========================================================================
  WRITINGS OF HALL CALHOUN
  by Hall Calhoun
========================================================================

A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by Hall Calhoun,
compiled for study and devotional reading.

  Chapters: 8

------------------------------------------------------------------------
  TABLE OF CONTENTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    1. 0.0. Titles/Contents
    2. 0.1. GOSPEL SERMONS
    3. 0.3.     ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION
    4. S. A MUCH NEGLECTED COMMAND
    5. S. PROGRESS IN RELIGION
    6. S. THE FIVE GREAT DUTIES OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE
    7. S. THE INDWELLING CHRIST
    8. S. WHAT JESUS CHRIST MAY BE TO A HUMAN SOUL

========================================================================
  CHAPTER 1: 0.0. TITLES/CONTENTS
========================================================================

Calhoun, Hall - Library

S. A Much Neglected Command

S. Progress in Religion

S. The Five Great Duties of a Christian Life

S. The Indwelling Christ

S. What Jesus Christ May Be to a Human Soul


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 2: 0.1. GOSPEL SERMONS
========================================================================

Title

GOSPEL SERMONS by HALL L. CALHOUN

CONTENTS

The Indwelling Christ

A Much Neglected Command

The Five Great Duties of a Christian Life

Progress in Religion

What Jesus Christ May Be to a Human Soul

These Five Great Sermons were Delivered as a series of Lectures at Abilene
Christian College, in February 1927.

Price 25 Cents Firm Foundation Publishing House 104-106-108 East Ninth Street

Austin, Texas


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 3: 0.3.     ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION
========================================================================

ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION The electronic edition of Hall L. Calhoun’s Gospel
Sermons was scanned and converted by Bradley Cobb, proofread and corrected by
Loy Pressley, and made available by www.GravelHillchurchofChrist.com The changes
between this electronic version and the original 1927 printed volume are as
follows:

Font type and size have been changed.

Obvious typos have been corrected.

Page size has been changed for optimal online reading.

As such, page numbers in this edition will not match perfectly with the original
printed edition.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 4: S. A MUCH NEGLECTED COMMAND
========================================================================

A MUCH NEGLECTED COMMAND The subject which I am to discuss this evening is, "A
Much Neglected Command." I think I may say without fear of contradiction, that
no one ever heard a member of the church of Christ say that any com­mand which
God ever gave is non-essential. We do not believe that God wasted his time in
giving non­essential commands. We believe that every command coming from him is
essential, and that knowingly and willingly to neglect any one, when it can be
reasonably performed, is to sin against God and our own souls. You often hear
our preachers quote such scriptures as these: "Blessed are they that do his
command­ments." "This is the love of God that we keep his commandments." "He
that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me," and, "If a
man love me he will keep my words." "Fear God and keep his commandments, for
this is the whole duty of man." "Why call ye me Lord, Lord and do not the things
which I say?" "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." "Whosoever
heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them is like a wise man who built his
house upon the rock." "Not every­one that sayeth unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in
heaven" and "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments and shall
teach men so, the same shall be called the least in the king­dom of heaven."

Now, some of God’s commands pertain to external forms and rites and ceremonies,
and we can see peo­ple when they obey them. Speaking of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus
said, "Do this in remembrance of me." ’You can see one when he eats the bread,
or when he drinks the fruit of the vine. Jesus said, "Go ye there­fore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them." You can see one when he is baptized, but not
all of God’s commands are like this. Some pertain to internal states and
conditions of the heart. God can see when such commands are obeyed, but no other
human being than the person doing the command can know when he is fulfilling
them. For example, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." "Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." "Thou shalt not covet." These commands have
to do with states and conditions of the heart and are not expressed in formal
rites and ceremonies. Some people have been ready to charge us with paying more
attention to those commands that have to do with outward forms and ceremonies
than we do to those which relate to the internal states and conditions of the
heart. In other words; they charge us with formalism, saying that we are like
those people of whom Jesus spoke when he said to them, "You make clean the
outside of the cup and the platter, but within they are full of uncleanness."
They say we are like those people whom Paul mentioned who had a form of
godliness, without the power. I am not inclined to admit that my brethren are
any more guilty along this line than other religious people. I believe that with
one voice we would all say that soundness in the faith requires just as strict
obedience to the commands that have to do with the internal states and
conditions of the heart as to those which pertain to the outward forms and
ceremonies. "For if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of His."
And certainly the spirit of Christ would not lead any man to neglect any of
God’s commands. But while this is true, I believe there is one com­mand which is
very much neglected by many good people, even among our own brethren. Hence, I
have chosen to speak on the subject stated above—"A Much Neglected Command." And
the text upon which this lecture is based may be found in Php 4:6, and in the
King James’ version, it reads, "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by
prayer and supplica­tion, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God." The American revised version reads it as follows: "In nothing be
anxious, but in every­thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let
your requests be made known unto God." Put in the plain simple language of
everyday life as men would speak it on the street, it says, "Worry about
nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let
your requests be made known unto God” Do you know any people who worry? who
fret? who are anxious? who are care worn? who go about with nervous tension,
fearful of what may happen, almost expecting something terrible every hour? No,
don’t think of your wife, or your husband, or your neighbor. Begin with
yourself. How is it with you? Do you worry? Are you anxious? Are you careful? No
plainer command can be found upon the page of God’s word than that which says,
"Be care­ful for nothing. In nothing be anxious." Watch the faces that you meet
on the street. See that wrinkled brow, that set mouth, that determined
expression in the eye, and you will need no further evidence that there are
people who neglect this plain command, and yet, Php 4:6 is not the only place
where Christians are taught not to be anxious, not to be careful for anything,
not to worry.

1 Peter 5:7, Peter says, "Casting all your care upon him." This also, like Php
4:6, sweeps the field and leaves nothing about which to be careful. David spoke
thus: "Cast thy burden on the Lord," which means what Paul and Peter meant, and
Jesus in Luke 12:22 says, "Be not anxious for your life, what you shall eat and
drink." Do you know any people who worry over what they are expecting to eat or
drink, especially when they are looking for company for dinner? Have you ever
known even good Christian women to be so worried and fretted and anxious over
the food they were going to have when guests were to be present that they could
not enjoy the meal even when it came. Yet Jesus said, "The life is more than the
food," and there are certainly much more important things to consider than
simply what we eat, for Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every word that pro­ceedeth out of the mouth of God." In Matthew 6:25 Jesus
said, "Be not anxious for your body, what you shall put on, for the life is more
than the raiment" Did you ever know anyone to worry about the kind of suit or
dress, or hat that he or she was to wear? Did you ever know anyone to be all
upset and distressed be­cause the tailor did not send the suit, or the milliner
did not send the hat at the exact time promised? Did you ever know people to
stay away even from the Lord’s table and the house of worship, just because they
did not have clothing exactly to suit their fastidi­ous taste? Jesus does not
want his followers to be anxious, care-worn, distressed. Remember how he said to
his disciples just before he left this world, "Let not your hearts be troubled.
Ye believe in God, believe also in me." Jesus does not want his followers to go
about with anxious hearts, with careworn brains, with distressed minds. Remember
that he said, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you." Do not make a
mistake. This lecture is not against work, but worry. Work does not hurt people.
It is worry that kills. Like many other preachers I have preached numerous
funerals. Sometimes I have heard it said on a funeral occasion, "Poor man, poor
woman, they worked themselves to death." I do not believe it. I have thought
sometimes that I would like to preach just one funeral sermon where the person
worked himself to death, but do not believe that I have ever done so.

Work does not hurt. Cross bearing does not kill. It is the worry that brings so
many people up to death. Worry is like rust, both useless and harmful. Buy a
spade and undertake to wear it out by work and you will find that it lasts a
long time. The more you use it, the brighter it keeps, and the longer it lasts.
Let it lie around in the rain and get rusty and the rust will soon eat it up. So
it is with human beings. Work brightens, strengthens and makes more efficient.
Worry kills. When a boy on the old farm in Henry County, Ten­nessee, I learned a
lesson along this line from a team of horses, which my father owned. One was a
quiet bay that always kept her end of the double tree a little ahead, pulling
more than her share of the load. The other was a fiery black that was constantly
champing his bit, stamping up and down, springing forward and flying back,
fretting constantly. I have seen this black horse covered in foam from head to
foot, sweating all over, while the quiet bay by his side was not even wet under
the collar, and yet she Was doing more work than the black horse by her side. It
is worry that kills, but not work.

There are people who perhaps could sympathize with the young husband who had
been married a little more than a year, who said, "When I first married I
thought my wife was so sweet that I felt like I could eat her up, but after I
had been married about a year, I wished to the Lord I had eaten her up, for she
fretted and worried and whined until neither she nor I nor anyone else about us
could be happy." I believe it is as much a sin against God and one’s self to
worry and fret and be anxious as it is to steal or lie or take God’s name in
vain. Christian people should not be guilty of this sin. But I imagine someone
is ready to say, But how can you help it when so many things go wrong and it
seems sometimes as if everything is wrong. How can you help worrying? They say
it is easy enough for you to stand there and say, "Don’t worry, that it is a sin
to worry." You can say that in your lecture very easily, but it is easier to say
it than it is to do it. How can you keep from worrying? That is a good question
and the very one that I want to answer next. Worry, like all other things, has a
cause, and the only way to prevent the effect is to remove the cause. I have
many good friends among doctors. I like to cultivate the friendship of doctors.
They are usually intelligent men. They make pleasant friends. They can talk to
you about many things which you will find helpful. I care not what school of
medicine a man may endorse, whether he be Allopath, Eclectic, Homeopath,
Osteopath or Chiropractor, they all practice upon the same principle. Whatever
may be the disease, remove the cause, and nature, with perhaps a little
assistance from medicine or treatment, will soon cure the disease. This same
principle is true in regard to worry. To cure the disease we must remove the
cause. What is the cause of worry? May I answer that question quite plainly, and
then show by the word of. God that the answer which I have given is correct? The
cause of worry is want of faith in God. No one who believes in God as he ought
can worry. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not upon thine own
un­derstanding." "We know that all things work to­gether for good to those who
love God." If you be­lieve that all things are working for your good, you cannot
worry. Imagine a case. Go down the street and meet that man who has a bad case
of the blues, anxious, fretting, care-worn, stop him and ask the question, What
is it friend? Why are you so blue, so anxious, so worried? Would he answer, "All
things are working together for my good and I have the blues about it?" No, he
does not believe it. You cannot worry if you believe everything is working for
your good. Did Jesus mean it when he said, "Except you be converted and become
as little children, you can­not enter the kingdom of heaven?" Did he mean that
unless we became trustful and care-free like little chil­dren, that we would not
enjoy a place in that kingdom of peace which he came to establish? Go into the
poorest home that you can find in this state, a little one-room cabin, almost
destitute of furniture, none of the comforts and luxuries of life there, see
that little child playing about the floor, watch its smiling face, care-free
brow. Why? Maybe father and mother do not know where the next day’s food will
come from, but the little child’s trust does not fail. Trusting its father and
mother, it plays happily and sweetly all the day through, knowing that kind
fatherly care and love will provide for its every need. I sometimes think that
perhaps the saddest sight our loving heavenly Father has to look down on is some
of his children with anxious hearts, care-worn brows, full of distress, simply
because they do not trust him as he asks. Will not our heavenly Father provide
for his children? Did he not say, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you?" "All things work
together for good to those who love me." But someone says, "How can God make all
things work together for good to all his children everywhere?" Look at the
millions in our own country, the millions in South America, the hundreds of
millions in the con­tinents across the sea, and how can God make all things work
together for good to all these people everywhere? Friend, you will never get the
peace, nor the rest that the loving heavenly Father gives his children when they
trust him, so long as you doubt God’s ability to keep his promise. Did you ever
try to sleep on a bed when you expected it to break down with you every minute?
I never did but one night, and I do not care to repeat the experience. A young
man friend and myself were on our way to New Orleans. We reached a railway
crossing one night about 10:00 o’clock where we had to change trains. Our train
was late and we found that the train which we had expected to take had already
gone and there was no other train going our way till 10:00 o’clock the next day.
We inquired for a place where we could spend the night. The agent pointed to a
little hotel across the track and said we could get a room there. We told the
proprietor that he need not build a fire, we were going to bed at once, and we
had a race to see which one would blow out the lamp. We were both young, active
and each weighed about 180 pounds. We struck the bed at the-- same minute. It
would not stand the strain. It went down with a crash, all except one old slat
that was screwed on. We could not sleep in a bed with one slat up and all the
others down, so we got up and carefully as we could with the chairs in the room
and a box or two that we found in the wardrobe we propped it up and then got in
just as easy as we could, and I lay there all night expecting that bed to drop
any minute. I got up so tired that I could hardly walk, and yet there are people
claiming to be Christians who sometimes talk about resting in the everlasting
arms that would not be surprised if the Father would let them drop any minute.
The fact is, they are expecting something awful to happen all the time. And then
they wonder why they are not happy.

How different was the attitude toward life of that grand old hero Paul, who
said, "I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he will keep that
which I have committed unto him." But someone says, "I know God could take care
of us, but in this old world every fellow has to paddle his own canoe. Every one
must hoe his own row, and if things do not go right, it is our fault, and we
simply have to grin and bear it, and you cannot expect God to make every­thing
go your way. If you want a thing done you have to do it yourself, for God is not
willing to do everything for you. You have to learn to look out for number one."
Friend, you will never get any rest as long as you disbelieve what Jesus said,
"Without me you can do nothing." "Come to me and I will give you rest." No, you
cannot hoe your own row. You cannot paddle your own canoe. You cannot look out
for number one. You cannot grin and bear it very long without the help of Jesus.

We should not doubt his willingness when he says, "Come to me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."

