Now, underlying this brave story of a noble life and a martyr-death is a
great principle; and it is the principle that, if we look, we shall find
embedded in the very heart of James Chalmers' text. No law of life is
more vital. Let us return to that evangelistic meeting held on that
drenching night at Inverary, and let us catch once more those matchless
cadences that won the heart of Chalmers! '_The Spirit and the Bride say,
Come; and let him that heareth say, Come; and let him that is athirst
come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely._'
'_Let him that is athirst come!_' 'I was athirst,' says Chalmers, 'so I
came!'
'_Let him that heareth say, Come!_' James Chalmers _heard_; he felt that
he must _say_; that is the connecting link between the evangelistic
meeting at Inverary and the triumph and tragedy of New Guinea.
'_Let him that heareth, say!_'--that is the principle embedded in the
text. The soul's exports must keep pace with the soul's imports. What I
have freely received, I must as freely give. The boons that have
descended to me from a remote ancestry I must pass on with interest to a
remote posterity. The benedictions that my parents breathed on me must
be conferred by me upon my children. '_Let him that heareth, say!_' What
comes into the City of Mansoul at Ear Gate must go out again at Lip
Gate. The auditor of one day must become the orator of the next. It is a
very ancient principle. 'He that reads,' says the prophet, 'must run!'
'He that sees must spread!' With those quick eyes of his, James Chalmers
saw this at a glance. He recognized that the kingdom of Christ could be
established in no other way. He saw that the Gospel could have been
offered him on no other terms. What, therefore, he had with such wonder
heard, he began, with great delight, to proclaim. Almost at once he
accepted a Sunday school class; the following year he began preaching in
those very villages through which, as a boy, his exploratory wanderings
had so often taken him; a year later he became a city missionary, that
he might pass on the message of the Spirit and the Bride to the teeming
poor of Glasgow; and, twelve months later still, he entered college, in
order to equip himself for service in the uttermost ends of the earth.
His boyish passion for books and boxes had been sanctified at last by
his consecration to a great heroic mission.
V
'_Let him that is athirst come!_' 'I was athirst,' says Chalmers, 'and I
came!'
'_Let him that heareth say, Come!_' And Chalmers, having heard, said
'Come!' and said it with effect. Dr. Lawes speaks of one hundred and
thirty mission stations which he established at New Guinea. And look at
this! 'On the first Sabbath in every month not less than three thousand
men and women gather devotedly round the table of the Lord, reverently
commemorating the event which means so much to them and to all the
world. Many of them were known to Chalmers as savages in feathers and
war-paint. Now, clothed and in their right mind, the wild, savage look
all gone, they form part of the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ and are
members of His Church. Many of the pastors who preside at the Lord's
Table bear on their breasts the tattoo marks that indicate that their
spears had been imbrued with human blood. Now sixty-four of them, thanks
to Mr. Chalmers' influence, are teachers, preachers and missionaries.'
They, too, having listened, proclaim; having received, give; having
heard, say; having been auditors, have now become orators. They have
read and therefore they run. Having believed with the heart, they
therefore confess with the mouth. This is not only a law of life; it is
the law of the life everlasting. It is only by loyalty to this golden
rule, on the part of all who hear the Spirit and the Bride say Come,
that the kingdoms of this world can become the kingdoms of our God and
of His Christ. It is the secret of world-conquest; and, besides it,
there is no other.