"A Good Soldier of Jesus Christ"
I'd rather undertake to save ten drunkards than one old financial
Shylock--it would be easier.--BILLY SUNDAY.
Sympathetic observers comment in distressed tones upon the physical
exhaustion of Sunday after every one of his addresses. He speaks with
such intensity and vigor that he is completely spent by every effort.
To one who does not know that he has worked at this terrific pace for
near a score of years it seems as if the evangelist is on the verge of
a complete collapse. He certainly seems to speak "as a dying man to
dying men." The uttermost ounce of his energy is offered up to each
audience. Billy Sunday is an unsparing worker.
For a month or six weeks of every year he gives himself to rest.
The remainder of the year he is under a strain more intense than
that of a great political campaign. Even his Monday rest day, which
is supposed to be devoted to recuperation, is oftener than not
given to holding special meetings in some other city than the one
wherein he is campaigning. Speaking twice or oftener every day, to
audiences averaging many thousands, is a tax upon one's nerve force
and vitality beyond all computation. In addition to this, Sunday
has his administrative work, with its many perplexities and grave
responsibilities.
Withal, the evangelist, like every other man pre-eminent in his
calling, suffers a great loneliness; he has few intimates who can
lead his mind apart from his work. What says Kipling, in his "Song of
Diego Valdez," the lord high admiral of Spain, who pined in vain for
the comradeship of his old companions, but who, in the aloneness of
eminence, mourned his solitary state?
"They sold Diego Valdez
To bondage of great deeds."
The computable aggregate of Sunday's work is almost unbelievable.
His associates say that his converts number more than a quarter of a
million persons. That is a greater total than the whole membership of
the entire Christian Church, decades after the resurrection of our
Lord. Imagine a city of a quarter of a million inhabitants, every one
of whom was a zealous disciple of Jesus Christ. What a procession these
"trail-hitters" would make could they all be gathered into one great
campaign parade!
Of course these converts are not all trophies of Billy Sunday's
preaching power. He has not won them alone. He has merely stood in the
forefront, as the agent of the Church, with vast co-operative forces
behind him. Nevertheless, he has been the occasion and the instrument
for this huge accomplishment in the Church's conquest.
When it comes to counting up the aggregate size of Sunday's audiences,
one is tempted not to believe his own figures, for the total runs up
into the millions, and even the tens of millions. Probably no living
man has spoken to so great numbers of human beings as Billy Sunday.
More eloquent than any comment upon the magnitude and number of his
meetings is the following summary of his campaigns gathered from
various sources. Sunday himself does not keep records of his work. His
motto seems to be, "Forgetting those things which are behind."
In 1904-5 Billy Sunday visited various cities of Illinois, where
conversions ranged in numbers from 650 to 1,800; in Iowa, where
conversions ranged from 400 to 1,000; and in a few other towns. In
1905-6 numerous campaigns in Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota produced
converts ranging from 550 to 2,400, the highest number being reached
in Burlington, Iowa. In 1906-7 the converts numbered over 12,000,
with a maximum of 3,000 in Kewanee, Illinois. In 1907-8 campaigns in
Illinois and Iowa, and one in Sharon, Pennsylvania, reported over
24,000 converts in all, with a maximum of 6,700 in Decatur, Illinois.
In 1908-9 the total number of converts reached over 18,000, with 5,300
in Spokane, Washington, and 4,700 in Springfield, Illinois. In 1908-9
campaigns in various cities reported a total of 35,000 converts, with
6,600 in Newcastle, Pennsylvania, 5,900 in Youngstown, Ohio, and 5,000
in Danville, Illinois. In 1911-12 campaigns in cities of Ohio, in
Erie, Pennsylvania, and in Wichita, Kansas, reported a total of 36,000
converts, with 7,600 in Toledo, and 6,800 in Springfield. In 1912-13
campaigns in other Ohio and Pennsylvania cities and in Fargo, North
Dakota; South Bend, Indiana; and Wheeling, West Virginia, brought
81,000 converts, with a minimum in Fargo of 4,000, and a maximum of
18,000 in Columbus.
