,,quiet ,,talks ,,on ,,service by ,s4 ,d4 ,,gordon ,author of ,quiet ,talks on ,power and ,quiet ,talks on ,prayer #aijf ,contents ,personal ,contact with ,jesus3 ,the ,beginning of ,service ,the ,triple ,life3 ,the ,perspective of ,service ,yokefellows3 ,the ,rhythm of ,service ,a ,passion for ,winning ,men3 ,the ,motive-power of ,service ,deep-,sea ,fishing3 ,the ,ambition of ,service ,money3 ,the ,golden ,channel of ,service ,worry3 ,a ,hindrance to ,service ,gideon's ,band3 ,sifted for ,service ,personal ,contact ,with ,jesus3 ,the ,beginning of ,service4 ,the ,beginning of an ,endless ,friendship4 ,an ,ideal ,biography4 ,the ,eyes of the ,heart4 ,we are ,changed4 ,the ,outlook ,changed4 ,talking with ,jesus4 ,getting ,somebody ,else4 ,the ,true ,source of ,strong ,service4 ,personal ,contact ,with ,jesus3 ,the ,beginning of ,service4 7,john i3#ce-ea47 ,the ,beginning of an ,endless ,friendship4 ,about a quarter of four one afternoon1 three young men were standing together on a road leading down to a swift-running river4 ,it was an old road1 beaten down hard by thousands of feet through hundreds of years4 ,it led down to the river1 and then along its bank through a village scatteringly nestled by the fords of the river4 ,the young men were intently absorbed in conversation4 ,one of them was a man to attract attention anywhere4 ,he was clearly the leader of the three4 ,his clothing was very plain1 even to severeness4 ,his face was spare1 suggesting a diet as severely plain as his garments4 ,the abundance of dark hair on head and face brought out sharply the spare1 thoughtful1 earnest look of his face4 ,his eyes glowed like coals of living fire beneath the thick1 bushy eyebrows4 ,he talked quietly but intensely4 ,there was a subdued vigor and force about his very person4 ,one of the others was a very different type of man4 ,he was intense too1 like the leader1 but there was a fineness and a far-looking depth about his eye such as suggests a gray eye rather than a black4 ,his hair was softer and finer1 and his skin too4 ,in him intensity seemed to blend with a fine grain in his whole make-up4 ,the third man was a quiet1 matter-of-fact looking fellow4 ,he did not talk much1 except to ask an occasional question4 ,the three men were engaged in earnest conversation1 when a fourth man1 a stranger1 came down the road and1 passing the three by1 went on ahead4 ,the leader of the three called the attention of his companions to the stranger4 ,at once they leave his side and go after the stranger4 ,as they nearly catch up to him1 he unexpectedly turns and in a kindly voice asks1 ,whom are you looking for8 ,taken aback by the unexpected question1 they do not answer1 but ask where he is going4 ,quickly noticing the point of their question1 he cordially says1 ,come over and take tea with me4 ,they gladly accepted the invitation1 and spent the evening with him4 ,and the friendship begun that day continued to the end of their lives4 ,both became his dear friends4 ,and one1 the fine-grained1 intense man1 became his closest bosom friend4 ,he never forgot that day4 ,when he came years after to write about his hospitable friend1 found that afternoon1 he could remember every particular of their first meeting4 ,we must always be grateful to ,john for his simple1 full account of his first meeting with ,jesus4 ,an ,ideal ,biography4 ,his simple story of that afternoon contains in it the three steps that begin all service4 ,they looked at ,jesus2 they talked with ,jesus2 forever to the end of their lives they talked about ,him4 ,here are the two personal contacts that underlie all service1 that lead into all service4 ,the close personal contact with ,jesus begun and continued4 ,and then personal contact with other men ever after4 ,the first always leads to the second4 ,the power and helpfulness of the second grow out of the first4 ,there is a little line in the story that may serve as a graphic biography of ,john the ,herald4 ,there could be no finer biography of anybody of whom it could be truly written4 ,it is this3 ,looking upon ,jesus as ,he walked1 he said look4 ,he himself was absorbed in looking4 ,jesus caught him from the first4 ,he was ever looking4 ,and he asked others to look4 ,his whole ministry was summed up in pointing ,jesus out to others4 ,he was ever insisting that men look at ,jesus4 ,looking1 he said look4 ,his lips said it1 and life said it4 ,john's presence was always spelling out that word look1 with his whole life an index finger pointing to ,jesus4 ,if we might be like that4 ,every man of us may be in his life1 in the great unconscious influence of his presence1 a clearly lettered signpost pointing men to the ,master4 ,all true service begins in personal contact with ,jesus4 ,one cannot know ,him personally without catching the warm contagion of ,his spirit for others4 ,and there is a fine fragrance1 a gentle1 soft warmth1 about the service that grows out of being with ,him4 ,the beginning of ,john's contact with ,jesus that day1 and ,andrew's1 was in looking4 ,their friend the herald bid them look4 ,they found him looking4 ,they did as he was doing4 ,following the line of his eyes1 and of his teaching too1 and of his life1 they looked at ,jesus4 ,and as they looked the sight of their eyes began to control them4 ,they left ,john and quickened their pace to get nearer to this ,man at whom they were looking4 ,there never was a finer tribute to a man's faithfulness to his ,master than is found in these men leaving ,john4 ,they could not help going4 ,they had been led by ,john into the circle of ,jesus' attractive power4 ,and at once they are irresistibly drawn toward its center4 ,the basis of the truest devotion and deepest loyalty to ,jesus is not in a creed but in ,himself4 ,there must be creeds4 ,whatever a man believes is of course his creed4 ,though as quickly as he puts it into words he narrows it4 ,truth is always more than any statement of it4 ,faith is always greater than our words about it4 ,we do not see ,jesus with our outer eyes as did these men in the ,gospel narrative4 ,we cannot put out our hands in any such way as ,thomas did and know by the feel4 ,we must listen first to somebody telling about ,him4 ,we listen either with eyes on the ,book1 or ears open to some faithful mutual friend of ,his and ours4 ,what we hear either way is a creed1 somebody's belief about ,jesus4 ,so we come to ,jesus first through a creed1 somebody's belief1 somebody's telling3 so we know there is a ,jesus1 and are drawn to ,himself4 ,when we come to know ,himself1 always afterwards ,he is more than anything anybody ever told us1 and more than we can ever tell4 ,the ,eyes of the ,heart4 ,looking at ,jesus--what does it mean practically8 ,it means hearing about ,him first1 then actually appealing to ,him1 accepting ,his word as personal to one's self1 putting ,him to the test in life1 trusting ,his death to square up one's sin score1 trusting ,his power to clean the heart and sweeten the spirit1 and stiffen the will4 ,it means holding the whole life up to ,his ideals4 ,aye1 it means more yet2 something on ,his side1 an answering look from ,him4 ,there comes a consciousness within of ,his love and winsomeness4 ,that answering look of ,his holds us forever after ,his willing slaves1 love's slaves4 ,paul speaks of the eyes of the heart4 ,it is with these eyes we look at ,him1 and receive ,his answering look4 ,there are different ways of looking at ,jesus1 degrees in looking4 ,our experiences with ,jesus affect the eyes of the heart4 ,when this same ,john as an old man was writing that first epistle1 he seems to recall his experience in looking that first day4 ,he says that which we have seen with our eyes1 that which we beheld4#a ,from seeing with the eyes he had gone to earnest1 thoughtful gazing1 caught with the vision of what he saw4 ,that was ,john's own experience4 ,it is everybody's experience that gets a look at ,jesus4 ,when the first looking sees something that catches fire within1 then does the inner fire affect the eye and more is seen4 ,you have been in a strange city walking down the street1 looking with interest at what is there4 ,but all at once you are caught by a sign that contains a familiar name1 and at once a whole flood of memories is awakened4 ,the little ,jericho ,jew peering down from the low out-reaching sycamore branch was full of curiosity to see the ,man that had changed his old friend ,levi ,matthew so strangely4 ,but that curiosity quickly changes into something far deeper and more tender as ,jesus comes to abide in his own home4 ,that lonely-lifed1 sore-hearted woman on the ,nain road looked with startled wonder out of those wet eyes of hers as ,jesus begins talking to her dead son4 ,what love and faith must have been in her looking as ,jesus with fine touch brings her boy by the hand over to her warm embrace again6 ,we are ,changed4 ,looking at ,jesus changes us4 ,paul's famous bit in the second ,corinthian letter has a wondrous tingle of gladness in it4 ,we all with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the ,lord are changed from glory to glory4#b ,the change comes through our looking4 ,the changing power comes in through the eyes4 ,it is the glory of the ,lord that is seen4 ,the glorious ,jesus looking in through our looking eyes changes us4 ,it is gradual4 ,it is ever more1 and yet more1 till by and by ,his own image comes out fully in our faces4 ,we become like those with whom we associate4 ,a man's ideals mold him4 ,living with ,jesus makes us look like ,himself4 ,we are familiar with the work that has been done in restoring old fine paintings4 ,a painting by one of the rare old master painters is found covered with the dust of decades4 ,time has faded out much of the fine coloring and clearly marked outlines4 ,with great patience and skill it is worked over and over4 ,and something of the original beauty1 coming to view again1 fully repays the workman for all his pains4 ,the original image in which we were made has been badly obscured and faded out4 ,but if we give our great ,master a chance ,he will restore it through our eyes4 ,it will take much patience and a skill nothing less than divine4 ,but the original will surely come out more and more till we shall again be like the original1 for we shall see ,him as ,he is4 ,the old ,german artist ,hoffmann is said to visit at intervals the royal gallery in ,dresden1 where he lives1 to touch up his paintings there4 ,even so our ,master1 living in us1 keeps touching us up that the full beauty of ,his ideal may be brought out4 ,how often a girl growing up into the fullness of her mature young womanhood calls out the remark1 ,you are growing more and more like your mother4 ,and the similar remark is heard of a young man developing the traits and features of his father4 ,there is a law of unconscious assimilation4 ,we become like those with whom we go4 ,without being conscious of it we take on the characteristics of those with whom we live4 ,i remember one time my brother returned home for a visit after a prolonged absence4 ,as we were walking down the street together he said to me1 ,you have been going with ,denning a good deal--a mutual friend of ours4 ,surprised1 ,i said1 ,how do you know ,i have8 ,he said1 ,you walk just like him4 ,what my brother had said was strictly true1 though he did not know it4 ,our friend had a very decided way of walking4 ,as a matter of fact1 we had been walking home from the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association three or four nights every week4 ,and unconsciously ,i had grown to imitate his way of walking4 ,that sentence of ,paul's has also this meaning1 ,we all with open face reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the ,lord are changed4 ,we stand between ,him and those who don't know ,him4 ,we are the mirror catching the rays of ,his face and sending them down to those around4 ,and not only do those around see the light--,his light--in us1 but we are being changed all the while4 ,for others' sake as well as our own the mirror should be kept clean1 and well polished so the reflection will be distinct and true4 ,the ,outlook ,changed4 ,looking at ,jesus changes the world for us4 ,it is as though the light of ,his eyes fills our eyes and we see things all around as ,he sees them4 ,have you ever gone out1 as a child1 and looked intently at the sun1 repressing the flinching its strength caused and insisting on looking8 ,you could do it for a short time only4 ,it made your eyes ache4 ,but as you turned your eyes away from its brilliance you found everything changed4 ,you remember a beautiful yellow glory-light was over everything1 and every ugly jagged thing was softened and beautified by that glow in your eyes4 ,looking at the sun had changed the world for you for a little4 ,it is something like that on this higher plane1 in this finer sense4 ,that must have been something of ,paul's thought in explaining the glory of ,jesus that he saw on the ,damascus road4 ,when ,i could not see for the glory of that light4 ,the old ideals were blurred4 ,the old ambitions faded away4 ,the jagged1 sharp lines of sacrifice and suffering involved in his new life were not clearly seen4 ,a halo had come over them4 ,i recall a bit of a poem ,i ran across in an old magazine somewhere4 ,it was one of those vagrant1 orphan poems with fine family lineaments that find their way unfathered into odd corners of papers4 ,it told about a man riding on horseback through a bit of timber land in one of the cotton states of the ,south4 ,it was a bright ,october day1 and he was riding along enjoying the air and view1 when all at once he came across a bit of a clearing in the trees1 and in the clearing an old cabin almost fallen to pieces1 and in the doorway of the cabin an old negress standing4 ,her back was bent nearly double with the years of hard work1 her face dried up and deeply bitten with wrinkles1 and her hair white4 ,but her eyes were as bright as two stars out of the dark blue1 it said4 ,and the man called out cheerily1 ,good-morning1 auntie1 living here all alone8 ,and she looked up1 with her eyes brighter yet with the thought in her heart1 and in a shrill keyed-up voice said1 ,jes me 'n' ,jesus1 massa4 ,but he said a hush came over the whole place1 there seemed a halo about the old broken-down cabin1 and he thought he could see ,somebody standing by her side looking over her shoulder at him1 and ,his form was like that of the ,son of ,god4 ,how poor and limited and mean her world looked to him as he rode up4 ,but how quickly everything changed as he saw it through her seeing of it4 ,with the keen insight into spirit things so often found in such simplicity among her race1 she had gotten the whole simple philosophy of life4 ,her world was changed and beautiful in the loneliness of the woods by reason of her ,master's presence4 ,this removes the commonplace at once clear out of one's life4 ,there is no drudgery nor humdrum nor hardship1 because everything is for ,jesus1 and seen through ,his eyes4 ,whatever comes in the pathway of his work is gladdest joy1 whether an obscure narrow round of home work or shop or store1 or leaving home for a strange land far across the sea with a peculiarly uncongenial spirit atmosphere4 ,contact with ,jesus1 seeing ,him1 changes all for us4 ,talking with ,jesus4 ,these two men in the story went from their first looking into closer contact4 ,they looked at ,jesus4 ,then they talked with ,jesus4 ,it was at ,his own request4 ,he wanted them4 ,he wanted their friendship and their help4 ,having started1 it was easy for them to go4 ,having seen1 they naturally wanted more4 ,at least two hours they talked1 maybe longer4 ,judging by what they did as soon as they got away1 it was a most wonderful talk for them4 ,this ,jesus took them at once4 ,his face1 ,his presence1 ,his talk1 ,himself filled all their sky4 ,everything swung around into a new setting4 ,he was its center4 ,all things began to adjust themselves for these men about ,jesus4 ,he was irresistible to them4 ,these two men went through some most trying experiences as a result of the friendship formed that evening hour1 but these counted not in the scale with ,him4 ,they never got over the talk with ,him that twilight hour4 ,that two hours' talk lengthened out into many another during the years immediately after4 ,they got into the habit of referring everything to ,him1 and of judging everything by what ,he would think4 ,it was so clear to the end of their lives4 ,for a little over three years did they keep ,him by their side actually1 physically4 ,but the habit of keeping ,him there was fixed for all the longer after years4 ,the looking at ,jesus and talking with ,jesus ever went side by side clear to the end of the years4 ,it will be so4 ,getting a good look at this ,master draws one off into the quiet corner with the ,book to listen and talk and learn more4 ,and out of this naturally grows 7if one will give a little attention to good gardening rules7 the habit of talking with ,him all the time4 ,in the thick of the crowd1 in the solitude of one's duties1 with hands full of work1 the heart talks with ,him and listens1 and sometimes the tongue talks out too4 ,our common word for it is prayer4 ,prayer precedes true service1 and produces it1 and sweetens it4 ,only the service that grows up naturally out of this personal contact with ,jesus counts and tells and weighs for the most4 ,getting ,somebody ,else4 ,these two men went away from ,jesus that evening only to come back with some others4 ,they went from talking with ,him to talking with others for ,him4 ,their personal contact was the beginning of their service4 ,this is one of the famous personal work chapters4 ,there are three findeths in it4 ,andrew findeth his brother ,peter4 ,that was a great find4 ,john in his modesty doesn't speak of it1 but in all likelihood he findeth ,james his brother4 ,jesus findeth ,philip and ,philip in turn findeth ,nathaniel1 the guileless man4 ,that word findeth is very suggestive1 even to being picturesque4 ,it tells the absence of these other men4 ,their whereabouts might be guessed1 but were not known4 ,there was in the searchers a purpose1 and a warmth in the heart under that purpose4 ,as ,andrew looked and listened he said to himself1 ,peter must hear this2 ,peter must see this ,man4 ,and perhaps he asks to be excused and1 reaching for his hat1 hastens out to get his brother and bring him back to the house4 ,he wants more himself1 but he'll get it with ,peter in too4 ,and so it would be with ,john likely4 ,peter had to be searched for4 ,most men do4 ,he was probably absorbed with all his impulsive intensity in some matter on hand4 ,may be ,andrew had to pull quite a bit to get him started4 ,but he got him4 ,andrew was a good sticker3 hard to shake him off4 ,his is a fine name for a brotherhood of personal workers4 ,and when ,peter once got started he never quit going4 ,he stumbled some1 but he got up1 and got up only to go on4 ,most men need some one to get them started4 ,there's need of more starters1 more of us starting people moving ,jesus' way4 ,i think the memory of this evening's work with ,peter must have come back very vividly to ,andrew one morning a few years afterwards4 ,it's up on the hills of ,judea1 in ,jerusalem4 ,there's a great crowd of people standing in the streets1 filling the space for a great distance4 ,there are some thousands of them4 ,they are listening spellbound to a man talking4 ,it is ,peter4 ,and down there near by1 maybe holding ,peter's hat while he talks1 is ,andrew4 ,his eyes are glowing4 ,and if you might listen to his heart talking1 ,i think you would hear it saying softly1 ,i'm so glad ,i brought ,peter that evening ,i met ,jesus4 ,peter's talk that day swung three thousand men and women over to ,jesus4 ,somebody has said that if ,peter were their spiritual father1 certainly ,andrew was their spiritual grandfather4 ,and ,i think ,god reckons the thing that way1 too4 ,there is a great deal of good talk these days about regenerating society4 ,it used to be that men talked about reaching the masses4 ,now the other putting of it is commoner4 ,it is helpful talk whichever way it is put4 ,the ,gospel of ,jesus is to affect all society4 ,it has affected all society1 and is to more and more4 ,but the thing to mark keenly is this1 the key to the mass is the man4 ,the way to regenerate society is to start on the individual4 ,the law of influence through personal contact is too tremendous to be grasped4 ,you influence one man and you have influenced a group of men1 and then a group around each man of the group1 and so on endlessly4 ,hand-picked fruit gets the first and best market4 ,the keenest marksmen are picked out for the sharpshooters' corps4 ,the ,true ,source of ,strong ,service4 ,one morning with a friend ,i walked out of the city of ,geneva to where the waters of the lake flow with swift rush into the ,rhone4 ,and we were both greatly interested in the strange sight which has impressed so many travellers4 ,there are two rivers whose waters come together here1 the ,rhone and the ,arve1 the ,arve flowing into the ,rhone4 ,the waters of the ,rhone are beautifully clear and sparkling4 ,the waters of the ,arve come through a clayey soil and are muddy1 gray1 and dull4 ,and for a long distance the two waters are wholly distinct4 ,two rivers of water are in one river-bed1 on one side the sparkling blue ,rhone water1 on the other the dull gray ,arve water1 and the line between the two sharply defined4 ,and so it continues for a long distance4 ,then gradually they blend and the gray begins to tinge all through the blue4 ,i went to the guide-book and maps to find out something about this river that kept on its way undefiled by its neighbor for so long4 ,its source is in a glacier that is between ten thousand and eleven thousand feet high1 descending from the gates of eternal night1 at the foot of the pillar of the sun4 ,it is fed continually by the melting glacier which1 in turn1 is being kept up by the snows and cold4 ,rising at this great height1 ever being renewed steadily by the glacier1 it comes rushing down the swift descent of the ,swiss ,alps through the lake of ,geneva and on4 ,there is the secret of purity1 side by side with its dirty neighbor4 ,our lives must have their source high up in the mountains of ,god1 fed by a ceaseless supply4 ,only so can there be the purity1 and the momentum that shall keep us pure1 and keep us moving down in contact with men of the earth4 ,and we must keep closer to the source than is the ,rhone at ,geneva1 else the streams flowing alongside will unduly influence us4 ,constant personal contact with ,jesus is the beginning ever new of service4 ,the ,triple ,life3 ,the ,perspective of ,service4 ,on ,an ,errand for ,jesus4 ,the ,parting ,message4 ,a ,secret ,life of ,prayer4 ,an ,open ,life of ,purity4 ,an ,active ,life of ,service4 ,the ,perspective of ,true ,service4 ,a ,long ,time ,coming4 ,the ,triple ,life3 ,the ,perspective of ,service4 7,luke ix3#a-f2 x3#a-c1 #ag2 ,john xx3#ai-bc2 ,matthew xxviii3#ah-bj47 ,on ,an ,errand for ,jesus4 ,you remember there were four times that ,jesus picked out a group of men1 and sent them on a special errand4 ,about the middle of the second year of ,his public life1 ,he chose out twelve men and commissioned them for a special bit of work4 ,six months before the tragic end1 ,he chose seventy others and sent them out in twos into all the places ,he was planning to visit ,himself4 ,it was a remarkable campaign for carrying the news which ,he was preaching into all the villages of that whole country through which ,his journey south lay4 ,then the evening of that never-to-be-forgotten resurrection day1 under wholly changed conditions1 ,he again commissions ten men of that first twelve4 ,things had radically changed with ,jesus4 ,and there had been a bad break in the loyalty of these men4 ,two of their number are absent4 ,judas has gone to his own place1 and ,thomas was not there that evening4 ,his absence cost him a week of doubting and mental distress4 ,ten of the old inner circle are commissioned anew4 ,and then do you remember the last time they were together8 ,it was about six weeks later1 on the rounded top of the old ,olives ,mount1 the eleven men with the ,master4 ,four times ,he commissioned a group of men for some service ,he wanted done4 ,there are two things in these four commissions that make them alike4 ,the same two things are in each4 ,the first thing is this3 they are bidden to go4 ,that ringing word go ye is in1 each time4 ,as the ,father hath sent ,me even so send ,i you4 ,it is a familiar word to every follower of ,jesus then1 and now1 and always4 ,a true follower of ,his always is stirred by a spirit of go4 ,a going ,christian is a growing ,christian4 ,a going church has always been a growing church4 ,those ages when the church lost the vision of her ,master's face on ,olives1 and let other sounds crowd out of her ears the sound of ,his voice1 were stagnant ages4 ,they are commonly spoken of in history as the dark ages4 ,go is the ringing keynote of the ,christian life1 whether in a man or in the church4 ,the second thing found always in each of these commissions is this3 they were qualified1 or empowered to go4 ,whom ,god calls ,he always qualifies4 ,where ,his voice comes ,his ,spirit breathes4 ,if there has come to you some bit of a call to service1 to teach a class1 or write a special letter1 or speak a word1 or take up something needing to be done4 ,and you hesitate4 ,you think that you cannot4 ,you are not fit1 you think1 not qualified4 ,the thing to do is to do it4 ,if the call is clear go ahead4 ,need is one of the strong calling voices of ,god4 ,it is always safe to respond4 ,put out your foot in the answering swing1 even though you cannot see clearly the place to put it down4 ,god attends to that part4 ,power comes as we go4 ,the ,parting ,message4 ,just now ,i want to talk with you a bit about the last one of these commissions1 the ,olivet commission4 ,i do not know just what day it was given or at what hour4 ,but ,i have thought it was in the twilight of a ,sabbath evening4 ,there's a yellow glow of light filling all the western sky running along the broken line of those hills yonder1 and through the trees1 and in upon this group of men standing4 ,here in full view lies little ,bethany fragrant with memories of ,jesus' power4 ,over yonder1 those tree tops down in a bit of valley with the brook--that is ,gethsemane4 ,and farther over there is the fortress city of ,jerusalem4 ,and just outside its wall is the bit of a knoll called ,calvary4 ,here under these trees every night that last week of the tragedy ,jesus had slept out in the open1 with ,his seamless coat wrapped about ,him4 ,this is the spot ,he chooses for the good-by word4 ,it is full of most precious1 fragrant memories4 ,here is the man who has been ,simon1 but out of whom a new man was coming these days1 ,peter1 the man of rock4 ,and here are ,john and ,james1 sons of fire and of thunder1 sons of their mother4 ,and there1 little ,scotch ,andrew4 ,at least our ,scotch friends seem to have adopted him as their very own4 ,and close by his side is his friend with the ,greek name1 ,philip4 ,and here the man to whom ,jesus paid the great tribute of naming him the guileless man4 ,and the others1 not so well known to us1 but very well known to ,jesus1 and to be not a whit less faithful than their brothers these coming days4 ,but somehow as you look you are at once irresistibly drawn past these to ,him--the ,man in the midst4 ,the ,man with the great face1 torn with the thorns1 and cut with the thongs1 but shining with a sweet1 wondrous1 beauty light4 ,it is the last time they are together4 ,he is going away2 coming back soon1 they understand4 ,they do not know just how soon4 ,but meanwhile in ,his absence they are to be as ,he ,himself would be if ,he remained among men4 ,they are to stand for ,him4 ,and so with eyes fixed on ,his face they look1 and listen1 and wonder a bit1 just what the last word will be4 ,what would you expect it to be8 ,it was the good-by word between men who were lovers1 dearest friends4 ,the tenderest thing would be said and the most important4 ,the one going away would speak of that which lay closest down in ,his own heart4 ,and whatever ,he might say would sink deepest into their hearts1 and control their action in the after days4 ,he had been talking to them very insistently1 about an hour before1 down in the city1 about waiting there until the ,holy ,spirit came upon them4 ,and that word has fastened itself into their minds with newly sharpened hooks of steel points4 ,now ,he talks about their being ,his witnesses1 here at home among their own folks1 and out among their half-breed ,samaritan neighbors1 whom they didn't like1 and then--with eyes looking yearningly out and finger pointing steadily out--to the farthest reach of the planet4 ,and now1 as ,he is about to go1 this is the word that comes from those lips3 ,all power hath been given unto ,me4 ,therefore go ye1 ,and make disciples of all nations4 ,a ,secret ,life of ,prayer4 ,there are four things in that good-by word4 ,three are directly spoken1 