method of training than does the history of Peter. Bold, aggressive, and
self-confident, quick to perceive and forward to act, prompt in
retaliation yet generous in forgiving, Peter often erred, and often
received reproof. Nor were his warm-hearted loyalty and devotion to
Christ the less decidedly recognized and commended. Patiently, with
discriminating love, the Saviour dealt with His impetuous disciple,
seeking to check his self-confidence, and to teach him humility,
obedience, and trust.
But only in part was the lesson learned. Self-assurance was not
uprooted.
Often Jesus, the burden heavy upon His own heart, sought to open to the
disciples the scenes of His trial and suffering. But their eyes were
holden. The knowledge was unwelcome, and they did not see. Self-pity,
that shrank from fellowship with Christ in suffering, prompted Peter’s
remonstrance, “Pity Thyself, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee.”[105]
His words expressed the thought and feeling of the twelve.
So they went on, the crisis drawing nearer; they, boastful, contentious,
in anticipation apportioning regal honors, and dreaming not of the
cross.
[Sidenote: _Rebuke That Reclaims_]
[Sidenote: “_I Have Prayed for Thee_”]
For them all, Peter’s experience had a lesson. To self-trust, trial is
defeat. The sure outworking of evil still unforsaken, Christ could not
prevent. But as His hand had been outstretched to save when the waves
were about to sweep over Peter, so did His love reach out for his rescue
when the deep waters swept over his soul. Over and over again, on the
very verge of ruin, Peter’s words of boasting brought him nearer and
still nearer to the brink. Over and over again was given the warning,
“Thou shalt ... deny that thou knowest Me.”[106] It was the grieved,
loving heart of the disciple that spoke out in the avowal, “Lord, I am
ready to go with Thee, both into prison, and to death;”[107] and He who
reads the heart gave to Peter the message, little valued then, but that
in the swift-falling darkness would shed a ray of hope: “Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren.”[108]
[Sidenote: “_When Thou Art Converted_”]
When in the judgment-hall the words of denial had been spoken; when
Peter’s love and loyalty, awakened under the Saviour’s glance of pity
and love and sorrow, had sent him forth to the garden where Christ had
wept and prayed; when his tears of remorse dropped upon the sod that had
been moistened with the blood-drops of His agony,—then the Saviour’s
words, “I have prayed for thee; ... when thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren,” were a stay to his soul. Christ, though foreseeing his
sin, had not abandoned him to despair.
If the look that Jesus cast upon him had spoken condemnation instead of
pity; if in foretelling the sin He had failed of speaking hope, how
dense would have been the darkness that encompassed Peter! how reckless
the despair of that tortured soul! In that hour of anguish and
self-abhorrence, what could have held him back from the path trodden by
Judas?
[Sidenote: _Not Alone_]
He who could not spare His disciple the anguish, left him not alone to
its bitterness. His is a love that fails not nor forsakes.
Human beings, themselves given to evil, are prone to deal untenderly
with the tempted and the erring. They can not read the heart, they know
not its struggle and pain. Of the rebuke that is love, of the blow that
wounds to heal, of the warning that speaks hope, they have need to
learn.
[Sidenote: “_Tell Peter_”]
It was not John, the one who watched with Him in the judgment-hall, who
stood beside His cross, and who of the twelve was first at the tomb,—it
was not John, but Peter, that was mentioned by name in the first message
sent to the disciples by Christ after His resurrection. “Tell His
disciples and Peter,” the angel said, “that He goeth before you into
Galilee; there shall ye see Him.”[109]
At the last meeting of Christ with the disciples by the sea, Peter,
tested by the thrice-given question, “Lovest thou Me?” was restored to
his place among the twelve. His work was appointed him; he was to feed
the Lord’s flock. Then, as His last personal direction, Jesus bade him,
“Follow thou Me.”[110]
[Sidenote: _The Lesson Learned_]
Now he could appreciate the words. The lesson Christ had given when He
set a little child in the midst of the disciples and bade them become
like him, Peter could now better understand. Knowing more fully both his
own weakness and Christ’s power, he was ready to trust and to obey. In
His strength he could follow his Master.
