How to Listen to a Sermon

By George Whitefield

Keys for getting the most out of what the preacher says

Jesus said, “Therefore consider carefully how you listen” (Luke 8:18). Here are some cautions and directions, in order to help you hear sermons with profit and advantage.

1. Come to hear them, not out of curiosity, but from a sincere desire to know and do your duty. To enter His house merely to have our ears entertained, and not our hearts reformed, must certainly be highly displeasing to the Most High God, as well as unprofitable to ourselves.

2. Give diligent heed to the things that are spoken from the Word of God. If an earthly king were to issue a royal proclamation, and the life or death of his subjects entirely depended on performing or not performing its conditions, how eager would they be to hear what those conditions were! And shall we not pay the same respect to the King of kings, and Lord of lords, and lend an attentive ear to His ministers, when they are declaring, in His name, how our pardon, peace, and happiness may be secured?

3. Do not entertain even the least prejudice against the minister. That was the reason Jesus Christ Himself could not do many mighty works, nor preach to any great effect among those of His own country; for they were offended at Him. Take heed therefore, and beware of entertaining any dislike against those whom the Holy Ghost has made overseers over you.

Consider that the clergy are men of like passions with yourselves. And though we should even hear a person teaching others to do what he has not learned himself, yet that is no reason for rejecting his doctrine. For ministers speak not in their own, but in Christ’s name. And we know who commanded the people to do whatever the scribes and Pharisees should say unto them, even though they did not do themselves what they said (see Matt. 23:1-3).

4. Be careful not to depend too much on a preacher, or think more highly of him than you ought to think. Preferring one teacher over another has often been of ill consequence to the church of God. It was a fault which the great Apostle of the Gentiles condemned in the Corinthians: “For whereas one said, I am of Paul; another, I am of Apollos: are you not carnal, says he? For who is Paul, and who is Apollos, but instruments in God’s hands by whom you believed?” (1 Cor. 1:12; 2:3-5).

Are not all ministers sent forth to be ministering ambassadors to those who shall be heirs of salvation? And are they not all therefore greatly to be esteemed for their work’s sake?

5. Make particular application to your own hearts of everything that is delivered. When our Savior was discoursing at the last supper with His beloved disciples and foretold that one of them should betray Him, each of them immediately applied it to his own heart and said, “Lord, is it I?” (Matt. 26:22).

Oh, that persons, in like manner, when preachers are dissuading from any sin or persuading to any duty, instead of crying, “This was intended for such and such a one!” instead would turn their thoughts inwardly, and say, “Lord, is it I?” How far more beneficial should we find discourses to be than now they generally are!

6. Pray to the Lord, before, during, and after every sermon, to endue the minister with power to speak, and to grant you a will and ability to put into practice what he shall show from the Book of God to be your duty.

No doubt it was this consideration that made St. Paul so earnestly entreat his beloved Ephesians to intercede with God for him: “Praying always, with all manner of prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and for me also, that I may open my mouth with boldness, to make known the mysteries of the gospel” (Eph. 6:19-20). And if so great an apostle as St. Paul needed the prayers of his people, much more do those ministers who have only the ordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit.

If only all who hear me this day would seriously apply their hearts to practice what has now been told them! How ministers would see Satan, like lightning, fall from heaven, and people find the Word preached sharper than a two-edged sword and mighty, through God, to the pulling down of the devil’s strongholds!

Holding On

No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God–Luk 9:62


The Ploughman: A Symbol of the Person Who Holds On


Holding to things doggedly was one of the controlling thoughts of Jesus. That was why He singled out the ploughman. Ploughmen are not usually learned persons, nor are they often poets in disguise. But there is one virtue they possess pre-eminently, and that is the virtue of quietly holding to it. And it is because, in Jesus’ eyes, that virtue is of supreme importance that He wants tis to take the ploughman for our model. “If ye continue in my word,” He says, “then are ye my disciples indeed” (Joh 8:31). Something more than receiving is required to reach the crown. To hold on when the sunshine vanishes, and there is nothing but clouds in the sky, that is the great secret of discipleship.


The Importance of Abiding at All Times


We see that with peculiar clearness when we meditate on the great word abide. That was one of the favorite words of Jesus. With those deep-seeing eyes of His He has discerned the wonder of the vine-branch. The branch was there–abiding in the vine–not only in the sunny days of vintage. It was there when shadows fell, and when the dawn was icy, and when the day was colorless and cloudy, and when the storm came sweeping down the glen. Through all weathers, through every change of temperature, through tempest and through calm, the branch was there. Night did not sever that intimate relationship. Winter did not end that vital union. And our Lord recognized that, as in the world of nature this is the secret and the source of fruitfulness, so is it also in the world of grace. To abide is not to trust merely. To abide is to continue trusting. It is to hold to it–and hold to Him–through summer and winter, through fair and stormy weather. Nothing could better show the Master’s vision of the great and heavenly grace of holding to it, than His love for that great word abide.


The Principle of Holding On Exemplified by Christ’s Life


Not only did our Lord insist on this; He emphasized it in His life. For all His meekness, nothing could divert Him from the allotted path of His vocation. Think, for instance, of that day when He was summoned to the bed of Jairus’ daughter. In the crowded street a woman touched Him, and He instantly felt that “virtue had gone out of him.” But the original is far more striking in the light it sheds upon the Lord–He felt that the power had gone out of Him. All of us are familiar with such seasons, when power seems to be utterly exhausted. In such seasons we cannot face the music; the grasshopper becomes a burden. And the beautiful thing about our Lord is how, after such an experience as that, He held to it in quiet trust on God. He knew, in all its strength, the recurring temptation to give over. He had to reinforce His will continually for the great triumph of continuing. Through days of weakness, through seasons of exhaustion, through hours when His soul was sorrowful unto death, He held to the task given Him of God. It is very easy to hold on when we are loved and honored and appreciated; when our strength is equal to our problem; when the birds are singing in the trees. But to hold to it when all the sky is dark is the finest heroism in the world, and that was the heroism of the Lord.


Jesus in Full Agreement with Heaven’s Perseverance


Nor is it hard to see where He learned this, living in perfect fellowship with heaven. For few things are more wonderful in God than the divine way He has of holding to it. The ruby “takes a million years to harden.” The brook carves its channels through millenniums. There goes an infinite deal of quiet holding to it for the ripening of every harvest. And if we owe so much, in the beautiful world of nature, to what I would call the doggedness of heaven, how much more in the fairer world of grace. We are saved by a love that will not let us go. Nothing less is equal to our need. We often think that God has quite forgotten us, and then we discover how He is holding to it. Through all our coldness and backslidings, through our fallings into the miry clay, He has never left us or forsaken us. When we awake we are still with Him, and, what is better, He is still with us; just as ready to pardon and restore us as in the initial hour of conversion. No wonder that our Lord, in perfect fellowship with such a Father, laid His divine emphasis just there.


If You Want to Be Victorious–Hold On


For (just as our heavenly Father does) we win our victories by holding to it. We conquer, not in any brilliant fashion–we conquer by continuing. We master shorthand when we stick to shorthand. We master Shakespeare when we stick to Shakespeare. Wandering cattle are lean kine, whether they pasture in Britain or in Beulah. A certain radiant and quiet doggedness has been one of the marks of all the saints, for whom the trumpets have sounded on the other side. In the log-book of Columbus there is one entry more common than all others It is not “Today the wind was favorable.” It is “Today we sailed on. “And to sail on, every common day, through fog and storm, and with mutiny on board, is the one way to the country of our dreams. Days come when everything seems doubtful, when the vision of the unseen is very dim. Days come when we begin to wonder if there can be a loving God at all. My dear reader, hold to it. Continue trusting. Keep on keeping on. It is thus that Christian character is built. It is thus the “Well done” is heard at last.


E.M. Bounds

By David Smithers

E. M. Bounds in his book “Prayer and Praying Men”, wrote “Elijah learned new and higher lessons of prayer while hidden away by God and with God . . ” This statement is certainly also true of its author. E. M. Bounds was a man hidden away by God and with God in prayer. During his lifetime he never attracted a large following or gained the success and reputation that one might expect. After forty-six years of faithful ministry he still was virtually unknown. Out of the eight classics on prayer he wrote, only two were published during his lifetime. Though hidden and unrecognized while alive, E.M. Bounds is now considered by most evangelicals as the most prolific and fervent author on the subject of prayer.

E. M. Bounds was born on August 15th, 1835 and died on August 24th, 1913. Some may be surprised by this fact, assuming Bounds to be a contemporary author, because of his clear and forthright writing style. As a young man E. M. Bounds practiced law until feeling called to the ministry. He was ordained a Methodist minister in 1859. E. M. Bounds also served as a Confederate Army Chaplain during the Civil War. As a result he was captured and held as a prisoner of war for a short time. After his incarceration, Bounds returned to Franklin, Tennessee, where he and Confederate Troops had suffered a bloody defeat. Bounds could not forget about Franklin, where so many had been ravaged by the Civil War. “When Brother Bounds came to Franklin he found the Church in a wretched state”. Immediately he sought out a half dozen men who really believed in the power of prayer. Every Tuesday night they got on their knees to pray for revival, for themselves, the Church and the town. “For over a year this faithful band called upon the Lord until God finally answered by fire. The revival came down without any previous announcement or plan, and without the pastor sending for an evangelist to help him.”