There are many foreigners in this country and the poor fellows, when they first
reach America, sometimes have a hard row to hoe, sometimes find it difficult to
get a start. Many of them learn to speak our language, to count our money, and
transact business in our ways, beginning as pack peddlers. One day in Ohio a
young farmer with a splendid team and a new wagon was returning home after
having delivered a load of wheat at the elevator in the town. It was harvest
time. He drove into the end of a long lane, hot and dusty. Look­ing on ahead he
saw a pack peddler making for the country, his body bowed beneath his heavy
load, trudg­ing slowly along. The young farmer was kind hearted, and as he saw
that man, he said, "Poor fellow, he has a heavy load. I believe I will give him
a lift." As he drove alongside he stopped his team and said, "Would you not like
to have a ride, my friend?" The peddler said, "Yes sir, if you please," and the
farmer said, "Climb in," and the peddler climbed over the hind gate and sat down
on the wagon bed floor, and the farmer drove on for about a hundred yards and
looked back and saw that the peddler still had his pack on his back. Thinking
perhaps that he had not had time to unstrap it and lay it down, he drove on for
another hundred yards. Looking back he saw the pack still on the peddler’s back,
and then with a smile, he said, "Why do you not lay that pack down and take a
rest?" The poor fellow, looking up, said, "Please sir, I did not know whether
you were willing to haul me and my pack both or not." You smile at this poor
fellow’s ignorance because he did not know that it would make the load no
heavier for him to lay his pack down and take a rest, and yet some of you will,
perhaps, go out of this house, and act in a manner just as silly. You think you
have to bear your own burden; you have to paddle your own canoe; you have to hoe
your own row, and when Jesus invites you to lay down your burdens, to cast all
your care on him, you do not know whether he is willing to carry both you and
your burdens. Poor soul, do you not know that if you are God’s child, he already
has you and all of your burdens in his arms, and it would not make his load any
heavier for you to lay that burden down and take the rest that he is so willing
to give. I verily believe that there are many good people today who need more
than they need any­thing else, just to cast their care on Jesus and take a good
old-fashioned rest. The everlasting arms of God are around about his children,
and it does not in­crease his burdens any for us to cast all our cares on him.
But someone says, "That it is easy enough for you to stand up there and urge
people not to worry but suppose somebody has been slandering you, saying things
about you which are not true, blackening your character, and taking from you
your good name, do you not remember what Shakespeare said—’He who steals my
purse steals trash, but he who filches from me my good name takes from me that
which him enriches not but makes me poor, indeed,’ and you stand there and say,
’Now just let him talk, let him say what he will, and do not worry about it at
all." It is easy enough to say that, but how can you do it when your very name
and reputation are being blackened?"

Let us hear what Jesus says. I have no rule of my own to give. I would simply
call your attention to a case exactly like the one you have described, asking
you to listen to what Jesus says do. Matthew 5:11-12 : "blessed are ye when men
shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you
falsely." Revile is to talk ugly about you. Persecute is to act unkindly toward.
To say all manner of evil against one falsely is to slander in the vilest way.
What does Jesus say do? Pay him back in his own coin? Shoot him on sight? Give
him as good as he sent? That sounds like Texas or Tennessee, but does not sound
like Jesus, for he says, "Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your
reward in heaven." And Jesus practiced what he preached. Do you remember how,
when he had been condemned to be crucified, they stripped him of his own simple
garments and dressed him in the mock robes of a king; that they plaited a crown
of thorns and pressed it on his brow; that they placed a stick in his hand as a
mock scepter; that they seated him on a rude stone as a throne and then mocked
him. They spat in his face; they slapped him with the palms of their hands; they
buffeted him, which means they struck him in the face with their fists. They
took the rude scepter out of his hand and beat him over the head with it, and
then mockingly bowed the knee before him and said, Hail, King of the Jews, and
when they had vented their spite they clad him in his own simple garments, laid
on him the cross beam and made him bear it out toward the place of crucifixion
till he fell beneath its weight, and Simon of Cyrene had to help him carry it
on, and when they had nailed him to the cross and lifted his body up between the
heavens and the earth they laughed at him and jeered him, even in his dying
hour, and Jesus did not rail at them, or pronounce a curse upon them, but
looking down upon them and then up into the loving face of the heavenly Father,
he prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And yet you
and I sometimes say that we cannot bear the taunts and jeers and slander of
human tongues, when Jesus said, "It is enough for the servant to be as his
master, and the disciple as his teacher, or Lord." And you think that you ought
to be treated better than Jesus, and that when men speak evil of you and revile
you, that you should pay them back in their own coin, and that you could not
stand to have your name traduced and your heart bruised in a manner similar to
that which he endured! But, you say, well, I might stand for people to talk
about me and say ugly things about me, but take a case like this. You have had
business dealings with a. man and he has acted dishonestly, and virtually robbed
me of all that I had and he and his are living in ease and luxury off of that
which justly belongs to me and mine, and you say, Just go on, do not worry about
it, do not be anxious, just keep sweet. What would you do in a case like that?

I have no rule of my own. I can find you upon the page of God’s word a worse
case than that and show you what God says do. There was a man, the richest in
all the country where he lived. He had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of
oxen, 500 she asses, a great household of servants and seven sons and three
daughters, and once the sons of God came together to worship and Satan came
along. He always does. And God called Satan’s attention to this rich man and
said, You see how he serves me; he fears God and shuns evil, a perfect man and
an upright; and Satan has no confidence in anyone. He believes that every man
has his price: that all obedience is bought and, so, he said to God, Look how
you have blessed that man. You have poured your wealth and riches all round
about him. Just take away his property, his riches and he will curse you to your
face. God knew this was not true and he wanted you and me to know it, so he said
to Satan, "There he is, do what you please with his prop­erty, but do not touch
him." Satan went out and got busy. It was not long until a great prairie fire
swept over his pasture and burned up all of his sheep and the servants who cared
for them, only one escaped and he went to tell his master, and while he was
talking another servant came running in and said, "Robbers have driven off the
camels and killed the servants who were with them and I only am left to tell the
story." And while he was speaking another came in and said, "The oxen were
plowing and the asses were feeding beside them and robbers came and drove them
all away and killed the servants, and I only am escaped to tell this." And while
he was speaking another came and said, "A great wind came out of the wilderness
and smote the house where your children were all dining with their oldest
brother today, and the house was wrecked and all ten of your children were
killed, and the servants, and I only am escaped to tell this."

Now, what did this man do? His property was all taken away, most of it by
robbers, and his children all died, ten of them, not after long, protracted
sickness, within which time he might have prepared himself for the blows which
he saw must soon be struck, but sud­denly, all at once, like a clap of thunder
from a clear sky, they were all taken away. Property gone, children gone. What
did this man do? Listen: "The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be
the name of the Lord." In all this "he sinned not, nor charged God foolishly."

Again the sons of God came up before the Lord and Satan came among them, and God
said, "Do you see my servant, that he still retains his integrity?" and Satan
said, "Yes, but you have not touched him in his own person yet. You just make
him suffer and he will curse you to your face, and God knew this was not true,
and he wanted you and me to know it. So, he said, "There he is, just do not kill
him. Do anything you please to him, just so you spare his life," and again Satan
went out and got busy and he made this man to break out in boils from the crown
of his head to the sole of his feet, and with property gone, children gone,
health gone, even his wife came and said, "Curse God and die." Your case was
never so desperate as his, and do you know what Job said in answer to his wife’s
advice. Remember, Job was just a man, made out of flesh and blood like you and
me, but he said, "You talk as a foolish woman. Though he slay me, yet will I
trust him." There are not demons enough in hell with Satan to help them to
separate a soul full of trust from its God. And we will never get the rest and
the peace that God wants his children to have until "all on the altar of trust
we lay." And as long as you doubt God’s willingness and God’s ability to take
care of you and to make all things work together for your good, you will never
have the soul rest to which you are entitled and which God and Christ want you
to enjoy.

You ask, what if I should take him at his word and in nothing be anxious, be
careful for nothing, worry about nothing, what would be the result? I have no
answer of my own to give, but the next verse to the one contained in my text,
answers the question you have asked. May we read the text again and then the
verse which follows: "Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanks­giving, let your requests be made known unto God, and
the peace of God that passes all understanding will keep your minds and hearts
through Christ Jesus the Lord." Isaiah knew by the Spirit the same great truth,
for he says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is staid on thee,
because he trusteth in thee." It was just what Jesus taught, "Come unto me all
ye that labor and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls." All the fruits of the Spirit grow in
this atmosphere of trust, love, joy and peace, that peace of God that passes all
understanding, the peace which Jesus said he came to give unto his disciples,
the peace that the world cannot give, nor can it take away, the peace of God
that passes all understanding.

Oh, how much many people today need this ex­perience of peace! You who claim to
be loyal Chris­tians, sound in the faith, calling none of God’s commands
nonessential, priding yourselves in being able to give chapter and verse for all
that we teach, do you know what this peace of God that passes all understanding
means? Are you anxious, care-worn, heart­sick and distressed because you will
not come to that Great Physician who is able to cure all the wounds inflicted by
sin, to pour in the wine and oil of his love and give that soul rest that all
must have if they are to rejoice in the Lord always, as God’s book teaches that
Christians should?

If we practiced and enjoyed this peace of God, would not our religious doctrine
be much more highly com­mended to those round about us? Is not this soul peace
that which the many burdened hearts round about us are seeking and longing for?
Seeing us en­joying it, would it not be much easier to persuade them to walk in
that way which leads to eternal peace. Everything must be taken to God and left
there. Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.

There was once a good woman who thought that she had experienced the greatest
sorrow that could come to anyone. She had lost a loving, pure, faithful husband.
He had left her with a little baby girl just a few weeks old, and that was about
all that he had left her, but the memory of his love. She dressed in black, went
about with a sad heart, and a sad face. She sang day after day, "Go bury thy
sorrow, go hide it with care, go tell it to Jesus, go breathe it in prayer." She
sang that yesterday. She is singing it today. She sang it through the weary
months and years as they came. Still she dressed in black; still her face and
heart were sad, but babies grow. Several years passed and the little babe is old
enough now to play with her dolly and one day this mother, sad of face and
heart, received a rather disturbing lesson. She was singing, "Go bury thy
sorrow," as she sewed, and she heard baby sitting in the corner talking to her
dolly, saying, "Mother’s dug it up again, Mother’s dug it up again." And then
that mother thought, My baby heard me sing yesterday, "Go bury thy sorrow." She
hears me sing it today: "Go bury thy sorrow," and she knows that I couldn’t bury
it again today, unless I had dug it up, and the baby was right. It is all right
to sing, "Go bury thy sorrow; Go hide it with care; Go tell it to Jesus; Go
breathe it in prayer," but don’t dig it up again. Casting all your care upon
him, be careful for nothing, for earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 5: S. PROGRESS IN RELIGION
========================================================================

PROGRESS IN RELIGION The subject of this lecture is "Progress in Religion,"
based upon Hebrews 6:1-3 : "Therefore, leaving the princi­ples of the doctrine
of Christ let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of
repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of the doc­trine of
baptisms, and of the laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead,
and of eternal judg­ment"; and this will we do, if God permit.

What does the writer of Hebrews mean when he says: "leaving the principles of
the doctrine of Christ"? Does he mean forsaking those principles, so as no
longer to introduce them or have any use for them, as we might say that a man
left his family when he forsakes them? No, he cannot mean that, but he means
what we would mean if we said to a child in school, "Leave your ABC’s and go on
to the higher lessons," or what we should say to a boy studying arithmetic,
"Leave addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, the four great
principles upon which the entire science of mathematics is based, do not stay,
always on these, but go on to the higher application of those principles." Now,
every great institution, art, science, or organization, is based upon certain
great foundation principles, and the Christian religion is no exception. It,
too, has its foundation elements, or principles, and our text says, "Having
learned these principles, having put them into practice, let us leave this
foundation and go on unto perfection, as we would say to a man building a house,
"Having laid the founda­tion strong and well, do not tear it up and lay it over
again, not laying again the foundation, but let us go on unto perfection."

What are the foundation elements upon which a Christian character is builded?
Not what do I say, nor what do you say they are, but what does God say they are?
Remember that those who wrote this Bible were holy men of God, who spake as the
Holy Spirit gave them utterance. As Paul said, "If any man thinketh himself to
be a prophet or spiritual, let him take knowledge that the things which I write
unto you are the commandments of the Lord Jesus." So, in our text we have the
elements, the foundation of a Christian character stated for us, not simply in
the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teaches.

What are these foundation principles? Our text says, "not laying again the
foundation of repentance from dead works." The only thing of which one is called
upon to repent is sin, and the wages of sin is death, and sin when it is
finished bringeth forth death. The expression, "repentance from dead works,"
simply means, repentance from sins, the works which bring death, and no
Christian character can be built by one who is not willing by genuine true
repentance to turn away from all known sin. But what else? "Not laying again the
foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God." No Christian
character can be built without faith toward God, for without faith it is
impossible to be well pleasing unto God, and he that cometh to God must believe
that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And
Jesus said, "He that believeth not shall be damned.” And Paul says, "We,
Christians, walk by faith." Not laying again the foundation of repentance from
dead works and of faith toward God and of the doctrine of bap­tisms. Without
stopping to inquire what connection baptism has with a Christian character, or
whether it is essential to salvation or not, is it not clear that it is shown
here as one of the foundation principles of a Christian character. If you were
building a house, the plans for which had been drawn by a wise and skilful
architect, would you deliberately leave out a part of the foundation as he
himself had planned it? Would it not be a reflection upon your faith in God, as
a skilful and wise architect, should you do so? Is it not even a greater
reflection upon your faith in God, to leave out a part of the foundation of a
Christian character as his infinite wisdom and goodness have planned it?

What else? "Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and
of faith toward God, and of the doctrine of baptisms and of the laying on of
hands." What has the doctrine of the laying on of hands to do with the
foundation of a Christian charac­ter? I am not here to deliver a lecture on the
sub­ject of the laying on of hands, but you can see that this doctrine is named
in the word of God as apart of that foundation upon which a Christian character
must be built, and even a very casual glance at the religious world today will
show that there is great need that the doctrine of the laying on of hands, as
taught in the Bible, should be learned, for the practice which some people have
of laying hands on sick peo­ple today, thinking that such people may in this way
be miraculously healed, shows the gross ignorance that such people have of the
teaching of God’s word on this subject. For one who knows the Scriptures
understands that not since the death of the last person upon whom the hands of
the apostles had been laid, has such a thing as miraculous healing by the laying
on hands, occurred.