_The Lutheran Observer_ gives the following table of statistics for
eighteen of the largest cities in which campaigns have been conducted:
Population Conversions
Pittsburgh, Pa 533,905 26,601
Steubenville, Ohio 22,391 7,888
Columbus, Ohio 181,511 18,137
McKeesport, Pa 42,694 10,022
Toledo, Ohio 168,497 7,686
Wheeling, W. Va 41,641 8,300
Springfield, Ohio 46,921 6,804
Newcastle, Pa 36,280 6,683
Erie, Pa 66,525 5,312
Portsmouth, Ohio 23,481 5,224
Canton, Ohio 50,217 5,640
Youngstown, Ohio 79,066 5,915
South Bend, Ind 53,684 6,398
Wilkes-Barre, Pa 67,105 16,584
Beaver Falls, Pa 12,191 6,000
Lima, Ohio 30,508 5,659
East Liverpool, Ohio 20,387 6,354
Johnstown, Pa 55,482 11,829
------ -------
Total 167,036
Included in the 18,000 converts in Columbus were the chief of police
and all the policemen who had been detailed to duty at the tabernacle.
A notable work was also done in the penitentiary.
Wilkes-Barre's 16,000 conversions bore an extraordinary relation to the
population of the city, which is but 67,105. The sheriff was among the
Wilkes-Barre converts and he has since proved his faith by his works in
prosecuting law-breakers.
The statistics show that there were 6,000 converts at South Bend,
Indiana, in the spring of 1913, but they do not reveal the fact that
immediately afterwards there was inaugurated an era of civic reform
which cleaned up the city for the first time in fifteen years, and
elected as mayor one of the Billy Sunday converts.
Prior to the Sunday campaign in Steubenville, Ohio, September and
October, 1913 (where the converts numbered 8,000), the town had gone
"wet" by 1,400 majority, after the meetings it went "dry" by 300
majority.
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, with a campaign held November and December,
1913, reported 12,000 conversions, and a Billy Sunday Anti-saloon
League of 10,000 men. The fame of the Pittsburgh campaign, January and
February, 1914, is in all the churches; 27,000 converts were reported.
Mrs. Sunday is my authority for these and the following details of
recent meetings:
The Scranton campaign (March and April, 1914) was unusual in several
respects. It not only reported 18,000 converts, but it also held the
greatest industrial parade, under distinctively Christian auspices,
that the country has ever seen. In preparation for the Sunday meetings
10,000 adults were enlisted in Bible classes, and this number grew
steadily during and after the campaign.
In May and June of 1914 the evangelist worked in Huntingdon, West
Virginia, where the conversions were 6,500. From there he went to
Colorado Springs and a total of 4,500 persons "hit the trail." The
Colorado Springs meetings were unusual in that the attendants were from
all parts of the country, and so the revival fire was carried far.
The organization of adult Bible classes followed the Colorado Springs
campaign. This promises to be one of the distinctive features of Billy
Sunday's meetings.
In reading such a compiled record as the foregoing, it is to be
remembered that in all things that affect spiritual values the only
true record is that which is kept in another world. Enough has been
shown, however, to make clear that Sunday practices what he preaches
when he urges Christians to whole-hearted service.
SUNDAY'S "CONSECRATION" SERMON
"I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service."
The armies of God are never made up of drafted men and women, ordered
into service whether willing or not. God never owned a slave. God
doesn't want you to do anything that you can't do without protest. This
is not a call to hard duty, but an invitation to the enjoyment of a
privilege. It is not a call to hired labor to take the hoe and go into
the field, but the appeal of a loving father to his children to partake
of all he has to give.
If there is nothing in you that will respond to God's appeal when you
think of his mercies, I don't think much of you. The impelling motive
of my text is gratitude, not fear. It looks to Calvary, not to Sinai.