It became increasingly apparent that E. M. Bounds was gifted in building and reviving the Church. This prophet of prayer often made preachers uncomfortable with his call for holiness and his attacks on lusting for money, prestige and power. “His constant call for revival annoyed those who believed that the Church was essentially sound . . .” God gave him a great prayer commission, requiring daily intercession. He labored in prayer for the sanctification of preachers, revival of the Church in North America and the spread of holiness among professing Christians. He spent a minimum of three to four hours a day in fervent prayer. “Sometimes the venerable mystic would lie flat on his back and talk to God; but many hours were spent on his knees or lying face down where he could be heard weeping . . .”

W. H. Hodge, who is responsible for putting most of Bounds’ writings into print, gives us some personal insights into Bounds’ life. He writes, “I have been among many ministers and slept in the same room with them for several years. They prayed, but I was never impressed with any special praying among them until one day a small man with gray hair and an eye like an eagle came along. We had a ten day convention. We had some fine preachers around the home, and one of them was assigned to my room. I was surprised early next morning to see a man bathing himself before day and then see him get down and begin to pray. I said to myself, ‘He will not disturb us, but will soon finish’, he kept on softly for hours, interceding and weeping softly, for me and my indifference, and for all the ministers of God. He spoke the next day on prayer. I became interested for I was young in the ministry, and had often desired to meet with a man of God that prayed like the saints of the Apostolic age. Next morning he was up praying again, and for ten days he was up early praying for hours. I became intensely interested and thanked God for sending him. ‘At last,’ I said, I have found a man that really prays. I shall never let him go. He drew me to him with hooks of steel.”

In closing let us consider some of E. M. Bounds’ remarks on revival, “Revivals are among the charter rights of the Church . . . A revival means a heartbroken pastor. A revival means a church on its knees confessing its sins – the sins of the individual and of the Church – confessing the sins of the times and of the community.”

The Mission of the Seventy

The Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come …. Said he unto them …. heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you–Luk 10:1, Luk 10:2, Luk 10:9


There Is a Place for You to Serve


Can you picture the distress of a farmer when he sees his fields golden with a harvest, and there are no servants to gather that harvest in? It was such an agony that filled the heart of Jesus as He looked out on His harvest field. The seed had been sown; sunshine and rain had come; by the songs of psalmists and the message of prophets, by national guidance and national disaster, God had been bringing Israel to its autumn. And now there was the harvest ready to be cut, but the harvesters–where were they? How intensely Jesus felt the need of helpers! How clearly He saw that the world was to be won through the enthusiasm and the effort of humble men! It is one glory of our joyful Gospel that if we wish to help, there is a place for us. I have seen boys left out in the cold by their schoolmates, but men by their Master, never.


It’s Safe to Be One of the Unnamed Disciples


Well, when the work of Jesus in Galilee was over, and a larger field was calling for larger service, Jesus chose seventy, as before He had chosen twelve. Who these seventy were I do not know. We find no list of their names in the Gospels. But one thing we are sure of, for we have it from the lips of Christ Himself, their seventy names were all written in heaven (Luk 10:20). One of our sweetest poets, who died in Italy, bade his friend write upon his tombstone, “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” But the very feeblest of these seventy, when he came to die, would bid men write, “Here lies one whose name is writ in heaven.” What a debt we owe to the unnamed disciples! How we are helped by those we never heard of! If struggles are easier and life is brighter for us, we owe it largely to the faithful souls who pray and work and die, unknown. Do you long to be one of the twelve, till all the land is ringing with your name? Better to be one of the unnamed seventy, who did their work and were very happy in it, and whose names are only known to God. Better: perhaps safer too. There was a Judas in the twelve: we never read of one among the seventy.


Why Seventy?


And why did Jesus fix on that number seventy. Fine souls have dreamed (and sometimes it is sweet to dream a little) that Jesus was thinking of the twelve wells and seventy palms of Elim that had refreshed the children of Israel long ago (Exo 15:27). But if that be a fancy, this at least is fact. It was seventy elders who went up with Moses to the mount and saw the glory of the God of Israel (Exo 24:1-9). Now seventy workers are to go out for Jesus, and see a glory greater than that of Sinai. It was seventy elders who were afterwards chosen to strengthen Moses in his stupendous task (Num 11:24-25). Now seventy are set apart by Jesus to aid Him in His glorious service. Do you see how Jesus gathered up the past? Do you mark how He was guided by the past in making His great choices for today?


They Were to Win Men by Trusting Them


So the seventy were chosen; and with an exquisite kindness were sent out two and two. They were to heal the sick. They were to be the heralds of God’s kingdom. If men received them, let them rejoice. If cities rejected them, let them remember Jesus, for “he that despiseth you despiseth me.” He was the Lamb of God, and they were sent forth as lambs among the wolves. They were to try to win men, too, by trusting them. For when Jesus bade them leave their wallet and their purse behind, He was not only teaching confidence in God; He was teaching them to look for the best in man. That was one secret of the seventy’s success. They took it for granted they would be hospitably treated, and men responded to that trustfulness. They honored that confidence reposed in them; till the hearts of the seventy overflowed with praise, and they came back to Jesus full of joy.


No Time to Waste


It should be noted too, in their directions, how Jesus guarded against all waste of time. There is a note of urgency we must not miss. The value of precious hours is realized. Take this, for instance, “Salute no man by the way.” Did Jesus mean that the worker should be a churl? Not that. But in the East greetings are so tedious, so full of flattery, so certain to lead on to wayside gossip, that men who are out on a work of life and death must run the risk of seeming unsociable sometimes. When Elisha bade his servant carry his staff and lay it on the dead child of the Shunamite, do you remember how he said to him, “If thou meet any man, salute him not; and if any salute thee, answer him not again” (2Ki 4:29)? The call was so urgent, there was no time for that, and there is a thousandfold greater urgency here. Or why, again, did Jesus say, “Go not from house to house”? Did not the disciples break bread from house to house (Act 2:46)? Did not Paul at Ephesus teach from house to house (Act 20:20)? But what Jesus warned the seventy against was this. It was against accepting that endless hospitality that to this day is the custom in an Eastern village. It was against frittering all their priceless hours away in accepting the little invitations they would get. They must remember how the days were flying. They must never lose sight of their magnificent work. The time is short, and all must give way to this–the preaching of the Kingdom and healing the sick.


Their Success Brought Joy to Christ


The seventy did their work, then, and came home again (for it was always home where Jesus was); and when Jesus heard their story and saw their joy, there fell a wonderful gladness on His heart, This Man of Sorrows was often very joyful, but never more so than in His friends’ success. Now is not that a Comrade for us all? Is not that a Companion who will make life rich? We are so ready to envy one another. We cannot hear about a brother’s triumphs but it sends a sting into our hearts. Jesus exults when His nameless children prosper. He is jubilant, in heaven, when I succeed. It is worthwhile to master self; it is worthwhile to be a Christian, in my own nameless way, when I have a Friend like that to please.


A True Call for Revival

By Henry Blackaby

I’ve heard many “calls” for revival recently but with very little teaching and exposition on revival. It seems that in these urgent days there are too few leaders who actually are leading God’s people corporately to repent, pray, seek holiness and return to God.

Do we not realize that scripturally it is impossible to have a call for revival without a call for repentance? This has always been God’s requirement for His people. The passionate, unceasing corporate prayer that is always present in revival is desperately lacking as well.

In short, I see little evidence of sincere brokenness among God’s people for our present condition or the condition of our nation.

We call for revival without actually crying with tears and brokenness for revival. The “call for revival” seems almost like a spiritual fad, with no true passion and sincerity of heart. Many will say “amen” when they hear mention of the need for revival. But the “call” is fleeting and soon passes away. And then we quickly move on to other activity and return to our business as usual with no follow- through by the leaders of God’s people.

We must understand that a true call for revival is first and foremost a recognition that we’ve departed from God. It demands a radical response from God’s leaders and His people. Revival has always been, and remains to this day, God dealing with the sin of His own — not the world.

Therefore, if we never recognize our need for repentance of sin, then our “call” for revival is in vain. Isaiah warned God’s people:

“Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from God; and your sins have hidden His face from you; so that He will not hear”(Isaiah 59:1-2).

This lack of recognition among God’s people to see their present spiritual condition frightens me. The continued neglect of dealing with the sin of God’s people is both obvious and appalling. Have we moved so far from God that we remain content in our sin? Do we not fear the judgment of God? Week after week, wherever I go, I hear no mention of our desperate need of God. There’s no spontaneous concern or cry to God. It’s simply not on the minds and hearts of God’s people — at least where I am and where I travel.

Let me draw to your attention to several things that God’s people must do immediately.

