Saturday afternoon; or, Conversations for the culture of the Christian life

Front matter

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Preface

It fell out in this way : I had been thinking much of the importance of the nurture of the Christian life, and had been wondering how I, as pastor, might specially minister to it. Sunday sermons were too formal, and the usual prayer meetings were too fragmentary. I was longing for some service which should make Christian experience its undivided focus. Announcing such a service, and inviting any to come who cared to, I was immediately surprised to find how wide and deep a need was met. Thus it became a habit of my ministry to devote an hour of the Saturday afternoon^ of the winter season to such duty. I always called these gatherings "Conversations," that I might indicate their entirely informal character. What I said was extemporaneous, and of the nature of a conversation. My dear friend, the Rev. Dr. H. L. Wayland, the editor of the National Baptist, was kind enough to think what I was saying worth reporting for his valuable paper. To him, to Miss Lydia S. Richards, to Miss Burmeister, I am entirely

3 PREFACE.

indebted for the remaining of my word. I have been often asked to throw these Conversations into a volume. By the generous permission of Dr. Wayland I am enabled to do so. Out of many I have selected these. If, in the least, these shall soothe or gird a single Christian heart, I shall be devoutly thankful.

Contents

PAGE

I. Grace and Peace, 9

II. Strength for Harassed Christians, . 20

II. Strength For Harassed Chris- Tians

A PERSON was climbing the Alpine heights, when he saw a flower blooming in a crevice amid drifts of snow. He wondered how the flower could get strength to bloom in such a frozen, barren spot. On examination he found that a tiny white rootlet stretched out to a patch of soil amid the snow drifts, and thence drew nourishment for the plant.

As we confront a new year, and think of the burdens, cares, and shadows that will rest on us, and, still more, of the struggles of the better nature against evil, we ask : " How shall I get through ? In the past I have made many mistakes. Can I not do better in the year to come, be more victor, and have more of the shining in my heart?" Where are we going to find strength for this? We need, like the flower, 20 some peculiar resource. Can we find it? We have about us unfavorable circumstances ; there is always a place where the harness rubs. We are in the plight of the little flower ; but if we bloom at all, it must be where we are.

As our children grow older, they are more and more a burden to the parents. " What shall I do with him? How shall I lead him?" You have lain awake of nights thinking of all this. The time of constraint has ceased, and there begins the time of sympathy and advice. We wonder how the child we love is going to master this or that temptation.

Then there comes to us a consciousness of loneliness. If we were but helped by those about us, we could get on better. A minister feels as though he had the laboring oar, as though there were a lack of moral and spiritual support. You are often in want of sympathy. There is the chilling influence of a great strain. We have to keep always at the straining point. We feel that we have got to keep this up all through life. It seems as if we had no strength, as if we had exhausted all our ability.

Then there are our easily besetting sins. We keep our temper under for a time ; then it gets the better of us. So of our brooding and gloomy thoughts. We dispel them for a time, then they come again and cloud the sky. We wonder how in such circumstances and in such a plight we can expand the beautiful flower of the Christian life.

Now, the Bible is given for just such harassed men and women as we. Turn, for example, to that marvelous Epistle to the Ephesians. If you have not become familiar with it, you can do no better thing for the new year than to read it over and over and over a dozen times. I do not know where there is better help for harassed Christians.

We cannot now understand how hard it was then to be a Christian. There was the luxurious wicked city. There was the beautiful temple with its gorgeous worship. There were a few Christians gathered out of that vice and heathenism, seeking to live purely and nobly, while the whole influence was against them. If we are like that flower amid the snowdrifts, surely they were a great deal more so.

And now in the very first chapter, here is what Paul says to these Ephesians : " You are not left alone ; you will be helped." And then he says : "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the workings of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church." It is power like that into which we may thrust ourselves and be strong. It is power, exceeding great " and mighty." We are surrounded by the effects of the divine power. You are out at sea, on board the ship that seems big when in port, but which seems so tiny out on the waves that it is taken as if it were a cockle shell and tossed from wave to wave. You think how terrible if a storm should arise. You feel something of the power of the ocean.

