Broken Bread Part 4

XIV. "ENCOURAGE HIM!"

DEUT. i. 38.

"Encourage" who? Why, your new Minister. He will need it. No one but G.o.d knows how much some men suffer in leaving old friends and going among strangers. One of our most popular preachers told us that when he goes into a new circuit, he feels like a tree that has been transplanted, and for a time seems nearer death than life. And it is more than likely the man who has just come to your place is feeling acutely the separation from old friends, and the strangeness of everything around him. Do not be surprised, then, if he is not as friendly at first, as the man was who has gone away.

"ENCOURAGE HIM!" for there will be plenty to do the other thing. The enemy of souls, when he is not able to turn back G.o.d's soldier, will do all he can to wound him, and if he can hire some fool of a Christian to do it, all the better for his purpose. It will be easy to discourage by quarrels, jealousy and fault-finding. In fact, it requires so little mental ability to find fault, there is no difficulty in finding someone to do that, but don't let it be you. Someone else will see to it that the new Minister has not too easy a time of it. But do you try your utmost to make him feel that he has come where all he does will be appreciated, and that he will never need to go out of his own circuit to find those who will love him for his works' sake, till they know him well enough to love him for his own.

"ENCOURAGE HIM,"--by being at the services regularly, and in time, and especially at the Prayer-Meeting. Stay to the Sunday night one, and go to the one held in the week. What a comfort for the Minister to see the vestry filled when he gets to the Weekly Prayer-Meeting! and when you are there, or on your knees at home, pray for him; for if Paul needed the prayers of the Church, much more do the Preachers to-day.

"ENCOURAGE HIM!" by taking the advice he gives you when he is in the pulpit. A doctor would feel it if his medicine was treated as many sermons are. What would the medical man think if he saw the bottle of physic poured down the sink, or left in the bottle untasted, till there was a cupboard full of bottles? He would not feel like preparing any more. How a preacher is encouraged to make fresh sermons, when he sees that his last was taken into the heart and life of some of his hearers.

"ENCOURAGE HIM!" by letting him know of anyone who has received good from his preaching or visits. You need not be afraid of making him proud. He has had enough of the other kind, or, as we sometimes say, he is sure to have "a stone in the other pocket." We remember visiting one of our sick cla.s.s-leaders one Monday, who said, "Who was the young man who preached here last night?" "Why, that was the new Minister!" "Well, you must tell him a woman was converted." It will "ENCOURAGE HIM," and James says, "If one convert him, LET HIM KNOW!"

XV. "WE HAVE NO MIGHT."

2 CHRON. xx. 12.

YET WE NEED IT VERY MUCH. We are in great weakness, and we need power, for there is a great mult.i.tude come against us. It is not the wisest policy to ignore the strength of our enemy. Jehoshaphat did not. It is well for us to know the strength of our foes, but let it not lead us to despair. Who shall number the host of the foes against whom we must fight? They come to rob us of our inheritance, and if we submit, we shall be enslaved.

WE have no might, but WE KNOW WHO HAS. The pious king said (verse 6), "In Thine hand is there not power and might, Art not Thou G.o.d?" Is there more than one G.o.d? Some Christians talk as though the Lord had been obliged to give up some of His power to Bradlaugh & Co. Where is the sign of a divided kings.h.i.+p? Could all the host of G.o.d's foes have prevented the earthquakes? Do they know when the next will take place?

It is still true that G.o.d "shaketh the earth and the pillars thereof tremble" (Job ix. 6)

"This awful G.o.d is ours, Our Father and our love."

WE KNOW HOW TO GET MIGHT, FOR WE CAN PRAY. Jehoshaphat did not first of all review his troops, he called a meeting for prayer. The nation fasted and prayed, and the king led the devotions of his people. What a prayer!

Have you noticed the four questions he puts to his G.o.d? And with what pathos he says "Our eyes are upon Thee!" Shall not the people of G.o.d imitate Judah? "They gathered themselves together to ask help of the Lord." Why should we not make this the motto of our weekly prayer meetings--

TO ASK HELP.

Not only the men, but the women and children came to the meeting. Would not the mothers and the little ones pray? They knew that their foes would carry them away captive, if G.o.d did not help. Would it not be well to encourage our children to cry to the Lord? Would He not hear them, think you?

Promise of the needed help soon came. The Holy Ghost fell upon one of the sons of Asaph, and he soon told his message:--

"THE BATTLE IS NOT YOURS, BUT G.o.d'S."

He always makes His people's cause His own, when they trust Him. Shall we not live so that our lives shall become part of the divine estate? So that we cannot be hurt without its injuring the Lord of heaven? "The Lord will be with you on the morrow." Is some preacher reading this on the Sat.u.r.day night? It may be some young Minister, or Local Preacher, who is fearing for his reputation, or for the ark of G.o.d. Brother, read over with care this address of the Levite, v. 15-17. Then, like the G.o.dly monarch, shew others how to praise the Lord. It is well to notice that the people, led by their ministers, stood up to praise the Lord, and on the next day, before the victory, they praised the Lord. What a scene it must have been! How the angels would keep time with their harps, as the choir sang the anthem, "Praise the Lord! for His mercy endureth for ever."

THEY NEEDED NOT TO FIGHT.

The Lord did that. He sent His hosts, and all that Judah needed to do was to gather the spoil. When shall we spoil our foes? When shall we loot the devil? How one's fingers itch to take his goods! The time is coming when we shall gather the wealth and power he now possesses, when the hosts of darkness shall come against the people of G.o.d only to be slain; and when there shall be no difficulty in raising money for good objects, for the devil's coffers shall be at our service. Let us not lose sight of the fact that the same week the great mult.i.tude came against the Lord's inheritance, there were more precious jewels than could be carried away, and the place where the foe was encamped came to be called

"THE VALLEY OF BLESSING."