And at the close of his experience of labor and sacrifice, the disciple
once so unready to discern the cross, counted it a joy to yield up his
life for the gospel, feeling only that, for him who had denied the Lord,
to die in the same manner as his Master died was too great an honor.
[Sidenote: _A Miracle of Miracles_]
A miracle of divine tenderness was Peter’s transformation. It is a
life-lesson to all who seek to follow in the steps of the Master
Teacher.
* * * * *
Jesus reproved His disciples, He warned and cautioned them; but John and
Peter and their brethren did not leave Him. Notwithstanding the
reproofs, they chose to be with Jesus. And the Saviour did not, because
of their errors, withdraw from them. He takes men as they are, with all
their faults and weaknesses, and trains them for His service, if they
will be disciplined and taught by Him.
[Sidenote: _Judas_]
But there was one of the twelve to whom, until very near the close of
His work, Christ spoke no word of direct reproof.
[Sidenote: _An Element of Antagonism_]
With Judas an element of antagonism was introduced among the disciples.
In connecting himself with Jesus he had responded to the attraction of
His character and life. He had sincerely desired a change in himself,
and had hoped to experience this through a union with Jesus. But this
desire did not become predominant. That which ruled him was the hope of
selfish benefit in the worldly kingdom which he expected Christ to
establish. Though recognizing the divine power of the love of Christ,
Judas did not yield to its supremacy. He continued to cherish his own
judgment and opinions, his disposition to criticize and condemn.
Christ’s motives and movements, often so far above his comprehension,
excited doubt and disapproval, and his own questionings and ambitions
were insinuated to the disciples. Many of their contentions for
supremacy, much of their dissatisfaction with Christ’s methods,
originated with Judas.
[Sidenote: _Not Conflict, but Healing_]
Jesus, seeing that to antagonize was but to harden, refrained from
direct conflict. The narrowing selfishness of Judas’ life, Christ sought
to heal through contact with His own self-sacrificing love. In His
teaching He unfolded principles that struck at the root of the
disciple’s self-centered ambitions. Lesson after lesson was thus given,
and many a time Judas realized that his character had been portrayed,
and his sin pointed out; but he would not yield.
Mercy’s pleading resisted, the impulse of evil bore final sway. Judas,
angered at an implied rebuke, and made desperate by the disappointment
of his ambitious dreams, surrendered his soul to the demon of greed, and
determined upon the betrayal of his Master. From the Passover chamber,
the joy of Christ’s presence, and the light of immortal hope, he went
forth to his evil work,—into the outer darkness, where hope was not.
[Sidenote: _Love Unfailing_]
“Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who
should betray Him.”[111] Yet, knowing all, He had withheld no pleading
of mercy or gift of love.
Seeing the danger of Judas, He had brought him close to Himself, within
the inner circle of His chosen and trusted disciples. Day after day,
when the burden lay heaviest upon His own heart, He had borne the pain
of continual contact with that stubborn, suspicious, brooding spirit; He
had witnessed and labored to counteract among His disciples that
continuous, secret, and subtle antagonism. And all this that no possible
saving influence might be lacking to that imperiled soul!
“Many waters can not quench love,
Neither can the floods drown it;”
“For love is strong as death.”[112]
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _Warning to the Eleven_]
[Sidenote: _Goal of Worldly Wisdom_]
So far as Judas himself was concerned, Christ’s work of love had been
without avail. But not so as regards his fellow-disciples. To them it
was a lesson of lifelong influence. Ever would its example of tenderness
and long-suffering mould their intercourse with the tempted and the
erring. And it had other lessons. At the ordination of the twelve, the
disciples had greatly desired that Judas should become one of their
number; and they had counted his accession an event of much promise to
the apostolic band. He had come more into contact with the world than
they, he was a man of good address, of discernment and executive
ability, and, having a high estimate of his own qualifications, he had
led the disciples to hold him in the same regard. But the methods he
desired to introduce into Christ’s work were based upon worldly
principles and were controlled by worldly policy. They looked to the
securing of worldly recognition and honor,—to the obtaining of the
kingdom of this world. The working out of these desires in the life of
Judas, helped the disciples to understand the antagonism between the
principle of self-aggrandizement and Christ’s principle of humility and
self-sacrifice,—the principle of the spiritual kingdom. In the fate of
Judas they saw the end to which self-serving tends.