What else? "Not laying again the foundation of re­pentance from dead works, and
of faith toward God, and of the doctrine of baptisms, and of the laying on of
hands, and of the resurrection of the dead." What does the doctrine of the
resurrection of the dead have to do with the foundation of a Christian
character? I am not here on this occasion to deliver a lecture on the subject of
the resurrection of the dead, but Paul evi­dently thought, and remember he was
guided by the Holy Spirit, that the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead had
much to do with the foundation of a Christian character, for he says, "If the
dead rise not, then Christ is not risen, and if Christ be not risen, your faith
is vain, and your hope is vain, and you are in your sins." Clearly then we
should not omit this ele­ment from the foundation of a Christian character. But
what else? "Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and
of faith toward God, and of the doctrine of baptisms and of the laying on of
hands and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment." What has
the doctrine of an eternal judgment to do with the foundation of a Chris­tian
character? Perhaps, if we remember that many Bible scholars believe that more
people begin the Christian life because they are afraid to stand before the
eternal judgment bar of God unprepared by obedience to the gospel, than for any
other reason, we can see its importance. These, then, when taken together as God
himself gives them, constitute the foundation of a Christian character. With
this foundation well and strongly laid, every element in place, just as God
gives it, our text says, "Let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the
foundation." What would you think of a man building a house who should lay the
founda­tion well and strong, and then tear it up and lay it over again, or stop
with nothing but the foundation. You say, "Such a building would not be fit to
call a house, with nothing but the foundation," and yet, such a house would be
just as good a house as a Christian character is a good Christian character with
nothing but the foundation laid. The only proper course when once you have laid
this foundation, is to heed the ad­monition given in our text, "Let us go on
unto per­fection." It is this part of my text which justifies the subject of
this lecture, "Progress in Religion," for it is in this going on unto perfection
that the progress is found. Are you willing to study with me for a time each
word of this text? "Let us go on unto perfec­tion." The very first word "let"
begins an exhortation, showing that we must take an interest in others as well
as in self. In this same Epistle, 3rd chapter and 13th verse, we have this
command: "Exhort one an­other daily." The Christian religion is social, not
selfish. One cannot be a Christian who looks out simply for number one. God’s
word says, "Let no man seek his own good simply, but each one also his
neighbor’s welfare." Perhaps all of us have laughed since we were children at
the story of that old man who prayed at pray meeting, "Lord, bless me and my
wife and my son John and his wife, us four and no more." And yet, judging by the
way some people act, their spirit is almost as selfish as was his. How hard it
is today to get some people interested in the welfare of anyone except members
of their own family. And yet, if one never loves or helps any except those who
are blood kin to him, he should not mistake this love of family for that love of
God and our fellow­men which is shed abroad in the hearts of Christians by the
Holy Spirit.

Let us not be like oysters, which open their mouths simply to feed themselves.
When a boy, I used to see a picture on the walls of many homes and the picture
taught a lesson, true. In that picture was seen a storm tossed sea, in which
stood a great old rock, firm as the rock of ages. Standing on this rock was an
old rugged cross, with its arms outstretched, and clinging around this cross was
a figure which had just escaped death in the waters. Underneath was the name,
"Simply to thy cross I cling." This picture is good, but in recent years is a
better one expressing more truly the spirit of a Christian. In this second
picture there is the same storm-tossed -sea. The same great old rock. The same
rugged cross. The same figure clinging with one arm to the cross, while the
other arm is stretched out to a poor struggling soul in the waters below,
helping it up to a place of safety. This is more nearly in accord with the
teachings of God’s word as to the spirit of a Christian, which says, "Christ
laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for others." The
next word, "us." I like that word. I like a religion that has in it "us" and
"our," that does not dwell on "me" and "mine" and "you" and "yours." I remember
that when Jesus taught us to pray that beautiful prayer, he had us begin, "Our
Father who art in heaven." And that when Paul speaks of Jesus he calls him "our"
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The spirit of the Christian religion is consonant
with nothing less than the universal brotherhood of man and the universal
fatherhood of God. I like that old hymn which says, "When each can feel his
brother’s sigh and with him bear a part, when sorrow flows from eye to eye and
joy from heart to heart." I remember that Jesus said, "Rejoice with those who do
rejoice and weep with those who weep." Certainly we can­not make progress when
we live unless we have in our hearts this spirit of brotherhood that will not
allow us to be content until, as Jesus taught, every creature in all the world
has heard the gospel. Remember that Jesus pronounced a heavy "woe" upon those
who lade or load men with burdens grievous to be borne, while they will not
themselves touch those burdens with one of their fingers. The next word, "go."
Let us "go" on unto perfection. "Go" shows action, not restriction, nor retreat,
and the Christian is full of this teaching, for there is much "go" and "do" in
the Bible. It is said of Jesus: "He went about doing good." To be like him we
also must go about always doing good. Remember, he prays, "I am the way, follow
me." In that prayer which Jesus taught his followers he taught us to say "Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And the angels in heaven do God’s
will perfectly, for they are all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to
those who shall be the heirs of salvation. On that ladder which Jacob saw as he
slept with his head up­on a stone, the ladder that reaches from earth to heaven,
there were angels ascending and descending, but not one standing or sitting
still. Hence, the les­son, as angels are always busy, so must we be. When Paul
would picture the Christian life he represents it as a "race," himself a runner,
and he says, "forgetting the things which are behind, and reaching forth unto
the things which are before, let us go on to perfec­tion. Let us press toward
the mark for the prize." When Jesus pictured the church he represented it as a
"vineyard belonging to a father who said to his son —the son representing every
Christian, ’Go work in my vineyard today.’ " Jesus also said, "Whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine and doeth them is like the wise man who built his house
upon the rock." I like a man with "go" in him. I like a horse with "go" in him.
I do not like to ride behind a horse when you have to beat him almost to death
to get him along the road. I like to ride behind one that you have to hold the
ribbons tight as he makes his footsteps right. I like a machine with "go" in it.
Preacher as I am; I like to ride with a driver who steps on the gas. I like a
boy with "go" in him. I much prefer the little fidgety boy that cannot sit
still, to the little sleepy head whom you have to pinch to see if he is awake.
Do you know what is the matter’ with that fidgety boy, the reason he cannot sit
still? He has a man in him and he can hardly hold him. Give him a chance, an
outlet for energy, and he will go on, and so I like a Christian with "go" in
him, that would say, according to the current phrase, and mean every word of it,
"Let’s go." The next word, "on." I could take every bit of the progress out of
my text if you would let me change that one little word of two letters into the
word "back." "On" shows progress, not retrogression. God’s exhor­tation is "Let
us go on." He never sounds a retreat. It is always onward and upward, higher,
and still higher. If you have done well today, you should do better tomorrow. If
you are not a better Christian this year than you were last, there is something
wrong with your religion. The preacher must go on, or he is a failure. You are
listening well to this lecture. What if you should come back tonight and the
speaker should deliver the same lecture, some of you would say, "I wonder why he
did not go on and give us something fresh. We have heard that lecture once."
Suppose I should continue delivering the same lecture night after night for a
week, how many of you would be here the last night to hear it? Most of you would
say, "If he cannot go on and give us something fresh, I will wait till he can,
or go to hear someone else." But do you know that preachers get just as tired
seeing members of their congregations sit there and do the same old things over
and over and over again, as you would get hearing him preach the same old sermon
over and over? The language of my text is not ad­dressed to preachers, but to
all Christians, and it is no more the duty of a preacher to go on than it is the
duty of every other Christian, and let us be sure that we go on, that we do not
advance backwards. May I tell you a story illustrating what I mean, and this is
a true story, too, not one made up for the occa­sion, as so many people think
preachers make them up. Once there was a preacher telling a story in his home
and the preacher’s little boy was listening. When his father had completed the
story, the little boy innocently asked, "Daddy is that so, or are you just
preaching." This story is true. I know it because my uncle was a truthful man,
and he told me this story. It happened soon after what we still call the Civil
War, back in the days when you could buy, in almost any village, something to
drink stronger than good buttermilk. Thank God you cannot do that now. The
people of our beloved state of Tennessee have gotten beyond that. You know that
intoxicants have different effects upon different people. They make some men
think that they are the strongest men on earth. They make others think they
could whip anything in sight, even a stack of wild cats. They make others love
every­body. Such men want to come up and put their arms around your shoulders
and blow their vile breath in your face. It was awful in those days. There was
an old man who lived near my village who was not very brave even when sober, and
when well filled up on whiskey he would not fight anything. He loved every­body.
The old man came to the village one day and got outside of about all the whiskey
he could carry home. He started home about sundown. It took all the road for
him, as he wound from side to side. The boys in the village knew he was cowardly
and decided to have some fun. One of them took a white sheet under his arm, ran
down through the cornfields, out through the thick woods that came up on both
sides of the road about a half mile from the village. By the time the old man
reached these woods it was almost dark, and the boy came out in the road wrapped
up in the white sheet, with his arms extended, waving back and forth like wings.
The old man steadied him­self as best he could and saw the object moving toward
him, less than a hundred yards away. He decided that he did not care to be any
nearer to it and began to walk backwards. In his condition he could not look
over his shoulder, and so he walked backwards for about a quarter of a mile till
he came to my uncle’s front gate. He hollowed, "Hello." The boy who had been
following just closely enough to keep him moving when he heard him holler,
"Hello," jumped over a fence into a corn field and when uncle came out, there
was no one there but the old man, who had been so badly scared that he was about
sober. None of us men like to admit that we are afraid of anything, so the old
man told uncle about seeing the "booger" as he called it and how it came nearer
to him and he did not like to say that he ran from it, so, he said, "I saw it
and it kept coming toward me and I did not know what it might be, so
I—I—advanced backwards." You smile at the old man’s expression. Let us see,
friend, perhaps you are advancing backward, even in a worse way than he was. Do
you read your Bible as regularly now as when you first came into the church? Do
you pray as earnestly and as regularly as when you first came into the church?
If not, you, too, are advancing backward and in a worse way than he was. But
God’s word says, "Let us go on" it never sounds the note of retreat. "Let us go
on unto perfection." That word "unto" in its proper setting has a wonderful
lesson for us. "Unto" means perseverance. It means, keep on going toward
perfection, until you either reach it or the limit of your own life. Did you
ever hear the story of Robert Bruce and the spider, or Robert Bruce and the ant?
I shall tell it, as Robert Bruce and the ant. Robert Bruce was King of Scotland
and a good king he was, but his enemies got their armies together and fought
against Bruce, seeking to take away his kingdom and his crown. Seven great
battles were fought, and in the seventh Bruce was de­feated and his army
scattered from him, and he had to fly for his life, in the darkness of the
night, and take refuge in an old barn where he lay hiding and resting. A ray of
sunlight coming through a crack in the barn fell in his face and woke him the
next morning, and he lay there thinking, "Shall I give it up, shall I quit?
Shall I surrender my crown and my kingdom?" And while he was thinking such
thoughts as these his eye fell on a little ant, carrying a grain of wheat, the
grain of wheat larger than the ant. The little creature wanted to carry this
grain of wheat over a big log. It started up and fell back. At once it got up
and started up again and fell back, and then leaning over in his eagerness of
attention, he said, "Oh, I wonder if it will try again? I wonder if a little ant
has more perseverance than I have? Seven times I have tried and failed, I wonder
if it will try again?" It never stopped, getting up immediately, it started up,
up, up and this time over. it went and on its way. Bruce sprang to his feet like
the brave man he was, and said, "A little ant shan’t have more perseverance than
I have. I will go out, gather my scattered soldiers, raise again the battle flag
and the battle cry. I will succeed," and he did, and the crown sat securely on
his brow. It is, the courage, a perseverance like this that every Christian
needs, saying, "I will succeed by the help and blessing of God. I will go on
unto perfec­tion." The word "perfection" is the best word in my text. When God
would tell a man how to live, he gave him a perfect law. God’s word says, "The
law of the Lord is perfect." And James says, "Whosoever looketh into the perfect
law of liberty." God says, "Live as I have told you in my perfect law." When God
gave man an example, a pattern to follow, it was a perfect one, for Jesus said,
"I am the way, follow me." And Jesus was perfect. He did no sin, neither was
guile found in his mouth, and God says to every Christian, "Live like I tell
you, in my perfect law. Live like I have shown you in the perfect example whom I
have given," and this is what is meant when, our text says, "Let us go on unto
perfection." But someone is ready to ask, "Am I expected to be as good as Jesus,
to live a life as perfect as his?" God would not give an imperfect law, or an
imperfect pattern to his children and then tell us to follow it. The ideal which
he sets before us is one of perfection, both in his law and in his pattern, and
as a man’s reach should always be greater than his grasp, as his ideal should be
higher than his attainment, so God has given an ideal toward which every
Christian may grow throughout his entire life.

It is like this: When I was a boy living on the old farm, my father used to make
almost everything we needed on the farm, plow handles, hoe handles, axe handles,
for we could not buy such things ready made as cheap as you can now. One day he
was making axe handles in the little shop which we had. He had a perfect pattern
of an axe handle, and he could make a splendid axe handle. Boys often want to do
what they see their fathers doing. I wanted to make an axe handle. He let me
have a piece of timber like he had and let me use the tools which he used, and
let me mark out by his perfect pattern, the axe handle which I tried to make. I
did the best I could, but I was just a boy. I tried to make my axe handle just
like the pattern, but when it was finished and I held up the finished work, it
did not look just like the pattern. But my father did not say, "You little
simpleton, did you not know better than to try to make an axe handle." That is
not the way my father talked to his boys. He said, "First rate, son. That is
pretty. good. You just keep on and you will make a fine axe handle some day,"
and that is the way my father talked to his boys, and so it is with our Father
in heaven. When you and I mark out our lives by the perfect law and the perfect
pattern which God has given, and do our best to make our lives like his, when
the work is finished and we hold our lives up beside the life of Him who was the
brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of his person, well, our
lives will not look exactly like his, but if we have been faithful and done the
best we could, we need .not fear but what the loving voice of the Father will
say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." For life itself is but an infinite
progress toward an infinite perfection. The grandest church building on earth is
St. Peter’s church in the city of Rome. It covers acres of ground, and they have
been working on it for years and years, but still it is not complete. A
gentleman walking through this great church building, looking at its beauties
and splendors saw a number of workmen busy in building, and he said to the
guide, "When will you finish St. Peter’s"? The guide with a smile said, "Finish
St. Peter’s? We never expect to finish it. We are going on always, building it
up greater and more beautiful, more splen­did, we never expect to finish it." I
said, the greatest church building on earth was St. Peter’s, but the greatest on
earth and the most beautiful, is a Christian character. Though we may build and
grow onward and upward, increasing its beauty and its splendor as we go on
toward perfection, we never shall finish it. If one should grow with ten
thousand times ten thousand times the speed of lightning through ten thousand
years toward the limitless perfection of God, he would be no nearer to the
limits of perfection than when he first began, for there are no limits to the
in­finite perfections of God, and this is the ideal that God sets before every
Christian. Onward and upward, al­ways and ever, growing more and more into the
like­ness and image of God, and as long as God shall last, we will grow forever,
going on toward perfection. Even when we pass out of this earth life into the
purer, more wholesome atmosphere of heaven, we shall but have increased
opportunity and ability to grow more rapidly without ever reaching the limitless
per­fections of God. And that is what life is, the Chris­tian life, an infinite
progress toward an infinite per­fection. When I was a little boy I used to stand
on the front portico of the old farmhouse and look out across the lane and the
meadow of the brook, to the trees on the hill beyond. I used to see the clouds
hang low, ap­parently coming down into the very tree tops, and, as a child, I
used to wish that I could go over there, climb up into those trees, and reach up
and feel of those clouds, to see how they felt. I lived to be a man, to climb
that hilltop, when the clouds hung low, and when I reached the hilltop I found
those clouds were as high above as they had seemed to be when at the farmhouse
down in the valley. Since I have been a Christian I have looked on up toward the
hills of. God and thought sometimes, Oh, if I could ever preach like that, if I
could ever pray like that one, I would be satisfied. I do not claim to have
climbed very high, and yet by the grace of God, I have made some progress and I
find as I climb up the hills of God, that when, I reach any height, I see that
the ideal that God has set before me is apparently just as far beyond as ever,
and it is only the invitation of a loving Father to his son to go on and grow on
forever toward the limitless perfections of God, for life itself is but an
infinite progress toward the infinite perfections of God.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 6: S. THE FIVE GREAT DUTIES OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE
========================================================================

