Broken Bread Part 1

Broken Bread.

by Thomas Champness.

PREFACE.

This is a book made up of fragments. The Master once said "Gather up the fragments that nothing be lost." It may be that victuals will be found here that may feed those who cannot sit down to a meal. Many of the articles have appeared in _Joyful News_ already, but, perhaps, are none the worse for that. We send out this little book in the hope that both crust and crumb will be eaten!

I. SPIRITUAL FARMING.--NO. 1.

DRAINING.

If the men who farmed England in the olden time could return, few things would surprise them more than the condition of the land. Many a field now bearing good crops each year, was in "the good old times" moorland or fen. Sheep and cattle graze where once only wild birds could live.

Drainage has made the change. The land, once too cold and wet to allow anything valuable to grow, has been by grips and drain pipes, made to produce food for man and beast.

Is it not so on G.o.d's farm? "Ye are His husbandry," and just as the farmer knows that if he cannot have his wet land drained, his seed will be starved, or the young corn perish with the cold, so we who toil in the Lord's fields need to learn that in many places the first thing to be done is to

DRAIN THE LAND.

Do any of our readers complain that they cannot get an answer to their prayers for a revival, and that all the preaching and teaching seem to be wasted? Let us advise them to look under the surface. Are there not

CAUSES FOR THE FAILURE?

Would it not be well to try what draining the land would do? Are the most influential men cold and unresponsive to the call of the Spirit?

What sort of people take the lead in the prayer meetings? Are they left to the zealous poor? Does every man of wealth and culture hurry home and leave the preacher to s.h.i.+ft for himself? Who are the stewards? Are they men who will do their utmost to welcome strangers, or does their example tell on others so much that a visitor never has a word of welcome or a grip of the hand? What is the singing like? Is it of the colourless, tame style, whose only sign of life is the rapid gallop which kills devotion in so many places?

How is the Bible read by the preacher? Does he confine himself to the narrow round which he has read so often in the ears of the people that it has lost its charm--or does he seek out that which will be sure to interest; and does he read as if he believed it?

We think our readers know some congregations in which there can be no revival until the drainer has been at work, and that which starves the seed removed. What we want is to have the question asked at the next leader's or quarterly meeting.

WHAT WILL IT COST TO GET SOME DRAIN-PIPES?

A GOOD s.h.i.+LLING IS BETTER THAN A BAD SOVEREIGN.

II. LITTLE MOSES.

SERVE THE CHILDREN FIRST.

The story of Moses teaches us that LITTLE FOLKS ARE VERY HELPLESS. There he is in that basket. He cannot care for himself. He is in the power of the king's daughter. If she liked she could have had him killed, for it was plain to be seen that he was one of the Hebrew children. When you were in your cradle how weak you were, how helpless. If your mother had not cared for you, my dear boy, you would never have troubled the tailor to measure you for your new suit. Do you ever think how much you are in your mother's debt? When you were hungry she fed you, when you were cold she warmed you, when you were sick she nursed you. And you can pay her back. Not in money, for when you are old enough to earn gold you will not be rich enough to do that; but you can reward her by obedience, by love, and by letting her know by your kindness that you do not forget what she did for you years ago.

LITTLE FOLKS ARE WATCHED BY G.o.d. The crocodiles could have swallowed up the little chap at one mouthful, but they never even saw him. G.o.d steered the little bark, and brought its voyage to an end in a safe harbour. If anyone but the kind-hearted lady who became his second mother had seen him, the story of his life might have been very short.

And the same G.o.d watches you, my dear child.

There is an Eye which never sleeps; and in the night, when even your mother has closed her eyes, G.o.d does not shut His. Do you ever think that in the darkness the eye of G.o.d can see you just as well as in the daylight? If it had not been so, you would not have grown in your sleep, as you have done every night. There have been many dangers near to you which you never knew, but G.o.d did, and has watched over you for good all your life. Thank Him, for even your mother could not have helped you, if G.o.d had not done so.

LITTLE FOLKS MAY BECOME GREAT MEN. That baby became one of the greatest men in Old Testament history. And how was it? He stuck to his book. We read that "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." This could not have been if he had scamped his lessons, could it? Then he left the company of the wicked, though it cost him a great deal, and he chose to be one of the people of G.o.d. The boy and girl who will follow his example will do well for themselves, for the life of Moses was one of the greatest honour, and, though he had to pay the price which must be paid if we would win the smile of G.o.d, he has been rewarded. Honour has come to him that never came to anyone else; for we learn from the Book of Revelation that in heaven his name is greatest of the great, for the saints sing "The song of Moses, the servant of G.o.d," and

THE SONG OF THE LAMB.