and one is not spoken1 but directly implied4 ,first is this1 your chief work is to win men4 ,that is directly said4 ,the second is implied--it is the toughest task you ever undertook4 ,that is implied in this that it will take more power than they have4 ,a power that only ,he has4 ,a supernatural power4 ,and we all know how true that is4 ,of all luggage man is the hardest to move4 ,he won't move unless he will4 ,every man of us that has ever tried to change somebody's else purpose knows how impossible it is unless by the inward pull4 ,you simply cannot without the man's consent4 ,the third thing is this3 ,i have all the power needed4 ,the fourth this3 ,you go4 ,and the ,master meant to tell them1 and to tell us1 this3 that a man should lead a triple life1 three lives in one4 ,we sometimes hear of a man leading a double life in a bad sense4 ,in a good sense1 every one of us should be living a triple life1 three distinct lives in one4 ,the first of these three lives is this3 a secret life1 lived with ,jesus1 hidden from the eyes of men4 ,an inner life of closest contact with ,him1 that the outside folks know nothing about4 ,notice again the four statements in that good-by word4 ,your chief concern is to win men4 ,it is the toughest task you ever undertook3 it will take supernatural power4 ,i have all the power you need4 ,instinctively you feel as though the fourth thing should be1 ,i will go4 ,that would seem to be the logical conclusion4 ,no1 ,jesus says1 you go4 ,plainly if we are to do something taking supernatural power1 and we haven't any such power of ourselves1 there must be the closest kind of contact with the source of power4 ,the man who is to go must be in the most intimate contact with the ,man who has the powers needed in the going4 ,and this is simply a law of all life1 given to us here by life's greatest ,philosopher4 ,the seen depends upon the secret always4 ,the outer keys upon the inner4 ,the life that men see depends wholly upon the life that only the ,master sees4 ,david had power to slay the lion and bear in secret1 away from the gaze of men1 before he had power to slay the giant before the wondering eyes of two nations4 ,the closet becomes the swivel of the street4 ,in crossing the ocean there are two great dangers to be dreaded and guarded against1 aside from the storms that may arise4 ,the greater of these is an abandoned ship4 ,one that through some stress of storm has been left by the sailors in the attempt to save their lives4 ,it is most dangerous because it sends no warning ahead of its presence4 ,in crossing the ,atlantic by the more northern routes the other danger is from the icebergs that may be met in the steamer's path4 ,if a fog obscure the lookout the boat is slowed down1 and a man kept busy with line and thermometer taking the temperature of the water4 ,the iceberg is kindlier than the derelict1 in the chill it sends out4 ,the presence of the danger can so be detected1 and measures taken to avoid it4 ,but the great danger here is not simply in the huge mountain of ice that you see looming up against the sky1 great as that is4 ,it is in the unseen ice4 ,hidden away below is a mountain of ice twice as large and heavy as that seen above the water's surface4 ,the danger lies in the terrific force of a blow from this hidden pile that would crush the strongest steel steamer1 as ,i might crush an egg-shell in my fingers4 ,we all admire the beauty of the trees that rear their heads1 and send out their branches1 and make the world so beautiful with their soft green foliage4 ,but have you thought of the twin tree1 the unseen tree that belongs to these we see8 ,for every tree that grows up and out with its beauty and fruit there is another4 ,the twin tree goes down and out4 ,sometimes1 as far as this we see goes up1 the other goes down2 as far as the branches go out so far do the underneath branches go out1 sometimes farther4 ,this unseen tree is ever busy drawing moisture1 and food from the soil and sending it1 ceaselessly sending it1 up to the upper tree4 ,the beauty and fruitfulness above are because of this secret life of the tree4 ,i remember as a boy going to the bathroom in our home one day to draw some water4 ,but none came4 ,there were a few drops1 and some sputtering--there's very apt to be sputtering when there is nothing else--but no flow of water4 ,and ,i wondered why4 ,soon ,i found that the main pipe in the street was being fixed1 and the water had been cut off at the curb4 ,there was water in the pipe clear from the curbstone up to the spigot1 but ,i could not get it because the reservoir connection under the ground had been turned off4 ,i have met some people since then that made me think of that4 ,there is a reservoir of water1 clear and sweet1 with which they have had connection1 and are supposed still to have4 ,but when some thirsty body comes up for a bit of refreshment1 there's some sputtering1 some noise1 may be a few stray drops--but no more4 ,and folks seem thirstier because they were expecting a cool1 satisfying drink that never came4 ,i think ,i know why it is so4 ,the secret connection with the reservoir has been tampered with4 ,there must be the secret contact with ,jesus cultivated habitually if there is to be a sweet1 strong outer life4 ,and not cultivated by hothouse methods4 ,such plants won't stand the chilly air outside the glass-house4 ,cultivated by natural1 simple contact with ,jesus1 over ,his ,word1 habitually1 until everything comes under the influence of that secret life4 ,one day a man was standing on a busy downtown thoroughfare in ,cleveland waiting for a car4 ,there was a thick1 dirty wire hanging down from the cross arm high up of the wire pole4 ,he happened to stop there4 ,and absorbed in thought1 he mechanically put out his hand and took hold of the wire4 ,instantly a look of intense agony came into his face4 ,his arm1 and whole body began twisting and writhing4 ,then he fell to the ground lifeless4 ,the dirty-looking wire had direct connections with the power-house4 ,it was throbbing with a strong current4 ,it was a live wire4 ,some men who have seemed quite unattractive in the light of some modern standards have been found on touch to be charged with a life current of tremendous power4 ,and some others1 outwardly more attractive1 have been found to be as powerless as a dead wire4 ,and some there have been1 and are1 very winsome and attractive in themselves1 and charged with the life current too4 ,the great thing is the secret connections carefully maintained with the source of power4 ,there must be the closest kind of touch with ,god if ,his plan through us for a planet is to carry out4 ,we do not run on the storage battery plan1 but on the trolley plan1 or the third rail4 ,there must be constant full touch with the feed wire or rail4 ,and that must should be spelled in capitals1 and printed in red1 and triply underscored4 ,a man must plan for the bit of quiet time daily1 preferably in the early morning1 alone with ,jesus2 with the door shut1 the ,book open1 the spirit quiet1 the mind alert1 the knee bent1 the will bent too4 ,if it be resolutely planned for it can be gotten in every life4 ,if not planned for with a bit of red iron in the will1 it will surely slip out4 ,and the man will surely slip down4 ,here is found the spirit in which a man may live all the day long1 wherever his feet may tread1 in the fierce competition of trade1 or in the deadly enervation of some society circles4 ,out of such a man shall breathe1 all unconsciously to himself1 an atmosphere fragrant as a mountain breeze over a field of wild roses4 ,this is the first life ,jesus bids us live4 ,an ,open ,life of ,purity4 ,the second life we are to live is the exact reverse of this4 ,it is indeed the outer side of this3 an open life of purity lived among men for ,jesus4 ,note again the logic of that good-by word4 ,your chief business is to be down there in the thick of the crowd1 winning men out of the dust and dirt up into a new life of purity4 ,it is the hardest job any man ever undertook4 ,it is practically impossible unless you have a power quite more than human4 ,jesus quietly says1 ,i have the power that will do it4 ,again you feel that ,he must say next1 ,i will go4 ,the thing must be done4 ,it is the one thing worth while4 ,it will require a power we haven't4 ,he has it4 ,you feel as though ,he must do the going4 ,no1 ,he says1 with great emphasis4 ,you go4 ,you be ,i2 you live my life over again1 down there among men4 ,the ,ye and ,me in that sentence are meant to be interchangeable words4 ,he is asking us to live ,his life over again among men4 ,no1 it is more than that4 ,he is asking us to let ,him live ,his life over again in each of us4 ,the ,man with the power that men can't resist would reach out to them through us4 ,he would be touching them in us4 ,jesus said1 ,as the ,father hath sent ,me1 even so send ,i you4 ,he said again1 ,he that hath seen ,me hath seen the ,father4 ,jesus embodied the ,father to men4 ,he asks us to take ,his place and embody ,himself to men4 ,paul understood this thoroughly4 ,in writing to the friends throughout ,galatia1 whom he had won up to ,jesus1 he says1 ,i have been crucified with ,christ4 ,there is an old dead ,i4 ,nevertheless ,i live4 ,there is a new living ,i4 ,yet not ,i--the old ,i--but ,christ liveth in me4 ,he was the new ,i4 ,there was a new personality within ,paul4 ,i never weary of recalling what ,martin ,luther said about that verse in the comment he made on ,galatians4 ,you remember he said1 ,if somebody should knock at my heart's door1 and ask who lives here1 ,i must not say ',martin ,luther lives here4' ,i would say ',martin ,luther--is--dead--,jesus--,christ--live s--here4' ,i wonder if any of us has ever been taken for ,jesus4 ,i wonder if anybody has ever mistaken any of us for ,him4 ,you remember1 ,he used to move among men after the resurrection1 and while they would feel the gentle winsomeness of ,his presence and talk1 they did not recognize ,him4 ,has somebody run across you or me sometime1 and been with us a little while1 and then gone away saying to himself1 ,i wonder if that was ,jesus back again in disguise4 ,he seemed so much like what ,i think ,jesus must have been--,i wonder4 ,well1 if it were so1 of course we would not be conscious of it4 ,a ,jesus-man is never absorbed in thinking about himself4 ,he is taken up with ,jesus1 and with folks4 ,a man is always least conscious of the power of his own presence and life4 ,everybody else knows more about it than he does4 ,plainly this is the ,master's plan for each of us4 ,and more1 it is the result when ,he is allowed free sway4 ,the controlling principle of ,his life was to please ,his ,father4 ,the pervading purpose and passion was to win men out and up4 ,the characteristics of ,his life were purity1 unselfishness1 sympathy1 and simplicity4 ,we are to be as ,he4 ,he was the ,father to all the race of men4 ,each of us is to be ,jesus to his circle4 ,please notice ,i'm not talking about lips just now but about lives4 ,the life is the indorsement of the lips4 ,it makes the words of the lips more than they sound or seem4 ,or1 it makes them less1 sometimes pitiably less1 little more than a discount clerk ever busily at work4 ,the words ever go to the level of the life1 up or down4 ,water seeks its level persistently4 ,so do one's words1 and they find it more quickly than the water1 for they go through all obstructions4 ,and the life is the leveler of the words1 up or down4 ,so far as this second life is concerned a man's lips might be sealed1 and his tongue dumb1 but his life in its purity and simplicity1 its unselfishness and sympathetic warmness will ever be spelling out ,jesus4 ,and ,he will be spelled out so big and plain that the man hurriedly running1 or lazily creeping1 or half blind in a cloud of dust1 will be stopping and reading4 ,if there were but more re-incarnations of ,jesus how folks would be coming a-running to ,him4 ,do you remember that prayer in blank verse of the old ,scottish preacher and poet and saint1 ,horatius ,bonar8 ,he said3 ,oh1 turn me1 mould me1 mellow me for use4 ,pervade my being with ,thy vital force1 ,that this else inexpressive life of mine ,may become eloquent and full of power1 ,impregnated with life and strength divine4 ,put the bright torch of heaven into my hand1 ,that ,i may carry it aloft ,and win the eye of weary wanderers here below ,to guide their feet into the paths of peace4 ,i cannot raise the dead1 ,nor from this soil pluck precious dust1 ,nor bid the sleeper wake1 ,nor still the storm1 nor bend the lightning back1 ,nor muffle up the thunder1 ,nor bid the chains fall from off creation's long enfettered limbs4 ,but ,i can live a life that tells on other lives1 ,and makes this world less full of anguish and of pain2 ,a life that like the pebble dropped upon the sea ,sends its wide circles to a hundred shores4 ,may such a life be mine4 ,creator of true life1 ,thyself the life ,thou givest1 ,give ,thyself1 that ,thou mayst dwell in me1 and ,i in ,thee4 ,an ,active ,life of ,service4 ,the third life is a life of active service1 of aggressive earnestness in winning men4 ,i say aggressive4 ,that word does not mean noise and dust1 shuffling of feet1 and bustling confusion4 ,it means rather the steady1 steady movement of the sun which noiselessly1 dustlessly1 moves onward1 hour after hour1 day in and day out1 regardless of any storms1 or disturbances4 ,it means the quiet1 peaceful1 but resistless uninterrupted movement of the moon rising night after night1 and going through its circle of action4 ,earnestness means the burning of the inner spirit4 ,its fires dim not1 for they are fed continually from secret sources4 ,this third life is spoken of directly3 ,go ye and make disciples4 ,the going is to be continued until folks farthest away have heard4 ,some people are bounded by the horizon of the town where they live1 some by the particular church to which they belong1 some the denomination1 some the state1 or even the nation4 ,jesus fixes the horizon of ,his follower as that of the world4 ,jesus was visionary4 ,he talked about all nations1 a race1 a world4 ,all are to go4 ,they are to go to all4 ,some may be made wholly free1 by arrangement with their fellow-followers1 to give their full strength and time to the direct going and telling4 ,these are highly favored in privilege4 ,some of these may go to deserted darkened places in the home land4 ,some may go to the city slum1 which in its dire need is of close kin to the foreign-mission land4 ,these are yet more highly favored in privilege4 ,some may go to those far distant lands where ,jesus is not known1 where the need of ,him is so pathetically great4 ,these are the most highly favored in the privilege of service accorded them4 ,many others have been left free of the necessity of earning bread and home and clothing and so have a rare opportunity of devoting themselves to the going1 as the ,spirit of ,jesus guides4 ,many are given the talent to earn easily1 and so1 if they will1 may give much strength to service4 ,the great majority everywhere and always are absorbed for most of the waking hours of the day in earning something to eat1 and something to wear1 and somewhere to sleep4 ,yet where there is the warm touch with ,jesus there will come the yearning for purity1 and the life of service4 ,with these as with all there may be the service1 strong and sweetly fragrant4 ,there is always some bit of spare time1 with planning1 that can be used in direct service in church1 or school1 or mission4 ,and the secret life of prayer will give a steadiness that will guard against the over-use of one's strength4 ,there can be a personal going to some in words tactfully spoken4 ,there is the life of sweet purity and gentle patience always so winsome1 that speaks all the time in musical tones to one's circle4 ,there is an enormous1 unconscious aggressiveness about such a life4 ,then there can be the going through gold4 ,and the entire planet can be brought under one's thumb of influence through the strangely simple power of prayer4 ,i have been running across some new versions of this last word of ,jesus4 ,a sort of re-revisions they are4 ,i have not found them in the common print1 but printed in lives1 the lives of men4 ,the print is large1 chiefly capitals1 easily read4 ,these lives are so noisy as to quite shut out what the lips may be saying4 ,there are variations in these translations4 ,sometime the message is made to read like this3 ,all power hath been given unto ,me1 therefore go ye1 and make--coins of gold--oh1 belong to church of course--that is proper and has many advantages--and give too4 ,there are advantages about that--give freely1 or make it seem freely--give to missions at home and abroad4 ,that is regarded as a sure sign of a liberal spirit4 ,but be careful about the proportion of your giving4 ,for the real thing that counts at the year's end is how much you have added to the stock of dollars in your grasp4 ,these other things are good1 but--merely incidental4 ,this thing of getting gold is the main drive4 ,please understand me1 ,i never heard any of these folks talk in this blunt way with their tongues4 ,so far as ,i can hear1 they are saying something quite different4 ,but what their tongues are saying is made indistinct and blurred by some noise near by4 ,other translations ,i have run across have this variation3 ,make a place for yourself1 in your profession1 in society4 ,make a comfortable living2--with a wide margin of meaning to that word 'comfortable'--belong to the church1 become a pillar1 or at least move in the pillar's circle1 give of course1 even freely in appearance1 but remember these are the dust in the scale1 the other is the thing that weighs4 ,all of one's energies must be centered on the main thing4 ,may ,i ask you to listen very quietly1 while ,i repeat the ,master's own words over very softly and clearly1 so that they may get into the inner cockles of our hearts anew8 ,all power hath been given unto ,me2 therefore go ye1 and make disciples of all nations4 ,these other translations are wrong4 ,they are misleading4 ,the one main thing is influencing men for ,jesus4 ,the ,perspective of ,true ,service4 ,it is not the only thing by any means4 ,there is a multitude of things perfectly proper and that must be done and well done4 ,but through all their doing is to run this one strong purpose4 ,these other things are details1 important details1 indispensably important1 yet details4 ,the other is the one main thing toward which the doing of all the others is to bend and blend4 ,please mark keenly that there are three lives here2 three in one4 ,the secret life of prayer1 the open life of purity1 the active life of service ,not one1 nor the other1 not any two1 but all three1 this is the true ideal4 ,this is the true rounded life4 ,and note sharply that this gives the true perspective of service4 ,the service life grows up out of the other two4 ,its roots lie down in prayer and purity4 ,this explains why so much service is fruitless4 ,it isn't rooted4 ,there is no rich subsoil4 ,it seems to be a part of the hurt of sin that men do not keep the proportion of things balanced1 and never have4 ,in former days men shut themselves up behind great walls that they might be pleasing to ,god4 ,they shut out the noise that they might have quiet to pray4 ,they thought to shut out the sin that they might be pure1 forgetting that they carried it in with them4 ,in our day things have swung clean over to the other extreme4 ,now all is activity4 ,the emphasis of the time is upon doing4 ,there is a lot of running around1 and rushing around4 ,there is a great deal of activity that seems inseparable from dust4 ,the wheels make such a lot of noise as they go around4 ,doing that does not root down in the secret touch with ,jesus1 may be quite vigorous for a time1 but soon leaves behind as its only memory withered up branches4 ,this is a practical age1 we are constantly told4 ,things must be judged by the standard of usefulness4 ,that is surely true1 and good1 but there is very serious danger that the true perspective of service be lost in the dust that is being raised4 ,the imprint of this disproportion or lack of proportion can even be found in the theological teaching of long ago and now4 ,at one time religion was defined as having to do with a man's relation to ,god4 ,that was emphasized to the utter hiding away of all else4 ,in our own day the swing is clear over to the other side4 ,definitions of religion that make everything of helping one's brother and fellow1 are the popular thing4 ,there seems to be a sort of astigmatism that keeps us from seeing things straight4 ,though always there have been those that saw straight and lived truly4 ,mark keenly that true touch with ,god always brings the longing to be pure1 and the loving of one's fellow4 ,the nearer one gets to ,god the nearer will he find himself getting to men4 ,often we find ourselves getting new wonderful glimpses of ,god as we are eagerly helping somebody4 ,up seems to include out1 as though the line that drew us up to ,god led through men4 ,yet with that always goes the other fact that touch with ,god makes one long to be alone with ,him4 ,there are always the three turnings of a true life1 upward1 inward1 outward4 ,upward to ,god1 inward to self1 outward to the world4 ,the more one knows ,god the keener is the longing to get off with ,himself alone1 the deeper is the yearning to be pure1 and the stronger is the passion to help others regardless of any sacrifice involved4 ,a ,long ,time ,coming4 ,there is an old story that caught fire in my heart the first time it came to me1 and burns anew at each memory of it4 ,it told of a time in the southern part of our country when the sanitary regulations were not so good as of late4 ,a city was being scourged by a disease that seemed quite beyond control4 ,the city's carts were ever rolling over the cobble-stones1 helping carry away those whom the plague had slain4 ,into one very poor home1 a laboring man's home1 the plague had come4 ,and the father and children had been carried out until on the day of this story there remained but two1 the mother and her baby boy of perhaps five years4 ,the boy crept up into his mother's lap1 put his arms about her neck1 and with his baby eyes so close1 said1 ,mother1 father's dead1 and brothers and sister are dead2--if you die1 what'll ,i do8 ,the poor mother had thought of it1 of course1 ,what could she say8 ,quieting her voice as much as possible1 she said1 ,if ,i die1 ,jesus will come for you4 ,that was quite satisfactory to the boy4 ,he had been taught about ,jesus1 and felt quite safe with ,him1 and so went about his play on the floor4 ,and the boy's question proved only too prophetic4 ,and quick work was done by the dread disease4 ,and soon she was being laid away by strange hands4 ,it is not difficult to understand that in the sore distress of the time the boy was forgotten4 ,when night came1 he crept into bed1 but could not sleep4 ,late in the night he got up1 found his way out along the street1 down the road1 in to where he had seen the men put her4 ,and throwing himself down on the freshly shoveled earth1 sobbed and sobbed until nature kindly stole consciousness away for a time4 ,very early the next morning a gentleman coming down the road from some errand of mercy1 looked over the fence1 and saw the little fellow lying there4 ,quickly suspecting some sad story1 he called him1 ,my boy1 what are you doing there8--,my boy1 wake up1 what are you doing there all alone8 ,the boy waked up1 rubbed his baby eyes1 and said1 ,father's dead1 and brothers and sister's dead1 and now--mother's--dead--too4 ,and she said1 if she did die1 ,jesus would come for me4 ,and ,he hasn't come4 ,and ,i'm so tired waiting4 ,and the man swallowed something in his throat1 and in a voice not very clear1 said1 ,well1 my boy1 ,i've come for you4 ,and the little fellow waking up1 with his baby eyes so big1 said ,i think you've been a long time coming4 ,whenever ,i read these last words of ,jesus or think of them1 there comes up a vision that floods out every other thing4 ,it is of ,jesus ,himself standing on that hilltop4 ,his face is all scarred and marred1 thorn-torn and thong-cut4 ,but it is beautiful1 passing all beauty of earth1 with its wondrous beauty light4 ,those great eyes are looking out so yearningly1 out as though they were seeing men1 the ones nearest and those farthest4 ,his arm is outstretched with the hand pointing out4 ,and you cannot miss the rough jagged hole in the palm4 ,and ,he is saying1 ,go ye4 ,the attitude1 the scars1 the eyes looking1 the hand pointing1 the voice speaking1 all are saying so intently1 ,go ye4 ,and as ,i follow the line of those eyes1 and the hand1 there comes up an answering vision4 ,a great sea of faces that no man ever yet has numbered1 with answering eyes and outstretching hands4 ,from hoary old ,china1 from our blood-brothers in ,india1 from ,africa where sin's tar stick seems to have blackened blackest1 from ,romanized ,south ,america1 and the islands1 aye from the slums1 and frontiers1 and mountains in the homeland1 and from those near by1 from over the alley next to your house maybe1 they seem to come4 ,and they are rubbing their eyes1 and speaking4 ,with lives so pitifully barren1 with lips mutely eloquent1 with the soreness of their hunger1 they are saying1 ,you're a long time coming4 ,shall we go8 ,shall we not go8 ,but how shall we best go8 ,by keeping in such close touch with ,jesus that the warm throbbing of ,his heart is ever against our own4 ,then will come a new purity into our lives as we go out irresistibly attracted by the attraction of ,jesus toward our fellows4 ,and then too shall go out of ourselves and out of our lives and service1 a new supernatural power touching men4 ,it is ,jesus within reaching men through us4 ,yokefellows3 ,the ,rhythm of ,service4 ,the ,master's ,invitation4 ,surrender a ,law of ,life1 ,free ,surrender4 ,him4 ,yoked ,service4 ,in ,step ,with ,jesus4 ,the ,scar-marks of ,surrender4 ,full ,power ,through ,rhythm4 ,he ,is ,our ,peace4 ,the ,master's ,touch4 ,yokefellows3 ,the ,rhythm of ,service4 7,matthew xi4 #be-cj2 ,luke x3#a1 #ag1 #ba-bd47 ,the ,master's ,invitation4 ,it was about six months before the tragic end that ,jesus sent out thirty-five deputations of two each4 ,he was beginning that slow memorable journey south that ended finally at the cross4 ,these men are sent ahead to prepare the way4 ,by and by they return and make a glad exultant report of the good results attending their work4 ,even the demons had acknowledged the power of ,jesus' name on their lips4 ,as ,he was listening ,jesus looked up1 and said1 ,father1 ,i thank ,thee4 ,and then1 as though ,he could see those great crowds to whom they had been ministering in ,his name1 ,he said1 ,come unto ,me1 all ye that labor and are heavy laden1 and ,i will give you rest4 ,take ,my yoke upon you1 and learn of ,me2 for ,i am meek and lowly in heart2 and ye shall find rest unto your souls4 ,for ,my yoke is easy and ,my burden is light4 ,there are two invitations here1 come and take4 ,there are two sorts of people4 ,those who are tugging and straining at work1 and carrying heavy burdens1 and then those who have received rest1 and are now asked to go a step farther4 ,there are two kinds of rest1 a given rest1 and a found rest4 ,the given rest cannot be found4 ,it comes as a sheer out gift1 from ,jesus' own hand4 ,the found rest cannot be given1 may ,i say8 ,it comes stealing its gentle way in as one fits into ,jesus' plan for his life4 ,many folks have accepted the first of these invitations4 ,they have come to ,jesus1 and received sweet rest from ,his hand4 ,but they have gone no farther4 ,at the close of that first invitation there is a punctuation period1 a full stop4 ,some of the old schoolbooks used to say that one should stop at a period and count four4 ,well1 a great many people have followed that old rule here1 and more than followed4 ,they have stopped at that period1 and never gotten past it4 ,i want just now to ask you to come with me as we talk together a bit about this second invitation1 ,take ,my yoke4 ,jesus used several different words in tying people up to ,himself4 ,there is a growth in them1 as ,he draws us nearer and nearer4 ,first always is the invitation ,come unto ,me4 ,that means salvation1 life4 ,then ,he says1 ,follow ,me1 ,come after ,me4 ,that means discipleship4 ,learn of ,me means training in discipleship4 ,yoke up with ,me means closest fellowship4 ,abide in ,me leads one out into abundant life4 ,as the ,father hath sent ,me1 even so send ,i you1 means living ,jesus' life over again4 ,and then the last ,go ye is the outer reach of all1 service for a world4 ,surrender a ,law of ,life4 ,just now we want to talk together over this little three-worded sentence from ,jesus' lips1 ,take ,my yoke4 ,what does it mean8 ,well1 that word yoke is used in all literature outside of this book1 as well as here1 to mean this3 surrender by one and mastery by another one4 ,where two nations have fought and the weaker has been forced to yield1 it is quite commonly spoken of as