Broken Bread, from an Evangelist's Wallet

We shall always be in debt to Solomon for these wise sayings, and for the pains he took to have them preserved.  The words which head this form a picture.  It is harvest-time, and the old folks have been depending on their able-bodied son getting in all their corn, but they are doomed to disappointment.  He sleeps when he should work.  When others are toiling he is snoring, and his corn rots in the field because he does not carry it while he has fine weather.  How ashamed his father is!  Other men have got their corn well housed, but his is still where it grew, because the son he has reared is lazy and self-indulgent.  One feels that no language is too strong for this indolent young man.

But what has this to do with us? some will ask.  We reply—Is not this the harvest time of the church, when the days are closing and the nights lengthening?  Have we not been used to hear of special efforts being made for the rescue of perishing souls, and ingathering of those who are in danger of dying unready?

Are you Asleep in Harvest?

Other churches are used to look to us to shew them how to do the reaping.  O, let us be up and doing!  How shall we dare to meet our Lord if we sleep when we should sweat?  How shall we bear it, if the members of other religious societies tell us that our bad example corrupted them?  What will be our shame, if we find that those who expected us to gather them in accuse us of slothfulness, and destroying their souls by our neglect?

Can we expect to keep our Children, if they see
our Farm pointed out as the Field of
the Sluggard?

Will not very shame drive them from their own home to find one among those whom we once taught the way to reap?

We wish that we could do with all drowsy Methodists what Jonah’s captain did with him.  We should dearly like to give them a good shake and say, “Awake, O sleeper!”  We think of towns and villages, where, not very long ago, there was the song of the reaper, but now, alas! he has gone fast asleep.  Shame will be the inheritance of those who are drowsy when they ought to be at work.  Why have contempt poured on thee, when glory is to be won by work?  Grasp the sickle and go out among the standing corn, or the rust on thy reaping hook shall eat into thy soul for ever!

“And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees.  Therefore, every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.”

If we want to preach, it will be wise for us to study the examples of preaching given in the Bible.  John was filled with the Holy Ghost, and therefore taught of God: and it is easy to see that the man’s nature was allowed full play.  The Holy Ghost does not destroy character, but uses it, and these words of the Baptist are natural to him.  Rugged strength is in every figure of the speech he uses.  But I am not preaching to preachers, but to sinners, as John was, and in using the great Baptist’s words, I would have you to visit

The Devil’s Orchard.

This is not the only time in the Bible when wicked men are compared to trees.  There is a notable example in Nebuchadnezzar, who, in his dream, saw a tree great and high, and saw an angel come down from heaven, look at it and then cry out—

“Hew down the Tree!”

But in his case it was not said, “Cast it into the fire,” but leave the stump with a band of iron and brass.  You will remember this dream was fulfilled, and the king of Babylon lost his reason, and became like a beast, but the tree was allowed to grow again.  Not so with these: John is speaking about the trees to be burned.

Now, does this list include you?

Well, you say, I am not a murderer.  But are you envious?  Do you grieve because someone more worthy than you is enjoying something you would like?  Do you not see that is like what the devil felt when he saw Adam in Paradise?  You can, by envy, soon become a destroyer.  You say you are not an Adulterer, but are you lascivious?  Do you like to think of unclean things?  Do you delight in filthy pictures or “bawdy” songs?  If so, you are fitting yourself for the fire where the Sodomites are.  You say you are not as bad as some; perhaps you have not been growing as long as they have.  Hatred and Variance are the trees on which the devil grafts Murders.  Do you notice the last words in that sentence of Paul’s—

“And such like.”

If not a Drunkard or a Reveller, yet going in that direction; having a liking for evil companions and Sunday pleasuring.  Am I looking on some of the saplings which Satan means to graft before next year?  Christmas and New Year will soon be here.  The dance and the ball-room are the places where

Revellers become Fornicators and Adulterers!

