Rev. J. Hawksley, a missionary among the Indians of the
Klondyke, was one evening holding a service and using a magic
lantern. He threw upon the screen a picture of Christ cleansing
the temple. An inveterate gambler in the audience was so imprest
with the attitude of Christ that the words in explanation went
straight to his heart. “If Christ was so angry at those who did
such things in His earthly temple, I am sure He would never let
such a sinner as I am come into His holy temple above. I will
give up my gambling and ask His pardon.” And the man kept his
word.
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* * * * *
That man steeped in iniquity can be won back by the grace of Christ to
a life of decency and service is one of the marvels of the world.
Luther Burbank, the well-known botanist, finds in nature this
renewing and generating quality. He can take a tree that shows
distinct evidence of decay, that looks as if it were beyond
recovery, and treat it, and treat it again, until he rescues
it from its bad habits of many years’ standing. He directs its
energies so that they flow in new channels and, as “if by the
shock of recreation,” what was once blighted and blasted becomes
beautiful, fragrant and fruitful. (Text.)
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* * * * *
In 1855 some Hebrew Christians met in New York to observe the
Passover. The meal being over, one after the other rose to
testify to faith and love in Christ. One man sat with head dropt
between his hands, then sobs shook his body, and those around
saw that a mighty conflict was in progress in his soul. Suddenly
he leapt to his feet and cried, “I will no longer deny my Lord!
I will follow Him outside the camp.” God took that Polish
Jew--for it was Bishop Schereschewsky--and through him gave the
Mandarin Bible to the vast empire of China. The Passover had
become the Supper of the Lord.
(571)
* * * * *
Like a ship becalmed in tropic seas, whose sails hang useless
in the breathless air, whose sailors wearily, idly wander about
the decks or lean listlessly over the bulwarks looking into
the waveless, torpid sea, and over which the heavy gloom of
despair and hopeless waiting hangs like a stifling air, so is
many a soul arrested in the voyage of life. Its energies are
like the useless sails, its thoughts like the listless sailors,
the whole spirit of its life like the dull, weary scene of the
idly drifting ship. And when at length the welcome wind comes
rippling the sea’s dead calm, filling the drooping sails,
lifting the ship onward in its course, what music in the rustle
of its coming! what joy in the new force it brings to the
forceless ship! what animation of life, revival of hope, fleeing
of all the dull, dreary spirits which haunted the scene a moment
before! So is a soul who has lived with no great, good purpose
which gave progress, importance, and interest to life, when at
length it seizes on the great Christian purpose of living unto
God. (Text.)--W. R. BROOKS, _Baptist Examiner_.
(572)
See CREATURE, A NEW.