Quiet Talks on Service Part 14

He Has You on His Heart.

I got a similar story from Dr. James H. Brookes of St. Louis, a number of years ago while in his home over night. It was about J. Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, who had learned through many years of trusting how faithful G.o.d is. Mr. Taylor had been speaking in Dr. Brookes'

church, and was to go to a town in southern Illinois to speak at the Sabbath services. Sat.u.r.day morning they went down to the railroad station to get the train, and stepped into the station just as the train was pulling out at the other end. There was no possible chance of catching it.

It seemed all the more exasperating that they could see the train moving away out of reach.

Dr. Brookes of course felt much chagrined. Mr. Taylor being a stranger in the country, and the guest of Dr. Brookes, had trusted his arrangements.

Inquiries were quickly made about other trains. But there would not be another train out that way until night. And as they were questioning and talking the station-master said, "There's that train over there; it runs into Illinois and crosses another road down to where you want to go. They are supposed to make connections, but they never do." Dr. Brookes said he went off to make further inquiries, and coming back in a few moments was surprised to find Mr. Taylor standing on the rear platform of the train that never made the connection.

He said, "Why, Mr. Taylor, that won't make the connection." And Mr.

Taylor smiled and in his very quiet way said, "Good-bye, Doctor, my Father runneth the trains." That seemed to sound well for a sermon. But to Dr.

Brookes' misgivings there came again the quiet "Good-bye, Doctor, my Father runneth the trains." After starting Mr. Taylor explained the situation to the conductor, the importance of his engagement, and of making the desired connection, hoping the trainman might be of some service. The man hoped he would get the train, but said it was very doubtful as they rarely did. Mr. Taylor thanked him, and sat quietly praying.

Was the connection made? As Mr. Taylor's train pulled in the other was standing at the station. The conductor said, "Well, there it is, but I didn't expect it." There was quite enough time to get across the platform without hurrying and into the other train when it moved off. Was G.o.d in that? I have no difficulty at all in understanding that He was. What concerned His friend, in a strange land, on an errand for Himself surely concerned Him. What concerns any trusting child of His concerns Him, for He has us on His heart.

I recall a personal experience in Boston one summer day. It was a very hot day. I was to meet my mother and sister in the North Union station, where we were to take a train out. I had their tickets. I reached the station from my errands, hot and tired and with my head aching, ideal conditions for worry. As I stepped into the station I realized at once that our appointment to meet was not very definite. For the large station was crowded. There was not much time before our train would go. And I commenced to be agitated, which is a gentler way of saying worried. What _would_ I do? It would be extremely inconvenient, especially for my mother, to miss the train. And the time was short, and--and--.

You see I was not a _graduate_ in this don't-worry school. I'm not yet; still studying; expect to enter for post work when I do graduate. The school is still open; open to all; instruction given _individually_ only; the Teacher has had long _experience_ Himself on the earth, in the thick of things.

Well, I said as I stood a moment in the thick crowd, "Master, you know where they are. Please take me to them. Maybe I should have been more careful about the appointment, but I was tired at the start. Please--thank you." And in less time than it takes to tell you I met them right in the thick of the great crowd. And I felt sure that Peter got his putting of it straight when he said of the Master, "_He has you on His heart_."

Paul's Prison Psalm.

Did Paul follow his own rules? The best answer to that is this little four-chaptered epistle where the rules are found. Philippians is a prison psalm. The clanking of chains resounds throughout its brief pages. At one end is Philippi; at the other Rome. Here is the Philippian end. In the inner dungeon of a prison, dark, dirty, damp, is a man, Paul. His back is bleeding and sore from the whipping-post. His feet are fast in the stocks.

His position is about as cramped and painful as it can be. It is midnight.

Paul would be asleep for weariness and exhaustion, but the position and the pain hinder.

Does no temptation come to him? He had been following a _vision_ in coming over to Philippi. This is a great ending to the vision he's been having.

Did no such temptation come? Very likely it did. But Paul is an old campaigner. He knows best what to do. He begins singing. His music is pitched in the major too. Most likely he is singing one of the old Hebrew psalms that he knew by heart. It was a psalm of praise. That is one end of this epistle.

At the other end Paul is a prisoner at Rome. As he sits dictating his letter, if he gets tired and would swing one limb over the other for a change, a heavy chain at his ankle reminds him of his bonds. As he reaches for a quill to put a loving touch to the end of the parchment, again the forged steel pulls at his wrist. That is the setting of Philippians, the prison psalm. What is its key word? Is it patience? That would seem appropriate. Is it long-suffering? More appropriate yet. Some of us know about short-suffering, but we are apt to be a bit short on long-suffering.