POVERTY IS HARD, BUT IT MAKES A GOOD GRINDSTONE.

XVI. "BE PERFECT."

2 COR. XIII. 11.

Why not? What possible objection can there be to perfect Christianity?

You like perfection in other things. You like your watch to keep "perfect time." If you are measured for a coat, you like "a perfect fit." You like other people to be perfect in their actions, so far as you are concerned. You wish your children to obey you; your wife to love you without ever wavering; those who owe you money to pay up twenty s.h.i.+llings to the pound; your servants to do their work according to order; in a word, if you served G.o.d as you wish everybody to serve you, you would be a perfect man. Is that so? Then why object to "Christian Perfection?" You say,

"I DON'T BELIEVE IN SINLESS PERFECTION."

Well, we wish to be practical and to do you good, and so we will take lower ground. Do you believe that it is possible for G.o.d to make you a very much better man than you are? O yes! Then why not allow Him to have His own way? Is this not the reason why some men are not striving after "Perfection?" They like to be as they are. Going forward means suffering, self-denial, a struggle,--"There are giants in the land."

Some other time we will try to encourage those who are really anxious to possess the good land, by shewing that Joshua and Caleb were right in saying of the sons of Anak, "They are bread for us." "The bigger they are the more there is for us to eat;" but just now, we are anxious to shew these non-believers in perfection, that, till they are all G.o.d is prepared to make them, they must not say a word against our doctrine.

May you not be speaking against G.o.d's power to heal, to make whole? Is it not a reflection on the Divine Workman, to say that he cannot restore man to be so that He can say once more, "It is very good?" It behoves us to speak with bated breath here, but we may venture to say that the grace which made an Enoch, can make a nineteenth century saint, so lovely in his character, that all men shall say, "This is G.o.d's own work, and is like all things which come from His hand."

"BUT MANY OF THESE WHO PROFESS TO HAVE OBTAINED THIS BLESSING ARE SO MANIFESTLY MISTAKEN."

Yes, we agree with you there. Before long we shall have something to say to those who believe in "Christian Perfection," but we are dealing now with those who do not. We think that those who are "perfect," will often be the last to profess it. Any way, they will have very little to say about themselves, though their mouths will be filled with the praise of G.o.d, who has done great things for them. We almost always suspect those who have too much to say, and wish we could make them to see how their loud talk and small deeds tell against the doctrine. One proof that a man is not perfect, is his censoriousness concerning those who do not see things as he does, or call them by the same name. But of these we will speak at another time. What we are now concerned about is that we should strive to be all that G.o.d has promised to make us, and thus become living expositions of the ability of the Lord to answer Paul's pet.i.tion:--

"I PRAY G.o.d, YOUR WHOLE SPIRIT AND SOUL AND BODY BE PRESERVED BLAMELESS."

XVII. "MAKE THIS VALLEY FULL OF DITCHES."

2 KINGS, iii., 16.

What for? To receive that without which they must perish. We read in verse 9 "There was no water." Application was made to the prophet Elisha, who declared that there should soon be plenty, but that the army must at once make channels for it to flow in. This was done, and during the offering of the morning sacrifice, water came in abundance, and filled the ditches.

Let us be ready for great blessing. We need an outpouring of the Spirit, but are we ready for it? Would not a great revival surprise many Christians? In London, Messrs. Moody and Sankey will soon begin their work, and the Christians of that city should be on the look-out for great results. Doubtless there are committee meetings, and much organization is going on, but the work must not be left to organizations. Let every Christian in London make a ditch to bring the living water to his own home.

We hope to hear that in Liverpool, where Mr. Hughes is so soon to begin work, and in the places where the other connexional evangelists are preaching, the gospel channels will be dug by Methodists' hands. All three of these devoted men wish that our people should prepare the way, and thus have the stream of blessing flow to their hearts and homes. The District Missionaries also are needing help. Let us make it easier work for them, by opening the way. We know digging means work, and some Christians are so very respectable, they would feel insulted if G.o.d asked them to become one of His navvies. On the other hand, there are thousands of our people who would be glad to help if only some one would show them the way.

But what is laid upon our hearts most of all is, that something more should be done to a.s.sist Circuit Ministers and Local Preachers to evangelize. If nothing is effected besides what is done by the men set apart as evangelists, we shall have a large portion of the country unwatered. "Make the valley full of ditches." Let every Methodist feel, that till every impediment is taken out of the way, and every thing done to help on a revival in his own circuit, and in his own chapel, his work is not finished. If each does his best, there will soon be a flowing of water. Do we hear some say, "There are so many among us who will not dig?" Just so, and therefore some of us must dig night and day. Get the spade called "Prayer," and keep it bright. Let the prayer meeting become

A GANG OF EXCAVATORS!

Let us not be satisfied till we are sure that, when the revival comes, we shall be ready.

Let our Cla.s.s-leaders make enquiry how many of their members are praying and working for a revival. Let everything be done to make our ordinary services very attractive. Let our Choirs, and those who have charge of the musical part of the services, do their part to make the singing pleasant and lively. It is a grievous thing to note how slovenly this part of the service is in some places. For instance, in many chapels where they have a chant-book, the run is on three or four. It is a symptom of inertness when STELLA is sung as though it were the only 6-8's tune. Will someone see to it, that a ditch is dug to every singing pew in Methodism?

We repeat the question. Are we ready for an outpouring of the Spirit?

Have we all the channels cleaned out which our fathers dug, and are we digging fresh ones? Do we look as if a revival would be welcomed? Does the enemy know that he may expect an attack, or is he chuckling over our rusty spades and swords?