WARNING.
To give a warning is a sign of love. Who warns like a mother, and
who loves like a mother? Your mother, perhaps, is gone, and your
father is gone. Let me take the place of those who have departed,
and lift up a warning voice. With Paul I would say: "I write not
these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you."
A pilot guiding a steamer down the Cumberland saw a light,
apparently from a small craft, in the middle of the narrow channel.
His impulse was to disregard the signal and run down the boat. As he
came near, a voice shouted: "Keep off, keep off."
In great anger he cursed what he supposed to be a boatman in his
way. On arriving at his next landing he learned that a huge rock had
fallen from the mountain into the bed of the stream, and that a
signal was placed there to warn the coming boats of the unknown
danger. Alas! many regard God's warnings in the same way, and are
angry with any who tell them of the rocks in their course. They will
understand better at the end.
The children of Israel had no truer friend than Moses. They never
went astray but he warned them; and trouble never came upon them
except when his warnings were unheeded. Elijah was the best friend
Ahab had.
I wish I could warn as Jesus Christ did. As he went up Mount Olivet,
His heart seemed to be greatly moved and He cried, "Oh, Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which
are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and
ye would not!" Did He not warn?
If a friend of mine were about to invest in a worthless silver-mine,
do you think I would be true to him if I did not caution him against
it? And do I show less love for him because I warn him against
actions that will bring a harvest of misery and despair?
"Whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning;
if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his
own head; he heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning;
his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall
deliver his soul."
Be sure that the seed you are sowing is good seed. Sow to the flesh,
and a good harvest will be impossible. Good seed and bad seed cannot
both succeed if allowed to grow together. One prospers at the
expense of the other; and the likelihood is that the bad will get
the upper hand. Weeds always seem to grow and spread more rapidly
than good seed.
The longer they live, the firmer hold the weeds are gaining. Delay
is dangerous. In the year 1691, a proclamation was sent through the
Highlands of Scotland, that every one who had been guilty of
rebellion against the constituted government would be pardoned, if,
before the last day of the year, he laid down his arms and promised
to cease his rebellion. Many did so; but one chief named Maclan put
off submission from week to week, always intending to submit before
it was too late. But when, at last, he started to accept pardon, he
was hindered by a great storm and did not arrive until the time had
expired. The day of pardon had passed and the day of vengeance had
come; Maclan and his men were put to death.
Hence, it is wise to exterminate the weeds at once. And beware of
remaining longer in sin. The deeper you sink, the more bitter will
be your restoration. Why continue to sear you conscience, and sow
the seeds of keener remorse? No matter how painful it may be, break
with sin at once. Severe operations are often necessary, for the
skilful surgeon knows that the disease cannot be cured by surface
applications. The farmer takes his hoe and his spade and his axe,
and he cuts away the obnoxious growths, and burns the roots out of
the ground with fire.
If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee:
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy
right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is
profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not
that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
Remember that the tares and the wheat will be separated at the
judgment day, if not before. Sowing to the flesh and sowing to the
spirit inevitably lead in diverging paths. The axe will be laid at
the root of the trees, and every tree that bringeth not forth good
fruit will be hewn down and cast into the fire. The threshing-floor
will be thoroughly purged, and the wheat will be gathered into the
garner, while the chaff will be burned with unquenchable fire.
Beware of your habits. A recent writer has said: "Could the young
but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of
habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the
plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and
never to be undone. Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice
leaves its never so little scar. The drunken Rip Van Winkle, in
Jefferson's play, excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by
saying, '_I won't count this time_.' Well, he may not count it, and
a kind heaven may not count it, but it is being counted none the
less. Down among his nerve cells and fibres the molecules are
counting it, registering and storing it up, to be used against him
when the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is, in strict
scientific literalness, wiped out. Of course, this has its good side
as well as its bad one. As we become permanent drunkards by so many
separate drinks, so we become saints in the moral sphere, and
authorities and experts in the practical and scientific spheres, by
so many separate acts and hours of work."
Beware of temptations. "Lead us not into temptation," our Lord
taught us to pray: and again he said, "Watch and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation." We are weak and sinful by nature, and it is a good
deal better for us to pray for deliverance rather than for strength
to resist when temptation has overtaken us. Prevention is better
than cure. Hidden under the soil may be seeds of passion and
wickedness that only wait for a favorable opportunity to shoot up.
Young men pretend that it is necessary to see both sides of life.
What foolishness! I am not called upon to put my hand in the fire to
see if it will burn.
A steamboat was stranded on the Mississippi river, and the captain
could not get her off. Eventually a hard-looking fellow came on
board and said:
"Captain, I understand you want a pilot to take you out of this
difficulty?"
The captain said, "Are you a pilot?"
"Well, they call me one."