First, we must seek God to grant us broken and contrite hearts. “For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones'” (Isaiah 57:15). And again, “[O]n him will I look: on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word” (Isaiah 66:2).

Next, spiritual leaders must “return to Lord” — and stay there. (Zechariah 1:3; Malachi 3:1-7; Acts 6:1-4).

Third, the people of God must pray corporately with one heart and one mind. (Acts 1:14; Acts 2:1; Acts 4:31).

Fourth, God’s people must be immediately obedient to all God reveals to them. (1 Samuel 15:22-23)

Then, continually bear witness to God’s people of all that God is doing. (Acts 1:8; Acts 14:21-22, 26-27)

Finally, we should expect and experience Christ’s fullness of joy. Jesus said: “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:9-11).

The immediate need for revival among God’s people is “life and death” for our nation. Apparently, there are too many of us who simply don’t believe that, and there are far too few who sense the awful judgment that is to come if we do not see revival. Believe Christ’s warning: “[U]nless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Let us, therefore, repent and return quickly to the Lord.

Mordecai Ham

By David Smithers

What is the secret of the anointing of the Holy Spirit? Does God endue men in a sort of haphazard way? Has He favorites? Certainly not! God’s difficulty is to find men who are willing to pay the price.” Mordecai Ham was a man who was willing to pay the price and as a result was powerfully anointed by the Holy Spirit. Early on in his ministry he had some striking experiences with the Holy Spirit that helped prepare him for the prophet-revivalist role he would later operate in. Mr. Ham writes, “I had an overwhelming experience of the Lord’s presence. I felt so powerfully overcome by the nearness of the Holy Spirit that I had to ask the Lord to draw back lest He kill me. It was so glorious that I couldn’t stand more than a small portion of it.” As his spiritual life deepened, his success as a revivalist increasingly spread. An early example of the fruitfulness of Mordecai Ham’s ministry is seen in a Jackson, Tenn. newspaper report dated April 1905. The report reads, “Has the spiritual fire of the great Wales revival reached across the ocean and ignited the hearts of the people of Jackson? It begins to look as if it has at the big tent revival conducted by Rev. M.F. Ham.”

Mr. Ham’s success was not the result of traditional evangelistic methods, but the fruit of Apostolic power. Often he would seek out the worst of sinners in the community and then proceed to pray and plead with them until they were surrendered to Christ, resulting in a great in-gathering of the lost. At other times he faced down stubborn opposers of the gospel, declaring he would pray to God to either convert them or kill them. In Mr. Ham’s biography there are several incidents recorded where those who resisted and opposed the Holy Spirit were brought to swift judgment. “The evangelist recalls with great reluctance that deaths took place during many of his great campaigns. Ambulances would have to come and carry bodies away from our services.” “Many persons that openly fought a Ham meeting met with some form of violent death soon after.” (Acts 5:1-11). So, as the Holy Spirit was being poured out, some were visited with judgment while others were saved and even physically healed.

Charles Spurgeon rightly said “that a church in the land without the Spirit is rather a curse than a blessing. If you have not the Spirit of God, Christian worker, remember that you stand in somebody else’s way; you are a fruitless tree standing where a fruitful tree might grow.” Mordecai Ham’s clear understanding of this spiritual principle helped him develop an effective strategy for reaching the lost. On this point he writes, “There are a lot of Christians who are halfway fellows. They stand in the door, holding on to the Church with one hand while they play with the toys of the world with the other. They are in the doorway and we can’t bring sinners in. And, until we get some of God’s people right, we cannot hope to get sinners regenerated. Now they always accuse me of carrying around a sledge hammer with which to pound the church members. Yes sir, I do pound them, every time I come down, I knock one of the halfway fellows out of the doorway, and every time I knock one out I get a sinner in.” It was this kind of bold Biblical preaching that brought a young 16 year old boy to Christ by the name of Billy Graham. It should be emphasized now that Mr. Ham was always a man of zealous prayer. “Sometimes he spent hours in his room wrestling with God.” He often encouraged all night prayer meetings to be attended for several consecutive nights in order to lay the proper ground work for the moving of the Spirit. He learned early on that human wisdom could not do the work of the Holy Spirit.

In closing let us consider some of Mr. Hams thoughts on the hindrances of true revival. “One of our troubles is we are not willing to humble ourselves. We are not willing to give up our opinions as to how things should be done. We want a revival to come just in our way. You never saw two revivals come just alike. We must let them come in God’s way. People are ashamed to admit they need a revival. If you are not willing to take the shame on yourself, you then let it remain on Jesus Christ. You must bear the reproach of your sinful state of indifference, or the cause of our Master must bear it.”

The Conflict of Duties — Part II

Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father–Luk 9:59


The Concentric Circles of Our Lives and the Various Voices That Call Us to Duty


But still more powerfully do men feel this pressure in regard to the concentric circles of their life. For all of us live within concentric circles that widen out until they reach infinity. We are surrounded firstly by the home, and the poorest home is always rich in duty. We are surrounded next by the community, by the common life in the heart of which we dwell. And then we are surrounded by the Church, and by the teeming life of all the world; and then, for king and peasant and prodigal and saint, the ultimate environment is God. Now one great mark of an advancing life is that it is wakened to the call of these environments. Over the stir and murmur of the self, voices grow audible from further distances. And first they are voices of our wife and children, and then of the lives that need us in the city, and then of the great world that lies in bondage, and waits for the redemption of Christ Jesus. Always when we are walking in the light the range of our duties is infinitely widening. If we hear new music in the summer morning, we hear new calling for succor in the dark. And how to say to every voice that claims us, “Speak, Lord, Thy servant heareth,” is sometimes harder than to say to Simon, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” There is the call of the slums that many a man has heard, “Come down and help us, for we need you so”; there is the call of the wife, sitting alone at home, and of the children there who hardly know their father. There is the call of the great heathen world for missionaries to go abroad and tell of Jesus Christ; and then, not less divine than that, the call of a desolate and widowed mother. Ah, sir, if it were right and wrong, we could rise up and make a swift decision. In the strength of Christ we could abhor the evil, and cleave in the Holy Ghost to what was good. But the perplexity and anguish of the heart, and the indecision which is always misery, springs from the clashing not of right and wrong, but rather from the clash of right and right. In such an hour there is no help for anybody except in personal fellowship with Jesus. All rules are powerless, all maxims ineffectual, and that is why Christ was no trafficker in maxims. Nothing will guide a man in such a difficulty but the living direction of the living Savior, which is intensely personal, and intensely moral, and to the upward-lifted heart intensely real.


Christ’s Temptations Were for Choosing the Lesser Good


May I say in passing that this thought illuminates the temptations of our Lord for me? Men have always felt and always will feel the difficulty of thinking of a tempted Savior. That Christ was sinless–infinitely holy–as a reasonable man I must believe. That Christ was tempted in the most real way I could never dream of doubting for an instant. But how a sinless being could be tempted, and feel the anguish and onset of temptation, is very difficult for any mind to fathom. Now I make no pretence to having fathomed it. “God without mystery were not good news” to me. It makes me eager to see Him in the eternal morning, when I think of all He is keeping back to tell me then. But when I meditate on these deep and dark experiences that emerge at the very heart of human life, I begin to see which way the dawn is crimsoning. When I think how the best and holiest I have known have been tempted not with evil but with good; when I think how in some of the most beautiful and saintly lives the sorest battle has been of right with right; when I recall the fact that as life deepens, there may be conflict without one shadow of disloyalty, I see a gleam on the mystery of Christ. If struggle ceased as life became more glorious, then the temptation of Christ would be inexplicable. If conflict ended when sin was overcome, then it would be mockery to think that Christ was tempted. But when we find that with expanding life there comes the new possibility of anguish, then who can tell what blood and tears were possible to that last expansion of life in Jesus Christ.


The Conflict of Duties God Faces


In closing–for you will remember that I am a Christian minister and not a lecturer on moral problems–in closing will you allow me to show to you the evangelical aspect of these ethics? What I mean is this, that in the Christian Gospel that conflict of duties is not confined to man; it is reflected in its full intensity in the life of the eternal God. That God is righteous and infinitely holy, you and I reverently believe. That God is merciful and infinitely loving, you and I have been taught since we were children. And the whole New Testament on its Godward side is but the story of infinite wisdom, reconciling, in a way most wonderful, infinite righteousness and boundless love. How to maintain that law which binds the universe, and yet to welcome and receive the breaker of it; how to reveal the hate of God for sin, and yet to show His love for every sinner–that was the problem which confronted heaven, and which it took infinite wisdom to resolve, and which solved for me, and I do trust for you, the infinite marvel of the cross of Christ. Once I have understood the cross of Christ, I can never doubt the righteousness of God. Once I have understood the cross of Christ, I never can doubt the love of God again. And so in experience, although it baffle thought, I come to feel in the very depths of being that God hates sin with a consuming hatred, and yet that He loves me with a Father’s love. Righteousness without mercy cannot save me, for I have broken every commandment. Mercy without justice cannot save me, for the moral law is engraven on my heart. But when I grasp the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, and let His love flow down into my being, then righteousness and love are reconciled.