THE FIVE GREAT DUTIES OF A CHRISTIAN LIFE

I am to speak at this time on the subject, "The Five Great Duties of a Christian
Life." The text is located in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14. It reads: "Watch ye, stand
fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong, let all that you do be done in
love." The writer of this language was the apostle Paul, but not Paul alone, for
he says "which things we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Spirit teacheth." So, we have here a text given by the Holy
Spirit, through the apostle Paul. Those addressed, we are told, are the members
of the church of Christ in the city of Corinth, but not they only, for the
writer adds "to all who in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord, both theirs and ours." So, this language is just as much for the
Christians in this place as it was for the Christians in the city of Corinth,
and if you will read the epistle through you will find it filled with just such
teachings as Christians everywhere need. In the first chapter we find this: "I
beseech you, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you speak the same
things and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly
joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." Jesus taught this
same thing when he prayed that all who believed on him might be one, even as he
and the Father are one. Oh, how much need there is in some places today for this
teach­ing. There are communities in which the professed followers of Jesus
Christ are so divided and the re­ligious tension is so tight that it seems those
on both sides spend more time and energy in fighting each other than they do in
fighting sin and Satan. There are homes divided on the subject of religion where
the feeling is so strong that for the sake of peace both sides have agreed not
even to mention religion. How Satan must rejoice when he gets a home in such a
state that the members of it dare not even talk religion. Not very long ago I
stood on a prominent street corner in a good town and listened to a regular
family quarrel between father and mother as to where their little daughter
should attend Sunday school. How much better if God’s people would be united as
Jesus prayed they should, as the Holy Spirit teaches they ought to be. Perhaps
the greatest stumbling block in the way of unbelievers today is the miserable
division existing among the followers of Christ. The reason which Jesus gave for
praying that all who believe on him might be one was that the world might
believe on him.

Read on in the epistle and very soon you come to another subject upon which
there is much need of teaching. The writer rebukes those who are puffed up in
their own minds, who think they are better than others, and most fittingly says,
"Let no man think of himself more highly than he ought to think." In har­mony
with that other verse which says, "He that exalteth himself shall be abased, but
he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." In harmony with the further teaching
"let each esteem others better than himself." Perhaps there are no Christians
here who are puffed up in their minds, but back where I live there possibly are
some of this kind. Did you ever hear this statement? I have. If I could buy that
man for what he is really worth and then sell him for what he thinks he is
worth, I could make a fortune at one trade.

Read on and you find very soon where Christians are rebuked for going to law one
with another. The Holy Spirit says, "Why not rather suffer wrong, why not rather
be defrauded of your goods than for brother to go to law with brother and that
before the unbelievers." He adds, "Is it possible that there are no wise men
among you who might settle these disputes that arise between brethren?" Can
there not be found any men of sufficient sense and principle among Christians to
decide disputes that arise among themselves. Must they rush off to the law
courts and fight each other with such bitterness as to make even outsiders sneer
and say, "Watch those Christians fight each other." That’s brotherly love, is it
not? Better practice what they preach before they ask others to join them. And
so if you read on through the entire epistle you find it filled with just such
teachings as Christians everywhere need. And in the last chapter and almost the
very last words of that chapter the Holy Spirit sums up for us the Christian
life under five great duties. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like
men, be strong, let all that you do be done in love," Are you willing to study
with me for a time these great duties one by one? Each is as full of thought and
meaning as an egg is full of meat. The first one "watch ye," what does that
mean? It means keep your eyes open. See things. It means what Paul wrote in 1
Thessalonians 5:6 : "Let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be
sober." Christians are supposed to be wide awake. Sinners are represented as
being asleep, having their eyes shut. Peter taught just like Paul, "Be sober, be
vigilant" and "vigilant" means "watchful," and Peter tells why "because your
adversary, the devil, goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour."
Do you understand what this language means? It does not say that Satan goes
about roaring and breathing out fire and smoke like the old picture of him,
which some of us saw in the old family Bible, but it does mean that he goes
about seeking to get the advantage of Christians, as eager to get them in his
power, as a hungry lion roaring for his prey.

Some years ago my little boy and myself came into Cincinnati early one morning.
Our train for home had gone when we reached the station and there was no other
until late that afternoon. I had visited the zoological gardens several times,
but my son had not. Cincinnati has one of the finest zoological gardens in the
world. You can see there more animals for twenty-five cents than you would see
in a dozen shows. I decided to take the boy out there for the day. Of course, we
went to see the monkeys, fed them on peanuts and laughed at their tricks, saw
the sea lion, the elephant and the giraffes. Yes, we visited the great building
where the lions and tigers were kept in the great iron cages. As we walked in
those great animals were piled about sleeping quietly like great cats and dogs,
not fierce looking at all. We noticed a sign in the building which said the
animals will be fed at two o’clock. We went on our way, visiting many different
parts of the grounds and seeing interesting things, and after a while we heard a
great noise over in the direction of the building where the lions and tigers
were kept. Looking at the watch we saw it was only ten minutes till the time for
the animals to be fed. We hurried to the building and as we walked in this time,
Were those animals lying asleep? Far from it. They were pacing restlessly back
and forth in their cages, lashing their sides with their tails, and every little
while a lion would almost shake the earth by his awful roar. They were hungry,
eager for something to eat. Soon a man came in with a big basket of beef, cut up
into pieces as big as a man’s head. Did he set the basket down near the cage and
with his bare hands push piece after piece through the iron grating? Not much.
Setting the basket down some ten feet from the cage he took a pitch fork and
hurled a piece of meat way up there at the side of the cage and that hungry lion
sprang from the back of the cage and met it as it touched the grating, jerked it
through and had it almost devoured by the time it reached the floor. This is the
picture that Peter had in mind when he warns Christians to be watchful, because
their adversary, the devil, goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may
devour. And yet, how quietly some people seem to take the warning. They do not
seem to feel uneasy at all. What if I should say to you this evening, "Be
careful when you leave this building, there is a roaring lion out there in the
street, seeking whom he may devour. Do not let him catch you." Do you think I
should need to repeat the warning to make you careful? Some of you would not
leave the building until you thought that beast was either killed or caught, and
yet there is someone seeking you far more dangerous than any brute like that.
Jesus says, "Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation." And again he
says, "What I say unto you I say unto all, watch." So this great duty of
watchfulness is enjoined upon all Christians everywhere by Jesus, the Holy
Spirit and the apostles.

What shall we watch? Watch against the temptations of the wicked one, to see
that he does not lead you into the practice of sin, for the wages of sin is
death, and "the soul that sinneth it shall die." But I wonder if that is all it
means to be a servant of God, just to keep out of mischief, just to keep Satan
from leading us into wrong doing. How much would one of you men give me to go
home with you and be your servant and just keep out of mischief? I stay with you
a month. At the end of that time I come up and say, "I want my pay. I have not
burned your home: I have not damaged any of your furniture. I have not hurt any
of the family. I have not injured any of your stock. I want my pay." You say a
servant who did nothing but keep out of mischief would not be worth the salt he
ate, and you are right, whether he be a servant of men or a servant of God. Some
professed Christians, if you ask them concerning their lives, will say, "I do
not lie, I do not steal, I do not get drunk," as if the whole of a Christian’s
duty consisted simply in keeping out of mischief. Of course a good servant will
do his master no harm, but the question is, What good does he do? And a servant
of God must not only keep out of mischief, watching, against the temptations of
the wicked one, but he must watch also for the opportunities that come to him to
do all the good he can to all the people he can at all the times he can, in all
the ways he can and just as long as he can. In this same epistle we have this
language: "Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord." The Holy Spirit again says, "We are his workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God bath before ordained that we should walk in
them." And the Holy Spirit says, "As we have therefore, opportunity, let us do
good unto those who belong to our church." I see some of you smile, and shake
your heads, as if you thought it didn’t read like that, but do you not know some
people who act as if it read so? Oh, they do not belong to our church, and
therefore we have nothing to do with them. If you never do any good except to
those who think just like you do in religion, or who belong to your church, you
may be a very good sectarian, but you are a mighty poor Christian.

Let’s try that verse again. "As we have, therefore, opportunity, let us do good
unto—those who do good unto us." Again I see some heads shaking and yet, does
not that express the way some professed Christians live, doing good simply to
those who do good to them? Jesus says, "Even sinners do good to those who do
good to them." And if you never do good to any except those who do good to you,
you are no better than sinners.

"But," some professed Christians say, "You invite me to your home, I will invite
you to mine. You compliment me, I will compliment you. You send me a present, I
will send you one. Or you tickle me and I will tickle you." Is that what this
verse teaches? Is that what our duty means, simply to do good to those who do
good to us? I can quote that old verse just as it reads, and this time I will do
so. Listen: "As we have, therefore, opportunity, let us do good unto all men."
There is nothing little nor sectarian about that, just as full and free as God’s
sunshine or sweet, pure air.

Jesus said, "Bless those that curse you, do good to those that hate you, pray
for those who despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the
chil­dren of your Father who is in heaven." And yet, there are people all the
time whining about not having op­portunity to display their wonderful talents.
They say, "Oh, if I just had his opportunity, or her chance, I would do
something great" Do you remember that Jesus said, "He that is faithful in a very
little will be faithful in much, and he that is unjust in a very little will be
unjust also in much." If you do not improve the little opportunities that come
your way, you would not improve- the great ones, should they come. This duty
says, "watch ye," watch for the opportunities that come your way and they will
come thick and fast along the pathway of life, giving you a chance to do good
unto all men. The old Greeks had peculiar ways, though striking, of representing
many things. They pictured opportunity as a woman, they represented her as
having the bottom of her feet covered with wool. What did they mean by this?
Opportunity does not come blustering, making a great noise with her footsteps,
as we men and boys do with our heavy shoes. Her tread is noiseless. You have to
watch carefully or she will get by without your seeing her. They represented
that she had hanging down in front of her face a long lock of hair, while the
back of her head had not a hair on it. What did they mean by this? You must
catch opportunity as she comes, for when she gets by there is nothing to catch
to. Oh, how true is this representation. "Of all sad words of tongue or pen the
saddest are these, It might have been." Some of the keenest regrets that will
come to lost souls will be the remembrance of neglected opportunities of what
they might have been.

God grant that the ghosts of neglected opportunities may not haunt any of us who
are here.

You say that you have never had an opportunity. Perhaps you do not follow the
teaching given here "watch ye," keep your eyes open. Did you ever hear the story
of the two old farmers who met at the village post office and got to discussing
which one had the most rats at his house? Each one maintained stoutly that he
had more rats on his farm than anyone else in all the community. Finally one of
them said, "If you will go home with me I can show you that I have more rats
than you have." The other answered, "I will go home with you, if after that you
will go home with me, for I can show you that I have more rats than you have."
They went to the first farmhouse, and the old man took his friend out to the
crib where the corn was stored, placed him on one side and said, "Now you stay
here and watch, while I go round to the other side and rattle this pole under
there and run them out." He did so, and came back and said, as the rats ran out
all round about, "Now what do you say?" And the other said, "Well you do have a
good many, but I have more than you; now, you come and go home with me." He did
so, and his friend placed him on one side of the crib and said, "Watch while I
go round to the other side and rattle this pole under the crib and make them run
out." He did so, and the rats ran out thick all around the crib, and he called
out to his neighbor, "See any rats?" The other answered back, "Do not see a
rat." The old man thought this was strange, but again he rattled the pole under
the crib and they ran out thicker than ever. Again, he called, "See any rats?"
And the answer came back, "Do not see a rat." The other decided to investigate.
He slipped to the corner of the crib, peeping around where the other was
stationed to watch, and he saw the old man standing there with both eyes shut.
He did not see any rats because he did not want to see any. So it is, with some
loud talkers today who are all the time whining and complaining about having no
opportunities to do things for God and for humanity. They see no opportunities
because they have their eyes shut. They are afraid they will see them. The
second great duty: "Stand fast in the faith." What does this mean? It means,
when once you have taken your stand under the banner of Jesus Christ, stand
there, do not be first in and then out, first hot and then cold, but let people
know where to find you. Seven days in the week, twenty-four hours out of the
day, and as long as life shall last.

What would you think of a horse if you placed him in a pasture where he was
literally up to his knees in clover, and instead of staying in the pasture, he
spent his time jumping the fence out into the road and back into the pasture?
How long would it take him to get fat? You say, he never would get fat. He would
soon lose all the fat he had and get so poor that he could not even jump the
fence.

You may take the finest young fruit tree that can be bought in any nursery; you
may find an ideal spot in which to set it; you may take every pains to see that
it is set just as it ought to be, and if you move it, every week into another
spot just as good, How long will it take it to bear fruit? You say, It never
would bear any fruit. It would not even grow. It would die. You must give it
time to take root downward and to grow upward. You must let it stand fast in one
place, if it is ever to bear any fruit. So it is with Christians. They must
learn how to stand fast in the faith, if they are to bear the fruit of the
Spirit. Steadfastness is necessary to success in any line of life. The old
saying, "A rolling stone gathers no moss," is true, both in religion and in
business.

Another old saying, "Three moves are as bad as a fire." This also is true. You
cannot succeed in any line of life unless you stand fast by your work. There
lived on a farm adjoining my father’s a man about whom the first thing I ever
heard was that he would not work at the same thing two hours in succession. When
that man’s father died, he left him a good farm, well stocked and in good
condition. After the man be­came its owner, if he started to work in his corn,
in a little while he would stop and go to see about his potatoes. After a little
time he would quit that and go to fix the fence—all the time changing from
pillar to post. I lived there long enough to see that farm go to rack and that
man come to poverty. You can’t succeed in anything, even farming, unless you
stand fast by your work. I was in that community three summers ago. Where do you
suppose this man was living? He was an inmate of the county poor house. Stand
fast in the faith if you ever hope to accomplish anything as a Christian.