"Do you know where the snags and sand-bars are?"
"No sir,"
"Well, how do you expect to take me out of here if you don't know
where the snags and sand-bars are?"
"I know where they ain't!" was the reply.
Begin to sow the good seed while the children are young, and thus
prevent the weeds getting a start. Satan does not wait till they
grow up, and no more should we.
There are many fishing nets so constructed as to allow none but full
grown fish to be caught, the immature escaping. Satan has none such.
He catches the weakest and youngest.
"We must care for our boys or the devil will," said a young Sabbath
School teacher.
"The devil will care for them anyway," answered the old
superintendent: "The devil will not neglect them even though we do."
It is a master-piece of the devil to make us believe that children
can not understand religion. Would Christ have made a child the
standard of faith if He had known that it was not capable of
understanding His words? It is far easier for children to love and
trust than for grown-up persons, and so we should set Christ before
them as the supreme object of their choice.
Do not neglect opportunities. Napoleon used to say: "There is a
crisis in every battle--ten or fifteen minutes--on which the issue
of the battle depends. To gain this is victory; to lose it is
defeat."
Beware of sin. Its wages are Death, and (as has been said) the wages
have never been reduced. It deceives men as to the satisfaction to
be found in it, the excuses to be made for it, and the certainty of
the punishment that must follow. If it was not deceitful, it would
never be delightful. It comes in innocent guise, and saps the life
blood, depriving one of the moral capacity to do good. Canon
Wilberforce walking in the Isle of Skye, saw a magnificent eagle
soaring upward. He halted and watched its flight. Soon he observed
something was wrong. It began to fall, and presently lay dead at his
feet. Eager to know the reason of its death, he examined it and
found no trace of gunshot wound; but he saw in its talons a small
weazel, which, in its flight, drawn near its body, had sucked the
life blood from the eagle's-breast. Such is the end of every one who
persistently clings to sin.
Do not be deceived by the attractiveness of this world. It will
cheat you and destroy you. "The Redoubtable" was the name of a
French ship that Lord Nelson spared twice from destruction; and it
was from the rigging of that very ship that the fatal ball that
killed him was fired. The devil administers many a sin in honey; but
there is poison mixed with it. The truest pleasures spring from the
good seed of righteousness--none else are profitable.
Beware of ignorance and indifference. You cannot afford to neglect
your soul. There is too much at stake. I never knew an idle man to
be converted. Until he wakes up and realizes his lost and hopeless
condition, God Almighty will not reach down and take him by the
hand. A ship was once in great danger at sea, and all but one man
were on their knees. They called to him to come and join them in
prayer, but he replied:
"Not I; it's your business to look after the ship. I'm only a
passenger."
Remember that mere knowledge is not enough. Many a man knows the
gospel precepts and promises by heart who is not touched by saving
grace. Knowledge is often useless or positively harmful, and what we
want is to know God's will and observe it. Even good resolutions are
not enough. No doubt they are helpful in their way, but the Bible
does not lead us to believe that they can save a man. It does not
say: "As many as _resolved to receive_ Him, to them gave He power to
become the sons of God, even to them that _resolve to believe_ on
His name"; it says: "As many as _received_ Him * * * _believe_ on
His name."
Be watchful! There is constant need to be on guard lest we fall into
sin. "Set a double guard upon that point to-night," was the command
of a prudent officer when an attack was expected. At the best there
will be some tares among the wheat. We, all of us, carry around with
us material that Satan can work on. Paul said:
"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good
thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which
is good I find not. For the good that I would, I do not: but the
evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it
is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a
law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I
delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another
law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?"
Blessed be God, he could add: "I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord."
The issue that God has placed before us is clear-cut: "He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth
not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on
him." There is no middle course--"he that believeth"--"he that
believeth not." He leaves us to choose, and the responsibility rests
upon ourselves.
It may cost you many a sacrifice, and wrench many a heart-string to
choose aright, but I plead with you to take the decisive step now.
The salvation of your soul outweighs all other considerations. Will
you imperil your eternity for the sake of some present gain or
pleasure? Bow your head and say: "Heavenly Father, I now choose to
come unto Thee as a poor, suppliant sinner. I believe on Thy Son,
whom Thou didst send to be my Savior; and trusting in the merits of
His blood, which was shed as a propitiation for my sins, I rest in
the assurance of sins forgiven."
There is hope for the vilest sinner. Wherever weeds grow, there is
the possibility of good seed growing. The greater your need, the
more welcome will you be to Jesus. The proud and the self-confident
He knoweth afar off, but the faintest whisper of the contrite sinner
commands His attention.
Our Lord gave us a simple test to help us in our choice. He said,
"Every tree is known by its fruit. A good tree bringeth not forth
corrupt fruit, neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit."
