that the seeming defects in the book are exceedingly insignificant
when put in comparison with its many and marvellous excellencies._ It
certainly reveals great perversity of both mind and heart that men spend
so much time expatiating on the insignificant points that they consider
defects in the Bible, and pass by absolutely unnoticed the incomparable
beauties and wonders that adorn and glorify almost every page. What
would we think of any man, who in studying some great masterpiece of
art, concentrated his entire attention upon what looked to him like
a fly-speck in the corner. A large proportion of what is vaunted as
“critical study of the Bible” is a laborious and scholarly investigation
of supposed fly-specks and an entire neglect of the countless glories of
the book.
6. _The sixth thing to be said about the difficulties in the Bible is
that the difficulties in the Bible have far more weight with superficial
readers of it than with profound students._ Take a man who is totally
ignorant of the real contents and meaning of the Bible and devotes his
whole strength to discovering apparent inconsistencies in it, to such
superficial students of the Bible these difficulties seem of immense
importance; but to the one who has learned to meditate on the Word of God
day and night they have scarce any weight at all. That mighty man of
God, George Müller, who had carefully studied the Bible from beginning to
end more than a hundred times, was not disturbed by any difficulties he
encountered. But to the one who is reading it through carefully for the
first or second time there are many things that perplex and stagger.
7. _The seventh thing to be said about the difficulties in the Bible is
that they rapidly disappear upon careful and prayerful study._ How many
things there are in the Bible that once puzzled us and staggered us that
have been perfectly cleared up, and no longer present any difficulty at
all! Is it not reasonable to suppose that the difficulties that still
remain will also disappear upon further study?
How shall we deal with the difficulties which we do find in the Bible?
1. First of all, _honestly_. Whenever you find a difficulty in the Bible,
frankly acknowledge it. If you cannot give a good honest explanation, do
not attempt as yet to give any at all.
2. _Humbly._ Recognize the limitations of your own mind and knowledge,
and do not imagine there is no solution just because you have found none.
There is in all probability a very simple solution. You will find it some
day, though at present you can find no solution at all.
3. _Determinedly._ Make up your mind that you will find the solution if
you can by any amount of study and hard thinking. The difficulties in the
Bible are your heavenly Father’s challenge to you to set your brains to
work.
4. _Fearlessly._ Do not be frightened when you find a difficulty, no
matter how unanswerable it appears upon first glance. Thousands have
found such before you. They were seen hundreds of years ago and still the
Old Book stands. You are not likely to discover any difficulty that was
not discovered and probably settled long before you were born, though
you do not know just where to lay your hand upon the solution. The Bible
which has stood eighteen centuries of rigid examination and incessant and
awful assault, is not going under before any discoveries that you make
or any attacks of modern infidels. All modern infidel attacks upon the
Bible are simply a revamping of old objections that have been disposed
of a hundred times in the past. These old objections will prove no more
effective in their new clothes than they did in the cast-off garments of
the past.
5. _Patiently._ Do not be discouraged because you do not solve every
problem in a day. If some difficulty defies your best effort, lay it
aside for awhile. Very likely when you come back to it, it will have
disappeared and you will wonder how you were ever perplexed by it.
The writer often has to smile to-day when he thinks how sorely he was
perplexed in the past over questions which are now as clear as day.
6. _Scripturally._ If you find a difficulty in one part of the Bible,
look for other Scripture to throw light upon it and dissolve it. Nothing
explains Scripture like Scripture. Never let apparently obscure passages
of Scripture darken the light that comes from clear passages, rather let
the light that comes from the clear passage illuminate the darkness that
seems to surround the obscure passage.
7. _Prayerfully._ It is wonderful how difficulties dissolve when one
looks at them on his knees. One great reason why some modern scholars
have learned to be destructive critics is because they have forgotten how
to pray.
IX
PRAYER
The one who would succeed in the Christian life must lead a life of
prayer. Very much of the failure in Christian living to-day, and in
Christian work, results from neglect of prayer. Very few Christians spend
as much time in prayer as they ought. The Apostle James told believers in
his day that the secret of the poverty and powerlessness of their lives
and service was neglect of prayer. “Ye have not,” says God through the
Apostle James, “because ye ask not.” So it is to-day. Why is it, many a
Christian is asking, that I make such poor headway in my Christian life?
Why do I have so little victory over sin? Why do I accomplish so little
by my effort? and God answers, “You have not because you ask not.”
It is easy enough to lead a life of prayer if one only sets about it.
Set apart some time each day for prayer. The rule of David and of Daniel
is a good one; three times a day. “Evening and morning and at noon,”
says David, “will I pray and cry aloud and He shall hear my voice” (Ps.
