in caves or seeking the protection of heathen kings, it must have
seemed as if God had forgotten him, and once David did almost break
down, but he rallied, took a fresh hold, and "carried on."
Now, fellows, it must be a fine sight to see a man receive a royal
crown, but it is a finer sight when there are fine qualities in a man
deserving honour and reward. No head deserves a crown unless there
are crowning virtues in the life. What were some of the qualities in
David which merited a crowning on that great day?
One was his faith. Faith in God; faith in his fellow-man; faith in
himself. It takes faith even to start anywhere, and it takes more
faith to arrive. David's faith was of the coronation variety.
Another was his patience. David waited. He did not try to force
matters. Whenever God was ready--that was David's time. In one of his
great psalms, he wrote: "I waited patiently for the Lord, and he heard
my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry
clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." David's
patience was crowned.
Another was David's continual kindness to a foe. He was even kind to
Saul's memory and rewarded the men who reverently took Saul's body
from the wall of Bethshan and gave it decent burial. David's chivalry
was crowned.
But, fellows, the fine thing to know is that the same princely
qualities can exist to-day in each one of us; not for crowns on our
heads, but for a great satisfaction in our hearts. Faith, patience,
and a knightly spirit are just as possible possessions now as they
were in David's day. They are spoken of in slightly different terms by
Paul in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians,--Faith, hope, and
love. You can have them all. They are priceless, but you can have them
if you ask for them.
Be a prince of the Royal House!
_Read 2 Samuel 2:1-7._
XXXVIII
DO IT RIGHT
Say, fellows, down-town the other day a man tried to save a boy who
was caught near some wires, and got killed himself for his trouble.
Hard luck, wasn't it? Yet he had nobody to blame for it but himself.
He took hold of a wire which carried the electric current for the
street cars. He broke a law of nature and got punished. There was a
way he could have gotten the wire away from the boy. A Boy Scout did
it later _with a pole_.
Just the difference between touching with the hand or touching with a
stick--very little, perhaps, but the law of electricity made the
difference important, so that the one meant death--the other, life!
Now here comes along King David trying twice to move the ark of the
Lord up to Jerusalem, where it ought to be, the first attempt proving
fatal because he was foolish enough to try to handle it as the
Philistines did, instead of doing it strictly by the rules God had
made--rules which David should have known very well, because they were
in his Bible (Num. 4:4-6, 15; also 1 Chron. 15:11-15). The rules
required that the ark should be carried on poles resting on the
shoulders of certain men set apart for that service, but David
permitted them to put it on an ox cart, attended by Ahio and Uzzah,
two well-meaning fellows, no doubt, but not according to the rules.
One of the oxen stumbled, the ark jostled, and Uzzah put his hand on
it to steady it. Presto! Uzzah a dead man on the side of the road!
They called David from where he was marching at the front of the
procession, and when he got back there and saw what had happened, it
gave him an awful shock, for he knew he was just as guilty as
Uzzah--and perhaps more so. He ordered the men to take the ark into
Obed-edom's house beside the road and be careful to pick it up by the
poles. Then he went on back to Jerusalem without it. He got out the
Book of Numbers and went over the rules about the ark very carefully.
For three months he studied the matter. Then he went after the ark
again--this time in God's way. He called for the priests and the men
appointed to carry the ark; he organized a band and a great choir of
singers, and went to Obed-edom's house. There they picked up the ark
by the poles and started. Still David was scared, and when they had
moved forward only ten yards ("six paces") he made them stop, while a
sacrifice of oxen and rams was made to the Lord.
David was overjoyed when he saw everything going well, and he began to
dance and to sing. All the way to Jerusalem he danced and shouted for
joy.
David thought a lot of the ark, because it meant the presence of God,
and that meant in this case the blessing of God. As he grew older and
wiser he had greater reverence for God's house and all the holy things
which were tokens of God's presence. In one of the psalms he wrote:
The Lord is in His holy temple;
Let all the earth keep silence before Him.
The least a boy can do for God's honour is to keep quiet in church.
The best a boy can do for himself is to put God at the very center of
his every interest--the fear of God, love for God, and reverence for
all His holy law.
Take hold as God says, and everything will go fine!
