what is going to happen\nto-morrow; in fact, I do not know what may happen before night; so I\ncannot choose for myself as well as God can choose for me, and it is\nmuch better to surrender my will to God's will. Abraham found this\nout, and I want to call your attention to four surrenders that he\nwas called to make. I think that they give us a pretty good key to\nhis life.\n\n\nI\n\n\nIn the first place, Abraham was called to give up _his kindred and\nhis native country_, and to go out, not knowing whither he went.\n\nWhile men were busy building up Babylon, God called this man out of\nthat nation of the Chaldeans. He lived down near the mouth of the\nEuphrates, perhaps three hundred miles south of Babylon, when he was\ncalled to go into a land that he perhaps had never heard of before,\nand to possess that land.\n\nIn the twelfth chapter of Genesis, the first four verses, we read:\n\n\"Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and\nfrom thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I\nwill shew thee.\" Now notice the promise: \"And I will make of thee a\ngreat nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and\nthou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and\ncurse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the\nearth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto\nhim; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy five years old and\nwhen he departed out of Haran.\"\n\nIt was several years before this that God first told him to leave Ur\nof the Chaldees. Then he came to Haran, which is about half-way\nbetween the valley of the Euphrates and the valley of the Jordan.\nGod had called him into the land of the Canaanite, and\n\n\nHE CAME HALF-WAY,\n\nand stayed there--we do not know just how long, but probably about\nfive years.\n\nNow, I believe that there are a great many Christians who are what\nmight be called _Haran Christians_. They go to Haran, and there they\nstay. They only half obey. They are not out-and-out. How was it that\nGod got him out of Haran? His father died. The first call was to\nleave Ur of the Chaldees and go into Canaan, but instead of going\nall the way they stopped half-way, and it was affliction that drove\nAbram out of Haran. A great many of us bring afflictions on\nourselves, because we are not out-and-out for the Lord. We do not\nobey Him fully. God had plans He wanted to work out through Abram,\nand He could not work them out as long as he was there at Haran.\nAffliction came, and then we find that he left Haran, and started\nfor the Promised Land.\n\nThere is just one word there about Lot--\"and Lot went with Abram.\"\nThat is the key, you might say, to Lot's life. He was a weaker\ncharacter than Abram, and he followed his uncle.\n\nWhen they got into the land that God had promised to give him, Abram\nfound it already inhabited by great and warlike nations--not by one\nnation, but by a number of nations. What could he do, a solitary\nman, in that land? Not only was his faith tested by finding the land\npreoccupied by other strong and hostile nations, but he had not been\nthere a great while before a great famine came upon him. No doubt a\ngreat conflict was going on in his breast, and he said to himself:\n\n\"What does this mean? Here I am, thirteen hundred miles away from my\nown land, and surrounded by a warlike people. And not only that, but\na famine has come, and I must get out of this country.\"\n\nNow, I don't believe that God sent Abram down to Egypt. I think that\nHe was only testing him, that he might in his darkness and in his\ntrouble be\n\n\nDRAWN NEARER TO GOD.\n\nI believe that many a time trouble and sorrow are permitted to come\nto us that we may see the face of God, and be shut up to trust in\nHim alone. But Abram went down into Egypt, and there he got into\ntrouble by denying his wife. That is the blackest spot on Abram's\ncharacter. But when we get into Egypt we will always be getting into\ntrouble.\n\n\nII\n\n\nAbram became rich; but we don't hear of any altar--in fact, we hear\nof no altar at Haran, and we hear of no altar in Egypt. When he came\nup with Lot out of Egypt, they had great possessions, and they\nincreased in wealth, and their herds had multiplied, until there was\na strife among their herdsmen.\n\nNow it is that Abram's character shines out again. He might have\nsaid that he had a right to the best of everything, because he was\nthe older, and because Lot would probably not have been worth\nanything if it had not been for Abram's help. But instead of\nstanding up for _his rights_, to choose the best of the land, he\nsurrenders them, and says to the nephew:\n\n\"Take your choice. If you go to the right hand, I will take the\nleft; or if you prefer the left hand, then I will go to the right.\"\n\nHere is where Lot made his mistake. If there was a man under the sun\nthat needed Abram's counsel, and Abram's prayers, and Abram's\ninfluence, and to have been surrounded by the friends of Abram, it\nwas Lot. He was just one of those weak characters that\n\n\nNEEDED BOLSTERING UP.\n\nBut his covetous eye looked upon the well-watered plains of the\nvalley of the Jordan that reached out towards Sodom, and he chose\nthem. He was influenced by what he saw, He walked by sight, instead\nof by faith. I think that is where a great many Christian people\nmake their mistake--walking by sight, instead of by faith. If he had\nstopped to think, Lot might have known that it would be disastrous\nto him and his family to go anywhere near Sodom. Abram and Lot must\nboth have known about the wickedness of those cities on the plains,\nand although they were rich, and there was chance of making money,\nit was better for Lot to keep his family out of that wicked city.\nBut his eyes fell upon the well watered plains, and he pitched his\ntent towards Sodom, and separated from Abram.\n\nNow, notice that after Abram had let Lot have his choice, and Lot\nhad gone off to the plains, for the first time God had Abram alone.\nHis father had died at Haran, and he had left his brother there.\nNow, after his nephew had left him, he moved down to Hebron, and\nthere built an altar. \"Hebron\" means _communion_. Here it is that\nGod came to him and said:\n\n\"Abram, look around as far as your eye can reach--it is all yours.\nLook from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and\neastward, and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee\nwill I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed\nas the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of\nthe earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through\nthe land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will\ngive it unto thee.\"\n\n\"Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of\nMamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.\"\n\nIt is astonishing how far you can see in that country. God took\nMoses up on Pisgah and showed him the Promised Land. In Palestine, a\nfew years ago, I found that on Mount Olivet I could look over and\nsee the Mediterranean. I could look into the valley of the Jordan,\nand see the Dead Sea. And on the plains of Sharon I could look up to\nMount Lebanon, and up at Mount Hermon, away beyond Nazareth. You can\nsee with the naked eye almost the length and breadth of that\ncountry. So when God said to Abram that he might look to the north,\nand that as far as he could see he could have the land; and then\nlook to the south, with its well-watered plains that Lot coveted,\nand to the east and the west, from the sea to the Euphrates--then\nGod gave His friend Abram a clear title, no conditions whatever,\nsaying:\n\n\"I will give it all to you.\"\n\nLot chose all he could get, but it was not much. Abram let God\nchoose for him, and was given all the land. Lot had no security for\nhis choice, and soon lost all. Abram's right was maintained\nundisputed by God the giver.\n\nDo you know that the children of Israel never had faith enough to\ntake possession of all that land as far as the Euphrates? If they\nhad, probably Nebuchadnezzar would never have come and taken them\ncaptives. But that was God's offer; He said to Abram, \"Unto your\nseed I will give it forever, clear to the valley of the Euphrates.\"\nFrom that time on God enlarged Abram's tents. He enriched His\npromises, and gave him much more that He had promised down there in\nthe valley of the Euphrates when He first called him out. It is very\ninteresting to see how God kept\n\n\nADDING TO THE PROMISE\n\nfor the benefit of His friend Abram.\n\nLet us go back a moment to Lot, and see what Lot gained by making\nthat choice. I believe that you can find five thousand Lots to one\nAbram to-day. People are constantly walking by sight, lured by the\ntemptations of men and of the world. Men are very anxious to get\ntheir sons into lucrative positions, although it way be disastrous\nto their character; it may ruin them morally and religiously, and in\nevery other way. The glitter of this world seems to attract them.\nSome one has said that Abram was a far-sighted man, and Lot was a\nshort-sighted man; his eye fell on the land right around him. There\nis the one thing that we are quite sure of--he was so short-sighted\nthat his possessions soon left him. And you will find that these\npeople who are constantly building for time are disappointed.\n\nI have no doubt that the men of Sodom said that Lot was\n\n\nA MUCH SHREWDER MAN\n\nthan his uncle Abram, and that if he lived twenty-five years he\nwould be the richer of the two, and that by coming into Sodom he\ncould sell his cattle and sheep and goats and whatever else he had\nfor large sums, and could get a good deal better market than Abram\ncould back there on the plains of Mamre.\n\nFor awhile Lot did make money very fast, and became a very\nsuccessful man. If you had gone into Sodom a little while before\ndestruction came, you would have found that Lot owned some of the\nbest corner lots in town, and that Mrs. Lot moved in what they\ncalled the _bon-ton_ society or upper ten; and you would have found\nthat she was at the theatre two or three nights in the week. If they\nhad progressive euchre, she could play as well as anybody; and her\ndaughters could dance as well as any other Sodomites. We find Lot\nsitting in the gates, he was getting on amazingly well. He might\nhave been one of the principal men in the city; Judge Lot, or the\nHonorable Lot of Sodom. If there had been a Congress in those days,\nthey would have run him for a seat in Congress. They might have\nelected him\n\n\nMAYOR OF SODOM.\n\nHe was getting on amazingly well; wonderfully prosperous.\n\nBut by and by there comes a war. If you go into Sodom, you must take\nSodom's judgment when it comes, for it is bound to come. The battle\nturned against those five cities of the plain and they took Lot and\nhis wife and all that they had, and one man escaped and ran off to\nHebron and told Abram what had taken place. Abram took his\nservants,--three hundred and eighteen of them,--went after these\nvictorious kings, and soon returned with all the booty and all the\nprisoners.\n\n\nIII\n\n\nOn Abram's way back with the spoils one of the strangest scenes of\nhistory occurs. Whom should he meet but Melchizedek, who brought out\nbread and wine; and the priestly king blessed the Father of the\nFaithful. After the old king of peace had blest him, he met the King\nof Sodom, and the King of Sodom said, \"You take the money, and I\nwill take the people\"; but Abram replied:\n\n\"Not a thing will I take, not even the shoe-latchets, lest thou\nshouldst say, I have made Abram rich.\"\n\nThere is another surrender. There was a temptation _to get rich at\nthe hands of the King of Sodom_. But the King of Salem had blessed\nhim, and this world did not tempt him. It tempted Lot, and no doubt\nLot thought Abram made a great mistake when he refused to take this\nwealth; but Abram would not touch a thing; he spurned it and turned\nfrom it. He had the world under his feet; he was living for another\nworld. He would not be enriched from such a source.\n\nEvery one of us is met by the prince of this world and the Prince of\nPeace. The one tempts us with wealth, pleasure, ambition: but our\nPrince and Priest is ready to succor and strengthen us in the hour\nof temptation.\n\nA friend of mine told me some years ago that his wife was very fond\nof painting, but that for a long time he never could see any beauty\nin her paintings; they all looked like a daub to him. One day his\neyes troubled him and he went to see an oculist. The man looked in\namazement at him and said:\n\n\"You have what we call a short eye and a long eye, and that makes\neverything a blur.\"\n\nHe gave him some glasses that just fitted him, and then he could see\nclearly. Then, he said, he understood why it was that his wife was\nso carried away with art, and he built an art gallery, and filled it\nfull of beautiful things; because everything looked so beautiful\nafter he had had his eyes straightened out.\n\nNow there are lots of people that have\n\n\nA LONG EYE AND A SHORT EYE,\n\nand they make miserable work of their Christian life. They keep one\neye on the eternal city and the other eye on the well-watered plains\nof Sodom. That was the way it was with Lot: he had a short eye and a\nlong eye. It would be pretty hard work to believe that Lot was saved\nif it were not for the New Testament. But there we read that \"Lot's\nrighteous soul was vexed,\"--so he had a righteous soul, but he had a\nstormy time. He didn't have peace and joy and victory like Abram.\n\nAfter Abram had given up the wealth of Sodom that was offered him,\nthen God came and enlarged his borders again--enlarged the promise.\nGod said:\n\n\"I will be your exceeding great reward; I will protect you.\"\n\nAbram might have thought that these kings that he had defeated might\nget other kings and other armies to come, and he might have thought\nof himself as a solitary man, with only three hundred and eighteen\nmen, so that he might have feared lest he be swept from the face of\nthe earth. But the Lord came and said:\n\n\"Abram, fear not.\"\n\nThat is the first time those oft-repeated words, \"fear not,\" occur\nin the Bible.\n\n\"Fear not, for I will be your shield and your reward.\"\n\nI would rather have that promise than all the armies of earth and\nall the navies of the world to protect me--to have the God of heaven\nfor my Protector! God was teaching Abram that He was to be his\nFriend and his Shield, if he would surrender himself wholly to His\nkeeping, and trust in His goodness. That is what we want--to\nsurrender ourselves up to God, fully and wholly.\n\nIn Colorado the superintendent of some works told me of a miner that\nwas promoted, who came to the superintendent, and said:\n\n\"There is a man that has seven children, and I have only three, and\nhe is having a hard struggle. Don't promote me, but promote him.\"\n\nI know of nothing that speaks louder for Christ and Christianity\nthan to see a man or woman giving up what they call their rights for\nothers, and \"in honor preferring one another.\"\n\nWe find that Abram was constantly surrendering his own selfish\ninterests and trusting to God. What was the result? Of all the men\nthat ever lived he is the most renowned. He never did anything the\nworld would call great. The largest army he ever mustered was three\nhundred and eighteen men. How Alexander would have sneered at such\nan army as that! How Caesar would have looked down on such an army!\nHow Napoleon would have curled his lip as he thought of Abram with\nan army of three hundred and eighteen! We are not told that he was a\ngreat astronomer; we are not told that he was a great scientist; we\nare not told that he was a great statesman, or anything the world\ncalls great; but there was one thing he could do--he could live an\nunselfish life, and in honor could waive his rights, and in that way\nhe became the friend of God; in that way he has become immortal.\nThere is\n\n\nNO NAME IN HISTORY\n\nso well known as the name of Abram. Even Christ is not more widely\nknown, for the Mohammedans, the Persians, and the Egyptians make a\ngreat deal of Abram. His name has been for centuries and centuries\nfavorably known in Damascus. God promised him that great men, and\nwarriors, and kings, and emperors, should spring from his loins. Was\nthere ever a nation that has turned out such men? Think of Moses,\nand Joseph, and Joshua, and Caleb, and Samuel, and David, and\nSolomon, and Elisha. Think of Elijah, and Daniel, and Isaiah, and\nall the other wonderful Bible characters that have sprung from this\nman! Then think of Peter, of James, and John, and Paul, and John the\nBaptist, a mighty army. No man can number the multitude of wonderful\nmen that have sprung from this one man called out of the land of the\nChaldeans, unknown and an idolater, probably, when God called him;\nand yet how literally God has fulfiled His promise that through him\nHe would bless all the nations of the earth. All because he\nsurrendered himself fully and wholly to let God bless him.\n\n\nIV\n\n\nThe last surrender is perhaps the most touching and the hardest of\nall to understand. Perhaps he could not have borne it until the\nevening of life. God had been taking him along, step by step, until\nnow he had reached a place where he had learned to obey fully\nwhatever God told him to do. I believe the world has yet to see what\nGod will do with the man who is perfectly surrendered. Next to God's\nown Son, Abraham was perhaps the man who came nearest to this\nstandard.\n\n\nFOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS\n\nAbraham had been in the Promised Land without the promised heir. God\nhad promised that He would bless all the nations of the earth\nthrough him, and yet He did not give him a son. Abraham's faith\nalmost staggered a number of times. Ishmael was born, but God set\naside the son of the bondwoman, for he was not to be the ancestor of\nthe Son of God. God was setting Abram apart simply that He might\nprepare the way for His own Son, and now, at last, a messenger comes\ndown from heaven to Hebron, and tells Abraham in his old age that he\nshould have a son.\n\nIt seemed too good to be true. He had hard work to believe it; but\nat the appointed time Isaac was born into that family. I don't\nbelieve there was ever a child born into the world that caused so\nmuch joy in the home as in Abraham's heart and home. How Abraham and\nthat old mother, Sarah, must have doted on that child! How their\neyes feasted on him!\n\nBut just when the lad was growing up into manhood Abraham received\nanother very strange command, and there was another surrender--_his\nonly son_. Perhaps he was making an idol of that boy, and thought\nmore of him than he did of the God that gave him. There must be no\nidol in the heart if we are going to do the will of God on earth.\n\nI can imagine that one night the old patriarch retired worn out and\nweary. The boy had gone fast to sleep, when suddenly a heavenly\nmessenger came and told him that he must take that boy off on to a\nmountain that God was to show him, and offer him up as a sacrifice.\nNo more sleep that night! If you had looked into that tent the next\nmorning I can imagine that you would have seen the servants flying\nround and making preparations for the master's taking a long\njourney. He perhaps keeps the secret locked up in his heart, and he\ndoesn't tell even Sarah or Isaac. He doesn't tell the servants, even\nthe faithful servant Eliezer, what is to take place. About nine\no'clock you might have seen those four men--Abraham, Isaac and the\ntwo young men with them--start off on the long journey. Once in a\nwhile Abraham turns his head aside and wipes away the tear. He\ndoesn't want Isaac to see what a terrible struggle is going on\nwithin. It is a hard battle to give up his will and to surrender\nthat boy, the idol of his life. Oh, how he loved him!\n\nI can imagine the first night. The boy soon falls asleep, tired and\nweary with the hot day's journey, but the old man doesn't sleep. I\ncan see him look into the face of the innocent boy, and say:\n\n\"Soon my boy will be gone, and I will be returning without him.\"\n\nPerhaps most of the night his voice could have been heard in prayer,\nas he cries to God to help him; and as God had helped him in the\npast so God was helping him that night.\n\nThe next day they journeyed on, and again a terrible conflict goes\non. Again he brushes away the tear. Perhaps Isaac sees it, and says:\n\n\"Father is going away to meet his God, and the angels may come down\nand talk with him as at Hebron. That is what he is so agitated\nabout.\"\n\nThe second night comes, and the old man looks into that face every\nhour of the night. He sleeps a little, but not much, and the next\nmorning at family worship he breaks down. He cannot finish his\nprayer.\n\nThey journey on that day--it is a long day--and the old patriarch\nsay: \"This is the last day I am to have my boy with me. To-morrow I\nmust offer him up; to-morrow I shall be without the son of my\nbosom.\"\n\nThe third night comes, and what a night it must have been! I can\nimagine he didn't eat or sleep that night. Nothing is going to break\nhis fast, and every hour of the night he goes to look into the face\nof that boy, and once in a while he bends over and kisses him, and\nhe says:\n\n\"O Isaac, how can I give thee up?\"\n\nMorning breaks. What a morning it must have been for that father! He\ndoesn't eat; he tries to pray, but his voice falters. After\nbreakfast they start on their journey again. He has not gone a great\nway before he lifts up his eyes, and yonder is Mount Moriah. His\nheart begins to beat quickly. He says to the two young men:\n\n\"You stay here, and I will go yonder with my son.\"\n\nThen, as father and son went up Mount Moriah, with the wood, and the\nfire, and the knife, the boy turns suddenly to the father, and says:\n\n\"Father, where is the lamb? We haven't any offering, father.\"\n\nIt was a common thing for Isaac to see his father offer up a victim,\nbut there is no lamb now.\n\nDid you ever think\n\n\nHOW PROPHETIC THAT ANSWER WAS\n\nwhen Abraham turned and said to the son, \"God will provide Himself a\nsacrifice?\" I don't know that Abraham understood the full meaning of\nit, but a few hundred years after God did provide a sacrifice right\nthere. Mount Moriah and Mount Calvary are close together, and God's\nSon was provided as a sacrifice for the world.\n\nOn Mount Moriah this father and son begin to roll up the stones, and\ntogether they build the altar; then they lay on the wood and\neverything is ready for the victim. Isaac looks around to see where\nthe lamb is and then the father can keep it from the son no longer,\nand he says:\n\n\"My boy, sit down here close to the altar, and let me tell you\nsomething.