How Moody was Encouraged.
I remember a few years ago I got discouraged, and could not see much
fruit of my work; and one morning, as I was in my study, cast down, one
of my Sabbath-school teachers came in and wanted to know what I was
discouraged about, and I told him because I could see no result from my
work; and speaking about Noah, he said: "By the way, did you ever study
up the character of Noah?" I felt that I knew all about that, and told
him that I was familiar with it, and he said, "Now, if you never studied
that carefully, you ought to do it, for I cannot tell you what a
blessing it has been to me." When he went out I took down my Bible and
commenced to read about Noah, and the thought came stealing over me,
"Here is a man that toiled and worked a hundred years and didn't get
discouraged; if he did, the Holy Ghost didn't put it on record," and the
clouds lifted, and I got up and said, if the Lord wants me to work
without any fruit I will work on. I went down to the noon
prayer-meeting, and when I saw the people coming to pray I said to
myself, "Noah worked a hundred years and he never saw a prayer-meeting
outside of his own family." Pretty soon a man got up right across the
aisle where I was sitting, and said he had come from a little town where
there had been a hundred uniting with the Church of God the year before.
And I thought to myself, "What if Noah had heard that! He preached so
many, many years, and didn't get a convert, yet he was not discouraged."
Then a man got up right behind me, and he trembled as he said, "I am
lost. I want you to pray for my soul." And I said, "What if Noah had
heard that! He worked a hundred and twenty years, and never had a man
come to him and say that; and yet he didn't get discouraged." And I made
up my mind then, that, God helping me, I would never get discouraged. I
would do the best I could, and leave the result with God, and it has
been a wonderful help to me.
"We Will Never Surrender."
There's a story told in history in the ninth century, I believe, of a
young man that came up with a little handful of men to attack a king who
had a great army of three thousand men. The young man had only five
hundred, and the king sent a messenger to the young man, saying that he
need not fear to surrender, for he would treat him mercifully. The young
man called up one of his soldiers and said: "Take this dagger and drive
it to your heart;" and the soldier took the dagger and drove it to his
heart. And calling up another, he said to him, "Leap into yonder chasm,"
and the man leaped into the chasm. The young man then said to the
messenger, "Go back and tell your King I have got five hundred men like
these. We will die, but we will never surrender. And tell your King
another thing; that I will have him chained with my dog inside of half
an hour." And when the King heard that he did not dare to meet them, and
his army fled before them like chaff before the wind, and within
twenty-four hours he had that King chained with his dog. That is the
kind of zeal we want. "We will die, but we will never surrender." We
will work until Jesus comes, and then we will rise with Him.
The Faithful Aged Woman.
An old woman who was seventy-five years old had a Sabbath-school two
miles away among the mountains. One Sunday there came a terrible storm
of rain, and she thought at first she would not go that day, but then
she thought, "What if some one should go and not find me there?" Then
she put on her waterproof, and took her umbrella and overshoes, and away
she went through the storm, two miles away, to the Sabbath-school in the
mountains. When she got there she found one solitary young man, and
taught him the best she knew how all the afternoon. She never saw him
again, and I don't know but the old woman thought her Sabbath-school had
been a failure. That week the young man enlisted in the army, and in a
year or two after the old woman got a letter from the soldier thanking
her for going through the storm that Sunday. This young man thought that
stormy day he would just go and see if the old woman was in earnest, and
if she cared enough about souls to go through the rain. He found she
came and taught him as carefully as if she was teaching the whole
school, and God made that the occasion of winning the young man to
Christ. When he lay dying in a hospital he sent the message to the old
woman that he would meet her in heaven. Was it not a glorious thing that
she did not get discouraged because she had but one Sunday-school
scholar? Be willing to work with one.
A Dream.
I heard of a Christian who did not succeed in his work so well as he
used to, and he got homesick and wished himself dead. One night he
dreamed that he had died, and was carried by the angels to the Eternal
City. As he went along the crystal pavement of heaven, he met a man he
used to know, and they went walking down the golden streets together.
All at once he noticed everyone looking in the same direction, and saw
One coming up who was fairer than the sons of men. It was his blessed
Redeemer. As the chariot came opposite, He came forth, and beckoning the
one friend, placed him in His own chariot-seat, but himself He led
aside, and pointing over the battlements of heaven, "Look over yonder,"
He said, "What do you see?" "It seems as if I see the dark earth I have
come from." "What else?" "I see men as if they were blindfolded, going
over a terrible precipice into a bottomless pit." "Well," said He, "Will
you remain up here, and enjoy these mansions that I have prepared, or go
back to yon dark earth, and warn these men, and tell them about Me and
my kingdom, and the rest that remaineth for the people of God?" That man
never wished himself dead again. He yearned to live as long as ever he
could, to tell men of heaven and of Christ.
The Faithful Missionary.
When I was going to Europe in 1867, my friend Mr. Stuart, of
Philadelphia, said, "Be sure to be at the General Assembly in Edinburgh,
in June. I was there last year," said he, "and it did me a world of
good." He said that a returned missionary from India was invited to
speak to the General Assembly, on the wants of India. This old
missionary, after a brief address, told the pastors who were present, to
go home and stir up their churches and send young men to India to preach
the gospel. He spoke with such earnestness, that after a while he
fainted, and they carried him from the hall. When he recovered he asked
where he was, and they told him the circumstances under which he had
been brought there. "Yes," he said, "I was making a plea for India, and
I didn't quite finish my speech, did I?" After being told that he did
not, he said, "Take me back and let me finish it." But they said, "No,
you will die in the attempt." "Well," said he, "I will die if I don't,"
and the old man asked again that they would allow him to finish his
plea. When he was taken back the whole congregation stood as one man,
and as they brought him on the platform, with a trembling voice he said:
"Fathers and mothers of Scotland, is it true that you will not let your
sons go to India? I spent twenty-five years of my life there. I lost my
health and I have come back with sickness and shattered health. If it is
true that we have no strong grandsons to go to India, I will pack up
what I have and be off to-morrow, and I will let those heathens know
that if I cannot live for them I will die for them." The world will say
that old man was enthusiastic. Well, that is just what we want.
Forty-One Little Sermons.
A man was preaching about Christians recognizing each other in heaven,
and some one said, "I wish he would preach about recognizing each other
on earth." In one place where I preached, I looked over the great hall
of the old circus building where it was held, and saw men talking to
other men here and there. I said to the Secretary of the Young Men's
Christian Association who got up the meeting, "Who are these men?" He
said, "They are a band of workers." They were all scattered through the
hall, and preaching and watching for souls. Out of the fifty of them,
forty-one of their number had got a soul each and were talking and
preaching with them. We have been asleep long enough. When the laity
wake up and try and help the minister the minister will preach better.