1900
EVERY DAY RELIGION
Suggested by Sunday School Topic for March 25th, 1900
"I tell you," exclaimed the Man-of-Spirit, "the trouble with us is that we haven't backbone. We're afraid! Why, we call ourselves a Christian nation; the world calls itself civilized, and look at it! What has the church to do with the ruling of this country? Nothing! We ought to rise in our might and make ourselves felt! But we don't do it! And I'm afraid we won't do it. It's discouraging, the lack of backbone you find in the world. Don't you think so, Uncle Bez?"
"Well, I've found some pretty determined people in the world," replied Uncle Bez. "Some of them determined to do the right thing, and some determined to do the wrong. I don't believe that it's altogether a question of more backbone; I don't think that is the crying need of the church today. In fact, I'm not so sure that we haven't too much backbone, some of us. I'm not sure that we are not a proud and stiff-necked generation.
"I think if you'll get down your New Testament and read a little of the life of Christ, you will very soon see that He does not require us to carry the world by storm. You remember that He warned His disciples against seeking to 'domineer' men; 'for the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.'
"He was born in a stable; no man was crowded out of the comfortable inn to make room for the King of Glory.
"He began busying Himself 'about His Father's business,' when other boys were busy with games.
"His fore-runner was not a knightly herald in purple, but a man in camel's hair from the desert.
"Immediately after His ministry began, the devil began to tempt Him to take the kingdoms of the world for His own, but He would not — that was not the sort of rule He came to establish.
"He called disciples unto Him — that they might care for Him, watch Him and guard Him? No — they slept while He passed through the greatest agony the world has ever seen. 'Not to be ministered unto, but to minister.' He gathered them about Him that He might, with infinite patience and tenderness, teach them the way to live.
"He explained to Nicodemus that the Son of Man 'must be lifted up' — must give His life as a ransom for many.
"To the woman at the well, a Samaritan with whom the self-righteous Jews had nothing to do, and again to the publicans and sinners who gathered at Matthew's house, Christ went bearing the message of eternal life.
"To His friends and neighbors at Nazareth He declared that He was anointed 'to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind' — 'to minister.'
"At Capernaum He healed many, casting out devils, and forgiving sins — healing body and soul — ministering unto poor, sin-sick man.
"But in all of it, there's not a word about rising in His might and taking the world by force.
"Christ never drove any one. The only force He uses is the power of love, to draw all men to Him.
"He came to minister. Don't let us get the notion into our heads that we can do His work for Him. He has work for us to do — work in plenty if we do not turn from it, but it is not His work. We may become co-laborers with God, but only to do our own part. We must leave God's part with Him. 'God giveth the increase.' The results belong to Him, and our faith is very weak if after we have done the best we can according to our conscience and God's pointing and the common sense He has given us — our faith is very weak, I say, if we can't trust the outcome with God, but think we must get our backbone up, and 'rise in our might,' and take a club and drive men into the kingdom of heaven. We are not going to establish any inquisitions in these days; we have learned to know the love of God better than that.
"But, on the other hand, while we are to allow Christ to minister unto us to our soul's salvation; while we are to accept what He does for us; while we cannot 'convert' the world nor a single soul — we must follow in His steps if we are His children, and become also ministers inasmuch as it is in our power. After Christ has ministered to us, we must go and find our brethren as Andrew and Philip found Nathaniel; as the woman of Samaria went to the men of her city, saying, 'Come and see'; as those who were healed at Capernaum brought others to be healed; as Mathew made a feast and invited in publicans and sinners to see and hear the Master. We, too, must become ministers.
"I wouldn't become discouraged if I were you," Uncle Bez went on. "I know there are a good many things in the world we would like to have different. I know the devil seems to have a pretty good grip on some of the best things in the world, but I've faith enough to believe it's all coming out right in the end. Christ came to minister — and I don't believe His mission will be a failure. Do you?" — JOHNSTONE MURRAY.