It is Finished

By A.W. Pink

How terribly have these blessed words of Christ been misunderstood, misappropriated and misapplied! How many seem to think that on the cross the Lord Jesus accomplished a work which rendered it unnecessary for the beneficiaries of it to live holy lives on earth. So many have been deluded into thinking that, so far as reaching heaven is concerned, it matters not how they walk provided they are “resting on the finished work of Christ.” They may be unfruitful, untruthful, disobedient, yet (though they may possibly miss some millennial crown) so long as they repudiate all righteousness of their own and have faith in Christ, they imagine they are “eternally secure.”

All around us are people who are worldly-minded, money-lovers, pleasure-seekers, Sabbath-breakers, yet who think all is well with them because they have “accepted Christ as their personal Saviour.” In their aspiration, conversation, and recreation, there is practically nothing to differentiate them from those who make no profession at all. Neither in their home-life nor social-life is there anything save empty pretensions to distinguish them from others. The fear of God is not upon them, the commands of God have no authority over them, the holiness of God has no attraction for them.

“It is finished.” How solemn to realize that these words of Christ must have been used to lull thousands into a false peace. Yet such is the case. We have come into close contact with many who have no private prayer-life, who are selfish, covetous, dishonest, but who suppose that a merciful God will overlook all such things provided they once put their trust in the Lord Jesus. What a horrible perversion of the truth! What a turning of God’s grace “into lasciviousness”! (Jude 4). Yes, those who now live the most self-seeking and flesh-pleasing lives, talk about their faith in the blood of the Lamb, and suppose they are safe. How the devil has deceived them!

“It is finished.” Do those blessed words signify that Christ so satisfied the requirement of God’s holiness that holiness no longer has any real and pressing claims upon us? Perish the thought. Even to the redeemed God says, “Be ye holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet. 1:16). Did Christ “magnify the law and make it honorable” (Isa. 42:21) that we might be lawless? Did He “fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15) to purchase for us an immunity from loving God with all our hearts and serving Him with all our faculties? Did Christ die in order to secure a divine indulgence that we might live to please self? Many seem to think so. No, the Lord Jesus has left His people an example that they should “follow (not ignore) His steps.”

“It is finished.” What was “finished? The need for sinners to repent? No indeed. The need for turning to God from idols? No indeed. The need for mortifying my members which are upon earth? No indeed. The need for being sanctified wholly, in spirit, and soul, and body? No indeed. Christ died not to make my sorrow for, hatred of, and striving against sin, useless. Christ died not to absolve me from the full discharge of my responsibilities unto God. Christ died not so that I might go on retaining the friendship and fellowship of the world. How passing strange that any should think that He did. Yet the actions of many show that this is their idea.

“It is finished.” What was “finished?” The sacrificial types were accomplished, the prophecies, of His sufferings were fulfilled, the work given Him by the Father had been perfectly done, a sure foundation had been laid on which a righteous God could pardon the vilest transgressor of the law who threw down the weapons of his warfare against Him. Christ had now performed all that was necessary in order for the Holy Spirit to come and work in the hearts of His people; convincing them of their rebellion, slaying their enmity against God, and producing in them a loving and obedient heart.

O, dear reader, make no mistake on this point. The “finished work of Christ” avails you nothing if your heart has never been broken through an agonizing consciousness of your sinfulness. The “finished work of Christ” avails you nothing unless you have been saved from the power and pollution of sin (Matthew 1:21). It avails you nothing if you still love the world (I John 2:15). It avails you nothing unless you are a “new creature” in Him (2 Cor .5:17). If you value your soul, search the Scriptures to see for yourself; take no man’s word for it.

The Conflict of Duties — Part I

Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father–Luk 9:59


The Conflict between What Is Right and Wrong


There has been very considerable discussion as to the precise import of this incident, but the moral significance of it is unmistakable. Here is a man whose difficulty lay in the pressure upon him of conflicting duties. On the one hand he felt the claims of home. He had his duties which he owed a father. On the other hand he heard the call of Christ, bidding him come away and follow Him. And all his difficulty in that great hour, when the windows were opened and the deeps were broken up, was how to reconcile in his own conscience these two competing and conflicting duties. He was not torn between the right and wrong. He was torn between the right and right. He hesitated between two rival claims, both of them stamped with the seal of the divine. For on the one hand there was his filial piety, and his passionate reverence for the honored dead; and on the other hand, imperious and urgent, there was the call of the Lord Jesus Christ.


The Primary Conflict Is between What Is Good and What Is Evil


Now the primal and bitterest conflict of mankind is the conflict between what is good and what is evil. Into that heritage we are all born, and there is no escape from it to the last hour we live. “O wretched man,” cries the apostle, “who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Paul knew, through all his fellowship with Christ, what it was to be clutched at by the beast. And there is no strife of any civil war, or of cross and crescent, or of east or west, that is so terrible and long as that. I had a young friend who came back from Keswick once as if it was going to be singing all the time, and full of his happiness and new-found ecstasy he went to see my venerable father, Dr. Whyte. And Dr. Whyte looked on him and laid his hand upon him, and said with all the intensity of love, “Sir, it will be a sair warstle to the end. “My brother and sister, you may lay your reckoning that it will be a sair warstle (a hard battle) to the end. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of spiritual darkness. And yet, as many here can testify, the battle of every day may end in victory, when a man has learned that the strength he has to keep him is the strength of a risen and a living Christ.


The Conflict between What Is Right and Right


But as life advances and deepens and enriches, there is another conflict which emerges. It is not the conflict between right and wrong. It is the conflict between right and right. All of us stand in various relationships, and life is rich in proportion to relationships. To be utterly alone were to be dead, for no man liveth to himself. And these relationships, as they enlarge our being, and heighten our personality indefinitely, so do they carry with them, in their widening circles, an ever-increasing complexity of duty. As life grows richer, gladness increase. As life grows richer, duties are augmented. Every new tie that man or woman forms, carries its burden as surely as its blessing. Every new plighting of troth in holy wedlock, every new opening of an infant’s eyes, carries its claim as well as its delight. Send a man out into some savage wilderness, and you limit his duty to himself and God. Give him his place in family and state, and family and state lay hands upon him. And so as life advances in complexity, and grows more intricate and rich and wonderful, duties are born which we accept from God, and which are yet very hard to reconcile. So to the conflict between right and wrong there is added the conflict between right and right. New voices call us, new claims press in upon us, and they seem to jar with the old familiar voices. There are men whose bitterest and sorest struggle is not the fight between duty and disloyalty. It is the secret battle of the spirit between one clear duty and another.


On the field of history that is strikingly exemplified by the conflict between military and religious duty. Right down the ages we have signal instances of this moral collision in the soldier’s life. No duty is more sacred than a soldier’s duty. He is bound in absolute loyalty to his king. For him obedience is the crowning virtue, and disobedience the depth of criminality. And hence for him, bound by his soldier’s oath, the awfulness of the problem that confronts him when the obedience he owes his king clashes with his obedience to his God. The Jews realized it when, as Josephus tells us, they were ordered to help to build the heathen temples. In the Roman Empire it was the trial and tragedy of many a soldier who became a Christian.


Conflict between Duties of Mercy and Justice


The same collision in our social life is often experienced in another way. It is experienced in the strife that wages between the duties of mercy and of justice. That we are called to be merciful as Christ was merciful is graven deep on every Christian heart. We are to be tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven us. We are to bear all things and to believe all things–we are to be patient not to some men but to all–we are to pardon those who have wronged us and defrauded us, not once or twice, but seventy times seven. Now if you have ever tried to live that life you will know something of its tremendous difficulty. If to be merciful were our one duty, it would always be hard for stubborn hearts like ours. But who does not know how its hardness is intensified when, through the crying of the call for mercy, there is heard imperiously and in the name of God the clarion voice that demands justice, if charity is not to grow degenerate, if public life is to preserve its purity, the need of justice between man and man is equally divine with that of mercy. And sometimes the hardest task a man can have is just to reconcile that call for justice with the love in Christ that is always tender-hearted, and pitiful, and ready to forgive. Life calls for the stern word as well as for the sweetness of compassion. Life calls for the resolute will and the clear brain as well as for the infinitely tender heart. And there come hours for everyone of us, sometimes at home and sometimes in our work, when the difficulty that drives us to our knees is the difficulty of these conflicting duties.


Moral Blindness

By E.L. Bevir

A servant of the Lord, no longer with us, once said “infatuation precedes destruction”; (See J. G. Bellett, in his beautiful Introduction to Isaiah, p. 21.) it was no doubt true of the Jewish nation in their treatment of Messiah before Titus was sent to demolish their city, and I believe it to be true, in every time, in the ways of God with men.

The antediluvians were infatuated– morally blinded; so far as I can understand they were so intent upon living on the earth that the preacher of righteousness could get no true hearing; yet surely the very state of things must have been enough to make them attentive, yet they allowed the flood to come upon them. Intent upon life (Luke 17: 27), death surprised them, and they were all drowned.