Some children had a Sunday school picnic. When they had eaten their dinners
under the cool, shady trees, and quenched their thirst with the sparkling waters
of the spring they climbed over a fence into a great pasture where they were
supposed to pick blackberries to take home with them. Each had his basket or
bucket. The berries were plentiful and they began eagerly picking the fruit. But
you know how children are. Someone looked over yonder and cried out, "Oh, just
look what big ones over yonder," and they rushed over there, and someone looked
on ahead, and said, "Oh, look what fine ones over yonder" and they went rushing
over there, and the big berries were always just ahead. All acted thus but one
little boy, who had the biggest bucket of all. He climbed the fence and found a
brier that had some ripe berries on it. He never stopped until he got every ripe
berry on the bush, and then he looked around for the nearest bush that had other
ripe berries on it, and so he con­tinued his work. He knew how to stick to his
bush. I do not need to tell you that he had his bucket piled up full before the
others hardly had the bottom covered. You cannot succeed picking berries, unless
you stick to your bush.

Some of you have read of Stonewall Jackson. Some think he was the greatest of
Southern Generals, and that God in his providence had to take him away that he
might save the Union. You young people know that his name was not "Stonewall,"
his name was "Thomas Jefferson Jackson." How did he obtain the. name
"Stonewall?" It was at the great battle of Manassas. The boys in gray had turned
their backs and were actually running off the field of battle. Gen­eral Bee was
trying to rally his fleeing troops. Look­ing to one side he saw Jackson standing
there alone, with his face toward the foe, ready if need be to fight the whole
army of blue coats singlehanded and alone. Pointing toward Jackson, he called to
his men, "Boys, look yonder at Jackson standing like a stone wall." Those
fleeing gray coats, seeing that one man stand there so brave and bold, got
ashamed to run, they turned around, re-formed those broken lines, raised that
terrible rebel yell, came back in the face of the foe and the greatest victory
of the war up to that time was won, because one man knew how to stand fast in
the face of the foe. In how many places do we find the soldiers of the cross
giving back before the oncoming hosts of sin?

How we need soldiers of the cross with courage like that of Jackson, to stand
fast in the face of the foe, and change seeming defeat into victory, for "if God
be for us, who can be against us?"

But, maybe some of you here are Northern people, and you do not think as much of
Stonewall Jackson as we Southern people do. Well, what do you think of U. S.
Grant? You say, now, there is a General worth talking about. We Southern people
think so too. We could not help it. He made us. Do you remember when they gave
General Grant that splendid army, perfectly equipped and he started to Richmond
and met that little band of ragged, half-.starved gray coats, who tore his
splendid army into fragments until you could hardly find a piece? Did Grant
quit? No! He said, "I’m going to Richmond." They gave him another army bigger
and better than the first. Again they met that little band of half-starved
ragged gray coats, who tore his second army into fragments as they had the
first. Did he quit? Grant said, "I’m going to Richmond." They gave him a third
army bigger and better than either of the others, and he said, "We will fight it
out on this line, if it takes all summer. I’m going to Richmond," and he went to
Richmond, and that is what stopped the rebellion, and saved the Union, and we
Southern people are just as glad of it as any of you Northern folks can be. In
business, in battle, in religion, there is no success except to those who stand
fast. The third great Christian duty, "quit you like men." What does this mean?
Quit means not "stop that," as some of you children may think, because when you
were doing something you ought not, mother said, "Quit." Look in the dictionary
and see. Quit means "behave yourself." And quit you like men, means behave
yourselves like men. Do not act like babies. There is a big difference between
the way a man, a real man, and a baby behaves. I have had some ex­perience with
babies. We have had five of our own. Babies have to be petted. Babies like to
have their own way, and if they do not, you often hear from them, but I would
rather care for a half dozen little fellows 18 inches or two feet long than to
undertake to care for just one great big six foot church baby, who wants to be
petted, who wants to have his way, and you hear from him if he does not get it.
Unfortunately we can­not treat him like we can the little fellows, but I have
thought sometimes it would be splendid if we could. God’s word says to a
Christian, "Behave yourself like a man." Do not go about playing the baby act,
whining and fretting because you cannot have your way about everything. There
are some other people in the world besides you, and they have just about as much
right to their preference and wishes as you have to yours. and it takes someone
with a baby mind and a spoiled disposition to be all the time wanting his way
and his preferences, when other people have as much right to their preferences
as he has to his. Did you ever see the little boy, mother’s darling, who has
always been petted and spoiled by mother, who has had his way about everything,
when he starts to school? Out there with that band of little fellows who have
learned to play the man as they play with each other, and watch mother’s spoiled
darling when some­thing goes differently from what he wishes as he tunes up,
turns away and says, "I will not play unless you play my way." Sometimes he
weighs two hundred pounds, and is playing what we call the game of re­ligion.
Shame on such a travesty of a Christian. There is a big difference between the
way a man and a boy behaves. A boy was out at the wood pile one day cutting
wood. He cut off a big stick that had a knot in it. He knew the stick was too
large to go into the stove, that it must be split, but he thought it would be
too hard to split through the knot, and so he tried to split around it. You know
what that means, if you know anything about splitting wood. He would have to
chop all the way round, and while he was standing there wearing himself out,
trying to find an easy way to split around the knot, his father came and he
said, "What are you doing, son?" The boy said, "I am trying to split this stick
of wood." His father said, "You will never split it like that. Strike at the
knot, right through the middle of it." The boy raised up his axe and came down
with two or three heavy blows right in the middle of the knot and open it came.
I think I know a good many people even in the church, among them some preachers,
who are trying to split around the knot, who do not seem to have the courage to
face difficulties and hard problems like men, but try to play the baby act, when
God says, "Quit you like men." It is the brave heart that always wins. The old
saying is true: "Faint heart never won fair lady." I spent three years in New
England, one year at Yale and two at Harvard. I visited Plymouth, the place
where the Pilgrims landed. I stood on Plymouth Rock, on which the Pilgrims
stepped when they got off the boat on to the bleak New England shore. I saw many
interesting relics that have come down from those pioneer days. They are kept
safely in the mu­seum built there for the purpose. I saw the first cradle ever
made in America, in which a white child was rocked, but I believe that most of
all I enjoyed looking across the arm of the bay into the little village of
Ducksbury and seeing the monument that has been built there in honor of Miles
Standish, the Puritan captain. Some of you young people know the history of
Captain Standish. It was his part, with a few sol­diers, to fight the Indians
and keep them off while the other settlers cleared the ground, planted the crops
and made a living for the others. Miles was not afraid of any band of Indians
that ever walked, but there was one thing of which he was afraid. There was a
sweet faced, fair haired, blue eyed girl that lived in the village, and Miles
loved her, but he was afraid to tell her so, and I suspect that Miles is not the
only man that ever feared under such circumstances. Now, Miles was a plain,
blunt spoken man who could not use flowery language, and the poor fellow had not
learned that the girl does not care whether the old story is told in flowery
language or plain, just so the man has the courage to look her in the eye and
tell her plainly just what he thinks of her. Miles thought that the story should
be told in flowery language, and he knew that he could never do this He could
never say it either with flowers or in flowers, but Miles had a friend, John
Alden, who was not afraid of the girls, and who could say anything, or nothing,
in beautiful language, and Miles went to John and asked him if he would not go
to see the girl for him, and John said, Yes, he would go, he would be glad to
go, and he did, and you know the result. John Alden married the girl and poor
old Miles was left, and he said, "One thing I have learned: if you want a thing
well done, do it yourself." The man who will try to get his grandmother or some
friend to do his courting for him will fail every time, for any sensible girl
despises the man that has not the courage to speak for himself. The same is true
in religion, in business, or in love. If you would make a success, behave
yourself like a man. The fourth duty, "Be strong." God wants strong Christians,
because he has heavy burdens which re­quire broad shoulders. He had dangerous
missions, missions which require brave hearts, and so he says, "Be strong." But
someone says, "Can I just be strong, do I not have to be born that way,
specially gifted with strength?" No. Strength is largely a matter of our own
making. You can be just about as strong physically or spiritually as you are
willing to pay the price of being. The strongest man I ever saw physically would
not weigh as much as I do by fifty pounds. And yet he could handle me and you
and two more like us, and I doubt if any of you could handle me. I am afraid to
tell you what I saw that man do. I do not want you to lose confidence in my
veracity as I tell you the unreasonable feats which I saw him perform. I asked
him to tell me the secret of his strength. He said, "It is very simple. When I
was a boy, I was about like other boys." Great muscles stood out on his limbs
and arms, showing the wonderful strength that he had attained, and he said, "You
see these muscles, you could not buy them with all the money that John D.
Rockefeller and Henry Ford together possess, and nobody can give them to you.
You must build them up yourself. Three things are essential: proper food, proper
exercise, and freedom from disease. I was careful what I ate, simple food, in
moderate quantities, at regular times. Vigorous exercise, regularly taken. Mere
eating will not make a muscle grow. It may furnish the material, but it takes
exercise to grow the muscle. Another essential to physical strength is freedom
from disease. If I should contract typhoid fever, pneumonia, tuberculosis, or
some other like disease, I would soon lose my ap­petite for food, my desire for
exercise, and whatever strength I might possess." This man did not know it but
in giving the secret of physical strength, he also stated truly the secret of
spiritual strength. Proper spiritual food, proper spiritual exercise and freedom
from spiritual disease, which is sin, are absolutely necessary. No other food
will develop spiritual strength, except to feed the soul regularly, either upon
the sin­cere milk of the word, or the strong meat which be­longs to those of
full age. No amount of modern fiction, or current history, or magazine articles,
can be sub­stituted for this God appointed food. Spiritual ex­ercise, the doing
of the things that God enjoins, is as necessary to spiritual strength as
physical exercise is necessary to physical strength. You will never be strong in
prayer unless you practice yourself in praying. You will never be strong in
teaching the Bible unless you exercise yourself in teaching. Some years ago when
Colonel Francis W. Parker announced the pedagogical principle that the way to
learn to do any­thing, was to do that thing, his statement was hailed as a great
modern discovery, and yet the principle in­volved is as old as the human race.
We can never be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might unless we
keep ourselves free from sin. That old be­setting sin which so many people keep
carefully covered up and hidden from every eye but that of God is enough to
prevent one from never becoming spiritually strong. We never can know the
delights of spiritual strength until all on the altar we lay. And the last of
these great duties is perhaps the best of all, "Let all that you do be done in
love." There is no room in a Christian’s heart for hatred of any human being.
Love is the very spirit of Christianity. Jesus taught "thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thine heart." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." He
declared these to be the greatest com­mandments in the law, and he said, "A new
command­ment I give unto you, that you, my followers, love one another as I have
loved you." He said, "Love your enemies, bless those that curse you and do good
to those that hate you." What a world this would be if all Christians so
lived—every thought must be a love thought, every feeling a love feeling, every
purpose a love purpose, every word a love word, every deed a love deed, for all
the law is fulfilled in the one word "love."


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 7: S. THE INDWELLING CHRIST
========================================================================

THE INDWELLING CHRIST

I believe the Bible to be miraculously inspired; that it is infallibly true in
its statements of facts; all au­thoritative in its commands and absolutely
trustworthy as to the fulfillment of its promises. I believe that all scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profit­able for doctrine. I believe that
holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. I be­lieve what
Paul said "which things we speak not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Spirit teacheth." I believe what Paul further said, "If any
man thinketh himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him take knowledge that
the things which I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord Jesus."

I believe that God has in the world three great divine institutions: the home,
the state and the church. I believe the home is for the reproduction and rearing
of human beings; that the state is to protect the life, liberty and happiness of
its citizens; that the church is that institution through which human souls are
to be saved and fitted for the life that lies beyond death. I believe that the
pillar and support of the truth is the church and not some humanly organized
missionary society. I believe that the manifold wisdom of God is to be made
known through the church.

I believe that the law of pardon for an alien sinner is that he must believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart; that he must truly repent of all past
sins.; that he must confess with his mouth his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ;
that by the authority of Jesus Christ he must be baptized into the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; that when he has done these
things, then, and not before, he has the promise that his sins are pardoned or
that he is saved. I believe that such a person, as a Christian, must add to his
faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to
tem­perance patience, to patience godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness love, and that should he do so, there will be
ministered unto him an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. I believe that such a Christian receives the gift of
the Holy Spirit, and that if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none
of his, and that possessing that spirit, he should bear its fruit, which is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and
temperance, and that against one whose life is filled with these things God’s
law has no accusation to bring. I believe that such a person should reflect in
his daily life and character the teachings of Christ as made known to us in the
beatitudes. I believe that all true science and sound philosophy and Christian
faith are in perfect harmony, each one perfectly proper in its own sphere,
neither trespassing upon either one of the others and in no single point
conflicting. The subject of the lecture I am to deliver at this time is "The
Indwelling of Christ." The text upon which it is based may be found in Ephesians
3:17. It reads thus: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."

We are taught in Genesis that in the beginning God created man in his own image.
We are taught in the first chapter of John, that in the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the word was God, and that all things were made by
him, and that without him was not anything made that was made. And Paul teaches
us that God created all things by Jesus Christ.

These scriptures being true, man was not only created in the image of God, but
in the likeness of Christ, for the word of God says that Christ was the
brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person, and so
much alike were God and Christ that Jesus himself said, "He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father." Then, man was made in the image of God and in the
likeness of Jesus Christ, and the devil’s work in this world is to destroy from
the soul of man this image of God and likeness of Christ in which man was
created.

It is like this. A number of workmen were busy tearing down a structure and one
of them happened to strike his elbow against the smooth surface of a plastered
wall and brushed away the dirt and dust which had accumulated there and saw in
this place coloring matter as if there were a picture underneath. He took his
hand and rubbed off a larger space. See­ing there was a picture there, he took
his old handker­chief and rubbed off a great big place and found there was a
most beautiful picture underneath, too pretty, he thought, to be destroyed.
Knowing where an artist lived, he went after this man and brought him, and the
artist carefully cleaned away all the dirt and dust and grime and found a
masterpiece, and down at the lower right hand corner were the initials of one of
the world’s great painters, and yet all this beautiful picture had been entirely
covered up, blotted out by the dirt and dust that had accumulated through the
ages. Thus it is that Satan coming into a human life with the trail of his shame
and the soil of sin, seeks to blot out from the life of man that image of God
and of Christ in which he was created.

