The giants,and how to fight them ...

Front matter

IliillK.. "U»' ,11 n'mUH

K .. '.iidiM.

HIBP.ARY OF CONGRESS. I

Contents

Pagk

WONDERFUL THINGS.

I. The Wonderful Staff 199

I

" Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." — Psalm xxiii. 4.

If you are travelling along a rough road, or climbing up a mountain, it is a great help and comfort to have a good strong staff to lean on. When persons are travelling in Switzerland, they have a particular kind of staff, called an alpenstock. It is often ornamented at the upper end with the horn of a chamois, or

Swiss-goat ; while the lower end has an iron point fastened to it, so that in climbing up, or passing over slippery places, travellers, by striking it * in the ice, can keep themselves from falling, as they lean on it, or steady themselves by it.

In the verse in which our text is found, David is speaking of dying. He compares it to walking through a dark valley, which he calls " the valley of the shadow of death." If we had to walk through such a valley, where there were many deep pits and slippery places, it would be a great comfort to have a good stout staff, by the help of which we could make our way along in safety amidst all the surrounding dangers. David tells us here that God has provided such a staff for His people. He says, ''Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."

The staff here spoken of means the Bible, or the Word of God. This is like a staff which God wishes His people to lean on. And if we learn to use it rightly, we shall find it a great help to us. Here, then, we have another of the Bible Wonders. Our subject now is, — The Wonderful Staff. The Bible is a wonderful staff because of its power to do three things for us.

Ill the first place, it is wonderful

for its POWER TO PROTECT.

David, who wrote the text, was a shepherd before he was a king. And in trying to protect his sheep, he must sometimes have had very hard work to do, and very great dangers to meet. There were wild beasts in Palestine when David was living. One day, while he was watching his sheep, a lion sprang into his flock, picked up a lamb, and walked away with it. David was a brave boy. He had a tender, loving heart, too. He could not bear to think of his dear little lamb being torn in pieces, and eaten by the lion.

So he jumped up and ran after him. That was before fire-arms were invented. David had no gun. He has not told us what arms he had. I suppose he certainly had a good stout shepherds staff. It is very likely that he had also a sort of sheath knife, such as our sailors have, fastened to a girdle round his waist. With no other weapons than these, I suppose, he started after the lion. Would you not like to have seen him fighting the lion? I should, very much. We can fancy we see it. There is the lion getting away as quick as he can. But he cannot get on very fast, for the lamb is heavy. And here comes David after him, hallooing and shouting, and hoping to make him drop the lamb, and run off. But the lion is hungry, so he holds on to the lamb. And now David is close up to him. He lifts up his heavy staff and hits him a tremendous blow on his hollow side. The lamb is dropped. The lion turns on David with a terrific roar. He is too close to spring on him, but he rises on his hind feet, and opens his huge jaws to devour him. Quick as thought David drops his staff. He seizes the lion by the beard with his left hand, and taking his knife in the right hand, he plunges it into the monster's side, again and again, till, with a faint growl, the lion falls dead to the ground.

But we have a higher authority than David to show us how to use God's Word so as to protect us from our enemies. Our blessed Saviour has left us an example here. He had a fight, when He was on earth, worse than that of David with the lion. You know we read that ''Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.'' (Matt. iv. i.) That temptation was like a fight with Satan. It was a long fight. It lasted forty days and forty nights. And the only weapon that Jesus made use of was this very staff of which we are speaking. Every time that Satan tempted Him to do what was wrong, Jesus answered him with a text of Scripture. And when He did this it was like hitting him a blow with this wonderful staff. He made use of the Word of God just as a man, when attacked, uses a staff to ward off the strokes of his enemy, and to hit him, in return, stout, staggering blows, that may drive him from the field. Jesus found God s Word a wonderful staff for His own protection.

And SO His people often find it. I met with an interesting story lately, which illustrates this part of our subject very strikingly.

Some years ago there was a forester, named Grimez, who lived in a lonely place in the thick woods of the Silesian mountains, in Prussia. His family consisted of his wife and his mother, with a little daughter, about seven years of age. His wife and mother were good Christian women ; but he himself was not a Christian. He did not even believe the Bible, and often used to ridicule his wife for her prayers, and what he called '' her foolish trust in God."