_Read 2 Samuel 6:1-11._
XXXIX
KEEPING FAITH
Say, fellows, it takes a real sport to live up to a promise when
conditions shift on him. If there is a streak of yellow in his system
he will find some way to kick out every time. Life is a big game, and
it takes a real man to play it on the square--if only square and no
more.
But, fellows, what can you say about that one man in a thousand who
plays the game of "Remember and Pay" as finely as David did?
Young gentlemen, please meet Mephibosheth, this man of the twisted
feet and outlandish name. Kings did not usually choose such to live in
their courts and sit at the royal table. Only the fine-looking men and
beautiful women were invited to become members of the king's
household.
But, worse still, this Mephibosheth, being a grandson of Saul, was at
any time a possible pretender to the throne. It was the custom of
kings to get rid of such. Not so David. When he finds out about the
poor cripple over there across the mountains east of the Jordan, he
sends for him and invites him to come and live at the palace in
Jerusalem.
Now you will find David's promise to Jonathan in 1 Samuel 20:14-17;
and his promise to Saul in 1 Samuel 24:20-22. David had only agreed
that when he became king he would not kill Saul's descendants. He
could have fulfilled his promise by simply allowing Mephibosheth to
live as he was doing, visiting around, kind of sneaky like, without
any pocket change, among the few friends who would take him in.
What do you suppose Mephibosheth thought when the messengers showed up
one morning at Machir's house and called for him to appear before the
king? Scared to death, don't you think? No doubt he thought it was all
over for him now, except the "slow driving and music on the hill."
Why, when he came before the king he bowed clear down to the marble
floor, doing obeisance, and called himself a dead dog. Then, what
happened? He had to pinch himself to see whether he was dreaming. He
never got over the surprise of it as long as he lived. King David
helped him up on his crutches and told him to cheer up, for from that
time forward he should sit at his table, and be as one of the king's
own sons.
More than that: with all the thoughtfulness and fine courtesy of a
Christian gentleman, David turned over to this cripple his grandfather
Saul's estate, together with Saul's servant, old Ziba, with his
fifteen sons and twenty slaves, to till the land. That was to provide
Mephibosheth with an income.
Now, what do you know about that, fellows? It was playing the game of
kindness to win, wasn't it? Win what? Why, to win the satisfaction
which can only come to one who keeps his promise--and then some, for
good measure!
Yes, it takes even more than a good sport to do that. It takes one who
is willing to be Christlike.
_Read 2 Samuel, Chapter 9._
XL
THE GAME THAT CAME NEAR BLOWING UP IN THE SEVENTH INNING
Say, fellows, have you heard the sorrowful news about David? Too bad!
Just as we were beginning to think David, with his fine manly ways,
his love for God's honour, for God's ark, his bravery, his fairness
and kindness--just as we were thinking he would make a clean record to
the end of the game, now here comes an awful flunk!
It's kind of like when the score is 2 to 0, in favor of the home team,
and we are feeling good--then all of a sudden in the seventh inning
the boys go all to pieces, and let the other side put four men across
the plate.
Strange how David fumbled and played badly when he had had such a long
winning streak, but so it must ever be when you get the idea you're
"it" and can't slip. David let down, and away down. Fellows, would you
believe it if it were not in the Bible--he broke all the commandments
from the sixth to the tenth, inclusive. God says whatsoever a man
sows, that shall he also reap. David sowed the wind and reaped the
whirlwind. Absalom, his son, committed all the sins his father did,
and added some, for he broke the fifth commandment also, and broke his
father's heart.
David was very fond of Absalom, and would have done anything for him,
but that boy didn't appreciate it. He was a good-looking chap; the
girls admired him, and a lot of foolish fellows hung around him,
flattered him, and made him vain.
Absalom had the big-head. If there is a sorry sight upon earth it is a
fellow that is stuck on himself. Absalom was conceited and proud. He
wanted even to be king in place of his father, and was unwilling to
wait for what would have come in due time. Many a fellow spills the
beans by being unwilling to wait. He ruins his best chance by trying
to pick the fruit before it is ripe. If there is ever a time when
patience is golden it is in the time of youth. A boy wants to stop
studying and training, and take a short-cut to fame and success. It is
usually a bad mistake.