[Sidenote: _Results of Christ’s Training_]
For these disciples the mission of Christ finally accomplished its
purpose. Little by little His example and His lessons of self-abnegation
moulded their characters. His death destroyed their hope of worldly
greatness. The fall of Peter, the apostasy of Judas, their own failure
in forsaking Christ in His anguish and peril, swept away their
self-sufficiency. They saw their own weakness; they saw something of the
greatness of the work committed to them; they felt their need of their
Master’s guidance at every step.
[Sidenote: _Self-Distrust_]
They knew that His personal presence was no longer to be with them, and
they recognized, as they had never recognized before, the value of the
opportunities that had been theirs to walk and talk with the Sent of
God. Many of His lessons, when spoken, they had not appreciated or
understood; now they longed to recall these lessons, to hear again His
words. With what joy now came back to them His assurance:—
“It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the
Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him.”
“All things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you.”
And “the Comforter ... whom the Father will send in My name, He shall
teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I have said unto you.”[113]
[Sidenote: _The Teacher of Truth_]
“All things that the Father hath are Mine.” “When He, the Spirit of
truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth.... He shall receive of
Mine, and shall show it unto you.”[114]
The disciples had seen Christ ascend from among them on the Mount of
Olives. And as the heavens received Him, there had come back to them His
parting promise, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world.”[115]
[Sidenote: _Faith’s Assurance_]
They knew that His sympathies were with them still. They knew that they
had a representative, an advocate, at the throne of God. In the name of
Jesus they presented their petitions, repeating His promise, “Whatsoever
ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.”[116]
Higher and higher they extended the hand of faith, with the mighty
argument, “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who
is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us.”[117]
Faithful to His promise, the Divine One, exalted in the heavenly courts,
imparted of His fulness to His followers on earth. His enthronement at
God’s right hand was signalized by the outpouring of the Spirit upon His
disciples.
[Sidenote: _The Final Preparation_]
By the work of Christ these disciples had been led to feel their need of
the Spirit; under the Spirit’s teaching they received their final
preparation, and went forth to their life-work.
No longer were they ignorant and uncultured. No longer were they a
collection of independent units or of discordant and conflicting
elements. No longer were their hopes set on worldly greatness. They were
of “one accord,” of “one mind and one soul.” Christ filled their
thoughts. The advancement of His kingdom was their aim. In mind and
character they had become like their Master; and men “took knowledge of
them, that they had been with Jesus.”[118]
[Sidenote: _A Work That Shook the World_]
Then was there such a revelation of the glory of Christ as had never
before been witnessed by mortal man. Multitudes who had reviled His name
and despised His power confessed themselves disciples of the Crucified.
Through the co-operation of the divine Spirit the labors of the humble
men whom Christ had chosen, stirred the world. To every nation under
heaven was the gospel carried in a single generation.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: “_I Am with You Alway_”]
The same Spirit that in His stead was sent to be the instructor of His
first co-workers, Christ has commissioned to be the instructor of His
co-workers to-day. “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world,”[119] is His promise.
The presence of the same Guide in educational work to-day will produce
the same results as of old. This is the end to which true education
tends; this is the work that God designs it to accomplish.
NATURE TEACHING
“_Consider the wondrous works of Him
who is perfect in knowledge_”
_God in Nature_
“HIS GLORY COVERS THE HEAVENS;”
“AND THE EARTH IS FULL OF
HIS RICHES”
[Sidenote: _The Pervading Life_]
Upon all created things is seen the impress of the Deity. Nature
testifies of God. The susceptible mind, brought in contact with the
miracle and mystery of the universe, can not but recognize the working
of infinite power. Not by its own inherent energy does the earth produce
its bounties, and year by year continue its motion around the sun. An
unseen hand guides the planets in their circuit of the heavens. A
mysterious life pervades all nature,—a life that sustains the unnumbered
worlds throughout immensity; that lives in the insect atom which floats
in the summer breeze; that wings the flight of the swallow, and feeds
the young ravens which cry; that brings the bud to blossom, and the
flower to fruit.