\"\n\nThen perhaps that old, white-haired patriarch puts his arm around\nthe lad, and tells how God came to him in the land of the Chaldeans,\nand the story of his whole life, and how, by one promise after\nanother, God had kept enlarging the promised blessings, and that He\nwould bless all the nations of the earth through him. Isaac was to\nbe the heir. But he says:\n\n\"My son, the last night I was at home God came to me in the hours of\nthe night and told me to bring you here and offer you up as a\nsacrifice. I don't understand what it means, but I can tell you one\nthing: it is much harder for me to offer you up than it would be for\nme to be sacrificed myself.\"\n\nThere was a time when I used to think more of the love of Jesus\nChrist than of God the Father. I used to think of God as a stern\njudge on the throne, from whose wrath Jesus Christ had saved me. It\nseems to me now I could not have\n\n\nA FALSER IDEA OF GOD\n\nthan that. Since I have become a father I have made this discovery:\nthat it takes more love and self-sacrifice for the father to give up\nthe son than it does for the son to die. Is a father on earth a true\nfather that would not rather suffer than to see his child suffer? Do\nyou think that it did not cost God something to redeem this world?\nIt cost God the most precious possession He ever had. When God gave\nHis Son, He gave all, and yet He gave Him freely for you and me.\n\nI can imagine that Abraham talks to Isaac and tells him how hard it\nis to offer him up. \"But God has commanded it,\" he says, \"and I\nsurrender my will to God's will. I don't understand it, but I\nbelieve that God will be able to raise you up, and maybe He will.\"\n\nThey fell on their faces, and prayed together. After prayer I can\nsee that old father take his boy to his bosom, and embrace him for\nthe last time. He kisses and kisses him. Then he takes those hands\nthat are so innocent, and binds them, and he binds the feet, and he\nties him up, and lays him on the altar, and gives him a last kiss.\nThen he takes the knife, and raises his hand. No sooner is the hand\nlifted than a voice calls from heaven:\n\n\"Abraham, Abraham, spare thy son!\"\n\nYou remember that Christ said, \"Abraham saw my day, and was glad.\" I\nhave an idea that God then and there just\n\n\nLIFTED THE CURTAIN OF TIME\n\nfor Abraham. He looked down into the future, saw God's Son coming up\nCalvary, bearing his sins and the sins of all posterity. God gave\nhim that secret, and told him how His Son was to come into the world\nand take away his sins.\n\nNow, my friends, notice: whenever God has been calling me to higher\nservice, there has always been a conflict with my will. I have\nfought against it, but God's will has been done instead of mine.\nWhen I came to Jesus Christ, I had a terrible battle to surrender my\nwill, and to take God's will. When I gave up business, I had another\nbattle for three months; I fought against it. It was a terrible\nbattle. But oh! how many times I have thanked God that I gave up my\nwill and took God's will. Then there was another time when God was\ncalling me into higher service, to go out and preach the gospel all\nover the land, instead of staying in Chicago. I fought against it\nfor months; but the best thing I ever did was when I surrendered my\nwill, and let the will of God be done in me. Because Abraham obeyed\nGod and held back not even his only child, God enlarged his promises\nonce again:\n\n\"And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the\nsecond time, and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for\nbecause thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son,\nthine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in\nmultiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and\nas the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess\nthe gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of\nthe earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.\"\n\nIf you take my advice, you will have no will other than God's will.\nMake a full and complete surrender, and the sweet messages of heaven\nwill come to you. God will whisper into your soul\n\n\nTHE SECRETS OF HEAVEN.\n\nAfter Abraham did what God told him, then it was that God told His\nfriend all about His Son. If we make a full surrender, God will give\nus something better than we have ever known before. We will get a\nnew vision of Jesus Christ, and will thank God not only in this life\nbut in the life to come. May God help each and every one of us to\nmake a full and complete and unconditional surrender to God, fully\nand wholly, now and forever.\n\n\n\nTHE CALL OF MOSES\n\n\nThere is a great deal more room given in Scripture to the _call_ of\nmen to God's work than there is to their _end_. For instance, we\ndon't know where Isaiah died, or how he died, but we know a great\ndeal about the call God gave him, when he saw God on high and lifted\nup on His throne. I suppose that it is true to-day that hundreds of\nyoung men and women who are listening for a call and really want to\nknow what their life's mission is, perhaps find it the greatest\nproblem they ever had. Some don't know just what profession or work\nto take up, and so I should like to take the call of Moses, and see\nif we cannot draw some lessons from it.\n\nYou remember when God met Moses at the burning bush and called him\nto do as great a work as any man has ever been called to in this\nworld, that\n\n\nHE THOUGHT THE LORD HAD MADE A MISTAKE,\n\nthat he was not the man. He said, \"Who am I?\" He was very small in\nhis own estimation. Forty years before he had started out as a good\nmany others have started. He thought he was pretty well equipped for\nservice. He had been in the schools of the Egyptians, he had been in\nthe palaces of Egypt, he had moved in the _bon ton_ society. He had\nhad all the advantages any man could have when he started out,\nundoubtedly, without calling on the God of Abraham for wisdom and\nguidance, yet he broke down.\n\nHow many men have started out in some profession and made a failure\nof it! They haven't heard the voice of God, they haven't waited upon\nGod for instruction.\n\nI suppose Moses thought that the children of Israel would be greatly\nhonored to know that a prince of the realm was going to take up\ntheir cause, but you remember how he lost his temper and killed the\nEgyptian, and next day, when he interfered in a quarrel between two\nHebrews, they wanted to know who had made him judge and ruler over\nthem, and he had to flee into the desert, and was there for forty\nyears hidden away. He killed the Egyptian and lost his influence\nthereby. Murder for liberty; wrong for right; it was a poor way to\nreform abuses, and Moses needed training.\n\nIt was a long time for God to keep him in His school, a long time\nfor a man to wait in the prime of his life, from forty to eighty.\nMoses had been brought us with all the luxuries that Egypt could\ngive him, and now he was a shepherd, and in the sight of the\nEgyptians a shepherd was an abomination. I have an idea that Moses\nstarted out with a great deal bigger head than heart. I believe that\nis the reason so many fail; they have\n\n\nBIG HEADS AND LITTLE HEARTS.\n\nIf a man has a shriveled-up heart and a big head he is a monster.\nPerhaps Moses looked down on the Hebrews. There are many people who\nstart out with the idea that they are great and other people are\nsmall, and they are going to bring them up on the high level with\nthemselves. God never yet used a man of that stamp. Perhaps Moses\nwas a slow scholar in God's school, and so He had to keep him there\nfor forty years.\n\nBut now he is ready; he is just the man God wants, and God calls\nhim. Moses said, \"Who am I?\" He was very small in his own eyes--just\nsmall enough so that God could use him. If you had asked the\nEgyptians who he was, they would have said he was\n\n\nTHE BIGGEST FOOL IN THE WORLD.\n\n\"Why,\" they would say, \"look at the opportunity that man had! He\nmight have been commander of the Egyptian army, he might have been\non the throne, swaying the sceptre over the whole world, if he\nhadn't identified himself with those poor, miserable Hebrews! Think\nwhat an opportunity he has lost, and what a privilege he has thrown\naway!\"\n\nHe had dropped out of the public mind for forty years, and they\ndidn't know what had become of him, but God had His eye upon him. He\nwas the very man of all others that God wanted, and when he met God\nwith that question, \"Who am I?\" it didn't matter who he was but who\nhis God was. When men learn the lesson that they are nothing and God\nis everything, then there is not a position in which God cannot use\nthem. It was not Moses who accomplished that great work of\nredemption, for he was only the instrument in God's hand. God could\nhave spoken to Pharaoh without Moses. He could have spoken in a\nvoice of thunder, and broken the heart of Pharaoh with one speech,\nif He had wanted to, but He condescended to take up a human agent,\nand to use him. He could have sent Gabriel down, but he knew that\nMoses was the man wanted above all others, so He called him. God\nuses men to speak to men: He works through mediators. He could have\naccomplished the exodus of the children of Israel in a flash, but\ninstead He chose to send a lonely and despised shepherd to work out\nHis purpose through pain and disappointment. That was God's way in\nthe Old Testament, and also in the New. He sent His own Son in the\nlikeness of sinful flesh to be the mediator between God and man.\n\nMoses went on making excuses and said, \"When I go down there, who\nshall I say has sent me?\" I suppose he remembered how he went before\nhe was sent that other time, and he was afraid of a failure again. A\nman who has made a failure once is always afraid he will make\nanother. He loses confidence in himself. It is a good thing to lose\nconfidence in ourselves so as to gain confidence in God.\n\nThe Lord said, \"Say unto them, 'I AM hath sent me.'\"\n\nSome one has said that God gave him\n\n\nA BLANK CHECK,\n\nand all he had to do was to fill it out from that time on. When he\nwanted to bring water out of the rock, all he had to do was to fill\nout the check; when he wanted bread, all he had to do was to fill\nout the check and the bread came; he had a rich banker. God had\ntaken him into partnership with Himself. God had made him His heir,\nand all he had to do was to look up to Him, and he got all he\nwanted.\n\nAnd yet he seemed to draw back, and began to make another excuse,\nand said:\n\n\"They will not believe me.\"\n\nHe was afraid of the Israelites as well as of Pharaoh: he knew how\nhard it is to get even your friends to believe in you.\n\nNow, if God has sent you and me with a message it is not for us to\nsay whether others will believe it or not. _We_ cannot make men\nbelieve. If I have been sent by God to make men believe, He will\ngive me power to make them believe. Jesus Christ didn't have that\npower; it is the work of the Holy Ghost; we cannot persuade men and\novercome skepticism and infidelity unless we are baptised with the\nHoly Ghost and with power.\n\nGod told Moses that they _would_ believe him, that he would succeed,\nand bring the children of Israel out of bondage. But Moses seemed to\ndistrust even the God who had spoken to him.\n\nThen the Lord said, \"What is that in thy hand?\"\n\nHe had a rod or staff, a sort of shepherd's crook, which he had cut\nhaphazard when he had wanted something that would serve him in the\ndesert.\n\n\"It is only a rod.\"\n\n\"With that you shall deliver the children of Israel; with that rod\nyou shall make Israel believe that I am with you.\"\n\nWhen God Almighty linked Himself to that rod, it was worth more than\nall the armies the world had ever seen. Look and see how that rod\ndid its work. It brought up the plagues of flies, and the thunder\nstorm, and turned the water into blood. It was not Moses, however,\nnor Moses' rod that did the work, but it was the God of the rod, the\nGod of Moses. As long as God was with him, he could not fail.\n\nSometimes it looks as if God's servants fail. When Herod beheaded\nJohn the Baptist, it looked as if John's mission was a failure. But\nwas it? The voice that rang through the valley of the Jordan rings\nthrough the whole world to-day. You can hear its echo upon the\nmountains and the valleys yet, \"I must decrease, but He must\nincrease.\" He held up Jesus Christ and introduced Him to the world,\nand Herod had not power to behead him until his life work had been\naccomplished. Stephen never preached but one sermon that we know of,\nand that was before the Sanhedrim; but how that sermon has been\npreached again and again all over the world! Out of his death\nprobably came Paul, the greatest preacher the world has seen since\nChrist left this earth. If a man is sent by Jehovah, there is no\nsuch thing as failure. Was Christ's life a failure? See how His\nparables are going through the earth to-day. It looked as if the\napostles had made a failure, but see how much has been accomplished.\nIf you read the book of Acts, you will see that every seeming\nfailure in Acts was turned into a great victory. Moses wasn't going\nto fail, although Pharaoh said with contempt, \"Who is God that I\nshould obey Him?\" He found out who God was. He found out that there\nwas a God.\n\nBut Moses made another excuse, and said, \"I am slow of speech, slow\nof tongue.\" He said he was\n\n\nNOT AN ORATOR.\n\nMy friends, we have too many orators. I am tired and sick of your\n\"silver-tongued orators.\" I used to mourn because I couldn't be an\norator. I thought, Oh, if I could only have the gift of speech like\nsome men! I have heard men with a smooth flow of language take the\naudience captive, but they came and they went, their voice was like\nthe air, there wasn't any _power_ back of it; they trusted in their\neloquence and their fine speeches. That is what Paul was thinking of\nwhen he wrote to the Corinthians:--\"My speech and my preaching was\nnot with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the\nSpirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom\nof men, but in the power of God.\"\n\nTake a witness in court and let him try his oratorical powers in the\nwitness-box, and see now quickly the judge will rule him out. It is\nthe man who tells the plain, simple truth that has the most\ninfluence with the jury.\n\nSuppose that Moses had prepared a speech for Pharaoh, and had got\nhis hair all smoothly brushed, and had stood before the looking\n-glass or had gone to an elocutionist to be taught how to make an\noratorical speech and how to make gestures. Suppose that he had\nbuttoned his coat, put one hand in his chest, had struck an attitude\nand begun:\n\n\"The God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has\ncommanded me to come into the presence of the noble King of Egypt.\"\n\nI think they would have taken his head right off! They had Egyptians\nwho could be as eloquent as Moses. It was not eloquence they wanted.\nWhen you see a man in the pulpit trying to show off his eloquence he\nis making a fool of himself and trying to make a fool of the people.\nMoses was slow of speech, but he had a message, and what God wanted\nwas to have him deliver the message. But he insisted upon having an\nexcuse. He didn't want to go; instead of being eager to act as\nheaven's messenger, to be God's errand boy, he wanted to excuse\nhimself. The Lord humored him and gave him an interpreter, gave him\nAaron.\n\nNow, if there is a stupid thing in the world, it is to talk through\nan interpreter. I tried it once in Paris. I got up into a little box\nof a pulpit with the interpreter--there was hardly room enough for\none. I said a sentence while he leaned away over to one side, and\nthen I leaned over while he repeated it in French. Can you conceive\nof a more stupid thing than Moses going before Pharaoh and speaking\nthrough Aaron!\n\nBut this slow-of-speech man became eloquent. Talk about Gladstone's\npower to speak! Here is a man one hundred and twenty years old, and\nhe waxed eloquent, as we see in Deuteronomy xxxii:1-4:\n\n   Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak;\n   And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.\n   My doctrine shall drop as the rain,\n   My speech shall distil as the dew,\n   As the small rain upon the tender herb,\n   And as the showers upon the grass:\n   Because I will publish the name of the Lord:\n   Ascribe ye greatness unto our God.\n   He is the Rock, His work is perfect:\n   For all His ways are judgment:\n   A God of truth and without iniquity,\n   Just and right is He.\n\nHe turned out to be one of the most eloquent men the world has ever\nseen. If God sends men and they deliver His message He will be with\ntheir mouth. If God has given you a message, go and give it to the\npeople as God has given it to you. It is a stupid thing for a man to\ntry to be eloquent. Make\n\n\nYOUR MESSAGE, AND NOT YOURSELF,\n\nthe most prominent thing. Don't be self-conscious Set your heart on\nwhat God has given you to do, and don't be so foolish as to let your\nown difficulties or your own abilities stand in the way. It is said\nthat people would go to hear Cicero and would come away and say,\n\"Did you ever hear anything like it? wasn't it sublime? wasn't it\ngrand?\" But they would go and hear Demosthenes, and he would fire\nthem so with the subject that they would want to go and fight at\nonce. They forgot all about Demosthenes, but were stirred by his\nmessage; that was the difference between the two men.\n\nNext Moses said: \"O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him\nwhom thou wilt send.\"\n\nDid you ever stop to think what Moses would have lost if God had\ntaken him at his word, and said:\n\n\"Very well, Moses; you may stay here in the desert, and I will send\nAaron, or Joshua, or Caleb!\"\n\nDon't seek to be excused if God calls you to some service. What\nwould the twelve disciples have lost if they had declined the call\nof Jesus! I have always pitied those other disciples of whom we read\nthat they went back, and walked no more with Jesus. Think what Orpah\nmissed and what Ruth gained by cleaving to Naomi's God! Her story\nhas been\n\n\nTOLD THESE THREE THOUSAND YEARS.\n\nFather, mother, sisters, brothers, the grave of her husband--she\nturned her back on them all. Ruth, come back, and tell us if you\nregret your choice! No: her name shines one of the brightest among\nall the women that have ever lived. The Messiah was one of her\ndescendants.\n\nMoses, you come back and tell us if you were afterwards sorry that\nGod had called you? I think that when he stood in glorified body on\nthe Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and Elijah, he did not\nregret it.\n\nMy dear friends, God is not confined to any one messenger. We are\ntold that He can raise up children out of stones. Some one has said\nthat there are three classes of people, the \"wills,\" the \"won'ts,\"\nand the \"can'ts\"; the first accomplish everything, the second oppose\neverything, and the third fail in everything. If God calls you,\nconsider it a great honor. Consider it a great privilege to have\npartnership with Him in anything. Do it cheerfully, gladly. Do it\nwith all your heart, and He will bless you. Don't let false modesty\nor insincerity, self-interest, or any personal consideration turn\nyou aside from the path of duty and sacrifice. If we listen for\nGod's voice, we shall hear the call; and if He calls and sends us,\nthere will be no such thing as failure, but success all along the\nline. Moses had glorious success because he went forward and did\nwhat God called him to do.\n\n\n\nNAAMAN THE SYRIAN\n\n\nI wish to call your attention to one who was a great man in his own\ncountry, and very honorable; one whom the king delighted to honor.\nHe stood high in position; he was captain of the host of the King of\nSyria; but he was a leper, and that threw a blight over his whole\nlife. As Bishop Hall quaintly puts it, \"The meanest slave in Syria\nwould not have changed skins with him.\"\n\nNow you cannot have a better type of a sinner than Naaman was. I\ndon't care who or what he is, or what position he holds--all men\nalike have sinned, and all have to bear the same burden of death.\n\"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.\" All men must\nstand in judgment before God. What a gloom that throws over our\nwhole life!\n\n\"_But he was a leper_.\" There was\n\n\nNO PHYSICIAN\n\nwho could help him in Syria. None of the eminent doctors in Damascus\ncould do him any good. If he was to get rid of the leprosy, the\npower must come from on high. It must be some one unknown to Naaman,\nfor he did not know God.\n\nBut I will tell you what they had in Syria--they had one of God's\nchildren there, and she was a little girl, a simple captive maid,\nwho waited on Mrs. Naaman. Naaman knew nothing about this little\nIsraelite, though she was one of his household.\n\nI can imagine that one day, as she was waiting on the general's\nwife, she noticed her weeping. Her heart was breaking because of the\ndark cloud that rested over her home. So she told her mistress that\nthere was a prophet in her country that could cure her master of his\nleprosy. \"Would to God,\" she said, \"my lord were with the prophet in\nSamaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.\"\n\nThere's faith for you!\n\nShe boasted of God that He would do more for this heathen than He\nhad done for any in Israel; and\n\n\nGOD HONORED HER FAITH.\n\n\"What do you say? A prophet in Israel that can cure leprosy?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Why, did you ever know any one that was cured?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Well, then, what makes you think there is a prophet that can cure\nleprosy?\"\n\n\"Oh, that isn't anything to what Elisha can do. There was a little\nchild that lived near us that died, and he raised him to life. He\nhas done many wonderful things.\"\n\nShe must have had a reputation for truthfulness. If she hadn't, her\ntestimony would not have been taken.\n\nSome one told the general of it, and he made it known to the king.\nNow, Naaman stood high in the king's favor, for he had recently won\na great victory. He stood near the throne. So the king said:\n\n\"You had better go down to Samaria, and see if there is anything in\nit. I will give you letters of introduction to the King of Israel.\"\n\nYes, he would give Naaman letters of introduction to the king.\nThat's just man's idea. The notion was, that if anybody could help\nhim it was the king, and that the king had power both with God and\nman. Oh, my friends, it is a good deal better to know a man that\nknows God! A man acquainted with God has more power than any earthly\npotentate. Gold can't do everything.\n\nAway goes Naaman down to Samaria with his kingly introduction. What\na stir it must have made when the commander of the Syrian army drove\nup! He has brought with him a lot of gold and silver. That is man's\nidea again; he is going to pay for a great doctor, and he took about\nfive hundred thousand dollars to pay for the doctor's bill. There\nare a good many men who would willingly pay that sum if with it they\ncould buy the favor of God, and get rid of the curse of sin. Yes, if\nmoney could do it,\n\n\nHOW MANY WOULD BUY SALVATION!