A pair of evangelists--Weaver and Matheson!
A pair of missionaries--Arnot and Young!
I have one other pair of witnesses waiting to testify that this text is
_Everybody's Text_. Martin Luther and Lord Cairns have very little in
common. One was German; the other was English. One was born in the
fifteenth century; the other in the nineteenth. One was a monk; the
other was Lord Chancellor. But they had _this_ in common, that they had
to die. And when they came to die, they turned their faces in the same
direction. Lord Cairns, with his parting breath, quietly but clearly
repeated the words of _Everybody's Text_. _God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life._
During his last illness, Luther was troubled with severe headaches.
Someone recommended to him an expensive medicine. Luther smiled.
'No,' he said, 'my best prescription for head and heart is that _God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life_.'
A fortnight before he passed away, he repeated the text with evident
ecstasy, and added, 'What Spartan saying can be compared with this
wonderful brevity? It is a Bible in itself!' And in his dying moments he
again repeated the words, thrice over, in Latin.
'They are the best prescription for headache and heartache!' said
Luther.
There were headaches and heartaches in the world three thousand years
ago, when Cleopatra's Needle stood beside the Temple at Heliopolis!
There will be headaches and heartaches in the world centuries hence,
when the obelisk is rescued from among the ruins of London!
There were headaches and heartaches among those Barotse tribes to whom
Fred Arnot went!
There were headaches and heartaches among those tattooed braves to whom
Egerton Young carried the message!
There are headaches and heartaches in England, as the Lord Chancellor
knew!
There are headaches and heartaches in Germany, as Luther found!
And, because there are headaches and heartaches for everybody, this is
_Everybody's Text_. There is, as Luther said, nothing like it.
V
When Sir Harry Lauder was here in Melbourne, he had just sustained the
loss of his only son. His boy had fallen at the front. And, with this in
mind, Sir Harry told a beautiful and touching story. 'A man came to my
dressing-room in a New York theater,' he said, 'and told of an
experience that had recently befallen him. In American towns, any
household that had given a son to the war was entitled to place a star
on the window-pane. Well, a few nights before he came to see me, this
man was walking down a certain avenue in New York accompanied by his wee
boy. The lad became very interested in the lighted windows of the
houses, and clapped his hands when he saw the star. As they passed house
after house, he would say, "Oh, look, Daddy, there's another house that
has given a son to the war! And there's another! There's one with two
stars! And look! there's a house with no star at all!" At last they came
to a break in the houses. Through the gap could be seen the evening star
shining brightly in the sky. The little fellow caught his breath. "Oh,
look, Daddy," he cried, "God must have given _His_ Son, for He has got a
star in _His_ window."'
'He has, indeed!' said Sir Harry Lauder, in repeating the story.
But it took the clear eyes of a little child to discover that the very
stars are repeating _Everybody's Text_. The heavens themselves are
telling of the love that gave a Saviour to die for the sins of the
world.