208 WOXDEREUL TIIIXGS.

The time to which our story refers was a dark and stormy evening in autumn. The wind whistled mournfully through the trees of the forest. The two women and the little child sat round the fire in their house. The forester had not yet come home from the neighboring town, to which he had gone in the morning. The family were beginning to feel very anxious about him. And they had good cause to feel so. It seemed that a band of robbers had been infesting that part of the forest of late, and had made it very unsafe. This forester was the officer of the King of Prussia. His duty was to take care of the forest. After long efforts he had just succeeded in capturing all this band of robbers, except their leader. He was a verystrong, and cunning, but wicked man. And he had vowed to have his revenge on the forester and his family, for breaking up his band. The women of that lonely family knew this. No wonder that they felt very anxious as they sat round the fire on that stormy evening. They could think and talk of nothing else but the dangers that surrounded them, and the absent head of their family.

At last the grandmother said it would do no good to go on talking so, and giving way to their fears ; and that it would be much better to seek comfort from God s Word, and ask the protection of Him, without whose will not even a sparrow can fall to the ground.

Then the wife brought out their family Bible and read aloud from it the seventy-first psalm. These are some of the words that she read. They were wonderfully appropriate to their circumstances: — '* In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust ; let me never be put to confusion. Be thou my strong habitation whereunto I may continually resort ; for thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man!'

When the psalm was finished she read an evening hymn in keeping with the psalm. After singing this they knelt down together in prayer. They told God about their fears, and asked Him to protect them, as well as their beloved husband and father. They prayed for the poor and the sick of their parish ; for all evil-doers, and especially for the wicked robber in their neighborhood, that the Lord would have mercy on him, and change his heart, and turn him from his evil ways.

212 WOOT)ERrUL THINGS.

After this their fears were gone, and they felt calm and comfortable. They had hardly finished their prayers, when they heard the well-known footsteps of him they were looking for approaching the house. He was brought home in safety. They were all very glad of this ; for while they had been so uneasy about him, he had been feeling very much the same about them, fearing lest the robber might come and kill them while he was away. So he, too, felt very happy to find his family safe and well.

Before they went upstairs to bed the forester's wife told him how anxious they had felt about him during the evening, and how they had prayed to God to take care of him and of themselves. He smiled, as he had often done before, and said she was a foolish woman to think there was any use in praying. For his part he preferred to trust to his good weapons, and to his faithful dogs. Then he examined the doors and windows to see that they were fastened ; he loaded his fire-arms and unchained his dogs, and thought that he could lie down and sleep without any cause for fear.

Well, an hour or two has passed away. All is quiet in the forester s house. The family are fast asleep. No sound is heard but the rustling of the trees as the wind sweeps through them. But hark! what is that? There is a movement — a quick movement — in the room where the forester s family had been spending the evening. And now, look ; there is a man — a desperate looking man — creeping out from under the settle, or old wooden bench, which stood there. It is the robber they were so much afraid of. He had managed to steal in about sundown, when nobody saw him, and to hide himself under the settle. There he had heard all that had been said. He had come in to have his revenge by murdering the whole family in their sleep. He looks round carefully on all sides, and listens. Not a sound is heard. Now there is nothing to prevent him from carrying out his purpose. Ah ! yes, but there is, though. He goes softly and silently to the table. He lays down on it a large, sharp knife, which he has brought with him. The rays of the full moon are shining through an opening in the wundow-shutter into the room. He picks up the Bible, which the forester's wife had read from at their evening worship, and which lay there

Open still at the seventy-first psalm. The words of that psalm have had a wonderful effect upon him. He tries to read them over again in the feeble light of the moon ; but it is too dark to see them, so he shuts up the book. Then he stands by the table for a few moments, hesitating what he had better do. Two or three times he picks up the knife, and resolves to have his revenge by plunging it into the bosom of the sleepers upstairs. But each time he lays the knife down again. Something seems to hold him back. He thinks of the words of that wonderful psalm, and he is afraid to do it. Then he goes to the window and opens it very gently. He unfastens the shutter without making the slightest noise. He leaves the knife on the table, but takes the Bible in his hand ; he gets up on the window-ledge, and creeps out so cautiously that even the watch-dogs, which seem to have fallen asleep, neither see nor hear him. Then he jumps over the garden hedge, and in a few moments he disappears in the dark shadows of the wood.