Showing posts with label example. Show all posts
Showing posts with label example. Show all posts
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Christ Within You
1910
If you wish your neighbors to see what Jesus Christ is like, let them see what he can make you like. If you wish them to know God's love is ready to save them from their sins, let them see his love save you from your sins. If you wish them to see God's tender care in every blessing and sorrow they have, why let them see you thanking God for every sorrow and every blessing you have. Example is everything. — Kingsley.
If you wish your neighbors to see what Jesus Christ is like, let them see what he can make you like. If you wish them to know God's love is ready to save them from their sins, let them see his love save you from your sins. If you wish them to see God's tender care in every blessing and sorrow they have, why let them see you thanking God for every sorrow and every blessing you have. Example is everything. — Kingsley.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
The Need of Tenderness
1902
The grace of tenderness, for it is a grace, should be cultivated for its own sake as well as its invaluable aid in our service for the Master.
True tenderness modulates the voice, illuminates the face and presents the word of life in a spirit of gentleness, which wins a hearing for even unwelcome truths. The world is in need of just such tenderness as was manifested by our Lord, and we as His disciples can render no better service to Him than reflecting His tender sympathy as we pass along life's journey.
People long for tenderness. Harsh measures never won a soul to higher things. Sympathy is the magic key by which we may gain access to hungry, aching hearts. Tenderness may be developed by studying the character of our Master. He recognized the innermost longings of weary mankind, and met this yearning with infinite tenderness and pity. Surely we as His followers should imitate Him to the best of our ability along this line.
Let us determine by the help of the Holy Spirit never to be betrayed into harshness. The world is hard and cold enough without you and I adding to its burden. Rather let us seek by tenderness and sympathy to aid some soul to reach a firmer foundation, and bring joy and peace to some little corner of earth. — George D. Gelwicks.
The grace of tenderness, for it is a grace, should be cultivated for its own sake as well as its invaluable aid in our service for the Master.
True tenderness modulates the voice, illuminates the face and presents the word of life in a spirit of gentleness, which wins a hearing for even unwelcome truths. The world is in need of just such tenderness as was manifested by our Lord, and we as His disciples can render no better service to Him than reflecting His tender sympathy as we pass along life's journey.
People long for tenderness. Harsh measures never won a soul to higher things. Sympathy is the magic key by which we may gain access to hungry, aching hearts. Tenderness may be developed by studying the character of our Master. He recognized the innermost longings of weary mankind, and met this yearning with infinite tenderness and pity. Surely we as His followers should imitate Him to the best of our ability along this line.
Let us determine by the help of the Holy Spirit never to be betrayed into harshness. The world is hard and cold enough without you and I adding to its burden. Rather let us seek by tenderness and sympathy to aid some soul to reach a firmer foundation, and bring joy and peace to some little corner of earth. — George D. Gelwicks.
Friday, June 8, 2007
The Man Christ Jesus
1874
May God Hasten the Consummation
Jesus Christ has trod the world. The trace of the divine footsteps will never be obliterated. And the divine footsteps were the footsteps of a man.
The example of Christ is such as men can follow. On! until mankind wears his image. On! toward yon summit on which stands, not an angel, not a disembodied spirit, not an abstract of ideal and unattainable virtues, but the man Christ Jesus.
It is something to have a clear margin left for effort, a clear possibility marked for improvement. When humanity has become like His humanity, we may pause; we shall then be aware that the clouds above our heads have beamed into the unutterable beauty of Heaven, that the lilies of the field have glowed with immortal amaranths.
May God Almighty hasten the consummation, and may we, with passionate, steady, burning, unquenchable ardor, strive to know and imitate Christ. — Peter Bayne.
May God Hasten the Consummation
Jesus Christ has trod the world. The trace of the divine footsteps will never be obliterated. And the divine footsteps were the footsteps of a man.
The example of Christ is such as men can follow. On! until mankind wears his image. On! toward yon summit on which stands, not an angel, not a disembodied spirit, not an abstract of ideal and unattainable virtues, but the man Christ Jesus.