The keyword is _joy_, with its variations of rejoice, and rejoicing.

And notice what joy is. It is the cataract in the stream of life. Peace is the gentle even flowing of the river. Joy is where the waters go bubbling, leaping with ecstatic bound, and forever after, as they go on, making the channel deeper for the quiet flow of peace. Paul had put his no-worry rules through the crucible of experience. He follows the Master in that.

These three rules really mean living ever in that Master's presence. When we realize that He is ever alongside then it will be easier to be

Anxious for nothing, Thankful for anything, Prayerful about everything.

He Touched Her Hand.

One morning on waking, a woman charged with the care of a home began thinking of the day's simple duties. And as she thought they seemed to magnify and pile up. There was her little daughter to get off to school with her luncheon. Some of the church ladies were coming that morning for a society meeting, and she had been planning a dainty luncheon for them.

The maid in the kitchen was not exactly ideal--yet. And as she thought into the day her head began aching.

After breakfast, as her husband was leaving for the day's business, he took her hand and kissed her good-bye. "Why," he said, "my dear, your hand is feverish. I'm afraid you've been doing too much. Better just take a day off." And he was gone. And she said to herself, "A day off! The idea! Just like a _man_ to think that I could take a day off." But she had been making a habit of getting a little time for reading and prayer after breakfast. Pity she had not put it in earlier, at the day's very start.

Yet maybe she could not. Sometimes it is not possible. Yet _most times_ it is possible, by planning.

Now she slipped to her room and, sitting down quietly, turned to the chapter in her regular place of reading. It was the eighth of Matthew. As she read she came to the words, "And _He touched her hand_, and the _fever left her_; and she arose and ministered unto Him." And she knelt and breathed out the soft prayer for a touch of the Master's hand upon her own. And it came as she remained there a few moments. And then with much quieter spirit she went on into the day.

The luncheon for the church ladies was not quite so elaborate as she had planned. There came to her an impulse to tell her morning's experience.

She shrank from doing it. It seemed a sacred thing. They might not understand. But the impulse remained and she obeyed it, and quietly told them. And as they listened there seemed to come a touch of the Spirit's presence upon them all. And so the day was a blessed one. Its close found her husband back again. And as he greeted her he said quietly, "My dear, you did as I said, didn't you? The fever's gone."

Gideon's Band: Sifted for Service.

G.o.d Wants the Best.

G.o.d's Use of Weak Things.

Call for Volunteers.

A Willing People.

Courageous Volunteers.

Irresistible Logic.

Hot Hearts.

G.o.d Still Sifting.

Gideon's Band: Sifted for Service.

(1 Corinthians i:18-31; Judges vi and vii.)

G.o.d Wants the Best.

Salvation is for all. Service is for those chosen for it. All _may_ serve.

That all do not is simply because service requires qualities which all do not have. Yet, again, all may have them who will, for the required qualities are _heart qualities_. And every one of us can cultivate the heart qualities. There is special service, chiefly of leaders.h.i.+p, requiring brain qualities as well as heart. But the Master attends to the choosing of men for such service.

And where His spirit has touched human hearts there will be a glad doing of just what service He appoints. It will be an honor to do just what He asks because He asks. What it may happen to be will be a small matter in itself. It is for Him, at His desire, and that is full enough to bring out the best we have.

Our old Tarsus and Antioch friend and leader has written a special word about this matter of being chosen for service. It is in his first letter to the recently organized church at Corinth. It is really his second letter, for he seems to have written one before it that has not been preserved.[23] There were some very serious matters in this new church requiring strong treatment by its much-loved founder. Among them was one about service.

There were some who had gifts in service that seemed more attractive and desirable than others had, it might be said more showy. And their brethren, not free from the old worldly spirit, were envious and jealous.

And these who had such gifts were not free from a boasting spirit.

Factions or parties had arisen as a result. It was the bad world spirit of compet.i.tion and rivalry in among Christ's followers where it should never come, yet where it still does come. In writing this letter Paul throughout blends great plainness and common sense with great tenderness.

In the beginning of his letter he calls attention to the fact that there are not many among them of those who were reckoned by the world's standards as wise or mighty or n.o.ble. On the contrary, in choosing His leaders G.o.d had purposely chosen those reckoned by the world's standards foolish that He might show plainly the shallowness of what they deem wise.

And so things reckoned weak had been chosen to give the conception of what true strength is. And things even base, and despised, and not counted at all had been used that so men might learn the G.o.d-standards of wisdom and strength and honor and of what is worth while. The purpose being that men should quit glorying in themselves and glorify Him from whom everything had come, and was ever coming.