When the forester and his family came down the next morning and found the window open, and a great sharp knife lying on the table, and the Bible gone, they were, of course, very much surprised. They could not possibly explain it. The open window showed that somebody had been in the house. The great knife showed that his object had been murder; while the missing Bible seemed to show that somehow or other that had been the means of saving them. The whole house was searched, yet nothing else was missing but the Bible. What did it mean ? It was a mystery which no one could explain. The pious wife thanked God for their protection. Even her unbelieving husband could not help seeing that it was neither his dogs nor his guns that had saved them. He stopped laughing at his wife, and began to think that there was something in religion after all. Nothing more was ever seen of the robber in that neighborhood. But this is only half the story. The other half of it will illustrate another part of our sermon. I will give it you then. What I have now told illustrates this first part very well. It shows us how God made use of His Word for the protection of that family. This was the staff with which He drove the murderer away. This is indeed a wonderful staff. It is wonderful for its power to protect.

In the second place, it is wonderful for its power to comfort.

If you have a long journey to take, and feel faint and weary, it is a great help and comfort to have a good strong staff that you can lean upon. Well, God's Word is like a staff for this reason. It gives • strength to His people when they feel weak and ready to faint under their labors or their trials.

In the early days of Christianity, you know, the followers of Jesus had to bear a great deal of persecution. On one occasion a Christian young man was ordered to be tortured, to make him give up his religion. First, he was hung over a slow fire to scorch his feet ; then he was bound to a post, and his flesh was torn with red-hot pincers. But he bore these, and other horrible cruelties, without a cry or a groan. Finding that he would not give up his religion, his enemies let him go.

When his friends came round him they asked him how he could bear those dreadful sufferings so patiently.

H It was painful, indeed," said the noble youth, '' but it seemed to me as if there were an angel standing at my side all the time, who kept pointing to heaven, and whispering promises like these in my ear:

'* Fear not, I am with thee ; I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee/' '' When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned ; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee/'

That young man was leaning on this wonderful stafl", and he found that it had powder to comfort him.

One day a Bible-reader was climbing up a broken staircase, which led to a garret, in one of the worst parts of London. When he got up to the last landing-place he saw a very savage looking man, who stood, with folded arms, leaning against the wall.

'' My friend," said the visitor, holding a Bible in his hand, '' here is a book that tells us the secret of true happiness ; won't you let me read out of it a little for you ? ''

The man looked at him very fiercely, and said, '' Get out with your nonsense, or Til kick you down-stairs."

He tried to soften him, but in vain.

While this was going on he heard a feeble voice, which seemed to come from one of the broken doors that opened on the landing, saying, *' Come in here with your book."

He pushed the door open and entered the room. It was a wretched looking place. There was no furniture in it but a three-legged stool, and a bundle of straw in a corner. On this straw an aged woman was lying, with her thin and wasted limbs.

When the visitor entered she raised herself on one elbow, and, fixing her eyes eagerly on him, she said, —

'' Does your book tell about the blood that cleanseth from all sin ? *' He sat down on the stool by her side and said, —

'' My poor friend, why do you want to know about the blood that cleanseth from all sin ? '' With a voice of fearful earnestness, she replied, —

" Why do I want to know about it ? Man, I am dying ; I am going to stand before God. I have been a wicked woman, a very wicked woman, all my life. I shall have to answer for every thing I have done : '' and she groaned bitterly at the thought of her sins. " But once,'' she went on to say, '' once, ^some years ago, in passing by the door of a church I went in for a moment, I don't know why. I came out directly, and went away ;