Man is a three-fold being. He has a body, a mind and a heart. It is a splendid
thing to have a good strong, healthy body. It is a sad misfortune to have a
weak, crippled body. I went into a community once to assist in a meeting. The
very first day someone said, Brother Calhoun, have you seen uncle, naming a
certain man? Why, I said, I never heard of him. Well, he said, you must be sure
to go to see him. So the next afternoon we went. In a plain, simple room, on a
plain, simple bed, lay a man past middle life, with his limbs all twisted out of
shape by disease. He had not taken a step for more than twenty years. He could
not even feed himself. Almost as helpless as a baby. That was a sad cripple.
Lying there on a table beside the bed was an old leatherback Bible, thumb worn
and dirty from use. And the old man liked to have you turn and read about that
earthly house of our tabernacle being dissolved, and then we would have a house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. He liked to have you read of that
body that Paul says we will have after the resurrection, fashioned like unto the
glorious body of Christ, bearing the image of the heavenly Father, raised in
power, incorruptible, which John says can never feel pain, sickness, nor death,
and tears of joy ran down the old man’s cheeks as we read of that new body which
he someday hoped to have as his. But I have seen sadder cripples than that. I
went into another community once to assist in a meeting. I went home for the
noon day meal with a brother and his wife. As we were leaving the table, the
good woman, old enough for my mother, said, Brother Cal­houn, would you like to
see my baby? I had seen no child. I had heard none mentioned and did not know
there was any, but I said to her, "Yes, sister, I would like to see your baby,
if you would like to have me do so." And she said, "Come with us," and hand in
hand she and her husband walked to a door on the other side of the room and
opening into another room as large as the one in which we were sitting, and
there in a chair beside the fireplace sat a man as large as I am, and perhaps as
old as I then was, a poor driveling idiot that never had spoken a sensible word
in his life and never would. And what that poor mother’s heart wanted to know
was whether the preacher thought that when death claimed her darling, her only
baby, would the clouds that came in across his mind pass away, and would he
shine out and be like others in the sweet by and by. It comforted her soul when
the preacher told her that he believed that all of earth’s imperfections would
be left behind when we enter that home of the soul that Jesus had gone to
prepare. Now, this was a sadder cripple than the man with the crip­pled body,
for a crippled mind is worse than a crippled body.

I have seen worse cases, sadder cripples, than either of these. The causes that
make my heart ache, that wring it with bitter sorrow, are those in which Satan
has done his work, and it is the heart cripples, where the hearts are all
ruined, twisted and filthy with sin and the stain of Satan’s shame. I have two
boys, both of them taller than the father, with minds reasonably bright and
bodies strong, and I had rather have both those boys helpless cripples until
they could never walk a step; I would rather have them both driveling idiots
until they could never speak a sensible word, than to have them with bodies as
strong as Samson’s, and minds as bright as ever Plato or Aristotle had, and
simply stop with that. To have their hearts all marred and blurred and ruined by
sin is worse than to have a crippled body and a crippled mind.

Now, the work of Christ is to destroy the works of the devil. He said, "I am
come to destroy the works of the devil." Perhaps some of you have seen Leonardo
Da Vinci’s great picture "The Last Supper," represent­ing Jesus and the twelve
in that upper room that night before his crucifixion, when he instituted the
Lord’s Supper. Do you know its true history? It takes years to paint a great
picture. They cannot be pro­duced in an hour, or a week, or a month, Or a year
even. Da Vinci worked upon this picture more than twelve years, and when he
first began, naturally Jesus’ figure and face was the central one. All the
others were grouped about that. When he came to paint the face of Jesus he was
unwilling to trust, great as was his genius, his natural powers to produce a
face strong enough and splendid enough to represent the face of Jesus, the
world’s Savior, and he said. "I am going out into this great city and find a
young man, about 30 years of age, with a pure enough and noble enough face to
represent the face of Jesus. I am going to ar­range with him to let me copy his
face upon this can­vas." After a long search, one day he found him, a singer in
one of the great churches of the city. As soon as he saw his face he said, "That
is the face I want." After the service he arranged with the young man to come to
his studio and let him copy his face on the canvas to represent the face of
Jesus. Would not you think that an honor, to have a face pure enough and noble
enough to represent the face of Jesus Christ ! Years passed, ten years and more,
and now the great picture is finished, all but one face, and that’s the face of
Judas, the traitor, and again the artist felt un­willing to trust to his native
powers to produce a face dark enough and sin cursed to represent the face of
Judas, who sold his Master for a few pieces of silver, and again Da Vinci said,
"I am going out into this city and hunt for a face where sin has done its work;
where the devil has blotted out the image of God, and I am going to copy that
face on this canvas to repre­sent the face of Judas." One day in one of the
lowest dives in the city he found a man and the minute he saw him he said, "That
is the face I want." He ap­proached the fellow and said, "I want to hire you."
The man answered, "What will you give?" Never asked what he wanted him to do. He
would do anything for money. Da Vinci named a small sum and the man said, "Lead
on, I will follow." Out from that low, filthy dive they came, into a more decent
street, and by and by they walked into the studio where the great pic­ture had
stood more than a dozen years on the easel, in the same room, and when the man,
following Da Vinci, walked into the room he looked around with a startled glare
at the picture, and said, "Oh, my God, I can’t do that. I can’t do that." Da
Vinci said, "Can’t what?" "Oh," he said, "I know what you want. You want to
paint my face on that picture to represent the face of Judas. My God, man, I
can’t do that." Da Vinci stepped to the door, closed it, locked it, took the key
out and put it in his pocket and said to the trembling wretch, "You can, you
shall, you must." The man pointed with trembling hands and said, "There’s my
face painted as the face of Jesus." He said, "Twelve years ago I sat here in
this very room. You copied my face on that canvas to represent the face of
Jesus, and now you want it to represent the face of Judas." And Da Vinci copied
that face. That is why that pic­ture is today considered one of the world’s
master­pieces. It shows what sin can do. That is not a made up story. That is
true as the word of God. Sin can take a face pure enough and noble enough to
represent the face of Jesus and so blot out from it the image of God as to make
it fit to represent Judas the traitor.

Now, since Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, he wants to come into
our hearts "that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith." Why? He wants to
restore to the soul of man that lost image of God, in which man was created. He
wants to wash away with his own precious blood the stain of sin, the soil of
shame, and restore to the human heart and life that image of God in which man
was made. Is it true, as our text says, that Christ dwells in the heart of a
Christian, "that Christ may dwell in your hearts?" The word "dwell" means "to
live, to make his abode, to stay permanently, not just to visit." Do the
Scriptures teach that Jesus dwells in a Christian’s heart? Listen, Revelation
3:20, Jesus speaking, "I stand at the door and knock. If any man will hear my
voice and open the door I will come in." John 14:23 : "If any man serve me, him
will my Father honor and both my Father and I will come unto him." In John
17:23, Jesus said, speaking of his followers, "I in thee and thou in me."
Galatians 2:20, Paul says, "Christ liveth in me," and Christ is no more expected
to live in Paul than he is to live in every Christian.

2 Corinthians 13:5, speaking to all Christians, "Examine yourselves, whether you
be in the faith, prove your own selves. Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you,
except you be reprobates." Reprobates simply means sinners, outcasts, those not
Christians. This verse says Jesus Christ is in every Christian. Romans 8:10 :
"If Christ be in you."

Galatians 4:19, Paul says, "My little children of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you." And these are not the half of the Scriptures
which teach that Christ dwells in a Christian. So, if I am a child of God, if
you are one, Christ is dwelling, living in us. But someone says, "How can this
be? How can Christ live in a Christian? How can he live in me?" Our text says
"that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith," and God’s word teaches that
this faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17).

So, this Christ who dwells in us by faith is one con­cerning whom we learn from
God’s word and is in­dwelling in no mysterious, uncertain way. It is the Christ
formed in our souls by faith as we learn of Him through the teachings of God’s
holy word, made known through his Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "Come learn of me."
Paul says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." He says
further, "we all with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are changed into the same image," and this Christ who dwells in us is not a cold
intellectual conception simply, not the mere belief of a fact or facts
concerning him, that he once lived and walked about the Sea of Galilee and over
the hills of Judea, but the Christ that dwells in our hearts by faith. This
faith must be made perfect by efforts, for by works is faith made perfect, and
it is a living Christ in harmony with Paul’s teachings (Romans 16:26), when he
teaches that this gospel of Christ is made known for the obedience of faith. So,
it is a Christ, dwelling in us, embodied in a life of obedience, filled with
such deeds of love and kindness and courtesy as Christ himself performed.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said that when two boys, James and John, meet on the
street there are six persons present. How could this be? Well, there is first,
John as John himself. That is John’s John. Then there is John as James sees him.
Sometimes James’ John is a very different John from John’s John, and then there
is that John that God sees, and that is the real John, often quite different
from either of the other two, and of course, there are as many James’ present as
there are Johns’. So, the Christ that dwells in us must be Christ formed in us,
a Christ as God sees him, not simply my Christ, nor your Christ, but God’s
Christ, a Christ dwelling in us. But someone says, “Can’t you make it plainer
that that?” I will try. Php 2:5 : “Let this mind be in you which was also in
Christ Jesus.” With the mind we think and feel and purpose, and if Christ’s mind
is to be in us, the we must think and feel and purpose like Christ. Romans 8:9 :
“If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is not one his.” My spirit must be
like the spirit of Christ, so much so that I can say the spirit of Christ is in
me.

Some years ago a missionary from China sat at my breakfast table and told my
children this story. He said one morning he and his wife were sitting at their
breakfast table and they heard a little baby crying. Sounded like it was just
out the window on the street, and the wife ran to the window, and sure enough,
there lay a little girl baby out in the street, thrown away by its heathen
mother, because little girl babies are not valuable in China where Jesus is not
known. The missionary’s wife ran out and picked the little one up. It did not
seem to be hurt. She brought it in and cared for it. She had a little baby of
her own, almost the same age. She divided the food that God gave for her own
baby with the little heathen baby. Other mothers of the community were
interested and helped and the little baby lived and grew, and may we trace now
and see how Christ came to dwell in this little heathen baby’s heart? It was not
long until it was a great big, healthy, growing baby girl, and the mis­sionary
and his wife taught it, as they did their own little baby; the story of the babe
of Bethlehem, and how the angels were sent that night. when He was born, and how
the wise men, guided by the star, came bringing their gifts of gold,
frankincense and myrrh; and how they worshipped him, and little by little as the
child grew, it became familiar with the story of Jesus. It was learning and
Christ was being formed in its mind until it could see Jesus, who Jesus was and
just how Jesus thought and just how Jesus felt and just how Jesus purposed, and
just how Jesus acted. Years passed by and the image of Christ in the soul of the
child grew stronger, and it saw more clearly, and by and by it was sent to
America and put in a girl’s school where Christ was loved and honored, and it
learned more and more of him. Finally a preacher came to hold a meeting in the
town and the girls from the school attended the meeting. More and more the
little girl had learned, but now she is a great big girl. More and more she had
learned of Jesus until one night at the close of the sermon, when the invitation
was extended, that girl walked down to confess her faith in Christ and crown him
king in her heart and her life. Jesus had come into her heart, by faith and had
taken control, and so it is that Jesus must come into your heart and life and
mine. We learn about him. We see the patience and sweetness of his character and
make that our own.

We are told in 2 Peter 1:4 : "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and
precious promises that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature."
Partakers of the divine nature means sharers in that divine nature and the
divine nature is the Christ nature. So, we must have Christ’s mind in us,
Christ’s spirit in us, Christ’s nature in us, not theoretically simply. 1 Peter
2:21, Christ left us an example that we should follow in his steps. 1 John 2:24
: "He that sayeth I know him ought also to walk even as he walked." So the
Christ that dwells in you and in me must be the living Christ, until our
thoughts and feel­ings and purposes and words and deeds, our nature, our very
life is a reproduction of his, and that is in harmony with modern teaching on
the subject of Christianity.

What do the best modern writers tell us Christianity is? The reproduction of the
life of Christ in the human life. That is what it means to be a Christian.

Someone says, "How can this be?" An old colored man was sitting in his cabin one
day reading the Bible, as he sat by the fire. A white man came along by the
cabin door and said, "What are you doing, uncle?" He said, "I am reading the
Bible." The white man said, "I don’t read the Bible. I don’t believe the Bible
is true. It has contradictions in it." He said, "You read your Bible, can you
explain this to me?" He thought he would trouble the old colored man. "Doesn’t
that Bible tell you that Christ dwells in you. Doesn’t your Bible say you are in
Christ, ’if any man be in Christ he is a new creature?’" He said, "Yes, it do."
He said again, "Can you explain to me how you can be in Christ and Christ in you
at the same time? Isn’t that a contradiction?" The old colored man says, "Boss,
don’t know if I can explain it so you can see it or not, but I’ll try." He took
up the long poker some four feet long, made of iron, from the corner of the
fire­place. He put one end in the fire where the logs were, burning, and sat
still until the end of the poker that was in the fire became red hot, and then
taking hold of the other end of the poker, he lifted it up and says, "Boss, you
see that, now, the fire’s in the poker and the poker’s in the fire," and it was.
Just so it must be with the nature and mind and spirit of Christ. All through
you and me, in our hearts and in our lives must be such feelings, such purposes,
such words and such deeds as Jesus had, and it is in this way, not in some
mysterious incomprehensible manner, but in this way that Christ is to dwell in
our hearts by faith. And then the question: Why does Christ want to dwell in our
hearts? Following our text is this lan­guage: "That Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith, that you may be able to know what is the breadth and length and
depth and height of the love of Christ." Oh, how narrow and short and shallow
and low are the ideas that some have of what it means to be a Christian. It goes
but little farther with some than to say perhaps twenty-five years ago I was
baptized, no change in the life. Standing that person up by the side of a man
outside of the church, you would not be able to detect enough difference to tell
which was the Christian and which not. Is that all it means to be a Christian,
simply that somebody baptized you years ago? Or, is your life Christ like, so
that people who see you can see Christ in you and would recognize you and me as
they did Jesus’ disciples of old, that they had been with Jesus. But that is not
all. Not only that we may know what is the breadth and length and height and
depth of the love of Christ, but the next verse says "that we may be filled with
all the fullness of God." How empty the lives of some people are. You could dig
down into the hearts of some men and you wouldn’t find any­thing there but a
little office, a little worldly business engrossing all their powers and
thoughts. Business and affairs that will pass away in a few years and be as if
they never had been, and yet a human soul with infinite powers and eternal
existence will satisfy itself upon these empty things. Dig down into the hearts
of some women and you will find nothing there but the latest style of dress and
hat, or the latest forms of polite society, how to have an entertainment
up-to-date. "That Christ may dwell in your hearts that you may be filled with
all the fullness of God." A young man was studying to be an artist, a painter.
He studied for years under an old teacher, and then set up a studio of his own.
He had dreamed dreams, as all artists do, that some day he would paint a
masterpiece, and after working several years in his own studio he said, "The
time has come when I must paint my picture." And so, when canvas had been
stretched, palette and paint ready, he began the out­lines of what he hoped
would be a masterpiece. One day he was out of the studio, leaving brush and
paint and picture just begun. While he was gone the old teacher who had known
his heart and mind and aspira­tions all through the years, came in, studied that
out­line for a little while, and then dipping the brush into the fresh paint, in
big rough letters, entirely across the face of the picture he wrote
a-m-p-l-i-u-s, amplius, the Latin word that means "wider." Laying down his brush
he went his way. Soon the young artist came in and at once saw the picture with
the rough letters across its face, and said, "Who dared spoil my pic­ture like
that," and then he looked carefully and said, "Oh, the master has been here, the
teacher, it must have been he," and then he spelled out those letters
a-m-p-l-i-u-s, wider. What did he mean? Can he mean that my picture is too
narrow and too cramped in this perspective, that I need a wider view? He must
have meant that, and so the young artist painted over that outline as artists
know how to do, and be­gan his picture anew, with a wider view, and he did paint
one of the world’s masterpieces.