wearing the yoke of the stronger nation4 ,the ,romans required their prisoners of war to pass under a yoke1 sometimes a common cattle yoke1 sometimes an improvised yoke1 to indicate their utter subjugation4 ,these ,hebrews to whom ,jesus is speaking are writhing with sore shoulders under the galling yoke of the ,romans4 ,one can imagine an emphasis placed on the ,my4 ,as though ,jesus would say1 ,you have one yoke now2 change yokes4 ,take ,my yoke4 ,there is too a higher1 finer meaning to this surrender when by mutual arrangement and free consent there is a yielding of one to another for a purpose4 ,and so what ,jesus means here is simply this--surrender4 ,bend your head down1 bend down your neck1 even though it's a bit stiff going your own way1 and fit it into this yoke of mine4 ,surrender to ,me as your ,master4 ,and somebody says1 ,i don't like that4 ',surrender6' that sounds like force4 ,i thought salvation was free4 ,will you please remember that the principle of surrender is a law of all life4 ,it is the law of military life1 inside the army4 ,every man there has surrendered to the officers above him4 ,in some armies that surrender has amounted to absolute control of a man's person and property by the head of the army4 ,it is the law of naval service4 ,the moment a man steps on board a man-of-war to serve he surrenders the control of his life and movements absolutely to the officer in command4 ,it is the law in public1 political life4 ,a man entering the ,president's cabinet1 as a secretary of some department1 surrenders any divergent views he may have to those of his chief4 ,with the largest freedom of thought that must always be where there are strong men1 yet there must of necessity be the one dominant will if the administration is to be a powerful one4 ,it is the law of commercial life4 ,the man entering the employ of a bank1 a manufacturing concern1 a corporation of any sort1 in whatever capacity1 enters to do the will of somebody else4 ,always there must be the one dominant will if there is to be power and success4 ,and then may ,i hush my voice and speak of the more sacred things very softly and remind you of this4 ,surrender is the law of the highest form of life known to us men4 ,i mean wedded life4 ,where the surrender is not by one to the other1 but by each to the other4 ,two wills1 always two wills where there is strong life1 yet in effect but one4 ,two persons but only one purpose4 ,and so you see1 ,jesus1 the ,master1 the greatest of earth's teachers and philosophers1 is striking the keynote of life when here ,he asks us to surrender freely and wholly to ,himself as the autocrat of our lives4 ,he asks us to bend our strong wills to ,his1 to yield our lives1 our plans1 our ambitions1 our friendships1 our gold1 absolutely to ,his control4 ,free ,surrender4 ,and if you still do not like the sound of that word surrender4 ,it has a harsh sound that grates upon your nerves4 ,will you please notice the first word of that little sentence--,take4 ,jesus does not say in sharp1 hard tones1 ,come here2 bend down2 ,i'll put this yoke on you4 ,never that4 ,if you will1 of your own glad accord1 freely1 winsomely take the yoke upon you--that is what ,he asks4 ,in military usage surrender is forced4 ,here it must be free4 ,nothing else would be acceptable to ,jesus4 ,when our commissioners went a few years ago to ,paris to treat with the ,spaniards1 the latter are said to have desired certain changes in the language of the protocol4 ,with the polished suavity for which they are noted the ,spaniards urged that there be made slight changes in the words3 no real change in the meaning1 they said1 simply in the verbiage4 ,and our ,judge ,day at the head of the ,american ,commissioners1 listened politely and patiently until the plea was presented4 ,and then he quietly said1 ,the article will be signed as it reads4 ,and the ,spaniards protested1 with much courtesy4 ,the change asked for was trivial1 merely in the language1 not in the force of the words4 ,and our men listened patiently and courteously4 ,then ,mr4 ,day is said to have locked his little square jaw and replied very quietly1 ,the article will be signed as it reads4 ,and the article was so signed4 ,that is military usage4 ,the surrender was forced4 ,the strength of the ,american fleets1 the prestige of great victory were back of the quiet man's demand4 ,but that is not the law here4 ,jesus asks for only what we give freely and spontaneously4 ,he does not want anything except what is given with a free1 glad heart4 ,this is to be a voluntary surrender4 ,jesus is a voluntary ,saviour4 ,he wants only voluntary followers4 ,he would have us be as ,himself4 ,the oneness of spirit leads the way into the intimacy of closest friendship4 ,and that is ,his thought for us4 ,do you remember those fine lines1 ,the quality of mercy is not strained--if the thing be forced through a strainer1 there is no mercy there--it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath4 ,only what the warm current of ,his love draws out does ,jesus desire from us4 ,it is to be a free surrender4 ,him4 ,and if you still knit your mental brows1 and shrug your shoulder4 ,the thing hasn't yet shaken off the harshness you have been clothing it with4 ,please notice the second word of that sentence--,my4 ,take ,my ,yoke4 ,may ,i say gently but frankly that ,i would not surrender the control of my life to any of you who are listening so kindly4 ,and ,i surely would not ask that ,i should be the autocrat of any of your lives4 ,but--when--,jesus comes along4 ,the ,man with the marvelous face all torn and scarred1 but with that great1 soft1 shining light4 ,i do not know just how all of you feel4 ,i can guess how some of you feel4 ,but ,i know one man who cannot respond too quickly and eagerly4 ,the only thing to do is to make the will as strong as it can be made1 and then to use all of its strength in surrendering eagerly to this matchless ,man ,jesus4 ,doubtless many of you know fully that same eagerness1 and maybe more4 ,i remember a simple story that twined its clinging tendril lingers about my heart4 ,it was of a woman whose long years had ripened her hair1 and sapped her strength4 ,she was a true saint in her long life of devotion to ,god4 ,she knew the ,bible by heart1 and would repeat long passages from memory4 ,but as the years came the strength went1 and with it the memory gradually went too1 to her grief4 ,she seemed to have lost almost wholly the power to recall at will what had been stored away4 ,but one precious bit still stayed4 ,she would sit by the big sunny window of the sitting room in her home1 repeating over that one bit1 as though chewing a delicious titbit1 ,i know whom ,i have believed and am persuaded that ,he is able to keep that which ,i have committed unto ,him against that day4 ,by and by part of that seemed to slip its hold1 and she would quietly be repeating1 that which ,i have committed to ,him4 ,the last few weeks as the ripened old saint hovered about the border land between this and the spirit world her feebleness increased4 ,her loved ones would notice her lips moving4 ,and thinking she might be needing some creature comfort they would go over and bend down to listen for her request4 ,and time and again they found the old saint repeating over to herself one word1 over and over again1 the same one word1 ,him--,him--,him4 ,she had list the whole ,bible but one word4 ,but she had the whole ,bible in that one word4 ,did she not8 ,this is a surrender to ,him1 the ,man of the ,book4 ,the ,man of all life4 ,yoked ,service4 ,they tell me that on a farm the yoke means service4 ,cattle are yoked to serve1 and to serve better1 and to serve more easily4 ,this is a surrender for service1 not for idleness4 ,in military usage surrender often means being kept in enforced idleness and under close guard4 ,but this is not like that4 ,it is all up on a much higher plane4 ,jesus has every man's life planned4 ,it always awes me to recall that simple tremendous fact4 ,with loving strong thoughtfulness ,he has thought into each of our lives1 and planned it out1 in whole1 and in detail4 ,he comes to a man and says1 ,i know you4 ,i have been thinking about you4 ,then very softly--,i--love--you4 ,i need you1 for a plan of ,mine4 ,please let ,me have the control of your life and all your power1 for ,my plan4 ,it is a surrender for service4 ,it is yoked service4 ,there are two bows or loops to a yoke4 ,a yoke in action has both sides occupied1 and as surely as ,i bow down ,my head and slip it into the bow on one side--,i know there is ,somebody else on the other side4 ,it is yoked living now1 yoked fellowship1 yoked service4 ,it is not working for ,god now4 ,it is working with ,him4 ,jesus never sends anybody ahead alone4 ,he treads down the pathway through every thicket1 pushes aside the thorn-bushes1 and clears the way1 and then says with that taking way of ,his1 ,come along with ,me4 ,let's go together1 you and ,i4 ,a man got up in a meeting to speak4 ,it was down in ,rhode ,island1 out a bit from ,providence4 ,he was a farmer1 an old man4 ,he had become a ,christian late in life1 and this evening was telling about his start4 ,he had been a rough1 bad man4 ,he said that when he became a ,christian even the cat knew that some change had taken place4 ,that caught my ear4 ,it had a genuine ring4 ,it seemed prophetic of the better day coming for all the lower animal creation4 ,so ,i listened4 ,he said that the next morning after the change of purpose he was going down to the village a little distance from his farm4 ,he swung along the road1 happy in heart1 singing softly to himself1 and thinking about the ,saviour4 ,all at once he could feel the fumes coming out of a saloon ahead4 ,he couldn't see the place yet1 but his keen trained nose felt it4 ,the odors came out strong1 and gripped him4 ,he said he was frightened1 and wondered how he would get by4 ,he had never gone by before1 he said2 always gone in2 but he couldn't go in now4 ,but what to do1 that was the rub4 ,then he smiled1 and said1 ,i remembered1 and ,i said1 ',jesus1 you'll have to come along and help me get by1 ,i never can by myself4' ,and then in his simple1 illiterate way he said1 and ,he come--and we went by1 and we've been going by ever since4 ,ah1 the old ,rhode ,island farmer had found the whole simple philosophy of the true life4 ,our ,yokefellow is always there alongside4 ,every temptation that comes to us ,he has felt the sharp edge of1 and can overcome4 ,every problem1 every difficulty1 every opportunity ,he knows1 and is right there1 swinging in rhythmic step alongside4 ,it's yoked living and yoked service4 ,in ,step with ,jesus4 ,then please mark keenly that this surrender is for surrendered service4 ,no free-lancing here4 ,no guerrilla warfare1 no bushwhacking4 ,there seems to be quite a lot of that1 in this army4 ,some earnest folks are very busy helping ,god out1 regardless of the general movement of the whole army4 ,and a great help they are too--they think4 ,it would be difficult to see how ,god would ever get along without them--they seem to think4 ,poor folks1 they have gotten so covered with the dust made by their own feet that they've completely lost track of things4 ,there is a ,lord to this harvest4 ,there is a great ,commander-in-chief to this campaign4 ,he has the whole campaign for a world carefully planned out4 ,and each man's part in it is planned too4 ,he knows best what needs to be done4 ,he sees keenly the strategic points1 and the emergencies4 ,if only ,he could but depend on our ears being trained to know ,his voice1 and our wills trained to simple1 full obedience1 how much difference it would make to ,him4 ,simple1 full strong obedience seems to take the keenest intelligence1 the strongest will1 and the most thorough discipline4 ,just to ask ,him what to do1 ,all the day4 ,and to make you quick and true ,to obey4#c ,this surrender is for glad1 obedient surrendered service4 ,and note too that it is for training in service4 ,they tell me that where cattle are yoked for work it is usual to put a young restive beast with an old1 steady-going animal4 ,the old worker sets the pace1 and pulls evenly1 steadily ahead1 and by and by the young undisciplined beast gradually comes to learn the pace4 ,that seems to fit in here with graphic realness4 ,so many of us seem to be full of an undisciplined unseasoned strength4 ,there are apt to be some hard drives ahead1 and then pulling back with a sudden jerk1 and side lunges this way and that4 ,there is splendid strength1 and eager willingness1 but not much is accomplished for lack of the steady1 steady going regardless of rocks or ruts4 ,jesus says1 ,yoke up with ,me4 ,let's pull together1 you and ,i4 ,and if we will pull steadily along1 content to be by ,his side1 and to be hearing ,his quiet voice1 and always to keep ,his pace1 step by step with ,him1 without regard to seeing results1 all will be well1 and by and by the best results and the largest will be found to have come4 ,and remember that as on the farm1 so here1 the yoke is always carefully adjusted so that the young learner may have the easier pulling4 ,but it is well to put in this bit of a caution4 ,if a man put his head into the yoke1 and then pull back--well1 there'll be a man with a badly chafed1 sore neck in that neighborhood1 and oil will be in demand4 ,the one safe rule is swinging straight ahead1 steady1 steady1 without even stopping to decide if the plow has cut properly1 or if it is worth while4 ,the ,scar-marks of ,surrender4 ,then ,jesus adds this3 ,learn of ,me4 ,i used to wonder just what that means4 ,but ,i think ,i know a part of its meaning now4 ,you remember the ,hebrews had a scheme of qualified slavery4#d ,a man might sell his service for six years but at the end of that time he was scot-free4 ,on the ,new ,year's morning of the seventh year he was given his full liberty1 and given some grain and oil to begin life with anew4 ,but if on that morning he found himself reluctant to leave1 all his ties binding him to his master's home1 this was the custom among them4 ,he would say to his master1 ,i don't want to leave you4 ,this is home to me4 ,i love you and the mistress4 ,i love the place4 ,all my ties and affections are here4 ,i want to stay with you always4 ,his master would say1 ,do you mean this8 ,yes1 the man would reply1 ,i want to belong to you forever4 ,then his master would call in the leading men of the village or neighborhood to witness the occurrence4 ,and he would take his servant out to the door of the home1 and standing him up against the door-jamb would pierce the lobe of his ear through with an awl4 ,i suppose like a shoemaker's awl4 ,then the man became not his slave1 but his bond-slave1 forever4 ,it was a personal surrender of himself to his master2 it was voluntary2 it was for love's sake2 it was for service2 it was after a trial2 it was for life4 ,now that was what ,jesus did4 ,if you will turn to that ,fortieth ,psalm1#e from which we read1 you will find words that are plainly prophetic of ,jesus1 and afterwards quoted as referring to ,him4 ,mine ears hast ,thou opened1 or digged or pierced for me4 ,and in the fiftieth chapter of ,isaiah1#f revised version1 are these words likewise prophetic of ,jesus4 ,the ,lord ,god hath opened mine ear1 and ,i was not rebellious1 neither turned away backward4 ,i gave my back to the smiters1 and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair2 ,i hid not my face from shame and spitting4 ,and the truth is this4 ,may the ,spirit of ,god burn it deep into our hearts4 ,jesus was a surrendered ,man4 ,stop a bit and think into what that means4 ,jesus is the giant ,man of the human race1 thought of just now as a man1 though ,he was so much more1 too4 ,in ,his wisdom as a teacher1 ,his calm poised judgment1 the purity of ,his life1 the tremendous power of ,his personality in swaying man1 ,he clear overtops the whole race of men4 ,now that ,master ,man1 that giant of the race1 was a surrendered ,man4 ,for instance run through ,john's ,gospel1 and pick out the negatives on ,his lips1 the nots4 ,not ,his own will1 nor ,his own words1 nor ,his own teaching1 nor ,his own works4#g ,jesus came to earth to do ,somebody's else will4 ,with all ,his giant powers ,he was utterly absorbed in doing what some ,one else wished done4 ,and now this giant ,man1 this surrendered ,man1 says1 ,you do as ,i have done4 ,learn of ,me3 ,i am wholly given up to doing ,my ,father's will4 ,you be wholly surrendered to ,me1 and so together we will carry out the ,father's will4 ,some one of a practical turn says1 ,that sounds very nice1 but is it not a bit fanciful8 ,the lobe of ,jesus' ear was not pierced through1 was it8 ,no4 ,you are right4 ,the scar-mark of ,jesus' surrender was not in ,his ear1 as with the old ,hebrew slave4 ,you are quite right4 ,it was in ,his cheek1 and brow1 on ,his back1 in ,his side and hands and feet4 ,the scar-marks of ,his surrender were--are--all over ,his face and form4 ,everybody who surrenders bears some scar of it because of sin1 his own or somebody's else4 ,referring to the suffering endured in service ,paul tenderly reckons it as a mark of ,jesus' ownership--,i bear the scars1 the stigmata1 of the ,lord ,jesus4 ,even of the ,master ,himself is this so4 ,and that scarred ,jesus whose body told and tells of ,his surrender to ,his ,father comes to us4 ,and with those hands eagerly outstretched1 and eyes beaming with the earnestness of ,his great passion for men1 ,he says1 ,yoke up with ,me1 please4 ,let ,me have the control of all your splendid powers1 in carrying out our ,father's will for a world4 ,full ,power through ,rhythm4 ,then ,jesus1 with a sweep1 gathers up all the results in a single sentence1 ,ye shall find rest unto your souls4 ,some one may be thinking1 ,i do not feel the need of rest or peace so much4 ,i am hungry for power4 ,will you please notice that ,jesus is going to the very root of the thing here4 ,there must be peace before there can be power4 ,you shall find peace4 ,others shall find power4 ,you will be conscious of the sweet sense of peace within4 ,others will be conscious of the fragrant power breathing out of your life1 and service1 and your very person4 ,these things1 peace and power1 are the same4 ,they are different movements of the same river of ,god4 ,the presence of ,god in fine harmony with you1 that it is that brings the sweet peace4 ,and that too it is that brings the gracious power into the life4 ,the inward flow of the river is peace4 ,the outward flow of the same stream is power4 ,there cannot be power save as there is peace4 ,there is nothing that hinders and holds back power as does friction4 ,that is true in mechanics3 a bit of friction grit between the wheels will check the full working of the machinery4 ,a small nut fallen down out of place will completely stop the machine and bring all of its power to a standstill4 ,this is heart rest4 ,the heart is the center1 the citadel of the life4 ,when the heart rests all is at rest4 ,if the citadel can be captured the outworks are included4 ,it is a found rest4 ,it comes quietly stealing its soft way in as you go about your regular round of life4 ,just where you are1 in the thick of the old circumstances and conditions1 there comes breathing gently into your very being the great fragrant peace of ,god4 ,you find it coming in4 ,there is all the zest of finding4 ,it is rest in service4 ,to many folks those two words yoke and rest have seemed to jar1 as though they did not get along well together4 ,but they do4 ,the jarring is not in them but in our misunderstanding of them4 ,a yoke1 we have thought1 means work4 ,rest means quitting work2 no more need of work4 ,but that is a bit of the hurt of sin that gets so many things wrong end to4 ,rest is not quitting ,the busy career2 ,rest is the fitting ,of self to its sphere4#h ,true rest is in the unhurried rhythm of action4 ,have you thought of when your heart rests8 ,it does not stop1 of course1 while life lasts4 ,but it rests4 ,it rests between beats4 ,a beat and a rest4 ,a throb of power and a moment of perfect rest4 ,a mighty motion that sends the warm red life through all the intricate machinery of the body2 then quiet composed rest4 ,the secret of the immeasurable power of this organ we call the heart lies just here4 ,there is enough power in a normal human heart to batter down ,bunker ,hill ,monument if it could be centered upon it4 ,the secret of that power is in the rhythm of action that combines motion with rest4 ,we call rhythm of color1 beauty4 ,rhythm of sound is music4 ,rhythm of action is power4 ,i have often stood as a boy on the streets of old ,philadelphia1 and watched a gang of foreign laborers at work4 ,as a rule they could speak only the language of their own fatherland4 ,there would be a gang-boss to direct their movements4 ,perhaps it was a huge stone to be moved1 or a piece of structural iron1 or a heavy rail to be torn up4 ,the ends of their crowbars were fitted under the thing to be moved4 ,then they waited a moment for the gang-boss to give the word4 ,he would say1 heave ho6 ,then all together they would sing heave ho1 and push4 ,and a heave ho1 and push2 a heave ho1 and a push4 ,they made perfect music4 ,there was always a small crowd gathered1 watching and enjoying the simple music4 ,their work was easier because done rhythmically4 ,this1 of course1 is the simple philosophy that provides music for soldiers on march4 ,the men can walk much longer1 and farther1 with less fatigue if they go to the sound of music4 ,the story is told of the contracts for some bridge-building in the ,soudan being carried off by ,american bidders4 ,their competitors in the bidding specified a year's time or so1 for the work4 ,the ,americans agreed to do it in three months4 ,they were awarded the contract1 and to the others' surprise had the work completed within the specified time4 ,one of the contractors who had bid for the job on the basis of a year's time said afterwards to the successful contractor1 ,i wish1 if you wouldn't mind doing so1 you would tell me how you ever got that work done in so short a time with those undisciplined ,soudanese natives for workmen4 ,i have had them on other contracts and ,i know ,i couldn't have done it4 ,how did you ever do it8 ,and the ,american1 whose blood was ,british a generation or two back1 and farther back yet ,teutonic1 smiled as he quietly said1 ,we had a band of native musicians playing the liveliest music they knew within earshot of every gang of laborers1 while our gang-bosses kept them steadily at work4 ,rhythm is the secret of power4 ,full rhythm is possible only where there is full obedience to nature4 ,the man in full sweet harmony with ,god in all of his life knows the stilling ecstasy of peace1 and the marvelous outgoings of real power4 ,you shall find within your heart the great stilling calm of ,god1 as steadying as the rock of ages1 as exhilarating as the subtle fragrance of flowers1 and as restful as a mother's bosom to her babe4 ,he is ,our ,peace4 ,but there is something here finer yet by far than this4 ,everything ,god provides for us is personal4 ,there is always the personal touch and presence4 ,do you remember that during the earlier days of the recent war with ,spain this occurrence frequently took place8 ,in the ,caribbean waters a ,spanish merchantman would be overtaken by an ,american warship4 ,a few shots were sent over the bows of the merchantman with a demand for surrender4 ,and then the ,spanish flag was seen to drop from the merchantman's masthead in token of surrender4 ,then this was the method of procedure4 ,a prize crew1 consisting of an officer with a few ensigns1 was lowered from the ,american boat1 pulled across1 and taken aboard the captured boat4 ,the moment the prize crew stepped aboard they were masters of the boat in their government's name4 ,their presence signified the surrender of the foreigner1 and the forced peace now between the two boats4 ,on a much higher plane this is what takes place with us4 ,there has been flying at my masthead a flag with a big ,i upon it4 ,as quickly as ,i drop it in token of my surrender to ,somebody else1 a prize crew is sent aboard to take possession1 and assume control4 ,who is the prize crew8 ,the ,holy ,spirit1 whom ,jesus the ,master sends to represent ,himself4 ,he steps aboard at once4 ,he paces the deck as the ship's ,master4 ,his presence is peace4 ,he is our peace4 ,the fruit of the ,spirit is love1 joy1 peace4 ,and while ,he occupies the captain's quarters1 with full cheery obedience on board1 there is ever the fine aroma of peace everywhere1 and the fullness of power4 ,the ,master's ,touch4 ,one morning a number of years ago in ,london a group of people had gathered in a small auction shop for an advertised sale of fine old antiques and curios4 ,the auctioneer brought out an old blackened1 dirty-looking violin4 ,he said1 ,ladies and gentlemen1 here is a remarkable old instrument ,i have the great privilege of offering to you4 ,it is a genuine ,cremona1 made by the famous ,antonius ,stradivarius himself4 ,it is very rare1 and worth its weight in gold4 ,what am ,i bid8 ,the people present looked at it critically4 ,and some doubted the accuracy of the auctioneer's statements4 ,they saw that it did not have the ,stradivarius name cut in4 ,and he explained that some of the earliest ones made did not have the name4 ,and that some that had the name cut in were not genuine4 ,but he could assure them that this was genuine4 ,still the buyers doubted and criticised1 as buyers have always done4 ,five guineas in gold were bid1 but no more4 ,the auctioneer perspired and pleaded4 ,it was ridiculous to think of selling such a rare violin for such a small sum1 he said4 ,but the bidding seemed hopelessly stuck there4 ,meanwhile a man had entered the shop from the street4 ,he was very tall and very slender1 with very black hair1 middle-aged1 wearing a velvet coat4 ,he walked up to the counter with a peculiar side-wise step1 and without noticing anybody in the shop picked up the violin1 and was at once absorbed in it4 ,he dusted it tenderly with his handkerchief1 changed the tension of the strings1 and held it up to his ear lingeringly as though hearing something4 ,then putting the end of it up in position he reached for the bow1 while the murmur ran through the little audience1 ,paganini4 ,the bow seemed hardly to have touched the strings when such a soft exquisite note came out filling the shop1 and holding the people spellbound4 ,and as he played the listeners laughed for very delight1 and then wept for the fullness of their emotion4 ,the men's hats were off1 and they all stood in rapt reverence1 as though in a place of worship4 ,he played upon their emotions as he played upon the old soil-begrimed violin4 ,by and by he stopped4 ,and as they were released from the spell of the music the people began clamoring for the violin4 ,fifty guineas1 sixty1 seventy1 eighty1 they bid in hot haste4 ,and at last it was knocked down to the famous player himself for one hundred guineas in gold1 and that evening he held a vast audience of thousands breathless under the spell of the music he drew from the old1 dirty1 blackened1 despised violin4 ,it was despised till the master-player took possession4 ,its worth was not known4 ,the master's touch revealed the rare value1 and brought out the hidden harmonies4 ,he gave the doubted little instrument its true place of high honor before the multitude4 ,may ,i say softly1 some of us have been despising the worth of the man within4 ,we have been bidding five guineas when the real value is immeasurably above that because of the ,maker4 ,do not let us be underbidding ,god's workmanship4 ,the violin needed dusting1 and readjustment of its strings before the music came4 ,shall we not each of us yield this rarest instrument1 his own personality1 to the ,master's hand8 ,there will be some changes needed1 no doubt1 as the ,master-player takes hold4 ,and then will go singing out of our persons and our lives1 the rarest music of ,god1 that shall enthrall and bring all within earshot to the ,master-musician4 ,a ,passion for ,winning ,men3 ,the ,motive-power of ,service4 ,a ,day off4 ,moved with ,compassion4 ,counting on ,us4 ,the ,secret of ,winsomeness4 ,as the ,stars4 ,the ,finest ,wisdom4 ,three ,essentials4 ,a ,blessed ,library ,corner4 ,two ,missing--,go ,ye4 ,a ,passion for ,winning ,men3 ,the ,motive-power of ,service4 7,mark vi3#cj-cd47 ,a ,day off4 ,one morning toward the end1 in the midst of ,his busiest campaigning1 ,jesus was very tired4 ,it is one of the touches of ,his humanness4 ,so ,he said to ,his disciples1 ,let us take a day off4 ,and they could see the sense of it4 ,they were tired too4 ,so they got a boat1 and boarded her1 and set sail1 and headed out across the lake4 ,and meanwhile a crowd of people had come down to the beach to be talked to1 and healed1 and helped in various ways4 ,and you can just see the look of disappointment in their faces as they say1 ,why1 ,he's going away4 ,and for a few moments they stand there utterly dejected4 ,then somebody--for a long while ,i have thought it was a woman--somebody with eyes keenly watching