Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Ministers

Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Ministers

My Beloved is mine--and I am His!

(William Nicholson, "Christ, the Portion of Believers!")

Christians! The Redeemer with all His glorious salvation, in all His offices, and under all the characters which He sustains--is yours! You may say, with the fullest assurance, "My Beloved is mine--and I am His!" You are the objects of the blessed Redeemer's particular care, given into His hands by His and your Father, to be saved by Him . . .
  from the guilt and dominion of sin,
  from all the powers of darkness, and
  from the vengeance of eternal fire!

He executes all of His offices on your behalf:

 As a Priest, He has made an atonement for your sin, and reconciled you to God.

 As a Prophet, He teaches you all that you need for life and godliness, from His Word.

 As a King, He reigns in His Church, and rules in the heart of every believer.

 He is a Physician to heal the diseased soul.

 He is a Shepherd to feed and guide His flock.

 He is a Counselor to direct them in all the intricate paths of life.

 He is a Friend that sticks closer than a brother, and whose friendship is unchangeable and everlasting.

 He is an Advocate to plead His people's cause.

 He is a Redeemer to emancipate their souls from sin's bondage.

Jesus is . . .
  a Sun to enlighten you,
  a Shield to defend you,
  a Door to admit you to Heaven,
  a Tree for fruit to nourish you,
  a Balm of Gilead to heal your soul maladies!

His unchangeable grace and mercy,
His perfect obedience,
His sin-atoning death,
His constant divine intercession--
are replete with comfort to the lost and undone sinner.

I have found Him whom my soul loves!
I've found the Pearl of greatest price!
My Christ is first, my Christ is last, my Christ is all in all!

We are His, through the purchase of His blood--we are bought with an inestimable price! Delightful thought! The believer can confidently say, "I am the Lord's!"

What more can my soul desire, in order to secure its happiness? I am the Lord's--delightful words, as sweet as the harmony of Heaven! Thousands of times might the charming announcement be made, and yet . . .
   not all its power is felt,
   not all its worth is comprehended,
   nor all its glory seen!

I am the Lord's! Then welcome . . .
 poverty with all its toils,
 persecution with all its frowns,
 labors with all their arduousness.

Then welcome death which will end all my conflicts here, and lead me home to Him whose I am--who loved me, and gave Himself for me! 

_________________________

And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: Deliver me, I pray thee (Gen. 32:9, 11).

There are many healthy symptoms in that prayer. In some respects it may serve as a mould into which our own spirits may pour themselves, when melted in the fiery furnace of sorrow.

He began by quoting God's promise: "Thou saidst." He did so twice (9 and 12). Ah, he has got God in his power then! God puts Himself within our reach in His promises; and when we can say to Him, "Thou saidst," He cannot say nay. He must do as He has said.

If Jacob was so particular for his oath's sake, what will not our God be? Be sure in prayer, to get your feet well on a promise; it will give you purchase enough to force open the gates of heaven, and to take it by force.
--Practical Portions for the Prayer-life

Jesus desires that we shall be definite in our requests, and that we shall ask for some special thing. "What will ye that I shall do unto you?" is the question that He asks of every one who in affliction and trial comes to Him. Make your requests with definite earnestness if you would have definite answers. Aimlessness in prayer accounts for so many seemingly unanswered prayers. Be definite in your petition. Fill out your check for something definite, and it will be cashed at the bank of Heaven when presented in Jesus' Name. Dare to be definite with God.

Miss Havergal has said: "Every year, I might almost say every day, that I live, I seem to see more clearly how all the rest and gladness and power of our Christian life hinges on one thing; and that is, taking God at His word, believing that He really means exactly what He says, and accepting the very words in which He reveals His goodness and grace, without substituting others or altering the precise modes and tenses which He has seen fit to use."

Bring Christ's Word--Christ's promise, and Christ's sacrifice--His blood, with thee, and not one of Heaven's blessings can be denied thee.
--Adam Clarke

~L. B. Cowman~

The Living God and the Battle for Life # 1

The Living God and the Battle for Life # 1

Read Matthew 16:13, 16, 18; John 10:10; 2 Corinthians 3:3-6, 17-18; Hebrews 9:13-14; 12:22; 1 Timothy 3:14-16; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; Revelation 7:2-3.