226 WONDERFUL THIXGS.

but one word I heard then I have never forgotten. It was something about the blood that cleanseth from all sin. Tell me, oh, tell me, is there any thing in your book about that blood ? ''

The visitor answered her by opening his Bible, and reading the first chapter of the First Epistle of St. John, in which occur the precious words, '' The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." The poor creature seemed to devour the words as they fell from his lips, and when he stopped at the end of the chapter, she said : '' Read more, read more.'' He read through the second chapter. Then he heard a slight noise. On looking round, who should he see there but the savage looking man who had threatened to knock him down-stairs, and who was the poor woman's son. He was listening eagerly, and the tears were trickling down his face. The visitor read on through the third, fourth, and fifth chapters before the poor listener would allow him to stop. Then she would not let him go till he promised to come again the next day. He went the next day, and every day after for three weeks. Every day the son followed the visitor into his mother s room, and listened attentively to all that was said. Then the poor woman died in peace. As soon as she understood what was meant by the cleansing blood she believed it. She felt sure that it took all her sins away, and this made her very happy. She went down to her grave leaning on this wonderful staff, and, oh ! how it comforted her !

On the day of her funeral, as the visitor stood by, while they were filling up the grave, the son of the poor woman beckoned him aside. He, too, had found pardon and peace through the same precious blood. When he had taken the visitor aside he said to him : '' Sir, I have been thinking that there is nothing I should like so much as to spend the rest of my life in telling others of the blood that cleanseth from all sin/'

How natural this was ! He had found comfort himself from leaning on this wonderful staff, and he wished to get others to use it too, and enjoy the comfort of it.

He became a Bible-reader and visitor among the poor.

This is a wonderful staff. The second reason why it is so is, because of its power to comfort.

// IS a wonderful staff, in the third placCy because of its power to

SAVE.

We read in one place in the Bible that " the Word of God is able to save the souir — James i. 2 1 . And when one who felt that he was a sinner came to St. Paul, with the question, '' What must I do to be saved ? " his answer was, '' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shaltbe saved.'' This means — believe what the Bible tells you about Jesus. Believe that He died for our sins, and that because He did this God is ready to pardon and save all who are willing to be saved in this way. When Paul said to the Philippian jailer, '' Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,'' it was just the same as if he had offered him this wonderful staff, of which we are speaking, and had said to him, '' Here, take this staff. Keep firm hold of it. Lean all your weight upon it, and it will save your soul.'' This is the one thing, above all others, that makes this a wonderful staff.

And now we have just reached the place where the other half of our story about the robber and the forester comes in nicely.

The robber was never seen or heard of in the forest after that

232 WONDERFUL TIIIXGS.

night. Sometime after that, in the year 1813, there was war among the different nations of Europe. The French and Prussians were fighting against each other. The king of Prussia had raised a large army. Grimez, our forester, had a position as captain in this army. The French army had taken a strong position in a part of the country where there were several lakes, all the shores of which were covered with dense woods. On the borders of the largest of these lakes were several huts inhabited by fishermen. The Prussian army was ordered to drive the French away from that position. This led to a very severe battle. The Prussians gained the victory, and drove the French away. But they gained it with the loss of a great many men. Among those who fell, on that day, was our brave captain, the forester. His men thought he was killed, and left him on the field for dead. But he was only badly wounded. After his friends had gone he lay groaning in pain among the dead. A fisherman was coming cautiously up in his boat, to see if a little hut of his on the shore had been destroyed by the army. He heard the groans of the wounded man. He rowed his boat to land, and went up to the spot from which the cry of pain was heard.

He found the Prussian officer lying in his blood. He gave a low whistle, and some of his companions came up from the boat. They carried the wounded man to their boat, and rowed him to the opposite shore of the lake, about two miles distant. They landed in the neighborhood of several cottages. Into one of these the wounded man was carried. The fisherman and his wife received him with great kindness. They dressed his wounds and nursed him with tender care. At first it seemed doubtful whether he would recover; but finally the fever left him, and he began to get better. The fisherman wrote to the captain's family to tell them how he was. His wife and daughter came to nurse him, and be with him. The fisherman and his wife gave them the use of their cottage, and they stayed with one of their neighbors till the soldier got well.