It is well to notice that pursuit of wealth and a disturbed state of society may co-exist; so now in this present age (1 Thess. 5: 3). The Jews in Jeremiah’s day were infatuated. Their pretensions were unparalleled, and their blindness inconceivable (see Jer. 18: 12); and the fall of Jerusalem involved both the prophets who so blindly affirmed security and the unfortunate people who listened to them.

Insolent pride had taken possession of Judah, and she fell in the very midst of it.
It appears to me that the whole of Christendom, on a larger scale, will be thoroughly infatuated just before the final catastrophe of the age; I mean that sudden destruction which shall come upon the allied forces of the Beast, and upon the whole earth.

The inspired page predicts that there will be no repentance even in the very midst of judgments, but daring revolt and defiance of God to the very end.

But do we not see a strange infatuation in many cases just before a moral judgment from God falls upon those blinded by it? I mean by a moral judgment the intervention of divine power in such a manner as to manifest, even before the tribunal of Christ, the utter vanity of their pretensions.

The signs of infatuation I think are much the same in all ages, and the chief one of all is that of pride which goes before a fall; a spirit which pretends to know everything, which refuses to be taught, and will not even bear a remonstrance. It is a state of soul bordering upon judicial blindness, and very different from the assurance of faith which is always accompanied by the fear of God.
Since Christianity has been upon earth I think that whenever ecclesiastical power has asserted itself upon human principles, when there has been the assumption of certain grand truths of the church of God, and the attempt to monopolise them, then infatuation has set in, and judgment has followed.

It will be said: “You refer to Rome”. No doubt Rome is infatuated, and will be judged and destroyed; but I refer to every attempt by proud man to exalt himself by claiming ecclesiastical power which is not his. I believe we might find many instances of this without going to the Vatican, nor can we be too anxious, whilst owning the grand truths of the assembly of God, to be kept from any assumption of power and infallibility which is not ours.

The Lord is with those who seek to be humbly faithful to Him, the Head of the church, and He is their wisdom; power to stand true to Him and serve Him too is found in Him alone.

He will not fail us; but the spirit that accompanies such a walk will be rather that of the broken and contrite order, which is precious to God. Ignorance and presumption with a display of religious zeal are the marks of infatuation, and no doubt characterize man’s religion in the age in which we are living as in every other age.

May there be that humility which can proceed only from a true walk with the Lord; and may we be kept from every effort to glorify that man who was set aside in the cross, whilst retaining the precious truths which are ours in Christ.

If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light!
– E. L. B.

The Prerequisite of Vision

When they were awake, they saw his glory–Luk 9:32


Sleeping on the Mount of Transfiguration Is Spiritually Unnatural


It is very strange to find the disciples heavy with sleep, even on the Mount of Transfiguration. One would have thought that there, if anywhere, there were things happening that would have “murdered sleep.” The glory of heaven was shining forth from Jesus, like sunshine pouring itself irresistibly through cloud. There too, not in any ghostly apparition, but in most strange reality, were men who had been dead for centuries; yet in the presence of such scenes as these, Peter and James and John were very sleepy. Then they awoke, startled we know not how. Gradually, as a swimmer might rise to the surface out of deep waters, they came to themselves, and remembered where they were. And then, and not till then, when they were fully awake, the Gospel tells us that they saw His glory.


Only When We Are Awake Do We Have a Vision of Glory


You see, then, that one of the penalties of living sleepily, is that we miss so much of what is happening. The mightiest transactions may be forward, and heaven be stooping down to touch the mountain tops, but we shall see nothing of it all if we be drowsy. The latest biographer of Principal Cairns, in his most satisfactory and illuminative little volume, gives us a very charming account of Cairn’s school days. He tells us that very early in the morning, when the house was still, Cairns was already busy with his books. His brothers were fast asleep, so was his father; no one was stirring in the cottage save his mother. She was already hard at work in her day’s toils, not grudgingly, but perhaps singing as she worked. Now Cairns had a limitless admiration for his mother; she was his heroine and his saint right to the end. And his biographer suggests that this love and adoration might be traced, in part, to these early morning hours. The cottage was radiant with love and toil and sacrifice. But the others were heavy with sleep, and did not see it. None but the zealous young student were awake; but when he was awake, he saw her glory.


When We Are Awake We See Unexpected Glories


Now it is one mark of every great awakening that it reveals to us unexpected glories. When intellect is quickened and the feelings are moved; when the will is reinforced and conscience purified, the world immediately ceases to be commonplace, and clothes itself in unsuspected splendor. You might play the noblest music to a savage, and-it would carry little meaning to his ear. You might set him down before some magnificent painting, and it would not stir one chord in all his being. But when a man has breathed the spirit of the West, and been enriched by its heritage of feeling, there are thoughts that wander off into eternity in every masterpiece of art–we have been wakened, and we see the glory. Do you think it is an idle figure of speech when we talk of the long sleep of the Middle Ages? Do you imagine that we are only using metaphor when we describe the Reformation as an awakening? I hardly think that we could speak more literally than when we use such simple terms as these. There is always a world of glorious environment; but men were heavy with sleep once, and they missed it. it was not till powers and faculties were quickened in the great movements of Renaissance and Reform, that the clouds scattered and the blue heaven was seen. And if today there is larger meaning in our life, if nature is richer in spiritual significance, if faith and hope and love are far more worthy, if religion is deeper and God more real and tender; it can all be interpreted in the language of the text: When they were fully awake, they saw the glory.


The Lord’s Awakening in Us Is Needed before We See Certain Glories


I think, too, that in spiritual awakening we find that the suggestion of our text arrests us. There are many glories which we never see, till the call of our Lord has bidden us awake. There is the Bible, for instance; think of that a moment. We have been taught out of its pages since we were little children, and we can never be grateful enough for this so priceless book, that is alive with interest even to the child. It is the noblest of all noble literature. It is fearless, and frank, and eloquent, and simple. It faces life’s depths, yet it is always hopeful. It fronts life’s tragedies, yet it is always calm. A man may refuse to believe it is inspired, yet may acknowledge what a debt he owes it. But it is one thing to feel the Bible’s charm, and it is another thing to see the Bible’s glory; and the glory of the Bible is a hidden glory, until a man is spiritually awake. It is only then that it speaks as friend with friend, and that it separates itself from common voices. It is only then that it reaches us apart, with a message and a music no one else shall hear. It is only then, under the pressure of sorrow, or in the darkness of failure, or beneath the shadow of warring duties, that it touches us as if we were alone in the whole world. That is the glory of love, and of love’s literature. And we know much before we wake, but never that. It is as true of us as of the three upon the mountain–when they were fully awake, they saw the glory.


The Gospel Awakens in Us Glories Hidden in Our Fellowman


Or think again of the life of our fellowman. Until we are awakened by the Gospel, I question if we ever see the full glory there. To most of us the life of thousands of our fellows seems a most dull and commonplace affair. There is little radiance in it, and little hope; it is as cheerless as a Grey sea in late November. But can imagination not do anything? Certainly, imagination can work wonders. If you want to see the charm of common lives; the passion, the tenderness, the joy, the strength of the persons whom you and I would brush past heedlessly, just read the Bleak House of Charles Dickens again.


The poem hangs on the berry-bush
Till comes the poet’s eye;
And the whole street is a masquerade
When Shakespeare passes by.


All that is true. And all that should make us very grateful to God for the gift of every real novelist and dramatist. But underneath all life of passion and affection there are spiritual possibilities for the meanest, and not till the world is wakened by the Gospel are the hidden glories of humanity revealed. Why are we carrying on home-mission work? Is it merely to employ our leisure energies? It is because we have been wakened, and have seen the glory of the poorest brother in the meanest street. And why have we missionaries in India and in Africa? Is it because we fear the heathen will be damned for not having trusted One of whom they never heard? It is because we have been wakened, and have seen the glory of every heart that beats in darkest Africa. Under all vice there is still something true; deeper than the deepest degradation, there is still a hope unspeakable and full of glory; in the barren desert the rose may blossom yet, and Jesus Christ has wakened us to that. There was the ring of the true faith about Chalmers of New Guinea when, writing of a cannibal chief of that dark island, he refers to him as “that grand old gentleman.”


We Must Be Spiritually Wakened to See the Glories of the Lord


And the same thing is true of our dear Lord Himself. We must be spiritually wakened if we would see His glory. It is only then that He reveals Himself, in the full and glorious compass of His grace. When a man approaches Christ Jesus intellectually, he is humbled and stirred by that wealth of spontaneous wisdom. And when a man approaches Christ emotionally, the sympathy of that matchless heart may overpower him. But the brightest intellect and the most delicate emotions may center themselves for a lifetime on the Savior, yet the glory of the Savior may escape them; it is always difficult for the man who is spiritually dead to understand the dominion of Christ in history. But the hour comes when a man is spiritually roused. Out of the infinite, the hand of God hath touched him. The old content is gone like some sweet dream. He realizes that things seen are temporal. He is not satisfied anymore, nor very happy; sin becomes real, the eternal is full of voices. And it is then, in a vision fairer than any dawn, that the glory of Christ first breaks upon the soul. There is a depth of meaning in His wisdom now, that the mere intellect was powerless to grasp. There is a tenderness and a strength in His compassion that mere emotion never understood. There is a value and a nearness in His death that once would have been quite inexplicable. When they were awake, they saw His glory.