"As he saith also in Hosea, I will call that My people, which was not My people; and her beloved, that was not beloved. And it shall be, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, There shall they be called sons of the living God" (Romans 9:25-26).

We are very familiar with the phrase - the living God - and it is not the first time in which we have dwelt upon it, but it is the only word that comes to me just now as containing something of the Lord's mind for us in this present hour.

I begin by reminding you that this phrase lies behind everything in God's universe from eternity to eternity - The Living God! And it is not only a designation of God or a title, it implies the entire work of God. The work of God throughout is the work of Life; the work of the living God is the work of Life.

The passages which we have read, as you notice, bringing in this phrase and this title so frequently, relate to the kind of thing that comes out from God, the kind of thing that belongs to God. The first, the Son of the living God, - "Thou art... the Son of the living God" declares "I am the Life", and says, "I came that they might have Life." He, the Son of the living God, is Himself the Life and the mediator of Life.

Then the sons of the living God are not just those people who belong to a certain company, a certain few who bear a certain title, that is, 'sons of the living God.' They are those who share with God His own Life; they are the living ones in that Divine sense, inasmuch as they have received God's own Life.

The Church is called "the church of the living God" and again the designation is not of some particular institution which belongs to God as differing from others; it is that which, differing from all others, is distinguished by the very Life of God which is in it.

So you go on from passage to passage and you find that it is a discriminating word. That is seen in John 10:10: "The thief cometh not, but...to kill...I am come that they might have Life" - a discriminating word.

So, behind everything, back of the universe which comes in after God, we have the living God, and all the work of God is the work of Life, until you head right up to that great discriminating act at the end when the earth and the sea are to be delivered over to judgment and the final destruction, and there is a staying call to the angel - "Wait a minute, before everything is handed over to destruction and death, there is a seal, not just God, but of the living God. These are to be marked as sharing God's Life, marked out by the seal of God, the mark of God, and what is it? These cannot be engulfed in the general destruction, these cannot be involved in this work of judgment, these are distinguished and discriminated from all the rest. They have a seal upon them and that seal has God's stamp. What is the hallmark of God anywhere at any time? It is always Life, just as the hallmark of satan is death. Those two things stand clearly apart and distinguished - one to kill and destroy, the other to make alive and by that Life to preserve even through all the work of death.

Now, this, as we have often seen, is the great issue of all time. It is the issue of Life and death, death and Life. The issue is not first sin and righteousness; that is not the first issue. The issue is death and Life, Life and death. Sin is the ground upon which the issue is decided; sin is the ground of death, but death is the objective, therefore satan, in order to kill, to bring death into God's universe, must first corrupt it. He must get the condition of corruption in order to get a state of death. Righteousness, while it is a matter of great importance with the Lord, is not the first thing. Life is God's first thing but now, because of sin, God must have righteousness unto Life. He must create righteousness before there can be Life, but the object is Life, just as the object with satan is death. All accusations from satan, all condemnation, all bringing under the cloud of an evil conscience, is with a view to death. All the values of Christ our Righteousness to be appropriated and continually held on to by faith are God's provision for Life, not just to make us good, but to make us live.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 2)

Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Christian Ministers

Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Christian Ministers

Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. (Galatians 5:1 NLT)

Legalism always crucifies Christ afresh because legalism cuts out the greatest word in Christianity. The word over the door into true Christianity is the word: "Grace." Legalism always wipes out "Grace," and puts in its place "Law." Grace is the chief word in the vocabulary of the Christian. Do you notice that where legalism reaches its fullest expression, it always puts the crucifix in the place of the empty tomb? The badge of the Christian is the empty tomb. That is "Life from the dead." The badge of legalism is a crucifix, "a dead Christ." Legalism always brings death, and the chief thing about Christ is resurrection. It is Life from the dead. This was something that Paul came to see when it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. And he said, "Let me get out of all this legalistic system. Jesus of Nazareth Whom we crucified is alive. He has been revealed alive in my heart."