the direction of the boat1 said1 ,i believe ,he's going so and so--naming a place across the lake--let's run around the head of the lake1 and meet ,him when ,he gets out4 ,and the crowd was taken with that4 ,and they ran--literally ran--around the head of the lake4 ,and as they went they spread the word1 ,the ,master's going so and so4 ,come along with us4 ,and the people came eagerly out of the villages and cross-roads4 ,and the crowd thickened and the longer way around in distance proved the shorter way there in time4 ,for by and by when ,peter ran the nose of the boat into the sand on the other side1 and the ,master got out for a day off1 there were five thousand men1 maybe ten thousand people waiting to receive ,him4 ,do you think that ,peter scrooged down his eyebrows1 and in a jerky voice said1 ,they might have given ,him one day to ,himself4 ,can't they see ,he's tired8 ,do you think that likely ,john chimed in1 with that fire in his voice which the after years mellowed and sweetened but never lost1--,yes1 how inconsiderate a crowd is6 ,do you think so8 ,i do4 ,because they were so much like us4 ,but ,he--the most tired of them all--was moved with compassion1 and spent the whole day in teaching1 and talking personally1 and healing4 ,and then when they had gone ,he went off to the mountain for the quiet time at night ,he could not get in the daytime4 ,moved with ,compassion4 ,there is a great word used of ,jesus1 and by ,him1 nine times#i in these brief records1 the word compassion4 ,the sight of a leprous man1 or of a demon-distressed man1 moved ,him4 ,the great multitudes huddling together after ,him1 so pathetically1 like leaderless sheep1 eager1 hungry1 tired1 always stirred ,him to the depths4 ,the lone woman1 bleeding her heart out through her eyes1 as she followed the body of her boy out--,he couldn't stand that at all4 ,and when ,he was so moved1 ,he always did something4 ,he clean forgot ,his own bodily needs so absorbed did ,he become in the folks around ,him4 ,the healing touch was quickly given1 the demonized man released from his sore bonds1 the disciples organized for a wider movement to help1 the bread multiplied so the crowds could find something comforting between their hunger-cleaned teeth4 ,the sight of suffering always stirred ,him4 ,the presence of a crowd seemed always to touch and arouse ,him peculiarly4 ,he never learned that sort of city culture that can look unmoved upon suffering or upon a leaderless1 helpless crowd4 ,that word compassion1 used of ,him1 is both deep and tender in its meaning4 ,the word1 actually used under our ,english means to have the bowels or heart1 the seat of emotion1 greatly stirred4 ,the kindred word1 sympathy1 means to have the heart yearning1 literally to be suffering the same distress1 to be so moved by somebody's pain or suffering that you are suffering within yourself the same pain too4 ,our plain ,english word1 fellow-feeling1 is the same in its force4 ,seeing the suffering of some one else so moves you that the same suffering is going on inside you as you see in them4 ,this is the great word used so often of ,jesus1 and by ,him4 ,there never lived a man who had such a passion for men as ,jesus4 ,he lived to win them out of their distressed1 sinful1 needy lives up to a new level4 ,he died to win them4 ,his last act was dying to win men4 ,his last word was1 ,go ye and win men4 ,and ,his first act when ,he got back home1 all scarred and marred by ,his contact with earth1 was to send down the same ,spirit as swayed ,him those human years to live in us that we might have the same passion for winning men as ,he4 ,aye1 and the same exquisite tact in doing it as ,he had4 ,i said the last act was dying to win men4 ,and you remember that even in the act of dying1 ,he forgot the keen pain of body1 and the far keener pain of spirit1 to turn ,his head as far as ,he could turn it1 and speak the word to the fellow by ,his side that meant the difference of a world to him4 ,surely it was the ruling passion with ,him to win men1 strong in death1 aye1 strongest in death1 and finding its strongest expression in ,his death4 ,counting on ,us4 ,somebody has supposed the scene that he thinks may have taken place after ,jesus went back4 ,the last the earth sees of ,him is the cloud--not a rain cloud1 a glory cloud--that sweeps down and conceals ,him from view4 ,and the earth has not seen ,him since4 ,though the old ,book does say that some day ,he's coming back in just the same way as ,he went away1 and some of us are strongly inclined to think it will be as the ,book says in that regard4 ,but--have you ever tried to think of what took place on the other side of that cloud8 ,he has been gone down there on the earth thirty-odd years4 ,it's a long time4 ,and they're fairly hungry in their eyes for a look again at that blessed old face4 ,and ,i have imagined them crowding down to where they may get the first glimpse of ,his face again4 ,and1 do you know1 lately ,i have been wondering1 with the softening of awe creeping into the thought1 whether--the ,father--did not come the very first of them all and--touch ,his lips up to where--the scars were in ,jesus' brow and cheeks--yes1 ,his hands--and ,his feet1 too4 ,tell me1 you fathers here listening1 would you not have done something like that with your boy1 under such circumstances8 ,you mothers1 wouldn't you have been doing something like that with your boy8 ,and all the fatherhood of earth is named after the fatherhood of heaven1 we're told4 ,and with ,god fatherhood means motherhood too1 you know4 ,i do not know if it were so4 ,but ,i think it's likely4 ,it would be just like ,god4 ,but this friend ,i speak of has supposed that1 after the first flush of feeling has spent itself--the way we speak of such things done here1 the ,master is walking down the golden street one day1 arm in arm with ,gabriel1 talking intently1 earnestly4 ,gabriel is saying1 ,master1 you died for the whole world down there1 did you not8 ,yes4 ,you must have suffered much1 with an earnest look into that great face with its unremovable marks4 ,yes1 again comes the answer in a wondrous voice1 very quiet1 but strangely full of deepest feeling4 ,and do they all know about it8 ,oh1 no6 ,only a few in ,palestine know about it so far4 ,well1 ,master1 what's your plan8 ,what have you done about telling the world that you died for1 that you have died for them8 ,what's your plan8 ,well1 the ,master is supposed to answer1 ,i asked ,peter1 and ,james and ,john1 and little ,scotch ,andrew1 and some more of them down there just to make it the business of their lives to tell others1 and the others are to tell others1 and the others others1 and yet others1 and still others1 until the last man in the farthest circle has heard the story and has felt the thrilling and the thralling power of it4 ,and ,gabriel knows us folk down here pretty well4 ,he has had more than one contact with the earth4 ,he knows the kind of stuff in us4 ,and he is supposed to answer1 with a sort of hesitating reluctance1 as though he could see difficulties in the working of the plan1 ,yes--but--suppose ,peter fails4 ,suppose after a while ,john simply does not tell others4 ,suppose their descendants1 their successors away off in the first edge of the twentieth century1 get so busy about things--some of them proper enough1 some may be not quite so proper--that they do not tell others--what then8 ,and his eyes are big with the intenseness of his thought1 for he is thinking of--the suffering1 and he is thinking too of the difference to the man who hasn't been told--what then8 ,and back comes that quiet wondrous voice of ,jesus1 ,gabriel1 ,i haven't made any other plans--,i'm counting on them4 ,the ,secret of ,winsomeness4 ,that's a bit of this friend's imagination1 it's true4 ,but--it's the whole ,gospel story1 through and through4 ,jesus has made that plan4 ,he has not made any other plan4 ,he's counting on us1 each of us1 each in his own circle1 in his own way1 as comes best1 most natural to him tactfully1 quietly1 earnestly--simply that1 but all of that4 ,and--if--we fail--,him--let me be saying it very softly so the seriousness of it may get into the inner cockles of our hearts--if we fail ,him1 just that far we make ,jesus' dying a failure so far as concerns those whom we touch4 ,yes1 ,i know that sounds very serious4 ,i'd rather not be saying it4 ,i'm sure1 by the ,book1 it is so4 ,and so1 do you see the genius--may ,i use that word very reverently of ,him who was a man and far more than man--the genius of ,his plan8 ,he sent down the same ,spirit that swayed ,him those human years to live in us1 and control us1 that we might have the same fine passion for men as ,he1 and the same exquisite tact in winning them as ,he had4 ,it must be a passion2 a fire burning with the steady flame of anthracite fed by a constant stream of oil4 ,if it be less we will be swept off our feet by the tides all around1 or sucked under by their swift current4 ,and many a splendid man to-day is being swept off his feet and sucked under by the tides and currents of life because no such passion as this is mooring and steadying and driving his whole life4 ,it must be a passion for winning men2 not driving nor dragging1 drawing4 ,not argument nor coercion but warm1 winsome wooing4 ,today the sun up yonder is drawing up toward itself thousands of tons' weight of water4 ,nobody sees it going1 except perhaps in very small part4 ,there's no noise or dust4 ,but the water rises up irresistibly toward the sun because of the winning power in the sun for the water4 ,it must be something like that in this higher sphere4 ,a winsomeness in us that will win men to us and through us to the ,master4 ,oh6 well1 some one says1 if you put the thing that way you'll have to count me out4 ,i'm not winsome that way4 ,well1 maybe you need not have bothered to say it4 ,we could easily know that without your saying it4 ,we are not winsome this way1 any of us1 of ourselves4 ,but when we allow this ,jesus ,spirit to take possession of us ,he imparts ,his winsomeness4 ,for the real secret of a transfigured life is a transmitted life4 ,somebody else living in us1 with a capital ,s for that ,somebody1 looking out of our eyes1 giving ,his beauty to our faces1 and ,his winningness to our personality4 ,as the ,stars4 ,the language used in the ,scriptures for this sort of thing is full of intense interest4 ,some time ago ,i was reading in the old prophecy of ,daniel4 ,i was not thinking of this matter of winning men but simply trying to get a fresh grasp of that wonderfully fascinating old bit of prophecy4 ,and all at once ,i came across that gem in the last chapter4 ,i knew it was there4 ,you know it is there4 ,yet it came to me with all the freshness of a new delightful surprise4 ,they that are wise shall shine with the brightness of the firmament2 and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever4#aj ,four times in those last two chapters of ,daniel it refers to those that are wise2 literally1 those that are teachers4 ,those who have themselves learned the truth and are patiently1 faithfully1 winsomely telling and teaching others4 ,the word used for influencing the others is full of practical picturesque meaning4 ,they that turn many4 ,as if a man were going the wrong way on a dangerous road4 ,and ,i know it's the wrong way4 ,there's a sharp precipice ahead4 ,but he is going steadily on1 head down1 all absorbed1 not noticing where the road leads4 ,i might go up to him1 and strike him sharply on the shoulder to get his attention1 and say1 ,see here1 you're going the wrong way2 can't you see the danger ahead there8 ,come this way1 with a vigorous pull4 ,i have sometimes seen that done1 in just that way4 ,and if the man is an ,american1 or an ,englishman1 or a ,german1--we're all very much alike1--he will say coldly1 ,excuse me4 ,i think ,i can take care of myself4 ,thank you4 ,i'll look out for this individual4 ,or1 ,i might slip gently up to the man1 and get my arm in his1 and begin to turn1 very gently at first1 and turn1 and turn1 and then turn some more1 and then farther around still1 and walk him off the other way4 ,you will have to get close to a man to do that4 ,some folks never do4 ,and you'll have to be at least half-way decent in your life to get close4 ,some folks never can4 ,and you will need to be warm enough all the time inside1 to melt through the icy cloak of indifference beneath which his heart may be wrapped up4 ,but ,i can tell you this3 the old world where you and ,i live is fairly hungry at its heart1 with an eating hunger for turners of that sort4 ,and the promise of that old prophetic bit is this3 ,they shall shine4 ,you know everybody wants to shine4 ,it is right to be ambitious1 with a right ambition4 ,but if any of you are ambitious to shine in some other sky than this1 in your profession1 in social life or in some firmament lower than this1 may ,i gently make this suggestion to you8 ,do your best shining now4 ,get on the brightest shining surface possible now4 ,for this is your shining time4 ,this is the sky-time for that sort of thing4 ,it won't last long1 ,i must tell you frankly4 ,and at the end a bitter biting at your heart4 ,i am fond of watching a display of fireworks on a ,fourth of ,july night4 ,perhaps the night is clear1 the sky full of stars1 bright and sparkling4 ,a sky rocket is sent off4 ,it goes up with a rush and a noise4 ,there is a dash of many colored beautiful fire-stars4 ,and a murmur of admiration from the crowd4 ,for a few moments you can see nothing as you look up but this handful of fire-stars4 ,the clear quiet stars beyond are eclipsed for a narrow circle of space1 and for a few moments of time4 ,it doesn't last long4 ,a small fraction of a minute at the most4 ,then it's all over4 ,and all that is left is a charred stick that sticks in the mud1 nobody knows where1 nor cares4 ,but look up yonder1 the stars you could not see a moment ago for these momentary ones are shining more brightly than ever by contrast1 444 ,and singing as they shine4 ,the hand that made us is divine4 ,you shine in the lower skies if you will4 ,and of course you will if you will4 ,you will do as you will to do4 ,but1 at the end--a charred stick1 a bad taste in your mouth1 a sharp tugging at your heart4 ,and the story's told4 ,the last chapter's ended4 ,the book is shut4 ,but they whose one absorbing ambition it is to turn others to righteousness may not shine much here in earth's skies4 ,and they may a bit1 and it recks precious little either way4 ,but they shall shine as the stars1 as bright and as long4 ,it does not mean ,atlantic coast stars4 ,it means desert stars1 ,babylonian stars1 where one can see so many more than here4 ,they shake their wondrous fire-light down into your face1 and fairly dazzle your eyes4 ,you shall shine as the stars1 as bright and as long4 ,the ,finest ,wisdom4 ,james1 the head of the ,jerusalem ,church1 closes up his letter to the dispersed ,jews with this same word as ,daniel uses4 ,he would have all to whom he is writing understand that he that turns another from the wrong way will save a soul from death and hide away out of sight and reach a mass of sin4#aa ,the old world needs more saving societies and saving individuals of this sort4 ,we have gotten great skill in saving dollars4 ,men give their whole strength and time to that4 ,there is something much higher1 infinitely higher1 saving souls1 rescuing lives1 treasuring up precious men and women4 ,these people1 ,james says1 are famous for their use of the fine cloak of charity4 ,they make the best use of it in hiding away beyond any chance of being found a great mass of ugly1 crooked1 poisonous sins4 ,the man with the reputation of being the wisest man gives a special definition of wisdom4 ,the old version runs1 he that winneth souls is wise4#ab ,this is a great statement from ,solomon's pen4 ,he had searched into all the avenues of men's pursuits4 ,he was a great experimenter4 ,everything was put to a personal test4 ,he amassed wealth beyond all others4 ,he delved into the fascinations of intellectual delights1 of deep intricate philosophies and problems4 ,he knew the subtle appeal to strong men that there is in deftly handling and controlling men1 personally and in large numbers4 ,he had tasted the rich wines of pleasure as had few4 ,this is his conclusion3 the wise man is he that gives his strength with all of its fine-grained cunning to wooing men back1 through the old ,eden gate1 up to the tree of life4 ,this is the finest fruitage any life can yield4 ,this will be to the bearer of it a tree of life giving twelve crops of fruits1 a crop of every month1 a perennial1 alike in heat and frost1 in storm and drought1 and with a peculiar healing quality in its green leaves for all men4 ,the revised version gives a fine turn to this old bit1 exactly reversing the first statement4 ,he that is wise winneth souls4 ,the old philosopher says that here is the real test of wisdom4 ,he that is a wise man gives the cream of his thought and wisdom to personal influence with men4 ,he thinks the thing best worth while is drawing a man through the inner reach upon his thinking and affections and will away from the impure and ignoble and deceptive up into touch with his first ,friend4 ,and he finds too that nothing he has ever undertaken calls for a finer play of all his powers at their best4 ,all the diplomacy and fineness and tact and keen management at his command will be called upon4 ,he must be a wise man to do such work4 ,it is no fool's errand this4 ,it demands the best in the best4 ,there is no body of men more keen or skilled in the handling and influencing of men1 than the politicians4 ,and ,i use the word in its fine meaning1 as well as in its cheaper meanings4 ,as democracy has won its way increasingly among the governments of earth these politicians have increased in number and in influence4 ,great measures of government have depended on their skill in manipulating men4 ,rarest subtlety and adroitness and rugged honesty have blended in the strongest of these leaders4 ,the fishing simile so commonly used in the winning of men over to one's side is a peculiarly attractive1 a matchless simile4 ,and all of this handling of men has often been for personal ends1 often for wholly selfish ends1 often for strong national ends4 ,almost never has it been for the benefit of the man being won1 save at times very remotely4 ,but ,jesus would have us become skilled diplomats in winning men for their own sakes4 ,getting them to climb the hills for the sake of the air and view they will get1 and enjoy4 ,we are to win strong men full of life and vigor and manly force up into touch with their ,friend1 ,himself4 ,there is too a most attractive winsome phrase on the ,master's lips at the close of that fishing story in ,luke's fifth chapter1#ac ,from henceforth thou shall catch men is the reading4 ,but the revised margin gives this added bit of color3 ,thou shalt take men alive4 ,they should get1 not dead fish1 but living men4 ,men full of vigor and life--thou shalt have power to sway these and induce them up to the highlands of a new life4 ,three ,essentials4 ,there are three simple essentials here for the man who would be following his ,master fully4 ,the first is that a man shall surrender himself wholly to ,jesus as a ,master4 ,that so ,jesus may have the full control of all4 ,maybe some one thinks1 ,there is that strong word surrender again4 ,cannot ,i help a man be better without going so far as that word seems to imply8 ,will you kindly notice that the ,spirit of ,jesus fills the surrendered man8 ,and it is only as that ,spirit does fill and sway that there can be any such passion for men as ,jesus had1 and1 too1 the fine tact that ,he always used4 ,this is the first simple indispensable essential4 ,the second is this3 a bit of quiet time alone with ,jesus daily over ,his ,word4 ,the door should be shut4 ,outside things shut outside4 ,and one's self shut in alone with the ,master4 ,this is not a good thing--merely4 ,i am not recommending it to you4 ,i am saying very much more4 ,it is an essential thing with every one who would follow the ,master simply and fully4 ,it is time spent in coaling up1 taking out the dead ashes1 and readjusting the drafts1 so the fires will be kept burning steadily and clearly4 ,this is the second great essential4 ,the third essential is this3 a purpose1 deep-seated1 rock-rooted1 underlying every other purpose1 taking precedence of every other1 of trying to win others1 one by one1 bit by bit1 over to knowing ,jesus personally4 ,i say trying4 ,i like that word4 ,there may be some blunders1 some bad steps1 some untactful work4 ,but these will not turn one aside from this purpose but simply make him more determined to become skilled in this finest art4 ,i mean something like this4 ,here is a young woman moving in a social circle1 just as bright and winsome as ,god meant every young woman to be4 ,and as she moves about1 she is thinking--no1 it is thinking itself out1 underneath in her subtle sub-consciousness1--,how can ,i drop the word here1 and touch there1 and leave the light impress here1 that shall count with these lives for my ,master8 ,here is a man transacting business with another4 ,and even while he is dealing with figures1 and contract terms1 he is thinking1--no1 again1--it is so deeply rooted in that the thought1 like the fine trendils of a plant1 is ever weaving itself intangibly but surely into the web of his passing mental operations1 ,how can ,i tactfully leave the impress here1 perhaps speak the direct word1 that shall be a doorway for ,jesus into this life8 ,a ,blessed ,library ,corner4 ,i think ,i might tell you best just what ,i mean by a bit from a real life4 ,the bit that has been such a real inspiration to myself4 ,it is about a friend of mine1 a business man1 with large responsible interests1 keen and shrewd in his business dealings1 a very earnest ,christian man1 with a delightful1 winning personality1 and ,i am grateful to say who was a warm friend of mine4 ,he is in the presence of his ,master now4 ,he was a man much my senior in years1 who helped me very greatly4 ,whenever we chanced to meet in our travels ,i would drop my affairs as far as ,i could to spend all the time possible with him1 both for the delight of his presence1 and for the practical help he always was4 ,the last time we were ever together was in ,columbus1 ,ohio4 ,we met there to attend an anniversary meeting of the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 in ,dr4 ,gladden's ,church1 on the ,capitol ,square4 ,and ,monday morning before taking our trains away in different directions we went for a drive1 to get the air1 and talk a bit4 ,i made the suggestion of driving1 for ,i knew ,i would get something from him4 ,and ,i was right4 ,i did get something that ,i never forgot1 and never shall4 ,as we were driving1 and talking1 by and by1 in a little lull of the talk1 he said very quietly1 ,gordon1 do you know what ,i have been doing lately8 ,and ,i said1 ,no4 ,well1 he said1 it's been the delight of my life1 and ,i could see the gleam of light in his eyes4 ,and ,i said1 ,tell me what it is that has been such a pleasure to you4 ,and he said1 ,well1 ,i will4 ,then he went on in a very taking way he had to tell this simple story4 ,and he was speaking as to a friend1 for he was very modest1 and would not have spoken of the thing2 except to help2 that would always bring anything he had4 ,he said when he was at home--he travelled much--he would think about the young men whom he knew who were not ,christians4 ,splendid men1 some of them2 full of power2 clubmen1 some of them4 ,but who did not know ,jesus personally4 ,and he would think1 ,now there's such a man4 ,i wonder what's his easy side of approach4 ,and he would think about him1 and pray some about him4 ,and then make an opportunity to ask him up to his home for dinner some evening4 ,his position in the city would make any young man feel honored with such an invitation4 ,he said to me1 ,we have a pleasant time at the dinner table with the family1 and afterwards1 a bit of music and so on4 ,then1 with a quiet smile he said1 ,i ask him into my library corner1 my little study den1 and by and by we come to close quarters4 ,i tell him what ,i'm thinking about4 ,i tell him what a ,friend ,jesus is4 ,and how it helps to have ,him in all of one's life as a ,friend and ,master4 ,then ,i ask him softly if he won't let ,jesus be his ,friend4 ,he said1 ,i try to be as tactful as though ,i were selling a contract of cars4 ,though there's a fine reverence here that never gets into business talk4 ,and then if it seems good1 without causing him any embarrassment1 we have a bit of prayer together4 ,not always1 but often4 ,and he said to me1 with a tender eagerness in his voice1 ,gordon1 it's been the delight of my life to have man after man accept ,jesus in my library corner4 ,and ,i looked at him4 ,we were driving along the busiest block of the busiest street in ,columbus4 ,the ,capitol building on this side4 ,and the old ,neil ,hotel on this4 ,and all around us were the electrics1 and wagons and carriages2 so much noise and dust4 ,and there that man sat by my side so quiet1 with his eyes dancing as they looked off at something ,i could not see4 ,and if ever ,moses' face shined or ,stephen's1 his did that morning4 ,i was caught as ,i looked4 ,that was the delight of his life4 ,not his money1 nor his business1 nor his social relations1 though he took keen interest in all of these1 but this4 ,and the sound of his voice1 and the sight of his face that morning1 seemed to kindle the fires in my heart that ,i might1 in my own way1 as came best to me1 be doing something of that same sort4 ,that is what ,i mean by a deep-seated purpose1 under every other1 to try to win men4 ,i was telling this story one night to some people in his state1 not thinking that ,i was within maybe two hundred miles of his home4 ,and as the audience was dismissed ,i saw a man coming up the aisle toward the pulpit1 apparently to meet me4 ,so ,i went down his way4 ,he looked like a business fellow1 with a clean-cut way about him1 and a strong manly face4 ,before we met ,i noticed something glistening in his eye1 and yet a smile across his lips4 ,and he gripped my hand4 ,i can feel that grip now4 ,and he half-blurted out1 ,i'm one of those fellows6 ,and there are a lot of us that are thanking ,god with full hearts for that man's library room4 ,and the grip of that hand seemed to make the fires within burn just a bit stiffer4 ,in an after conversation this friend told me how he had wanted to be a ,christian1 but didn't seem to know just how4 ,and nobody had ever spoken to him about it1 he said1 though so often he had wished somebody would4 ,there are a great many just like him in that4 ,two ,missing--,go ,ye4 ,same years ago ,i was a guest at a small wedding dinner party in ,new ,york ,city4 ,a ,scotch-,irish gentleman1 well known in that city1 an old friend1 spoke across the table to me4 ,he said he had heard recently a story of the ,scottish hills that he wanted to tell4 ,and we all listened as he told this simple tale4 ,i have heard it since from other lips1 variously told4 ,but good gold shines better by the friction of use4 ,and ,i want to tell it to you as my old friend from the ,scotch end of ,ireland told it that evening4 ,it was of a shepherd in the ,scottish hills who had brought his sheep back to the fold for the night1 and as he was arranging matters for the night he was surprised to find that two of the sheep were missing4 ,he looked again4 ,yes1 two were missing4 ,and he knew which two4 ,these shepherds are keen to know their sheep4 ,he was much surprised1 and went to the out-house of his dwelling to call his collie4 ,there she lay after the day's work suckling her own little ones4 ,he called her4 ,she looked up at him4 ,he said1 ,two are missing--holding up two fingers--,away by1 ,collie1 and get them4 ,without moving she looked up into his face1 as though she would say1 ,you wouldn't send me out again to-night8--it's been a long day--,i'm so tired--not again to-night4 ,so her eyes seemed to say4 ,and again as many a time doubtless1 ,away by1 and get the sheep1 he said4 ,and out she went4 ,about midnight a scratching at the door aroused him4 ,he found one of the sheep back4 ,he cared for it4 ,a bit of warm food1 and the like4 ,then out again to the out-house4 ,there the dog lay with her little ones4 ,again he called her4 ,she looked up4 ,get the other sheep1 he said4 ,i do not know if you men listening are as fond of a good collie as ,i am4 ,their eyes seem human to me1 almost1 sometimes4 ,and hers seemed so as she looked up and seemed to be saying out of their great depths--,not again--to-night8--haven't ,i been faithful8--,i'm so tired--not again6 ,and again as ,i suppose many a time before1 ,away by1 and get the sheep4 ,and out she went4 ,about two or three1 again the scratching4 ,and he found the last sheep back2 badly torn2 been down some ravine or gully4 ,and the dog was plainly played4 ,and yet she seemed to give a bit of a wag to her tired tail as though she would say1 ,there it is--,i've done as you