Absalom's blunder was fatal. He tried to land on his father's throne
by treachery; he landed in a tree, caught by his head. He thought to
win a crown; he got three hot darts between the ribs from Joab. He
planned to have a pile of wealth quickly gained, but by the end of the
week his handsome form was buried deep beneath a pile of rocks. Ever
afterward when an Israelite passed that monument of dishonour, he
picked up a stone and cast it upon the heap to show his contempt for
the memory of a disloyal son.
Oh, fellows, the tragic day of a boy's life is when he decides to
throw over a good father. No matter what prize is offered. It may be
to get more liberty; it may be to escape restraint or rebuke, but it
is a bad trade at best. Ordinarily a boy's best man friend is his
father. If this does not seem to be the case, usually it is because
the son won't allow it. Many a father longs, like David, for his boy's
confidence and companionship. Many a boy could have in his father the
finest chum imaginable, if he would give his father a chance to show
him what a real chum is.
Fellows, let's give Dad some of that fine Scout loyalty and watch him
warm up to it. He may have some chum qualities you never thought of.
_Read 2 Samuel 11:1-27, and
2 Samuel 15:7-18._
XLI
THE BITTEN APPLE
Say, fellows, I was visiting a boy friend one afternoon and while we
played his mother called him. Wondering if there was anything wrong, I
waited and listened while he answered the summons. I could hear her
speaking to him as she said: "Bob, here are two apples--one for you
and one for Wade."
Then I waited, and as Bob did not return at once I stepped to the
corner of the house to see what kept him. That fellow was sitting on
the step digging his teeth into one of the apples. I thought: "Well,
that's polite, starting on his own before he gives the other to his
guest!" It rather disgusted me. Directly Bob came round the corner,
kind of sheepish like, and what do you suppose he did? Well, fellows,
he offered me _the bitten apple_!
That was enough for me. Take it? I guess not. I turned on my heel
without a word and went straight home. I don't think anything ever
inspired more contempt in me as a boy than that piece of petty
thievery.
Of course, fellows, that was not a Christian way to treat an erring
playmate, and I fear I had very little charity in my heart; I am just
telling you frankly how that act of Bob's impressed me. And it was
only in the beginning of Bob's eventful career. Twenty-five years
later, Bob's name was in the daily papers all over the country. He
had gotten away with a big sum of money that belonged to others who
had trusted him, and now he is a poor hunted fugitive from his native
land, if indeed he is alive.
The boy who begins taking just a bite of somebody else's apple is
likely going to pull off _something big_ some day!
Suppose Bob's mother had handed him seven apples and asked him to save
one of them for her, and he had made away with the whole lot, don't
you think that would have been pretty mean and low down?
Listen, fellows, something mighty close to that--only a lot worse--is
happening with boys to-day who look upon themselves as the souls of
honour. I am just wondering if they fully realize it. It is not in
their relationship to mother, but to God their heavenly Father and
creator. He has placed in your hands and in mine, each week, seven
full twenty-four hour days. He says, "Six for you and one for Me."
He trusts you to keep that One Day, the Sabbath, for Him. How do we
discharge that trust? Are we worthy of it? God does not lock us up in
a dark room on Sunday and handcuff us and chain our feet to the floor.
No, He trusts us; He prefers to trust us. He wants us to honour His
laws about the Sabbath, of our own free will. That is the kind of
service God likes--willing service.
And, fellows, you cannot abuse that trust and escape the penalty. God
has commanded in His Word, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day
is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work."
No man, no boy, can continually break the Sabbath day and get away
with it. Sooner or later he will come to sorrow because of it.
On the other hand, God distinctly promises blessings upon those who
honour His Sabbath (Isa. 58:13, 14).
Fellows, God is the best "payer" that ever promised. He always pays
more than He promises. His day concerns our happiness, our health, our
prosperity, our usefulness, our success. All these vital issues are
involved.
And I am going to tell you just one more fine secret. It is a nugget
of pure gold. The best way to avoid violating God's Sabbath is to get
busy honouring it with service--service to Him. Go regularly to
Sunday-school and to church service--and go _on time_. You will find
something to do there.