If we really see the Lord Jesus, we shall be emancipated. Some of us have had that experience. We were in legal systems; our horizon was that system. Then the day came when the Lord opened our eyes to really see the significance of Christ. And that whole system fell away as being all nonsense. No, it is not our business to say, "Come out of this and that, and come into this other." The word "must" or "thou shall" does not belong to this realm. That belongs to the old legal realm. The "must" becomes a spiritual thing, not a legal thing. We could say of Paul, there was a mighty "must" in his spirit. "I have seen the Lord, and I am seeing more and more of what the Lord is, and this is creating in me this great imperative. 'This one thing I do, leaving the things which are behind, I press on toward the mark of the prize of the on-high calling.'" So we do not say, "Change your system." But we do say, "Ask the Lord to reveal His Son in you." Then the great work of emancipation will begin.

By T. Austin-Sparks
_____________________


The Midas touch!

(Thomas Brooks)

Faith is the most useful grace--it is the Christian's . . .
  right eye, without which he cannot see for Christ; 
  right hand, without which he cannot act for Christ; 
  tongue, without which he cannot speak for Christ; 
  strength, without which he cannot live for Christ.

It is fabled of King Midas, that whatever he touched would be turned into gold. 
I am sure that whatever faith touches, it turns into gold; that is, into our good. 

Whatever faith lays its hand upon, it appropriates to itself, and turns it into the soul's good! 

If our faith touches the promises, it turns them into our good.

If faith looks upon God, it says, "This God is my God forever and ever--He shall be my guide unto death!" 

When it looks upon Christ, it says, "My Lord and Redeemer!" 

When it looks upon the crown of righteousness, it says, "This crown is laid up for me!" 

Faith is . . .
  bread to nourish us,
  wine to cheer us, 
  a cordial to strengthen us, 
  a sword to defend us,
  a guide to direct us,
  a staff to support us,
  a remedy to heal us,
  a friend to comfort us, and
  a golden key to open Heaven unto us.

Faith, of all graces, is the most useful grace to the soul of man. 
All those services are lost, wherein faith has not a hand. 
You may write 'loss' . . .
  upon all the prayers you make, and 
  upon all the sermons you hear, and
  upon all the tears you shed, and
  upon all the alms you give, 
--if all are not managed by a hand of faith. 
"Without faith it is impossible to please God!" Hebrews 11:6 
_________________________

1 Corinthians 8:1-3

(1) Now concerning things offered to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies. (2) And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. (3) But if anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.
New King James Version   

These seemingly innocuous words may be the central issue in this whole book (or both books to the Corinthians) because this was the sin that led Satan to separate from God's government. He became puffed up about himself. Likewise, the Corinthians were puffed up about how much they knew.

Satan thought so much of himself that he became twisted in his thinking, and he attacked God. We do not attack God directly—this book shows us we attack each other! Therein lies the problem. We attack each other through gossip, rumors, accusations, and things of that nature.

We begin to draw up lists in our minds of the faults of those who have offended us, and we begin to withdraw from them. We will not associate with them. Division begins to occur because they offend us. We say to ourselves, "Well, they were mean to me," or "They aren't intelligent enough," or "They are peculiar," or "They wear garish clothing," or "They have strong opinions about unimportant things."

This is not to say that these things are right and good, or that one should be able to do his own thing at anytime, anywhere, and that others should be tolerant of it. Nevertheless, Satan can, if he is given the opportunity, lead our minds to find reasons to not associate with others—reasons that have nothing to do with sin. Satan is at work.

If the feeling continues unabated, we will eventually come to the place where we will withdraw from fellowship altogether. It will not happen quickly, necessarily, but gradually. Perhaps we stop attending Bible Studies or begin to find reasons not to come to Sabbath services, or we will arrive late to services and leave early. In this way, Satan is slowly but surely moving us toward self-indulgence rather than love.

~John W. Ritenbaugh~

Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Ministers

Classic Christian Quotes from Classic Ministers

Do You Look Up to God?

“Be still and know that I am God”. - Psalm 46:10

The story is told of a British politician who took his 8-year-old daughter on a tour of London. They came to Westminster Abbey and the awesomeness of it struck the little girl. As she gazed at the towering columns and stirring beauty of the Gothic features, her father was intrigued at her concentration.

He looked down at her and asked, “Sweetheart, what are you thinking about?” The little girl replied, “Daddy, I was thinking how big you seem at home and how small you look in here.”