\n\nBut, thank God, it is not in the market for sale. You must buy it at\nGod's price, and that is \"without money and without price.\" Naaman\nfound that out.\n\nMy dear friends, did you ever ask yourselves which is the worse--the\nleprosy of sin, or the leprosy of the body? For my own part, I would\na thousand times sooner have the leprosy of the body eating into my\neyes, and feet, and arms! I would rather be loathsome in the sight\nof my fellow-men than die with the leprosy of sin in my soul, and be\nbanished from God forever! The leprosy of the body is bad, but the\nleprosy of sin is a thousand times worse. It has cast angels out of\nheaven. It has ruined the best and strongest men that ever lived in\nthe world. Oh, how it has pulled men down! The leprosy of the body\ncould not do that.\n\nThere is one thing about Naaman that I like specially, and that is\nhis earnestness of purpose. He was\n\n\nTHOROUGHLY IN EARNEST.\n\nHe was quite willing to go one hundred and fifty miles, and to take\nthe advice of this little maid. A good many people say:\n\n\"Oh, I don't like such and such a minister; I should like to know\nwhere he comes from, and what he has done, and whether any bishop\nhas laid his hands on his head.\"\n\nMy dear friends, never mind the minister; it is the message you\nwant. If some one were to send me a telegraph message, and the news\nwere important, I shouldn't stop to ask about the messenger who\nbrought it. I should want to read the news. I should look at the\nmessage, and not at the boy who brought it.\n\nAnd so it is with God's message. The good news is everything, the\nminister nothing. The Syrians looked down with contempt on the\nIsraelites, and yet this great man was willing to take the good news\nat the hands of this little maiden, and listened to the words that\nfell from her lips. If I got lost in New York, I should be willing\nto ask anybody which way to go, even if it were only a shoeblack;\nand, in point of fact, a boy's word in such a case is often better\nthan a man's. It is the way I want, not the person who directs me.\n\nBut there was one drawback in Naaman's case. Though he was willing\nto take the advice of the little girl, he was not willing to take\nthe remedy. The stumbling-block of pride stood in his way. The\nremedy the prophet offered him was a terrible blow to his pride. I\nhave no doubt he expected a grand reception from the King of Israel,\nto whom he brought letters of introduction. He had been victorious\non many a field of battle, and held high rank in the army; perhaps\nwe may call him Major-General Naaman of Syria, or he might have been\nhigher in rank even than that; and bearing with him kingly\ncredentials, he expected no doubt a distinguished reception. But\ninstead of the king rushing out to meet him, he, when he heard of\nNaaman's arrival and his object, simply rent his mantle, and said:\n\n\"Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto\nme to recover a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you,\nand see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.\"\n\nElisha heard of the king's trouble, and sent him a message, saying:\n\n\"Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come now to me, and\nhe shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.\"\n\nI can imagine Naaman's pride reasoning thus: \"Surely, the prophet\nwill feel very much exalted and flattered that I, the great Syrian\ngeneral, should come and call upon him.\"\n\nAnd so, probably, full of those proud thoughts, he drives up to the\nprophet's humble dwelling with his chariot and his splendid retinue.\nYes, Naaman drove up in grand style to the prophet's abode, and as\nnobody seemed to be coming out to greet him, he sent in his message:\n\n\"Tell the prophet that Major-General Naaman of Syria has arrived,\nand wishes to see him.\"\n\nElisha takes it very coolly. He does not come out to see him, but as\nsoon as he learns his errand he sends his servant to tell him to dip\nseven times in the river Jordan, and he shall be clean.\n\nThat was a terrible blow to his pride. I can imagine him saying to\nhis servant:\n\n\"What did you say? Did I understand you aright? Dip seven times in\nthe Jordan! Why, we call the river Jordan a _ditch_ in our country.\"\n\nBut the only answer he got was, \"The prophet says, Go and dip seven\ntimes in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall become like the flesh of a\nlittle child.\"\n\nI can fancy Naaman's indignation as he asks, \"Are not Abana and\nPharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?\nMay I not wash in them and be clean? Haven't I bathed myself\nhundreds of times, and has it helped me? Can water wash away\nleprosy?\"\n\nSo he turned and went away in a rage.\n\nIt isn't a bad sign when a man gets mad if you tell him the truth.\nSome people are afraid of getting other people mad. I have known\nwives afraid to talk to their husbands, afraid of getting them mad.\nI have known mothers who were afraid to talk to their sons because\nthey were\n\n\nAFRAID THEY WOULD GET MAD.\n\nDon't be afraid of getting them mad, if it is the truth that makes\nthem mad. If it is our foolishness that makes them mad, then we have\ngot reason to mourn over it. If it is the truth, God sent it, and it\nis a good deal better to have a man get mad than it is to have him\ngo to sleep. I think the trouble with a great many nowadays is that\nthey are sound asleep, and it is a good deal better to rouse them\neven if they do wake up mad.\n\nThe fact was, the Jordan never had any great reputation as a river.\nIt flowed into the Dead Sea, and that sea never had a harbor to it,\nand its banks were not half so beautiful as those of the rivers of\nDamascus. Damascus was one of the most beautiful cities in the\nworld. It is said that when Mahomet beheld it he turned his head\naside for fear it should divert his thoughts from heaven.\n\nNaaman turned away in a rage. \"Ah,\" he said, \"here am I, a great\nconqueror, a successful general on the battlefield, holding the very\nhighest rank in the army, and yet this prophet does not even come\nout to meet me; he simply sends a message. Why, I thought he would\nsurely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord\nhis God, and strike his hand over the place and recover the leper.\"\n\nThere it is. I hardly ever knew a man yet who, when talked to about\nhis sins, didn't say:\n\n\"Yes, but I _thought_ so and so.\"\n\n\"Mr. Moody,\" they say, \"I will tell you what _I think;_ I will tell\nyou _my opinion_.\"\n\nIn the 55th chapter of Isaiah it says that God's thoughts are not\nour thoughts, nor His ways our ways. And so it was with Naaman. In\nthe first place, he thought a good big doctor's fee would do it all,\nand settle everything up. And besides that there was another thing\nhe thought; he thought going to the king with his letters of\nintroduction would do it. Yes, those were Naaman's first thoughts.\n_I thought_. Exactly so. He turned away in rage and disappointment.\nHe thought the prophet would have come out to him very humble and\nvery subservient, and\n\n\nBID HIM DO SOME GREAT THINGS.\n\nInstead of that, Elisha, who was perhaps busy writing, did not even\ncome to the door or the window. He merely sent out the message:\n\n\"Tell him to dip seven times in the Jordan.\"\n\nAnd away went Naaman, saying, _I thought, I thought, I thought_.\n\nI have heard that tale so often that I am tired of it. Give it up,\nand take God's words, God's thoughts, God's ways. I never yet knew a\nman converted just in the time and manner he expected to be. I have\nheard people say, \"Well, if ever I am converted, it won't be in a\nMethodist church; you won't catch me there.\" I never knew a man say\nthat but, at last, if converted at all, it was in a Methodist\nchurch.\n\nIn Scotland a man was converted at one of our meetings--an employer.\nHe was very anxious that all his employees should be reached, and he\nused to send them one by one to the meetings. But there was one man\nthat wouldn't come. We are all more or less troubled with\nstubbornness; and the moment this man found that his employer wanted\nhim to go to the meetings he made up his mind he wouldn't go. If he\nwas going to be converted, he said, he was going to be converted by\nsome ordained minister; he was not going to any meeting that was\nconducted by Americans that were not ordained. He believed in\nconversion, but he was going to be\n\n\nCONVERTED THE REGULAR WAY.\n\nHe believed in the regular Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and that\nwas the place for him to be converted.\n\nThe employer tried every way he could to get him to attend the\nmeetings, but he wouldn't come.\n\nAfter we left that town and went away up to Inverness, the employer\nhad some business up there, and he sent this employee to attend to\nit in the hope that he would attend some of our meetings.\n\nOne night as I was preaching on the banks of a river I happened to\ntake this for my text: \"I thought; I thought.\" I was trying to take\nmen's thoughts up and to show the difference between their thoughts\nand God's thoughts. This man happened to be walking along the banks\nof the river. He saw a great crowd, and heard some one talking, and\nhe wondered to himself what that man was talking about. He didn't\nknow who was there, so he drew up to the crowd, and listened. He\nheard the sermon, and became convicted and converted right there.\nThen he inquired who was the preacher, and he found out it was the\nvery man that he said he would not hear--the man he disliked. The\nvery man he had been talking against was the very man God used to\nconvert him.\n\nWhilst Naaman was thus wavering in his mind, and thinking on what\nwas best to be done, one of his servants drew near and made a very\nsensible remark:\n\n\"My lord, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest\nthou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee,\nWash, and be clean?\"\n\nThere is a great deal of truth in that.\n\nIf Elisha had told him to go back to Syria on his hands and knees,\none hundred and fifty miles, he would have done it and thought it\nwas all right. If he had told him to go into some cave and stay\nthere a year or two, he would have done it and thought it was all\nright. If he had told him that it was necessary to have some\nsurgical operation performed, and that he had to go through all the\ntorture incident to it, that would have suited him. Men like to have\nsomething to do about their salvation; they don't like to give up\nthe idea that they can't do anything; that God must do it all. If\nyou tell them to take bitter herbs every morning and every night for\nthe next five years, they think that's all right, and if he had told\nNaaman to do that he would have done it. But to tell him merely to\ndip in the river Jordan seven times, why, it seemed absurd on the\nface of it! But this servant suggested to him that he had better go\ndown to the Jordan and try the remedy, as it was\n\n\nA VERY SIMPLE ONE.\n\nNow, don't you see yourselves there? How many men there are who are\nwaiting for some great thing; waiting for some sudden feeling to\ncome stealing over them; waiting for some shock to come upon them.\nThat is not what the Lord wants. There is a man that I have talked\nto about his soul for a number of years, and the last time I had a\ntalk with him, he said:\n\n\"Well, the thing hasn't struck me yet.\"\n\nI said: \"What?\"\n\n\"Well,\" says he, \"the thing hasn't struck me yet.\"\n\n\"Struck you; what do you mean?\"\n\n\"Well,\" said he, \"I go to church, and I hear you preach, and I hear\nother men preach, but the thing hasn't struck me yet; it strikes\nsome people, but it hasn't struck me yet.\"\n\nThat was all that I could get out of him. There are a good many men\nwho reason in that way. They have heard some young converts tell how\nlight dawned upon them like the flash of a meteor; how they\nexperienced a new sensation; and so they are waiting for something\nof the kind. But you can't find any place in Scripture where you are\ntold to wait for anything of the kind. You are just to obey what God\ntells you to do, and let your feelings take care of themselves. I\ncan't control my feelings. I can't make myself feel good and bad\nwhen I want to, but I can obey God. God gives me the power. He\ndoesn't command me to do something and not give me the power to do\nit. With the command comes the power.\n\nNow, Naaman could do what the prophet told him; he could go down to\nthe Jordan, and he could dip seven times; and that is what the Lord\nhad for him to do; and if we are going to get into the kingdom of\nGod, right at the threshold of that kingdom we have to learn this\ndoctrine of obedience, to do whatsoever He tells us.\n\nI can fancy Naaman still reluctant to believe in it, saying, \"Why,\nif there is such cleansing power in the waters of Jordan, would not\nevery leper in Israel go down and dip in them, and be healed?\"\n\n\"Well, but you know,\" urges the servant, \"now that you have come a\nhundred and fifty miles, don't you think you had better do what he\ntells you? After all, you can but try it. He sends word distinctly,\nmy lord, that your flesh shall come again as that of a little\nchild.\"\n\nNaaman accepts this word in season. His anger is cooling down. He\nhas got over the first flush of his indignation. He says:\n\n\"Well, I think I might as well try it.\"\n\nThat was\n\n\nTHE STARTING-POINT OF HIS FAITH,\n\nalthough still he thought it a foolish thing, and could not bring\nhimself to believe that the result would be what the prophet had\nsaid.\n\nAt last Naaman's will was conquered, and he surrendered. When\nGeneral Grant was besieging a town which was a stronghold of the\nSouthern Confederacy, some of the officers sent word that they would\nleave the city if he would let them go with their men. But General\nGrant sent word:\n\n\"No, nothing but an unconditional surrender!\"\n\nThen they sent word that they would go if he would let them take\ntheir flag with them. But the answer was: \"No, an unconditional\nsurrender.\"\n\nAt last the beleagured walls were broken down, and the city entered,\nand then the enemy made a complete and unconditional surrender.\nWell, it was so with Naaman; he got to that point when he was\nwilling to obey, and the Scripture tell us, \"To obey is better than\nto sacrifice.\"\n\nGod wants obedience. Naaman had to learn this lesson. There was no\nvirtue, probably, in going down to the Jordan, any more than in\nobeying the voice of God. He had to obey the word, and\n\n\nIN THE VERY ACT OF OBEDIENCE\n\nhe was blessed.\n\nLook at those ten New Testament lepers who came to Christ. He said\nto them: \"Go show yourselves to the priests.\"\n\n\"Well,\" they might have said, \"what good is that going to do us?\nHere we are all full of leprosy, and if we go and show ourselves to\nthe priests they will order us back again into exile. That is not\ngoing to help us.\"\n\nBut those ten men started off, and did just what the Lord Jesus\nChrist told them to do, and in the very act of doing it they were\nblessed; their leprosy left them.\n\nHe said to that man that had the palsy, whom they brought to Him\nupon a bed: \"Take up thy bed and walk.\"\n\nThe man might have said: \"Lord, I have been trying for years to take\nthat bed up, but I can't. I haven't got the power. I have been\nshaking with the palsy for the last ten years. Do you think that if\nI could have rolled up that bed that I would have been brought here\nand let down through the roof? I haven't the power.\"\n\nBut when the Lord commanded him He gave the power. Power came with\nthe command, and that man stood up, rolled up his bed, and started\noff home. He was blessed in the very act of obedience.\n\nMy friends, if you want God to bless you, obey Him. Do whatsoever He\ncalls upon you to do, and then see if He will not bless you.\n\nChrist went to a Pharisee's house one day while He was down here\nupon earth, to be entertained. They wanted to get Him to do\nsomething to break the law of Moses, that they might condemn Him to\ndeath, and so they put a man right opposite to Him at the table with\na withered hand, to see if He would heal upon the Sabbath day. He\nsaid to the man:\n\n\"Stretch out thy hand.\"\n\nNow, the man might have said, \"Lord, that is a very strange command.\nI haven't got the power. That hand has been withered for the last\ntwenty years. I haven't stretched it out for the last twenty years;\nand you say, 'Stretch it out.'\"\n\nBut when He told him to do it He gave him the power, and out went\nthat old withered hand, and before it came out straight, right in\nthe very act, it was made whole. He was blessed in the very act of\nobedience.\n\nNow, Naaman had to be taught the lesson that he had to obey; and so,\nfinally, he went down to the Jordan just as he was told to do. And\nif you will do just what the Lord tells you the Lord will bless you\nas He did Naaman.\n\nYou may ask, \"What does He tell me?\"\n\n\"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.\"\n\nThe word of God to Naaman was to go and wash; and the word of God to\nevery soul out of Christ is to believe on His Son. \"Verily, verily,\nI say unto you, he that heareth My word and believeth on Him that\nsent Me _hath_ everlasting life, and shall not come into\ncondemnation, but is passed from death unto life.\" If a man believes\nwith all his heart on the Lord Jesus Christ, God will never bring\nhim to judgment for sin; that is all passed--that is all gone. Take\nHim at His word; believe Him; believe what He says, and you shall\nenter into life eternal. \"He came unto His own, and His own received\nHim not.\" HIM--mark you--not a dogma, not a creed,\n\n\nNOT A MYTH, BUT A PERSON.\n\n\"He came to His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as\nreceived Him, to them gave He power to become the sons and daughters\nof God.\" That is the way you get the power.\n\nNaaman goes down to the river and takes the first dip. As he comes\nup I can imagine him looking at himself, and saying to his servant:\n\n\"There! there I am, no better than I was when I went in! If one\n-seventh of the leprosy was gone, I should be content.\"\n\nThe servant says: \"The man of God told you to dip seven times. Do\njust as he told you. There is no discount on God's word.\"\n\nWell, down he goes a second time, and he comes up puffing and\nblowing, as much a leper as ever; and so he goes down again and\nagain, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth time, with the same\nresult, as much a leper as ever. Some of the people standing on the\nbanks of the river probably said, as they certainly would in our\nday:\n\n\"Why, that man has gone clean out of his mind!\"\n\nWhen he comes up the sixth time, he looks at himself, and says:\n\n\"Ah, no better! What a fool I have made of myself! How they will all\nlaugh at me! I wouldn't have the generals and aristocracy of\nDamascus know that I have been dipping in this way in Jordan for all\nthe world. However, as I have gone so far, I'll make the seventh\nplunge.\"\n\nHe has not altogether lost faith, and down he goes the seventh time,\nand comes up again. He looks at himself, and shouts aloud for joy.\n\n\"Lo, I am well! My leprosy is all gone, all gone! My flesh has come\nagain as that of a little child.\"\n\nIf one speck of leprosy had remained, it would have been a\nreflection on God.\n\nAsk him now how he feels.\n\n\"Feel? I feel that this is the happiest day of my life. I thought\nwhen I won a great victory upon the battlefield that that was the\nmost joyful day of my life; I thought I should never be so happy\nagain; but that wasn't anything; it didn't compare with this hour;\nmy leprosy is all gone, I am whole, I am cleansed.\"\n\nFirst he lost his temper; then he lost his pride; then his leprosy.\nThat is generally the order in which proud, rebellious sinners are\nconverted.\n\nSo he comes up out of Jordan and puts on his clothes, and goes back\nto the prophet. He was very mad with Elisha in the beginning, but\nwhen he was cleansed his anger was all gone too. He wants to pay\nhim. That's just the old story; Naaman\n\n\nWANTS TO GIVE MONEY\n\nfor his cure. How many people want to do the same nowadays. Why it\nwould have spoiled the story of grace if the prophet had taken\nanything! You may give a thank-offering to God's cause, not to\npurchase salvation, but because you are saved. The Lord doesn't\ncharge anything to save you. It is \"without money and without\nprice.\" The prophet Elisha refused to take anything, and I can\nimagine no one felt more rejoiced than he did.\n\nNaaman starts back to Damascus a very different man than he was when\nhe left it. The dark cloud has gone from his mind; he is no longer a\nleper, in fear of dying from a loathsome disease. He lost the\nleprosy in Jordan when he did what the man of God told him; and if\nyou obey the voice of God, even while I am speaking to you, the\nburden of your sins will fall from off you, and you shall be\ncleansed. It is all done through faith and obedience.\n\nLet us see what Naaman's faith led him to believe. \"And he returned\nto the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood\nbefore him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in\nall the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a\nblessing of thy servant.\"\n\nWhat I want particularly to call your attention to is the words\n\n\nI KNOW.\n\nThere is no hesitation about it, no qualifying the expression.\nNaaman doesn't now say, \"I think\"; no, he says, \"_I know_ there is a\nGod who has power to cleanse the leprosy.\"\n\nThen there is another thought. Naaman left only one thing in\nSamaria, and that was his leprosy; and the only thing God wishes you\nto leave with Him is your sin. And yet it is the only thing you seem\nnot to care about giving up.\n\n\"Oh,\" you say, \"I love leprosy, it is so delightful, I can't give it\nup; I know God wants it, that He may make me clean. But I can't give\nit up.\"\n\nWhy, what downright madness it is for you to love leprosy; and yet\nthat is your condition.\n\n\"Ah,\" says someone, \"I don't believe in sudden conversions.\"\n\nDon't you? How long did it take Naaman to be cured? The seventh time\nhe went down, away went the leprosy. Read the great conversions\nrecorded in the Bible. Saul of Tarsus, Zacchaeus, and a host of\nothers; how long did it take the Lord to bring them about? They were\neffected in a minute. We are born in iniquity, shapen in it, dead in\ntrespasses and sins; but when spiritual life comes it comes in a\nmoment, and we are free both from sin and death.\n\nYou may be sure when he got home there was no small stir in Naaman's\nhouse. I can see his wife, Mrs. Naaman, when he gets back. She has\nbeen watching and looking out of the window for him with a great\nburden on her heart. And when she asks him, \"Well, husband, how is\nit?