Many of us have not the time or ability to unravel intricate
arguments, or grasp profound doctrines. Certain phases of truth are
often inaccessible to the ordinary mind. But the test Christ gave is
short and practical, and within the reach of any one of us.
"Have you ever heard the gospel?" asked a missionary of a Chinaman,
whom he had not seen in his mission before.
"No," he replied, "but I have seen it. I know a man who used to be
the terror of his neighborhood. He was a bad opium smoker and
dangerous as a wild beast; but he became wholly changed. He is now
gentle and good and has left off opium."
Apply this test to infidelity. What are its fruits? Crime follows in
its track. Society becomes disorganized. Chastity, honesty and the
other virtues are undermined. The whole life is blighted.
The following brief extract from a letter written in an english
prison, is a tremendous arraignment of that system of belief which
does not acknowledge God:
"I am one of thirteen infidels. Where are my friends? Four have been
hanged. One became a Christian. Six have been sentenced to various
terms of imprisonment, and one is now confined in a cell just over
my head, sentenced to imprisonment for life."
With all reverence we may apply this text to our Lord Himself. We
have His own authority for it. On one occasion when the jews
cavilled at His actions, He said: "The works which the Father hath
given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me,
that the Father hath sent me." On another occasion they gathered
round Him and asked, "How long dost thou hold us in suspense? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly." Jesus answered: "I told you,
and ye believed not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they
bear witness of me. * * * If I do not the works of my Father,
believe me not. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the
works: that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I
in Him." Well might the ruler Nicodemus say, "Rabbi, we know that
thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him." And Peter: "Ye men of
Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God
among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in
the midst of you, as ye yourselves know."
What are the fruits of extravagance, of pride, of covetousness? And
on the other hand, of prayer, of fearing God and doing His
commandments? What are the fruits of heathenism? Look at Africa and
China and India and the islands of the seas with their gods of wood
and stone. What must be the intelligence and moral sense of people
who will worship such things?
Even the best of non-Christian religions must always prove a
failure. It cannot be denied that many of the highest virtues are
enjoined in the writings of heathen philosophers. How could it be
otherwise? Morality is universal as humanity, and it is only to be
expected that here and there some thinker should pierce beyond the
average and read deeper into the foundation-truths of ethics. This
fact only proves, in my mind, the intimate connection between the
human and the divine. Christianity never claimed to introduce a
brand-new system of morality.
Referring to another matter, Christ said: "Think not that I am come
to destroy the law and the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill." And so the fulness and perfection of His own system
could not fail to embrace many principles that had already appeared
in heathen morality. But in the hands of our Savior they became
broader and brighter and fuller of power and meaning.
Will these non-Christian religions bear the test? Stoicism was
perhaps the noblest of the Greek philosophies, but it rapidly
developed into utter cynicism, and culminated in the asserted
impossibility of attaining to virtue. Epicureanism started out
fairly well, but its founder was not dead before it earned for
itself the opprobrious epithet that it was a doctrine worthy only of
swine. Look at Buddhism, with its filthy ceremonies and cruel
tortures. All these systems exhibit a conflict between theory and
practice. They failed in their object, because they approached the
difficulty on the wrong side. They trimmed away at the branch, not
recognizing that the tree was rotten at heart.
Christianity alone will stand the test of raising man out of the
pit. And how does it propose to do it? Not by minimizing the danger
and need. It says: "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart
faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no
soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores." It
demands as _the first necessity_ a new birth, regeneration by the
Holy Spirit. "Ye must be born again." It does not place
sanctification before justification, but having first imparted life
from above, it throws around the redeemed sinner the love of Christ
and the fellowship and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
A converted Chinaman once said: "I was down in a deep pit, half sunk
in the mire, crying for some one to help me out. As I looked up I
saw a venerable, grayhaired man looking down at me.
"'My son,' he said, 'this is a dreadful place.'
'Yes,' I answered, 'I fell into it; can't you help me out?'
'My son,' was his reply, 'I am Confucius. If you had read my books
and followed what they taught, you would never have been here.'
'Yes, father,' I said, 'but can't you help me out?'
As I looked he was gone. Soon I saw another form approaching, and
another man bent over me, this time with closed eyes and folded
arms. He seemed to be looking to some far-off place.
'My son,' Buddha said, 'just close your eyes and fold your arms, and
forget all about yourself. Get into a state of rest. Don't think
about anything that can disturb. Get so still that nothing can move
you. Then, my child, you will be in such delicious rest as I am.'
'Yes, father,' I answered, 'I will when I am above ground. Can't you
help me out?' But Buddha, too, was gone.
I was just beginning to sink into despair when I saw another figure
above me, different from the others. There were marks of suffering
on His face. I cried out to Him:
'O, Father! can you help me?'