How easily we lose our sense of wonder before God. With age comes experience and wisdom, but if you’re not careful, it can also dull your sense of who God truly is. And when you can’t see God for who He is, your entire vision is skewed.

Remember God’s awesomeness each day – because it’s in that childlike sense of wonder and submission that God raises you up to the full strength of who He created you to be, and what He’s called you to do.

Prayer Challenge:

Ask God to restore your sense of wonder at His awesomeness. Pray that He’ll strengthen you as you stand in awe of His presence.

Questions for Thought:

What are some places or things that remind you of who God truly is and fill you with wonder?

How could a sense of God’s awesomeness strengthen you in your faith?

__________________________________

Forgiving Ourselves

Psalm 103:10-14

Have you ever come to the Lord in repentance, confessing your wrongdoing, and yet still felt guilty? Sometimes the problem is that we can’t forgive ourselves. Therefore, we go into a self-punishing mode, repeatedly replaying the sin until we feel unworthy not only of pardon but also of blessings, answers to prayer, and the Father’s love. Eventually we build a prison of guilt because our offense seems unforgivable.

But what does such behavior tell us about our faith in God and our estimation of ourselves? According to the Bible, our Father freely bestows forgiveness on the basis of His Son’s payment of our sin debt—and has removed our transgression “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). Is our refusal to forgive ourselves a way of saying we consider Christ’s sacrifice insufficient? In other words, is our standard of righteousness higher than the Lord’s?

Two men in Scripture teach us about the importance of accepting God’s full forgiveness. One is Peter, who denied knowing Christ, and the other is Paul, who persecuted Christians. The Bible gives no evidence that either one of them refused to forgive himself. Although their offenses were great and both men probably regretted their actions, they received God’s forgiveness and lived in the freedom of His grace.

To be free of an unforgiving spirit toward ourselves, we must realize it’s the result of self-focus. Instead of believing the truth of God’s forgiveness, we’ve been relying on our own feelings and making them superior to His Word. It’s time to humble ourselves and place trust in God—not in our feelings.

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~

____________________________

Optimum maximum!

(Thomas Brooks)

Christians serve a wonderful Master. 
They serve Him who is . . .
  all ear to hear them,
  all hand to uphold them,
  all power to protect them,
  all wisdom to direct them,
  all goodness to relieve them, 
  all mercy to pardon them. 

They serve that God who is optimum maximum--the best and greatest!

God has . . .
  all dignity,
  all glory,
  all riches,
  all treasure,
  all pleasure,
  all delight,
  all joy, and
  all beatitudes. 

God is . . .
  all goodness,
  all beauty,
  all power, 
  all wisdom, 
  all justice,
  all mercy, and
  all love itself! 

God is one infinite perfection in Himself!

"He has all--who has the Haver of all!" (Αugustine)

Gethsemane # 3

Gethsemane # 3

Someone may say, "How do I know how God feels about it?" How do I know whether he is really concerned over sinners? I know it. It would be a sin of presumption if I did not. If God cared as little for the souls of men as some of you care, not a soul ever would have been saved - it is not possible for the human mind to have a greater conception of God than is revealed to us in Jesus Christ. For a man to say he loves God and then turn his back on Jesus Christ is an insult to the Almighty. You will find in Him just what your heart has been looking for, and you'll find it nowhere else.

I can see Jesus in the Garden looking down on Jerusalem and saying, "Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stoned them which are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, and ye would not." It is a matter of history that from that day Jesus turned away from the Jews. He never appealed to them again, but turned to the Gentiles  - but God's got a plan for the Jews. So Jesus is God made manifest in the flesh.

Did you ever weep over the sins of the people? Did you ever weep over the evil of the multitudes? If you never did then there's something wrong with your religion. If God Almighty had no more concern about the salvation of Omaha than some of you, Omaha would have been in hell long ago. If God were no more anxious about Omaha than some of the preachers I could name, this city would have been damned long ago. I've been here long enough to see that.

Salvation all comes through Jesus. You've got to see Jesus in order to see God, and you've got to see God in order to enter Heaven. The hope of the world is in Jesus Christ. The hope of America is in Christ, not in free trade; it's not in the banking system, it's not in tariff reform, or conservation of natural resources or the ship problem of universities. We need a great tidal wave of religion.