We are all painters, painting not on canvas that will some day crumble back to
dust like that artist was painting on, but painting on the enduring canvas of
the human soul, our own soul’s picture of Jesus Christ, the most beautiful
picture of which the human soul can conceive, and I wonder if our teacher, who
is Jesus himself, as he looks upon our work, would not, in many instances, say
"Amplius," wider. Our con­ceptions of Jesus and what it means to be a Christian
are so narrow, so short, so low, so shallow, so cramped, not filled with all the
fullness and blessings of God. That is why Jesus wants to come into and dwell in
every Christian’s heart.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 8: S. WHAT JESUS CHRIST MAY BE TO A HUMAN SOUL
========================================================================

WHAT JESUS CHRIST MAY BE TO A HUMAN SOUL The subject of my fifth and final
lecture in this course is, "What Jesus Christ May be to a Human Soul," based
upon a text found in Matthew 1:21, which reads thus: "Thou shalt call his name
Jesus for it is he that shall save his people from their sins."

I shall begin this lecture by asking a question, a very personal question, which
I hope each one of you will answer, not out loud, but answer in your own heart,
remembering that God and yourself both know whether or not your answer is true.
Some of you will be glad to answer the question, will think it a privilege to do
so. Others I fear will not like to tell even their own souls the exact truth
about themselves. Please do not be too generous with the question. Do not pass
it over your shoulder to the one behind you. If you do, he may pass it over his
to the one behind him, and soon it will be out of doors. An old colored preacher
told his audience that many of them were going to be lost because they were too
generous, they gave away too much. They thought this was strange talk to come
from a preacher, telling people they were too generous. They asked him for an
explanation, and he said, "You are too generous with the sermon. You are
perfectly willing to give it all away to someone else and keep none for
yourselves." In this respect I fear the old man was correct. Please do not be
too generous with this lecture, with this question, and here it is: What is
Jesus Christ to your soul just now? Not, what might he be? Not, what is he
willing to be? Not, what would I like to have him be, but, what is he as the
case now stands? Some of you will an­swer gladly, "Jesus is everything to me. He
is all the world to me. He is my Savior from the death which is the wages of
sin," but some of you cannot say that. Some of you, if you tell your own hearts
the truth, will have to say, "Jesus is nothing to me. As the case stands just
now, I have no part, nor lot with him. I have no interest in him. He is nothing
to me." For, the first thing that Jesus has to be to any human soul, is that
which my text suggests: "A Savior of that soul from sin and death." "Thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for it is he that shall save his people from their sins."
This is not said of any other person in all history. It was never said of any
pa­triarch, prophet or apostle. It was never said of Moses, Elijah, nor Paul. Of
Jesus, only is it said, "He shall save his people from their sins." And Jesus is
not your Savior just because he is will­ing to save you. I know that it is
written "this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will
have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." And I
know it is written again, "the Lord is not willing that-any should perish." And
again, "Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners." And I know that Jesus himself said, "I
came to seek and to save that which is lost." "Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Neither is Jesus your Savior just
because he is able to save you. I know that it is written, "He is able to save
unto the uttermost, all who come unto God by him." But these two facts put
together, that Jesus is both willing and able to save your soul, does not make
him your Savior. He says, "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone will hear my
voice and open the door, I will come in." He will knock at the door of every
human heart, yours and mine, but it is our place to open the door and let him
in, for he never comes where he is not wanted. He never breaks down the door and
forces himself upon a heart that does not want him. Jesus is not your Savior
from the death that is the wages of sin, how­ever willing and able he may be,
unless you have opened the door of your heart and let him come in, unless you
have accepted him as your own personal Savior, unless you have crowned him as
king of your heart and life. For there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus, and he says, "No man
cometh unto the Father but by me, and without me you Can do nothing." It has
been my privilege to visit Niagara Falls several times. On one of my visits the
guide pointed out to me the sport, and told me the story, of how a young man was
saved there so wondrously from drowning. I have stood by the falls and listened
to the thunderous roar of that mighty river as it plunges over that awful
precipice. I have thought that the sound was like unto him whose voice is as the
sound of many waters. I have watched the play of the colors of the rainbow
formed in the mist, rising from the waters below; but some people think that the
rapids and the great whirlpool down below the falls are a greater sight than the
falls, them­selves. The young man had seen the falls and then he went down below
to see the rapids. He came down the long flight of steps from the bank above to
the inner bank and sat down with his feet hanging over the rolling, boiling
waters, as they were getting ready for that frightful plunge down through the
rapids. No one knows how it happened, not even the young man himself, but
somehow as he sat there watching those whirling, eddying waters, his head began
to swim and all at once he plunged headlong into the mighty current that swept
him down toward the rapids and certain death. Someone saw him when he fell. He
was an expert swimmer, and, with strong, manly strokes, he struck out boldly,
fighting for his life, but in spite of all he could do, he was swept by the
mighty current, underneath the shelving bank and caught to the jutting fragment
of a rock and held on for dear life. Someone saw him when he caught and said,
What can we do to save him? Why not get in a boat and go down and get him? No
boat could live in water like that. Why not let a rope down and let him take
hold of that? But the rope would not reach him, he was back under the bank.
There was just one way to save him. Someone must go down a rope ladder, swing
out to where he was and reach out the saving hand. Ah, but who would do it? A
crowd gathered on the bank above, the rope ladder was made and let down to the
-water’s edge, and a volunteer was called for and an old sailor, who happened to
be home on furlough, volunteered and said that he would go down, and the crowd
almost held their breath, as down that dizzy height, more than a hundred feet,
he swung, came down to the water, swung out to where the young man was, almost
exhausted, and ready to fall into the current which meant certain death, and the
sailor said, "Take hold, I have come to save you." What would you have .thought
if that young man in meas­ured, courteous tones, had answered, "I am very much
obliged to you for the interest you have manifested in me. I really appreciate
it, and I will think the matter over, and some day perhaps I will accept your
help, but I am not ready now." You say nobody but a fool would have made an
answer like that. How eagerly he laid hold of the only hand that ever would be
stretched out to him to save him! Long years ago the angels of God looked over
the battlements of heaven, saw man as he fell into that awful current of sin,
sweeping down to eternal death. They saw him as he caught, for a time, on the
jutting fragment of life and they said, What can we do to save him? There was
just one way. Somebody who loved him well enough would have to come down and
reach out the saving hand. A volunteer was called for and amid all the serried
hosts of snow white angels that sur­rounded the throne of God, not one was
found.

Then Jesus, God’s only Son, stepped out and said, "I will go," and out to this
old world he came and he is here now, sinner friend, reaching out the only hand
that ever will be stretched out to you with power to save, for there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Will you not
accept him, here and now, as the Savior of your soul from that death which is
the wages of sin. But Jesus may be more to a human soul than the Savior of that
soul from the death which is the wages of sin. He may be also the deliverer of
that soul from the power of sin and temptation, enabling one to fight
success­fully the battle of life and to come off more than conquerer.

Remember that Jesus said, "Without me you can do nothing"; that God’s word says,
"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation"; and that Paul
declared, "Christ gave himself for us that he might deliver us out of this
present evil world"; and the Holy Spirit says, "God is faithful who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will with the
temptation also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it." And you
and I need Christ as the deliverer of our souls, just, as much as we need him as
the Savior of our souls, for there is no one among us who tries to live the
Christian life but finds his own experience like that of Paul, who cried out,
"When I would do good, evil is present with me, and the good that I would, I do
not, and the evil that I would not, that I do, for I see another law in my
members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the
law of sin which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me?" Do you remember his answer? Have you not felt as he did that when you would
do good evil was present with you; that the good you wanted to do, somehow you
did not do? Have you not cried out, "Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me?" Do you remember Paul’s an­swer, "I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord, thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ." If you go out to fight the battle of life trusting simply in your own
prowess, trusting in your own strong arms, relying upon self, you will fail, for
Jesus says, "Without me you can do nothing. No man cometh unto the Father but by
me." And you and I must learn to say, as Paul said, "Strengthened with might by
his spirit in the inner man, I can do all things through Christ who
strengtheneth me." Do you remember the time when Saul and his army encamped on
one mountain while the Philistine army encamped on another with a narrow valley
between? Do you remember how the old giant Goliath, more than nine feet tall,
with a spear staff big as a weaver’s beam, clad in a coat of mail from head to
foot, came out into the valley between the two armies, each day for forty days
and challenged the army of Israel to send out a man to meet him in single
combat, saying to the army of Israel, "If your cham­pion conquers me, we
Philistines will be your servants, but if I conquer him, then you Israelites
shall be our servants, and there was not found in all the army of Saul any man
who would go out to meet him. At the end of forty days David, the shepherd boy,
came from his Bethlehem home, only a few miles away, to bring his brothers who
were in Saul’s army, food, and to inquire as to their welfare. David reached the
camp just as the haughty old giant came out with his boast­ful challenge and
David said, "Who is this uncircum­cised Philistine, that he should defy the
armies of the living God? I will go out to meet him." David’s brothers thought
that David was entirely too pert, entirely too forward, too important in his own
sight, and they said to him, "You had better go back and take care of those few
sheep that you left at home." But David said he would go and fight Goliath and
Saul heard of his willingness to go, and sent for him, and when he found that
David was not trusting in his own strength, or relying upon the might of his own
arm for victory, but trusting in the God of Israel, and when David had told him
that when a lion came out to steal away a lamb, and when a bear came out to kill
a sheep, that God had enabled him to kill both the lion and the bear, and that
through God’s help, he could overcome this boastful Philistine, Saul said, "Go,
my son, and may the God of Israel be with you." And you remember how David, the
shepherd boy, armed with nothing but the stick with which he drove the sheep,
and the sling and the five smooth stones which he picked up as he crossed the
brook, and dropped into the shepherd’s bag which hung at his side, went out to
meet the great old giant. Goliath saw him coming, saw the stick in his hand, saw
him pick up the five smooth stones and he mocked David, saying, "Am I a dog,
that you come out against me with sticks and stones," and then he boasted,
saying, "Come to me and I will give your flesh to the fowls of heaven and to the
birds of the air." David answered, "You come to me with a sword and a spear and
a shield, but I come unto thee in the name of the God of Israel, whose army thou
hast defied and he will deliver thee into my hands." And you know how the stone
sped from the sling, smote the giant in his fore­head and he fell dead at
David’s feet.

Just a picture of the great battle of life that each Christian soul must fight
against the giants of tempta­tion that so thickly beset life’s pathway, and woe
be to the Christian soul that goes out to fight against these temptations,
trusting simply in himself. In order to win the victory we must go out as David
did, trust­ing in Israel’s God, and saying, "He will deliver us and bring us off
more than conquerors." So Jesus must be not only the Savior of the soul from the
death that is the wages of sin, but the deliverer of that soul from the power of
sin, enabling us to fight successfully the great battle of life and to say with
Paul, "Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ." And you remember that when the death angel was to pass through the land
of Egypt one night, God saved his people, Israel, from death by the blood of the
Passover lamb, and also he delivered them from the bondage and bitterness of
servitude, under Pharaoh, the cruel king. So, God saves the sinners from that
death, which is the wages of sin by the blood of the Lamb of God, which takes
away the sins of the world, even Christ, who is our Passover, and he also
delivers this one from the bondage and wretchedness of sin, by his Son, for
Christ gave himself for us that he might deliver us out of this present evil
world, but if Christ is your Savior from the death that is the wages of sin, and
your deliverer from the bondage and power of sin, enabling you to fight
successfully the battle of life, he may be much more than that to your soul. For
he, himself, says, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me."

What does Jesus mean when he says, "I am the way"? He means that if you and I
wish to know the way to be a Christian, look at him. We must learn to take life
as he takes it, to think thoughts like his, to cherish feelings like his, to
harbor purposes like his, to talk and act even as he did, for I am not a
Christian, neither are you any further than we are making our lives like the
life of Christ. "If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his,"
and Christ left us an example that we should follow his steps. Some people say,
"One preacher tells me one thing and another preacher tells me something
dif­ferent, and still another something different from each of the others. All
seem to be equally honest, and equally intelligent, and if those preachers
cannot agree among themselves about what the right way is, when they have
nothing to do but study the Bible all the time, how can they expect one situated
as I am, to know which way is right? I would like to be a Christian. I have
great respect for Jesus and the Bible, but I simply cannot know which way is
right.

Listen, friend, the Bible nowhere says, "the preacher is the way, follow him."
Do not follow this preacher, nor any other preacher, for all preachers make
mis­takes, but Jesus said, "I am the way, follow me." And Jesus made no
mistakes, and if you and I will follow him, we shall make none.

Once I was riding horseback along a road and I came to a big staked and ridered
fence which had been built directly across the road, completely stopping the
only way which I knew, and the road turned out into the woods. I knew enough of
that part, of the country to know that it was some five or six miles through
that river bottom, with its heavy timber, before I could reach a clearing or a
house. I did not know the way through, and if I had been like some people who do
not want to start into a thing, even Christianity, until they can see their way
through, I would have been sitting there yet, if I had not been dead, because I
could not see all the way through that thick woods. And I did not need to do so.
I looked out just a little way and saw a tree with a big blaze on it, and I knew
that meant "Come this way." I rode on toward it and before reaching it, I saw on
beyond another tree with a blaze and before I reached that I saw another, and I
rode on through the entire distance without ever having to stop even once, and
came out all right on the other side. Someone had gone on ahead and blazed out
the way, and all I had to do was to follow the road marked out for me. So Jesus
has passed through this old world and has blazed out the way that leads home to
heaven, for each one who will follow him. Perhaps all of you know what it means
to march Indian file. You know that the old Indian chieftain went ahead of his
warriors and the warriors followed, each one behind the other, and fifty or a
hundred men could march through the: snow and when you looked back, it looked
like the track of one man, for each warrior had put his foot down in the
footprint of his chieftain.