Time Wakens in Us Glories We Once Missed


But to pass on from that great theme of spiritual wakening, there is one feature of experience which I must not omit. It is part of God’s discipline with us in the years, that the years should waken us to see glories which once we missed. The value of our college education is not the amount of raw knowledge which it gives us. There are men whose minds are amazingly full of facts, yet no one would call them educated men. And there are others who have comparatively few facts at their command, yet you instinctively recognize that they are educated. For true education is not meant to store us; true education is intended to awaken us; and the joy of the truly educated man is no poor pride in his superior knowledge: it is that he has been so wakened that in every realm and sphere he can see glories unobserved before.


God’s Education Is Needed for Us to See the Glories of Mysteries


Now if this be true of our schools and of our colleges, do you not think it holds also of God’s education? It is a truth we should ever keep clear before us. There are mysteries in life’s discipline we cannot fathom; there are strange happenings that have baffled every thinker; but at least we know that the change and the stress of years, and the joys they bring with them, and their losses and gains, waken us, perhaps rudely, out of many a dream, and show us glories which once we never saw. I do not think that the man who has never been poor will be quick to see the heroisms of quiet poverty. I do not think that he who is always strong can ever appreciate at its full moral value the dauntless cheerfulness of the racked invalid. You must have been tempted as your brother is, to know his magnificent courage in resisting. To the man who never loved, love is inscrutable. So the Almighty in whose hands we are, disciplines us through the deepening of the years, wakes us by change, by love, by sorrow, by temptation, until the veils are rent that shrouded other hearts. And we say of humanity what these three said of Jesus: “When we were awake, we saw His glory.”


But the deepest interpretation of the text is not of this world. It will come to its crown of meaning in eternity. It is then that out of the sleep of life we shall waken, and we shall be satisfied when we awake. We shall see the glory of goodness and of truth then, as we never saw it in our brightest hours. We shall see the glory of having kept on struggling, when every voice was bidding us give in. We shall see the glory of the love we once despised, of insignificant and unrewarded lives, of the silence that shielded and the speech that cheered. We shall see the glory of Jesus and of God. We are heavy with sleep here, even at our best. It is going to take the touch of death to waken us. But when we waken in the eternal morning, I think we shall truly see the glory then.


He Lives

By Hymn Stories

Author and Composer –Alfred H. Ackley, 1887-1960

“He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” Matthew 28:6

“Why should I worship a dead Jew?”

This challenging question was posed by a sincere young Jewish student who had been attending evangelistic meetings conducted by the author and composer of this hymn, Alfred H. Ackley.

In his book, Forty Gospel Hymn Stories, George W. Sanville records Mr. Ackley’s answer to this searching question, which ultimately prompted the writing of this popular gospel hymn:

“He lives! I tell you, He is not dead, but lives here and now! Jesus Christ is more alive today than ever before. I can prove it by my own experience, as well as the testimony of countless thousands.”

Mr. Sanville continues:

“Mr. Ackley’s forthright, emphatic answer, together with his subsequent triumphant effort to win the man for Christ, flowered forth into song and crystallized into a convincing sermon on ‘He Lives!’ His keenly alert mind was sensitive to suggestions for sermons, and sermons in song. In his re-reading of the resurrection stories of the Gospels, the words ‘He is risen’ struck him with new meaning. From the thrill within his own soul came the convincing song–‘He Lives!’ The scriptural evidence, his own heart, and the testimony of history matched the glorious experience of an innumerable cloud of witnesses that ‘He Lives,’ so he sat down at the piano and voiced that conclusion in song. He says, ‘The thought of His ever-living presence brought the music promptly and easily.'”

The hymn first appeared in Triumphant Service Songs, a hymnal published by the Rodeheaver Company, in 1933. It has been a favorite with evangelical congregations to the present time.

The names of the two Ackley brothers, Alfred Henry and Benton D., have long been prominent in the gospel music field. Both were long-time associates with the Rodeheaver Publishing Company in the compilation and promotion of gospel music, and each contributed many songs to these publications. (See “God Understands” No. 29).

A. H. Ackley was born on January 21, 1887, at Spring Hill, Pennsylvania. He received a thorough education in music, including study in composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England. As a performer, he was recognized as an accomplished cellist. Following graduation from the Westminster Theological Seminary, he was ordained to the Presbyterian ministry, in 1914. While serving Presbyterian pastorates in Pennsylvania and California, Ackley always maintained a keen interest in the writing of hymns and hymn tunes. It is estimated that he wrote well over 1,000 gospel songs and hymns in addition to aiding in the compilation of various hymnals and songbooks for the Rodeheaver Company. In recognition of his contribution to sacred music, he was awarded the honorary Doctor of Sacred Music Degree from John Brown University. Mr. Ackley died at Whittier, California, on July 3, 1960.

Recently, I had the privilege of visiting the Holy Land and of standing in the garden tomb, where it is believed our Lord was buried and resurrected. What a spiritual blessing it was to realize anew, that we worship and serve One who broke the bonds of death and now ever liveth to make intercession for us.

THE LORD IS RISEN

“The Lord is risen indeed;
Now is His work performed;
Now is the mighty Captive freed,
And death’s strong castle stormed.

“The Lord is risen indeed:
The grave has lost its prey;
With Him is risen the ransomed seed,
To reign in endless day.

“The Lord is risen indeed:
He lives, to die no more;
He lives, the sinner’s cause to plead,
Whose curse and shame He bore.

“Then, angels, tune your lyres,
And strike each cheerful chord;
Join, all ye bright celestial choirs,
To sing our risen Lord!”

–Thomas Kelly

Ashamed of Christ

For whosoever shaft be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shaft come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels–Luk 9:26


Why Some Were Ashamed of Christ in His Day…


I can understand how men were ashamed of Christ as He moved about the villages of Galilee. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and men hid their faces from Him. Born in a humble and malodorous village (can any good thing come out of Nazareth?), living in the deepest obscurity for thirty years, then suddenly claiming to be the Messiah, yet contradicting the warmest hopes of Israel–no wonder there was disappointment, and that many were ashamed of Jesus and His words.


How Can Men Be Ashamed of Him Now?


But the thing that is difficult to understand is how any man can be ashamed of Jesus now. For now He is no longer rejected and despised: He is enthroned in heaven at the right hand of God. We can understand a man denying that Christ rose–there are many who honestly believe that He still sleeps; but the man who is ashamed of Christ is not an unbeliever; you cannot be ashamed of that which has no existence. The man who is ashamed credits the resurrection–get him alone and he will not deny it. The man who is ashamed credits that Christ is living and is energetic in human hearts today; and the mystery is how, crediting all that, it should be possible to be ashamed of Christ. That it is possible everyone of us knows, and it is on that strange possibility I wish to speak. First, I shall touch on the revelation of this shame; next on the roots of it; and thirdly on some remedies in our power.


Signs of Being Ashamed of Christ


1. Concealment


First, then, I wish to speak about its revelation, about the way in which this shame of Christ betrays itself: and the first feature that rises before me is concealment. Is there any man or woman of whom you are ashamed? Think of them and call up their names while I am speaking. Well, however else your shame may show itself, it will at least have this mark–you are ashamed to be seen with them in public. In private, that is a different matter: you have no objection to meeting them in private. In the pressure of a great crowd, that is a different matter, for any two may be cast together in a crowd. But when you are ashamed of a man you are ashamed of being openly seen with him, you are ashamed of walking in broad daylight through the streets with him; and as that is a feature of all shame between man and man, it is a mark of the man ashamed of Christ. Remember we may be ashamed of Christ although in the quiet hour we pray in secret. Remember we may be ashamed of Him although at the stated times we come to church. For in the one case–in private prayer–there is a solitude, and in other–in public worship–is a crowd; and neither in solitude nor in the throng is the shame or glory of the heart detected. It is as we walk through the streets of daily life; it is as we take up our task in homely scenes; it is as we go about our work and mingle with our friends–it is there that our heart’s loyalty shall be seen. if we honor Christ men will perceive the friendship. If we are ashamed of Him we shall conceal it.


2. Silence


The second feature of all shame is silence. There is a close and mysterious tie between the two. The feeling of shame whenever it is operative has a way of putting a seal upon the lips. A child will babble and prattle all day long, and spin out a history about its small adventures; but let it do anything of which it is ashamed, and not a word will it speak concerning that. How many homes there are in which one son or daughter has come to disgrace, till the parents’ hearts are breaking! Does the stranger entering that home talk of the prodigal? Is not that the one name that is never mentioned? There are ceaseless yearnings and there are secret prayers rising to heaven daily for the wanderer; but mingling with every thought of him is shame, and one great witness of that shame is silence. Now far be it from me even to suggest that all our silence about Christ is such. There is a reserve which is dignified and right when we move among august and holy things. Still, hours will come in every Christian life when confession is imperative and clearly called for, and if in such hours there be not speech but silence, the silence is the stamp and sign of shame.


