the power of that direct human touch. All life is athrill with its magic.
Even when it becomes less direct, a bit removed from the personal, its
power is indescribably great.
John Eliot's work among the Massachusetts Indians kindled David Brainerd.
Brainerd's flame touched Jonathan Edwards. Edwards' pamphlet on
"Extraordinary Prayer for a Revival of Religion and the Advancement of
Christ's Kingdom on Earth" suggested to William Carey the plan of an
organized society. Fire spreads. Where the touch of God comes the fire of
God goes out through that human touch.
<u>Our Spirit-touch.</u>
A third result will be this: we will be reaching out and winning men in
all the rest of the world by <i>our spirit-touch</i>. You may be in some
African fastness or in the midst of China's age-old civilization or just
here at home, but you can be exerting a tremendous spirit-power that can
be felt out to the ends of the earth.
It will all be in the Name of Jesus. It will be in the power of the Holy
Spirit. Only in that Name and through the Spirit can such winning
influence be exerted at all. So a man can have spirit-touch with the man
by his side. And just as truly he can have spirit-touch with men at the
farthest reach of the earth.
There is a spirit influence going out from each of us in addition to that
which goes through the direct personal touch. It is not a conscious
influence. That is, we are not concsious that it is being exerted. It goes
out from us as we pray. It goes out of us as our thought is centered on
those far-away parts and peoples. Its strength will depend on the strength
of one's personality.
We are familiar with the fact that a man of strong personality has a
greater influence upon his fellows whom he touches directly than a weaker
man has. It is just the same with regard to one's spirit-touch. The
stronger and keener and purer I may become, the more I know of the
self-mastery which comes through Jesus-mastery, the greater force can I
exert as a winner of men, both by direct touch and by spirit-touch.
Will you kindly come up nearer in spirit, as we close our talk together,
and let me ask softly: Have we given the free use of ourselves to the
Master? Are we growing ourselves into bigger-sized, finer-grained,
better-controlled men and women daily? For the Master is depending on us.
He is counting much on having the use of us. He can reach out to the very
ends of the earth <i>through each one of us</i>. May we not fail Jesus!
Jesus
Jesus Draws Men.
Jesus Draws Out the Best.
Many Doors, but One Purpose.
Make It a Story.
How Peter Told Paul.
"A More Excellent Way."
Jesus
<u>Jesus Draws Men.</u>
The great heart-magnet is God. No one is so winsomely attractive as He.
His winning power is beyond any other. Man is winsome. But it is because
God made him winsome, and re-makes him yet more winsome. He gave him a bit
of His own self. That's the secret of all our human winsomeness.
Now Jesus is God to us. We know God only as we know Jesus. Jesus is the
heart of God beating in time and tune with human hearts. Nobody is so
winsome as Jesus. All the native winsomeness of man and all the divine
winsomeness of God combine and blend in Him. He has always drawn men to
Himself. And He still does, and always will.
He drew men of all classes when He was down here. The reverent
star-students of far-away Babylon were drawn to His birth by a compelling
they could not resist. He drew the thoughtful, scholarly men of His own
nation, such as Nicodemus of the inner, highest circle. And He drew
military officials of high rank and wealth in the service of imperial
Rome. By the same power the half-breed, despised Samaritans and the
earnest seekers after truth from cultured Greece were drawn to Him.
The plain farmer people of Galilee, and the hardy fisherfolk, and
hard-handed laboring-men came as eagerly to him. He drew the pure, fine
grained, gentle Mary of Bethany, with her unusual keenness of spirit
insight; and drew as well the unnamed outcast woman, steeped in sin, who
was forgiven much, and who loved much, and so gave much.
Practical hard-headed men of sharp bargains and shrewd trading, like
Matthew, felt His pull upon their hearts equally with men of pure heart
and lofty ideals like Nathanael. By special effort, for a special purpose
He drew high-bred, high-strung, scholarly, intense Paul, out of his mad
enmity into a lifelong devotion.