As he lay upon his sick bed he could not help thinking of all that had happened to him. He thought of the wonderful way in which God had protected himself and his family from the robber on that memorable night. He thought of the way in which he had been taken care of, when left for dead on the battle field. He saw God's hand in it all. He was led to pray to Him earnestly, and became a Christian.

And now he was well enough to go home. He thanked the kind fisherman for all that he had done for him, and wished to pay him for the great trouble he had caused him. But to their surprise he would take nothing. When they pressed it on him, he said he was much more indebted to them than they were to him. He said further that he had a great treasure of theirs which he had once taken away, and now wished to restore. Then he went to a closet and brought out a Bible. As soon as the forester's wife saw it she recognized it as their dear old Bible which had disappeared so strangely on that night that never could be forgotten. She caught it eagerly in her hands, and pressed it to her bosom. Then the fisherman told them the following story : — '* I see you don't recognize me/' looking at the forester, '' but I am the robber that caused such trouble in your neighborhood, till you caught my companions, and had them put in prison. I was very angry with you for this, and swore to have revenge on you. I crept into your house about dark one evening, intending to murder you and all your family at night while asleep. All that evening I lay under the settle in your sitting-room, waiting for the hour when I could carry out my cruel purpose. Against my wull I was obliged to hear the seventy-first psalm which your wife read aloud. It had a wonderful effect on me. When I heard her prayers I felt worse still. It seemed as if an unseen hand was laid upon me, to keep me back from doing what I had come to do.

I felt that I could not do that now. All my desire then was to get that wonderful book and read it. I left your house without doing what I had gone there to do. But I took your Bible with me. I thought there must be more words of wonder in the book than I had heard that evening. For weeks I kept hid in the woods near your home. The Bible was my companion in my solitude. As I read it I saw what a great sinner I was, and what a great Saviour there is in Jesus. I sought Him, and found Him. That same Saviour who pardoned the thief on the cross had mercy on me, and received me into His kingdom. Then I left that part of the country, and found employment with a fisherman in this neighborhood. As God had made me a new man I wished to begin a new life. I am living very happily here. My excellent wife is helping me to serve God. We have all that we want for this world, and a blessed hope for the next. And all this I owe to the Bible I found in your house that evening. You, forester, trusted to your guns and your dogs. They could not have helped you any. Your life and the lives of your family were in my hand. Nothing but God s Word saved you. It was only that which kept my hand from seizing the knife and plunging it into your bosoms. It was that which protected you and your family then ; and it is that which has saved you from the battle field now. Don't thank me ; but thank that merciful God who made use of His blessed Word to save both you and me.'' Such was the fisherman's story. The tears that were flowing down the faces of the forester and his wife showed how much they were affected by all God's wonderful goodness to them. With full hearts they thanked the fisherman for all his care and kindness to them. Then they returned to their home a very happy family. As they sat round their table, on the first night of their return, that precious Bible was brought out again. The seventy-first psalm was read over once more ; and as he read it aloud to his family the forester thought that these words in the psalm seemed very surprising : — '* I am as a wonder unto many, but Thou art my strong refuge. Let my mouth be filled with Thy praise, and with Thy honor all the day long.''

Thus we see how God's Word is indeed a wonderful staff It is wonderful because of its power to do three things. These are, to protect — to comfort — to save.

Be sure you take this staff with you, and learn how to use it. Then you will be happy here, and happy in heaven for ever.

THE WONDERFUL COMFORTER.

" As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.'' — Isaiah Ixvi. 13.

The word mother is one of the sweetest words in our language. It has more power over us than any other. It would be easy to give many facts to prove this. Let me mention one. During the late war, a chaplain was going through the wards of a hospital, to talk and pray with the sick and wounded soldiers. Among them was a Scotchman who had been a very wicked man ; he would never allow any one to talk to him on the subject of religion. On coming to his bedside the chap- Iain said to him, — " Well, Donald, how are you to-day ? ''