We are being entreated, not threatened. That's the amazing thing to me.
To think that God would entreat us--would stand to entreat us! He is
giving me a chance to show I love him.
If you are not ready to offer it in gratitude, God doesn't want you to
serve him through fear, but because you realize his love for you, and
appreciate and respond to it.
A business man who loves his wife will never be too busy to do
something for her, never too busy to stop sometimes to think of
how good she has been and what she has done for him. If men would
only think of the things God has done for them there would be less
card-playing, less thought of dinners and of concerts and other
diversions of the world. God wants us to sit down and think over his
goodness to us. The man who doesn't isn't worth a nickel a punch. Has
God done anything for us as a nation, has he done anything for us as
individuals, that commands our gratitude?
Astronomers have counted three hundred and eighty million stars, and
they have barely commenced. Why, you might as well try to count those
countless stars as to try to count God's mercies. You might as well try
to count the drops of water in the sea or the grains of sand upon the
shore. If we only think, we shall say with David: "According to Thy
tender mercies."
God's Mercies
An old lady said one morning that she would try to count all God's
mercies for that one day, but at noon she was becoming confused, and at
three o'clock she threw up her hands and said: "They come three times
too fast for me to count."
Just think of the things we have to be thankful for! A visitor to an
insane asylum was walking through the grounds and as he passed one of
the buildings he heard a voice from a barred window high up in the wall
and it said: "Stranger, did you ever thank God for your reason?" He had
never thought of that before, but he says that he has thought of it
every day since. Did you ever think that thousands of people who were
just as good as you are, are beating their heads against the walls of
padded cells? Did you ever think what a blessed thing it is that you
are sane and you go about among men and follow your daily duties, and
go home to be greeted by your wife and have your children climb about
you?
Did you ever thank God for your eyes? Did you ever thank him that you
can see the sunrise and the sunset and can see the flowers and the
trees and look upon the storm? Did you ever thank God that you have two
good eyes while so many others less fortunate than you must grope their
way in blindness to the coffin?
Did you ever thank God for hearing? That you can hear music and the
voices of friends and dear ones? That you can leave your home and
business, and come here and hear the songs and the preaching of the
word of God? Did you ever think what it would mean to be deaf?
Did you ever thank God for the blessing of taste? Some people can't
tell whether they are eating sawdust and shavings or strawberries and
ice cream. Think of the good things we enjoy! Others have tastes so
vicious that they find it almost impossible to eat. God might have made
our food taste like quinine.
Did you ever thank God that you can sleep? If not, you ought to be
kept awake for a month. Think of the thousands who suffer from pain or
insomnia so that they can sleep only under opiates. Did you ever wake
up in the morning and thank God that you have had a good night's rest?
If you haven't, God ought to keep you awake for a week, then you'd know
you've had reason to be thankful.
Did you ever thank God for the doctors and nurses and hospitals? For
the surgeon who comes with scalpel to save your life or relieve your
sufferings? If it had not been for them you'd be under the grass. For
the nurse who watches over you that you may be restored to health?
Did you ever thank God for the bread you eat, while so many others are
hungry? Did you ever thank him for the enemy that has been baffled, for
the lie against you that has failed?
Out in Elgin, Illinois, I was taken driving by a friend, and he said
that he wanted me to go with him to see a man. He took me to see a man
who was lying in bed, with arms most pitifully wasted by suffering. The
poor fellow said he had been in bed for thirty-two years, but he wasn't
worrying about that. He said he was so sorry for the well people who
didn't know Jesus. I went out thanking God that I could walk. If your
hearts are not made of stone or adamant they will melt with gratitude
when you think of the many mercies, the tender mercies, of God.
[Illustration: BILLY SUNDAY AND HIS STAFF AT SCRANTON. FROM LEFT TO
RIGHT: (STANDING) F. R. SEIBERT, A. G. GILL: (SITTING) B. D. ACKLEY,
MISS FRANCES MILLER, MISS GRACE SAXE, MR. SUNDAY.]