'My child,' He said, 'what is the matter?'
Before I could answer Him, He was down in the mire by my side. He
folded His arms about me and lifted me up; then He fed me and rested
me. When I was well He did not say: Now, don't do that again, but He
said: 'We will walk on together now'; and we have been walking
together until this day."
This was a poor Chinaman's way of telling of the compassionate love
and help of the Lord Jesus.
I was reading, some time ago, of a young man who had just come out
of a saloon, and had mounted his horse. As a certain deacon passed
on his way to church, he followed and said,
"Deacon, can you tell me how far it is to hell?"
The deacon's heart was pained to think that a young man like that
should talk so lightly; he passed on and said nothing. When he came
round the corner to the church, he found that the horse had thrown
that young man, and he was dead. So you may be nearer the Judgment
than you think.
When I was in Switzerland many years ago, I learned some solemn
lessons about the suddenness with which death may overtake us. I saw
several places where land-slides had occurred, completely destroying
whole villages; or where avalanches had swept down the mountain
sides, leaving destruction in their wake. A terrible calamity
happened in the year 1806 to a village, called Goldau, situated in a
fertile valley at the foot of the Rossberg mountain. The season had
been unusually wet, and this had made the crops all the more
abundant.
Early one morning a young peasant, passing the cottage of an old man
whom he knew, saw him sitting at the door in the full rays of the
sun.
"Good morning, neighbor," said he; "we are likely to have a fine
day."
"Time we should have a fine day," growled the old man; "it has been
wet enough lately."
"Have you heard the report?" said the other. "Those who were up the
earliest this morning declare they saw the top of old Rossberg
move."
"Indeed! like enough," said the old man. "Mark my words, and I have
often said it before; I shan't live to see it, but those who are now
young will not live to be as old as I am before the top of yonder
mountain lies at its foot."
"I hope it will not be in my day," said the young man; and he passed
on, little thinking how near the prediction was to a fulfilment, and
that the ripening fields of corn and the abundant clusters of
luscious grapes would never be gathered; but so it was.
The springs of water in the mountain had been overcharged by the
excessive rains, and these, in forcing their way to the surface and
toward the valley below, had loosened the masses of rounded rock
which had been cemented together by a kind of clay, of which
material the upper part of the mountain was formed. These huge
masses at length gave way and fell headlong into the valley, burying
the entire village and about eight hundred of its inhabitants
beneath their weight.
But what became of the old man? Alas! he did not escape. He believed
the mountain would fall, but he did not think the fall was so near.
He was sitting in his cottage, composedly smoking his pipe, when the
young man came hastily back, and crying out:
"_The mountain is falling!_"
The old man composedly rose from his seat, looked out at his door,
and saying:
"I shall have time to fill my pipe again," went back into his house.
The young man was saved. The old man perished before he had left his
cottage, it and its owner were crushed, and swept to the bottom of
the valley.
I was in the north of England, in 1881, when a fearful storm swept
over that part of the country. A friend of mine, who was a minister
at Eyemouth, had a great many of the fishermen of the place in his
congregation. It had been very stormy weather, and the fishermen had
been detained in the harbor for a week. One day, however, the sun
shone out in a clear blue sky; it seemed as if the storm had passed
away, and the boats started out for the fishing-ground. Forty-one
boats left the harbor that day. Before they started, the harbor
-master hoisted the storm signal, and warned them of the coming
tempest. He begged of them not to go; but they disregarded his
warning, and away they went. They saw no sign of the coming storm.
In a few hours, however, it swept down on that coast, and very few
of those fishermen returned. There were five or six men in each
boat, and nearly all were lost in that dreadful gale. In the church
of which my friend was pastor, I believe there were three male
members left.
Those men were ushered into eternity because they did not give heed
to the warning. I lift up the storm-signal now, and warn you to
escape from the coming judgment!
There was a man living near one of the great trunk roads a number of
years ago, who one night saw that a landside had obstructed the
track. He saw by the clock that he hadn't time to reach the
telegraph office to stop the night express, so he caught up a
lantern and started up the track, thinking he might be in time to
stop the train. As he ran he fell and put out his light. He hadn't
another match, and he could hear the train coming in the distance.
He didn't know what to do. As a last resort he stood on the bank,
and the moment the train come abreast of him he hurled the lantern
with all his might at the engineer. The engineer saw that something
must be wrong, took the warning, whistled down the brakes, and
stopped the train within a few yards of the obstruction.
I throw the broken lantern at your feet now! I beg you to take
warning, make a clear work of sin, cost what it may. Take warning!
You must either give up sin, or give up the hope of heaven. Put
yourself in the way of being blessed. Make up your mind now that by
the grace of God you will obtain the mastery.
"Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy
upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."