But it is not such an exhibition of power that we are directed to in the passage; it is the great exceeding might which God wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead. The most tyrannical power in the world is death. You stand in some companionship which is precious to you ; you rejoice in it ; but the question arises, How long shall it last? The mother kisses her babe, but she cannot help thinking what if the little child were to lie in her arms chilled to death. At any rate, we press on unceasingly toward death. The last breath will be drawn. I sometimes think how strange it will be to be in a world where the great thought will be Life. Here the reigning thought is death. Life is the word that reigns in the Book of the Revelation. " He showed me a pure river of the water of life."

Our Lord came into our world, and took our doom, and himself died. Death wielded its sceptre over him, as it will over you and me; but in Christ this mighty power is baffled. Death is victim, and Christ is victor. He died and then he rose, and that is the sort of power that is on our side, and that is to help us.

This thought is full of stimulus to me. I have one who has helped me, but he drops into the grave and leaves me. I have but his memory. But Christ was raised from the dead. This is resurrection power. It not only raised him, but it set him at God's right hand. In our nature, Christ died ; in our nature, was raised ; in our nature, he ascended, and sits on the highest throne. There is my nature crowned over all the works of the Creator.

The great power which raised up Christ from the dead and set him at God's rio-ht hand has also subjected all to his rule, has " put all things under his feet."

Here is a general passing through a conquered province; he makes requisitions for his army; it may be of cattle, or of grain, or of horses, or of money. It comes, for he has conquered the province, and no one can dispute him.

So our Lord Christ has conquered creation and nature. Providence is at his command. All powers are under his feet; all that is in this world and in the world to come. You do not knew that you are helped by angels, but you are.

Every personality and power is facile to his touch.

This power that is so strongly suggested in the passage is power in relation with every one of us ; for, " listen, ye trembling Ephesian Christians, this exceeding power is not away off at a distance, but is to usmard who believe." It is this power which we have, power that raised Christ from the dead, and has put him at God's own right hand, and has put all power under his feet.

You may bloom even amid the snowdrifts, for there is power such as we cannot dream of. A Christian woman came to me, and said : " I do not know that I am a Christian ; I do not feel as I used." I said to her: "Look here, now, here is the New Testament ; read it over and and over, and when you find a passage that speaks of Christ and his power, and what he will do for you, mark it in the margin. Cease looking to yourself and look away to Christ." In a week she came again, and the peace of God was on her face. She had found that Jesus Christ was the reservoir of God's power. Yes, what we have to do is to " lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us," and to look away unto Jesus. Remember what is on our side. One who had taken on her the duty of visitation in this city felt that it was very difficult ; but she knelt down, and said : " Lord Jesus, this is all thine. Do thou go with me." She found that the paths that seemed filled with obstacles were cleared of the hindering stones. She looked back, and was surprised to see how easy it all had been. You see, she had drawn on Christ's pow r er.

I remember how sick my heart felt when I came to leave home to go to college, a thousand miles away. I did not know how I should understand the strange studies and the strange surroundings. As I thought of it in the cars, I was appalled. Then I turned to my father, who was sitting by my side, and (without saying a word to him) I just thought, "Well, father is with me, and he will carrv me through." It seemed a hard thing to go to college; but what a good thing it was ! How could I have done my work but for it! So it will be. Our Lord Christ goes with us to do the difficult things.

Why should we not be strong Christians instead of being weak ones ?

Paul Gerhard was a sweet singer, born in Saxony. He is the author of the well-known hymn, "Give to the winds thy fears." The hymn has twelve stanzas in the original, and five of them are in all our hymn books. There is a tender storv of how God is true to the faith in him of which the hymn sings. There was a German peasant who lived near Warsaw. His rent was unpaid, and the landlord was about to thrust him from his home. It was in the bitter winter weather, and though the poor man had thrice appealed for a little time to the landlord, the landlord was inexorable. The next day the helpless peasant was to find himself and his family homeless in the snow. What could they do but pray ? And then they all sang together the verses of Paul Gerhard's hymn of faith :

11 Give to the winds thy fears ; Hope, and be undismayed ; God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears, God shall lift up thy head."