The crowds came until His daily routine and ministering help were
repeatedly and seriously interrupted. And strong men sought Him alone to
lay bare the longings and questionings of their hearts. His Roman judge
felt the strange winsomeness of His presence and speech, though lacking in
the courage to follow his convictions regarding Him. And the Roman officer
in charge of His execution was forced to admit the power of His presence.
All the world gathered about His cross. Representatives from all parts, in
large numbers, were at the Jerusalem feast; and on that morning, by common
consent, they were drawn out to the place where He hung.
He even drew the arch-tempter. He came with his subtlest temptations, and
bitterest enmity, and most malignant cunning. Could there be greater
evidence, by contrast, of the drawing power of His purity and goodness and
steadfast devotion to His mission?
<u>Jesus Draws Out the Best.</u>
And Jesus had the power to draw out of men the best there was in them.
Possibilities, traits, and powers that neither they nor their friends
supposed they had came out into strong life under the spell of His touch.
There seemed to be something in Him that drew the same sort of thing out
of them.
Out of Simon, the hot-headed, impulsive fisherman, He drew the steady man
of rock. Out of fiery John, the son of thunder, He drew the man of tender,
strong love. And out of quiet, retiring Andrew He drew a man with a
reputation for bringing others to Jesus.
He drew out of the Sychar outcast a sense of her sin, and then a winner of
souls; and out of that other woman of open sin, a longing for purity that
paved the way to all else that came. Under His compelling touch there came
out of the blind-born man a willingness to sacrifice all for such a
Master; and out of James, the other son of thunder, a courage to endure
suffering that men had not known he had.
That was when He was down here, a man. And ever since that fleecy cloud
received Him out of sight He has been drawing men of all the world. And
time would as utterly fail me, as it did the writer of the Hebrews, if I
tried to tell of the men He has drawn. Men of every rank, high and low, in
every nation, savage and civilized, in every generation of all these
centuries have felt the thrill of His power. And they have followed Him at
the cost of all that men hold most dear.
And He is just the same to-day. He is as available now in all His drawing
power wherever men meet, in city slum and savage wild, in college hall and
business street, among the philosophical and cultured, and among the
ignorant and untrained. If we will take Him to them, and let Him out
through our lips and lives, He will draw men up the heights. He can draw
against any power of downward suction, and He will. He promised to draw
men, if lifted up. And He has never failed to do it.
Now, it is this drawing Jesus that men need and want. There is an enormous
advantage in taking Jesus to men, because there is a something inside men
everywhere that responds to Jesus. That something may be choked and
covered up, crowded down and fought against, as it is. But it is there.
When you take Jesus to a man you may know that you are taking a supply to
a demand. You are bringing a man the answer to his heart's questions. It
is as the coming together of two parts that belong together, but have been
held apart by some hindrance.
That hindrance is stubborn. It has to be fought. It can be overcome.
That's the chief task. Then the part in man that answers to Jesus eagerly
fits into its place in Him. That coming together is always blessed, beyond
words. Everywhere men of all sorts and ranks and degrees of savagery and
culture eagerly respond to Him. And they declare that they find in Him the
full answer to their deepest longings.
<u>Many Doors, but One Purpose.</u>
It is this marvellous magnet, Jesus, that we are to take to men; not
theology, nor education, nor medical skill, nor hospitals, nor industrial
helps, except incidentally. These are the tin cup which one is glad to use
to give the thirsty traveller water from the spring.
You will understand at once that I have no thought of criticizing theology
or of discrediting it, if I could. It has its place. But that place is not
out in the thick of the crowd, but back in the quiet hall of study. There
must be thorough study and systematic putting together of the truth. There
needs to be patient plodding and mental drilling.
You have no need to be told of the immeasurable value of the splendid
foundation building of Christian scholars. But this is school work, in the
main. It is to make us better workmen. So a man gets his bearings and
poise. But the people down in the dust and drive of the crowd don't want
theology. They want Jesus. It is striking that everywhere men want to hear
about Jesus.
Educational work has played an indispensably great part in the scheme of
missions. But the purpose of it, of course, is to make an open door for
the entrance of Jesus into men's lives. It is invaluable in itself alone,
regardless of any other purpose. But the teacher of any sort of learning
in the mission school, who is chiefly absorbed in the teaching itself
instead of using it as a means to something higher, is missing the whole
purpose of his work.