bade me--it's back4 ,and he cared for its needs1 and then before lying down again to his own rest1 thought he would go and praise the dog for her faithful work4 ,you know how sensitive collies are to praise or criticism4 ,he went out and stooped over with a pat and a kindly word1 and was startled to find that the life-tether had slipped its hold4 ,she lay there lifeless1 with her little ones tugging at her body4 ,that was only a dog4 ,we are men4 ,shall ,i apologize for using a dog for an illustration8 ,no4 ,i will not4 ,one of ,god's creatures1 having a part in ,his redemption4 ,that was to save sheep4 ,you and ,i are sent1 not to save sheep1 but to save men4 ,and how much then is a man better than a sheep1 or anything else6 ,and our ,master stands here to-day4 ,would that you and ,i might see ,his face with the thorn marks of ,his trip to this earth4 ,he points out with ,his hand4 ,and you can't miss a peculiar hole in its palm4 ,he says1 ,there are two missing--aye1 more than two--that you know--that you touch--that you can touch--that ,i died for--go ye4 ,shall we go8 ,for ,jesus' sake8 ,yes1 for men's sake2 splendid men1 befooled about ,jesus1 who can get ,him only through us in touch with ,him--for men's sake1 in ,jesus' great ,name4 ,deep-,sea ,fishing3 ,the ,ambition of ,service4 ,a ,water ,haul4 ,living up in the ,spirit ,realm4 ,saved to ,serve4 ,ambition in ,service4 ,use ,what ,you ,have4 ,expectancy in ,service4 ,jesus ,went into the ,deeps4 ,deep-,sea ,fishing3 ,the ,ambition of ,service4 7,luke v3#a-aa47 ,a ,water ,haul4 ,jesus was very fond of the outdoors4 ,the ,gospels have a woodsy smell4 ,he taught in the synagogues1 but ,he seemed to prefer the open air4 ,he would go out on a country road1 or down by the beach of the ,galilean lake1 and the people would eagerly gather around ,him1 and ,he would talk to them4 ,one morning ,he had gone down to the lake shore4 ,the people crowded in about ,him and ,he commenced as usual to talk to them4 ,but so eager were they not to miss a word that they pressed in about ,him very close4 ,he was standing with ,his back to the water likely1 and the people seemed likely to crowd ,him over into the water4 ,so ,he looked around for something to do4 ,he was ever practical to the point of being matter-of-fact4 ,a practical idealist was ,jesus1 the practical ,idealist4 ,peter was down there1 just a short distance off1 with his partners and crew in their fishing boats1 cleaning up after the night's haul4 ,lifting ,his voice a little1 ,jesus called out1 ,peter1 will you pull around here1 please4 ,and ,peter did4 ,and ,jesus1 stepping into the boat1 sat down1 and went on talking to the people4 ,interruptions never seemed to disturb ,him4 ,he seemed to regard them in the light of possible index fingers pointing out the next thing to be done4 ,every missionary1 foreign and home1 has to get practised in just that1 while holding steady to his underlying purpose4 ,when ,he had finished talking1 ,he turned to ,peter and said quietly1 ,launch out into the deep1 and let down your nets for a draught4 ,and ,peter smiled at the very idea1 as he said1 ,master1 we've been out the whole night1 and haven't caught a thing1 nothing but a water haul1 but--with a thoughtful earnestness taking the place of the critical smile--if you say so1 of course we will4 ,and the ,master said so4 ,and now they can't handle the haul4 ,i want to bring to you anew this old word of command from ,jesus' lips3 ,launch out into the deep1 and let down your nets for a draught4 ,these men in the story had failed4 ,they had gone out the evening before intending and expecting to bring home a fine haul of fish for the ,capernaum or the ,bethsaida market4 ,they came back with nothing for the night's work but tired muscles and torn nets4 ,this message is for men who have failed1 or who have seemed to fail4 ,there is no failure to an earnest man4 ,a man cannot fail without his own consent4 ,every seeming failure is the seed of a coming success to earnest men4 ,if any of us have seemed to fail1 our boots have lead in them1 and our hearts are heavy too1 for lack of success--this message is for us1 ,launch out1 and let down4 ,failure is very apt to breed discouragement4 ,your clothing seems damp and heavy with the dew of a fruitless night4 ,oftentimes the best thing for that is action4 ,mix yourself with the action of boats and nets and men4 ,that's the ,master's word here4 ,living up in the ,spirit ,realm4 ,there are three facts that group about the message of ,jesus in this story4 ,and those same three facts need to group themselves in bold outline about our using of it1 too4 ,the first is this3 there was contact with ,jesus as a ,master4 ,that must come in1 and come in strong1 before there can be any right using of this word of command4 ,there needs to be the first contact when a man turns over the control of his life to ,jesus as ,master4 ,there needs to be close contact that the ,master's plan of service may be clearly seen and faithfully started upon4 ,there must be continual contact that so ,his mastery may control and guide at every step4 ,the second fact is this3 obedience to the ,master's word4 ,obedience1 mind you1 whether the thing you are told to do seems a likely thing to do or not4 ,here with the fishermen there were some things that pulled the other way4 ,they had been out all night and failed4 ,the very sense of failure strong within them was against obedience4 ,discouraged men seldom succeed at anything4 ,and there was a very unlikely chance ahead4 ,the time for fishing with them was in the night4 ,failure behind1 and a poor chance ahead6 ,yet they obeyed4 ,if ,peter had acted the way some modern folks do he would have said something like this3 ,you'll excuse me1 ,master1 for saying it2 but--this is no time to fish in these waters4 ,pardon me1 sir1 ,i have no doubt you know about carpentering4 ,but ,i'm a fisherman4 ,when it comes to yokes and plows ,i'll gladly yield to you4 ,but fishing--you see1 ,i've been fishing ever since ,i was a boy4 ,maybe up around ,nazareth1 in the brooks and ponds up there1 you can catch something in daylight1 but not down here4 ,i have heard many people talking that way4 ,but ,peter didn't4 ,aren't you glad he didn't8 ,he stumbled often4 ,he talked foolishly to ,jesus more than once1 but not this time4 ,he obeyed4 ,it was against his habit1 against his ideas of what was best1 but the message was clear and he obeyed it4 ,happy is the man who listens to the inner ,voice1 learns keenly how to hear distinctly and accurately1 and obeys4 ,faith is never contrary to reason1 but it is frequently higher up4 ,the spirit realm is the highest4 ,a man should reach up through his bodily life1 through a keen1 strong intellectual perception and grasp1 up into the spirit realm and abide there4 ,many a man of splendid ability and earnestness never shakes off his intellectual scaffolding in the upward building4 ,it remains to hamper and mar4 ,through a mastered body1 and a disciplined mind1 up to the spirit level is the full swing4 ,obedience to the clearly discerned voice of command from the ,master is the one pathway of full power4 ,the third fact was sure to follow these two4 ,it came last4 ,there were unexpectedly large results4 ,there always will be where the first two facts are faithfully gotten in4 ,saved to ,serve4 ,there is a growth in this message of ,jesus4 ,there are four steps up and out4 ,first comes the plain call to service3 ,launch out4 ,this is the ringing service call4 ,it is a familiar word to a follower of ,jesus4 ,he was always saying1 ,go ye4 ,to every man ,he said first of all1 ,come4 ,then1 as quickly as a man came1 the word was changed to go4 ,i like greatly the motto of the ,salvation ,army4 ,it must have been born for those workers in the warm heart of the mother of the ,army1 ,catharine ,booth4 ,that mother explains much of the marvelous power of that organization4 ,their motto is1 ,saved to ,serve4 ,some seem to put the period in after the first word4 ,that's bad punctuation and worse ,christianity4 ,we are saved to be savers4 ,there is needed the divine ,savior and the human saver4 ,only he who has been saved can help save somebody else4 ,the tingle of experience in the blood attracts men4 ,the ,master says1 ,launch out4 ,get down into the thick of the fight4 ,one should not unwisely wear out his strength4 ,but on the other hand1 it's better to wear out than to rust out4 ,you'll last longer1 and any loss of strength is to be preferred to the loss through yellow1 eating rust4 ,a minister noted for his striking way of putting truth was preaching upon the words that were spoken of ,paul and his companions3 ,these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also4#ad ,he said there were three points to his sermon3 first1 the world was wrong side up2 second1 it had to be gotten right side up2 third1 we're the fellows to do it4 ,that is the first note of this message1 we are the fellows to do it4 ,ambition in ,service4 ,the second step in this ringing call to service is this3 ambition in service4 ,launch out into the deep4 ,the shore waters are largely over-fished4 ,out in the deeps are fish that have never had smell or sight of bait or net4 ,here1 near shore1 the lines get badly tangled sometimes1 and committees have to be appointed to try to untangle the lines and sweeten up the fishermen4 ,and the fish get very particular about the sort and shape of the bait4 ,some men have taken to fishing wholly with pickles1 but with very unsatisfactory results4 ,the fish nibble1 but are seldom landed apparently4 ,and just a little bit out are fish that never have gotten a suggestion of a good bite4 ,there are deeps all around4 ,one might fairly give an inward personal turn to the word4 ,there are personal deeps that have not yet been sounded4 ,there are untouched deeps in prayer1 in ,bible study1 and in the winning of others4 ,there are deeps in acquaintance with ,jesus1 in purity of life1 in sacrifice and in giving whose bottom no greasy lead has yet touched4 ,out into the deep1 comes that quiet intense inner voice of ,jesus spoken into one's innermost heart4 ,there are the great deeps in service waiting our coming4 ,roundabout every church is a fringe of deep1 sometimes a deep fringe and broad1 of those practically untouched by the warm message of ,jesus2 and around every ,christian ,association of men and of women4 ,in the heart and on the edges of every village and town and city unfathomed deeps lie2 deeps in a man's own state1 deeps in our land1 great untouched deeps in the world4 ,wherever there is a man who has not felt the warm side of the story of ,jesus' dying there is a deep4 ,wherever a group of such can be found is a deep increased in depth by the number in the group4 ,wherever the great crowds are gathered together to whom no word at all has come1 neither by personal touch nor printed page nor any other wise1 there is the deepest deep4 ,with a deep glow in ,his eyes as ,he speaks the word1 and the tenderness and softness of deep emotion1 and the earnestness of one who has ,himself been in the deep ,jesus says anew to us to-day1 out into the deep4 ,we are to be ambitious in service4 ,jesus was ambitious4 ,he reached out for all1 those nearest1 those farthest4 ,he talked of all nations1 of a world4 ,his follower must have a long reach to keep up4 ,that word ambition has been much abused4 ,it has been used much in connection with selfish self-seeking1 until that meaning has become almost its whole meaning in the thinking of many people4 ,but with the purpose dominant in ,jesus we can properly use it in its old literal meaning4 ,originally it simply meant going around1 being used in the sense of going out among people soliciting their favor or their votes4 ,it has the fine vitality of that word go in it4 ,that for which a man is ambitious decides the quality of the word4 ,a pure1 holy purpose makes the intense reaching for it pure and holy too4 ,an intense reaching out to the farthest reach of the ,master's word1 that finds expression in the dominant spirit of the life1 in the service1 in the giving1 the sacrificing1 the praying--this is the true ambition4 ,paul uses three times a word that has the force of our word ambition4#ae ,the ,american ,revision uses ambition in the margin for it4 ,in advising the group of followers in ,thessalonica he says1 ,study to be quiet4 ,the practical force of the phrase there is this3 be ambitious to be unambitious in the world's abused meaning of ambitious4 ,in writing the second time to the friends at ,corinth where his motives had been much criticised he said1 ,i make it my aim 7or ambition7 to be well-pleasing unto ,him4 ,and later1 in writing to the ,christians at ,rome1 whom he had never seen1 he said that he had made it his aim or had been ambitious to preach the ,gospel where nobody had yet gone4 ,the literal meaning of the word he uses is something like this1 striving from a love of honor4 ,and we may find a fine meaning in that which was doubtless used otherwise4 ,it was a matter of honor with ,paul to do as he was doing4 ,and he would have the honor of having fully carried out his ,master's wish4 ,he coveted earnestly the honor of being always pleasing to his ,master both in life and in the sort and reach of his service4 ,here are ,paul's three ambitions3 to be wholly free of the fires of worldly ambitions2 to be well-pleasing to ,jesus1 his ,lord2 to reach out beyond1 where nobody had yet gone with the story of ,jesus' dying and living again4 ,paul was obeying ,jesus4 ,jesus said to those fishermen on ,galilee's waters1 ,launch out into the deep1 and let down your nets for a draught4 ,paul said1 ,i have steadily made it the one thing ,i drove hard at in service1 to get out beyond all other lines and nets to where nobody has yet gone4 ,use ,what ,you ,have4 ,the third step in this service-call is this3 practicality in service3 ,let down your nets4 ,i can imagine ,peter saying1 ,master1 if we had known your plans for this morning1 ,i would have sent up to ,tyre for the newest patented nets1 or down to ,cairo4 ,these nets of ours have been patched and patched4 ,they are so old4 ,the ,master says1 ,let down your nets4 ,there is a very common delusion that holds us back from doing something because we are not skilled in doing it4 ,let the pastor speak to that young man2 ,i can't do it very well4 ,i can't teach very well2 let some one else take that class4 ,the ,master says1 ,use what you have4 ,do your best4 ,your best may not be the best1 but if it be your best1 it will be ,god-blest1 and always bring a harvest4 ,use what you have4 ,do not despise the stuff ,god put into you4 ,train and discipline it the best you can1 and use it4 ,and in using it you will be training it4 ,the best training is in use4 ,brains and pains and prayer are an irresistible trinity4 ,when the gray matter and the finger tips and the knees get into a combination great results always come4 ,the old ,hebrew farmer ,shamgar had only a long ox-goad with which to prod his beasts in the field4 ,the traditional enemy1 the ,philistine1 comes up over the hill4 ,shamgar's neighbors have taken to their heels4 ,but ,shamgar is made of different stuff4 ,he asks a man hurrying by1 ,how many do you think there are8 ,and the man calls out1 ,about six hundred1 ,i should say4 ,shamgar sets his jaws together hard1 gets a fresh grip on his ox-goad1 digs his heels into the ground for a good hold1 and mutters to himself1 ,i guess they are about four hundred short4 ,and he smites1 left and right1 up and down1 hip and thigh1 with his strange weapon4 ,and a great victory comes to the nation under its new leader4 ,david had only a leather sling1 home-made likely1 and a few smooth stones out of the running brook4 ,he had skill in slinging stones1 a keen trained eye1 a steady nerve1 a practiced arm1 and well-knit muscles4 ,but what were these against a giant almost twice his height and years1 and armed to the teeth8 ,yet the ruddy-faced stripling had something better yet along with his sling and stones and skill4 ,he had a simple trust in ,god4 ,he had a hot protest in his heart against the slandering of ,god's people by this heathen giant4 ,he combined all he had1 sling1 stones1 skill1 and faith1 and the laughing1 sneering giant is soon under his feet1 and feeling the edge of his own sword4 ,let down your nets4 ,use what you have4 ,there was a woman living down by the east coast of the ,mediterranean ,sea a good while ago4 ,her heart had been touched by ,god1 and ever after beat warm for others4 ,but what could she do8 ,she couldn't make speeches1 nor write papers for the missionary society1 nor preside over its meetings4 ,she seemed to have one special gift4 ,she could sew4 ,she could do plain sewing and overcast1 cross-stitch and hem-stitch4 ,i suppose she knew the herring-bone-stitch and feather-stitch1 and other sorts too4 ,and so she just busied herself finding out poor folks who needed clothing1 some women too hard-worked to care for their children's clothing4 ,and she sewed for them4 ,she was a seamstress for ,jesus' sake to all the needy folks she could find4 ,i expect she stuck pretty closely to the plain stitching1 though likely as not she would put in some of the fancy too to please the people she was winning to her ,master4 ,and she sewed the story of ,jesus1 and the heart of ,jesus1 into coats and skirts and such4 ,all through ,joppa her message went into homes not otherwise open perhaps4 ,and the women read the story of her heart in the stitches and they found ,jesus through her needle4 ,she used what she had4 ,and the women of the church have rightly honored her name in their societies4 ,but mark keenly this3 while using to the full1 and faithfully1 just what you have1 there must needs be utter dependence upon ,god4 ,not what you have1 nor what you can do1 but ,somebody in what you have1 and through what you do4 ,notice1 ,their nets were breaking4 ,they were to use their nets1 but the power was somewhere else4 ,as we are made up1 there frequently needs to be a breaking before the glory of ,god is revealed4 ,it need not be so1 necessarily4 ,yet as a matter of fact most people have to stub their toes and then go stumbling down with a clash1 measuring their length on the earth1 and getting some scars that stay before they can be mightily used4 ,so many strong wills are strong enough to be stubborn1 but not strong enough to yield4 ,gideon's pitchers had to be broken before the lights flashed out and brought panic to the enemy4 ,it was when the alabaster box was broken that its fine fragrance filled the house1 and spread out into all the world4 ,somebody prayed1 ,o ,lord1 take me1 and break me1 and make me4 ,that is the usual order as a matter of fact4 ,yet if the strength of stubbornness that must be broken down to change its direction1 were but swung ,god's way at once--,but most folks that have been greatly used have some of this sort of scars4 ,utter dependence upon ,god's strength in doing ,god's service is the lesson of the breaking nets4 ,expectancy in ,service4 ,the climax of this message of ,jesus is in its end3 ,let down your nets for a draught4 ,there is to be expectancy in service4 ,ideas of draughts changed that day4 ,peter1 what would you call a good draught8 ,well1 the old fisherman says1 as he sits stitching up the holes in his nets1 after last night ,i think if we got a boat half full it wouldn't be a bad haul4 ,andrew1 what's a draught8 ,and ,andrew says1 ,i think after this water haul we've had1 a haul of holes1 ,peter hits it pretty close4 ,master1 how much is a draught8 ,and ,his answer comes back over the water1 ,twice as much as you are able to take care of1 and then more4 ,they filled that boat1 sent for another1 filled that1 and then didn't land all they had caught4 ,how much do you reckon a draught in your life1 in your church1 in your mission1 your field1 how much are you saying8--,master1 what is your reckoning of a draught here in this man's life1 out here in this field of service8 ,and from this ,galilean story there comes back anew to our hearts the ,master's reply1 ,twice as much as you have planned for1 and then more4 ,expectancy is the eye of faith4 ,faith always has a watch-tower4 ,when ,elijah went to the tiptop of ,carmel to pray1 he was careful to send his servant to watch the sea4 ,prayer is faith looking up4 ,expectancy is faith looking out4 ,jesus ,went into the ,deeps4 ,and so to every one of us to-day comes afresh that ringing command1 ,launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a draught4 ',launch out into the deep2' ,the awful depth of a world's despair2 ,hearts that are breaking and eyes that weep2 ,sorrow and ruin and death are there4 ,and the sea is wide2 ,and its pitiless tide ,bears on its bosom away4 ,beauty and youth1 ,in relentless ruth1 ,to its dark abyss for aye4 ,but the ,master's voice comes over the sea1 ',let down your nets for a draught for ,me4' ,and ,he stands in our midst1 ,on our wreck-strewn strand4 ,and sweet and loving is ,his command4 ,his loving word is to each1 to all4 ,and wherever that loving word is heard1 ,there hang the nets of the royal ,word4 ,trust to the nets1 and not to your skill2 ,trust to the royal ,master's will4 ,let down the nets this day1 this hour2 ,for the word of a king is a word of power1 ,and the ,king's own word comes over the sea1 ,let down your nets for a draught for ,me4' ,there is a last word that comes up insisting to be said4 ,it is this3 ,jesus went down into the deeps for us4 ,deeper deeps than we know or ever shall ,he sounded with the line of ,his own life on our behalf4 ,he got badly scarred that night of darkness4 ,it is this scarred ,jesus who earnestly asks us to come along after ,him so far as we can4 ,his voice with a tenderness of love wrought into it on the cross says to us1 ,launch out into the deep1 and let down your nets for a draught4 ,money3 ,the ,golden ,channel of ,service4 ,touching a ,limitless ,circle4 ,peculiar ,effects of ,money4 ,jesus' ,law for the ,use of ,money4 ,foreign ,exchange4 ,gold-,exchanged ,lives4 ,spirit ,alchemy4 ,the ,fragrance of the ,life in the ,gift4 ,sacrifice ,hallows and ,increases the ,gift4 ,a ,living ,sacrifice4 ,money3 ,the ,golden ,channel of ,service4#af 7,luke xvi3#a-ah47 ,touching a ,limitless ,circle4 ,there is an inky shadow over the home of ,god4 ,there is a sharp pain tugging at the heart of ,god4 ,it's a family matter2 a family disgrace4 ,one of ,god's family has gone off from the home circle and made a bad mess of things4 ,such an affair is always a source of great grief1 especially where the family is an old one1 with fine blood4 ,and here the family is of the oldest1 and the blood the best4 ,the ,father feels the sharp edge of the knife of disgrace very keenly4 ,the hearth fire of ,god is lonely for the one gone away4 ,all of that ,father's great love and rare wisdom have centered and blended on a plan for winning the estranged member of ,his family back home1 of his own free glad accord4 ,the other members of ,his family have gazed with awe-touched faces upon the marvels of that plan4 ,its tenderness1 its depth1 its wondrous love-wisdom have excited their deepest admiration while they watch breathlessly to see the outcome4 ,that prodigal is our own splendid planet4 ,some of us down here have gladly welcomed the ,father's plan and the ,father's ,son4 ,his ,son is ,his plan4 ,but most of us don't seem to understand the ,father4 ,and that is hard on ,him4 ,and the greater number of us1 by far the greater number1 haven't even heard of the ,father's plan or of ,his ,son1 and have lost the memory of ,his loving voice calling4 ,he is always calling4 ,and everyone hears that calling voice4 ,but very many do not recognize it as the ,father's4 ,in great tenderness the ,father's plan for winning all includes the help of those already won4 ,through ,his ,son first1 and then through ,his sons1 newborn1 reborn1 ,he is reaching out ,his warm1 eager hand to all4 ,he breathed ,his own ,spirit upon ,his ,son4 ,he breathes that same ,spirit upon each of us who will1 that so we may1 each of us1 touch all the others with the touch of ,god4 ,five great touches of ,god there are1 each charged with a mighty current of power4 ,the fragrant life-touch1 the musical voice-touch1 the warm service-touch1 the potent golden-touch1 the secret1 subtle prayer-touch4 ,the first three of these are limited to a narrow circle1 the circle of the immediate personality4 ,the last two are limitless4 ,they are like our own spirits4 ,they reach directly1 resistlessly1 clear out through the personal circle as far as the spirit reaches1 even around the whole circle of the planet4 ,just now for a little while we want to talk together about one of these1 the potent yellow golden-touch4 ,the word service has been thought of quite commonly as referring to certain restricted things that one may do for another4 ,it has a broader meaning too4 ,whatever we do to help another is service4 ,not merely the direct activities1 but praying and giving are service of most potent influence4 ,money supplies a channel through which one may reach most intimately to others1 near by and around the world4 ,it is the golden channel of service4 ,peculiar ,effects of ,money4 ,money is queer stuff4 ,the opposites meet in it so strikingly4 ,it may be the most cruel1 exacting tyrant4 ,it may be the most faithful1 intelligent servant4 ,if it come into a man's life unaccompanied by a high1 controlling motive power1 it has most peculiar effects upon him4 ,it often wrinkles up his face1 and ties hard knots in the wrinkled lines4 ,it can dwarf a warm hand into a cold1 hard1 muscle-bound fist4 ,it drains the warm blood from the heart1 and dries all the sweet1 fragrant dew out of the spirit4 ,the hand suffers much4 ,it is often stricken with a sort of palsy while in the pocket1 and cannot be withdrawn4 ,sometimes there is a violent cramp1 or a sort of pen paralysis that prevents the signing of the name--to certain sorts of checks4 ,but if1 on the other hand1 it come into a man's possession accompanied by a pure unselfish motive that controls1 it comes the nearest to omnipotence of anything we handle4 ,gold of itself seems to have the puckering quality of a green persimmon4 ,the green fruit will contract the mouth to its smallest proportions4 ,and unmellowed gold acts in the same way upon the mouth of the pocket4 ,this is true of all gold and of all pockets4 ,there are no exceptions4 ,the only possible way of effecting a change is to let a stronger power come in and counteract the contracting power4 ,gold has the greatest contracting power of any earthly substance4 ,its only sufficient counteractant is ,god4 ,god has the greatest expanding power known to angels or men4 ,gold contracts4 ,god expands4 ,if ,god be the dominating motive power in a man's life1 then does gold come the nearest to omnipotence of any tangible thing4 ,it takes on the quality of ,him who breathes upon it4 ,jesus' ,law for the ,use of ,money4 ,jesus gives us the simple law for the right use of money4 ,it is in that sixteenth chapter of ,luke4 ,he is talking about the dishonest overseer of a wealthy man's estate4 ,his dishonest practices have been discovered1 and he is required to make a final settlement preliminary to his being discharged4 ,he has evidently been living extravagantly1 for the loss of position threatens him with beggary4 ,distressed to know what to do he hits upon a farther extension of his dishonest practices1 and uses the position he is about to lose to buy up friends for his coming days of want4 ,as he tells the story ,jesus adds this comment3 for the sons of this world are for their own generation wiser than the sons of light4 ,practically they go on the supposition that the present generation is the only one4 ,for the short space of years making up their own generation they are wiser than the sons of light4 ,but for the long space of all coming generations they are the rankest fools4 ,that is included by contrast in ,jesus' words4 ,the man who in his use of money thinks only or chiefly of the years making up his own present life is--a fool4 ,the man who takes into his reckoning not only the present generation1 but all coming generations1 in disposing of his money is the shrewd financier4 ,then occurs the sentence#ag that contains a wonderfully simple statement for the keen1 wise use of gold4 ,the old version runs like this3 ,make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations4 ,the revised version1 both ,english and ,american1 reads this way3 ,make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness that when it shall fail they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles4 ,i have ventured to make a rather free translation that ,i feel sure is true to the words here in their connection and that gives in simple ,english just what ,jesus means4 ,make to yourselves friends by means of money1 which the unrighteous world reckons riches1 that when it fails they may receive you1 and so on4 ,money is not riches4 ,the world commonly has been befooled into thinking that it is4 ,perhaps we have not all quite escaped that delusion4 ,and money is not