\" I can see the tears running down his cheeks as he says:\n\n\"Thank God, I am well.\"\n\nThey embrace each other, and pour out mutual expressions of\nrejoicing and gladness. The servants are just as glad as their\nmaster and mistress, as they have been waiting eagerly for the news.\nThere never was a happier household than Naaman's, now that he has\ngot rid of the leprosy. And so, my friends, it will be with your own\nhouseholds if you will only get rid of the leprosy of sin to-day.\nNot only will there be joy in your own hearts and at home, but there\nwill also be\n\n\nJOY AMONG THE SAINTS IN HEAVEN.\n\nOnce, as I was walking down the street, I heard some people laughing\nand talking aloud. One of them said:\n\n\"Well, there will be no difference, it will be all the same a\nhundred years hence.\"\n\nThe thought flashed across my mind, \"Will there be no difference?\nWhere will you be a hundred years hence?\"\n\nYoung man, just ask yourself the question, \"Where shall I be?\" Some\nof you who are getting on in years may be in eternity ten years\nhence. Where will you be, on the left or the right hand of God? I\ncannot tell your feelings, but I can my own. I ask you, \"Where will\nyou spend eternity? Where will you be a hundred years hence?\"\n\nI heard once of a man who went to England from the Continent, and\nbrought letters with him to eminent physicians from the Emperor. The\nletters said:\n\n\"This man is a personal friend of mine, and we are afraid he is\ngoing to lose his reason. Do all you can for him.\"\n\nThe doctor asked him if he had lost any dear friend in his own\ncountry, or any position of importance, or what it was that was\nweighing on his mind.\n\nThe young man said, \"No; but my father and grandfather and myself\nwere brought up infidels, and for the last two or three years this\nthought has been haunting me, Where shall I spend eternity? And the\nthought of it follows me day and night.\"\n\nThe doctor said, \"You have come to\n\n\nTHE WRONG PHYSICIAN,\n\nbut I will tell you of one who can cure you\"; and he told him of\nChrist, and read to him the 53d chapter of Isaiah, \"With His stripes\nwe are healed.\"\n\nThe young man said, \"Doctor, do you believe that?\"\n\nThe doctor told him he did, and prayed and wrestled with him, and at\nlast the clear light of Calvary shone on his soul. He had settled\nthe question in his own mind at last, where he would spend eternity.\nI ask you, sinner, to settle it now. It is for you to decide. Shall\nit be with the saints, and martyrs, and prophets, or in the dark\ncaverns of hell, amidst blackness and darkness forever? Make haste\nto be wise; for \"how shall we escape if we neglect so great\nsalvation?\"\n\nAt our church in Chicago I was closing the meeting one day, when a\nyoung soldier got up and entreated the people to decide for Christ\nat once. He said he had just come from a dark scene. A comrade of\nhis, who had enlisted with him, had a father who was always\nentreating him to become a Christian, and in reply he always said he\nwould when the war was over. At last he was wounded, and was put\ninto the hospital, but got worse and was gradually sinking. One day,\na few hours before he died, a letter came from his sister, but he\nwas too far gone to read it. Oh, it was such an earnest letter! The\ncomrade read it to him, but he did not seem to understand it, he was\nso weak, till it came to the last sentence, which said:\n\n\"Oh, my dear brother, when you get this letter, will you not accept\nyour sister's Savior?\"\n\nThe dying man sprang up from his cot, and said, \"What do you say?\nwhat do you say?\" and then, falling back on his pillow, feebly\nexclaimed, \"_It is too late! It is too late!_\"\n\nMy dear friends, thank God it is not _too late_ for you to-day. The\nMaster is still calling you. Let every one of us, young and old,\nrich and poor, come to Christ at once, and He will put all our sins\naway. Don't wait any longer for feeling, but obey at once. You can\nbelieve, you can trust, you can lay hold on eternal life, if you\nwill. Will you not do it now?\n\n\n\nTHE PROPHET NEHEMIAH\n\n\nI should like to call your attention to the prophet Nehemiah. We may\ngain some help from that distinguished man who accomplished a great\nwork. He was one of the last of the prophets, was supposed to be\ncontemporary with Malachi, and perhaps his book was one of the last\nof the Old Testament books that was written. He might have known\nDaniel, for he was a young man in the declining years of that very\neminent and godly statesman. We are sure of one thing at least--he\nwas a man of sterling worth. Although he was brought up in the\nPersian court among idolaters, yet he had a character that has stood\nall these centuries.\n\nNotice his prayer in which he made confession of Israel's apostasy\nfrom God. There may be some confessions we need to make to be\nbrought into close fellowship with God. I have no doubt that numbers\nof Christians are hungering and thirsting for a personal blessing,\nand have a great desire to get closer to God. If that is the desire\nof _your_ heart, keep in mind that if there is some obstacle in the\nway which you can remove, you will not get a blessing until you\nremove it. We must cooperate with God. If there is any sin in my\nheart that I am not willing to give up then I need not pray. You may\ntake a bottle and cork it up tight, and put it under Niagara, and\nnot a drop of that mighty volume of water will get into the bottle.\nIf there is any sin in my heart that I am not willing to give up, I\nneed not expect a blessing. The men who have had power with God in\nprayer have always begun by confessing their sins. Take the prayers\nof Jeremiah and Daniel. You find Daniel confessing his sin, when\nthere isn't a single sin recorded against him; but he confesses his\nsin and the sins of the people. Notice how David confessed his sins\nand what power he had with God. So it is a good thing for us to\nbegin as Nehemiah did.\n\nIt seems that some men had come down from his country to the Persian\ncourt, perhaps to see the king on business. This man, who was in\nhigh favor with the king, met them, and finding that they had come\nfrom Jerusalem he began to inquire about his country. He not only\nloved his God, but he\n\n\nLOVED HIS COUNTRY.\n\nI like to see a patriotic man. He began to inquire about his people\nand about the city that was very near to his heart, Jerusalem. He\nhad never seen the city. He had no relations back there in Jerusalem\nthat he knew of. Nehemiah was not a Jewish prince, although it is\nsupposed he had royal blood in his veins. He was born in captivity.\nIt was about one hundred years after Jerusalem was taken that he\nappeared upon the horizon. He was in the court of Artaxerxes, a\ncupbearer to the king, and held a high position. Yet he longed to\nhear from his native land. When these men told him the condition of\nthe city, that the people were in great want and distress and\ndegradation, and that the walls of the city were still down, that\nthe gates had been burned and never restored, his patriotic heart\nbegan to burn. We are told he fasted and prayed and wept, and not\nonly did he pray for one week, or one month, but he kept on praying.\nHe prayed \"day and night.\" Having many duties to perform, of course\nhe was not always on his knees, but in heart he was ever before the\nthrone of grace. It was not hard for him to understand and obey the\nprecept, \"Pray without ceasing.\" He began the work in prayer,\ncontinued in prayer, and the last recorded words of Nehemiah are a\nprayer.\n\nIt was in November or December when those men arrived at that court,\nand this man prayed on until March or April before he spoke to the\nking. If a blessing doesn't come to-night, pray harder to-morrow,\nand if it doesn't come to-morrow, pray harder, and then, if it\ndoesn't come keep right on, and you will not be disappointed. God in\nheaven will hear your prayers, and will answer them. He has _never\nfailed_, if a man has been honest in his petitions and honest in his\nconfessions. Let your faith beget patience. God is never in a hurry,\nsaid St. Augustine, because He has all eternity to work.\n\nIn the first chapter of Nehemiah is\n\n\nTHE PRAYER\n\nof this wonderful man, his cry which has been on record all these\nyears, and a great help to many people:\n\n\"I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God,\nthat keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe\nhis commandments: let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes\nopen, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray\nbefore thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy\nservants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we\nhave sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned.\nWe have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the\ncommandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou\ncommandedst thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word\nthat thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I\nwill scatter you abroad among the nations: but if ye turn unto me,\nand keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast\nout unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them\nfrom thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen\nto set my name there. Now these are thy servants and thy people,\nwhom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.\nO Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer\nof thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to\nfear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and\ngrant him mercy in the sight of this man.\"\n\nWhen he began to pray I have no idea that he thought he was to be\nthe instrument in God's hand of building the walls of Jerusalem. But\nwhen a man gets into sympathy and harmony with God, then God\nprepares him for the work He has for him. No doubt he thought the\nPersian king might send one of his great warriors and accomplish the\nwork with a great army of men, but after he had been praying for\nmonths, it may be the thought flashed into his mind:\n\n\"Why should not I go to Jerusalem myself and build those walls?\"\n\nPrayer for the work will soon arouse your own sympathy and effort.\n\nNow mark, it meant a good deal for Nehemiah to give up the palace of\nShushan and his high office, and identify himself with the despised\nand captive Jews. He was among the highest in the whole realm. Not\nonly that, but he was a man of wealth, lived in ease and luxury, and\nhad great influence at court. For him to go to Jerusalem and lose\ncaste was like Moses turning his back on the palace of Pharaoh and\nidentifying himself with the Hebrew slaves. Yet we might\n\n\nNEVER HAVE HEARD OF\n\neither of them if they had not done this. They stooped to conquer;\nand when you get ready to stoop God will bless you. Plato, Socrates,\nand other Greek philosophers lived in the same century as Nehemiah.\nHow few have heard of them and read their words compared with the\nhundreds of thousands who have heard and read of Nehemiah during the\nlast two thousand years!\n\nIf you and I are to be blessed in this world, we must be willing to\ntake any position into which God puts us. So, after Nehemiah had\nprayed a while, he began to pray God to send him, and that he might\nbe the man to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.\n\nAfter he had been praying some time, he was one day in the\nbanqueting hall, and the king noticed that his countenance was sad.\nWe might not have called the face sad; but much prayer and fasting\n\n\nCHANGE THE VERY COUNTENANCE\n\nof a man. I know some godly men and women, and they seem to have the\nstamp of heaven on them. The king noticed a strange look about this\ncupbearer, and he began to question him. Then the thought came to\nNehemiah that he would tell the king what caused his sorrow,--how\nhis own nation was degraded, and how his heart was going out for his\nown country. After he had told the king, the king said:\n\n\"What is your request?\"\n\nNow, some men tell us they don't have time to pray, but I tell you\nif any man has God's work lying deep in his heart he _will_ have\ntime to pray. Nehemiah\n\n\nSHOT UP A PRAYER\n\nto heaven right there in the king's dining hall that the Lord would\nhelp him to make his request in the right way. He first looked\nbeyond Artaxerxes to the King of Kings. You need not make a long\nprayer. A man who prays much in private will make short prayers in\npublic. The Lord told Nehemiah what to ask for, that he might be\nsent to his own country, that some men might go with him, and that\nthe king would give him letters to the governors through whose\nprovinces he would pass so that he might have a profitable journey\nand be able to rebuild the walls of his city. God had been preparing\nthe king, for the king at once granted the request, and before long\nthis young prince was on his way to Jerusalem.\n\nWhen he reached the city he didn't have a lot of men go before him\nblowing trumpets and saying that the cupbearer of the great Persian\nking,\n\n\nTHE CONVERTED CUPBEARER,\n\nhad arrived from the Persian court, and was going to build the walls\nof Jerusalem. There are some men who are always telling what they\nare going to do. Man, let the work speak for itself. You needn't\nblow any horns; go and do the work, and it will advertise itself.\nNehemiah didn't have any newspapers writing about him, or any\nplacards. However, there was no small stir. No doubt every one in\ntown was talking about it, saying that a very important personage\nhad arrived from the Persian court; but he was there three days and\nthree nights without telling anyone why he had come.\n\nOne night he went out to survey the city. He couldn't ride around;\neven now you cannot ride a beast around the walls of Jerusalem. He\ntried to ride around, but he couldn't, so he walked. It was a\ndifficult task which he had before him, but he was not discouraged.\nThat is what makes character. Men who can go into a hard field and\nsucceed, they are the men we want. Any quantity of men are looking\nfor easy places, but the world will never hear of them. We want men\nwho are looking for hard places, who are willing to go into the\ndarkest corners of the earth, and make those dark places bloom like\ngardens. They can do it if the Lord is with them.\n\nEverything looked dark before Nehemiah. The walls were broken down.\nThere was not a man of influence among the people, not a man of\nculture or a man of wealth. The nations all around were looking down\nupon these weak, feeble Jews. So it is in many churches today, the\nwalls are down, and people say it is no use, and their hands drop\ndown by their side. Everything seemed against Nehemiah, but he was a\nman who had the _fire of God_ in his soul; he had come to build the\nwalls of Jerusalem. If you could have bored a hole into his head,\nyou would have found \"Jerusalem\" stamped on his brain. If you could\nhave looked into his heart you would have found \"Jerusalem\" there.\nHe was a fanatic; he was terribly in earnest; he was an enthusiast.\nI like to see a man take up some one thing and say, \"I will do it; I\nlive for this thing; this one thing I am bound to do.\" We spread out\nso much, and try to do so many things, that\n\n\nWE SPREAD SO THIN\n\nthe world never hears of us.\n\nAfter he had been in the city three days and nights, he called the\nelders of Israel together, and told them for what he had come. God\nhad been preparing them, for the moment he told them they said:\n\n\"Let us rise up and build.\"\n\nBut there has not been a work undertaken for God since Adam fell\nwhich has not met with opposition. If Satan allows us to work\nunhindered, it is because our work is of no consequence. The first\nthing we read, after the decision had been made to rebuild the\nwalls, is:\n\n\"When Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite,\nand Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and\ndespised us, and said, What is this thing that ye do? will ye rebel\nagainst the king?\"\n\nThese men were very indignant. They didn't care for the welfare of\nJerusalem. Who were they? A mixed multitude who had no portion nor\nright nor memorial in Jerusalem. They didn't like to see the\nrestoration of the ruins, just as people nowadays do not like to see\nthe cause of Christ prospering. The offence of the cross has not\nceased.\n\nIt doesn't take long to build the walls of a city if you can only\nget the whole of the people at it. If the Christians of this country\nwould only rise up, we could evangelize America in twelve months.\nAll the Jews had a hand in repairing the walls of Jerusalem. Each\nbuilt over against his own house, priest and merchant, goldsmith and\napothecary, and even the women. The men of Jericho and other cities\ncame to help. The walls began to rise.\n\nThis stirred up Nehemiah's enemies, and they began to ridicule.\n\n\nRIDICULE\n\nis a mighty weapon.\n\n\"What do these feeble Jews?\" said Sanballat. \"Will they fortify\nthemselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they make an end in a day?\nWill they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which\nare burned?\"\n\n\"Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break\ndown their stone wall,\" said Tobiah the Ammonite.\n\nBut Nehemiah was wise. He paid no attention to them. He just looked\nto God for grace and comfort:\n\n\"Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon\ntheir own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:\nand cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out\nfrom before: for they have provoked thee to anger before the\nbuilders.\"\n\nYoung man, if you wish to be successful in this world, don't mind\nSanballat or Tobiah. Don't be kept out of the kingdom of God or out\nof active Christian work by the scorn and laughter and ridicule of\nyour godless neighbors and companions.\n\nNext, these enemies conspired to come and fight against Jerusalem.\n\nNehemiah was warned, and took steps to guard against them. Half of\nthe people were on the watch, and the other half held a sword in one\nhand and a trowel in the other. There was\n\n\nNO EIGHT-HOUR WORKING DAY\n\nthen; they were on duty from the rising of the morning till the\nstars appeared. They did not take off their clothes except to wash\nthem. Fancy, this man who came from the Persian court with all its\nluxury, living and sleeping in his clothes for those fifty-two days!\nBut he was in earnest. Ah, that is what we want! men who will set\nthemselves to do one thing, and keep at it day and night.\n\nAll the people were bidden to lodge within the city, so that they\nshould always be on hand to work and fight. Would to God that we\ncould get all who belong inside the church to come in and do their\nshare. \"Happy is the church,\" says one, \"whose workers are well\nskilled in the use of the Scripture, so that while strenuously\nbuilding the Gospel Wall, they can fight too, if occasion require\nit.\" We ought all be ready to use the Sword of the Spirit.\n\nBy and by the men wrote a friendly letter, and wanted Nehemiah to go\ndown on the plain of Ono and have a friendly discussion. It is\n\n\nA MASTERPIECE OF THE DEVIL\n\nto get men into friendly discussions. I don't know whether Nehemiah\nhad a typewriter in those days or not; I don't know whether he had a\nprinted form of letters, but he always sent back the same reply:\n\n\"I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.\"\n\nHow many a church has turned aside for years to discuss \"questions\nof the day,\" and has neglected the salvation of the world because\nthey must go down to the \"plain of Ono\" and have a friendly\ndiscussion! Nehemiah struck a good keynote--\"I am doing a great\nwork, so that I cannot come down.\" If God has sent you to build the\nwalls of Jerusalem, _you go and do it_.\n\nThey sent him another letter, and again he sent word back, \"I am\ndoing a great work, so that I cannot come down.\" He did not believe\nin \"coming down.\" They sent him another, and he sent back the same\nword. They sent him a fourth letter, with the same result. They\ncould not get him down; they wanted to slay him on the way.\n\nI have seen many Christian men on the plain of Ono, men who were\ndoing a splendid work but had been switched off. Think how much work\nhas been neglected by temperance advocates in this country because\nthey have gone into politics and into discussing woman's rights and\nwoman's suffrage. How many times the Young Men's Christian\nAssociation has been switched off by discussing some other subject\ninstead of holding up Christ before a lost world! If the church\nwould only keep right on and build the walls of Jerusalem they would\nsoon be built. Oh, it is a wily devil that we have to contend with!\nDo you know it? If he can only get the church to stop to discuss\nthese questions, he has accomplished his desire.\n\nHis enemies wrote him one more letter,\n\n\nAN OPEN LETTER,\n\nin which they said that they had heard he was going to set up a\nkingdom in opposition to the Persians, and that they were going to\nreport him to the king. Treason has an ugly sound, but Nehemiah\ncommitted himself to the Lord, and went on building.\n\nThen his enemies hired a prophet, one of his friends. A hundred\nenemies outside are not half so hard to deal with as one inside--a\nfalse friend. When the devil gets possession of a child of God he\nwill do the work better than the devil himself. Temptations are\nnever so dangerous as when they come to us in a religious garb. So\nTobiah and Sanballat bought up one of the prophets, and hired him to\ntry to induce Nehemiah to go into the temple, that they might put\nhim to death there.\n\n\"Now, Nehemiah, there is a plan to kill you, come into the temple.\nLet's go in and stay for the night.\"\n\nHe came near being deceived, but he said, \"Shall I, such a man as I,\nbe afraid of my life, and do that to save my life?\"\n\nAfter he had refused their invitation he saw that this man was a\nfalse prophet; and so by his standing his ground he succeeded in\nfifty-two days in building the walls of Jerusalem. Then the gates\nwere set up and the work was finished.\n\nNow during all these centuries that story has been told. If Nehemiah\nhad remained at court, he might have died a millionaire, but he\nnever would have been heard of twenty years after his death. Do you\nknow the names of any of Nineveh's millionaires? This man stepped\nout of that high position and took a low position, one that the\nworld looked down upon and frowned upon, and his name has been\nassociated with the walls of Jerusalem all these centuries. Young\nman, if you want to be immortal, become identified with God's work,\nand pay no attention to what men outside say. Nehemiah and his\nassociates began at sunrise and worked until it grew so dark they\ncould not see. A man who will take up God's work, and work summer\nand winter right through the year, will have a harvest before the\nyear is over, and the record of it will shine after he enters the\nother world.