Are you a tree in the devil’s orchard?  If so, you may see your future in the words “Cast into the fire!”

The Devil’s Trees which Grow in God’s Orchard.

Judas was one.  He had the advantage of Christ’s friendship, and might have become one of the first missionaries, but he was covetous.  Demas was the companion of Paul, and might have been another Silas, but he “loved this present world.”  Ananias and Sapphira were growing side by side among the beautiful trees in the early church, but they were selfish and deceitful, and after telling a lie, they were both cut down and cast into the fire.  You notice it does not say every tree in the devil’s orchard shall be cut down, but “every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit.”  How is it with you?  Judgment has begun at the house of God.  What are you?  What is the product of your life?  Is your influence beneficial?  Does the result of your life shew that you are born of God?

A Holy Life is the only way to Escape
the Fire of Hell.

Do not say you do no harm; that is not enough, you are to bear fruit unto holiness.  Your life must be profitable to God, or you cannot escape the axe.  A man does not plant apple trees to look at, but to gather fruit from.  Have you paid God for all He has expended on you?  Remember you are British, you live where there are Bibles, Ministers, Sunday Schools.  Public opinion is on the side of right.  It is easier to be good here than anywhere else in the world.  The husbandman will not be satisfied with leaves or blossoms, there must be

Fruit or Fire!

Yes, you will do well to consider that there is a power of destruction which may be called into action any moment.

Look, then, at

God’s Woodman.

It is his duty to remove the trees when the time comes.  Mark you, he does not cut all down.  The trees which bear good fruit he transplants to grow for ever in the Paradise of God.  Yes, death differs in his action, and those of us who live a holy life need not to dread him.  He is rough, but he means well by us, and though we may feel it when he pulls us up by the roots, it is to grow in better soil, and under fairer skies.

You, though, who bear evil fruit, you do well to fear death.  Keep good friends with the doctor, so that you may have no difficulty in getting him day or night, but remember that he is useless when the woodman aims a blow at the root.

the Wisest and most Skilful of Medical Men
cannot take the Axe out of Death’s Hand!

I look around, and ask the question—

“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring
fire?  Who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings?”

Dare you look at the fire?  Come, be a man, and see thy future.  The tree is in the blazing pit.  It cannot get out of the fire, any more than it could escape the axe.  Did you ever think of the illustration of the text—

Wood to Fire.

What more natural?  It is true, it might have been somewhere else, but it will burn as though it were made for the fire.  Mark you, it is unquenchable!  Who can extinguish that which God lights?  You hear men say, “God is too good to burn men in hell.”  That is not the way to put it.  The fire will go out when there is no fuel.

Men who sin, burn themselves.

None can stand before the wrath of the lamb?

WHEN FILIAL LOVE PICKS
UP THE OAR,
THE ALL-WISE FATHER PUTS
HIS HAND ON THE HELM!

Jesus Christ travelled three years in a very poor circuit.  There were no stewards to provide for His wants, and at times, we are told, He had not where to lay His head.  But all the three years He was a perfect example to us, whether we are Locals or Itinerants, and, perhaps, never more than when talking to the woman at the well of Samaria.  From His conduct there we may learn—

I.—Never be daunted by a small congregation.

It is very nice to have a crowd, but then that is not the lot of us all, and we must not keep our best sermons for large audiences.  It may be that the few are able to appreciate our best efforts.  Jesus Christ said some of His best things to individuals.  John iii. 16 was not said to a crowd, but to one.  Indeed, if we were to take out of the gospels what Jesus said to small audiences, we should rob them of their choicest portions.  So, if, when we get to the chapel we find that there are more pews than people, let us preach to those who are there.  Why grumble at the few who have come, perhaps a long way?  Let us feed these with the choicest of the wheat.  It may be an historic time for anything you know.  There may be someone there whom your sermon may lead to Jesus, and who himself may become a preacher.

II.—Interest your Audience.