Another lesson we find is that much concern moves the unsaved for God.

Much concern is aroused by prayer. Doctor Chapman told me that when he was a young minister and was pastor of a little Dutch Presbyterian church in New York state, he started what he called a Revival. He told me that he had often apologized to God since then for calling it that. He would preach, and then he would say, "If anyone would like to join the Church, let them step in and meet the session." If that isn't as cold-blooded a proposition as you can find, I'll give it up. Nobody stepped in to meet the session. They didn't believe in excitement in the church. No, sir. 

Doctor Chapman became concerned for one young man. He felt that he ought to speak for him, but he feared that he might show more zeal than knowledge. He felt the man might be offended if he went to him in that way. He had the wrong idea. If anyone is offended because you try to do right, let them go. If anyone is offended because you ask them to be a Christian, let them go to hell. You've done your duty. He thought it over and made up his mind to speak that very night. The young man did not come that night, so on the next day Doctor Chapman drove out to see him. He met the man and said, "I want you to be a Christian."

The man was angry. He said, "You blankety-blank little preacher, I don't want you to come to me about that." Doctor Chapman turned and left him and drove away. He caught a cold while driving out there and it stayed with him that winter, and soon after he left the place and took up Evangelistic work.

One night ten years after, he was holding a meeting at Saratoga, when he saw a man coming down the aisle.

"Don't you know me?" the man asked. Doctor Chapman didn't know him.

"Why," the man said, "I'm Benedict from Schuylerville. I'm the man who cursed you when you drove out to my home and asked me to be a Christian. I want to be a Christian now."

"What changed you?" Doctor Chapman asked.

"I'll tell you," said the man. "I never heard a sermon that touched me, nor a song. It was your tears, the tears that were in your eyes as I cursed you and you turned away. I've never been able to forget them. I've never had a day's peace since that moment."

Oh, if you knew the power of tears for the sinner. If you only felt enough concern to weep over those who are in danger of being lost. The sight of such tears would win many souls for Christ!

If Church people get right, the whole world would get right. The world is challenging the Church instead of the Church challenging the world. If it was as easy to get the Church on its knees as it is to get the unsaved world into the kingdom, we wouldn't have any more trouble about religion. And God can't save you unless you're willing. He won't coerce you to it!

I often think of what Bob Ingersoll might have been if he had only been turned into Christianity. What a power for God that man could have been! I often think of what a power Voltaire could have been for God - that brilliant man over whose writings many have stumbled to hell. Carey translated the Bible into twenty-four languages and dialects. Finney brought over 1,000,000 into the Kingdom of God. Moody brought hundreds of thousands to Christ. I have never seen a minister who preached doctrines and creeds and evolution and all such things who had any real concern for the souls of his people. Jesus Christ is in a hurry to save this world and there never was an age when people were so hungry for the truth as they are today.

If you want to make the bells of Heaven ring, get down on your knees. Tell a sinner about Jesus Christ if you want to hear the heavenly bells. Nothing will swing open the prison doors and bring men out of sin like prayer. I never see a man or a woman or boy or girl but I do not thing that God has a plan for them, and wonder what it is. He has a plan for each of us. He will use each of us to His glory if we will only let Him. We can defeat His plan if we want to.

Finally, we find that God honors this spirit in deep concern for the unsaved. This concern comes from a clear realization of man's relation. I never knew a higher critical preacher to save them from hell. Such preaching is not of God and He will not bless it. It is of the devil. If you haven't got in your heart an agonized concern for the unsaved go right down there in front and ask God to forgive you.

Nothing makes such joy in Heaven as the salvation of a soul. The angels don't care a rap about your wealth; they don't care about your social position, they don't care about your culture. It's the salvation of sinners the angels care about.

~Billy Sunday~

(The End)

Gethsemane # 2

Gethsemane # 2

Yes, it was a bitter cup for Jesus. Oh, don't be careless professors of Christianity for another minute. Don't you start to make a cold, formal prayer when you come to address Almighty God! Don't you dare to regard this campaign in a critical and carping way. Oh, hell must be an awful place when Jesus was in such agony to think that men were going there. You're a big fool to go to hell, but it will be your own fault if you do. God doesn't want you to go there, but He can't stop you. He has sacrificed His Son to keep you out of hell, and what more could He do? I am doing all I can to keep you out of hell. I have stood here and preached to you and I've done all that I could, and if you won't be saved, all right - go to hell!