55: 17). Of Daniel we read, “Now when Daniel knew that the writing
was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his
chamber towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day,
and prayed, and gave thanks before his God as he did aforetime” (Dan. 6:
10). Of course, one can pray while walking the street, or riding in the
car, or sitting at his desk, and one should learn to lift his heart to
God right in the busiest moments of his life, but we need set times of
prayer, times when we go alone with God, shut to the door and talk to our
Father in the secret place (Matt. 6: 6). God is in the secret place and
will meet with us there and listen to our petitions.
Prayer is a wonderful privilege. It is an audience with the King. It
is talking to our Father. How strange it is that people should ask the
question, “How much time ought I to spend in prayer?” When a subject is
summoned to an audience with his king, he never asks, “How much time must
I spend with the king?” His question is rather, “How much time will the
king give me?” And with any true child of God who realizes what prayer
really is, that it is an audience with the King of Kings, the question
will never be, “How much time must I spend in prayer,” but “How much time
may I spend in prayer with a due regard to other duties and privileges?”
Begin the day with thanksgiving and prayer. Thanksgiving for the definite
mercies of the past, prayer for the definite needs of the present day.
Think of the temptations that you are likely to meet during the day; ask
God to show you the temptations that you are likely to meet and get from
God strength for victory over these temptations before the temptations
come. The reason why many fail in the battle is because they wait until
the hour of battle. The reason why others succeed is because they have
gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came. Jesus
conquered in the awful battles of Pilate’s judgment hall and of the
cross because He had the night before in prayer anticipated the battle
and gained the victory before the struggle really came. He had told His
disciples to do the same. He had bidden them “Pray that ye enter not
into temptation” (Luke 22: 40), but they had slept when they ought to
have prayed, and when the hour of temptation came they fell. Anticipate
your battles, fight them on your knees before temptation comes and you
will always have victory. At the very outset of the day, get counsel and
strength from God Himself for the duties of the day.
Never let the rush of business crowd out prayer. The more work that any
day has to do, the more time must be spent in prayer in preparation for
that work. You will not lose time by it, you will save time by it. Prayer
is the greatest time saver known to man. The more the work crowds you the
more time take for prayer.
Stop in the midst of the bustle and hurry and temptation of the day for
thanksgiving and prayer. A few minutes spent alone with God at midday
will go far to keep you calm in the midst of the worries and anxieties of
modern life.
Close the day with thanksgiving and prayer. Review all the blessings
of the day and thank God in detail for them. Nothing goes farther to
increase faith in God and in His Word than a calm review at the close
of each day of what God has done for you that day. Nothing goes further
towards bringing new and larger blessings from God than intelligent
thanksgiving for blessings already granted.
The last thing you do each day ask God to show you if there has been
anything in the day that has been displeasing in His sight. Then wait
quietly before God and give God an opportunity to speak to you. Listen.
Do not be in a hurry. If God shows you anything in the day that has been
displeasing in His sight, confess it fully and frankly as to a holy and
loving Father. Believe that God forgives it all, for He says He does
(1 John 1: 9). Thus at the close of each day all your accounts with
God will be straightened out. You can lie down and sleep in the glad
consciousness that there is not a cloud between you and God. You can
arise the next day to begin life anew with a clean balance sheet. Do this
and you can never backslide for more than twenty-four hours. Indeed, you
will not backslide at all. It is very hard to straighten out accounts
in business that have been allowed to get crooked through a prolonged
period. No bank ever closes its business day until its balance is found
to be absolutely correct. And no Christian should close a single day
until his accounts with God for that day have been perfectly adjusted
alone with Him.
There should be special prayer in special temptation—that is when we
see the temptation approaching. If you possibly can, get at once alone
somewhere with God and fight your battle out. Keep looking to God. “Pray
without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5: 17). It is not needful to be on your knees
all the time but the heart should be on its knees all the time. We should
be often on our knees or on our faces literally. This is a joyous life,
free from worry and care. “In nothing be anxious; but in everything by
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known
unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall
guard your hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4: 6, 7, R. V.).
There are three things for which one who would succeed in the Christian
life must especially pray. 1. For wisdom. “If any of you lack wisdom (and
we all do) let him ask of God” (James 1: 5). 2. For strength. “For they
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” (Is. 40: 31). 3. For
the Holy Spirit. “Your heavenly Father shall give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask Him” (Luke 11: 13). Even if you have received the Holy Spirit,
you should constantly pray for a new filling with the Holy Spirit and
definitely expect to receive it. We need a new filling with the Spirit
for every new emergency of Christian life and Christian service. The
Apostle Peter was baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of
Pentecost (Acts 2: 1-4) but he was filled anew in Acts 4: 8 and Acts 4:
31. There are many Christians in the world who once had a very definite
baptism with the Holy Spirit and had great joy and were wonderfully
used, but who have tried to go ever since in the power of that baptism
received years ago, and to-day their lives are comparatively joyless and
powerless. We need constantly to get new supplies of oil for our lamps.