At length, singing on, they come to the verse:

STRENGTH FOK HARASSED CHRISTIANS. 2S

44 Nothing thy work suspending, No foe can make thee pause, When thou, thine own defending, Dost undertake their cause.' '

There was just then a rap upon the window. This German peasant's grandfather had trained a raven, as such birds can be trained, to do various things. It was this bird tapping against the window pane. The window was opened, and in flew the raven with a costly jeweled ring in his beak. The peasant took it at once to his minister, who identified it as the property of King Stanislaus the Beneficent, and to whom he gave it back. You can easily imagine how, when the king heard the whole story, there was no longer danger of rooflessness to the poor but trustful and honest peasant. Indeed, the king built him a new house, and gave him cattle from his own herds. And over the door of this house, on an iron tablet, stands still the effigy of a raven with a ring in his beak, and underneath are the first four suggestive lines of the beautiful stanza they were singing when help came so surprisingly :

"All means always possessing, Invincible in might ; Thy doings are all blessing, Thy goings are all light."

Of course, I do not mean to say that God will help yon always in a way so strange; but I do mean to say that God will help. Be sure of this:

4 His doings are all blessing, His goings are all light.

Let me read these great verses once again : "And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us- ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church."

III. As Much As We Are Willing To Receive

YOU remember the story of the staying of the oil. A prophet's widow was in trouble. Her husband's estate had turned out badly, and, after the fashion of the time, the creditors w 7 ere threatening to sell into bondage her two sons. In her extremity the widow makes application to Elisha. His question is, " What bast thou in the house?" ''Only a pot of oil," the distressed widow answers. Then the direction is that she borrow from her neighbors as many vessels as she can. She is to borrow not a few. And when she had gathered the vessels, and behind the shut door of her house began to pour into them from her single pot of oil, she found her supply of oil sufficient to fill all her borrowed vessels. Its sale would lift her beyond want. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son : " Bring me yet a vessel." And he said unto her: "There is not a vessel more." And the oil stayed. But the oil did not stay as long as there were vessels to hold it

The ancient story is full of the most real religious uses.

Lay this down as a fundamental principle for the Christian life : We may have just as much of the grace and help of God as we are willing to receive. If we are straitened, it is never in God, but always in ourselves. The oil stayed only when there were no more vessels to fill with it.

Here is a most sweet poem of Faith I found to-day :

Since the Father's arm sustains thee,

Peaceful be.

When a chastening hand restrains thee,

It is he.

Know his love in full completeness Fills the measure of thy weakness ; If he wound thy spirit sore,

Trust him more.

Without measure, uncomplaining,

In his hand Lay whatever things thou canst not

Understand ;

ALL WE ARE WILL1KG TO RECEIVE. 33

Though the world thy folly spurneth, From thy faith in pity turneth, Peace thy inmost soul shall fill, Lying still.

Like an infant, if thou thinkest

Thou canst stand, Childlike, proudly pushing back

The proffered hand, Courage soon is changed to fear, Strength does feebleness appear ; In his love if thou abide,

He will guide.

Fearest sometimes that thy Father

Hath forgot ?

When the clouds around thee gather,

Doubt him not.

Always hath the daylight broken, Always hath he comfort spoken, Better hath he been for years

Than thy fears.

Therefore, whatsoe'er betideth

Night or day, Know — his love for thee provideth

Good alway.

Crown of sorrow gladly take, Grateful wear it for his sake, Sweetly bending to his will,

Lying still, c

To his own thy Saviour giveth

Daily strength ; To each troubled soul that liveth,

Peace at length ; Weakest lambs have largest share Of this tender Shepherd's care ; Ask him not then " When ? ' ' or " How ?

Only bow !

Well, you will say, " That is very beautiful," and I say, "It is beautiful;" and you will say, " It is the mood of faith," and I say, " It is the mood you ought to be in, and which we all may be in, if we will.'* Whatever may betide externally, there should always be within us a sweet placidity ; there should always be such calmness as when Jesus spoke to the waves and said, "Peace, be still." It is not at all impossible that the Christian heart should be in steady daylight, though there be midnight inwardly. Bring Scripture promises as vessels, into which the grace of faith may be poured.