Spend your Sabbath afternoon in the study of God's Word, read some
good book that will feed your soul; spend some time in some work of
mercy. Take a bit of something good to eat to the poor fellow in jail
and tell him you do it because you love Jesus Christ and are trying to
serve Him, and want him to love Christ and serve Him, too. You will
find it a short day, but, oh, such a fine and happy one, and you will
go to bed refreshed. Next morning you will wake up whistling and you
will turn off work at the store or at school like a forty-horse
tractor.
_Read Exodus 20:8-11, and
Isaiah 58:10-14._
XLII
MY KINGDOM
Say, fellows, I heard a boy quoting Shakespeare the other day. He was
coming out of a movie with two other boys, just as I was passing. They
had probably been in there an hour or more, for they seemed glad to
get out in the fresh air. But the boy's exclamation was what caught my
attention; it was this:
"My kingdom for a cigarette!"
To be sure, Shakespeare makes Richard III say, "My kingdom for a
horse!"--the boy changed a word; and it was just a careless remark
expressing his craving for a smoke, but it raised a question in my
mind: Did that young fellow realize he said a very important and true
thing? When Richard III cried out, "My kingdom for a horse!" he was
dead in earnest; he was fighting for his very life against
overwhelming odds, and he was really willing to surrender his kingdom
for some swift means of getting away from that desperate scene of
carnage. But if the cigarette boy had been faced pointblank with the
proposition I do not believe he would have agreed to give up _his_
kingdom for the "coffin tack."
Yes, this boy had a kingdom; every boy has a kingdom.
As I paused on the corner, the three boys entered a store and quickly
came out, each with a cigarette in his mouth, taking deep inhalations
and expelling smoke through lips and nostrils as they sauntered down
the street.
I was still thinking of the boy's kingdom. Through a wonderful plan
God, the Creator, puts each boy over an empire. Perhaps you may think
it is a small one, but to him it is greater and means more for his
success and happiness than any empire on earth. God places a scepter
in each boy's hand and says, "Govern!--Rule over your kingdom!" And it
is a very wonderful kingdom, with four splendid provinces called
Physical, Mental, Social, and Spiritual. Each of these provinces is
capable of producing great values and making rich and powerful almost
beyond belief.
God also places at each boy's hand the resources for fighting off the
enemies of his kingdom. This defensive armament, which is also for
building work, in part consists of common sense, information (or
education), will-power, determination, aspiration, and physical
strength--and to make each of these effective, He gives His Word and
sends His Holy Spirit to guide and sustain. If a fellow just realized
it and would use what God puts in his hand he would have a kingdom he
wouldn't exchange for Solomon's.
But, fellows, what a pity when a boy will exchange his kingdom for a
cigarette; in comes the cigarette; down goes the physical
province--the cigarette destroys the delicate tissues of the mucous
membrane; down goes the mental province--the cigarette makes the mind
dull and listless and takes away its snap and vigour; down goes the
social province--the cigarette makes its victim shun the best and seek
the lower grades of social life and activity; down goes the spiritual
province, the most precious of all--for spirit chokes and dies in the
atmosphere of the cigarette and its inevitable accompaniments.
This, of course, is just one of the enemies of a boy's kingdom; I have
spoken of it particularly because it is the one which seems to catch
boys off their guard most easily. There are many others. Intemperance
of any kind is an enemy to the best interests of your empire. Send out
a proclamation to yourself, to-day, and put all provinces on notice
that _you_ are on your throne and God is your Counsellor--and that
henceforth none of the kingdom's enemies will be admitted across the
border.
_Read 1 Corinthians 10:9-15._
XLIII
A TOOL BOX
Say, fellows, on one of my boyhood birthdays I received a tool box. It
was a peach of a tool box, too; not one of the dime store variety,
with a saw the same length as the gimlet, but with a set of tools that
no amateur carpenter would despise. I was greatly delighted with that
tool box, and immediately began planning the things I would make.
