Quiet Talks on Following the Christ Part 7

When you are reading the wonderful works among the needy throngs, you are reading the biography of the Nazareth years, in their outer reach. The life you live is the thing that tells! This is the meaning of the thirty hidden years. The Father said, "My Son shall spend most of His years down there _living_, just living a true, simple Eden life; living with Me in the midst of home and carpenter shop and village." This is what the world needs so much to be taught, how to live. And the teaching must be by living, teaching by action. The message must be lived.

If we men might live Jesus! That's what the world needs. At one of the smaller meetings of the Edinburgh Conference, in 1910, a Christian gentleman from India, native of that land, said, "We don't need more Bibles in India." And then to this surprising statement, he added, "We have enough Bibles. If the Christians in India would _live the Bible_, India would be converted." And I thought, that will do for America, and England, and for all the world. _Jesus lived it_. As a man in His decisions and actions, His habits and daily round, He lived the truth.

The story is told of a missionary in some part of Africa who had not had much success in his work. He was in the habit of explaining some portion of the New Testament to the people at His house. One day the portion contained the words, "give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn thou not away."[60] The people asked him if this meant what it said. He told them that it did. One of them said he would like to have the table, pointing to it; another asked for a chair, another for the bed, and so on. The missionary was rather startled at such literal taking of his teaching. He told them to come again on the morrow, and he would give his answer.

When they had gone, he and his wife had rather a heart-searching time together. They felt they had not reached the hearts of the people yet. But to do as they asked meant real sacrifice of a very personal sort. At last with much prayer they decided to meet the people where they had opened the way. And so the next day they gave their answer, and soon the house was literally bare of all its furnishings. And that night they slept on the floor, yet with a sweet peace in their hearts in the midst of this strange experience.

The next day the people came back, carrying the furniture. They had really been testing these new-comers. "Now," they said, "we believe you.

You _live_ your Book. We want you to teach us." And with open hearts they listened anew to the Gospel story, and many of them accepted Christ.

The little incident reveals the unity of the race. Those Africans said what England and America and all the world is saying, "_Live it_." Is your religion _livable_? What the world needs to-day is _a Jesus lived_, not simply taught, nor preached about, but lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. How the fire, the holy fire, of that sort of thing would catch and spread! Oh, yes, it might mean sleeping on the bare floor! That's what living-it means, the actual life overriding any mere thing that stands in the way.

Live It.

I stood one day on the abrupt edge of a little hill in a Southern j.a.panese city. There, in a great tree hanging out over the edge, had hung the bell that called together the faithful retainers of the lord of the province, when they were needed. There, nearly thirty years ago, a little band of j.a.panese youth, of n.o.ble families, had gone out at break of day one Sabbath morning, and solemnly covenanted to follow the Lord Jesus, and to devote their lives to making Him known throughout their land. Boys still in their tender teens most of them were. And that covenant was not lightly made, for already the fires of persecution had been kindled, and these fires burned fiercely but could not compete with the fire in their hearts. And as one goes up and down the island empire of the Pacific to-day, he can find traces of their lives cropping up everywhere, like gold veins above the soil.

And as I sought to trace the hidden springs of the power at work behind all this, I found it was in the _life_ of one young man, a simple, holy life burning with a pa.s.sion for Jesus. In this life could be found the kindling of the tender flames burning so hotly in these young hearts. He was a young American officer engaged, by the feudal lord of the province, to teach military tactics and English. He dared not teach Christianity; that would have meant instant dismissal. So for two years he _lived_ the message, so simply and lovingly that he won the love of his pupils. Then they came Sundays to his house to hear him read the English Bible, because they loved him. As he prayed the tears would run down his face, and they laughed to think a _man_ would weep, but they came because they loved him.

He really _loved them into the Christian life_. I was reminded of the line in Hezekiah's song of thanksgiving after his illness, "Thou hast loved my soul up from the pit."[61] This young teacher _lived his pupils to the Lord Jesus_. The latter part of his life was a sad one, but nothing can change the record of those earlier years.

I saw recently a news item telling how many million copies of the Bible are being printed every year. The item slurringly remarked that the statisticians didn't seem concerned yet with figuring up how many of them were read. But, I thought, what these Bibles need is a new binding. This Bible I carry is bound in the best sealskin, with kid-lining. It is supposed to be the best binding for hard wear. But there's a much better sort of leather than that for Bible binding; I mean _shoe leather_. The people want the Bible bound in shoe leather. When we tread this Bible out in our daily walk, when what we are becomes an ill.u.s.trated copy of the Bible, the greatest revival the earth has known will come. With utmost reverence let me say that our Lord Jesus wants to come and walk around in our shoes, and live inside our garments, and touch men through us.