unrighteous4 ,it is neither righteous1 nor unrighteous4 ,it gets its moral quality from the man owning it for the time being4 ,it is as he is4 ,it takes on the color of its ownership4 ,make to yourselves friends by means of the money that comes into your control that when it fails they may receive you4 ,that is to say1 exchange your money into the kind of coin that is current in the kingdom of ,god4 ,exchange your gold into lives4 ,that is the sort of coin current in the homeland4 ,this yellow stuff we call riches they use for paving stones up in the homeland4 ,would that we might get it under our feet down here1 instead of being ruled by it4 ,the current coin of heaven is lives of men4 ,and that too will be reckoned the precious metal when the ,kingdom of ,god comes to the earth4 ,exchange your money into men2 purified1 uplifted1 redeemed men4 ,buy letters of credit that will be good in the homeland1 and in the coming ,kingdom days on the earth1 if you would be wealthy4 ,that when it fails1 ,jesus says with fine discernment4 ,money will fail4 ,there is an end to the power of gold in itself4 ,money will be bankrupt some day4 ,it has enormous buying power now4 ,some day its buying power will be all gone4 ,then it will take the place of cobble-stones4 ,yet it would seem to be a failure there unless some new hardening process had been found for it4 ,better use it while it has power of purchase4 ,better not be caught with much of the yellow stuff sticking to you when the true values are being settled4 ,it'll all be dead loss then2 dead stock1 not worth the space it occupies4 ,you remember the very old story of the wealthy man who died4 ,and in a group of people talking together somebody asked the usual question1 ,how much did he leave8 ,and a wise man in the company replied tersely1 ,every cent2 didn't take a copper along4 ,that story is apt to provoke a smile4 ,but1 do you know1 it is sadder than it is witty4 ,the man had gained great wealth4 ,he must have been endowed with some force and talent to do that4 ,his whole life and strength and talent had been devoted to making money and hoarding it4 ,that money was the whole output of the man's life4 ,then he died and the whole output of his life was left behind4 ,he passed out of this life stripped to the skin4 ,into the other world1 where wealth is reckoned otherwise than in gold1 he entered a sheer pauper4 ,the purchasing power of his wealth stopped at the line of departure out of this world4 ,it failed4 ,foreign ,exchange4 ,exchange your gold into men4 ,buy up some of the kind of coin they use in the homeland1 so that you may have some wealth when you get there4 ,suppose you should be over on the continent of ,europe1 shopping in ,berlin4 ,you buy some goods in a store and lay down upon the counter a twenty-dollar gold piece in payment4 ,the salesman would say1 ,what sort of money is this8 and you would likely say1 ,that is good ,american gold1 sir4 ,and he would probably reply1 ,i have no doubt that is true1 and that it is good money4 ,but it is not the sort we receive here4 ,you will have to go to the bankers and get it changed into ,german marks and then ,i'll be pleased to complete this sale4 ,and so you would be obliged to do if you had not thought to provide yourself with ,german money4 ,there are some people that will have an experience like that after a while1 ,i'm thinking4 ,some one thinks that that is not a very likely illustration4 ,a man going to ,europe would provide himself with proper money to use4 ,maybe it is not a very good illustration for ,europe4 ,but how about some other strange lands to which folks go8 ,there seem to be several people who expect to go to a strange country1 and yet do not provide any of its recognized coinage before going4 ,here is a man who gets through his life down on the earth1 and goes out into the other life4 ,judging by the whole tenor of his life he will attempt to take some of his belongings with him4 ,indeed so much are these belongings a part of his very life that they seem inseparable from him4 ,here he comes up to the gateway of the upper world4 ,he is lugging along a farm or two1 some town lots1 and houses1 and a lot of beautifully engraved paper1 bank stock and railroad bonds and other bonds4 ,they are absorbing him completely as he puffs slowly along4 ,and as he gets up to the gateway1 the gateman will say1 ,what's all that stuff8 ,stuff6 he will say1 astonished2 this is the most precious wealth of earth1 sir4 ,i have spent my whole life1 the cream of my strength in accumulating this4 ,oh1 well1 the reply will be1 ,i have no doubt that is so4 ,i am not disputing your word at all4 ,but that sort of thing does not pass current up in this land4 ,that has to be exchanged at the bankers' offices for the sort of coinage we use here4 ,the man looks a little relieved at this last remark4 ,the other talk has sounded strange1 and given him a queer misgiving in his heart1 as he listened4 ,but banker and exchange--that sounds familiar4 ,the ground feels a bit steadier4 ,he picks up new spirit4 ,where are the bankers' offices1 please8 he asks eagerly4 ,they are all down on the earth1 comes the quiet answer4 ,you must do your exchanging before you get as far up as this4 ,that stuff is all dead loss now4 ,you can't take it back to the bankers' now1 and it is of no value here4 ,just leave it over on that dump heap there outside the gate1 and come in yourself4 ,and the man comes in with a strangely stripped and bare feeling4 ,what we get and keep for the sake of having1 we lose1 for we leave it behind4 ,what we give away freely for ,jesus' sake1 for men's sake1 we will find by and by we have kept1 for we have sent it ahead in a changed form4 ,there will be a strange readjustment of values on the other side4 ,some men of splendid strength have spent it in accumulating earth's wealth4 ,they give1 even freely it seems to be1 in very large amounts4 ,yet be it keenly marked the sum given by these men always bears a small proportion to what is kept4 ,others there are of equally splendid strength1 and fine powers1 who have been spending that strength in influencing men4 ,their passion seems to have been for men1 for men's selves1 for men's lives4 ,the great bulk of their strength and time has been deliberately given to this4 ,and some that have not understood have thought such conduct strange1 a sort of fad with these men4 ,but when values are readjusted by the standards of the final clearing house1 some who have been very wealthy down here will be reckoned among the very poor4 ,and some who have been reckoned poor will be found to be the shrewdest of investors4 ,they will be the millionaires of the ,kingdom time and in the homeland4 ,i do not mean dollar-millionaires1 but life-millionaires4 ,the standard of wealth in the homeland is lives1 not dollars4 ,and some too there will be1 and not few in numbers1 who have given of their strength in business pursuits to the making of money1 as the ,spirit has guided them1 or to whom it has been left in trust by others1 and who have been steadily investing the wealth that has come in the lives of men4 ,some folks ought to be getting better acquainted at the foreign exchange desk in the banks where this sort of business is done4 ,there are a good many banks that make a specialty of this sort of foreign exchange4 ,the great ,church ,boards1 the ,international ,committee of the ,young ,men's ,christian ,associations1 the ,american ,committee of the ,young ,women's ,christian ,associations1 the individual churches and associations1 and the ,bible ,societies are a few of the better known of the banks having a large exchange business of this sort4 ,their methods of business have been very thoroughly systematized for the convenience of investors4 ,in almost every pew of a church may be found little deposit envelopes1 mediums of exchange4 ,there are weekly opportunities for making deposits4 ,and the handling of the money has been so thoroughly systematized1 too1 that1 as a rule1 a very small proportion is taken up in keeping the banks running1 the great bulk passing directly out to the designated place of use4 ,gold-,exchanged ,lives4 ,jesus says that our money in its new form will be waiting our arrival on the other side4 ,the men and women into whose lives we have been exchanging it will be eagerly looking for us as the ship pulls into port4 ,when you get through with your life down here--it will be a long life1 ,i hope--you will go up and into the homeland4 ,and--,i suppose--at the first you will have eyes and heart for nobody but ,jesus4 ,my mother used to say to me1 ,i have thought that ,i would like to have a talk with ,moses1 and with ,elijah1 and with ,john and ,paul1 but--with the quick tears of deepest emotion filling her dark eyes--,i have never been able in my thinking of it1 to get past ,jesus yet4 ,even so it will be1 no doubt1 with all of us4 ,but this word of ,jesus' own suggests that as you go in you will find some one coming eagerly up with outstretched hands and such a glad face to meet you4 ,and he will say1 ,oh6 ,i have been looking forward so eagerly to meeting you2 welcome4 ,and you will say1 ,well1 this is very kind of you4 ,but1 pardon me1 ,i can't just recall your face4 ,where was it ,i knew you8 in ,new ,york8 ,and he will say1 with a flush of earnest feeling1 ,oh1 no6 ,i never saw ,new ,york4 ,and ,i never saw you before4 ,my home was over in the heart of ,china4 ,our lives were very miserable there4 ,there was a great tugging at my heart that nothing seemed ever to ease4 ,but one day a stranger came into our village1 with some little books1 and as we gathered about him he talked to us about ,jesus1 and you can never know how that story of ,jesus came to me1 and how much it meant4 ,my whole life was changed1 and my home and our village were changed4 ,and since coming up here ,i have learned that it was through you that that man came1 and ,i want to thank you4 ,next to ,jesus ,i think you're the best friend ,i have4 ,and you will be thinking1 ,i'm so glad ,i gave that money4 ,i had to pinch quite a bit1 but that's nothing compared to the joy of this4 ,and as that is flashing swiftly through your thought1 here is somebody else eagerly pressing up1 with the same word of welcome1 and a face with such a glad light the sight of which is alone quite enough to even up any sacrifice4 ,and you will say maybe1 ,and where did ,i meet you8 are you from ,china1 too8 ,no1 this one is from a western frontier settlement where the home missionary had gone1 and now this one elbowing by her with the same lightened face is from the mountain section of the ,south4 ,and so they come eagerly up from many places where you have never been in person but where you have gone potentially through your money4 ,that is what ,jesus means4 ,make to yourselves friends by means of money which the unrighteous world reckons riches1 that when it fails they may welcome you eagerly into the homeland4 ,exchange your gold into lives4 ,spirit ,alchemy4 ,there is a divine alchemy whereby money may be transmuted into redeemed1 purified1 uplifted lives4 ,there is another alchemy whereby men1 made of finest gold in the image of ,god1 may be transmuted into the basest metals4 ,when ,moses coming down from the presence of ,god saw the shocking sight of the people worshiping a calf made of gold1 he reproached ,aaron for permitting it4 ,do you remember ,aaron's answer8 ,he had the gift of speech1 you remember1 an easy1 smooth way of explaining things4 ,yet in the light of the recited facts the answer seems rather lame4 ,it needs a crutch to steady it up4 ,he said1 that he had put in the gold and--there came out this calf4 ,a great many men might fairly make use of ,aaron's explanation4 ,they have put into the crucible of life their gold1 themselves1 ,god's finest gold intrusted to their hands4 ,and under their manipulation what has come out is as a vealy1 callow calf1 a bull calf at that too1 scrub stock1 fit only for the ax4 ,there is the other1 the divine alchemy whereby a man may put in the gold intrusted to his handling and there shall come out lives1 sweet1 strong1 fragrant lives1 made anew in the image of their ,maker4 ,the ,fragrance of the ,life in the ,gift4 ,it is a part of the peculiar potent value of money that there can be a practical transfer of personality through its use4 ,for instance ,i have a friend whose heart burned to go to a foreign mission field for service there4 ,but the physician said it would not be wise for her to go4 ,yielding to his expert judgment1 she still yearned to be of service there4 ,in the providence of ,god she became intrusted with large wealth4 ,and so she arranged to have a man go in her stead to ,china1 she caring for all the expense involved1 while he was so left wholly free for the service4 ,tell me1 was that not a practical transfer of her personality to the point of service where he is engaged8 ,then she arranged for another1 and another1 and yet others4 ,it is not only a transfer of personality in practical results1 but a duplication of personality1 and a triplication1 and more4 ,for she is busy in her home circle1 while her representatives are busy elsewhere through the influence of her action4 ,a young woman1 graduate of a western college1 developed much talent in speaking to other young women of the ,christian life4 ,her public service was much blessed in the lives of large numbers of women4 ,she had no wealth1 but was dependent upon her efforts for a livelihood4 ,another young woman1 in the ,east1 came under the warm spell of her personality and speech4 ,and her life was blessedly revolutionized by that spell4 ,her own heart burned to be doing something of the sort for her sisters out over the land4 ,but she seemed not to have gifts of that kind4 ,yet she had been intrusted with large means4 ,and so she said to her new friend whom ,god had so graciously blessed to her own life1 ,let us be partners together4 ,i will so gladly give what ,i have1 that you may be wholly free to give to others what you have brought to me4 ,and so it was arranged4 ,and the one woman gives of the gold of her inheritance while the other gives her life and her special gift4 ,the one in her home pays and prays4 ,the other goes constantly here and there1 and lives are ever transformed through the ,spirit of ,god resting upon her4 ,is not that a practical transfer of personality8 and duplication of personality1 too8 ,is not this young woman whose own actual personality remains1 in the gracious providence of ,god1 in her home1 is she not going potentially about from place to place winning her sisters up to the highlands of the best living8 ,it surely is so4 ,and these two are but illustrations of the many who have come to understand ,jesus' law for the right use of money4 ,and there are to be many more as the days go by1 doing just that sort of thing4 ,and let those of us who have not been intrusted either with the large amount of money1 or with the large power to earn1 remember that the amount involved does not affect the law of results4 ,all who have felt the blessed contagion of the ,master's example will give freely of what is in store1 whether much or little4 ,those whose giving is in smaller amounts by our bulky way of reckoning values1 may still be making that same blessed transfer and doubling their own capacity for service through the agency of their gold4 ,for the gold given represents the life that gives4 ,and the gift takes on the quality and power and fragrance of the life that gives it4 ,i have sometimes thought that there seems to be a peculiar potency in the smaller gifts1 that represent as they so often do the greatest1 most devoted sacrifice4 ,could we trace the intricate crossings of the lines of influence in the web of life1 we would be awed many times at the potency of the giving that is small in amount but tinted red with the life-blood of sacrifice4 ,it should be remembered that through this strange stuff called money there is a double transfer of personality going on all the time4 ,men are constantly transferring themselves into gold1 in a perfectly proper way4 ,a man gives his labor1 and at the end of a specified period he gets a certain amount of money4 ,that money represents himself4 ,it is himself for that length of time4 ,that is the first transfer of manhood in money4 ,it is going on all the time4 ,it is necessarily so1 for so we get our food1 and clothing1 and home4 ,then there is the re-transfer of this money into some other form4 ,as we choose to use this money1 so we are re-transferring ourselves into what forms we will4 ,the money is the transition state of ourselves4 ,we pass through it out into the exchange of life4 ,we reveal ourselves in the way we pass it out4 ,in no way does a man reveal the true inner self more4 ,and if perchance we let it1 or some of it1 lie and gather rust1 there we are1 some part of us being covered with rust4 ,sacrifice ,hallows and ,increases the ,gift4 ,but there is more yet to be said here4 ,the great blending of the spirit forces with gold comes out wondrously in this3 that sacrifice hallows what it touches4 ,and under its hallowing touch values increase by long leaps and big bounds4 ,here is a fine opportunity for those who would increase the value of gifts that seem small in amount4 ,without stopping now for the philosophy of it1 this is the tremendous fact4 ,perhaps the annual foreign missionary offering is being taken up in your church4 ,the pastor has preached a special sermon1 and it has caught fire within you4 ,you find yourself thinking as he preaches1 and during the prayer following1 ,i believe ,i can easily make it fifty dollars this year4 ,i gave thirty-five last time4 ,you want to be careful not to make it fifty dollars1 because you can do that easily4 ,if you are shrewd to have your money count the most1 you will pinch a bit somewhere and make it sixty-two fifty4 ,for the extra amount that you pinch to give will hallow the original sum and increase its practical value enormously4 ,sacrifice hallows what it touches1 and the hallowing touch acts in geometrical proportion upon the value of the gift4 ,better turn your gown1 and readjust your hat1 for the sacrifice involved will give a new beauty to the spirit looking out through your face4 ,and real folks will not be able to get past the beauty of face to the incidentals of your apparel4 ,wear your derby another season1 and get your shoes half-soled1 and some deft mending done4 ,let that extra horse go to other buyers1 and the automobile be picked up by somebody who has not yet mined any of the fine gold of sacrifice4 ,the coming rainy day will never be able to use up all that some folks are salting down for it4 ,and yet some folks1 many folks1 should be spending more on their bodies and giving less4 ,the giving should never intrench upon the strength of one's personality4 ,that is a treasure to be sacredly guarded4 ,all the power of one's life1 in serving1 in giving1 in praying1 in speaking1 and in personal contact1 the power of all roots down in the personality4 ,the safe rule1 and the only safe rule1 is to decide such questions with the knee-joint bent1 and the door shut1 and the spirit willing4 ,a strong will played upon by the ,holy ,spirit1 mellowed by emotions that have been moved by the need1 and held steady by a disciplined judgment must attend to loosening the purse-strings4 ,but the one fact being emphasized here just now is that the element of sacrifice must be in the giving if it is to be effective4 ,sacrifice was the dominant factor in ,god's giving of ,his ,son1 real sacrifice4 ,it was dominant in ,jesus' giving of ,his own self and ,his life1 keen cutting sacrifice4 ,who will follow in their train8 ,whoever will1 will be getting a post-graduate course in financiering and in multiplying of values4 ,he will be astonished at the results working out1 and most astonished at the final disclosures4 ,keeping out of circulation more than one's wants1 properly adjusted1 call for is poor financiering4 ,for that which is held back is not earning anything4 ,all beyond one's needs should be out in circulation for the ,master in ,his campaign for a world4 ,yet nowhere is there finer chance or greater need for the play of keen judgment than in deciding that question of need4 ,mistakes are made on both sides4 ,it looks very much as though the most serious mistakes are being made on the side of too little sacrifice or none4 ,yet clearly some serious mistakes are made on the other side too4 ,but no one may criticise another4 ,each must decide for himself4 ,in the judgment of charity we are to presume that each is doing what he thinks right and best4 ,we are1 none of us1 the keeper of our brother's purse4 ,a ,living ,sacrifice4 ,there is a simple story told that contains its truth in its very naturalness and simplicity4 ,it reveals a bit of the real life ever going on all around us unnoticed4 ,a minister in a certain small town in an eastern state received from the home mission board of his church a letter asking for a special offering for a needy field in the ,west4 ,with the letter was literature setting forth the need4 ,the call appealed to him and with good heart he prepared a special sermon1 calling the attention of his people to the great need4 ,sabbath morning came and he preached the sermon4 ,but somehow it did not just seem to hook in4 ,that banker down there on the left looked listless1 and yawned a couple of times behind his hand4 ,and the merchant over on the right1 who could give freely1 examined his watch secretly more than once4 ,and so it was with a little tinge of discouragement insistently creeping into his spirit that he finished1 and sat down4 ,and he remained with head bowed in prayer that the results might prove better than seemed likely1 while the church officers passed down the aisles with the collection plates4 ,meanwhile something unseen by human eye was going on in the very last pew4 ,back there1 sitting alone1 was a little girl of a poor family4 ,she had met with a misfortune which left her crippled4 ,and her whole life seemed so dark and hopeless4 ,but some kind friends in the church1 pitying her condition1 had made up a small fund and bought her a pair of crutches4 ,and these had seemed to transform her completely4 ,she went about her rounds always as cheery and bright as a bit of sunshine4 ,she had listened to the sermon1 and her heart had been strangely warmed by the preacher's story of need4 ,and as he was finishing she was thinking1 ,how ,i wish ,i might give something4 ,but ,i haven't anything to give1 not even a copper left4 ,and a very soft voice within seemed to say very softly1 but very distinctly1 ,there are your crutches4 ,oh1 she gasped to herself as though it took away her very breath1 my crutches8 ,i couldn't give my crutches2 they're my life4 ,and that strangely clear voice went on1 so quietly1 ,yes--you could--and then some one would know of ,jesus--if you did--and that would mean so much to them--,he's meant so much to you--give your crutches4 ,and her breath seemed to fail her at the thought4 ,and so the little woman had her fight all unseen and unknown by those in the church4 ,and by and by the victory came4 ,and she sat with a beautiful light in her tearful eyes1 and a smile coming to her lips1 waiting for the plate to get to her pew4 ,and the man with the plate came down the aisle to the end4 ,it seemed hardly worth while reaching it into the last pew4 ,just little ,maggie sitting there alone1 with her one foot dangling above the floor4 ,but with fine courtesy he stopped and passed the plate in4 ,and ,maggie in her childlike simplicity lifted her crutches1 and tried rather awkwardly to put them on the collection plate4 ,quick as a flash the man caught her thought1 and with a queer lump in his throat reached out and steadied her strange gift on the plate4 ,and then he turned back and walked slowly up the aisle toward the pulpit1 carrying the plate in one hand and steadying the crutches on it with the other4 ,and people commenced to look4 ,and eyes quickly dimmed4 ,everybody knew the crutches4 ,maggie--giving her crutches6 ,and the banker over here blew his nose suddenly and reached for his pencil1 and the merchant reached out to stop the man returning up his aisle4 ,as the pastor stood with his eyesight not very clear to receive the morning's offering1 he said1 ,surely our little crippled friend is giving us a wonderful example4 ,then the plates were called back toward the pews4 ,and somebody paid fifty dollars for the crutches1 and sent them back to that end pew4 ,when the offering was counted up it contained several hundred dollars4 ,and the little girl1 crippled in body but not in any other way1 hobbled out of church the happiest little woman in the world4 ,she had recognized and obeyed the inner voice4 ,that was the simple explanation of her giving4 ,and her gift1 small in itself1 touched with sacrifice1 became worth several hundred dollars in its earning power4 ,and the original investment was returned for its usual service4 ,and her gift has been increasing in its earning power as its recital has reached other hearts1 and the end is not yet4 ,i do not know just where ,maggie is now4 ,but ,i do know that she will be a greatly surprised woman some day when she finds out what ,god has done with her sacrifice-hallowed gift4 ,she recognized and obeyed the inner ,voice4 ,that is the one law of giving1 as of all living4 ,worry3 ,a ,hindrance to ,service4 ,fear ,not4 ,a ,fence of ,trust4 ,a ,lord of the ,harvest4 ,do ,your ,best--,leave the ,rest4 ,anxious for ,nothing4 ,thankful for ,anything4 ,prayerful about ,everything4 ,a ,steamer ,chair for ,his ,friend4 ,he ,has ,you on ,his ,heart4 ,paul's ,prison ,psalm4 ,he ,touched ,her ,hand4 ,worry3 ,a ,hindrance to ,service4 7,psalm xxxvii3#a-aa2 ,matthew vi3#ai-cd1 ,philippians iv3#f-g4 ,american ,revision47 ,fear ,not4 ,there is nothing commoner than worry4 ,everybody seems to worry4 ,men worry4 ,women worry4 ,it is commonly supposed that women worry more than men4 ,i doubt it4 ,after watching both pretty closely under all sorts of circumstances ,i doubt it4 ,yet if it be true that woman does worry the more1 ,i think it is because1 being more sensitively organized1 she is more keenly alive to the issues involved and to the responsibilities of life4 ,poor people worry4 ,those with enough money to be easy worry4 ,and those with the largest wealth seem to worry too4 ,busy folks worry4 ,and so do the idle4 ,the cultured and scholarly touch elbows with the ignorant here4 ,americans are supposed to be specialists in worrying4 ,the name ,americanitis has been given to a certain run-down condition of the nerves4 ,well1 we may possibly have set the pace1 and may be making new records4 ,but certainly there are plenty of pushing followers4 ,our ,canadian neighbors seem not to be wholly strangers to worry4 ,nor our ,british and ,dutch forbears4 ,the ,european continentals1 and those of the ,east nearer and farther off seem to be good or bad at worrying4 ,it is a characteristic of the race everywhere1 the difference being merely in the degree4 ,it seems inbred in man4 ,there are two don't-worry chapters in this old ,bible1 one in the ,old ,testament and one in the ,new4 ,in the ,old ,testament is the ,thirty-seventh ,psalm with its oft-repeated fret not4 ,the word under that ,english phrase fret not is significant4 ,it is so blunt as to sound almost like a bit of ,american slang4 ,literally it means don't get hot4 ,the ,new ,testament has the sixth chapter of ,matthew with ,jesus' own words4 ,one should be careful here to note the better reading of the revision4 ,the old version says take no thought1 and that has been misunderstood by many who have not thought about its meaning4 ,the newer translations are truer to the meaning on ,jesus' lips4 ,do not take anxious thought1 be not anxious4 ,but apart from these two chapters there is a phrase running through these pages clear through the whole ,book1 a phrase shot through1 piercing everywhere1 even as the glorious sunlight pierces through the thick cloud and fog4 ,i mean the phrase fear not4 ,all worry roots down its tenacious tendrils in fear4 ,a ,fence of ,trust4 ,it will help to understand just what worry is4 ,it is always an advantage to get an enemy clearly defined and keep it so1 so you can hit it harder1 and make every blow tell on a vital part of its anatomy4 ,worry is not concern1 but distress of mind4 ,some one said to me at the close of a talk on worry1 some folks ought to worry more4 ,of course he meant that some people should bear their share of the responsibilities of life1 instead of selfishly and lazily shirking them4 ,there is a proper concern about matters for which we are responsible4 ,a man never makes a good speech unless there is a feeling of concern1 of apprehension lest there be failure in that for which he is pleading4 ,a strong sensitive spirit feels the responsibility and does the best to meet it4 ,worry is mental distress4 ,it is sinking under the sense of responsibility4 ,it is yielding to the fear that there may be failure1 instead of gripping the lines and whip and determining to ride down the chance of its