It is something to have a clear margin left for effort, a clear possibility marked for improvement. When humanity has become like His humanity, we may pause; we shall then be aware that the clouds above our heads have beamed into the unutterable beauty of Heaven, that the lilies of the field have glowed with immortal amaranths.
May God Almighty hasten the consummation, and may we, with passionate, steady, burning, unquenchable ardor, strive to know and imitate Christ. — Peter Bayne.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Judas' Burning Day
1909
This the day when that arch-traitor who betrayed his Lord is burned in effigy here in Mexico — Judas in a hundred fantastic forms, made of cheap pasteboard, grotesquely painted and most ugly of feature, sometimes a mere caricature of a person hated by the populace, a personal enemy — even female Judases in skirts. Full of malodor and cheap gunpowder, the Judas goes off in smoke amidst shouts of derision, burned to make a small boy's holiday.
Modern whitewashers of the great criminals of history, who transform noted poisoners, murderers and the scourges of mankind into near-saints, have tried in learned works to prove that Judas the Bad was a Jewish patriot, mistaken, no doubt, but a would-be benefactor of his people. The vast majority of people, however, simply won't let it be so; they have long ago made up their minds about him, as they have about Nero, the imperial artistic assassin; about the fat and lascivious Henry VIII., and about Benedict Arnold, the brave, hot-headed and sensitive turncoat, who betrayed his country's cause and proved anew the ancient proverb that a renegade is worse than ten Turks.
Mankind demands for the edification of the young a fair share of historical villains, who furnish texts for sermons and enable preachers and orators to turn a sentence neatly.
The Judas-burning custom is gradually falling into desuetude here at the capital, along with other traditional practices, and more's the pity. But in bystreets, in humble neighborhoods, Judas gets his desert, which in a direct way impresses a lesson on the youthful mind. Somewhere beyond the stars, in some perchance solitary place, amid great gloom, the traitor is expiating his crime. He may have repented, and so some day may fall once more into the interminable and always upward struggling human procession, for there is no setting of bounds to the Divine mercy. He fell far; he may rise to immense spiritual heights. The star of hope never sets for the soul of man. — Mexican Herald.
This the day when that arch-traitor who betrayed his Lord is burned in effigy here in Mexico — Judas in a hundred fantastic forms, made of cheap pasteboard, grotesquely painted and most ugly of feature, sometimes a mere caricature of a person hated by the populace, a personal enemy — even female Judases in skirts. Full of malodor and cheap gunpowder, the Judas goes off in smoke amidst shouts of derision, burned to make a small boy's holiday.
Modern whitewashers of the great criminals of history, who transform noted poisoners, murderers and the scourges of mankind into near-saints, have tried in learned works to prove that Judas the Bad was a Jewish patriot, mistaken, no doubt, but a would-be benefactor of his people. The vast majority of people, however, simply won't let it be so; they have long ago made up their minds about him, as they have about Nero, the imperial artistic assassin; about the fat and lascivious Henry VIII., and about Benedict Arnold, the brave, hot-headed and sensitive turncoat, who betrayed his country's cause and proved anew the ancient proverb that a renegade is worse than ten Turks.
Mankind demands for the edification of the young a fair share of historical villains, who furnish texts for sermons and enable preachers and orators to turn a sentence neatly.
The Judas-burning custom is gradually falling into desuetude here at the capital, along with other traditional practices, and more's the pity. But in bystreets, in humble neighborhoods, Judas gets his desert, which in a direct way impresses a lesson on the youthful mind. Somewhere beyond the stars, in some perchance solitary place, amid great gloom, the traitor is expiating his crime. He may have repented, and so some day may fall once more into the interminable and always upward struggling human procession, for there is no setting of bounds to the Divine mercy. He fell far; he may rise to immense spiritual heights. The star of hope never sets for the soul of man. — Mexican Herald.
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