Now, Jesus is called the captain, the chieftain of our salvation, and the part
of every Christian soldier is to follow the footprints of Jesus. The old song
runs thus, "Are you walking in his footsteps, as he bids you daily do? Do you
follow after Jesus as the Bible tells you to?" This is what it means when Jesus
says, "I am the way." Not that you and I go back to Pales­tine, look around the
Sea of Galilee, seeking to find his footsteps in the sand and put our feet in
them, but. as we go through life we take it as he took it, we think, feel,
purpose, talk and act as Jesus did. This is what he meant when he’ said, "I am
the way, fol­low me." When I was a boy in school we used to play a game called,
"Follow the leader." Some strong, active, splen­did runner was chosen as the
leader, and the game was to follow him wherever he might go. No matter where he
led, how wide the ditch he jumped, how steep the bank he climbed, whatever he
did, each one must follow him. So, the Christian life is but the game of "Follow
the leader," and that leader is Jesus, and I am not a Christian, neither are you
any further than we are following Jesus in every act of our lives. A little boy
came to his father one day and said, "Daddy, how many legs would a dog have if
you should call his tail a leg?" The father said, "Why, son, I suppose if you
called his tail a leg, he would have five." The little boy answered, "Why,
daddy, do you not know better than that? He would not have but four." And the
little boy was right. You might call a dog’s tail a leg all day, but that would
not make it one, and so it is with us. Calling one a Christian does not make him
one. It is all right to call him a Christian, if he is one, but merely to call
him one does not make him one No one is a Christian any further than he is
reproducing in himself the life of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the modern definition
of Christianity is true, and is expressed thus, "Christianity, the life of Jesus
Christ, reproduced in a human life, so that our thoughts, feelings, purposes,
words and deeds are like his." Whenever I have a thought, a feeling, or purpose,
or speak a word or do an act, that Jesus would not do, if he were in my place. I
am just that far off the way of being a Christian.

Mr. Sheldon was right in that little book which he wrote, "In His Steps," or
"What Would Jesus Do?" when he said, "The simple rule of life for a Christian
before he does anything is to ask, What would Jesus do, and then do to the very
best of his ability just what Jesus would do, thus walking in his steps." But
that is not all. Jesus is not simply the Savior of the soul from the death which
is the wages of sin, and the deliverer of that soul from the power of sin and
temptation, and the way of life, showing you and me just how to walk, even as he
walked, but he says, "I am the light of the world, and he that followeth me
shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." So, Jesus must be
to your soul, not only Savior, deliverer and way, but also the light of that
way, making life’s pathway bright for every step which you take. A road, a way,
may be dark, and it is not pleasant to travel along a dark road, especially if
you have never been that way before, when you do not know but what the next step
might land you in a ditch. I am glad the Christian does not have to walk in the
dark­ness, for Jesus said, "He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but
shall have the light of life." I believe in a religion that makes life’s pathway
bright about us. I read in the Bible that "the pathway of the just is as the
shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." And the beloved
John says, "If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fel­lowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all
sin."

I do not believe in a religion of darkness and gloom. I believe that God made
more sunshine than he did clouds; that he loves a smile just as well as he does
a frown, and I believe that God’s word says, "Rejoice in the Lord always," and
that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace." I believe in a religion that
makes life’s pathway bright. But I imagine someone is ready to say, "Oh, Brother
Calhoun, you do not know what I have to bear, or you would not say that. You
talk about life’s pathway al­ways being bright, and about rejoicing always, you
do not know the load I have to carry, or you would not say that." No, dear
heart, I do not know the load you have to bear, for no human heart can know what
another human heart feels, and I have not said that there is no burden to bear.
I know well that God’s book says, "Every man shall bear his own burdens." I have
not said there was no cross to carry, for I know well that Jesus said,
"Whosoever doth not take his cross daily cannot be my disciple." But I am here
to say that if you follow Jesus, he says, "He that fol­loweth me shall not walk
in darkness, but shall have the light of life." This can but mean that you may
learn to bear your burdens, to carry your cross, even with a smile, and to look
up through your tears and kiss the hand that smites and say, "We know that all
things work together for good to those who love God." When I was a little boy I
used to walk along some­times and notice that I was stepping in my shadow. Every
time my foot came down it landed in the shadow. I used to try to step over the
shadow, to reach beyond it. I could not do so. I used to run and jump and see if
I could not get away from the shadow. I would land in the shadow every time.
After a while I noticed that when I was walking in my shadow it was when I had
my back to the sun, and if I would face about and walk toward the sun, the
shadows would lie behind me. No matter how slowly I might go, they would never
catch up, even if I went at a snail’s pace, every step was in the light of the
sun.

Since I have been a Christian sometimes I have walked in the shadows. Every time
my foot came down it landed in the shadow, but after a while I noticed that
when, as a Christian, I was walking in the shadow, it was when I had my back
turned to him who is called the Sun of Righteousness, and that if I would turn
my face toward Jesus the shadow would lie behind me and if I would follow Jesus
faithfully, it was like he said, "He that followeth me shall not walk in
darkness."

One day an old man came into a young people’s prayer meeting where the young
folks were talking about their religious experiences. Many of them did not seem
to be very happy. For many, life seemed rather gloomy. The old man sat in the
back of the room and listened till he could stand it no longer, then stepping to
the front he said, "My dear young friends, let me talk a little. I do not like
these gloomy ex­periences. You do not seem to be having the joy, the light and
sweetness that a Christian ought to have," and he said, "I am just back from the
mountains out yonder in the west, that God piled up, those great old rookies
like a stairway to the skies. They pointed out to me the tallest mountain of
all, and said I should see the sun rise from its summit. One night I climbed up
to the little half-way house, the little hotel built way up there on the
mountainside, rested for a while, and then in company with a guide, started on
to the summit to see the sun rise. We had not been gone very long when a thick
cloud gathered round about us, the lightning flashed, the thunder roared, the
rain fell in torrents, and the darkness, thick as midnight, gathered round us
and I said to the guide, ’We had just as well go back, we cannot see the sun
rise on a morning like this,’ but with a strong, cheery voice that guide
answered, ’Just follow me, we will come out all right yet.’ On through the
darkness and the storm we climbed, higher and still higher, till after a while
we got above the clouds, and we came out where nothing intervened between us and
the over­arching blue of heaven, from which the stars were looking down like
angel eyes, keeping watch over the sleeping world. We climbed on to the summit
and standing there we watched the glorious old sun as he came riding over the
eastern hilltops in his chariot of gold, flooding the world with light and
beauty. We had gotten above the clouds. Down yonder in the valley was the same
old storm cloud, with its lightning flash and thunder roar and raindrops still
falling, but we had gotten above the clouds. And so, as we climb up toward the
everlasting hills of God, if clouds of sorrow gather round about us, and the
raindrops of tears fall thick and fast in life’s pathway, just listen to the
voice of your guide, Jesus, as he says, ’He that followeth me shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life.’ " And the old man’s advice was
good. If clouds of sorrow and darkness gather about us, let us climb a little
closer toward God and heaven, and the higher up toward God we climb, the fewer
will be the clouds that intervene between us and the loving face of him who is
called the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in his beams.

So, Jesus must be the Savior of the soul from the death which is the wages of
sin, the deliverer of the soul from the power of sin, the way of life for the
human soul, and the light of that way, making life’s pathway grow brighter and
brighter, even to the per­fect day, till we reach that land where there is no
need of the sun by day, nor the moon by night, for the Lord God gives them light
and we shall dwell for­ever in the sunlight of his unending love.

What may Jesus Christ be to a human soul? The half has not yet been told, as to
what Jesus may be to a human soul, nor have I time to tell even the half of what
Jesus Christ may be. I wish. I had time to speak of him as the truth. You
remember he said, "I am the truth." He taught the truth, even his enemies said,
"Never man spake like this man." He lived the truth. Even the cold, critical
Pilate, after three ex­aminations, had said, "I find in him no fault at all." Is
it not splendid to know that in this world where there is so much of falsehood
and deceit, there is one who speaks the truth and lives the truth, and says,
"Come to me."

I wish I had time to speak of him as our great prophet. You know that Moses
said, "A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from among your
brethren like unto me, and every soul that will not hear that prophet shall be
destroyed from among the people." And Jesus is that Prophet.

I wish I had time to speak of him as our Great High Priest, who, with his own
precious blood, entered heaven itself, there obtained eternal redemp­tion for
our sins. So much so that God says, "Their sins and their iniquities will I
remember against them no more forever."

I wish I had time to speak of him as the King of Kings, the Lord of Glory, the
one before whom the angels who accompanied him as he took his flight from this
earth, and went to sit down at the right hand of God till every foe should be
brought in sub­jection to his scepter of love, sang, those angels, as they drew
near to those gates of gold that swung wide on their hinges of pearl, "Lift up
your heads, 0, ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the King
of Glory will come in," while the angels around the throne answered back, "Who
is this King of Glory?" And as he took his seat upon that throne where he sits,
ever making intercession for us, all the hosts of heaven join in saying, "The
Lord of Hosts, he is the King of Glory."

I wish I had time to speak of him as the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful
Counsellor, the Mighty God.

I wish I could speak of him as the Lily of the Val­ley. Do you know why that Old
Testament writer, speaking of him, calls him the Lily of the Valley, the fairest
among ten thousand, the one altogether lovely. What more fitting symbol of that
one whose life was whiter than the whiteness of the lily, and the pure gold of
whose love was purer than any gold that earth ever saw.

I wish I had time to speak of him as the Rose of Sharon. Do you know why that
Old Testament writer, looking down through 800 years said, "He is the Rose of
Sharon"? Did you ever hear the old saying, "There is never a rose without a
thorn"? It is a falsehood. On the lovely plain of Sharon, in the land of
Palestine there grows a rose, beautiful and shapely of petal, bright with the
colors of the rainbow, and sweet as. heaven’s breath of perfume, your hand may
pluck, with perfect freedom, this rose of Sharon, for there is no thorn upon it,
and that is why Jesus, hundreds of years before he was born, was called the Rose
of Sharon. No hand was ever hurt, or ever will be, that lays hold upon the hand
of Jesus Christ.

I wish I had time to speak of him as the Good Shepherd. He says himself, "I am
the good shepherd and I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, I lay down my life
for the sheep." It was David who wrote, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not
want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still
waters." I think in this land of ours we hardly know how to appreciate this
language. Yes, we have sheep. Usually they are put in a pasture with a fence
around it and left to look out for them­selves. Not so in that land. Every flock
had its shep­herd. The shepherd watched over his flock by day and by night,
keeping away the robbers that came to steal, the wild beasts that came to kill
and to tear. He led his flock into pastures green and beside waters still, so
that they could say, "I shall not want. I will not fear."

Switzerland is a land of sheep, where every flock has its shepherd. One day a
Swiss shepherd led his flock out into the little valley where they had fed many
a time before. The grass was short, cropped by the teeth of many animals, the
waters of the stream were muddy, stirred by the trample of many feet. Today the
shepherd left his flock and climbed up the mountain­side, watching his sheep all
the time. He climbed up today higher than he had even been before, watching his
sheep, for he loved them. Away up there on the mountain-side he came out into a
beautiful little moun­tain valley, several acres in extent, where the rich
tender grass was growing uncropped by the teeth of animals, where the water that
burst out from the heart of the mountain, from a silver spring, ran across the
meadow in clear sparkling pools and then dashed itself into spray and foam on
the rocks below. As the shepherd looked at this scene of beauty and loveli­ness,
he said, "Oh, what a splendid pasture for my sheep. I must get them up here
somehow. And he went down into the bosom of the flock and called them. They knew
his voice and they followed, followed up the mountain as far as they had ever
been and a little further, but sheep are timid. They do not like to travel over
new roads, and so they stopped and would not follow any further. Then the
shepherd went down below and tried to drive them, but they would not go with
him, they ran round him, and he said, "What shall I do? I must get them there
somehow." He went into the midst of the flock and there was an old mother sheep
there that had a little tender lamb, just a few days old, and the shepherd loved
the little lamb, and he loved the mother sheep too. Tenderly as a mother might
take her babe to her bosom, he took that little lamb into his own loving arms,
pressed it against his heart and started climbing up the mountain. You know what
that mother sheep did. She kept right at his heels, and though the way was
rugged and steep, he climbed on and on until after a while he came out into the
little mountain valley and set the lamb down unharmed in the rich tender grass,
beside the cool sparkling waters, and when he turned round there was the mother
sheep, and there were all the other sheep, too. I have seen that many a time.
One day our good shepherd Jesus left his little flock feeding an the short grass
and drinking the troubled waters of this old world, and he climbed up the
everlasting hills of God till he came out into the sweet fields of Eden where
the flowers never fade, where the spark­ling waters of the river of life, clear
as crystal, flow out from underneath the snow-white throne of God, where the
tree of life grows on either bank of the river, yielding its fruit every month,
and the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations, in that land of
the unsetting sun, and as he looked over this scene of beauty and loveliness, he
said, "Oh, what a splendid pasture for my sheep. I must get them up here
somehow," and he comes down into the bosom of the flock and calls us and
sometimes we will not be driven, and I have seen him come and take into his arms
a precious little babe, a darling little lamb, a sweet little flower, sent to
brighten the hearts and make glad the lives in some home, and I have seen the
good shepherd as he bore this lamb away into the sweet fields of Eden because he
loved his sheep, and he loved the little babe, and he knows that the ties of
love broken here on earth are welded to the throne of God up yonder, for he
says, "Where thy treasure is there will thy heart be also." It was but the call
of the good shepherd as he sought to win our hearts from the things of this
earth and bind them with cords of love to the treasures laid up above. It is not
every time a little babe. Sometimes it is a pure, lov­ing wife. Sometimes a
brave, noble husband, but al ways in love and never in anger, does he take our
loved ones away. It is the call of the shepherd to set your hearts on things
above. Sometimes it is dear old mother, whose hair is white with the snows of
many winters, whose face is wrinkled, and whose hands tremble, and yet, there
never was a lover’s touch quite so tender, or a lover’s kiss quite so true as
mother’s, and the world never has seemed the same since the Good Shepherd came
and took mother away, and we sang, "Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on his
gentle breast." I doubt if there is a family repre­sented here to which the Good
Shepherd’s call has not come as he has taken away our treasures from earth, laid
them up in that heaven above which he asks us to accept as the gift of his love.


========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-hall-calhoun/
========================================================================