\n\nThe next thing we learn of Nehemiah is that he got up a great\n\n\nOPEN-AIR MEETING\n\nfor the reading of the law of Moses in the hearing of the people. A\npulpit of wood, large enough to hold Ezra the Scribe and thirteen\nothers, was built. The people wept when they heard the words of the\nlaw, but Nehemiah said:\n\n\"Mourn not, nor weep. Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet,\nand send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this\nday is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the\nLord is your strength.\"\n\nHe did not forget the poor. Reading the Bible and remembering the\npoor--a combination of faith and works--will always bring joy.\n\nNehemiah then began to govern the city, and correct the abuses he\nfound existing. He gathered about fifty priests and scribes together\nand made them sign and seal a written covenant. There were five\nthings in that covenant I want to call attention to.\n\nFirst, _they were not to give their daughters to the heathen_.\n\nThey had been violating the law of God, and had been marrying their\ndaughters to the ungodly. God had forbidden them to intermarry with\nthe heathen nations in the land of Canaan; \"for they will turn away\nthy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will\nthe anger of the Lord be kindled against you and _destroy thee\nsuddenly_.\" I have known many a man who has lost his power by being\nidentified with the ungodly. If you want to have the blessing of God\nrest upon you, you must be very careful about your alliances. The\nJews always got into trouble when they married with the nations\nround about. The houses of Ahab and of Solomon lost their kingdom by\nthat sin. That was the cause of the overthrow of David's kingdom.\nFamilies who marry for wealth, and marry the godly to the ungodly,\nalways bring distress into the family.\n\nThen he made them sign a covenant that they would _keep the\nSabbath_, that they would not buy upon the Sabbath.\n\nThink of a man going from a heathen court where they had no Sabbath,\na man brought up in that atmosphere, coming up to Jerusalem and\nenforcing the law of Moses! It is recorded that they brought up\nfish, and he would not let them into the city on the Sabbath, and\nthe fish spoiled. After they had tried that a few times, they gave\nit up. If you will take your stand for God, even if you stand alone,\nit will not be very long before you will get other men to stand with\nyou. God stood with this man, and he carried everything before him.\n\nI don't believe we shall have the right atmosphere in this country\nuntil we can get men who have backbone enough to stand up against\nthe thing they believe is wrong. If it is a custom rooted and\ngrounded for a hundred years, never mind; you take your stand\nagainst it if you believe it is wrong. If you have gatherings, and\nit is fashionable to have wine and champagne, and you are a\nteetotaler; if they ask you anywhere and you know that they are to\nhave drink, tell them you are not going. A man said to me some years\nago:\n\n\"Mr. Moody, now that I am converted, must I give up the world?\"\n\nI said: \"No, you haven't got to give up the world. If you give a\ngood ringing testimony for the Son of God, the world will give you\nup pretty quick; they won't want you around.\"\n\nThey were going to have a great celebration at the opening of a\nsaloon and billiard hall in Chicago, in the northern part of the\ncity, where I lived. It was to be a gateway to death and to hell,\none of the worst places in Chicago. As a joke they sent me an\ninvitation to go to the opening. I took the invitation and went down\nand saw the two men who had the saloon, and I said:\n\n\"Is that a genuine invitation?\"\n\nThey said it was.\n\n\"Thank you,\" I said, \"I will be around; if there is anything here I\ndon't like I may have something to say about it.\"\n\nThey said: \"You are not going to _preach_?\"\n\n\"I may.\"\n\n\"We don't want you. We won't let you in.\"\n\n\"How are you going to keep me out?\" I asked; \"there is the\ninvitation.\"\n\n\"We will put a policeman at the door.\"\n\n\"What is the policeman going to do with that invitation?\"\n\n\"We won't let you in.\"\n\n\"Well,\" I said, \"I will be there.\"\n\nI gave them a good scare, and then I said, \"I will compromise the\nmatter; if you two men will get down here and let me pray with you,\nI will let you off.\"\n\nI got those two rumsellers down on their knees, one on one side of\nme, and the other on the other side, and I prayed God to save their\nsouls and smite their business. One of them had a Christian mother,\nand he seemed to have some conscience left. After I had prayed, I\nsaid:\n\n\"How can you do this business? How can you throw this place open to\nruin young men of Chicago?\"\n\nWithin three months the whole thing smashed up, and one of them was\nconverted some time after. I have never been invited to a saloon\nsince.\n\nYou won't have to give up the world, not by a good deal. If you go\nto reunions, and there is drinking, get up and go away. Don't you be\nparty to it. That is the kind of men we want. When you find anything\nthat is ruining your fellow men, fight it to its bitter end.\n\nNehemiah said, \"We will not have desecration of the Sabbath.\" Not\nsell the Sunday paper? Not buy a Sunday paper? How many read the\nSunday newspapers?\n\nI suppose that if you had Nehemiah as mayor of New York, he would\nstop that sort of thing. Here we have boys who are kept away from\nthe Sunday school to sell papers on the streets--trains running in\norder that the papers can be distributed. I don't believe a man is\nin a fit state to hear a sermon whose mind is full of such trash as\nthe Sunday newspaper is filled with. Men break the Sabbath and\nwonder why it is they have not spiritual power. The trouble nowadays\nis that it doesn't mean anything to some people to be a Christian.\nWhat we must have is a higher type of Christianity in this country.\nWe must have a Christianity that has in it the principle of self\n-denial. We must deny ourselves. If we want power, we must be\nseparate.\n\nThe next thing they were to do--(and bear in mind this was a thing\nthey had to sign)--was to _give their land rest_.\n\nFor four hundred and ninety years they had not let their land rest,\nso God took them away to Babylon for seventy years, and let the land\nrest. A man that works seven days in the week right along is cut off\nabout five or ten years earlier. You cannot rob God. Why is it that\nso many railroad superintendents and physicians die early? It is\nbecause they work seven days in the week. So Nehemiah made them\ncovenant to keep the law of Moses. If the nations of the earth had\nkept that law, the truth would have gone to the four corners of the\nearth before this time.\n\nThen he made them sign a covenant that _they would not charge\nusury_.\n\nThey were just grinding the poor down. I believe that the reason we\nare in such a wretched state in this country to-day is on account of\ncrowding the poor, and getting such a large amount of money for\nusury. People evade the law, and pay the interest, and then they\ngive a few hundred dollars to negotiate the loan. There is a great\namount of usury, and see where we are to-day! See what a wretched\nstate of things we are having, not only in this country, but all\nover the world!\n\nThe fifth thing he made them do was to _bring their first fruits to\nthe sons of Levi_.\n\nThey were to give God a tenth, the first and best. As long as Israel\ndid that they prospered, and when they turned away from that law\nthey did not prosper. You can look through history and look around\nyou and see the same thing to-day. As long as men keep God's law and\nrespect God's testimony, they are going to prosper, but when they\nturn aside, like Samson, they lose their strength; they have no\npower.\n\nIf you take these five things and carry them out, you will have\nprosperity. Let us all do it personally. If it was good for those\nmen it is good for us. The moment we begin to rob God of time or\ntalents then darkness and misery and wretchedness will come.\n\n\n\nHEROD AND JOHN THE BAPTIST\n\n\nIf some one had told me a few years ago that he thought Herod at one\ntime came near the kingdom of God, I should have been inclined to\ndoubt it. I would have said, \"I do not believe that the bloodthirsty\nwretch who took the life of John the Baptist ever had a serious\nthought in his life about his soul's welfare.\" I held that opinion\nbecause there is one scene recorded in Herod's life that I had\noverlooked. But some years ago, when I was going through the gospel\nof Mark, making a careful study of the book, I found this verse:\n\n\"Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and\nobserved him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard\nhim gladly.\" (Mark vi, 20).\n\nThis caused me to change my views about Herod. I saw that he was not\nonly brought within the sound of John's voice, but under the power\nof the Spirit of God; his heart was touched and his conscience\nawakened. We are not told under what circumstances he heard John;\nbut the narrative plainly states that he was brought under the\ninfluence of the Baptist's wonderful ministry.\n\nLet me first say a word or two about\n\n\nTHE PREACHER.\n\nI contend that John the Baptist must have been one of the grandest\npreachers this world has ever had. Almost any man can get a hearing\nnowadays in a town or a city, where the people live close together;\nespecially if he speaks in a fine building where there is a splendid\nchoir, and if the meetings have been advertised and worked up for\nweeks or months beforehand. In such circumstances any man who has a\ngift for speaking will get a good audience. But it was very\ndifferent with John. He drew the people out of the towns and cities\naway into the wilderness. There were no ministers to back him; no\nbusiness men interested in Christ's cause to work with him; no\nnewspaper reporters to take his sermons down and send them out. He\nwas an unknown man, without any title to his name. He was not the\nRight-Rev. John the Baptist, D. D., or anything of the kind, but\nplain John the Baptist. When the people went to inquire of him if he\nwere Elias or Jeremiah come back to life, he said he was not.\n\n\"Who are you then?\"\n\n\"I am the Voice of one crying in the wilderness.\"\n\nHe was nothing but a voice--to be heard and not seen; he was Mr.\nNobody. He regarded himself as a messenger who had received his\ncommission from the eternal world.\n\nHow he began his ministry, and how he gathered the crowds together\nwe are not informed. I can imagine that one day this strange man\nmakes his appearance in the valley of the Jordan, where he finds a\nfew shepherds tending their flocks. They bring together their\nscattered sheep, and the man begins to preach to these shepherds.\nThe kingdom of heaven, he says, is about to be set up on the earth;\nand he urges them to set their houses in order--to repent and turn\naway from their sins. Having delivered his message, he tells them\nthat he will come back the next day and speak again.\n\nWhen he had disappeared in the desert, I can suppose one of the\nshepherds saying to another:\n\n\"Was he not a strange man? Did you ever hear a man speak like that?\nHe did not talk as the rabbis or the Pharisees or the Sadducees do.\nI really think he must be one of the old prophets. Did you notice\nthat his coat was made of camel's hair, and that he had a leathern\ngirdle round his loins? Don't the Scriptures say that Elijah was\nclothed like that?\"\n\nSays another: \"You remember how Malachi says that before the great\nand dreadful day of the Lord, Elijah should come? I really believe\nthis man is the old prophet of Carmel.\"\n\nWhat could stir the heart of the Jewish people more than the name of\nElijah?\n\nThe tidings of John's appearance spread up and down the valley of\nthe Jordan, and when he returned the next day, there was great\nexcitement and expectation as the people listened to the strange\npreacher. Perhaps till Christ came he had only that\n\n\nONE TEXT:\n\n\"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\" Day after day you\ncould hear his voice ringing through the valley of the Jordan:\n\n\"Repent! repent! repent! The King is at the door. I do not know the\nday or the hour, but He will be here very soon.\"\n\nBy and by some of the people who flocked to hear him wanted to be\nbaptized, and he took them to the Jordan and baptized them.\n\nThe news spread to the surrounding villages and towns, and it was\nnot long before it reached Jerusalem. Then the people of the city\nbegan to flock into the desert to hear this prince among preachers.\nHis fame soon reached Galilee, and the people in the mountains began\nto flock down to hear him. Men left their fishing-smacks on the\nlake, that they might listen to this wonderful preacher. When he was\nin the zenith of his popularity, as many as twenty or thirty\nthousand people perhaps flocked to his ministry day after day.\n\nNo doubt there were some old croakers who said it was\n\n\nALL SENSATION.\n\n\"Catch me there! No, sir; I never did like sensational preaching.\"\n\nJust as some people speak nowadays when any special effort is made\nto reach the people!\n\n\"Great harm will be done,\" they say.\n\nI wish all these croakers had died out with that generation in\nJudea; but we have plenty of their descendants still. I venture to\nsay you have met with them. Why, my dear friends, there is more\nexcitement in your whisky shops and beer saloons in one night than\nin all the churches put together in twelve months. What a stir there\nmust have been in Palestine under the preaching of John the Baptist,\nand of Christ! The whole country reeled and rocked with intense\nexcitement. Don't be afraid of a little excitement in religious\nmatters; it won't hurt.\n\nOne might hear those old Pharisees and Scribes grumbling about John\nbeing such a sensational preacher. \"It won't last.\" And when Herod\nhad John the Baptist beheaded, they would say, \"Didn't I tell you\nso?\"\n\nDo not let us be in a hurry in passing judgment. John the Baptist\nlives to-day more than ever he did; his voice goes ringing through\nthe world yet. He only preached a few months, but for more than\neighteen hundred years his sermons have been repeated and\nmultiplied, and the power of his words will never die as long as the\nworld lasts.\n\nI can imagine that just when John was at the height of his\npopularity, as Herod sat in his palace in Jerusalem looking out\ntowards the valley of the Jordan, he could see great crowds of\npeople passing day by day. He began to make inquiries as to what it\nmeant, and the news came to him about this strange and powerful\npreacher. Some one, perhaps, reported that John was preaching\ntreason. He was telling of a king who was at hand, and who was going\nto set up his kingdom.\n\n\"A king at hand! If Caesar were coming, I should have heard of it.\nThere is no king but Caesar. I must look into the matter. I will go\ndown to the Jordan, and hear this man for myself.\"\n\nSo one day, as John stood preaching, with the eyes of the whole\naudience upon him, the people being swayed by his eloquence like\ntree-tops when the wind passes over them, all at once he lost their\nattention. All eyes were suddenly turned in the direction of the\ncity. One cries:\n\n\"Look, look! Herod is coming!\"\n\nSoon the whole congregation knows it, and there is great excitement.\n\n\"I believe he will stop this preaching,\" says one.\n\nAnd if they had in those days some of the compromising weak-kneed\nChristians we sometimes meet, they would have said to John:\n\n\"Don't talk about a coming King; Herod won't stand it. Talk about\nrepentance, but any talk about a coming King will be high treason in\nthe ears of Herod.\"\n\nI think if any one had dared to give John such counsel, he would\nhave replied: \"I have received my message from heaven; what do I\ncare for Herod or any one else?\"\n\nAs he stood thundering away and calling on the people to repent, I\ncan see Herod, with his guard of soldiers around him, listening\nattentively to find anything in the preacher's words that he can lay\nhold of. At last John says:\n\n\"The King is just at the door. He will set up His kingdom, and will\nseparate the wheat from the chaff.\"\n\nI can imagine Herod then saying to himself: \"I will have that man's\nhead off inside of twenty-four hours. I would arrest him here and\nnow if I dared. I will catch him to-morrow before the crowd\ngathers.\"\n\nBy and by, as Herod listens, some of the people begin to press close\nup to the preacher, and to question him. Some soldiers are among\nthem, and they ask John:\n\n\"What shall we do?\"\n\nJohn answers: \"Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely;\nand be content with your wages.\"\n\n\"That is pretty good advice,\" Herod thinks; \"I have had a good deal\nof trouble with these men, but if they follow the preacher's advice,\nit will make them better soldiers.\"\n\nThen he hears the publicans ask John, as they come to be baptized:\n\n\"What shall we do?\"\n\nThe answer is: \"Exact no more than that which is appointed you.\"\n\n\"Well,\" says Herod, \"that is excellent advice. These publicans are\nall the time overtaxing the people. If they would do as the preacher\ntells them, the people would be more contented.\"\n\nThen the preacher addresses himself to the Pharisees and the\nSadducees in the crowd, and cries:\n\n\"O generation of vipers! Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath\nto come? Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.\"\n\nSays Herod within himself: \"I like that. I am glad he is giving it\npretty strong to these men. I do not think I will have him arrested\njust yet.\"\n\nSo he goes back to his palace. I can imagine he was\n\n\nNOT ABLE TO SLEEP MUCH\n\nthat night; he kept thinking of what he had heard. When the Holy\nGhost is dealing with a man's conscience, very often sleep departs\nfrom him. Herod cannot get this wilderness preacher and his message\nout of his mind. The truth had reached his soul; it echoed and re\n-echoed within him: \"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\"\nHe says:\n\n\"I went out to-day to hear for the Roman Government; I think I will\ngo to-morrow and hear for myself.\"\n\nSo he goes back again and again. My text says that he heard him\ngladly, that he observed him, and feared him, knowing that he was a\njust man and a holy. He must have known down in his heart that John\nwas\n\n\nA HEAVEN-SENT MESSENGER.\n\nHad you gone into the palace in those days, you would have heard\nHerod talking of nobody but John the Baptist. He would say to his\nassociates:\n\n\"Have you been out into the desert to hear this strange preacher?\"\n\n\"No; have you?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"What! you, the Roman Governor, going to hear this unordained\npreacher?\"\n\n\"Yes, I have been quite often. I would rather hear him than any man\nI ever knew. He does not talk like the regular preachers. I never\nheard any one who had such influence over me.\"\n\nYou would have thought that Herod was a very hopeful subject. \"He\ndid many things.\" Perhaps he stopped swearing. He may have stopped\ngambling and getting drunk. A wonderful change seemed to have passed\nover him. Perhaps he ceased from taking bribes for a time; we catch\nhim at it afterwards, but just then he refrained from it. He became\nquite virtuous in certain directions. It really looked as if he were\nnear the kingdom of heaven.\n\nI can imagine that one day, as John stands preaching, the truth is\ngoing home to the hearts and consciences of the people, and the\npowers of another world are falling upon them, one of John's\ndisciples stands near Herod's chariot, and sees the tears in the\neyes of the Roman Governor. At the close of the service he goes to\nJohn and says:\n\n\"I stood close to Herod today, and no one seemed more impressed. I\ncould see the tears coming, and he had to brush them away to keep\nthem from falling.\"\n\nHave you ever seen a man in a religious meeting trying to keep the\ntears back? You noticed that his forehead seemed to itch, and he put\nup his hand; you may know what it means--he wants to conceal the\nfact that the tears are there. He thinks it is a weakness. It is no\nweakness to get drunk and abuse your family, but it is weakness to\nshed tears. So this disciple of John may have noticed that Herod put\nhis hand to his brow a number of times; he did not wish his\nsoldiers, or those standing near, to observe that he was weeping.\nThe disciple says to John:\n\n\"It looks as if he were coming near the kingdom. I believe you will\nhave him as an inquirer very soon.\"\n\nWhen a man enjoys hearing such a preacher, it certainly seems a\nhopeful sign.\n\nHerod might have been present that day when Christ was baptized. Was\nthere ever a man lifted so near to heaven as Herod must have been if\nhe were present on that occasion? I see John standing surrounded by\na great throng of people who are hanging on his words. The eyes of\nthe preacher, that never had quailed before, suddenly began to look\nstrange. He turned pale and seemed to draw back as though something\nwonderful had happened, and right in the middle of a sentence he\nceased to speak. If I were suddenly to grow pale, and stop speaking,\nyou would ask:\n\n\"Has death crept onto the platform? Is the tongue of the speaker\npalsied?\"\n\nThere must have been quite a commotion among the audience when John\nstopped. The eyes of the Baptist were fixed upon a Stranger who\npushed His way through the crowd, and coming up to the preacher,\nrequested to be baptized. That was a common occurrence; it had\nhappened day after day for weeks past. John listened to the\nStranger's words, but instead of going at once to the Jordan and\nbaptizing Him, he said:\n\n\"I need to be baptized of Thee!\"\n\nWhat a thrill of excitement must have shot through the audience! I\ncan hear one whispering to another:\n\n\"I believe that is the Messiah!\"\n\nYes, it was the long-looked-for One, for whose appearing the nation\nhad been waiting these thousands of years. From the time God had\nmade the promise to Adam, away back in Eden, every true Israelite\nhad been looking for the Messiah; and there He was in their midst!\n\nHe insisted that John should baptize Him, and the forerunner\nrecognized His authority as Master, took Him to the Jordan, and\nbaptized Him. As He came up from the water, lo! the heavens opened,\nand the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descended and rested on\nHim. When Noah sent forth the dove from the Ark, it could find no\nresting-place; but now the Son of God had come to do the will of\nGod, and the dove found its resting-place upon Him. The Holy Ghost\nhad found a home. Now God broke the silence of four thousand years.