And what words can be used strong enough in speaking of the blessed work
of medical men in foreign-mission lands? These skilled, patient, faithful
men and women in hospital and dispensary and private service are doing a
work of incalculable value. It should be done even if the bodily results
were all. But the underlying purpose through it all is to lead men to know
Jesus. And no one has such a short, quick road into a man's heart as he
who can relieve his body.
These things are doorways into men's lives; and great doorways, too. They
are well worth all the money and lives expended if they went no farther
than body and mind and better conditions. But the main purpose in them is
to find a way into men's hearts, and take in Jesus; that so men may get
the greater as well as the less.
<u>Make it a Story.</u>
Now, how shall we best tell men of Jesus? Well, the modern newspaperman's
rule in his work is this: "Make it a story." This is his leading rule in
all his writing work. Whatever the occasion may be, whether a meeting of
scholars or an accident on the street, it is to be put into story-form.
That is the ideal toward which he works. All the descriptions, and
quotations, and information, and philosophizings are to be woven into this
web. They know that a story is the easiest thing to read and to listen to,
and also the hardest to tell well.
That should be our rule here: <i>Make it a story about Jesus.</i> When it comes
to talking the Gospel to a group of people, large or small, in New York or
Shanghai, make it a story. Wherever you may begin the story, see that its
purpose is to lead up to Jesus. You may use twenty-five minutes in getting
your story out, and then put the Jesus touch in the last five minutes. But
as they go away that last five has given its flavor to the whole
half-hour's talk. Or, you may begin with Him, and so run through. But the
rule should be: Make it a simple, natural, attractive story, such as
people will want to listen to, because it interests them.
That means a lot of hard work in preparation. The simpler and easier and
more natural it seems to the crowd the more it will have cost you in
study. You will have to study so carefully that they won't guess you have
studied at all. You must absorb this Bible story, bit by bit, through and
through, until it becomes a bit of yourself.
You must use books that help make this Book clearer and plainer. That is
really the mission of biblical books, to make <i>the</i> Book plainer. If they
send you to the Bible they have fulfilled their mission. If you stay in
them, they have failed.
The Bible is an Oriental book in its way of putting things. Its story is
built upon the habits of those Eastern peoples. While it is full of simple
teaching easily understood, one needs to understand those habits to get
the real meat of the meaning. This means a habit of hard work for him who
would be a winner of men. He should have an ambition to know the Bible
story thoroughly, and to get it from the Bible itself.
But, whatever your particular message may be at any time, let it lead up
by a straight road to Jesus. Follow the rule of the Book itself here. The
Old Testament all points to Jesus. It can be understood only as He is
understood. And the New is aflame with His presence. Tell the story of
Jesus to men. They never tire of that. Tell it accurately. Tell it simply.
Tell it with endless variety. Put it in simple every-day words, so they
think about the story and not about you or your words.
Tell Jesus' life; His characteristics; how He mingled among men, and
talked with them. Take up the Gospel incidents, and give them their
natural flavoring and coloring in present-day speech. Tell of the Nazareth
life, in home and carpenter shop and village. Go through those wondrous
three and a half years, bit by bit.
Go into the temptation wilderness, out on the blue waters of Galilee, and
into Gethsemane's olive-grove. Climb that bit of a rise of ground called
Calvary. Wherever you are in that story, make sure that the coloring of
Calvary gets distinctly in, by word or phrase or climax or somehow.
Now, of course, there will be some theology in your telling. You will make
comments and explanations. And preachers call that theology. That is
unavoidable. That is the place for such teaching, as it naturally grows
out of the story. But the story should be the main thing. Men should be
sent away thinking about a Man, Jesus; not about a theory of doctrine.
<u>How Peter Told Paul.</u>
I remember very distinctly one time Mr. Moody was speaking at the Ohio
Sunday-school Convention in Cleveland. He was saying that teachers should
open up the Bible and make it attractive. Then he told the story of how,
in '84, in London he was talking with a lawyer friend who had just come
down from Edinburgh. He had been hearing Andrew Bonar preach up there, and
was greatly taken with his way of preaching.