For, notice just a moment, What is Faith? Well, it is this : It is something that must always have some object on which it can lay hold. You must have something to believe. There is no

ALL WE ARE WILLING TO RECEIVE. 35

such thing as faith unless you have something toward which faith turns. Two men were talking together ; they were transacting a great business enterprise ; they were about to part, with certain details that must be done, and one said to the other, " I trust you for all this." This is the way of faith : that man could not have had faith if he had not faith in somebody.

I often say to the deacons in my church : " I will trust you to attend to this," and it is always done. And so you see that faith is not any ecstasy into which we are to urge ourselves. I have said this to you a great many times ; but I do not believe you have learned the lesson yet. It is such a pestiferous idea that you cannot have (any faith unless you are caught up like Elijah. When people say, " We want more faith/' they think, *'I have to struggle and to introvert mvself and to wonder if this feeling is right and 1! that feeling is right; and I must spend all night in prayer, and weep, and go through a terrible time to religious ecstacy." That is not faith.

Will you also notice that faith must have not only an object on which to lay hold, but an object outside of ourselves. You may say to a roan, " Have faith in yourself." That is a good thing in certain directions, but not in religion. Samson had faith in himself, and he tumbled fearfully. The prodigal son had faith that he could take care of his own property, and he " wasted it in riotous living." Then what is that on which faith is to lay grasp? It is simply and always the divine promises. We have great faith when we greatly lay hold of what God tells us. Have great experimental knowledge of God's word, and then you will know what God promises to do for you.

I was riding with Mr. Spurgeon one day last summer, and he was telling me how the Lord constantly helped him. And he said: "I don't like to have things go too smoothly ; I like to have great burdens laid upon me." " Well," I said, " responsible as you are for one hundred thousand dollars a year, you seem as easy as if it were but a ha'penny." And he said : " I pray about it when any strait closes around me from which I must be delivered." And I said : "How do you pray ? " And he said : " I get a promise ; I find

ALL WE ARE WILLING TO RECEIVE. 37

one which is applicable to my case, and I plead that promise." Faith is not an awful spasm ; it is not a tremendous outcry ; it is quiet, because it has something on which it lays hold — that is, on what God has promised.

And now the reason whv we do not have enough of the grace of faith is that we do not bring vessels enough. I say to a person who has become a Christian : " Well, you believe the Lord's promise? Here is this promise, ( Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out'; are you willing to confess Christ ? " " Yes ; I am willing." "And you do not hold anything back?" "No; I do not." "Well," I say, u here is this promise. ' I will not cast out ' ; do you believe it ? " " Yes ; I believe that." So this person brings the vessels of the Lord's promise, and the Lord pours into it the grace of faith, and he believes his sins forgiven.

Many Christians stop right there ; they never get beyond the forgiveness of their sins. I know such Christians in this church. If one speaks, he always has a backward look. He says : "Ever so many years ago, I gave myself to Christ, and he forgave my sins." But he has only meagre faith, though he is a Christian, because he has never brought more than one vessel of promise. It is as if a baby should be born, and stay a baby always, though he should live to be a hundred years old. Lots of Christians whose heads are whitened toward the grave have never gone further than the forgiveness of sins. Just think of the rich promises for us besides that of forgiveness. There is the promise of the divine indwelling : "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you." Suppose I take the vessels of this promise and believe- Then, also, there are Scripture promises concerning earthly care, a heavenly discipline, and that promise about " all things working together for good to them that love God." That "all things" means trouble with the servants in the kitchen ; the dust gathering quickly when you have just swept it away ; the beefsteak burned which you were preparing for your husband when he should come home. It means all the criss-cross, and the attrition, and bother; just like a mosquito that does not seriously wound,

ALL WE ARE WILLING TO KECEIVE. HO

but only irritates. Suppose, then, you bring the vessel of that promise, that the Lord may pour in his grace.

Then there are promises concerning great extremity, as, for instance, that promise : " Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Thy mace and thy crook. One who had just been to Palestine brought back a mace ; it was an oak club, into which were driven iron nails. It could deal a very tremendous blow, and was necessary, for the shepherd must be well armed. There is always the vulture hovering over the flock, and there are vipers which must be smitten down. There are banditti prowling around, who get their living by predatory raids on the shepherd.