The Living Sacrifice
"Brethren"--that's what God calls his true followers. No speaking from
the loft. If there's any lesson we need to learn it is that of being
"brethren."
Sinners are not called "brethren" in the Bible. God commands sinners.
They are in rebellion. He entreats Christians. When Lincoln called for
volunteers he addressed men as "citizens of the United States," not as
foreigners.
The man who is appreciative of God's mercies will not have much mercy
on himself. Don't stand up and say: "I'll do what Jesus bids me to
do, and go where he bids me to go," then go to bed. Present your
bodies--not mine--not those of your wives; you must present your own.
Present your bodies; not your neighbor's; not your children's; it is
their duty to do that. Do you trust God enough to let him do what he
wants to do?
Henry Varley said to Moody, when that great American was in England,
that God is waiting to show this world what one man could do for him.
Moody said: "Varley, by the grace of God I'll be that man"; and God
took hold of Moody and shook the world with him. God would shake the
world with us today if only we would present our bodies as a living
sacrifice to him, as Moody did. Are you willing to present yourself? I
am tired of a church of five hundred or seven hundred members without
power enough to bring one soul to Christ.
At the opening of the Civil War many a man was willing that the country
should be saved by able-bodied male relatives of his wife, who made
themselves bullet-men, but he didn't go himself. God isn't asking for
other men's bodies. He's asking for yours. If you would all give to God
what rightfully belongs to him, I tell you he would create a commotion
on earth and in hell. If God had the feet of some of you he would point
your toes in different ways from those you have been going for many
years. If he had your feet he would never head you into a booze joint.
If he had your feet he would never send you into a ball-room. If he
had the feet of some of you he would make you wear out shoe leather
lugging back what you've taken that doesn't belong to you. If God had
your feet he would take you to prayer-meeting. I'm afraid the preacher
would have nervous prostration, for he hasn't seen some of you there in
years. If God had your feet you'd find it harder to follow the devil.
Some of you preachers have your children going to dancing school and I
hear some of you go to dances. He would make your daily walk conform to
the Golden Rule and the Sermon on the Mount.
Some people work only with their mouths. God wants that part that's on
the ground. Some soldiers sit around and smell the coffee and watch the
bacon frying.
If God had your hands he would make you let go a lot of things you hold
on to with a death-like grip. If you don't let go of some of the things
you hold so tightly they will drag you down to hell. He would have you
let go some of the things you pay taxes on, but don't own, and he would
make you let go of money to pay taxes on some that you do own. Some
people are so busy muck-raking that they will lose a crown of glory
hereafter. If God had your hands, how many countless tears you would
wash away. A friend of mine bought a typewriter, and when he tried
to use it his fingers seemed to be all sticks, but now he can write
forty-five words a minute. Let God have your hands and he will make
them do things that would make the angels wonder and applaud.
A Glass of Champagne
A young man went down to Thomasville, Alabama, and while there was
invited to a dress ball--or rather an undress ball, if what I have read
about such affairs properly describes the uniforms. A young lady--a
young lady with eyes like the dove and with beautiful tresses--came
up to him and said to the young man, "Won't you pledge a glass of
champagne with me?"
The young man thanked her, but said: "No, I don't drink."
"Not with me?" she said, and smiled; and he repeated his answer, "No."
Then she said: "If I had thought you would refuse me I would not have
asked you and exposed myself to the embarrassment of a refusal. I did
not suppose you would think me bold for speaking to you in this way,
and I thought you might be lonely."
A little later she came back to him and repeated her invitation. Again
he said: "No."
Others came up and laughed. He took it and hesitated. She smiled at him
and he gave in and drank the champagne, then drank another glass and
another, until he was flushed with it. Then he danced.