Mr. Moody told the story something like this:
"Bonar was preaching in Galatians, where it says that Paul went to
Jerusalem to see Peter, and he said that he could imagine Peter saying to
Paul, 'Would you like to take a walk?' and Paul said he would, so they
went down through the streets of Jerusalem, over the brook Kidron, arm in
arm, and Peter stopped and said, 'Look, Paul, this is the very spot where
He wrestled and where He suffered, and sweat great drops of blood. There
is the very spot where John and James fell asleep, right there. And right
here is the very spot where I fell asleep. I don't think I should have
denied Him if I hadn't gone to sleep, but I was overcome. I remember the
last thing I heard Him say before I fell asleep was, "Father, let this cup
pass from me if it is Thy will." And when I awoke an angel stood right
there where you are standing, talking to Him, and I saw great drops of
blood come from His pores and trickle down His cheeks. It wasn't long
before Judas came to betray Him. And I heard Him say to Judas, so kindly,
"Betrayest thou the Master with a kiss?" And then they bound Him and led
Him away. And that night when He was on trial I denied Him.'
"He pictured the whole scene. And the next day Peter turned again to Paul
and said, 'Wouldn't you like to take another walk to-day?' and Paul said
he would. That day they went to Calvary. And when they got on the hill
Peter said, 'Here, Paul, this is the very spot where He died for you and
me. See that hole right there? That is where His cross stood. The
believing thief hung there, and the unbelieving thief there on the other
side. Mary Magdalene and Mary, His mother, stood there, and I stood away
on the out-skirts of the crowd.
"'The night before, when I denied Him, He looked at me so lovingly that it
broke my heart, and I couldn't bear to get near enough to see Him. That
was the darkest hour of my life. I was in hopes that God would intercede
and take Him from the cross. I kept listening, and I thought I would hear
His voice.' And he pictured the whole scene, how they drove the spear into
His side, and put the crown of thorns on His brow, and all that took
place.
"And the next day Peter turned to Paul again and asked him if he wouldn't
take another walk. And Paul said he would. Again they passed down the
streets of Jerusalem, over the brook Kidron, over Mount Olivet, up to
Bethphage, and over to the slope near Bethany. All at once Peter stopped
and said: 'Here, Paul, this is the last place where I ever saw Him. I
never heard Him speak so sweetly as He did that day.
"'It was right here He delivered His last message to us, and all at once I
noticed that His feet didn't touch the ground. He arose and went up. All
at once there came a cloud and received Him out of sight. I stood right
here gazing up into the heavens, in hopes I might see Him again and hear
Him speak. And two men dressed in white dropped down by our sides and
stood there and said: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven?
This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall come in like
manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."'"
Then Mr. Moody said, "My friends, I want to ask you this question: Do you
believe that picture is overdrawn? Do you believe Peter had Paul as his
guest and didn't take him to Gethsemane, didn't take him to Calvary and
Mount Olivet? I myself spent eight days in Jerusalem, and every morning I
wanted to steal down into the garden where my Lord sweat great drops of
blood. Every day I climbed Mount Olivet and looked up into the blue sky
where He went to His Father.
"I have no doubt Peter took Paul out on those three walks. If there had
been a man that could have taken me to the very spot where the Master
sweat those great drops of blood, do you think I would not have asked him
to take me there? Now, you ministers, don't you believe the people want
preaching like that? They do. They want to hear about the Lord."
I remember that I was sitting in that convention where I could easily see
the faces of the people. It was a sight not to be forgotten. I remember
that sea of eager upturned faces as distinctly as I remember Mr. Moody's
talk. The people sat so still, as though in a spell, with eyes big and
shining with something wet, and occasionally a slight twitching of emotion
and a handkerchief called into service.
Mr. Moody talked in that natural way of his, so quiet and yet so intense
in its quietness. That's what people want--Jesus brought to them, simply
and naturally. And Moody knew it. It took years of hard self-discipline
for him to be able to talk as he did. Such talking takes study and hard
work. But it's all worth while if we can make Jesus plain to men in all
His wondrous winsomeness.