I remember something in my early Christian life that was a sore temptation to me. There were some Christian leaders who had helped me greatly by their preaching and writings. Then it chanced that I was thrown into personal contact with them, now one, now another. And I had a sore disappointment. It's hard to find that your idol has clay feet. It's doubtless wrong to have idols. Yet youth is the time of such idol worship.

The disappointment was a very sore one. Then out of it I was led to see that the Master never disappoints. And there was a drawing nearer to Himself alone.

And then a questioning arose: was some one perhaps looking at me? And a burning desire came to be more in life than in speech, not only for the sake of some one, perchance looking; but for the sake of that other One, the Man with eyes of flame, His looking. I need hardly tell you that it has been my blessed privilege to have had personal contact with leaders whose fragrant lives are so much more than word or act.

The Nazareth life means that the Lord Jesus lived His message, amid commonplace surroundings, in the midst of what is called the dull monotony of the daily round. That is, in the place where it is hardest to do it, He lived every bit of what He taught. And as we follow, simply, obediently, the Spirit will lead us along this same road. The same experience will happen to us. Could there be a greater evidence of the power of this Holy Spirit than to do such a thing with such as we know ourselves to be? Yet He will, _if_ we let Him. A big "if" you say? But not too big to be taken out of the way, out of His way. He will live out through us what He puts into us, by and with our constant consent.

This is the meaning of the Nazareth life. Our part is obedience, simple, intelligent, strong obedience to Him. The result will be this same experience, a Nazareth life of purity and power lived by the Spirit's power.

This was the thought in the mind of Horatius Bonar, as he wrote of the unnamed woman who anointed our Lord's head, and of whom Jesus said that what she had done should be told as a memorial of her, wherever the Gospel should be preached.

"Up and away like dew in the morning, Soaring from earth to its home in the sun, So let me steal away, gently and lovingly, Only remembered by what I have done.

My name and my place and my tomb all forgotten, The brief race of time well and patiently run, So let me pa.s.s away peacefully, silently, Only remembered by what I have done.

Gladly away from this toil would I hasten, Up to the crown that for me has been won, Unthought of by man in reward and in praises, Only remembered by what I have done.

Up and away like the odours of sunset That sweeten the twilight as darkness comes on, So be my life--a thing _felt_ but not noticed, And I but remembered by what I have done.

Yes, like the fragrance that wanders in freshness, When the flowers that it comes from are closed up and gone, So would I be to this world's weary dwellers, Only remembered by what I have done.

I need not be missed if my life has been bearing, As the summer and autumn move silently on, The bloom and the fruit and the seed of its season; I still am remembered by what I have done.

I need not be missed if another succeed me, To reap down these fields that in spring I have sown; He who ploughed and who sowed is not missed by the reaper; He is only remembered by what he has done.

Not myself but the truth that in life I have spoken, Not myself but the seed in life I have sown, Shall pa.s.s on to ages--all about _me_ forgotten, Save the truth I have spoken, the things I have done.

So let my living be, so be my dying, So let my name be emblazoned, unknown,-- Unraised and unmissed I shall still be remembered, Yes,--but remembered by what I have done."

The Galilean Ministry.

The fourth experience in this group was _the Galilean Ministry_. Our Lord Jesus gave Himself up to helping those in need. He devoted Himself to personal service among men. After John's imprisonment He withdrew to Galilee and ministered to the needy.

There were crowds of them. They were in sorest need of body and spirit.

And He gave Himself freely out to them in glad helpful service. He met their need. He did whatever their condition called for. He ministered to their bodily needs. He mingled among them freely as an older brother or friend, holding their children on His knees while He talked with them over their concerns and troubles. But He didn't stop there. Having won their hearts, He met their deeper needs. He comforted their hearts, talked to them one by one, drawing out their hearts, and speaking of the Father.

And as the crowds thickened, He taught and preached to the mult.i.tudes. He was a preacher, proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom. He was a teacher, bit by bit, line upon line, patiently teaching and explaining to them about the Father's love, and about the true life and how to live it. Three words are used several times to characterize that Galilean ministry, teaching and preaching and healing.[62]

He warned against sin, patiently wooing erring men and women away from their sin into lives of purity, and strengthening the young and earnest in their purposes. The need of the crowd swept Him like a strong wind in the young trees. He couldn't resist their plea. The presence of a man in need, of either body or spirit, took hold of His heart. Over and over we are told that He was "moved with compa.s.sion." What a life it was! What a heart He had!