[Sidenote: _Universality of Law_]
The same power that upholds nature, is working also in man. The same
great laws that guide alike the star and the atom, control human life.
The laws that govern the heart’s action, regulating the flow of the
current of life to the body, are the laws of the mighty Intelligence
that has the jurisdiction of the soul. From Him all life proceeds. Only
in harmony with Him can be found its true sphere of action. For all the
objects of His creation the condition is the same,—a life sustained by
receiving the life of God, a life exercised in harmony with the
Creator’s will. To transgress His law, physical, mental, or moral, is to
place one’s self out of harmony with the universe, to introduce discord,
anarchy, ruin.
[Sidenote: _Nature’s Witness_]
To him who learns thus to interpret its teachings, all nature becomes
illuminated; the world is a lesson-book, life a school. The unity of man
with nature and with God, the universal dominion of law, the results of
transgression, can not fail of impressing the mind and moulding the
character.
[Sidenote: _The Child’s Teacher_]
[Sidenote: _Opportunity for Nature Study_]
These are lessons that our children need to learn. To the little child,
not yet capable of learning from the printed page or of being introduced
to the routine of the schoolroom, nature presents an unfailing source of
instruction and delight. The heart not yet hardened by contact with evil
is quick to recognize the Presence that pervades all created things. The
ear as yet undulled by the world’s clamor is attentive to the Voice that
speaks through nature’s utterances. And for those of older years,
needing continually its silent reminders of the spiritual and eternal,
nature’s teaching will be no less a source of pleasure and of
instruction. As the dwellers in Eden learned from nature’s pages, as
Moses discerned God’s handwriting on the Arabian plains and mountains,
and the Child Jesus on the hillsides of Nazareth, so the children of
to-day may learn of Him. The unseen is illustrated by the seen. On
everything upon the earth, from the loftiest tree of the forest to the
lichen that clings to the rock, from the boundless ocean to the tiniest
shell on the shore, they may behold the image and superscription of God.
So far as possible, let the child from his earliest years be placed
where this wonderful lesson-book shall be open before him. Let him
behold the glorious scenes painted by the great Master Artist upon the
shifting canvas of the heavens, let him become acquainted with the
wonders of earth and sea, let him watch the unfolding mysteries of the
changing seasons, and, in all His works, learn of the Creator.
[Sidenote: _Antagonistic Forces_]
In no other way can the foundation of a true education be so firmly and
surely laid. Yet even the child, as he comes in contact with nature,
will see cause for perplexity. He can not but recognize the working of
antagonistic forces. It is here that nature needs an interpreter.
Looking upon the evil manifest even in the natural world, all have the
same sorrowful lesson to learn,—“An enemy hath done this.”[120]
[Sidenote: _The Interpreter of Nature_]
Only in the light that shines from Calvary can nature’s teaching be read
aright. Through the story of Bethlehem and the cross let it be shown how
good is to conquer evil, and how every blessing that comes to us is a
gift of redemption.
In brier and thorn, in thistle and tare, is represented the evil that
blights and mars. In singing bird and opening blossom, in rain and
sunshine, in summer breeze and gentle dew, in ten thousand objects in
nature, from the oak of the forest to the violet that blossoms at its
root, is seen the love that restores. And nature still speaks to us of
God’s goodness.
[Sidenote: _Thoughts of Peace_]
“I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts
of peace, and not of evil.”[121] This is the message that, in the light
from the cross, may be read upon all the face of nature. The heavens
declare His glory, and the earth is full of His riches.