Mother wanted a shelf on the back porch and a coop for an old hen just
off with her chicks; my dog needed a dog house, and I even aspired to
a rowboat for the pond. I could hardly wait for material before
getting to work. Fingering over those tools, my eye fell upon a motto
graven on the inside of the lid of the box. It read:
BE SURE YOU ARE RIGHT--THEN GO AHEAD
Very good advice, I thought; but perhaps intended for fellows who knew
less about tools than I did. I guessed I was not so apt to make
mistakes, knowing so well what I wanted to do, and being so determined
to do it. Several dollars' worth of lumber and nails were laid in, and
I entered at once upon the work of "general manufacturing." Fritz was
wagging his tail and barking as if he had scented the dog house in my
plans, so I decided to attend to that first. It would have been better
to start with the shelf, as that was simpler; but I slashed away on
the dog house, and soon had some stuff sawed up for the framework. It
didn't match. I sawed some more, and that didn't match. I began to
think perhaps Fritz didn't specially need a dog house anyhow; so I
tried to work the dog house materials into the chicken coop, but that
wouldn't go, either. Then I sawed some more for the chicken coop. It
was not as simple a proposition as I had thought it would be, besides
there was a confusion of design somehow in my mind. The day wound up
with nothing accomplished, except a lot of good material butchered to
the point of kindling wood only. Next morning I tackled something I
"knew I could do,"--the shelf. But that proved to be a surprisingly
obstinate job; the supports I sawed at different angles, and when
trying to force the joints together by nailing, I split them both. The
shelf was a failure.
Then I saw a light.
I was rather dejectedly pondering the situation as I stood by the tool
box, and my eye fell again on that motto! In not one instance had I
made sure I was right before I went ahead. My zeal had been without
knowledge. I had mistaken "Purpose" and "Determination," as the high
prerequisites, instead of "Being Sure I was Right."
Fellows, Saul the Pharisee had zeal without knowledge. He blazed away
upon the presumption that Jesus was an impostor. Why, the Jesus idea
was preposterous, Saul mused. God's Kingdom was to be set up with a
great capital at Jerusalem and a great and powerful king on the throne
to whom all the world around would come and pay tribute. Anybody who
claimed that the King had already come and been crucified like a thief
was a dangerous fanatic and should be haled to prison or put to death.
This brilliant young Pharisee, carefully trained in ecclesiastical law
and the traditions of the elders, went forth bitterly persecuting the
followers of Jesus--even witnessing and approving the cruel stoning of
Stephen. This showed Saul's Purpose and Determination, which he
mistook for being Right. Well, we know that after that Saul suddenly
"saw a light"; but think of the havoc Saul wrought before he came to
his senses. Think of the Service Time wasted. Think of the fine
Material destroyed--sawn asunder. Think of Stephen!
Fellows, are you building anything these days? Are you sure you are
Right? Or are you just blazing away at something because you have warm
red blood and all the zeal and purpose of youth? There is one thing
each one of you is building. You are building a Life. Oh, fellows, be
sure you are Right, for it is the most important structure you will
ever put up, and remember that "other foundation can no man lay than
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Be sure you are right--then go
ahead. When your life is built on Jesus, you may go forward with
confidence. Any other way means wasted time, wasted material, regrets,
disappointment--and Failure at last.
"I have not built my house on sands,
Tho' golden sands there be;
I have not built with greedy hands
A building fair to see;
But my house on a solid Rock,
And not the Builder I,
But guest in house to stand the shock
When tempests rend the sky.
Lo, Christ! the Builder of my house,
He laid foundation stone,
So reck I not if storms carouse,
For He will hold His own."
_Read Acts 7:59-8:3._
XLIV
SAUL NIAGARA
Say, fellows, if there were two hundred railroad tracks out there, and
on each track, every moment, passed a freight train carrying fifty
cars, each car holding fifty tons of water (maximum load for the
largest tank car), the two hundred trains, with their ten thousand
cars per minute would not be more than sufficient to carry away the
water as fast as it tumbles over Niagara Falls. With crushing and
destructive force that mighty volume plunges downward into a great
stone bowl which it has carved out for itself, so deep that if the
Woolworth Building were set down in it not more than half of it would
show above the top of the Falls. Engineers have estimated the total
energy of Niagara Falls at sixteen million horse-power!
Fellows, I think of the life of Saul, afterward known as the Apostle
Paul, as somewhat like Niagara River. The great river flows
majestically, uninterruptedly, more than half of its length, having a
fall of not more than twenty feet in twenty-two miles. Then suddenly
something happens. Something tremendously tragic and startling
happens. It plunges headlong over a precipice. Here is power gone mad.