\nThere came a voice from heaven, and Herod may have heard it if he\nwas there that day:\n\n\"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.\"\n\nEven if he had not witnessed this scene and heard the voice, he must\nhave heard about it; for the thing was not done in a corner. There\nwere thousands to witness it, and the news must have been taken to\nevery corner of the land.\n\nYet Herod, living in such times, and hearing such a preacher, missed\nthe kingdom of heaven at last. He did many things because he feared\nJohn. Had he feared God he would have done everything. \"He did many\nthings\"; but there was one thing he would not do--\n\n\nHE WOULD NOT GIVE UP ONE DARLING SIN.\n\nThe longer I preach, the more I am convinced that that is what keeps\nmen out of the kingdom of God. John knew about Herod's private life,\nand warned him plainly.\n\nIf those compromising Christians of whom I have spoken had been near\nJohn, one of them would have said:\n\n\"Look here, John, it is reported that Herod is very anxious about\nhis soul, and is asking what he must do to be saved. Let me give you\nsome advice; don't touch on Herod's secret sin. He is living with\nhis brother's wife, but don't you say anything about it, for he\nwon't stand it. He has the whole Roman Government behind him, and if\nyou allude to that matter it will be more than your life is worth.\nYou have a good chance with Herod; he is afraid of you. Only be\ncareful, and don't go too far, or he will have your head off.\"\n\nThere are those who are willing enough that you should preach about\nthe sins of other people, so long as you do not come home to them.\nMy wife was once teaching my little boy a Sabbath-school lesson; she\nwas telling him to notice how sin grows till it becomes habit. The\nlittle fellow thought it was coming too close to him, so he colored\nup, and finally said:\n\n\"Mamma, I think you are getting a good way from the subject.\"\n\nJohn was a preacher of this uncompromising kind, for he drove the\nmessage right home. I do not know when or how the two were brought\ntogether at that time, but John kept nothing back; he boldly said:\n\n\"Herod, it is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.\"\n\nThe man was breaking the law of God, and living in the cursed sin of\nadultery. Thank God, John did not spare him! It cost the preacher\nhis head, but the Lord had got his heart, and he did not care what\nbecame of his head. We read that Herod feared John, but John did not\nfear Herod.\n\nI want to say that I do not know of a quicker way to hell than by\nthe way of adultery. Let no one flatter himself that he is going\ninto the kingdom of God who does not repent of this sin in sackcloth\nand ashes. My friend, do you think God will never bring you into\njudgment? Does not the Bible say that no adulterer shall inherit the\nkingdom of God?\n\nDo you think John the Baptist would have been a true friend of Herod\nif he had spared him, and had covered up his sin? Was it not a true\nsign that John loved him when he warned him, and told him he must\nquit his sin? Herod had before done many things, and heard John\ngladly; but he did not like him then. It is one thing to hear a man\npreach down other people's sins. Men will say, \"That is splendid,\"\nand will want all their friends to go and hear the preacher. But let\nhim touch on their individual sin as John did, and declare (as\nNathan did to David), \"Thou art the man,\" and they say, \"I do not\nlike that.\" The preacher has touched a sore place.\n\nWhen a man has broken his arm, the surgeon must find out the exact\nspot where the fracture is. He feels along and presses gently with\nhis fingers.\n\n\"Is it there?\"\n\n\"No\"\n\n\"Is it there?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\nPresently, when the surgeon touches another spot, \"Ouch!\" says the\nman.\n\nHe has found the broken part, and it hurts. John placed his finger\non the diseased spot, and Herod winced under it. He put his hand\nright on it:\n\n\"Herod, it is not lawful for thee to have thy brother Philip's\nwife!\"\n\nHerod did not want to give up his sin.\n\nMany a man would be willing to enter into the kingdom of God, if he\ncould do it without giving up sin. People sometimes wonder why Jesus\nChrist, who lived six hundred years before Mohammed, has got fewer\ndisciples than Mohammed to-day. There is no difficulty in explaining\nthat. A man may become a disciple of Mohammed, and continue to live\nin the foulest, blackest, deepest sin; but a man cannot be a\ndisciple of Christ without giving up sin. If you are trying to make\nyourself believe that you can get into the kingdom of God without\nrenouncing your sin, may God tear the mask from you! Can Satan\npersuade you that Herod will be found in the kingdom of God along\nwith John the Baptist, with the sin of adultery and of murder on his\nsoul?\n\nAnd now, let me say this to you. If your minister comes to you\nfrankly, tells you of your sin, and warns you faithfully, thank God\nfor him. He is your best friend; he is a heaven-sent man. But if a\nminister speaks smooth, oily words to you; tells you it is all\nright, when you know, and he knows, that it is all wrong, and that\nyou are living in sin, you may be sure that he is a devil-sent man.\nI want to say I have a contempt for a preacher that will tone his\nmessage down to suit some one in his audience; some Senator, or big\nman whom he sees present. If the devil can get possession of such a\nminister and speak through him, he will do the work better than the\ndevil himself. You might be horrified if you knew it was Satan\ndeceiving you, but if a professed minister of Jesus Christ preaches\nthis doctrine and says that God will make it all right in the end,\nthat though you go on living in sin, it is just the same. Don't be\ndeluded into believing such doctrine--it is as false as any lie that\never came from the pit of hell. All the priests and ministers of all\nthe churches cannot save one soul that will not part with sin.\n\nThere is an old saying that, \"Every man has his price.\" Esau sold\nhis birthright for a mess of pottage; pretty cheap, was it not? Ahab\nsold out for a garden of herbs. Judas sold out for thirty pieces of\nsilver--less than $17 of our money. Pretty cheap, was it not? Herod\nsold out for adultery.\n\n\nWHAT IS THE PRICE\n\nthat you put upon your soul? You say you do not know. I will tell\nyou. _It is the sin that keeps you from God_. It may be whisky;\nthere is many a man who will give up the hope of heaven and sell his\nsoul for whisky. It may be adultery; you say:\n\n\"Give me the harlot, and I will relinquish heaven with all its\nglories. I would rather be damned with my sin than saved without\nit.\"\n\nWhat are you selling out for, my friend? You know what it is.\n\nDo you not think it would have been a thousand times better for\nHerod to-day if he had taken the advice of John the Baptist instead\nof that vile, adulterous woman? There was Herodias pulling one way,\nJohn the other, and Herod was in the balance. It's the same old\nbattle between right and wrong; heaven pulling one way, hell the\nother. Are you going to make the same mistake yourself? We have ten\nthousand-fold more light than Herod had. He lived on the other side\nof the cross. The glorious gospel had not shone out as it has done\nsince. Think of the sermons you have heard, of the entreaties\naddressed to you to become a Christian. Some of you have had godly\nmothers who have prayed for you. Many of you have godly wives who\nhave pleaded with you, and with God, on your behalf. You have been\nsurrounded with holy influences from year to year, and how often you\nhave been near the kingdom of God! Yet here you are to-day, further\noff than ever!\n\nIt may be true of you, as it was of Herod, that you hear your\npreacher gladly. You attend church, you contribute liberally, you do\nmany things. Remember that none of these avail to cleanse your soul\nfrom sin. They will not be accepted in the place of what God\ndemands--repentance and the forsaking of every sin.\n\nA child was once playing with a vase, and put his hand in and could\nnot draw it out again. His father tried to help him, but in vain. At\nlast he said:\n\n\"Now, make one more try. Open your fingers out straight, and let me\npull your arm.\"\n\n\"Oh, no, papa,\" said the son, \"I'd drop the penny if I opened my\nfingers like that!\"\n\nOf course he couldn't get his hand out when his fist was doubled. He\ndidn't want to give up the penny. Just so with the sinner. He won't\ncut loose from his sins.\n\nYour path and mine will perhaps never cross again. But if I have any\ninfluence with you, I beseech and beg of you to break with sin now,\nlet it cost you what it will. Herod might have been associated with\nJoseph of Arimathea, and with the twelve apostles of the Lamb, if he\nhad taken the advice of John. There might have been a fragrance\naround his name all these centuries. But alas! when we speak of\nHerod, we see a sneer on the faces of those who hear us. If one had\nsaid to Herod in those days, \"Do you know that you are going to\nsilence that great preacher, and have him beheaded?\" he would have\nreplied, \"Is thy servant a dog that he should do such a thing? I\nnever would take the life of such a man.\" He would probably have\nthought he could never do it. Yet it was only a little while after\nthat he had the servant of God beheaded.\n\nDo you know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ proves either a savor of\nlife unto life, or of death unto death? You sometimes hear people\nsay: \"We will go and hear this man preach. If it does us no good, it\nwill do us no harm.\" Don't you believe it, my friend! Every time you\nhear the Gospel and reject it, the hardening process goes on. The\nsame sun that melts the ice hardens the clay. The sermon that would\nhave moved you a few years ago would make no impression now. Do you\nnot recall some night when you heard some sermon that shook the\nfoundations of your skepticism and unbelief? But you are indifferent\nnow.\n\nI believe Herod was seven times more a child of hell after his\nconviction had passed away than he was before. There is not a true\nminister of the Gospel who will not say that the hardest people to\nreach are those who have been impressed, and whose impressions have\nworn away. It is a good deal easier to commit a sin the second time\nthan it was to commit it the first time, but it is a good deal\nharder to repent the second time than the first.\n\nIf you are near the kingdom of God now, take the advice of a friend\nand step into it. Don't be satisfied with just getting near to it.\nChrist said to the young ruler, \"Thou art not far from the kingdom,\"\nbut he failed to get there. Don't run any risks. Death may overtake\nyou before you have time to carry out your best intentions, if you\nput off a decision.\n\nIt is sad to think that men heard Jesus and Paul, and were moved\nunder their preaching, but were not saved. Judas must many times\nhave come near the kingdom, but he never entered in. I saw it in the\narmy--men who had\n\n\nALMOST DECIDED\n\nto become Christians cut down in battle without having taken the\nstep that would have made them sure of eternal life. I confess there\nis something very sad about it.\n\nIn one of the tenement houses in New York city, a doctor was sent\nfor. He came, and found a young man very sick. When he got to the\nbedside the young man said:\n\n\"Doctor, I don't want you to deceive me; I want to know the worst.\nIs this illness to prove serious?\"\n\nAfter the doctor had made an examination, he said: \"I am sorry to\ntell you you cannot live out the night.\"\n\nThe young man looked up and said: \"Well, then, I have missed it at\nlast!\"\n\n\"Missed what?\"\n\n\"I have missed eternal life. I always intended to become a Christian\nsome day, but I thought I had plenty of time, and put it off.\"\n\nThe doctor, who was himself a Christian man, said: \"It is not too\nlate. Call on God for mercy.\"\n\n\"No; I have always had a great contempt for a man who repents when\nhe is dying; he is a miserable coward. If I were not sick I would\nnot have a thought about my soul, and I am not going to insult God\nnow.\"\n\nThe doctor spent the day with him, read to him out of the Bible, and\ntried to get him to lay hold of the promises. The young man said he\nwould not call on God, and in that state of mind he passed away.\nJust as he was dying the doctor saw his lips moving. He reached\ndown, and all he could hear was the faint whisper:\n\n\"_I have missed it at last!_\"\n\nDear friend, make sure that you do not miss eternal life at last.\nWill you go with Herod or with John? Bow your head now and say:\n\n\"Son of God, come into this heart of mine. I yield myself to Thee,\nfully, wholly, unreservedly.\"\n\nHe will come to you, and will not only save you, but will keep you\nto the end.\n\n\n\nTHE MAN BORN BLIND AND JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA\n\n\nThere were two extraordinary men living in the city of Jerusalem\nwhen Christ was on earth. One of them has come down through history\nnameless--we do not know who he was; the name of the other is given.\nOne was not only a beggar, but blind from his birth; the other was\none of the rich men of Jerusalem. Yet in the Gospel of John, there\nis more space given to this blind beggar than to any other\ncharacter. The reason why so much has been recorded of this man is\nbecause he took his stand for Jesus Christ.\n\nLook at the account given in John ix., beginning at the fifth verse.\nIn the previous chapter Christ had been telling them that He was the\nLight of the world, and that if any man would follow Him he should\nnot walk in darkness, but should have the light of life. After\nmaking a statement of that kind, Christ often gave\n\n\nAN EVIDENCE OF THE TRUTH\n\nof what He said by performing some miracle. If He had said He was\nthe Light of the world, He would show them in what way He was the\nLight of the world. If He had said He was the Life of the world, He\nwould prove Himself to be such by quickening and raising the dead;\njust as He did, after telling them that He was the Resurrection and\nthe Life, by going to the graveyard of Bethany and calling Lazarus\nforth. When Lazarus heard the voice of his friend saying, \"Lazarus,\ncome forth!\" he came forth immediately.\n\nThe Son of God does not ask men to believe Him without a reason for\nso doing. We need to keep this in mind. You might as well ask a man\nto see without light or eyes, as to believe without testimony.\n\nHe gave them good reason for believing in Him, and proved His\nMessiahship and authority. He not only told them that He had the\npower, but He showed them that He had.\n\nThese two men, then, were both at Jerusalem. One held as high a\nposition, and the other as low a position, as any in the city. One\nwas at the top of the social ladder, and the other at the bottom.\nAnd yet they both made a good confession; and one was as acceptable\nto Jesus as the other.\n\n\nI\n\n\nThe man mentioned in this chapter was born blind. We find the Lord's\ndisciples asking Him:\n\n\"Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born\nblind?\"\n\nJesus answered, \"Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but\nthat the works of God should be manifest in him.\"\n\nWhen He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the\nspittle; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,\nand said unto him:\n\n\"Go wash in the pool of Siloam.\"\n\nThe blind man went his way and washed, and his eyesight was\nrestored.\n\nObserve what that man did. He did _just what Christ told him to do_.\nThe Savior's command to him was to go to the pool of Siloam and\nwash; and \"he went his way therefore, and came seeing.\" He was\nblessed in the very act of obedience.\n\nAnother thought: God does not generally repeat Himself. Of all the\nblind men who were healed while Christ was on earth, no two were\nhealed in exactly the same way. Jesus met blind Bartimeus near the\ngates of Jericho, and called him to Him and said:\n\n\"What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?\"\n\nThe answer was: \"Lord, that I might receive my sight.\"\n\nNow, see what He did. He did not send Bartimeus off to Jerusalem\ntwenty miles away to the pool of Siloam to wash. He did not spit on\nthe ground, and make clay, and anoint his eyes; but with a word He\nwrought the cure, saying:\n\n\"Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole.\"\n\nSuppose Bartimeus had gone from Jericho and had met the other blind\nbeggar at the gate of the city of Jerusalem, and asked him how it\nwas he got his sight; suppose they began to compare notes--one\ntelling his experience, and the other telling his. Imagine the first\nsaying:\n\n\"I do not believe that you have got your sight, because you did not\nget it in the same way that I got mine.\"\n\nWould the different ways the Lord Jesus had in healing them make\ntheir cases the less true? Yet there are some people who talk just\nthat way now. Because God does not deal with some exactly as He does\nwith others, people think that God is not dealing with them at all.\nGod seldom repeats Himself. No two persons were ever converted\nexactly alike, so far as my experience goes. Each one must have an\nexperience of his own. Let the Lord give sight in His own way.\n\nThere are thousands of people who\n\n\nKEEP AWAY FROM CHRIST\n\nbecause they are looking for the experience of some dear friend or\nrelative. They should not judge of their conversion by the\nexperiences of others. They have heard some one tell how he was\nconverted twenty years ago, and they expect to be converted in the\nsame way. Persons should never count upon having an experience\nprecisely similar to that of some one else of whom they have heard\nor read. They must go right to the Lord Himself, and do what He\ntells them to do. If He says, \"Go to the pool of Siloam and wash,\"\nthen they must go. If He says, \"Come just as you are,\" and promises\nto give sight, then they must come, and let Him do His own work in\nHis own way, just as this blind man did. It was a peculiar way by\nwhich to give a man sight; but it was the Lord's way; and the man's\nsight was given him. We might think it was enough to make a man\nblind to fill his eyes with clay. True, he was now doubly blind; for\nif he had been able to see before, the clay would have deprived him\nof his sight. But the Lord wanted to show the people that they were\nnot only spiritually blind by nature, but that they had also allowed\nthemselves to be blinded by the clay of this world, which had been\nspread over their eyes. But God's ways are not our ways. If He is\ngoing to work, we must let Him act as He pleases.\n\nShall we dictate to the Almighty? Shall the clay say to the potter,\n\"Why hast thou made me thus?\" Who art thou, O man, that repliest\nagainst God? Let God work in His own way; and when the Holy Ghost\ncomes, let Him mark out a way for Himself. We must be willing to\nsubmit, and to do what the Lord tells us, without any questioning\nwhatever.\n\n\"He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing. The\nneighbors, therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was\nblind, said, 'Is not this he that sat and begged?'\"\n\n\"Some said, 'This is he'; others said, 'He is like him.'\"\n\nNow, if he had been like a good many at the present time, I am\nafraid he would have remained silent. He would have said:\n\n\"Well, now I have got my sight, and I will just keep quiet about it.\nIt is not necessary for me to confess it. Why should I say anything?\nThere is a good deal of opposition to this man Jesus Christ. There\nare a great many bitter things said in Jerusalem against Him. He has\na great many enemies. I think there will be trouble if I talk about\nHim; so I will say nothing.\"\n\nSome said, \"This is he\"; others said, \"He is like him.\" But he said,\n\"I am he.\" He not only got his eyes opened, but, thank God, he got\nhis mouth open too!\n\nSurely, the next thing after we get our eyes opened is for us to\nopen our lips and begin to testify for Him.\n\nThe people asked him, \"How were thine eyes opened?\"\n\nHe answered: \"A man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine\neyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash: and I\nwent and washed, and I received sight.\"\n\nHe told a straightforward story, just what the Lord had done for\nhim. That is all. That is what a witness ought to do--tell what he\nknows, not what he does not know. He did not try to make a long\nspeech. It is not the most flippant and fluent witness who has the\nmost influence with a jury.\n\nThis man's testimony is what I call \"experience.\" One of the\ngreatest hindrances to the progress of the Gospel to-day is that the\nnarration of the experience of the Church is not encouraged. There\nare a great many men and women who come into the Church, and we\nnever hear anything of their experiences, or of the Lord's dealings\nwith them. If we could, it would be a great help to others. It would\nstimulate faith and encourage the more feeble of the flock.\n\n\nTHE APOSTLE PAUL'S EXPERIENCE\n\nhas been recorded three times. I have no doubt that he told it\neverywhere he went: how God had met him; how God had opened his eyes\nand his heart; and how God had blessed him. Depend upon it,\nexperience has its place; the great mistake that is made now is in\nthe other extreme. In some places and at some periods there has been\ntoo much of it--it has been all experience; and now we have let the\npendulum swing too far the other way.\n\nI think it is not only right, but exceedingly useful, that we should\ngive our experience. This man bore testimony to what the Lord had\ndone for him.\n\n\"And it was the Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his\neyes; Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received\nhis sight. He said unto them, 'He put clay upon mine eyes; and I\nwashed, and do see.' Therefore said some of the Pharisees, 'This man\nis not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day.' Others said,\n'How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?' And there was a\ndivision among them.\n\nThey say unto the blind man again, 'What sayest thou of Him, that He\nhath opened thine eyes?'\"\n\nWhat an opportunity he had for evading the questions! He might have\nsaid: \"Why, I have never seen Him. When He met me I was blind; I\ncould not see Him. When I came back I could not find Him; and I have\nnot formed any opinion yet.\" He might have put them off in that way,\nbut he said:\n\n\"He is a prophet.\"\n\nHe gave them his opinion. He was a man of backbone. He had moral\ncourage. He stood right up among the enemies of Jesus Christ, the\nPharisees, and told them what he thought of Him--\n\n\"He is a prophet.\"\n\nIf you can get young Christians to talk, not about themselves, but\nabout Christ, their testimony will have power. Many converts talk\naltogether about their own experience--\"I,\" \"I,\" \"I,\" \"I.