3. Avoidance


The third witness of shame lies in avoidance. We avoid instinctively what we are ashamed of. When an architect has designed a building of which he is proud, I can imagine his delight in looking at it. I can imagine him going out of his way by half a dozen streets just to get one more glimpse of his conception. But let the building be a failure, and the man ashamed of it–he is not eager to feast his eyes upon it. Now he does all in his power to avoid it, and he avoids it because he is ashamed. I fancy that most of us know places such as that, for we are all the architects of our own fortunes: places that are disgraced for us by wretched memories, tarnished and desecrated by some sin; and we too, as we journey through the years, are glad to avoid such scenes, and we avoid them because we are ashamed. Avoidance is one sign and seal of shame. Can it be said of you that you are avoiding Christ? If so, however you may explain it to yourself, depend upon it you are ashamed of Him.


The Roots of Our Being Ashamed of Christ


So far then of the revelation of this shame: now a word or two upon the roots of it. Whence does it spring? How is it born? What possible cause can there be for this so tragic feeling? It will be best to keep close to Scripture in our answer.


1. Fear


Sometimes we are ashamed of Christ through fear. We are ashamed as Nicodemus was. He came to Jesus by stealth and in the nighttime, and he came so because he feared the Jews. In his heart of hearts he profoundly admired the Lord–we can do that, and yet be ashamed of Him–but he was a public man, a master in Israel, living in the fierce light that beat upon a rabbi, and he was afraid and he crept to the Lord by night, and the root and basis of his shame was fear. My impression is that fear is at the root of far more things than most of us ever dream of. There are even virtues on which men pride themselves which a little more courage would instantly destroy. The Bible never reiterates in vain, and do you know the command that occurs most often in Scripture? The commonest command in Scripture is Fear not. Now we are not in bodily peril like Nicodemus; no one will slay us for being out and out. The day of the thumbscrew and of the stake and of the Solway tide–that day, we may thank God, is gone forever; but though that day is gone, fear has not departed. For in the intricate mechanism of modern society there is ample room for subtler and finer fear–fear lest one’s business suffer, fear for one’s prospects, fear for the welfare of one’s wife and children; and who does not know how often tongues are tied and lips are silenced and confession stifled, through the haunting of a vague fear like that? I do not wish to speak harshly of that temper: I know how hard it is sometimes to be true. There are inevitable and unavoidable accommodations which the wheels-within-wheels of modern life demand. Still, there is such a thing as being ashamed of Christ–if there were not, the words would not be written–and at the root of it today as in Jerusalem, may be the promptings of unmanly fear.


2. Social Pressure


Again the cause of this shame may be social pressure. We may be ashamed of Christ as Simon Peter was. And the amazing thing is that in such a zealous and loving heart there should have been any room for shame at all. But Peter sat by the fire in the courtyard, and they taunted him with his discipleship; and then the girl who kept the wicket recognized him, and everyone present was antagonistic; and Peter denied his Lord–Peter was ashamed of Him–and the shame had its source in his society. Had it not been for Peter’s company that night, we should never have had the tale of Peter’s fall. Alone, in the dark streets, with what a burning loyalty he would have lifted up his heart to his great leader! But Peter was impressionable, easily influenced, quick to receive the impact of environment, and his society made him ashamed of Christ. Are there none today who are like Simon Peter? Are there none who deny Christ because of social pressure? Are there none who are silent and afraid to speak because of the men and women who surround them? In careless homes, in crowded shops or offices, in football clubs, in social gatherings, is not the old tragedy re-enacted sometimes, and does not their company make men ashamed of Christ?


3. Intellectual Pride


One other reason only would I mention, and that is intellectual pride. There are not a few instances in the book of Acts of shame which sprang from a certain pride of intellect. When a minister whom I know well was on the point of entering the ministry, the late Dr. Moody Stuart, a saint and a scholar, happened to walk up and down his garden with him. And the talk fell on the ministry, and on its joys and sorrows, on the love that inspires it and on the hopes that cheer it; when the Doctor turned sharply on his young friend and said, “Mr. C., are you willing to be a fool for Christ’s sake?” It was an apposite and pertinent question. There must be something of that willingness in every Christian–the Gospel is so simple, so free from subtle intricacy, so entirely, in the heart of it, a gift. And men are ashamed of Christ because His message is so plain that the illiterate peasant can live by it and die by it. There is nothing so alien in the world to pride of intellect as the life and the words and the sacrifice of Jesus. Here is the great offence of Calvary in intellectual and cultured ages–it is that in Calvary there is a fact which the mind alone is powerless to explain. I bring my learning of a thousand books there, and I cannot fathom its mystery and meaning. It only speaks home to my dark and baffled heart when “Nothing in my hand I bring.”


The Remedies for Being Ashamed of Christ


In closing, what are the remedies for this besetting shame? I shall just mention two.


1. Endeavor to Realize Who Jesus Is


The first is, endeavor to realize who Jesus is. If you had lived in London in the times of Queen Elizabeth you might have met two men walking together; and the one by his rich dress and his attendants you would recognize as the Earl of Southampton. But who is the other so plainly and carelessly dressed; and is not my lord ashamed to be seen with him? The other is the profoundest intellect God ever fashioned–the other is William Shakespeare. I do not think we should care much about dress, if we had the chance of a walk and a talk with Shakespeare. He would be a strange creature who would be ashamed to be seen anywhere in such company. And did we but realize who He is, whom we name and whom we seek to follow, the very thought of shame would grow ridiculous. Who are you, tell me that–a merchant or a minister? a teacher or a doctor or a clerk? And who is Christ?-the King immortal and eternal, the Wonderful, the mighty God, the Counselor! When I put it that way does it not seem absurd even to dream of being ashamed of Christ? And no one really likes to be absurd.


2. Endeavor to Realize What Christ Has Done for You


And then endeavor to realize what Christ has done for you. That after all is the great cure of shame. When we once feel deeply all that we owe to Him, the black bat, shame, has flown. I could understand a young fellow about town being ashamed to walk through the streets with an old-fashioned and lame countrywoman. But if the old-fashioned and lame country-woman is his mother–God have mercy on him if he feels shame then! For she cradled him and she watched him night and day, and she nursed him in fever and she prayed for him; and never a day has passed since he left home but her thought has gone out in a great longing to him; and who with a spark of manhood in his heart could ever dare to be ashamed of one who had rendered service so great and rich as that? Yet all the service of the dearest mother is not one tithe of what we owe to Christ. He loved us and He gave Himself for us. He saved us and called us, and has made us heirs of heaven. Just think of it. Try to realize it. Call it up as you walk home from church tonight. Then from the heart you will be able to sing.


I’m not ashamed to own my Lord,
Or to defend His cause.


O for a Thousand Tongues

By Hymn Stories

Author –Charles Wesley, 1707-1788
Composer –Carl G. Glaser, 1784-1829
Tune Name –“Azmon”

“Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.” Psalm 150:6

It is generally agreed that Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley have been the two most influential writers of English hymnody to date. Following the new metrical psalmody introduced by Watts, the eighteenth-century Christian church was ready for the more warm, experiential hymns of Charles Wesley. God providentially raised Charles Wesley up to take the harp of Watts when the older poet laid it down and thus kept the church’s song vibrant.

John and Charles Wesley, while students at Oxford University, formed a religious “Holy Club” because of their dissatisfaction with the spiritual lethargy at the school. As a result of their methodical habits of living and studying, they were jokingly called “methodists” by their fellow students. Upon graduation these young brothers were sent to America by the Anglican Church to help stabilize the religious climate of the Georgia Colonies and to evangelize the Indians.

On board ship as they crossed the Atlantic, the Wesley brothers came into contact with a group of German Moravians, a small evangelical group long characterized by missionary concern and enthusiastic hymn singing. The spiritual depth of these believers soon became evident during a raging storm. The following account is taken from Wesley’s journal, January 25, 1736:

“In the midst of the Psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke over, split the main sail in pieces, covered the ship and poured in between the decks…. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Moravians looked up, and without intermission calmly sang on, I asked one of them afterwards, ‘Were you not afraid?’ He answered, ‘Thank God, no!'”

John Wesley was so impressed with these people that he eventually made a detailed study of the hymnal used in their home church in Herrnhut, Germany. Soon he introduced a number of English translations of these Moravian hymns into the Anglican services. Between 1737 and 1786 the Wesleys published between them sixty-three hymnals, with many hymns of Moravian background.

Following a short and unsuccessful ministry in America, the disillusioned Wesleys returned to England, where once again they came under the influence of a group of devout Moravian believers meeting in Aldersgate, London. In May, 1738, both of these brothers had a spiritual heart-warming experience, realizing that though they had been zealous in the Church’s ministry, neither had ever personally accepted Christ as Savior nor had known the joy of their religious faith as did their Moravian friends. From that time the Wesleys’ ministry took on a new dimension and power.