coming4 ,sometimes worry is carrying to-morrow's load with to-day's strength2 carrying two days in one4 ,it is moving into to-morrow ahead of time4 ,there is just one day in the calendar of action2 that's to-day4 ,planning should include a wide swing of days2 wise planning must4 ,but action belongs to one day only1 to-day4 ,build a little fence of trust ,around to-day2 ,fill the space with living work ,and therein stay2 ,look not through the sheltering bars ,upon to-morrow2 ,god will help thee bear what comes ,of joy or sorrow4 ,live for to-day1 to-morrow's sun ,to-morrow's cares will bring to light1 ,go like the infant to thy sleep ,and heaven thy morn shall bless4 ,a ,lord of the ,harvest4 ,sometimes worry is carrying a load that one should not carry at all4 ,i think it was ,lyman ,beecher who said that he got along very comfortably after he gave up running the universe4 ,some good earnest people are greatly concerned about the way things in the world are going1 ,i'm obliged to confess to some pretty serious blunders there4 ,it seemed to me that there was so much to be done1 so many people needing help1 so much of wrong and sin to fight that ,i must be ever pushing and never sleeping4 ,i had to sleep of course2 but all my burden1 which meant the burden of the world's need as ,i saw it1 was lugged faithfully to bed every night4 ,there was a lot of pillow-planning4 ,but ,i found that the wrinkles grew thick1 and the physical strength gave out1 and yet at the end of vigorous campaigning there seemed about as much left to do as ever4 ,then one day my tired eyes lit upon that wondrous phrase1 the lord of the harvest4 ,it caught fire in my heart at once4 ,oh6 there is a ,lord of the harvest1 ,i said to myself4 ,i had been forgetting that4 ,he is a ,lord1 a masterful one4 ,he has the whole campaign mapped out1 and each one's part in helping mapped out too4 ,and ,i let the responsibility of the campaign lie over where it belonged4 ,when night time came ,i went to bed to sleep4 ,my pillow was this1 ,there is a ,lord of the harvest4 ,my keynote came to be obedience to ,him4 ,that meant keen ears to hear1 keen judgment to understand1 keeping quiet so the sound of ,his voice would always be distinctly heard4 ,it meant trusting ,him when things didn't seem to go with a swing4 ,it meant sweet sleep at night1 and new strength at the day's beginning4 ,it did not mean any less work4 ,it did seem to mean less friction1 less dust4 ,aye1 it meant better work1 for there was a swing to it1 and a joyous abandon in it1 and a rhythm of music with it4 ,and the undercurrent of thought came to be like this3 ,there is a ,lord to the harvest4 ,he is taking care of things4 ,my part is full1 faithful1 intelligent obedience to ,him4 ,he is a ,master1 a masterful ,one4 ,he is organizing victory4 ,and the fine tingle of victory was ever in the air4 ,do ,your ,best--,leave the ,rest4 ,i knew a mother one of whose sons was not a ,christian man1 and not of good habits4 ,she was a devoted true ,christian woman1 bearing her part in life's service with fine faith and a keen sweet spirit4 ,the children were all ,christians but this one1 her first-born1 the beginning of her strength4 ,the thought of him troubled her much4 ,she prayed fervently1 and used her best endeavor1 and the years grew on without change4 ,and her face showed the burden upon her fine spirit4 ,we would talk together about her son1 and pray together1 but her brow remained clouded4 ,then ,i marked a change4 ,the lines of tension in her face relaxed4 ,a new quiet light came into her eye4 ,there seemed a gentle intangible1 but very sure1 peace breathing about her4 ,and ,i knew there was no change in him4 ,so one day in conversation ,i ventured to ask about the change4 ,and ,i shall always remember the gentle voice and the quiet strength with which she said1 ,i have given him over to my ,father4 ,and ,i know ,he will not fail me4 ,i am still praying1 of course1 as ever1 and ,i am trusting for him4 ,she had been carrying a load that she should not have been carrying4 ,and now while the mother-heart was still concerned as much as ever1 the sense of assured victory brought the change in her spirit4 ,sometimes worry is fretting over past mistakes2 it is chafing about what we do not understand1 or about plans of ours that have failed4 ,a good deal of worry comes from pride and over-sensitiveness4 ,the roots here1 it will be noticed1 of all alike are down in our own failures1 our own selves4 ,and there would be cause for more worry if we had only ourselves4 ,but we have a ,father4 ,a very great deal of worry is wholly due to physical causes4 ,overworked nerves always see things distorted4 ,huge phantom shapes loom up before us4 ,overwork always makes a sensitive spirit worry1 and worry usually makes us overwork until we drop from exhaustion4 ,when the cause is here1 there are some simple human helps4 ,some--a good bit--of ,god's fresh air will work wonders4 ,even good people seem unchangeably opposed to ,god's air1 and insist on breathing old1 worn-out1 used-up second-hand air4 ,god would be greatly glorified if housekeepers and church sextons were given a practical course in the use of fresh air1 ,god's air4 ,with that should be simple food1 and simple dress1 and abundant sleep1 and simple standards of life4 ,worry is utterly useless4 ,it never serves a good purpose4 ,it brings no good results4 ,which of you can by being anxious add a single span to the measure of his life8 ,jesus asks in that sixth of ,matthew4 ,but much more can be said4 ,it brings bad results4 ,the revision brings out the clear1 simple meaning of the ,thirty-seventh ,psalm1 eighth verse4 ,the old version seems a bit puzzling1 ,fret not thyself in anywise to do evil4 ,the revision reads1 ,fret not thyself1 it tendeth only to evil doing4 ,the results of worrying are always bad4 ,the judgment is impaired4 ,one cannot think so clearly nor see so clearly4 ,the temper is ruffled4 ,the door is quickly opened to worse things4 ,it is sinful to worry4 ,for the ,master repeatedly commands us1 ,be not anxious4 ,it helps to get a habit labeled correctly4 ,here to tack on sinful in block letters1 black ink1 white paper1 so as to get greatest contrast is a decided help4 ,and worrying is a reproach upon ,jesus4 ,let the ,gentiles1 the outsiders1 the people who have not taken ,jesus into their lives1 let them worry if they will4 ,but we must not4 ,for we have ,jesus4 ,let these who leave ,him out grow crow-toes1 and deeply-bitten wrinkles1 and turkey-foot markings4 ,without ,him how can they help themselves8 ,but we folk who have ,jesus should have smoothly rounded faces1 the lines all filled up and ironed out4 ,it reproaches ,jesus before folks for us to be as they are in this regard4 ,out of the midst of a great pressure of work1 with a body tired out1 ,dr4 ,charles ,f4 ,deems1 the busy pastor of ,the ,church of ,the ,strangers in ,new ,york ,city1 wrote these lines years ago3 ,the world is wide1 ,in time and tide1 ,and ,god is quick2 ,then do not hurry4 ,that man is blest1 ,who does his best1 ,and leaves the rest2 ,then do not worry4 ,a man should do his best4 ,there should be no shirking4 ,yet ,i need hardly say that here1 because shirking people1 lazy people do not worry4 ,they haven't enough snap about them to worry4 ,but it steadies one to put the thing just as ,dr4 ,deems put it4 ,do your best1 and1 then leave all the rest to ,god4 ,and when sleep time comes1 sleep4 ,anxious for ,nothing4 ,likely as not some one will say1 ,we knew all that before4 ,but how are we going to quit worrying8 ,that's what we need to be told4 ,well1 ,i can tell you4 ,sometimes a man speaks cautiously1 but here one can speak with great positiveness4 ,there are three simple rules how not to worry4 ,they are infallible4 ,i heard of a society whose purpose it was to cure worry4 ,there were thirty-seven rules1 ,i think4 ,it would worry some of us a good bit to memorize any such length of instruction as that4 ,the remedy seems to be on a high shelf4 ,and in standing up on a chair and reaching there is some danger that the chair may tip over and the last state not be an improvement on the first4 ,but here are three very simple rules1 easy to follow1 and they will never fail4 ,they are not my rules1 that is1 not of my making1 or ,i might not be speaking so positively4 ,they are given by the blessed ,holy ,spirit1 through our dear old friend ,paul4 ,in ,philippians1 chapter four1 verses six and seven1 are the words that contain the rules3 ,in nothing be anxious2 but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto ,god4 ,and the peace of ,god1 which passeth all understanding1 shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in ,christ ,jesus4 ,the first rule is this1 anxious for nothing4 ,in other words1 don't worry4 ,deliberately refuse to think about annoying things4 ,set yourself against being disturbed by disturbing things4 ,say to yourself1 it is useless1 it has bad results1 it is sinful1 it is reproaching my ,master1 ,i won't4 ,that is the first simple rule4 ,thankful for ,anything4 ,the second helps to carry out the first4 ,it is this1 thankful for anything4 ,thanksgiving and praise are always associated with singing4 ,when you feel the worry mood creeping on--it is a mood that attacks you--when it comes sing something1 especially something with ,jesus' name in it4 ,these temptations to worry are from the ,evil ,one4 ,he can come in only through an open door4 ,remember that4 ,yet the open doors seem plenty4 ,even when we trustingly and resolutely keep every door of evil shut the circle in which we move will open doors upon us4 ,singing something with ,jesus' name in it sends him or any of his brood off quickly4 ,they hate that ,name of their ,conqueror4 ,they get away from the sound of it as fast as they can4 ,a friend was calling upon another and began pouring out a stream of personal woes4 ,this had gone wrong1 and this1 and this other would go wrong4 ,everything was wrong4 ,and her friend1 who knew her quite well1 had her get a pencil and paper and asked her if possibly there was one thing for which she could be thankful4 ,reluctantly from her lips came the mention of some particular thing for which she felt indeed grateful4 ,then a second was gradually recalled1 and then more4 ,and as the train of thought grew on her she suddenly asked1 ,why was ,i so despondent when ,i came in8 ,everything seems so changed4 ,it's a fine thing to go about one's work singing some hymn with praise in it1 and with ,jesus' name in it4 ,and if singing may not always be allowable under all circumstances1 you can hum a tune4 ,and that brings up to the memory the words connected with it4 ,i know of a woman who was much given to worrying4 ,she made it a rule to sing the long-meter doxology whenever things seemed not right4 ,ofttimes she could hardly get her lips shaped up to begin the first words4 ,but she would persist4 ,and by the time the fourth line came it was ringing out and her atmosphere had changed without and within4 ,this was ,david's rule4 ,he said3 ,thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage4#ah ,he is not speaking of the time when he was acknowledged king over both ,judah and all ,israel1 when the fortress of ,jerusalem was his own capital4 ,no1 he is talking of the earlier days of his pilgrimage4 ,when he was being hunted over the ,judean fastnesses by ,king ,saul4 ,when with his band of faithful men he was ever fleeing for his life4 ,he slept in caves and dens or out in the open1 and always with one eye open4 ,there he used to sing ,god's praises4 ,a messenger would come breathlessly in some morning with the news that ,saul was just over yonder ravine with a thousand men4 ,and as ,david planned what best to do1 and arranged his men1 he would be singing4 ,maybe he would sing that ,twenty-third ,psalm3 ,for ,thou art with me2 and ,thy rod ,and staff me comfort still4 ,or1 maybe sometimes1 ,to ,thee ,i lift my soul2 ,o ,lord1 ,i trust in ,thee3 ,my ,god1 let me not be ashamed ,nor foes triumph o'er me4 ,or1 likely1 he often sang3 ,the ,lord's my light and saving health2 ,who shall make me dismayed8 ,my life's strength is the ,lord2 of whom ,then shall ,i be afraid8 ,or if perhaps ,ezra wrote this psalm it takes one back to his weary1 dangerous journey over from ,babylon to ,jerusalem and the very difficult work he was undertaking in ,jerusalem in reorganizing the life of the people again4 ,he used to sing on the way1 and through all his difficulties4 ,it is a great rule4 ,when the day is gloomy ,sing some happy song2 ,meet the world's repining ,with a courage strong4 ,some one asked me if whistling would do4 ,she was a busy housewife and said that was her rule4 ,i have gone to singing myself4 ,but maybe whistling is just as good4 ,i'm inclined to favor giving it a place within the range of this rule4 ,there's a bit of deep1 simple philosophy here4 ,music is divine4 ,there is no music in the headquarters of the enemy4 ,he has used it a great deal on the earth4 ,that's a bit of his cunning4 ,but he always has to steal it from ,god's sphere1 and work it over to suit his own crafty purposes4 ,music1 singing1 is an open doorway for the ,spirit of ,god to come in1 and come in anew and move freely4 ,its sweet harmonies found their birth in the presence of ,god where sweetest harmonies reign4 ,lovers of music should be lovers of ,god1 for ,he is the one great ,master-musician4 ,when ,elisha was asked to prophesy victory for ,israel over the enemy at one time1 he refused4 ,he was not in harmony with this king nor his associates4 ,his spirit refused to respond to their request4 ,but at their urgent request he yielded1 and called for a musician4 ,and as the strains of music fell upon his ear and entered into his spirit he felt the divine presence and influence anew4 ,we should use the musician more in our days of battle4 ,and ,god has wonderfully provided every one of us with a music-box of sweet melodies4 ,if we would only open the lid1 and let frequent use wear off the rust1 and sing ,his praise more4 ,in music ,god speaks to us anew with great power4 ,this is the second rule1 thankful for anything4 ,prayerful about ,everything4 ,the third rule helps to make both first and second effective4 ,these three are closely interwoven4 ,they always work together4 ,each suggests the other two4 ,they are an interwoven trinity4 ,the third is this1 prayerful about everything4 ,there are some unusually fine bits from the old ,book to help here4 ,referring to the discipline which ,god's love makes ,him use1 ,david says3 ,for ,his anger is but for a moment3 ,his favor is for a lifetime4 ,weeping may come in to lodge at even1 but joy cometh in the morning4#ai ,there may be weeping4 ,there shall be joy4 ,weeping won't stay long4 ,there's a morning coming1 always a morning coming1 with the sunshine and the chorus of the birds4 ,love's discipling touch that seems at the moment like anger is only for a moment4 7,the printer wanted to change that word discipling to disciplining2 but ,god's tenderness comes to us anew when we realize that disciplining with its sharp edge means the same as discipling with its softer warmer touch47 ,the loving favor is for always1 a lifetime of eternal life4 ,again ,david says1 ,cast thy burden upon the ,lord1 and ,he shall sustain thee4#bj ,the margin explains that the thing that weighs as a burden is something ,god has given us4 ,he has sent it or allowed it to come4 ,he has strong purpose in all ,he does4 ,here the promise is not that the burden will be removed1 but that ,he will pick up both you and your burden into ,his arms and carry both4 ,many a man has praised ,god for the burden that made him know the tender touch of strong arms4 ,the same thing is repeated in the ,sixty-eighth ,psalm#ba with tender variations4 ,blessed be the ,lord who day by day beareth our burden4 ,probably ,peter knew a good bit about this subject4 ,his temperament was of the impulsive sort that knows quick squalls at sea4 ,but he had learned how to ride through them undisturbed to the calmer waters4 ,he says1 ,casting all your anxiety upon ,him because ,he careth for you4#bb ,the force of the ,french version is said to be unloading your anxiety upon ,him4 ,back the cart up1 tilt it over1 let down the tail-board1 let it all slip out over upon ,him4 ,the literal reading of that last half is1 ,he has you on ,his heart4 ,is not this enough alone ,for the gladness of the day8 ,but many of us have an inner feeling that some matters are too small1 too trivial to take to ,god4 ,we will take the great things1 the serious things to ,him and find the help needed4 ,but it seems childish almost to be bothering the great ,god about trifling details1 we are apt to think4 ,we are even annoyed with ourselves to think that we have allowed such petty things to make us lose our balance and control4 ,we want to underscore and italicize this fact3 if a thing is big enough to concern you1 it is not too small for ,him because ,he has you on ,his heart4 ,for your sake ,he is eager to help in anything1 however small in itself it may seem4 ,indeed it is the little things that fret and tease and nag so4 ,the big things are more easily handled4 ,but the little insectivorous details that will not down6 ,have you ever had this experience8 ,you have retired on a hot summer night1 tired and heavy with sleep4 ,you are almost off when a mosquito that in some inexplicable way has eluded all screens and nettings comes singing its way about your face4 ,it is just one4 ,it seems so small4 ,if it were only big enough to hit1 something worthy of one's strength4 ,but the mean little nagging specimen seems to elude every effort of yours4 ,maybe you take calm1 deliberate measures to end its existence1 but meanwhile you are thoroughly aroused and lose quite a bit of the sleep you need4 ,just such a mosquito warfare do the little cares make upon one's strength1 frittering it away4 ,it cannot be too insistently repeated that whatever is big enough to cause me any thought is not too small for my ,god4 ,he is concerned because ,i am concerned4 ,a ,steamer ,chair for ,his ,friend4 ,it helps immensely here to recall the necessary qualities of a great executive1 one who is concerned about the conduct of large affairs4 ,there are two great qualities absolutely needful in any one occupying such a position4 ,there must be the ability to grasp the whole scheme involved1 and to keep one's finger upon every detail1 as well4 ,god is a great executive1 the great executive of the universe4 ,he planned the vast scheme of worlds making up the universe1 and every detail4 ,the whole universe in its immensity1 and the intricacy of its movements1 is kept in motion by ,him4 ,and every detail down to the smallest1 the falling of one of the smallest birds1 is ever under ,his thoughtful eye and touch4 ,and ,he is our ,god4 ,he has each of us on ,his heart4 ,we may learn of ,god by looking at man1 made in ,his image4 ,a story is told of a merchant well known on both sides of the water1 illustrating this4 ,his business interests are very extensive1 with great stores in three of the world's great cities4 ,he has displayed great genius for controlling the details of his vast enterprise4 ,it is said that at one time when his business was developing its greatness1 this was his habit4 ,he would come to a clerk's desk unexpectedly and1 sitting down quietly1 note the transactions that came along4 ,here was a sales slip2 three yards of calico1 seven cents per yard1 twenty-one cents2 a bolt of tape1 three cents1 total twenty-four cents2 cash fifty cents1 twenty-six cents change4 ,he would very quietly note the calculations1 and call attention to any inaccuracies4 ,he might stay there a half-hour4 ,then he was away again4 ,it was never known when he might come1 nor where4 ,he was always marked for his genial courtesy toward all his employees4 ,that was his habit for years1 ,i am told4 ,his talent for details amounts to positive genius4 ,and with this goes the ability to originate and build up and keep ever growing his vast business operations4 ,and this man is but one of a very large class in our day of specialized organization4 ,this faculty of controlling both the whole1 and each detail1 is a bit of the image of ,god in these men4 ,only man is ever less than ,god4 ,the best organization slips sometimes1 somewhere4 ,but ,god never fails4 ,each of us is personal to ,him4 ,he can think of each as though there were no other needing ,his thought1 and ,he does4 ,a little incident is told of ,george ,mller of ,bristol1 ,england4 ,he is the man who taught the whole world anew how to trust ,god4 ,poor in his own holdings1 he expended millions of dollars in caring for orphans1 supporting missionaries1 and distributing printed truth4 ,he never asked any man for money nor made any needs known4 ,he trusted ,god for all and for each4 ,the two thousand and more orphans1 and the cutting of his quill pen were alike subjects of prayer with him4 ,at one time1 in the course of his missionary travels around the world1 he was embarking on an ocean voyage4 ,he was an old man at the time1 and accompanied by a young man who attended to the details of travel4 ,after they had boarded the steamer his companion came up hurriedly to say that the steamer chair for ,mr4 ,mller's use was not on board and he could not get any trace of it4 ,it would of course be a very necessary convenience for the steamer trip4 ,mr4 ,mller inquired if the proper notice had been sent to have it on board4 ,yes1 all had been done that should have been done4 ,and now the time was very short4 ,mr4 ,mller breathed a quiet prayer1 and then said to his companion not to be disturbed1 that he felt sure it would be on hand in time4 ,the attendant went off again to see what could be done1 came back evidently annoyed at the possibility of his elder distinguished companion being inconvenienced4 ,but ,mr4 ,mller quieted him with the assurance that the chair would come4 ,they stood at the side rail above1 overlooking the dock4 ,at the very last moment1 just as the hawsers were about to be thrown off1 and the gang plank pulled away1 a truck of luggage was hurriedly run on board1 and on top of the pile the friends watching above could plainly see a steamer chair with ,g4 ,m4 marked on it4 ,mr4 ,mller1 standing in his group of friends1 looked up past them and quietly said1 ,father1 ,i thank ,thee4 ,was ,god in that simple occurrence8 ,he surely was4 ,he was concerned that ,his faithful friend should have the chair for his bodily comfort4 ,man's arrangements seemed in danger of slipping4 ,his overruling touch was put in for ,his friend's sake4 ,a chair wasn't too small for ,god because it was for ,his friend1 ,mr4 ,mller4 ,he ,has ,you on ,his ,heart4 ,i got a similar story from ,dr4 ,james ,h4 ,brookes of ,st4 ,louis1 a number of years ago while in his home over night4 ,it was about ,j4 ,hudson ,taylor1 founder of the ,china ,inland ,mission1 who had learned through many years of trusting how faithful ,god is4 ,mr4 ,taylor had been speaking in ,dr4 ,brookes' church1 and was to go to a town in southern ,illinois to speak at the ,sabbath services4 ,saturday morning they went down to the railroad station to get the train1 and stepped into the station just as the train was pulling out at the other end4 ,there was no possible chance of catching it4 ,it seemed all the more exasperating that they could see the train moving away out of reach4 ,dr4 ,brookes of course felt much chagrined4 ,mr4 ,taylor being a stranger in the country1 and the guest of ,dr4 ,brookes1 had trusted his arrangements4 ,inquiries were quickly made about other trains4 ,but there would not be another train out that way until night4 ,and as they were questioning and talking the station-master said1 ,there's that train over there2 it runs into ,illinois and crosses another road down to where you want to go4 ,they are supposed to make connections1 but they never do4 ,dr4 ,brookes said he went off to make further inquiries1 and coming back in a few moments was surprised to find ,mr4 ,taylor standing on the rear platform of the train that never made the connection4 ,he said1 ,why1 ,mr4 ,taylor1 that won't make the connection4 ,and ,mr4 ,taylor smiled and in his very quiet way said1 ,good-bye1 ,doctor1 my ,father runneth the trains4 ,that seemed to sound well for a sermon4 ,but to ,dr4 ,brookes' misgivings there came again the quiet ,good-bye1 ,doctor1 my ,father runneth the trains4 ,after starting ,mr4 ,taylor explained the situation to the conductor1 the importance of his engagement1 and of making the desired connection1 hoping the trainman might be of some service4 ,the man hoped he would get the train1 but said it was very doubtful as they rarely did4 ,mr4 ,taylor thanked him1 and sat quietly praying4 ,was the connection made8 ,as ,mr4 ,taylor's train pulled in the other was standing at the station4 ,the conductor said1 ,well1 there it is1 but ,i didn't expect it4 ,there was quite enough time to get across the platform without hurrying and into the other train when it moved off4 ,was ,god in that8 ,i have no difficulty at all in understanding that ,he was4 ,what concerned ,his friend1 in a strange land1 on an errand for ,himself surely concerned ,him4 ,what concerns any trusting child of ,his concerns ,him1 for ,he has us on ,his heart4 ,i recall a personal experience in ,boston one summer day4 ,it was a very hot day4 ,i was to meet my mother and sister in the ,north ,union station1 where we were to take a train out4 ,i had their tickets4 ,i reached the station from my errands1 hot and tired and with my head aching1 ideal conditions for worry4 ,as ,i stepped into the station ,i realized at once that our appointment to meet was not very definite4 ,for the large station was crowded4 ,there was not much time before our train would go4 ,and ,i commenced to be agitated1 which is a gentler way of saying worried4 ,what would ,i do8 ,it would be extremely inconvenient1 especially for my mother1 to miss the train4 ,and the time was short1 and--and--4 ,you see ,i was not a graduate in this don't-worry school4 ,i'm not yet2 still studying2 expect to enter for post work when ,i do graduate4 ,the school is still open2 open to all2 instruction given individually only2 the ,teacher has had long experience ,himself on the earth1 in the thick of things4 ,well1 ,i said as ,i stood a moment in the thick crowd1 ,master1 you know where they are4 ,please take me to them4 ,maybe ,i should have been more careful about the appointment1 but ,i was tired at the start4 ,please--thank you4 ,and in less time than it takes to tell you ,i met them right in the thick of the great crowd4 ,and ,i felt sure that ,peter got his putting of it straight when he said of the ,master1 ,he has you on ,his heart4 ,paul's ,prison ,psalm4 ,did ,paul follow his own rules8 ,the best answer to that is this little four-chaptered epistle where the rules are found4 ,philippians is a prison psalm4 ,the clanking of chains resounds throughout its brief pages4 ,at one end is ,philippi2 at the other ,rome4 ,here is the ,philippian end4 ,in the inner dungeon of a prison1 dark1 dirty1 damp1 is a man1 ,paul4 ,his back is bleeding and sore from the whipping-post4 ,his feet are fast in the stocks4 ,his position is about as cramped and painful as it can be4 ,it is midnight4 ,paul would be asleep for weariness and exhaustion1 but the position and the pain hinder4 ,does no temptation come to him8 ,he had been following a vision in coming over to ,philippi4 ,this is a great ending to the vision he's been having4 ,did no such temptation come8 ,very likely it did4 ,but ,paul is an old campaigner4 ,he knows best what to do4 ,he begins singing4 ,his music is pitched in the major too4 ,most likely he is singing one of the old ,hebrew psalms that he knew by heart4 ,it was a psalm of praise4 ,that is one end of this epistle4 ,at the other end ,paul is a prisoner at ,rome4 ,as he sits dictating his letter1 if he gets tired and would swing one limb over the other for a change1 a heavy chain at his ankle reminds him of his bonds4 ,as he reaches for a quill to put a loving touch to the end of the parchment1 again the forged steel pulls at his wrist4 ,that is the setting of ,philippians1 the prison psalm4 ,what is its key word8 ,is it patience8 ,that would seem appropriate4 ,is it long-suffering8 ,more appropriate yet4 ,some of us know about short-suffering1 but we are apt to be a bit short on long-suffering4 ,the keyword is joy1 with its variations of rejoice1 and rejoicing4 ,and notice what joy is4 ,it is the cataract in the stream of life4 ,peace is the gentle even flowing of the river4 ,joy is where the waters go bubbling1 leaping with ecstatic bound1 and forever after1 as they go on1 making the channel deeper for the quiet flow of peace4 ,paul had put his no-worry rules through the crucible of experience4 ,he follows the ,master in that4 ,these three rules really mean living ever in that ,master's presence4 ,when we realize that ,he is ever alongside then it will be easier to be ,anxious for nothing1 ,thankful for anything1 ,prayerful about everything4 ,he ,touched ,her ,hand4 ,one morning on waking1 a woman