At two o'clock the next morning a man with a linen duster over his
other clothes walked back upon the railroad-station platform, waiting
for a train for the North; and as he walked he would exclaim, "Oh God!"
and would pull a pint flask from his pocket and drink. "My God," he
would say, "what will mother say?" Four months later in his home in
Vermont, with his weeping parents by him and with four strong men to
hold him down, he died of delirium tremens.
The Epworth League's motto is: "Look up, lift up." But you'll never
lift much up unless God has hold of your hands. Unless he has, you will
never put your hands deep in your pocket, up to the elbows, and bring
them up full of money for his cause. A man who was about to be baptized
took out his watch and laid it aside; then he took out his knife and
bankbook and laid them aside.
"Better give me your pocketbook to put aside for you," said the
minister.
"No," said the man, "I want it to be baptized, too."
There's no such thing as a bargain-counter religion. Pure and undefiled
religion will do more when God has something besides pennies to work
with. God doesn't run any excursions to heaven. You must pay the
full fare. Your religion is worth just what it cost you. If you get
religion and then lie down and go to sleep, your joints will get stiff
as Rip Van Winkle's did, and you'll never win the religious marathon.
Denying One's Self
A man said to his wife that he had heard the preacher say that religion
is worth just what it costs, and that he had determined to give more
for religion and to deny himself as well. "What will you give up?"
she asked. He said that he would give up coffee--for he dearly loved
coffee--used to drink several cups at every meal, the very best. She
said that she would give up something, too--that she would give up
tea. Then their daughter said she would give up some of her little
pleasures, and the father turned to his son Tom, who was shoveling
mashed potatoes, covered with chicken gravy, into his mouth. He said,
"I'll give up salt mackerel. I never did like the stuff, anyway."
There are too many salt-mackerel people like that in the pews of our
churches today. They will take something that they don't like, and that
nobody else will have, and give it to the Lord. That isn't enough for
God. He wants the best we have.
God wants your body with blood in it. Cain's altar was bigger than
Abel's, but it had nothing valuable on it, while Abel's had real blood.
God rejected Cain's and accepted Abel's. God turns down the man who
merely lives a moral life and does not accept the religion of Jesus
Christ. You must come with Jesus' blood. How thankful you are depends
on how much you are willing to sacrifice.
I don't believe that the most honored angel in heaven has such a chance
as we have. Angels can't suffer. They can't make sacrifices. They can
claim that they love God, but we can prove it.
What would you think of a soldier if when he was ordered "Present
arms," he would answer, "Tomorrow"; if he would say, "When the man
next to me does"; if he would say, "When I get a new uniform"?
"Present"--that means now. It is in the present tense. God wants us to
make a present of our bodies to him--because we love him.
A little girl showed a man some presents she had received and he asked
her, "How long may you keep them?"
"How long?" she answered. "Why, they were given to me. They are mine!"
Many a man gives his boy a colt or a calf, then when it has grown to a
horse or a cow he sells it and pockets the money. Some of you fellows
need to do a little thinking along that line. When we give our bodies,
they ought to be His for keeps.
Thinking for God
If when you make a present you do not mean to give it outright, you are
not honest. "Will a man rob God?" You bet he will--a heap quicker than
he will rob any one else.
Your body, that takes the head as well as hands. God wants brains as
well as bones and muscles. We ought to do our best thinking for God.
God is in the greatest business there is, and he wants the best help
he can get. Some of you old deacons and elders make me sick. If you
used such methods in business as you do in the work of the Church
the sheriff's sale flag would soon be hanging outside your door. I
don't ask any of you business men to curtail any of your business
activities, but I do ask that you give more of your energy to the
things of religion. You want to use good business methods in religion.
The Republicans and the Democrats and the Socialists use good business
methods in politics. The farmer who hasn't any sense is still plowing
with a forked stick. The farmer who has sense uses a modern plow. Use
common sense.
Bishop Taylor promised God that he would do as much hard thinking and
planning for him as he would do for another man for money. He did it.