To our younger brethren, let us say that it is not easy to succeed if we do not make what we say interesting.  We do not love sensationalism, but we do love savouryness.  Let all your sermons be seasoned with salt.  Not a few of us fail because we forget to make what we say savoury.  Let us excite the imagination of those who listen to us, and then we may pour into the attentive ear that which will be of solid benefit.  How shopkeepers strive to strike the eye of the passengers by skilfully dressing their windows, so as to catch the attention!  Shall it be said that they take more pains to sell their goods than we do to get the gospel into the hearts of our hearers!

III.—Make your hearers conscious of the supernatural.

IV.—Set your converts to work.

We read “The woman then left her waterpot, and went into the city,” and soon there was a crowd round the Saviour.  It is not said that Jesus told her to do so, but she had heard words that were like fire in her bones.  She had been convinced of sin, and knew that God had spoken to her.  Is not this the way to fill our chapels?  Say things that wake up the conscience, and alarm the sinner, and he must tell about it.  Or shew the cross so plainly that the anxious one finds the Lord, and is able to rejoice, and very soon there will be an unpaid agency at work.  Of course it will not obtain to the same extent in every case.  We are among those who have to mourn that our preaching is not as effective as it ought to be, but we are taking our own physic, and can testify that since we have acted on the lines we have laid down, God has been pleased to give us greater power over our congregations, and we have seen greater results follow the preaching, poor as it is.

for PREACHERS who make the
PEOPLE think.

the GRINDSTONE is the most
USEFUL TOOL in the
CARPENTER’S SHOP.

“And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah.”—1 Kings xvii. 22.

Yes, and He will hear your voice if you are as much in earnest as he was!  Why should not God hear the voice of William, or Robert, Sarah or Edith?  He is no respecter of persons.  Is it not written over the door of mercy, “Knock, and it shall be opened?”  Aye, and the knocker is so low a child’s hand may reach it.  St. James tells us that Elijah was “a man of like passions.”  He was a human being like you and me, but he had faith in God.  Why should we not believe in God as much as the prophet did?  Is He not God yet?  Have any of these sceptics removed Him from His throne?  If He is still there, let us come with boldness as Elijah did.

This was not the first time God had heard the voice of His servant, and answered his prayer, and there is no reason why we should not have repeated and continuous replies in answer to our requests.  Had Elijah the same wealth of promise we have?  Jesus Christ has spoken since those times, and has said things which ought to fill us with hopefulness whenever we pray.  What wonderful words of cheer He said in those last few days of His life, such as “Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”  Look up the references to that verse, and you will feel you must kneel down and ask for something.

What is needed, and needed now.

What a scene when the child began to breathe again! and when the anxious mother was summoned to receive her boy from the dead.  “Now,” said she, “I know thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.”  When the church fights its battles on its knees, it prevails.  Only let us, who say we believe in God, put our faith into petition, and obtain answers, then Infidelity will hide its head.  Mr. Finney tells that when he first began to attend a place of worship, it was as an honest inquirer after truth.  The members of the church noticed his coming to the prayer meetings with regularity, and presently it occurred to them that the young man might be anxious about his soul.  Accordingly they asked him if he would like them to pray for him.  He somewhat roughly declined, for, said he, “You don’t get any answers to your prayers for yourselves.  You have been for months praying to be revived, and you are not any better.”  Perhaps he was right, though rude.  We may have in our midst those who would believe the Bible if they saw that we had only to ask to receive.

Reader, is the family altar at your house a bridge from earth to heaven, or is it a sham, and a helper to those who say, Prayer is an exploded superstition?

PREACH REPENTANCE.

Is there any truth in the allegation that we do not preach Repentance as much as we ought to do?  There is a soft sort of preaching abroad which we Methodists should abhor, namely, a gospel which has no dread of hell in it.  We do not say that we should spend much time in proving the eternity of punishment, but certainly the thought of the fate of the impenitent should be in solution in the preacher’s mind, and then, like the bitter herbs eaten with the Paschal Lamb, penitence will make the gospel relishing.  We have little doubt that

The doctrine of the cross is and must be, tasteless to those who do not sorrow for sin.