charged with the care of a home began thinking of the day's simple duties4 ,and as she thought they seemed to magnify and pile up4 ,there was her little daughter to get off to school with her luncheon4 ,some of the church ladies were coming that morning for a society meeting1 and she had been planning a dainty luncheon for them4 ,the maid in the kitchen was not exactly ideal--yet4 ,and as she thought into the day her head began aching4 ,after breakfast1 as her husband was leaving for the day's business1 he took her hand and kissed her good-bye4 ,why1 he said1 my dear1 your hand is feverish4 ,i'm afraid you've been doing too much4 ,better just take a day off4 ,and he was gone4 ,and she said to herself1 ,a day off6 ,the idea6 ,just like a man to think that ,i could take a day off4 ,but she had been making a habit of getting a little time for reading and prayer after breakfast4 ,pity she had not put it in earlier1 at the day's very start4 ,yet maybe she could not4 ,sometimes it is not possible4 ,yet most times it is possible1 by planning4 ,now she slipped to her room and1 sitting down quietly1 turned to the chapter in her regular place of reading4 ,it was the eighth of ,matthew4 ,as she read she came to the words1 ,and ,he touched her hand1 and the fever left her2 and she arose and ministered unto ,him4 ,and she knelt and breathed out the soft prayer for a touch of the ,master's hand upon her own4 ,and it came as she remained there a few moments4 ,and then with much quieter spirit she went on into the day4 ,the luncheon for the church ladies was not quite so elaborate as she had planned4 ,there came to her an impulse to tell her morning's experience4 ,she shrank from doing it4 ,it seemed a sacred thing4 ,they might not understand4 ,but the impulse remained and she obeyed it1 and quietly told them4 ,and as they listened there seemed to come a touch of the ,spirit's presence upon them all4 ,and so the day was a blessed one4 ,its close found her husband back again4 ,and as he greeted her he said quietly1 ,my dear1 you did as ,i said1 didn't you8 ,the fever's gone4 ,gideon's ,band3 ,sifted for ,service4 ,god ,wants the ,best4 ,god's ,use of ,weak ,things4 ,call for ,volunteers4 ,a ,willing ,people4 ,courageous ,volunteers4 ,irresistible ,logic4 ,hot ,hearts4 ,god ,still ,sifting4 ,gideon's ,band3 ,sifted for ,service4 7#a ,corinthians i3#ah-ca2 ,judges vi and vii47 ,god ,wants the ,best4 ,salvation is for all4 ,service is for those chosen for it4 ,all may serve4 ,that all do not is simply because service requires qualities which all do not have4 ,yet1 again1 all may have them who will1 for the required qualities are heart qualities4 ,and every one of us can cultivate the heart qualities4 ,there is special service1 chiefly of leadership1 requiring brain qualities as well as heart4 ,but the ,master attends to the choosing of men for such service4 ,and where ,his spirit has touched human hearts there will be a glad doing of just what service ,he appoints4 ,it will be an honor to do just what ,he asks because ,he asks4 ,what it may happen to be will be a small matter in itself4 ,it is for ,him1 at ,his desire1 and that is full enough to bring out the best we have4 ,our old ,tarsus and ,antioch friend and leader has written a special word about this matter of being chosen for service4 ,it is in his first letter to the recently organized church at ,corinth4 ,it is really his second letter1 for he seems to have written one before it that has not been preserved4#bc ,there were some very serious matters in this new church requiring strong treatment by its much-loved founder4 ,among them was one about service4 ,there were some who had gifts in service that seemed more attractive and desirable than others had1 it might be said more showy4 ,and their brethren1 not free from the old worldly spirit1 were envious and jealous4 ,and these who had such gifts were not free from a boasting spirit4 ,factions or parties had arisen as a result4 ,it was the bad world spirit of competition and rivalry in among ,christ's followers where it should never come1 yet where it still does come4 ,in writing this letter ,paul throughout blends great plainness and common sense with great tenderness4 ,in the beginning of his letter he calls attention to the fact that there are not many among them of those who were reckoned by the world's standards as wise or mighty or noble4 ,on the contrary1 in choosing ,his leaders ,god had purposely chosen those reckoned by the world's standards foolish that ,he might show plainly the shallowness of what they deem wise4 ,and so things reckoned weak had been chosen to give the conception of what true strength is4 ,and things even base1 and despised1 and not counted at all had been used that so men might learn the ,god-standards of wisdom and strength and honor and of what is worth while4 ,the purpose being that men should quit glorying in themselves and glorify ,him from whom everything had come1 and was ever coming4 ,the passage has oftentimes been quoted as though ,god prefers weakness2 never put so bluntly as that perhaps1 but plainly meaning that4 ,that of course is not true4 ,god wants the best we have4 ,he needs the best4 ,and for leadership often ,his plans must wait till a man of the sort needed can be gotten4 ,and gotten frequently means broken1 shattered1 and then made over wholly new1 that the native strength may be used according to true standards4 ,jacob was chosen rather than his elder brother ,esau1 not because of ,jacob's goodness but because of ,esau's weakness4 ,god was narrowed to these two grandsons in carrying out the promise to ,abraham4 ,jacob was contemptible in his moral dealings1 but he had qualities of leadership wholly lacking in his brother4 ,his moral character was a serious hindrance4 ,god had to handle him heroically before ,he could get the use of his stronger mental equipment4 ,jacob had to get a bad throw-down before he would be willing to let ,god have ,his way4 ,his body must be weakened before his mental power would yield4 ,that was the weakness of his stubbornness4 ,stubbornness is strength not strong enough to yield4 ,god's ,use of ,weak ,things4 ,it is true that over and over again ,god has used men utterly weak and foolish and despised in the light of life's common standards4 ,he wants men of the best mental strength1 of the finest mental training1 and ,he uses such when they are willing to be used1 and governed by the true ,god-standards of life4 ,but talent seems specially beset with temptation4 ,the very power to do great things seems often to bewilder the man possessing it4 ,wrong ambition gets the saddle and the reins and whip too1 and rides hard4 ,frequently some man who had not guessed he had talent1 born in some lonely walk of life1 without the training of the schools1 is used for special leadership4 ,it takes longer time always4 ,early mental training is an enormous advantage4 ,carey the cobbler had mental talents to grace a ,cambridge chair4 ,it took a little longer time to get him into shape for the pioneer work he did in ,india4 ,duff's training gave him a great advantage4 ,but ,god is never in a hurry4 ,he can wait4 ,what ,he asks is that we shall bring the best we have natively1 with the best possible training1 and let ,him use us absolutely as ,he may wish4 ,and always remember that every mental power is a gift from ,him2 that actual power in life must be through ,him only2 and that mental gifts are not serviceable save as they are ever inbreathed by ,his own ,spirit4 ,this word of ,paul's finds most graphic illustration in the book of ,judges4 ,judges should be put alongside of the first chapter of ,first ,corinthians4 ,it is a series of pictorial illustrations of what ,paul is saying there4 ,these two books1 ,joshua and ,judges1 side by side in the ,old ,testament stand in sharpest contrast4 ,the keynote of ,joshua is victory2 of ,judges defeat4 ,there's music in both1 but contrasted music4 ,joshua rings with songs in the major key1 triumphant1 militant1 joyous1 victorious4 ,the music of ,judges is in the minor1 sad and weeping1 with the harps hanging on the willows4 ,joshua is upon the mountain top with sun shining and air bracing and outlook inspiring4 ,judges is down in the valley bottoms1 dark and gloomy1 and depressing4 ,yet ,judges has bright spots1 and has spurts of good music interspersed4 ,it is a study in lights and shadows1 bright lights1 and dark shadowings1 but with the blacker tints intensifying and overcoming the others4 ,there are here seven striking illustrations of ,god's use of strange unusual means1 such as are reckoned weak and trivial4 ,a left-handed man uses that peculiarity to get a great victory and eighteen years of freedom for the nation4#bd ,a farmer with as homely a weapon as an ox-goad delivers his people from oppression4#be ,men came to be so scarce1 that is men that were men enough to take their true place as leaders1 that a woman had to step into the breach1 and assume leadership4 ,but the student of history and of modern times is used to that4 ,the result was great victory1 and a forty years' rest from the nation's enemies4#bf ,a nail or tent-pin1 only a wooden peg1 in the hands of a woman with a hammer helps to make the enemy's defeat more decisive4#bg ,three hundred young men with pitchers and trumpets completely rout the three armies of three nations1 and bring another deliverance4#bh ,another time a piece of a millstone shoved over the wall by a woman turns the tide of battle favorably4#bi ,and as contemptible a thing as the jawbone of an ass in the hands of one strong man is used to slay a thousand men4#cj ,call for ,volunteers4 ,it is of one of these1 one of the most striking of these1 that we are to talk together awhile2 the graphic story of ,gideon and his band of three hundred young fellows4 ,things were in bad shape in the nation2 about as bad in every way as they could be4 ,this time it was the ,midianites who overran the land1 and held the leaderless people in most abject slavery4 ,with them were joined two other nations1 the ,amalekites and the ,children of the ,east4 ,when the crops were almost ready to harvest1 these raiders swooped in in great numbers and destroyed all the crops and drove away all the stock4 ,they harried the ,israelites so that life was made very miserable for them4 ,they were forced to flee from their farms and take refuge in caves and dens and the fastnesses among the hills4 ,then1 as usual1 when they got into bad shape the people remembered ,god1 and cried for help1 and1 as usual with ,him1 ,he at once forgave them and planned another great deliverance4 ,first of all ,gideon the leader is chosen out1 and put through a bit of schooling4 ,that is a fascinating story of great helpfulness4 ,then this trained young leader gathers his band of helpers4 ,and we want to mark keenly how these three hundred men were sifted out of the thousands for service4 ,they were sifted out4 ,they sifted themselves out4 ,in that army of thousands were just three hundred who had the needed qualifications for the bit of service ,god wanted done4 ,look over the gathered thousands3 which are the chosen three hundred8 ,no man knew4 ,they didn't know themselves until the tests came4 ,they chose themselves out by the way they stood the three tests applied4 ,even so is ,god ever sifting out men for service4 ,the more difficult the service1 the higher the grade of leadership needed1 the severer the test4 ,the testing both reveals the qualities1 and in part makes them4 ,the first quality these men had was willingness4 ,they were all volunteers4 ,when the call came they rallied to the leader's side4 ,gideon sent runners1 criers1 out throughout that whole section4 ,they went first to his own family clan1 then to his tribe1 then to three neighboring tribes4 ,they said that ,god had called upon ,gideon to lead a movement against the ,midianites and their allies and he wanted every man to come and help4 ,the messengers went swiftly through the whole territory of these neighboring tribes1 arousing the men to action and calling for volunteers4 ,a good many did not respond to the summons4 ,some were simply indifferent4 ,they could not help hearing the call1 but there was no response without or within4 ,no change of expression in the eye or face4 ,they went right on in their heavy1 dull way as though they hadn't heard4 ,they were utterly indifferent to the call4 ,some were reluctant4 ,they stopped and listened1 but with a heavy slant backwards to their bodies4 ,their heels bore most of their weight4 ,it was a good idea to get up such a movement1 the enemy ought to be driven back and out1 but--but--and their eyes are half shut already4 ,some criticised4 ,who was ,gideon8 ,a young upstart6 trying to push himself forward as a leader4 ,he had no skill or experience4 ,and the people had no weapons4 ,the enemy had stolen everything of the sort away4 ,and they were clear outnumbered4 ,there wasn't a ghost of a show4 ,it would only make bad matters worse4 ,this young upstart ,gideon would soon be sorry enough when he butted his head against the experienced ,midianite leaders4 ,and--and--and--there they are talking1 criticising1 but not responding to the call4 ,such critics seldom respond1 and helpers criticise in a very different way4 ,it takes less brain to criticise unwisely1 captiously1 far less than to help4 ,almost any hare-brain can tear a thing to pieces4 ,and nothing is commoner than just such criticism4 ,some ridiculed4 ,ha6 ha6 ha6 ,gideon going to be national leader2 ha6 ha6 ha6 ,and whip the enemy4 ,ridiculous6 ,absurd6 ,and some were outrightly opposed4 ,they objected4 ,the people would be aroused1 their hopes awakened only to be dashed4 ,the whole thing was wrong1 for it was impossible4 ,and these men tried to keep others from going4 ,a ,willing ,people4 ,but many came4 ,a crowd of volunteers came hurrying from farms and caves1 bringing such weapons probably as they had been able to keep in hiding4 ,they were willing to respond4 ,it was a motley crowd1 no doubt4 ,there were thirty-two thousand of them4 ,these four tribes had once numbered as many as one hundred and eighty-four thousand five hundred fighting men4 ,and at another1 later1 enumeration they had two hundred and twelve thousand men of war age4 ,their numbers may be smaller now1 though possibly not4 ,it looks as though only a small minority of all had responded1 maybe one in six or so4 ,these men had the first great qualification for service1 they were willing4 ,they were actively willing4 ,they willed to come down to the front and help fight the enemy1 and deliver their nation4 ,it is a great quality this of being willing4 ,that prophetic ,one ,hundred and ,tenth ,psalm mentions this as the great characteristic of those who shall rally about ,god's ,king in a coming day of power4 ,god reckons our service not by our ability but by our willingness4#ca ,whatever is given out of a warm1 willing heart is eagerly accepted by ,him4 ,the ,hebrew tabernacle was constructed of free-will offerings4 ,the people came willingly with their offerings and left them for ,moses' use4 ,some brought gold and silver1 some finely woven tapestries and silks4 ,here was one poor woman who wanted to give but had very little4 ,so she went out to her little flock of goats whereby her living came to her1 and cut off a big bunch of goat's hair1 and then with much pains dyed it red4 ,and then one day she went up to where they were presenting their gifts and timidly laid her bunch of goat's hair on the pile of offerings1 and quietly1 quickly slipped away4 ,it seemed very small on that pile of gold and silver and richly-colored weavings4 ,but it was the gift of her heart4 ,they had to have goat's hair as well as gold4 ,and her offering was acceptable because it came from a willing heart4 ,willingness is a heart quality4 ,it is the heart volunteering4 ,our wills are ours to make them ,thine4 ,this was the first test4 ,thirty-two thousand out of four tribes stood this test4 ,gideon's army had one great qualification at the start4 ,courageous ,volunteers4 ,now these men are put to a second test4 ,the next morning ,god surprised ,gideon by telling him that he had too many men4 ,if a victory was given them with so many men they would feel that they had done the thing themselves4 ,they would grow so large as to shut ,god out of their landscape4 ,there would be no getting along with them4 ,each man would feel that he was the essential factor4 ,they would go back to the homefolks to tell of themselves4 ,god seems to know us folk down on the earth fairly well4 ,now ,he would lessen their numbers1 but in doing it ,he will pick out the best4 ,the men are encamped on the hillsides overlooking a valley4 ,across the valley to the north lay the encamped armies of three nations4 ,they were a vast host4 ,they were spread out as thick as the grasshoppers of ,egypt had been years before4 ,everywhere you looked there they were swarming4 ,gideon spoke to his men4 ,he said1 ,gentlemen1 ,fellow-,israelites1 there is the enemy4 ,take a good look at them4 ,and his followers looked1 and as they looked some of them began to get scared4 ,they had not realized just what was involved4 ,their footwear seemed to grow too large4 ,they were shaking in their boots4 ,and their eyes grew big and their faces white under the tan4 ,then ,gideon said1 ,now1 every man of you that thinks it can't be done--,i wish you would get right out of this1 and go back home4 ,and he watched4 ,and ,i imagine even ,gideon shook a bit inside as he watched4 ,they commenced to move away in squads1 in scores1 in fifties4 ,great gaps were left in the mob of men4 ,here is a fellow standing1 looking4 ,he thinks1 ,it looks pretty bad1 sure enough2 but then1 ,i suppose1 if ,god is planning-- hello1 the fellow by his side has gone1 and on this other side too--,i guess ,i'd better go too4 ,and off he goes4 ,fear is very contagious4 ,there is great power in feeling a man by your side4 ,and two-thirds of them disappear over the hills4 ,the motto of these disappearing men was this3 ,it can't be done4 ,they must have organized themselves into a society to perpetuate their own idea4 ,if so the society has shown great vitality4 ,many of its members abide with us until this day4 ,no1 probably they didn't organize4 ,they didn't have enough gumption to4 ,and such a sentiment grows like a weed without any cultivation4 ,i recall a certain town in ,ohio where ,i had gone to talk about an enlargement and re-vitalizing of the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association4 ,thousands of young men in the place needed just such help as that organization is supposed to provide4 ,i outlined the plan to a clergyman4 ,he said it was a good plan1 there was great need1 the thing should be done1 but1 he said1 with an air of settling the thing1 it can't be done in this town4 ,among others ,i talked with a business man4 ,he listened attentively1 approved the plans1 agreed upon the great need1 and then settling back in his chair with the same air of finality1 used exactly the same words1 with the same emphasis1 ,it can't be done in this town4 ,i got that same reply from several men that day4 ,and ,i said to myself1 ,they are right2 it can't be done with them2 but it can be done without them4 ,and it was4 ,irresistible ,logic4 ,but there remained ten thousand4 ,these men by their staying said1 ,it ought to be done4 ,what ought to be done can be done4 ,what can be done we can do4 ,what we can do we will do4 ,here is another man standing looking at that vast host across the valley4 ,he is thinking that it is a desperate case1 but he thinks of ,god's call through ,gideon4 ,just then he notices that his neighbor on the left has taken to his heels1 and on his right also4 ,that shakes him for a moment4 ,his heels say1 ,you go too4 ,his heart said1 ,no1 stay4 ,he obeyed his heart4 ,he said1 ,i'll stay if ,i stay alone4 ,that was the stuff in these remaining ten thousand4 ,they stood a double test in remaining1 the desperate situation seen in the presence of such an enormous army1 and the desertion of their fellows4 ,they had courage2 not only willingness but courage4 ,courage is a heart quality4 ,courage is the heart fighting4 ,it faces fearful odds and keeps right straight ahead regardless4 ,a prize was offered once for the best definition of pluck4 ,the definition that won the prize said1 ,pluck is fighting with the scabbard after the sword is broken4 ,what a picture in a single sentence6 ,the man is fighting with might and main in the thick of the enemy1 up and down1 parry and thrust1 and just about holding his own1 when suddenly1 without a moment's warning1 the blade snaps close up to the hilt4 ,the game's up now surely4 ,this accident decides the day4 ,maybe--for some men4 ,but not for this fellow4 ,he simply sets his jaws a bit firmer as1 quick as lightning1 he grabs the scabbard by his side and fights with it4 ,such a man can't be whipped4 ,he doesn't know when he is whipped4 ,and the man who doesn't know when he is whipped1 never is whipped4 ,no man can be whipped without his own consent4 ,i said courage is a heart quality4 ,these ten thousand were not chicken-hearted nor downhearted4 ,they were lion-hearted1 stout-hearted4 ,they had hearts of oak4 ,it was a keen stroke of generalship on ,gideon's part that sent the timid1 discouraged ones back home4 ,nothing is more demoralizing than the presence of such people4 ,and there was no discipline much finer for those who remained than to feel their fellows leaving them4 ,it's hard to be left by those who have been in touch4 ,it is hard to stand alone4 ,there is no harder test of character than that4 ,and too there is no finer thing to make character4 ,think how the fiber of those ten thousand toughened and strengthened as they stood there1 with men on every side hurrying away4 ,this was the second test4 ,but the men who can stand testing are growing fewer4 ,thirty-two thousand men were willing4 ,only a third of them are both willing and courageous4 ,these men are more than volunteers4 ,they have seen the foe4 ,their fiber has stood the test1 and toughened in the test4 ,they are courageous volunteers4 ,hot ,hearts4 ,but there is a third test4 ,god comes to ,gideon and says1 ,you have too many men yet1 ,gideon4 ,and ,gideon's eyes bulge out a bit4 ,too many6 ,yes1 this is to be a quality fight4 ,no common fighting here4 ,god works best with the men who come nearest to having ,his own thought of things4 ,numbers don't count4 ,you can't count men for service4 ,you must weigh them1 and feel the firmness of their fiber4 ,there is a little running brook down the valley4 ,gideon gives an order to his men to advance a bit4 ,and he watches them4 ,most of them as they come to the water stretch out leisurely on the ground and putting their mouths to the water take a good long drink1 and another1 and again4 ,they seem to say by their action1 ,well1 there's some tough work ahead1 but we must take care of ourselves4 ,a man must look out for number one4 ,we must not get unduly stirred up over the thing4 ,we're not fighting yet4 ,but one fellow comes along with a quick1 nervous step1 and his eye still on the enemy4 ,he is all on tenter-hooks4 ,his eye flashes fire4 ,he reaches down with a quick movement and gathers up some water in his hand1 up to his mouth1 and hurries on4 ,then a second fellow1 and a third1 and more4 ,gideon is watching4 ,as each of these comes along he calls him off to one side4 ,when the whole number of men have passed the brook there are just three hundred of the hot-hearted1 intense-spirited fellows4 ,god said1 ,gideon1 keep these men2 send the others back4 ,these thousands sent back were sturdy men4 ,they would make good fighters in many a campaign1 but they would not do for this higher kind of campaigning planned for that day4 ,the little band remaining had stood a third test1 they were willing1 and courageous1 and enthusiastic4 ,enthusiasm is the heart burning4 ,these fellows had spring and snap to them4 ,yet it was a tempered spring and snap1 the sort that would last4 ,by their action at the brook they said1 ,if there's fighting to be done1 let's do it quickly2 let's go at the enemy with a vim and a rush4 ,oh6 let us at them4 ,god ,still ,sifting4 ,yet1 mark you1 their enthusiasm was seasoned4 ,it grew under fire1 or practically so1 in the presence of the danger4 ,there is always an abundance of the green article of enthusiasm1 but it's not worth much for steady ditch-work4 ,there is a sort of wood enthusiasm1 apple-wood4 ,you know how apple-wood burns in a fire4 ,it catches quickly1 throws out a good many sparks1 makes a loud crackling noise1 but doesn't last long4 ,there is another sort1 a soft-coal enthusiasm4 ,it's better than wood4 ,but it needs a lot of attention continually to keep a steady fire4 ,then there's the hard-coal enthusiasm that will burn steadily and faithfully by the hour4 ,yet no kind1 mark you1 will run long without fresh fuel4 ,we need in our service more of the seasoned enthusiasm4 ,it has been said of ,general ,grant that one great reason for his success as a soldier was in his coolness4 ,while the fighting and firing were hottest he sat on his horse quietly1 coolly watching1 listening1 and giving his orders4 ,and much of his power has been attributed to that quality4 ,well1 if coolness is a qualification for success in ,christian service there seems to be a large number of persons splendidly qualified4 ,they are cool all the time2 cool as icebergs at the ,north ,pole2 cool from the topmost layer of hair to the bottommost cuticle--about certain things4 ,we want coolness of head such as ,general ,grant had and hotness of heart such as he had1 too4 ,the ideal combination is a cool head and a hot heart4 ,the head should resemble a refrigerator1 and the heart a flaming furnace4 ,there is one bother1 however1 among many people4 ,either the coolness of the head works down too much and affects the heart1 and that is bad1 or1 else the heat of the heart gets up into the head1 and a hot head is always bad4 ,yet there is a sure key to preserving the poise between the two4 ,it is in the quiet time daily with ,jesus1 over the ,book1 with the knee bent1 and the ear keen1 and the spirit quiet4 ,in that time there comes1 and comes ever more1 the calmness for the brain1 and the fresh fuel for the heart1 and new steadiness for the will that holds all under its strong hand4 ,many difficulties will yield only to fire4 ,when you cannot reason your way through a problem1 or a difficulty1 or into a man's heart1 burn your way through4 ,nothing can withstand fire4 ,it is very remarkable that the symbol used most for ,god in the ,bible is fire4 ,a man never amounts to anything until he catches fire4 ,the proportions are worth noticing here4 ,thirty-two thousand were volunteers4 ,a third of that number are courageous volunteers4 ,about a thirty-third of these1 less than a hundredth of the original1 are hot-hearted1 courageous volunteers4 ,this is ,gideon's ,band2 three hundred young men fresh from the farm1 who were willing1 and courageous1 and hot-hearted1 all heart qualities4 ,they stood every test4 ,they had faced a foe that humanly they had no chance to overcome1 and because of ,god's call they were not only willing1 and stout-hearted1 but intense in their desire to get at the fighting4 ,then under ,gideon's leadership they were well fed1 and organized2 they proved individually faithful in the thick of the fight1 and they pushed persistently on even when bodily tired out4 ,and the nation knew a great victory over its enemies1 and a time of prosperity for years after4 ,god is still sifting men for service4 ,he will use gladly every man who is willing to be used4 ,when a man stands the first test well1 there comes a second4 ,that1 stood well1 means others4 ,these are our promotion tests4 ,he lets those who stand all testings into the thickest of the fight and up to the highest heights of victory4 ,master1 help us to endure every test as seeing ,him who is invisible4 ,footnotes #a #a ,john i3#a4 #b #b ,corinthians iii3#ah4 #c ,frances ,ridley ,havergal4 #d ,exodus xxi3#b-f1 ,leviticus xxv3#ci-dc2 ,deuteronomy xv3#ab-ah4 #e ,psalm xi3#f-h2 ,hebrews x3#e-g4 #f ,isaiah #a3d-f4 #g ,john v3#ai1 #cj2 vi3#ch1 #eg2 vii3#af-ag1 #bh2 viii3#bh1 #bi4 #h ,john ,sullivan ,dwight4 #i ,mark i3#da2 ,matthew ix3#cf2 ,mark vi3#cd 7with ,matthew xiv3#ad72 ,matthew xx3#cd2 xv3#cb2 ,mark v3#ai2 ,luke vii3#ac2 x3#cc2 xv3#bj #aj ,daniel xii3#c4 #aa ,james v3#ai4 #ab ,proverbs xi3#cj4 #ac ,luke v3#aj4 #ad ,acts xvii3#f4 #ae #a ,thessalonians iv3#aa2 #b ,corinthians v4 #i1 ,romans xv3#bj4 #af ,attention is directed to a strong helpful address on ,money1 by ,rev4 ,a4 ,f4 ,schauffler1 ,d4,d41 in ,the ,student ,missionary ,appeal1 published by the ,student ,volunteer ,movement for ,foreign ,missions4 #ag ,luke xvi3#i4 #ah ,psalm cxix3#ed4 #ai ,psalm xxx3#e4 #bj ,psalm lv3#bb4 #ba ,psalm lxviii3#ai4 #bb ,i ,peter v3#g4 #bc #a ,corinthians v3#i-ab4 #bd ,judges iii3#ae-cj4 #be ,judges iii3#ca4 #bf ,judges iv3#d-af2 v3#a4 #bg ,judges iv3#ag-bd4 #bh ,judges vi and vii4 #bi ,judges ix3#ej-eg4 #cj ,judges xv3#ae-bj4 #ca #b ,corinthians viii3#ab4