III. SPIRITUAL FARMING.--NO. 2.

PLOUGHING.

There have been during the last few years great improvements in the construction of the plough, but no one dreams of any subst.i.tute for it.

Ploughing is as necessary as sowing; that is to say, the land must be stirred and prepared for the seed. In heavenly husbandry there are some well-meaning folk who would dispense with the plough, and preach faith without repentance, but only to find that the birds of the air get most of the seed! If there is to be an abiding work there must be conviction of sin, and knowledge of guilt, and for this end there is nothing better than a plough, made of Sinai steel and wood grown on Calvary.

There are some directions given in the Old Book which it will pay our ploughmen to study. One is as to the choice of the team. Don't yoke an a.s.s with an ox (see Deut. xxii, 10). In your motive power see to it there is no mixture of vanity with duty. You will not succeed in concealing the fact. A donkey is one of the worst of animals to hide. IT WILL TALK!

Let there be no stopping at home because the wind is in the east. "The sluggard will not plough by reason of the cold." If the ploughman means to succeed he must count on suffering; and if the devil cannot find anyone on his side to oppose, he will raise up some imbecile Christian to do so, who by some sneer or cold criticism, will try to keep the plough idle. Instead of looking which way the wind blows, get to work.

There must be no looking back. Mark the Master's words in Luke ix, 62.

Keep your eye on the mark, just as the ploughman looks at the staff he has fixed as his guide. Keep looking unto Jesus. Many a preacher, who could make h.e.l.l tremble for its own, has, by looking back, become respectably commonplace. So the fine promise of his youth dies ign.o.bly, and is laid in the grave of Demas! Whether it be a bag of gold, or a fair face, or a pillow of down, thou art called to look back upon, do as the Master did--set thy "face toward Jerusalem."

Keep a good heart on it. "He that ploweth should plow in hope." What is called success does not mean reaping only. The plough is as honourable as the sickle, though they may not make a feast, or dress thy team with flowers! Whistle at the plough, and in time thou shalt be bidden to the harvest supper. John Baptist was a ploughman, and that was all; yet there are some reapers who would gladly exchange places with him, badly paid as he was. In these days too often the honour is paid to the successful evangelist, and those who ploughed and sowed are forgotten; but the time is coming when the promise shall be fulfilled--

"THE PLOUGHMAN SHALL OVERTAKE THE REAPER."

IV. A SHORT HOME MISSION SERMON.

"_The Iron did swim_."--2ND KINGS, vi, 6.

DID IT? THEN SUNKEN THINGS MAY RISE.

The axe had fallen into the river, to the great sorrow of the man who had used it. He was an honest man, for he mourned over the fact that it was borrowed. "It has sunk to rise no more;" and yet it swam! Why lose hope of the fallen and degraded? They are no lower down than the axe head was when at the bottom of the Jordan. "The iron did swim." How? for

SUNKEN THINGS DO NOT RAISE THEMSELVES.

If the axe had been let alone, it might have been at the bottom of the river now. The man who felt its loss called on a higher power than his own. He told his sorrow to one who had sympathy for him. Do we cry unto G.o.d about those who have sunk out of our reach? The lapsed ma.s.ses, as we call them, were not all born so. Many of them have been Sunday scholars, and some of them church members. How do we feel about them? Does the thought of their degradation ever bring an "alas!" from our hearts?

Elisha's G.o.d is nearer to us than the prophet was to the man who lost the axe. "Call on Him WHILE He is near."

"The iron did swim." How was it done?

SOMEBODY SHOWED IT THE WAY.

An example was put before it. A stick was thrown in, and the iron imitated it. O, the power of a G.o.dly example! Let us who work among the unG.o.dly show them the way to live. Let the churches move over the places where the degraded lie. We shall never lift them while we remain in our beautiful churches and chapels. Only this week we saw the iron made to swim, by the personal contact of ministers and well-dressed people taking hold of the street folk, and cheerily inviting them into G.o.d's house. A man may be only "a stick" when in the pulpit; but in hearty personal dealing with the degraded, he may be one who can make the iron to swim.