So did Wesley and Whitefield and Savonarola, and look what they did for
God! If there is any better way of doing God's business than there was
one hundred years ago, for God's sake do it! He's entitled to the best
there is. This thing of just ringing the church bell to get people to
come in is about played out. In business, if they have a machine that
is out of date and doesn't produce good results, it goes onto the scrap
heap. If a man can produce a machine that can enlarge the product or
better it, that machine is adopted at once. But in religion we have the
same old flint-lock guns, smooth-bore; the same old dips and tallow
candles; the same old stage coaches over corduroy roads; and if a
protest is made some of you will roll your eyes as if you had on a hair
shirt, and say: "Surely this is not the Lord's set time for work." I
tell you any time is God's time. Now is God's time. It was God's time
to teach us about electricity long before Franklin discovered it, but
nobody had sense enough to learn.
It was God's time to give us the electric light long before Edison
invented it, but nobody had sense enough to understand it. It was God's
set time to give us the steam engine long before Watts watched the
kettle boil and saw it puff the lid off, but nobody had sense enough to
grasp the idea.
If God Almighty only had possession of your mouths, he'd stop your
lying. If he had your mouths he'd stop your knocking. If he had your
mouths, he'd stop your misrepresentations. If he had your mouths, he'd
stop your swearing. If he had your mouths, he'd stop your back-biting.
If he had your mouths, he'd stop your slanders. There would be no
criticizing, no white lies, no black lies, no social lies, no talking
behind backs.
If God had your mouths, so much money wouldn't go up in tobacco smoke
or out in tobacco spit. If God had your mouths, there would be no
thousands of dollars a year spent for whisky, beer and wine. You
wouldn't give so much to the devil and you would give more to the
Church. Many of you church pillars wouldn't be so noisy in politics
and so quiet in religion. So many of you fellows wouldn't yell like
Comanche Indians at a ratification meeting and sit like a bump on a log
in prayer-meeting.
If God had our eyes he'd bring the millennium. His eyes run to and fro
through the world seeking for men to serve him; and if he had our eyes,
how our eyes would run to and fro looking for ways to help bring men
to Christ. How hard it would be for sinners to get away. We would be
looking for drunkards, and the prostitutes and down-and-outs, to lift
and save them. How many sorrowful hearts we would find and soothe, how
many griefs we would alleviate! Great God! How little you are doing.
Don't you feel ashamed? Aren't you looking for a knot-hole to crawl
through? If God had our eyes how many would stop looking at a lot of
things that make us proud and unclean and selfish and critical and
unchristian.
What God Asks
God wants you to give your body. Are you afraid to give it to him?
Are you afraid of the doctor when you are sick? Your body--that thing
that sits out there in the seat, that thing that sits up there in the
choir and sings, that thing that sits there and writes editorials, that
body which can show Jesus Christ to fallen sons of Adam better than
any angel--that's what God wants. God wants you to bring it to him and
say: "Take it, God, it's yours." If he had your body, dissipation,
overeating and undersleeping would stop, for the body is holy ground.
We dare not abuse it.
A friend of mine paid $10,000 for a horse. He put him in a stable and
there the animal had care-takers attending him day and night, who
rubbed him down, and watched his feet to take care that they should not
be injured, and put mosquito netting on the windows, and cooled him
with electric fans, and sprinkled his oats and his hay. They wanted to
keep him in shape, for he was worth $10,000 and they wanted him for the
race-track. Give your body to God, and the devil will be welcome to
anything he can find.
God wants your body as a living sacrifice, not a dead one. There are
too many dead ones. A time was when God was satisfied with a dead
sacrifice. Under old Jewish law a dead sheep would do. He wants my
body now when I'm alive and not when I am dead and the undertaker is
waiting to carry it out to the cemetery. The day of that dispensation
is past, and now he wants you, a living sacrifice, a real sacrifice.