Both John and Charles were endued with an indefatigable spirit, usually working fifteen to eighteen hours each day. It is estimated that they traveled a quarter of a million miles throughout Great Britain, mostly on horseback, while conducting more than 40,000 public services. Charles alone wrote no less than 6,500 hymn texts, with hardly a day or an experience passing without its crystallization into verse.

“O For a Thousand Tongues” was written in 1749 on the occasion of Charles’s eleventh anniversary of his own Aldersgate conversion experience. It is thought to have been inspired by a chance remark by Peter Bohler, an influential Moravian leader, who exclaimed, “Had I a thousand tongues, I would praise Christ Jesus with all of them. ” The hymn originally had nineteen stanzas and when published was entitled, “For the Anniversary Day of One’s Conversion. ” Most of the verses, no longer used, dealt in a very personal way with Wesley’s own conversion experience. For example, “I felt my Lord’s atoning blood close to my soul applied Me, me He loved–the Son of God–for me, for me He died.”

Charles Wesley died on March 29, 1788, having spent over fifty years in the service of the Lord he loved so intimately and served so effectively. Even as he lay on his death bed, it is said that he dictated a final hymn of praise to his wife.

Other hymns by Charles Wesley include “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” (No. 13), “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” (No. 45), “A Charge to Keep I Have” (101 More Hymn Stories, No. 1), “Depth of Mercy” (ibid., No. 20), and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” (ibid., No. 31).

Cross-Bearing

If any man will come after me, let him…take up his cross daily–Luk 9:23


The Cross Signified Anything Difficult to Bear


When the Romans crucified a criminal, not only did they hang him on a cross. As a last terrible indignity, they made him carry the cross upon his back. Probably Jesus, when a lad, had been a witness of that dreadful spectacle. How it would sink into His boyish mind the dullest imagination can conjecture. And that was why, when He became a man, He used the imagery of cross-bearing to describe all that is bitterest in life. The cross is anything difficult to bear; anything that robs the step of lightness and blots out the sunshine from the sky. And one of the primary secrets of discipleship is given in our text: “If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily.”


Cross-Bearing: A Universal Thing


The first implication of our text is that cross-bearing is a universal thing. If any man will come after Me–then no one is conceived of as escaping. In the various providences of God there are things we may escape in life. There are many who have never felt the sting of poverty: there are some who have never known the hour of pain. But if God has His providences which distinguish us, He has also His providences which unite us, and no man or woman ever escapes the cross. There is a cross in every life. There is a crook in every lot. There is a bitter ingredient in every cup, though the cup be fashioned of the gold of Ophir. Our Lord knew that everyone who came to Him, in every country and in every age, would have to face the discipline of cross-bearing. The servant is not greater than his Lord.


The next implication of our text is that cross-bearing is a universal thing. “If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross.” From which I gather that crosses are peculiar; separate as personality; never quite the same in different lives. When coins are issued from the mint, they are identical with one another. Handle them; they are alike: there is not a shade of difference between them. But things that issue from the mint of God are the very opposite of that: their mark is an infinite diversity. Some crosses are bodily and some are mental. Some spring from unfathomed depths of being. Some are shaped and fashioned by our ancestors, and some by our own sins. Some meet us in the relationships of life, frequently in the relationships of toil, often in the relationship of home. Were crosses like coins issued from the mint, we should ask for nothing more than human sympathy. That would content us, were we all alike. That we would appreciate and understand. But in every cross, no matter how it seem, there is something nobody else can understand, and there lies our utter need of God. No one was ever tempted just as you are, though every child of Adam has been tempted. No one ever had just your cross to carry; there is always something which makes it all your own. And that is why, beyond all human kindliness, we need the eternal God to be our refuge, and underneath, the everlasting arms.


The third implication of our text is that cross-bearing must be a willing thing. “If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross.” Probably our Lord, visiting Jerusalem, had seen a criminal led to execution. He had seen the legionary take the cross and lay it on the shoulders of the criminal. And the man had fought and struggled like a beast, in his loathing of that last indignity–and yet for all his hate he had to bear it. Our Lord never could forget that. It would haunt His memory to the end–these frenzied and unavailing struggles against an empire that was irresistible. Did He, I wonder, recall that horrid scene when He forbade His follower to struggle so? Let him take up his cross, I had a friend, a sweet and saintly man, whose little girl was dying. She was an only child, much loved, and his heart was very bitter and rebellious. Then he turned to his wife and said: “Wife, we must not let God take our child. We must give her.” So kneeling down beside the bed together, they gave up their baby–and their wills. My dear reader, I do not know your cross, I only know for certain that you have one. And I know, too, that the kind of way you bear it will make all the difference to you. Your cross may harden you; it may embitter you; it may drive you out into a land of salt. Your cross may bring you to the arms of Christ. Rebel against it, you have still to carry it. Rebel against it, and you augment its weight. Rebel against it, and the birds cease singing. All the music of life’s harp is jangled. But take it up because the Master bids you, incorporate it in God’s plan for you, and it blossoms like the rod of Aaron.


The last implication of our text is that cross-bearing is a daily thing. “If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily.” There lies the heroism of cross-bearing. It is not a gallant deed of golden mornings. You have to do it, cheerfully and bravely, every dull morning of the week. Some disciplines are quite occasional. They reach us in selected circumstances. Cross-bearing is continuous. It is the heroism of the dull common hour. Thank God, there is something else which is continuous, and that is the sufficient grace of Him, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness, and who will never leave us nor forsake us. “If any man will come after me, let him …. take up his cross daily.”


The Trial of Faith

By Andrew Bonar

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 1 Peter 1:6,7

The prevailing state of our mind should be great joy – ‘Wherein ye greatly rejoice.’ Have you got at the Gospel at all if you have not great joy, if it does not every day make you glad? Our joy comes from a great Fountain – Christ Himself. Are you a disciple? Then can you bear to live below this standard? In spite of this joy you may be ‘in heaviness through manifold trials.’ Indeed, it is your great joy that enables you to bear them. What is the trial of faith? It is the outward pressure of circumstances, the waves dashing upon you as you stand on the Rock of Ages. Christ was tried. He was the crystal vessel, full of the purest water, and Satan was allowed to shake it to see if there was any mud in it, and there was not. The trial of faith came to Abraham in a strange way, threatening to bereave him of his beloved son. Abraham stood the test, and went on step by step till God said, ‘Now I know that thou fearest Me,’ etc., and the trial ended in ‘praise, and honour, and glory.’ The ‘trial of faith’ may come in disappointment in those we trusted in; it may come directly from the devil it may come from the state of the church; it may come from persecutions, bonds, imprisonments. It is quite natural to feel these trials. Down in the trough of the wave, then up again on the crest; that was Paul’s experience. Then it is only ‘for a season.’

I. God’s deep interest in the trial of faith. – He says it is much more important than the goldsmith’s trial of his gold. It is said that the goldsmith waits till he sees his face reflected in the gold, then he knows it is ready to be taken out. If we had seen with what intense interest the Father watched His beloved Son when He was ‘tried’ on the mount of temptation and on Mount Calvary! So with the members of His body. It is said, ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints,’ and the word is literally ‘deathpangs’ – what they may be suffering at the time of their death. The Lord watches them with intense interest. You have multiplied trials; are you murmuring? Do you say ‘It is very hard’? Would you say that to God? He is standing by and saying, ‘See how faith sustains this disciple of mine!’ Catch His eye, and you will be able to bear the ‘trial.’

II. The result of this process. – ‘Unto praise and honour and glory,’ etc. This means to our praise, to our honour, to our glory. It will be to God’s praise and honour and glory, for we will see that all His ways are excellent. An old Puritan says, ‘A stick in the water looks crooked. Take it out, and it is quite straight.’ So it will be when we look at God’s dealings with us. When we see all, we will say of our bitterest sorrows that it would have been unkind in God not to have sent them. But it will be to our praise and honour and glory too. Angels will serve us all the more willingly because we never permitted a doubt or surmise of God’s love to enter our mind. We shall have the greater glory, the more we have borne the trial of our faith. We are to be rewarded, not only for work done, but for burdens borne, and I am not sure but that the brightest rewards will be for those who have borne burdens without murmuring. Are you not often saying, ‘Oh, that that day would arrive, when God will reveal His Son Jesus Christ!’ On that day He will take the lily that has been growing so long among thorns and lift it up to the glory and wonder of all the universe, and the fragrance of that lily will draw forth ineffable praises from all the hosts of heaven.

Is it not worth while being ‘tested’ for a season ?

Transcribed from Reminiscences of Andrew A. Bonar D.D.

Nasib

Nasib Nasib Oliver Cadwell. Usia 25 tahun. Mengambil jurusan keuangan. 3 tahun pengalaman kerja. "Sempurna. Dialah yang kita butuhka...