_Lessons of Life_
“SPEAK TO THE EARTH, AND
IT SHALL TEACH THEE”
[Sidenote: _Christ’s Object Teaching_]
The great Teacher brought His hearers in contact with nature, that they
might listen to the voice which speaks in all created things; and as
their hearts became tender and their minds receptive, He helped them to
interpret the spiritual teaching of the scenes upon which their eyes
rested. The parables, by means of which He loved to teach lessons of
truth, show how open His spirit was to the influences of nature, and how
He delighted to gather the spiritual teaching from the surroundings of
daily life.
[Sidenote: _Adapted to Every Hearer_]
The birds of the air, the lilies of the field, the sower and the seed,
the shepherd and the sheep,—with these Christ illustrated immortal
truth. He drew illustrations also from the events of life, facts of
experience familiar to the hearers,—the leaven, the hid treasure, the
pearl, the fishing net, the lost coin, the prodigal son, the houses on
the rock and the sand. In His lessons there was something to interest
every mind, to appeal to every heart. Thus the daily task, instead of
being a mere round of toil, bereft of higher thoughts, was brightened
and uplifted by constant reminders of the spiritual and the unseen.
So we should teach. Let the children learn to see in nature an
expression of the love and the wisdom of God; let the thought of Him be
linked with bird and flower and tree; let all things seen become to them
the interpreters of the unseen, and all the events of life be a means of
divine teaching.
[Sidenote: _Unity of Law_]
As they learn thus to study the lessons in all created things, and in
all life’s experiences, show that the same laws which govern the things
of nature and the events of life are to control us; that they are given
for our good; and that only in obedience to them can we find true
happiness and success.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _The Law of Ministry_]
All things both in heaven and in earth declare that the great law of
life is a law of service. The infinite Father ministers to the life of
every living thing. Christ came to the earth “as he that serveth.”[122]
The angels are “ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who
shall be heirs of salvation.”[123] The same law of service is written
upon all things in nature. The birds of the air, the beasts of the
field, the trees of the forest, the leaves, the grass, and the flowers,
the sun in the heavens and the stars of light,—all have their ministry.
Lake and ocean, river and water-spring,—each takes to give.
[Sidenote: _Gaining by Giving_]
As each thing in nature ministers thus to the world’s life, it also
secures its own. “Give, and it shall be given unto you,”[124] is the
lesson written no less surely in nature than in the pages of Holy Writ.
As the hillsides and the plains open a channel for the mountain stream
to reach the sea, that which they give is repaid a hundredfold. The
stream that goes singing on its way leaves behind its gift of beauty and
fruitfulness. Through the fields, bare and brown under the summer’s
heat, a line of verdure marks the river’s course; every noble tree,
every bud, every blossom, a witness to the recompense God’s grace
decrees to all who become its channels to the world.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: _Laws of Growth_]
Of the almost innumerable lessons taught in the varied processes of
growth, some of the most precious are conveyed in the Saviour’s parable
of the growing seed. It has lessons for old and young.
“So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and
grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of
herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the
ear.”[125]
[Sidenote: _Divine Agency in Growth_]
The seed has in itself a germinating principle, a principle that God
Himself has implanted; yet if left to itself the seed would have no
power to spring up. Man has his part to act in promoting the growth of
the grain; but there is a point beyond which he can accomplish nothing.
He must depend upon One who has connected the sowing and the reaping by
wonderful links of His own omnipotent power.
There is life in the seed, there is power in the soil; but unless
infinite power is exercised day and night, the seed will yield no
return. The showers of rain must refresh the thirsty fields; the sun
must impart warmth; electricity must be conveyed to the buried seed. The
life which the Creator has implanted, He alone can call forth. Every
seed grows, every plant develops, by the power of God.
“The seed is the word of God.” “As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and
as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so
the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth.”[126]
As in the natural, so in the spiritual sowing; the power that alone can
produce life is from God.
[Sidenote: _Sowing in Faith_]
The work of the sower is a work of faith. The mystery of the germination
and growth of the seed he can not understand; but he has confidence in
the agencies by which God causes vegetation to flourish. He casts away
the seed, expecting to gather it many-fold in an abundant harvest. So
parents and teachers are to labor, expecting a harvest from the seed
they sow.
[Sidenote: _God’s Covenant for the Harvest_]