\" But this\nblind man got away to the Master, and said, \"He is a prophet.\" He\nbelieved, and he told them what he believed.\n\n\"But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been\nblind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him\nthat had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, 'Is this\nyour son, who ye say was born blind? How then doth he now see?' His\nparents answered them, and said, 'We know that this is our son, and\nthat he was born blind: but by what means he now seeth, we know not:\nor who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he\nshall speak for himself.' These words spake his parents, because\nthey feared the Jews; for the Jews had agreed already that if any\nman did confess that He was Christ, he should be put out of the\nsynagogue. Therefore said his parents, 'He is of age; ask him.'\"\n\nI have always had great contempt for those parents. They had a noble\nson, and their lack of moral courage then and there to confess what\nthe Lord Jesus Christ had done for their son, makes them unworthy of\nhim. They say, \"We do not know how he got it,\" which looks as if\nthey did not believe their own son. \"He is of age; ask him.\"\n\nIt is sorrowfully true to-day that we have hundreds and thousands of\npeople who are professed disciples of Jesus Christ, but when the\ntime comes that they ought to take their stand, and give a clear\ntestimony for Him, they testify against Him. You can always tell\nthose who are really converted to God. The new man always takes his\nstand for God; and the old man takes his stand against Him. These\nparents had an opportunity to confess the Lord Jesus Christ, and to\ndo great things for Him; but they neglected their golden\nopportunity.\n\nIf they had but stood up with their noble son, and said, \"This is\nour son. We have tried all the physicians, and used all the means in\nour power, and were unable to do anything for him; but now, out of\ngratitude, we confess that he received his sight from the prophet of\nGalilee, Jesus of Nazareth,\" they might have led many to believe on\nHim. But, instead of that, they said, \"We know that this is our son,\nand that he was born blind: but by what means he now seeth, we know\nnot.\"\n\nDo you know why they did not want to tell how he got his sight?\nSimply because it would\n\n\nCOST THEM TOO MUCH.\n\nThey represent those Christians who do not want to serve Christ if\nit is going to cost them anything; if they have to give up society,\nposition, or worldly pleasures. They do not want to come out. This\nis what keeps hundreds and thousands from becoming Christians.\n\nIt was a serious thing to be put out of the synagogue in those days.\nIt does not amount to much now. If a man is put out of one church,\nanother may receive him; but when he went out of the synagogue there\nwas no other to take him in. It was the State church: it was the\nonly one they had. If he were cast out of that, he was cast out of\nsociety, position, and everything else; and his business suffered\nalso.\n\nThen again the Jews called the man that was blind, \"and said unto\nhim, 'Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner.'\"\n\nIt looks now as if they were trying to prejudice him against Christ:\nbut he \"answered and said, 'Whether He be a sinner or no, I know\nnot; one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.'\"\n\nThere were no infidels or philosophers there who could persuade him\nout of that. There were not men enough in Jerusalem to make him\nbelieve that his eyes were not opened. Did he not _know_ that for\nover twenty years he had been feeling his way around Jerusalem; that\nhe had been led by children and friends; and that during all those\nyears he had not seen the sun in its glory, or any of the beauties\nof nature? Did he not know that he had been feeling his way through\nlife up to that very day?\n\nAnd do we not know that we have been born of God, and that we have\ngot the eyes of our souls opened? Do we not know that old things\nhave passed away and all things have become new, and that the\neternal light has dawned upon our souls? Do we not know that the\nchains that once bound us have snapped asunder, that the darkness is\ngone, and that the light has come? Have we not liberty where we once\nhad bondage? Do we not know it? If so, then let us not hold our\npeace. Let us testify for the Son of God, and say, as the blind man\ndid in Jerusalem, \"ONE THING I KNOW, that whereas I was blind, now I\nsee. I have a new power. I have a new light. I have a new love. I\nhave a new nature. I have something that reaches out toward God. By\nthe eye of faith I can see yonder heaven. I can see Christ standing\nat the right hand of God. By and by, when my journey is over, I am\ngoing to hear that voice saying, 'Come hither,' when I shall sit\ndown in the kingdom of God.\"\n\n\"Then said they to him again, 'What did He do to thee? how opened He\nthine eyes?' But he answered them, 'I have told you already, and ye\ndid not hear; wherefore would ye hear it again? Will ye also be His\ndisciples?'\"\n\nThis was a most extraordinary man. Here was a young convert in\nJerusalem, not a day old,\n\n\nTRYING TO MAKE CONVERTS\n\nof these Pharisees--men who had been fighting Christ for nearly\nthree years! He asked them if they would also become His disciples.\nHe was ready to tell his experience to all who were willing to hear\nit. If he had covered it up at the first, and had not come out at\nonce, he would not have had the privilege of testifying in that way,\nneither would he have been a winner of souls. This man was going to\nbe a soul-winner.\n\nI venture to say he became one of the best workers in Jerusalem. I\nhave no doubt he stood well to the front on the day of Pentecost,\nwhen Peter preached, and when the wounded were around him; he went\nto work and told how the Lord had blessed him, and how He would\nbless them. He was a _worker_, not an _idler_, and he kept his lips\nopen.\n\nIt is a very sad thing that so many of God's children are dumb; yet\nit is true. Parents would think it a great calamity to have their\nchildren born dumb; they would mourn over it, and weep; and well\nthey might; but did you ever think of the many dumb children God\nhas? The churches are full of them; they never speak for Christ.\nThey can talk about politics, art, and science; they can speak well\nenough and fast enough about the fashions of the day; but they have\n\n\nNO VOICE FOR THE SON OF GOD.\n\nDear friend, if He is your Savior, confess Him. Every follower of\nJesus should bear testimony for Him. How many opportunities each one\nhas in society and in business to speak a word for Jesus Christ! How\nmany opportunities occur daily wherein every Christian might be\n\"instant in season and out of season\" in pleading for Jesus! In so\ndoing we receive blessing for ourselves, and also become a means of\nblessing to others.\n\nThis man wanted to make converts of those Pharisees, who only a\nlittle while before had their hands full of stones, ready to put the\nSon of God to death, and even now had murder in their hearts. They\nreviled him, saying, \"Thou art His disciple, but we are Moses'\ndisciples. We know that God spake unto Moses. As for this fellow, we\nknow not from whence He is.\"\n\nWell, now the once blind man might have said, \"There is a good deal\nof opposition, and I will say no more; I will keep quiet, and walk\noff and leave them.\" But, thank God, he stood right up with the\ncourage of a Paul! He answered and said unto them:\n\n\"Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence He\nis, and yet He hath opened mine eyes! Now we know that God heareth\nnot sinners; but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth His\nwill, him He heareth.\"\n\nNow, I call that logic. If he had been through a theological\nseminary he could not have given a better answer. It is sound\ndoctrine, and was a good sermon for those who were opposed to the\nwork of Christ. \"If this man were not of God He could do nothing.\"\nThis is very strong proof of the man's conviction as to who the Lord\nJesus was. It is as though he said: \"I, a man born blind, and He can\ngive me sight. He a _sinner!_\" Why, it is unreasonable! If Jesus\nChrist were a man only, how could He give that man sight?\n\nLet philosophers, skeptics, and infidels answer the question,\n\nNeither had he to wear glasses. He received good sight, not short\nsight, or weak sight, but as good sight as any man in Jerusalem, and\nperhaps a little better. They could all look at him and see for\nthemselves. His testimony was beyond dispute.\n\nAfter his splendid confession of the divinity and power of Christ,\n\"they answered and said unto him, 'Thou wast altogether born in sin,\nand dost thou teach us?' And they cast him out.\" They could not meet\nhis argument, and so they cast him out. So it is now. If we give a\nclear testimony for Christ, the world will cast us out. It is a good\nthing to give our testimony so clearly for Christ that the world\ndislikes it; it is a good thing when such testimony for Christ\ncauses the world to cast us out.\n\nLet us see what happened when they cast him out. \"Jesus heard,\" that\nis the next thing. No sooner did they cast him out than Jesus heard\nof it. No man was ever cast out by the world for the sake of Jesus\nChrist but He heard of it; indeed, He will be the first one to hear\nof it. \"Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He found\nhim He said unto him, 'Dost thou believe in the Son of God?' He\nanswered and said, 'Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?'\nAnd Jesus said unto him, 'Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that\ntalketh with thee.' And he said, 'Lord, I believe!' And he worshiped\nHim.\"\n\nThat was\n\n\nA GOOD PLACE TO LEAVE HIM\n\n--at the feet of Jesus. We shall meet him by and by in the kingdom\nof God.\n\nHis testimony has been ringing down through the ages these last\nnineteen hundred years. It has been talked about wherever the Word\nof God has been known. It was a wonderful day's work that man did\nfor the Son of God; doubtless there will be many in eternity who\nwill thank God for his confession of Christ.\n\nBy thus showing his gratitude in coming out and confessing Christ,\nhe has left a record that has stirred the Church of God ever since.\nHe is one of the characters that always stirs one up, imparting new\nlife and fire, new boldness and courage when one reads about him.\nThis is what we need to-day as much as ever--to stand up for the Son\nof God. Let the Pharisees rage against us; let the world go on\nmocking, and sneering, and scoffing; we will stand up courageously\nfor the Son of God. If they cast us out, they will cast us right\ninto His own bosom. He will take us to His own loving arms. It is a\nblessed thing to live so godly in Christ Jesus that the world will\nnot want you--that they will cast you out.\n\n\nII\n\n\nNow we come to Joseph of Arimathea.\n\nI do not think he came out quite so nobly as this blind beggar did;\nbut he did come out, and we will thank God for that. We read in John\nthat for fear of the Jews he was kept back from confessing openly.\n\n\"And after this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but\nsecretly, _for fear of the Jews_, besought Pilate that he might take\naway the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him leave. He came,\ntherefore, and took the body of Jesus.\"\n\nRead the four accounts given in the four Gospels of Joseph of\nArimathea. There is very seldom anything mentioned by all four of\nthe Evangelists. If Matthew and Mark refer to an event it is often\nomitted by Luke and John; and, if it occur in the latter, it may not\nbe contained in the former. John's Gospel is made up of that which\nis absent from the others in most instances--as in the case of the\nblind man alluded to. But all four record what Joseph did for\nChrist. All His disciples had forsaken Him. One had sold Him, and\nanother had denied Him. He was left in gloom and darkness, when\nJoseph of Arimathea came out and confessed Him.\n\nIt was the death of Jesus Christ that brought out Joseph of\nArimathea. Probably he was one of the number that stood at the cross\nwhen the centurion smote his breast, and cried out, \"Truly, this was\nthe Son of God,\" and he was doubtless convinced at the same time. He\nwas a disciple before, because we read that on the night of the\ntrial he did not give his consent to the death of Christ. There must\nhave been some surprise in the Council-chamber on that occasion,\nwhen Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, stood up and said:\n\n\"I will never give my consent to His death.\"\n\nThere were seventy of those men, but we have very good reason to\nbelieve that there were two of them that, like Caleb and Joshua of\nold, had the courage to stand up for Jesus Christ--these were Joseph\nof Arimathea and Nicodemus: neither of them gave their consent to\nthe death of Christ. But I am afraid Joseph did not come out and say\nthat he was a disciple--for we do not find a word said about his\nbeing one until after the crucifixion.\n\nI am afraid there are\n\n\nMANY JOSEPHS TODAY,\n\nmen of position, of whom it could be said they are secret disciples.\nSuch would probably say to-day, \"I do not need to take my stand on\nChrist's side. What more do _I_ need? I have everything.\" We read\nthat he was a rich and honorable councillor, a just and a good man,\nand holding a high position in the government of the nation. He was\nalso a benevolent man, and a devout man too. What more could he\nneed? God wants something more than Joseph's good life and high\nposition. A man may be all Joseph was and yet be without Christ.\n\nBut a crisis came in his history. If he was to take his stand, now\nwas the time for him to do it, I consider that this is one of the\ngrandest, the noblest acts that any man ever did, to take his stand\nfor Christ when there seemed nothing, humanly speaking, that Christ\ncould give him. Joseph had no hope concerning the resurrection. It\nseems that none of our Lord's disciples understood that He was going\nto rise again even Peter, James, and John, as well as the rest,\nscarcely believed that He had risen when He appeared to them. They\nhad anticipated that He would set up His kingdom, but He had no\nsceptre in His hand; and, so far as they could see, no kingdom in\nview. In fact, He was dead on the cross, with nails through His\nhands and feet. There He hung until His spirit took its flight; that\nwhich had made Him so grand, so glorious, and so noble, had now left\nthe body.\n\nJoseph might have said, \"It will be no use my taking a stand for Him\nnow. If I come out and confess Him I shall probably lose my position\nin society and in the council, and my influence. I had better remain\nwhere I am.\"\n\nThere was no earthly reward for him; there was nothing, humanly\nspeaking, that could have induced him to come out; and yet we are\ntold by Mark that he went boldly into Pilate's judgment-hall and\nbegged the body of Jesus. I consider this was\n\n\nONE OF THE SUBLIMEST, GRANDEST ACTS\n\nthat any man ever did. In that darkness and gloom, His disciples\nhaving all forsaken Him; Judas having sold Him for thirty pieces of\nsilver; the chief apostle Peter having denied Him with a curse,\nswearing that he never knew Him; the chief priests having found Him\nguilty of blasphemy; the Council having condemned him to death; and\nwhen there was a hiss going up to heaven over all Jerusalem, Joseph\nwent right against the current, right against the influence of all\nhis friends, and begged the body of Jesus.\n\nBlessed act! Doubtless he upbraided himself for not having been more\nbold in his defence of Christ when He was tried, and before He was\ncondemned to be crucified. The Scripture says he was an honorable\nman, an honorable councillor, a rich man, and yet we have only the\nrecord of that one thing--the one act of begging the body of Jesus.\nBut I tell you, that what he did for the Son of God, out of pure\nlove for Him, will live for ever; that one act rises up above\neverything else that Joseph of Arimathea ever did. He might have\ngiven large sums of money to different institutions, he might have\nbeen very good to the poor, he might have been very kind to the\nneedy in various ways; but that one act for Jesus Christ, on that\nmemorable, that dark afternoon, was one of the noblest acts that a\nman ever did. He must have been a man of great influence, or Pilate\nwould not have given him the body.\n\nAnd now you see another secret disciple, Nicodemus. Nicodemus and\nJoseph go to the cross. Joseph is there first, and while he is\nwaiting for Nicodemus to come, he looks down the hill; and I can\nimagine his delight as he sees his friend coming with a hundred\npounds of ointment. Although Jesus Christ had led such a lowly life,\nHe was to have a kingly anointing and burial. God has touched the\nhearts of these two noble men and they drew out the nails, and took\nthe body down, washed the blood away from the wounds that had been\nmade on His back by the scourge, and on His head by the crown of\nthorns; then they took the lifeless form, washed it clean, and\nwrapped it in fine linen, and Joseph laid Him in his own sepulchre.\n\nWhen all was dark and gloomy, when His cause seemed to be lost, and\nthe hope of the Church buried in that new tomb, Joseph took his\nstand for the One \"despised and rejected of men.\" It was the\ngreatest act of his life; and, my reader, if you want to stand with\nthe Lord Jesus Christ in glory; if you want the power of God to be\nbestowed upon you for service down here, you must not hesitate to\ntake your stand boldly and manfully for the most despised of all\nmen--the Man Christ Jesus. His cause is unpopular. The ungodly sneer\nat His name. But if you want the blessings of heaven on your soul,\nand to hear the \"Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou\ninto the joy of thy Lord,\" take your stand at once for Him; whatever\nyour position may be, or however much your friends may be against\nyou. Decide for Jesus Christ, the crucified but risen Savior. Go\noutside the camp and bear His reproach. Take up your cross and\nfollow Him, and by and by you will lay it down and take the crown to\nwear it for ever.\n\nI remember some meetings being held in a locality where the tide did\nnot rise very quickly, and bitter and reproachful things were being\nsaid about the work. But one day, one of the most prominent men in\nthe place rose and said:\n\n\"I want it to be known that I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, and if\nthere is any odium to be cast on His cause, I am prepared to take my\nshare of it.\"\n\nIt went through the meeting like an electric current, and a blessing\ncame at once to his own soul and to the souls of others.\n\nDepend upon it, there is\n\n\nNO CROWN WITHOUT A CROSS.\n\nWe must take our proper position here, as Joseph did. It cost him\nsomething to take up his cross. I have no doubt they put him out of\nthe council and out of the synagogue. He lost his standing, and\nperhaps his wealth: like other faithful followers of Christ, he\nbecame, henceforth, a despised and unpopular man.\n\nThe blind man could not have done what Joseph did. Some men can do\nwhat others cannot. God will hold us responsible for our own\ninfluence. Let each of us do what we can. Even though the conduct of\nour Lord's professed followers was anything but helpful to those\nwho, like Joseph, had but little courage to come out on the Lord's\nside, he was not deterred from taking his stand.\n\nWhatever it costs us, let us be true Christians, and take a firm\nstand. It is like the dust in the balance in comparison to what God\nhas in store for us. We can afford to suffer with Him a little while\nif we are going to reign with Him for ever. We can afford to take up\nthe cross and follow Him, to be despised and rejected by the world,\nwith such a bright prospect in view. If the glories of heaven are\nreal, it will be to His praise and to our advantage to share in His\nrejection now.\n\nMay the Lord keep us from halting; and may we, when weighed in the\nbalance, not be found wanting! May God help every reader to do all\nthat the poor blind beggar did, and all that Joseph did!\n\nLet us confess Him at all times and in all places. Let us show our\nfriends that we are out and out on His side. Every one has a circle\nthat he can influence, and God will hold us responsible for the\ninfluence we possess. Joseph of Arimathea and the blind man had\ncircles in which their influence was powerful. I can influence\npeople that others cannot reach; and they, in their turn, can reach\na class that I could not touch. It is only for a little while that\nwe can confess Him and work for Him. It is only for a few months or\nyears; and then the eternal ages will roll on, and great will be our\nreward in the crowning day that is coming. We shall then hear the\nMaster say to us:\n\n\"Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of\nthy Lord.\"\n\nGod grant it may be so!\n\n\n\nTHE PENITENT THIEF\n\n\nIt should give us all a great deal of hope and comfort that Jesus\nsaved such a man as the penitent thief just before He went back to\nheaven. Every one who is not a Christian ought to be interested in\nthis case, to know how he was converted. Any one who does not\nbelieve in sudden conversions ought to look into it. If conversions\nare gradual, if it takes six months, or six weeks, or six days to\nconvert a man, there was no chance for this thief. If a man who has\nlived a good, consistent life cannot be converted suddenly, how much\nless chance for him! Turn to the 23d chapter of Luke, and see how\nthe Lord dealt with him. He was a thief, and the worst kind of a\nthief, or else they would not have punished him by crucifixion. Yet\nChrist not only saved him, but took him up with Himself into glory.\n\nLet us look at Christ hanging on the cross between the two thieves.\nThe Scribes and Pharisees wagged their heads, and jeered at Him. His\ndisciples had fled. Only His mother and one or two other women\nremained in sight to cheer Him with their presence among all the\ncrowd of enemies. Hear those spiteful Pharisees mocking among\nthemselves: \"He saved others; Himself He cannot save.\" The account\nalso says that the two thieves \"cast the same in his teeth.\"\n\n\nREVILING.\n\nThe first thing we read, then, of this man is that he was a reviler\nof Christ.\n\nYou would think that he would be doing something else at such a time\nas that; but hanging there in the midst of torture, and certain to\nbe dead in a few hours, instead of confessing his sins and preparing\nto meet that God whose law he had broken all his life, he is abusing\nGod's only Son. Surely, he cannot sink any lower, until he sinks\ninto hell!\n\n\nUNDER CONVICTION.