When Jesus was being led out to be sacrificed women followed Him and wept, and He turned to them and said: "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children." For He said, "For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Jesus meant that they shouldn't weep for Him, but for those who were about to crucify Him; He meant that there were more reasons to weep for them than to weep for Him.

So don't weep for others' troubles; weep for your own soul. Don't worry about my vocabulary, sister; get on your knees and pray for your salvation. Don't worry about my eccentricities; you'd better look after your own faults.

We learn still another lesson - the power of prayer.

Every man and every woman that God has used to halt this sin cursed world and set it going Godward has been a Christian of prayer. Martin Luther arose from his bed and prayed at night, and when the break of day came he called his wife and said to her, "It has come." History records that on that very day King Charles granted religious toleration, a thing for which Luther had prayed.

John Knox, whom his queen feared more than any other man, was in such agony of prayer that he ran out into the street and fell on his face and cried, "Oh, God, give me Scotland or I'll die." And God gave him Scotland, and not only that, He threw England in for good measure.

When Jonathan Edwards was about to preach his greatest sermon on "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," he prayed for days - and when he stood before his congregation and preached it, men caught at the seat in their terror, and some fell to the floor; and the people cited out in their fear, "Mr. Edwards, tell us how we can be saved!"

I believe that if you pray as you ought to pray, you will have more people at the altar in the next week than you have had in all the weeks that are passed. You have never had the people of this community in such a frame of mind as they are in now, and you may never have things as they now are again. Now is the time to save souls. If you can't save them now, God pity you, for you never will.

An old infidel - a blacksmith - said that he could refute any argument that a Christian could make. There was an old deacon there - he was a Baptist, and he heard of it. He told his wife and they got down on their knees and prayed until three o'clock in the morning. That morning the old deacon hitched up and drove over to see the man. He went into the blacksmith shop and the infidel was standing there, and the deacon stood before him. He said, "My wife and I prayed for you until three o'clock this morning." Then his eyes filled with tears and he sobbed and turned away. He couldn't think of one of the arguments he had prepared. He drove back home, and when he got there he said to his wife, "I've made an old fool of myself. It was all for nothing. When I saw him I just told him that we had been praying for him, then I broke down and couldn't think of another thing, and came home."

In the meantime the infidel went into his own house and he said to his wife: "I heard a new argument this morning." She said, "What was that?" "Why," he said, "the old deacon drove in to see me this morning and told me that he and his wife had prayed for me until three o'clock in the morning. Then he sobbed and went away." And the infidel said, "I'd like to talk to him." They drove over and he told the deacon why he had come, and it was not long before the deacon had him on his knees and he was saved.

A mother had some daughters, and they were frivolous and coquettish girls. She couldn't get them to give up their pleasures and live for God. She prayed for them, and finally one day she said to them: "I'm ashamed of you. I'm almost sorry that I bore you and held you on my knees. You care more for others than you do for your God or your mother. Others ask you to go with them, and you go. I ask you go go with me, and you won't go. I'm going into my closet and I'm going to pray for you. I don't know that I shall ever come out alive."

She went in and prayed. The hours went by and still she prayed. Finally there was a knock at the door, and one of her daughters stood there. She was weeping, and she said, "Mother, I want to be saved. I've come to pray with you." So the two of them prayed and the hours went by, and presently another daughter came and joined them there; and before night came all those girls had found Jesus!

Then, we learn a lesson of the spirit of deep concern over souls.

The spirit of concern that we find in the Bible puts to shame many who are in Omaha. Some of you have been coming to this tabernacle ever since the meetings were begun, but you have simply sat here. You haven't put forth a hand to bring anyone to Christ. If you are one of these, you are absolutely worthless so far as God is concerned. You are of no use to Him and He looks on you as an unprofitable servant. How can you sit by while souls ae going to hell? What are you going to say to God about it after a while? Go and see an unsaved person die, and read the obituary not once, but twice, and realize that he died unsaved, and then see what you think of it!

~Billy Sunday~

(continued with # 3)

Gethsemane # 1

Gethsemane # 1

"And being more in agony, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:24).