A traveling man who wants to make his wife a present, and sits up all
night in the train instead of taking a berth for three dollars and uses
the three dollars to buy a present for his wife, makes a real sacrifice
for her. There never was a victory without sacrifice. Socrates advanced
the doctrine of immortality and died with a cup of poisoned hemlock.
Jesus Christ paid with a crown of thorns. Abraham Lincoln paid with a
bullet in his body. If you mean to give yourself as a sacrifice to God,
get out and work for him. Ask men to come to him.
[Illustration: "NO MORE OF YOU OLD DEACONS COMING DOWN THE AISLES
STROKING YOUR WHISKERS"]
"A holy sacrifice." Some men shy at that word "holy" like a horse at an
automobile. Holy vessels were set apart for use in the worship of God.
To be holy is to be set apart for God's use--that's all. To be holy
isn't to be long-faced and never smile.
"Acceptable unto the Lord." If that were true then this old desert
would blossom like Eden. If that were taken as our watchword, what
a stampede of short yardsticks, shrunken measures, light weights,
adulterated foods, etc., there would be!
What a stopping of the hitting up of booze! There would be no more
living in sin and keeping somebody on the side, no more of you old
deacons coming down the aisles stroking your whiskers and renting your
buildings for houses of ill fame, and newspapers would stop carrying
ads for whisky and beer.
[Illustration: "CLOSE THAT WINDOW, PLEASE."]
[Illustration: "BREAK AWAY FROM THE OLD BUNCH OF THE DAMNED."]
Reasonable Service
"Your reasonable service." God never asks anything unreasonable. He is
never exacting. He only asks rights when he asks you to forsake sin. A
man must be an idiot if he does not see that man is unreasonable when
unrighteous. God never made a law to govern you that you wouldn't have
made if you had known as much as God knows. You don't know that much
and never can, so the only sensible thing to do is to obey God's laws.
Faith never asks explanation.
God asks some things that are hard, but never any that are
unreasonable. I beseech you, brethren. It was hard for Abraham to take
his son up on the mountain and prepare to offer him up as a sacrifice
to God, but God had a reason. Abraham understands tonight, and Abraham
is satisfied. It was hard for Joseph to be torn from his own people and
to be sold into Egypt and to be lied about by that miserable woman,
torn from his mother and father, but God had a reason. Joseph knows
tonight, and Joseph is satisfied. It was hard for Moses to lead the
Jews from Egypt, following the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by
night and make that crossing of the Red Sea, only to have God call him
up to Mount Pisgah and show him the Promised Land and say: "Moses, you
can't go in." It was hard, but God had a reason. Moses understands
tonight, and Moses is satisfied. It was hard for Job to lose his
children and all that he possessed and to be afflicted with boils, and
to be so miserable that only his wife remained with him. But God had a
reason. Job understands tonight, and Job is satisfied.
It was a hard thing God asked of Saul of Tarsus--to bear witness to
him at Rome and Ephesus, to face those jeering heathen, to suffer
imprisonment and be beaten with forty stripes save one, and finally to
put his head on the block and have it severed by the order of old Nero,
but God had a reason. Paul understands tonight, and Paul is satisfied.
It was a hard thing God asked of Jesus--to leave the songs of the
angels and the presence of the redeemed and glorified and come down to
earth and be born amid the malodors of a stable, and be forced to flee
from post to post, and dispute with the learned doctors in the temple
at twelve years of age and confute them, and to still the storm and
the troubled waters, and to say to the blind, "Be whole," and finally
to be betrayed by one of his own followers and to be murdered through
a conspiracy of Jews and Gentiles; but now he sits on the throne with
the Father, awaiting the time to judge the world. Jesus understands and
Jesus is satisfied.
It was a hard thing for me when God told me to leave home and go out
into the world to preach the gospel and be vilified and libeled and
have my life threatened and be denounced, but when my time comes, when
I have preached my last sermon, and I can go home to God and the Lamb,
he'll say, "Bill, this was the reason." I'll know what it all meant,
and I'll say "I'm satisfied, God, I'm satisfied."