We get these new supplies of oil by asking for them.
It is not enough that we have our times of secret prayer to God alone
with Him, we also need fellowship with others in prayer. If they
have a prayer-meeting in your church attend it regularly. Attend it
for your own sake; attend it for the sake of the church. If it is a
prayer-meeting only in name and not in fact, use your influence quietly
and constantly (not obtrusively) to make it a real prayer-meeting. Keep
the prayer-meeting night sacredly for that purpose. Refuse all social
engagements for that night. A major-general in the United States army
once took command of the forces in a new district. A reception was
arranged for him for a certain night in the week. When he was informed
of this public reception he replied that that was prayer-meeting night
and everything else had to give way for prayer-meeting, that he could not
attend the reception on that night. That general had proved himself a
man that can be depended upon. The Church of Christ in America owes more
to him than to almost any other officer in the American army. Ministers
learn to depend upon their prayer-meeting members. The prayer-meeting
is the most important meeting in the church. If your church has no
prayer-meeting, use your influence to have one. It does not take many
members to make a good prayer-meeting. You can start with two but work
for many.
It is well to have a little company of Christian friends with whom you
are in real sympathy and with whom you meet regularly every week simply
for prayer. There has been nothing of more importance in the development
of my own spiritual life of recent years than a little prayer-meeting of
less than a dozen friends who have met every Saturday night for years.
We met and together we waited upon God. If my life has been of any use
to the Master, I attribute it largely to that prayer-meeting. Happy is
the young Christian that has a little band of friends like that that meet
together regularly for prayer.[2]
X
WORKING FOR CHRIST
One of the important conditions of growth and strength in the Christian
life is work. No man can keep up his physical strength without exercise
and no man can keep up his spiritual strength without spiritual exercise,
_i. e._, without working for his Master. The working Christian is the
happy Christian. The working Christian is the strong Christian. Some
Christians never backslide because they are too busy about their Master’s
business to backslide. Many professed Christians do backslide because
they are too idle to do anything but backslide. Jesus said to the first
disciples, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4: 19).
Any one who is not a fisher of men is not following Christ. Bearing fruit
in bringing others to the Saviour is the purpose for which Jesus has
chosen us and is one of the most important conditions of power in prayer.
Jesus says in John 15: 16, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you
and ordained you _that ye should go and bring forth fruit_, and that
your fruit should remain, _that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in
My name He may give it you_.” These words of Jesus are very plain. They
tell us that the one who is bearing fruit is the one who can pray in the
name of Christ and get what he asks in that name. In the same chapter
Jesus tells us that bearing fruit in His strength is the condition of
fullness of joy. He says, “These things have I spoken unto you (that is,
the things about abiding in Him and bearing fruit in His strength) that
My joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full” (John 15:
11). Experience abundantly proves the truth of these words of our Master.
Those who are full of activity in winning others to Christ are those who
are full of joy in Christ Himself.
If you wish to be a happy Christian; if you wish to be a strong
Christian, if you wish to be a Christian who is mighty in prayer, begin
at once to work for the Master and never let a day pass without doing
some definite work for Him. But how can a young Christian work for Him?
How can a young Christian bear fruit? The answer is very simple and very
easy to follow. You can bear fruit for your Master by going to others and
telling them what your Saviour has done for you, and by urging them to
accept this same Saviour and showing them how to do it. There is no other
work in the world that is so easy to do, so joyous, and so abundant in
its fruitfulness, as personal hand to hand work. The youngest Christian
can do personal work. Of course, he cannot do it so well as he will do
it later, after he has had more practice. But the way to learn how to do
it is by doing it. I have known thousands of Christians all around the
world who have begun to work for Christ, and to bring others to Christ,
the very day that they were converted. How often young men and young
women, yes, and old men and old women too, have come to me and said, “I
accepted Jesus Christ last night as my Saviour, my Lord and my King, and
to-night I have led a friend to Christ.” Then the next day they would
come and tell me of some one else they had led to Christ. When we were
in Sheffield, a young man working in a warehouse accepted Christ. Before
the month’s mission in Sheffield was over he had led thirty others to
Christ, many of them in the same warehouse where he himself worked. This
is but one instance among many. There are many books that tell how to do
personal work.[3]
But one does not need to wait until they have read some book on the
subject before they begin. One of the commonest and greatest mistakes
that is made is that of frittering one’s life away in getting ready to
get ready to get ready. Some never do get ready. The way to get ready is
to begin at once. Make up your mind that you will speak about accepting
Christ to at least one person every day. Early in his Christian life Mr.