Infidels have seized upon certain verses of Scripture and have given as reasons for their unbelief that the statement therein contained did not agree with their opinion. One of these verses is Luke 22:24 "and being in great agony, He prayed more earnestly; and His sweat was as it were drops of blood falling down to the ground."

For, says the infidel, it is a physical impossibility for men to sweat blood. This is a lot of nonsense. Because you have two good eyes, and have always known good sight, should you say there are no blind? They have never heard of such a thing happening, they say. All right; but because you say that man has never sweat blood, don't say that God didn't!

When I was a boy I used to hear men say that the Bible couldn't be true, for it was absolutely impossible for a man to fast for forty days and live. They thought that settled it. Then along came Doctor Tanner, and he fasted for forty days. That was the first time. He fasted again for forty-six days, and he fasted a third time for sixty-two days, and after that we didn't hear any more about a fast of forty days being impossible. The infidels quit quoting Tom Paine's "Age of Reason" on that point.

When a man gets chesty and puts his old theories up against God, then God always brings a man forward to show that he is an old marplot and an old liar.

Doctor Witheroy, pastor of a Presbyterian church in Chicago - he went there from Boston - says he knew of a man who had a wayward son. He hadn't heard from that boy for nine years. Then, one day, they sent him word that his son was in prison. He had committed a murder, and he had been tried and convicted and was about to be executed. He had refused to tell anything about his family until he was face to face with death; then he told them and they wrote to the father to ask him what should be done with the body.

Doctor Witheroy said that in his agony that father sweat drops of blood. If an earthly father sweat drops of blood for one son who has just gone wrong, is it strange that Jesus should sweat drops of blood for all men when they were in danger of hell?

When Jesus sweat drops of blood there in the garden, it was a new sight for the angels. They had seen their brother angels rebel against God, and they had seen the conflict which followed and they had seen these rebel angels hurled over the battlements of Heaven. They had seen Sennacherib come up with his men, and they had seen 180,000 Assyrians laid low by the sword when the angel of God smote them in the night. They had seen Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego cast into a firey furnace for refusing to bow themselves down to idols, and had seen them come out from it unharmed. They had seen the brave Daniel hurled into the lion's den for refusing to bow the knee to anyone save Jahovah, and they had seen him come out from the den of wild beasts alive. But never before had the angels beheld such a sight as when they looked down upon the garden of Gethsemane and saw the Son of God kneeling there, sweating drops of blood as He agonized over man.

In this text there are many lessons valuable to us, and especially valuable just at this stage of the campaign.

The first lesson is that the Divine cup is bitter. It is bitter to fallen angels and fallen man, and it was bitter to the fallen Christ. Think of the sight. Think of Jesus,staining His garments with the bloody sweat, not because of any sin or fault of His own, for He was without sin, but because of His anguish over man.

God hates sin and so do I, so will every man on this earth who lays any claim to decency. If you don't hate sin you will if you ever change your ways and try to be decent.

He didn't sweat those drops of blood because of any physical suffering. It wasn't because of any fear of death, for if Jesus had been afraid to die He would have been a coward, and He wasn't a coward, although He was willing to die if God said to. I don't want to die. I want to stay here as long as I can. And so did Jesus, but He wasn't afraid to die. No, it was because of His grief for man.

A great martyr said as he stood in the midst of the flames that were devouring him: "Though you see the flesh fall from my bones I absolutely feel no pain."

If you ever had any doubt about a literal hell, a fiery hell, where the wicked must remain forever, it would all vanish as I see Jesus Christ in Gethsemane, agonizing because men would not accept Him and were going to hell.

Hell must be an awful place. The fact that God went to the trouble He did to send Jesus Christ to this earth and to work out His great plan of redemption proves that it must be an awful place. I think this should give us a new vision.