Then " the rod " is the shepherd's crook. It is that with which he points out the way to the flock as he goes before it, with which he lifts over some gully the lamb too weak to go himself. " Thy defence and thy guidance are with me." That is the meaning of the rod and staff.

Well, you are in extremity ; it seems to you as if you were in the valley of the shadow of death. Then, what are you to do ? Bring the vessel of a Scripture promise like this. Do not strain and struggle and sweat. Look through this word of God and find a promise which exactly meets your case. If you knew the treasure God had inlaid for you in this word, you would have more faith ; for you would know more what you are to believe. Borrow, then, vessels of promise, that the Lord may fill them. Believe for the daily life, and believe for death that is coming to all of us. Borrow vessels of promises, and so into them will flow the grace of faith, and so you will be men and women of great faith.

I was reading, some time since, in one of Dr. William Taylor's books, and there was this foot note : " He was going home from church when he was a boy in Scotland, and he asked his father what the minister meant when he spoke of ' appropriating faith/ His father answered : 1 Just take your Bible, and when you come to any promise that just fits you, you just mark that promise; that is appropriating faith/ "

ALL WE ARE WILLING TO RECEIVE. 41

Then, also, let us bring vessels of service that we may have the grace of strength. That was a beautiful request that one made the other evening in the prayer meeting : " Pray for me that I may use the light I have/' The more she used the light she had, so much the more light she would have. One of the most fundamental passages for the Christian life is : " If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine."

I remember how I found that out ; I never shall forget it as long as I live. I do not suppose there was ever a fellow who, when he entered the ministry, had greener views than I had. For I said : " I shall do just what I please. I alwavs liked reading and studying; but I do not like this pastoral work, and I am not going to do it." I went on trying to refuse. I said : " I cannot do that," which meant " I will not do it." What a plight I was in ! I found there was this one to go and see, and that one to go and see; and I studied the Bible, and found it was full of pastoral work. I never shall forget the night I broke down. I fell on my knees, and said : " Lord, I will do it." And the next day I started out, and before night I was fond of it, and I have been fond of it ever since.

Now, suppose I had not brought that vessel of service, should I ever have had my strength for service? Just in proportion as you briug vessels of service, you will have God's help ; you will not have his help beforehand. Ever so many people say : " We would do this thing if we were sure there was a magazine from which our vessels might be filled." But you will never have the grace of help unless you do what God wants. When you sing —

41 The mistakes of my life have been many,"

you say : " Well, I am a very poor Christian, indeed." Well, so are we all ; but you need not be so poor as you are. The busiest man is the happiest man — he upon whom time does not hang heavily. Try it ; you bring the vessel of service, and into it will shortly be poured the grace of help.

Another point : Bring the vessel of confession that we may have the grace of shining. If you look through the Scriptures you will find

AXL WE ARE WILLING TO RECEIVE. 43

ever go many promises of inward light attached to our confessing Christ. Do you remember Ben-hadad besieged the capital of Samaria so closely that there was a terrible famine there, so that the mothers began to eat their children? And the Lord sent such a panic among the hoste of the Syrians that they arose and fled. And the lepers, who had been in trouble, saying : " If we go into the city, we shall die ; and if we go to the host of the Syrians, we cannot more than die, anyway," now began to eat ; and when they saw the great affluence everywhere, they said : " This is not good ; if we tarry until the morning, some mischief will come upon us; now, therefore, come, that we may go and tell the kind's household." Well, when a Christian has accepted Jesus Christ, and when he has seen the benefit of religion for his own soul, and yet shuts his mouth, as those lepers did, you may be sure he is blighted. I have seen many Christians who do not enjoy religion, having only just enough religion to make them wretched, and that is all. But bring the vessel of confession, and into it shall always be poured the grace of shining. Only this week I have seen this exemplified. I went to one, and said : " You believe in Christ absolutely ? " " Yes." " Well, then, will you confess it by just walking to the seat in front there ? " " No ; I cannot do that." A few days later I went to her, and said : " Don't you see that you are holding back something from the Lord when you refuse to confess him?" And she thought a moment, and said: "I will confess." Before the meeting closed I saw the shining in her face. You see we have just as much of God's grace and help as we are willing to take. May God grant that we bring vessels that we may have great measure of the oil of grace !