\n\nThe next time we hear of him, he appears to be under conviction:\n\n\"And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on Him, saying,\nIf thou be Christ, save Thyself and us. But the other answering\nrebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the\nsame condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due\nreward of our deeds: but this Man hath done nothing amiss.\"\n\nWhat do you suppose made so great a change in this man in these few\nhours? Christ had not preached a sermon, had given him no\nexhortation. The darkness had not yet come on. The earth had not\nopened her mouth. The business of death was going on undisturbed.\nThe crowd was still there, mocking and hissing and wagging the head.\nYet this man, who in the morning was railing at Christ, is now\nconfessing his sins and rebuking the other thief. \"We indeed\njustly!\" No miracle had been wrought before his eyes. No angel from\nheaven had come to place a glittering crown upon His head in place\nof the bloody crown of thorns.\n\nWhat was it wrought such a change in him?\n\nI will tell you what I think it was. I think it was the Savior's\nprayer:\n\n\"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.\"\n\nI seem to hear the thief\n\n\nTALKING TO HIMSELF\n\nin this way:\n\n\"What a strange kind of man this must be! He claims to be king of\nthe Jews, and the superscription over His cross says the same. But\nwhat sort of a throne is this! He says He is the Son of God. Why\ndoes not God send down His angels and destroy all these people who\nare torturing His Son to death? If He has all power now, as He used\nto have when He worked those miracles they talked about, why does He\nnot bring out His vengeance, and sweep all these wretches into\ndestruction? I would do it in a minute if I had the power. I\nwouldn't spare any of them. I would open the earth and swallow them\nup! But this man prays to God to forgive them! Strange, strange! He\n_must_ be different from us. I am sorry I said one word against Him\nwhen they first hung us up here.\n\nWhat a difference there is between Him and me! Here we are, hanging\non two crosses, side by side; but all the rest of our lives we have\nbeen far enough apart. I have been robbing and murdering, and He has\nbeen feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and raising the dead. Now\nthese people are railing at us both! I begin to believe He must be\nthe Son of God; for surely no man could forgive his enemies like\nthat.\"\n\nYes, that prayer of Christ's did what the scourge could not do. This\nman had gone through his trial, he had been beaten, he had been\nnailed to the cross; but his heart had not been subdued, he had\nraised no cry to God, he was not sorry for his sins. Yet, when he\nheard the Savior praying for His murderers, that\n\n\nBROKE HIS HEART.\n\nIt flashed into this thief's soul that Jesus was the Son of God, and\nthat moment he rebuked his companion, saying:\n\n\"Dost thou not fear God?\"\n\nThe fear of God fell upon him. There is not much hope of a man's\nbeing saved until the fear of God comes upon him. Solomon says, \"The\nfear of God is the beginning of wisdom.\"\n\nWe read in Acts that great fear fell upon the people; that was the\nfear of the Lord. That was the first sign that conviction had\nentered the soul of the thief. \"Dost thou not fear God?\" That was\nthe first sign we have of life springing up.\n\n\nCONFESSING.\n\nNext, he confessed his sins: \"We indeed justly.\" He took his place\namong sinners, not trying to justify himself.\n\nA man may be very sorry for his sins, but if he doesn't confess\nthem, he has no promise of being forgiven. Cain felt badly enough\nover his sins, but he did not confess. Saul was greatly tormented in\nmind, but he went to the witch of Endor instead of to the Lord.\nJudas felt so bad over the betrayal of his Master that he went out\nand hanged himself; but he did not confess to God. True, he went and\nconfessed to the priests, saying, \"I have sinned in that I have\nbetrayed innocent blood\"; but it was of no use to confess to them\n--they could not forgive him.\n\nHow different is the case of this penitent thief! He confessed his\nsins, and Christ had mercy on him there and then.\n\nThe great trouble is, people are always trying to make out that they\nare not sinners, that they have nothing to confess. Therefore, there\nis no chance of reaching them with the Gospel. There is no hope for\na man who folds his arms and says: \"I don't think God will punish\nsin; I am going to take the risk.\" There is no hope for a man until\nhe sees that he is under just condemnation for his sins and\nshortcomings. God never forgives a sinner until he confesses.\n\n\nJUSTIFYING CHRIST.\n\nThe next thing, he justifies Christ: \"This Man hath done nothing\namiss.\"\n\nWhen men are talking against Christ, they are a great way from\nbecoming Christians. Now he says, \"He hath done nothing amiss.\"\nThere was the world mocking him; but in the midst of it all, you can\nhear that thief crying out:\n\n\"This Man hath done nothing amiss.\"\n\n\nFAITH.\n\nThe next step is faith.\n\nTalk about faith! I think this is about the most extraordinary case\nof faith in the Bible. Abraham was the father of the faithful; but\nGod had him in training for twenty-five years. Moses was a man of\nfaith; but he saw the burning bush, and had other evidences of God.\nElijah had faith; but see what good reason he had for it. God took\ncare of him, and fed him in time of famine. But here was a man who\nperhaps had never seen a miracle; who had spent his life among\ncriminals; whose friends were thieves and outlaws; who was now in\nhis dying agonies in the presence of a crowd who were rejecting and\nreviling the Son of God. His disciples, who had heard His wonderful\nwords, and witnessed His mighty works, had forsaken Him; and perhaps\nthe thief knew this. Peter had denied Him with oaths and cursing;\nand perhaps this had been told the thief. Judas had betrayed Him. He\nsaw no glittering crown upon His brow; only the crown of thorns. He\ncould see no sign of His kingdom. Where were His subjects? And yet,\nnailed to the cross, racked with pain in every nerve, overwhelmed\nwith horror, his wicked soul in a tempest of passion, this poor\nwretch managed to lay hold on Christ and trust Him for a swift\nsalvation. The faith of this thief, how it flashes out amid the\ndarkness of Calvary! It is one of the most astounding instances of\nfaith in the Bible!\n\nWhen I was a boy I was a poor speller. One day there came a word to\nthe boy at the head of the class which he couldn't spell, and none\nof the class could spell it. I spelled it; by good luck; and I went\nfrom the foot of the class to the head. So the thief on the cross\npassed by Abraham, Moses and Elijah, and went to the head of the\nclass. He said unto Jesus:\n\n\"Lord, remember me when thou comest into Thy kingdom.\"\n\nThank God for such a faith! How refreshing it must have been to\nChrist to have one own Him as Lord, and believe in His kingdom, at\nthat dark hour! How this thief's heart goes out to the Son of God!\nHow glad he would be to fall on his knees at the foot of the cross,\nand pour out his prayer! But this he cannot do. His hands and feet\nare nailed fast to the wood, but they have not nailed his eyes and\nhis tongue and his heart. He can at least turn his head and look\nupon the Son of God, and his breaking heart can go out in love to\nthat One who was dying for him and dying for you and me, and he can\nsay:\n\n\"Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.\"\n\n\nWHAT A CONFESSION\n\nof Christ that was! He called Him \"Lord.\" A queer Lord! Nails\nthrough His hands and feet, fastened to the cross. A strange throne!\nBlood trickling down His face from the scars made by the crown of\nthorns. But He was all the more \"Lord\" because of this.\n\nSinner, call Him \"Lord\" now. Take your place as a poor condemned\nrebel, and cry out:\n\n\"Lord, remember me!\"\n\nThat isn't a very long prayer, but it will prevail. You don't have\nto add--\"when Thou comest into Thy kingdom,\" because Christ is now\nat His Father's right hand. Three words; a chain of three golden\nlinks that will bind the sinner to his Lord.\n\nSome people think they must have a form of prayer, a prayer-book,\nperhaps, if they are going to address the Throne of Grace properly;\nbut what could that poor fellow do with a prayer-book up there,\nhanging on the cross, with both hands nailed fast? Suppose it had\nbeen necessary for some priest or minister to pray for him, what\ncould he do? Nobody is there to pray for him, and yet he is going to\ndie in a few hours. He is out of reach of help from man, but God has\nlaid help upon One who is mighty, and that One is close at hand. He\nprayed out of the heart. His prayer was short, but it brought the\nblessing. It came to the point: \"Lord, remember me when Thou comest\ninto Thy kingdom.\" He asked the Lord to give him, right there and\nthen, what he wanted.\n\n\nTHE ANSWERED PRAYER.\n\nNow consider the answer to his prayer. He got more than he asked,\njust as every one does who asks in faith. He only asked Christ to\n\"remember\" him; but Christ answered:\n\n\"To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise!\"\n\nImmediate blessing--promise of fellowship--eternal rest; this is the\nway Christ answered his prayer.\n\n\nDARKNESS.\n\nAnd now darkness falls upon the earth. The sun hides itself. Worse\nthan all, the Father hides His face from His Son. What else is the\nmeaning of that bitter cry:\n\n\"My God! my God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?\"\n\nAh! It had been written, \"Cursed is every one that hangeth on a\ntree.\" Jesus was made a curse for us. God cannot look upon sin: and\nso when even His own Son was bearing our sins in His body, God could\nnot look upon Him.\n\nI think this is what bore heaviest upon the Savior's heart in the\ngarden when He prayed:\n\n\"If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.\"\n\nHe could bear the unfaithfulness of His friends, the spite of His\nenemies, the pain of His crucifixion, and the shadow of death; He\ncould bear all these; but when it came to the hiding of His Father's\nface, that seemed almost too much for even the Son of God to bear.\nBut even this He endured for our sins; and now the face of God is\nturned back to us, whose sins had turned it away, and looking upon\nJesus, the sinless One, He sees us in Him.\n\nIn the midst of all His agony, how sweet it must have been to Christ\nto hear that poor thief confessing Him!\n\nHe likes to have men confess Him. Don't you remember His asking\nPeter, \"Whom do men say that I am?\" and when Peter answered, \"Some\npeople say you are Moses, some people say you are Elias, and some\npeople say you are one of the old Prophets,\" He asked again, \"But,\nPeter, whom do _you_ say I am?\" When Peter said, \"Thou art the Son\nof God,\" Jesus blessed him for that confession. And now this thief\nconfesses Him--confesses Him in the darkness. Perhaps it is so dark\nhe cannot see Him any longer; but he feels that He is there beside\nhim. Christ wants us to confess Him in the dark as well as in the\nlight; when it is hard as well as when it is easy. For He was not\nashamed of us, but bore our sins and carried our sorrows, even unto\ndeath.\n\nWhen a prominent man dies, we are anxious, to get his last words and\nacts.\n\n\nTHE LAST ACT OF THE SON OF GOD\n\nwas to save a sinner. That was a part of the glory of His death. He\ncommenced His ministry by saving sinners, and ended it by saving\nthis poor thief. \"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the\nlawful captive delivered? But thus saith the Lord: Even the captives\nof the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible\nshall be delivered.\" He took this captive from the jaws of death. He\nwas on the borders of hell, and Christ snatched him away.\n\nNo doubt Satan was saying to himself: \"I shall have the soul of that\nthief pretty soon. He belongs to me. He has been mine all these\nyears.\"\n\nBut in his last hours the poor wretch cried out to the Lord, and He\nsnapped the fetters that bound his soul, and set him at liberty. He\nthrew him a passport into heaven. I can imagine, as the soldier\ndrove his spear into our Savior's side, there came flashing into the\nmind of the thief the words of the prophet Zechariah:\n\n\"In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David,\nand to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.\"\n\nYou see, in the conversion of this thief, that\n\n\nSALVATION IS DISTINCT AND SEPARATE FROM WORKS.\n\nSome people tell us we have to work to be saved. What has the man\nwho believes that to say about the salvation of this thief? How\ncould he work, when he was nailed to the cross?\n\nHe took the Lord at His word, and believed. It is with the heart men\nbelieve, not with their hands or feet. All that is necessary for a\nman to be saved is to believe with his heart. This thief made a good\nconfession. If he had been a Christian fifty years, he could not\nhave done Christ more service there than he did. He confessed Him\nbefore the world; and for nineteen hundred years that confession has\nbeen told. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all recorded it. They felt\nit so important that they thought we should have it.\n\nSee how\n\n\nSALVATION IS SEPARATE AND DISTINCT FROM ALL ORDINANCES\n\n--not but that ordinances are right in their place.\n\nMany people think it is impossible for any one to get into the\nkingdom of God if he is not baptized into it. I know people who were\ngreatly exercised because little children died unbaptized. I have\nseen them carry the children through the streets because the pastor\ncould not come. I don't want you to think I am talking against\nordinances. Baptism is right in its place; but when you put it in\nthe place of salvation, you put a snare in the way. You cannot\nbaptize men into the kingdom of God. The last conversion before\nChrist perished on the cross ought to forever settle that question.\nIf you tell me a man cannot get into Paradise without being\nbaptized, I answer, This thief was not baptized. If he had wanted to\nbe baptized, I don't believe he could have found a man to baptize\nhim.\n\nI have known people who had sick relatives, and because they could\nnot get a minister to come to their house and administer the\nsacrament, they were distressed and troubled. Now, I am not saying\nanything against the ordinance by which we commemorate the death of\nour Lord, and remember His return. God forbid! But let me say that\nit is not necessary for salvation. I might die and be lost before I\ncould get to the Lord's table; but if I get to the Lord I am saved.\nThank God, salvation is within my reach always, and I have to wait\nfor no minister. This poor thief certainly never partook of the\nsacrament. Was there a man on that hill that would have had faith to\nbelieve he was saved? Would any church to-day have received him into\nmembership? He had not to wait for this. The moment he asked life,\nour Savior gave it.\n\nBaptism is one thing; the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is another\nthing; and salvation through Christ is quite another thing. If we\nhave been saved through Christ, let us confess Him by baptism, let\nus go to His table, and do whatever else He bids. But let us not\nmake stumbling-blocks out of these things.\n\nThat is what I call sudden conversion--men calling on God for\nsalvation and getting it. You certainly won't get it unless you call\nfor it, and unless you take it when He offers it to you. If you want\nChrist to remember you--to save you--call upon Him.\n\n\nTWO SIDES.\n\nThe cross of Christ divides all mankind. There are only two sides,\nthose for Christ, and those against Him. Think of the two thieves;\nfrom the side of Christ one went down to death cursing God, and the\nother went to glory.\n\nWhat a contrast! In the morning he is led out, a condemned criminal;\nin the evening he is saved from his sins. In the morning he is\ncursing; in the evening he is singing hallelujahs with a choir of\nangels. In the morning he is condemned by men as not fit to live on\nearth; in the evening he is reckoned good enough for heaven. In the\nmorning nailed to the cross; in the evening in the Paradise of God,\ncrowned with a crown he should wear through all the ages. In the\nmorning not an eye to pity; in the evening washed and made clean in\nthe blood of the Lamb. In the morning in the society of thieves and\noutcasts; in the evening Christ is not ashamed to walk arm-in-arm\nwith him down the golden pavements of the eternal city.\n\nThe thief was\n\n\nTHE FIRST MAN TO ENTER PARADISE\n\nafter the veil of the Temple was rent. If we could look up yonder,\nand catch a glimpse of the throne, we would see the Father there,\nand Jesus Christ at His right hand; and hard by we would see that\nthief. He is there to-day. Nineteen hundred years he has been there,\njust because he cried in faith:\n\n\"Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.\"\n\nYou know Christ died a little while before the thief. I can imagine\nthat He wanted to hurry home to get a place ready for His new\nfriend, the first soul brought from the world He was dying to\nredeem. The Lord loved him because he confessed Him in that dark\nhour. It was a dark hour for many who reviled the Savior. You have\nheard of the child who did not want to die and go to heaven because\nhe didn't know anybody there. But the thief would have one\nacquaintance. I can imagine how his soul leaped within him when he\nsaw the spear thrust into our Savior's side, and heard the cry:\n\n\"It is finished!\"\n\nHe wanted to follow Christ. He was in a hurry to be gone, when they\ncame to break his legs. I can hear the Lord calling:\n\n\"Gabriel, prepare a chariot. Make haste. There is a friend of mine\nhanging on that cross. They are breaking his legs. He will soon be\nready to come. Make haste, and bring him to me?\"\n\nThe angel in the chariot swept down from heaven, took the soul of\nthat penitent thief, and hastened back to glory. The gates of the\ncity swung wide open, and the angels shouted welcome to this poor\nsinner who had been washed white in the blood of the Lamb.\n\nAnd that, my friends, is just what Christ wants to do for you. That\nis the business on which He came down from heaven. That is why He\ndied. And if He gave such a swift salvation to this poor thief on\nthe cross, surely He will give you the same if, like the penitent\nthief, you repent, and confess, and trust in the Savior.\n\nSomebody says that this man \"was saved at the eleventh hour.\" I\ndon't know about that. It might have been the first hour with him.\nPerhaps he never knew of Christ until he was led out to die beside\nHim. This may have been the very first time he ever had a chance to\nknow the Son of God.\n\nHow many of you gave your hearts to Christ the very first time He\nasked them of you? Are you not farther along in the day than even\nthat poor thief?\n\nSome years ago, in one of the mining districts of England, a young\nman attended one of our meetings and refused to go from the place\ntill he had found peace in the Savior. The next day he went down\ninto the pit, and the coal fell in upon him. When they took him out\nhe was broken and mangled, and had only two or three minutes of life\nleft in him. His friends gathered about him, saw his lips moving,\nand, bending down to catch his words, heard him say:\n\n\"It was a good thing I settled it last night.\"\n\nSettle it now, my friends, once for all. Begin now to confess your\nsins, and pray the Lord to remember you. He will make you an heir of\nHis kingdom, if you will accept the gift of salvation. He is just\nthe same Savior the thief had. Will you not cry to Him for mercy?\n\n .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .\n\n   A cross,--and one who hangs thereon, in sight\n   Of heaven and earth.\n\n                         The cruel nails are fast\n   In trembling hands and feet, the face is white\n   And changed with agony, the failing head\n   Is drooping heavily; but still again,\n   And yet again, the weary eyes are raised\n   To seek the face of One who hangeth pale\n   Upon another cross. He hears no shrill\n   And taunting voices of the crowd beneath,\n   He marks no cruel looks of all that gaze\n   Upon the woeful sight. He sees alone\n   That face upon the cross. Oh, long, long look,\n   That searcheth there the deep and awful things\n   Which are of God!\n\n                        In his first agony\n   And horror he had joined with them that spake\n   Against the Lord, the Lamb, who gave Himself\n   That day for us. But when he met the look\n   Of those calm eyes,--he paused that instant; pale\n   And trembling, stricken to the heart, and faint\n   At sight of Him.\n      .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .\n\n                                    At length\n   The pale, glad lips have breathed the trembling prayer,\n   \"_O Lord, remember me!_\" The hosts of God\n   With wistful angel-faces, bending low\n   Above their dying King, were surely stirred\n   To wonder at the cry. Not one of all\n   The shining host had dared to speak to Him\n   In that dread hour of woe, when Heaven and Earth\n   Stood trembling and amazed. Yet, lo! the voice\n   Of one who speaks to Him, who dares to pray,\n   \"_O Lord, remember me!_\" A sinful man\n   May make his pitiful appeal to Christ,\n   The sinner's Friend, when angels dare not speak.\n   And sweetly from the dying lips that day\n   The answer came.\n\n                          Oh, strange and solemn joy\n   Which broke upon the fading face of him\n   Who there received the promise: \"_Thou shalt be_\n   _In Paradise this night, this night, with Me_.\"\n\n      .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .\n\n                           O Christ, the King!\n   We also wander on the desert-hills,\n   Though haunted by Thy call, returning sweet\n   At morn and eve. We will not come to Thee\n   Till Thou hast nailed us to some bitter cross,\n   And _made_ us look on Thine, and driven at last\n   To call on Thee with trembling and with tears.--\n   Thou lookest down in love, upbraiding not,\n   And promising the kingdom!\n\n      .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .\n\n                          A throne,--and one\n   Who kneels before it, bending low in new\n   And speechless joy.\n\n                          It is the night on earth.\n   The shadows fall like dew upon the hills\n   Around the Holy City, but above,\n   Beyond the dark vale of the sky, beyond\n   The smiling of the stars, they meet once more\n   In peace and glory. Heaven is comforted,--\n   For that strange warfare is accomplished now,\n   Her King returned with joy: and one who watches\n   The far-off morning in a prison dim,\n   And hung at noonday on the bitter cross,\n   Is kneeling at His feet, and tasteth now\n   The sweet, sweet opening of an endless joy.","title":"Men of the Bible","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":34908}