~Billy Sunday~

(continued with # 2)

The Hope of the Church # 5

The Hope of the Church # 5

People ask me sometimes, "Do you think we shall know our loved ones in that day when we are caught up together? Where would be the object of our being caught up together if we did not? Here on earth we have been heirs together of the grace and love of Christ. We have had fellowship together. We have been laborers together. There should be no question about heavenly recognition. Why, there is recognition even on the part of lost souls. Jesus told of the rich man in hell who looked across the great gulf and saw Lazarus who had begged at his gate on earth, and he recognized him. And he saw Abraham, tool; and though he had never seen him before, yet he recognized Abraham, and called him by name. And you remember on the Mount of Transfiguration the disciples saw that with the Saviour there were two others, and they recognized them. Nobody had said beforehand to Peter and the others, "Let me present to you our old friends, Moses and Elijah." No, the moment they looked at Moses and Elijah they recognized them. And Peter was so thrilled that he wanted to build three churches right away - a St. Moses Church and a St. Elijah Church, and the Holy Saviour Church. "Let us build three tabernacles," said Peter, but he did not know what he was talking about. But there was recognition of the two who were with Christ on the Mount. You know the Scripture says, "Then we shall know even as we ourselves have been known." Yes, we are to be caught up together, and "so shall we ever be with the Lord." We shall be like the Lord; we shall have glorified bodies just as He has. And so the dead raised, and the living changed, will be caught up together. That is how the Word is going to be fulfilled. Notice it says that we are going to be "caught up to meet the Lord in the air." This word "meet" implies going out to meet one in order to return with him. When I was in Aberdeen recently I sent a telegram to a cousin of mine telling him that we would arrive at such and such a time, and he promised that he would meet us. And there he was with a car waiting for us. He came to meet us in order to take us back to the house with him. We are going to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and then we are coming back with Him when He comes to reign in glory for a thousand wonderful years. The same word is used in the last chapter of the Acts where Paul and his company landed in Italy, and, says Paul, "when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us" and "so we came to Rome." We are going to meet the Saviour, and we are coming back with Him. You say, "Do you mean that we are going to live on earth in houses just as we do now?" No, our real home will be in the heavenly Jerusalem, and our relationship to this earth will be very much like that of the angels in the past dispensation, when angels appeared as God's messengers to His servants. "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we speak." We shall be His representatives, and He shall rule the world through His saints in that day, and will appear visibly before the eyes of all people. And the Apostle concludes with this word "And so shall we ever be with the Lord." No matter what comes afterwards, we shall be with Him. And that is the great thing. We are to be with the Lord wherever He goes, and whatever He does we are going to be associated with Him; we are going to serve Him, and we are to have a part in His everlasting Kingdom. Some people have an idea that Heaven is a place of absolute do-nothingness. When Hawthorne was over here from America he was very much interested in some of your old churchyards. And one day he unearthed this epitaph:

"Here is a poor woman who always was tired,
Who lived in a house where help was not hired.
Her last words on earth were, "Dear friends, I am going
Where washing ain't done, nor sweeping nor sewing.
But everything there is exact to my wishes,
For where they don't eat there'll be no washing dishes.
I'll be where loud anthems forever are ringing,
But having no voice I'll get clear of the singing.
Don't weep for me now, don't weep for me ever,
I'm going to do nothing forever and ever."

Poor thing. How tired she was! You know, dear friends, that is not the Biblical conception of the ages to come. It is not that we are to do nothing for ever and ever, but "His servants shall serve Him, and His name shall be on their foreheads." We shall reign with Him. We shall bear rule with Him over a redeemed universe. What a delight it will be to run His errands!

When I am caught up to meet the Lord in the air, I will look about for you, and if your faith has been, not in the Church, not in its sacraments, not in your good works, but in the precious atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, I shall see you there, and we will have a good time together for all eternity. We shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. And at the end of a thousand years, John says, "I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the Book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." I will be there. I shall not be in front of the throne for judgment, for my judgment was dealt with when those two arms were out-stretched on Calvary's Cross, and when the weight of my sins fell upon Jesus, my Substitute, and by trusting in Him I have been saved from judgment. And wherever He is His saints are going to be with Him. 

In what do you trust for salvation? With tear-filled eyes, "Christ. He is the Rock. I dare not trust in anyone but Him." If that confession comes from your heart, then I shall see you in the air when Jesus comes.

Are you trusting the Lord Jesus? Are you ready to meet Him when He comes? If you have never availed yourself of what He did the first time when He was here you will never be ready to meet Him when He comes the second time. He died to put away sin, and if you trust Him tonight you will be saved for eternity, and ready to meet Him when He returns.

~Harry A. Ironside~

(The End)