<u>"A More Excellent Way."</u>
Then there's another way of telling the story of Jesus to men. It's a yet
better way. <i>Tell it with your life.</i> That was Jesus' own plan. He lived
what He taught. He proposed coming down into each one of us and living His
life over again in us. He does just that now. Then as men meet us they are
meeting Him, too, in us. The things that marked Him will be noticed in us.
The intense hatred of sin, the purity, the gentleness and patience, the
warm sympathy, the constant self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice, the
eagerness to win men, the tireless going wherever men could be
helped--these may be in us as they were in Him, and will be, as we let Him
live in us. And men will recognize the Jesus-story being lived in their
midst. Jesus wants to reach out through us to men. And He will; He will;
more than we ever know or will know. This is the best telling of the
story.
I am told that in the Palace of Justice in Rome there is a remarkable
chamber where visitors are sometimes taken. The remarkable thing about it
is the decorations. The ceiling and walls and even the floors are covered
with strangely painted frescoes. That is, they seem strange as one enters.
They seem grotesque. They do not harmonize. They are out of touch with
each other, and make a bewildering maze of confusion. But there is one
spot in the chamber, just one spot upon the floor, where, if you stand,
everything falls into place. The artist's conception stands out perfect in
perspective and color and beauty.
To the great crowd of men in this old world life seems a good bit like
that Roman chamber. Things seem out of harmony--sin, pain, confusion,
unsatisfied longings, unconquered weaknesses, broken plans, and
disappointed ambitions. But there is one spot, a central point, just one,
where all that concerns you will come into harmony, and bring heart-rest.
That one spot is where you take your stand side by side with Jesus. His
presence clears everything up. He sweetens the life, and straightens the
path, and leads you steadily on toward the dawning of the day. And that's
as true for China and the Pacific islanders as for Britisher or American.
Men need Jesus. He satisfies them. He is the great magnet. He draws men as
no other can. He places Himself at our disposal to be taken to men. They
can't resist Him. Let us take Him.
O Jesus Master, thou hast drawn me till I want to be Thy slave forever.
Help me take Thee to all other men that they may feel Thy wondrous drawing
power, and satisfying power, too.
The Holy Spirit
The Last Talk Together.
The Partnership of Service.
The Power that Never Fails.
The Trinity of Service.
Living on the Top Floor.
Partial Weavings of the Strands.
Unbroken Connection Above.
The Holy Spirit
<u>The Last Talk Together.</u>
A little group of men were climbing the winding path that led up Olivet's
slope. The Master was in the midst, and the others before and behind,
where they could hear His voice. For they were talking together as they
walked along. That is to say, He was talking, and they were listening,
with an occasional question. They went on until they were over against
where little Bethany nestles in among the blue hills. There they stood a
little while, still talking together earnestly.
It was their last talk together. And there were two things the Master was
saying. Those two things came with all the tender emphasis of a last
message. They were to go on an errand to the world; a lifelong errand, and
to the whole world. That was being burned in. But they weren't to start on
the errand until the Holy Spirit had come upon them. The errand and the
Spirit's presence were coupled together. That was to be their errand. And
He was to be their life-power as they went on the errand.
They were to go. The Spirit was to come. He would come before they went.
They must not go until He had come. Then they were to go in His presence
and power. They would be able to go because of Him. Their going would be
worth while, because wherever they went He would be at work in them and
through them. The real work would be done by Him. But it would be done
through them. His presence was essential to their work being done. Their
presence was essential to His doing His work. He would work as they went,
and where they went.
That was the new blessed partnership of world-wide service planned by the
Master as He went away. They would tell of Jesus. The Spirit would open
doors, guide their tongues, guard their persons, and make the message of
Jesus as a flame of fire in men's hearts.
Just before this, Jesus had talked a great deal with His disciples about
the Holy Spirit. They didn't yet know how much this that He was saying,
would come to mean to them. But they remembered after the Master was gone,
and then they understood. When they got down into the thick of the world's
crowds they understood the great significance of what He had said.