Moody made this resolution that he would never let a day pass over his
head without speaking to at least one person about Christ. One night he
was returning late from his work. As he got near home it occurred to him
that he had not spoken to any one that day. He said to himself, “It is
too late now. I will not get an opportunity. Here will be one day gone
without my speaking to any one about Christ.” But a little ways ahead of
him he saw a man standing under a lamp-post. He said, “Here is my last
opportunity.” The man was a stranger to him, though he knew who Mr. Moody
was. Mr. Moody hurried up to him and asked him, “Are you a Christian?”
The man replied, “That is none of your business. If you were not a sort
of a preacher I would knock you into the gutter.” But Mr. Moody spoke a
few faithful words to him and passed on. The next day this man called on
one of Mr. Moody’s business friends in Chicago in great indignation. He
said, “That man Moody of yours over on the Northside is doing more harm
than he is good. He has zeal without knowledge. He came up to me last
night, a perfect stranger, and asked me if I was a Christian. He insulted
me. I told him if he had not been a sort of preacher I would have knocked
him into the gutter.” Mr. Moody’s friend called him in and said to
him, “Moody, you are doing more harm than good. You have zeal without
knowledge. You insulted a friend of mine on the street last night.” Mr.
Moody went out somewhat crestfallen, feeling that perhaps he was doing
more harm than good, that perhaps he did have zeal without knowledge.
But some weeks after, late at night, there was a great pounding on his
door. Mr. Moody got out of bed and rushed to the door supposing that the
house was on fire. That same man stood at the door. He said, “Mr. Moody,
I have not had a night’s rest since you spoke to me that night under the
lamp-post and I have come around for you to tell me what to do to be
saved.” Mr. Moody had the joy that night of leading that man to Christ.
It is better to have zeal without knowledge than to have knowledge
without zeal, but it is better yet to have zeal with knowledge, and any
one may have this. The way to get knowledge is by experience, and the
way to get experience is by doing the work. The man who is so afraid of
making blunders that he never does anything, never learns anything.
The man who goes ahead and does his best and is willing to risk the
blunders, is the man who learns to avoid the blunders in the future. Some
of the most gifted men I have ever known have never really accomplished
anything, they were so fearful of making blunders. Some of the most
useful men I have ever known were men who at the outset were the least
promising, but who had a real love for souls and went on, at first in a
blundering way, but they blundered on until they learned by experience
to do things well. Do not be discouraged by your blunders. Pitch in and
keep pegging away. Every honest mistake is but a stepping-stone to future
success. Try every day to lead some one else to Christ. Of course, you
will not succeed every day, but the work will do you good any way, and
years after you will often find that where you thought you have made the
greatest blunders, you have accomplished the best results. The man who
gets angriest at you, will often turn out in the end the man who is most
grateful to you. Be patient and hope on. Never be discouraged.
Make a prayer list. Go alone with God. Write down at the top of a
sheet of paper, “God helping me, I promise to pray daily and to work
persistently for the conversion of the following persons.” Then kneel
down and ask God to show you who to put on that list. Do not make the
list so long that your prayer and work become mechanical and superficial.
After you have made the list keep your covenant, really pray for them
every day. Watch for opportunities to speak to them—improve these
opportunities. You may have to watch long for your opportunities with
some of them, and you may have to speak often, but never give up. I
prayed about fifteen years for one man, one of the most discouraging
men I ever met, but I saw that man converted at last, and I saw him
a preacher of the gospel, and many others were converted through his
preaching, and now he is in the Glory.
Learn to use tracts. Get a few good tracts that are fitted to meet the
needs of different kinds of people. Then hand these tracts out to the
people whose needs they are adapted to meet. Follow your tracts up with
prayer and with personal effort.
Go to your pastor and ask him if there is some work he would like to have
you do for him in the church. Be a person that your pastor can depend
upon. We live in a day in which there are many kinds of work going on
outside the church, and many of these kinds of work are good and you
should take part in them as you are able, but never forget that your
first duty is to the church of which you are a member. Be a person that
your pastor can count on. It may be that your pastor may not want to use
you, but at least give him the chance of refusing you. If he does refuse
you, don’t be discouraged, but find work somewhere else. There is plenty
to do and few to do it. It is as true to-day as it was in the days of
our Saviour, “The harvest truly is plenteous but the labourers are few”
(Matt. 9: 37), “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send
forth labourers into His harvest,” and pray that He will send you (Matt.
9: 38). The right kind of men are needed in the ministry. The right kind
of men and women are needed for foreign mission work, but you may not be
the right kind of a man or woman for foreign missionary work, but none
the less there is work for you to do just as important in its place as
the work of the minister or the missionary is. See that you fill your
place and fill it well.[4]
XI
FOREIGN MISSIONS