Now our Lord Jesus calls us along this bit of the road. That is to say, the Holy Spirit within us will make our hearts tender and compa.s.sionate, even as our Lord Jesus was. The crowds always moved Him tremendously. He couldn't stand the great dumb cry that the mere presence of a mult.i.tude rang in His ears. The mere presence of some one in need, earnestly seeking, played upon the strings of His heart.

Does the crowd get hold of your heart as you elbow your way through them, or look down into their faces? Is it just a crowd to you? Or is it a great company of hungry hearts, half-starved lives, so needy for what only this Lord Jesus can give? The dumb cry of the crowds, in crowds and one by one, comes up in our ears to-day. Do you hear it? I say "dumb," for they don't know themselves what it is they need. They feel the need. Restless and chafing, they feel without knowing just what it is they lack and need.

When the Spirit that swayed the Lord Jesus comes in, He mightily affects your heart. You feel with something of our Lord's feeling. And you _must_ help. You know that the one thing, the only thing, that can really radically meet their need is this Saviour Jesus. You must do something to get them really to know Him. And that something comes to be everything.

Service isn't a pastime; it's a pa.s.sion. That "must" sends you out on glad unheralded errands to help in any way you can, and in every way by which the Jesus message can get to them.

The "must" of His tender pa.s.sion within keeps you steadily pushing ahead, regardless of not being understood by some, nor your efforts appreciated by others. The flame of that "must" takes hold of time and strength and possessions. It becomes the delight of your life to minister to the needs of men, even as He did. You see them through His eyes. You feel their need through His heart. _And_--this is a great _and_--if you really follow as simply and fully as He leads, you will find _the same power_ working out through your effort as through His, though there will be immensely more of it than you will know about.

But--there's a "but" that needs to be put in here--the key-note will not be service, but _obedience_. The need will not be the controlling thing.

It will move you tremendously; it will kindle a sweet fever in your heart, a fever to help; it will take hold of your heart strings and play upon them until you almost lose control. But it must not be allowed to control.

That belongs to Him alone.

The key-note is not need, nor service to meet the need, but obedience.

There is a Lord to the harvest. His plans are worked carefully out. He takes Philip away from the crowded meetings in Samaria to talk with one man. It was doubtless a strategic move to touch lives in Africa, as well as to meet this one man's need. He feels the need more than you ever do or can. His ears are keener, His heart more tender. He is in command. You do as He bids. So you help most in meeting the need.

He Himself when down here left the crowds, when they were so great that the towns were overwhelmed and they had to be taken out to the country places. He would leave these crowds and go off quietly to get alone with His Father.[63] All that tireless ministry was under the direction of Another. He went off for close touch, and fresh consultation with His Father.

The Father's Image in the Common Crowd.

Have you ever wondered what there was in those common crowds to attract our Lord Jesus? Perhaps if you have ever walked in those narrow crowded alleys called streets, in China or j.a.pan, you may have wondered, sometimes. Tired, dirty, pinched faces, eyes vacantly staring, or else fired with low pa.s.sion, high-keyed voices bickering and jangling,--all this crowds in and out on every hand. Dirt, disease, low pa.s.sion, selfishness, apparent absence of anything n.o.ble or refined, are all tangled inextricably up with these in human form.

And our Lord Jesus lived in an Oriental world. Is there any world quite like it, except indeed it be the slums of our western world cities, European and American? City slums seem to be our western point of contact with the greater part of the eastern world. What was there to attract the Lord Jesus to these crowds? Their need, you answer. Yes, no doubt, their terrible need did move Him with compa.s.sion, to the hurting point.

But was there more than this? Something He said one time has made me think there was something more, a pathetic, tremendous more, that took hold of His heart. Could it be that He saw some lingering trace of the Father's face in these faces? His eyes were very keen. He had seeing eyes.

And these men have all been made in the Father's image. Has that image ever been wholly lost?--terribly blurred and scarred by sin, yes; but wholly lost? Do you think so? I think not.

Those wondrous eyes of His looking into men's tired, pinched faces, disfigured with pa.s.sion or sorrow, or with sheer weariness of existence--did He see something of the Father's face looking appealingly up to be helped out of their sad plight? I wonder. Was it as though the Father's face cried out to Him out of these poor beaten faces? I think so.

Do you remember that time when our Lord Jesus a.s.sociated Himself so closely with just such men and women, in talking of a coming day? He says "inasmuch as ye did it to one of these My brethren, these least, ye did it unto Me."[64] Listen to those words, "My brethren"! He is thinking of just such crowds as He Himself ministered to, and as you find to-day in Oriental city and in European and American slum. What is done for them is done to Him. Their need is His need; their cry, His. It's Jesus coming to us in these crowds. Their need is Jesus Himself appealing to us. And the Jesus within us will answer with heart and life to this Jesus coming to us in the pitiable need of the crowds.