Those who preach repentance are in good company.  He who fails here does not tread in the steps of Jesus, who said, “Repent ye, and believe the gospel.”  Is human nature any better now than it was then, that we should cease to say to the people what Christ said?  Depend upon it, He knew what to preach.  None of the New Testament preachers said as much about hell as He did, and yet, forsooth! we are told that such preaching is coarse, and behind the age.  When the age is astray, the farther we are behind it the better for us.  It is sickening to hear men talk as though they were more refined than was the Son of God!  Such preaching is like raking the garden with the teeth upwards.  You may as well have no rake at all, if you do not use the teeth.

“So David prevailed over the Philistine!”—1 Samuel xvii. 50.

Yes, he did, but he would not have done so if he had remained as quiet as the other Israelites.  David was one of those who could not be easy so long as the enemies of his country were in the ascendant.  To see a Philistine strutting about, defying the armies of the living God, was more than he could bear.  Is not this the spirit which should animate Christians to-day?  It is not one Goliath merely, there are many.  Drunkenness, Profanity, Superstition, Infidelity, and a host of others are not only defying us, but destroying us.  Is it not true that the armies of the alien are robbing our families and churches, plundering us of the results of years of toil?  Think, in one department alone, how we are spoiled.  We refer to the Sabbath school.  What a small percentage of those who pass through our schools become stable members of the church!  What crowds of our children become the slaves of sin!  How long do we mean to bear it?  When shall we, like David, say, “Thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine?”

We read that “David hasted, and ran towards the army to meet the Philistine.”  He was aggressive.  There is a great deal to be said in favour of what is called “working on the old lines,” but

David despised the old lines.

David prevailed over the Philistine with very simple weapons, but

they were his own.

If he had gone in Saul’s armour, he might have perished.  He was no match for the giant if it came to a sword fight.  The long reach of the giant’s arm would have ended the conflict very soon.  On the contrary, the sling gave David an immense advantage.  He could strike a blow, and be out of Goliath’s reach.  Have we not known some men more mighty, and more often victorious when they were plain and unlettered, than they were after years of culture?  How is it?  Perhaps because they, knowing their ignorance, were more earnest in prayer.  We know that some of us feel, when we have preached;—That was a good sermon, the arguments were irresistible, the illustrations were beautiful, and so the people ought to have yielded, but they did not!  Did they?

BURNING THE BOOKS AT EPHESUS.

This was one of the results of faithful preaching.  Paul had declared the whole counsel of God, both in powerful addresses and in visiting from door to door.  Miracles were wrought, but what seems to have impressed the writer of this account most of all, was not the healing of the sick, or the casting out of devils, but men parting with that which was worth so much money.

“They brought their books together, and burned them before all men; and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed!”

Has our religion been costly to us?  Have we given up anything?  These converts gave up their money-making sins publicly; and their public and costly repentance was made a great blessing.  We wish every Christian who is engaged in any business that has made money for him at the expense of another’s morals, would see it his duty to make a bonfire of it!  We have no doubt there are numbers of Christians whose consciences now and then give them a goutlike twinge.  We do not doubt their religion because they do not obey their consciences; but we do say the word of God cannot grow mightily, it is stunted, and in consequence they are religious dwarfs, when they might have been giants in righteousness and holy influence.

“Nathan said to David, Thou art the Man!”

But this was not the first thing he said.  He approached the subject very carefully.  David would not have allowed anyone to bring that subject home to him without resenting it.  It is more than likely that very few were in the secret.  Crafty Joab was not the man to let that story get out.  It gave him power over the king all the time it was his secret, so that he could put pressure on David whenever he liked.  We read, “The Lord sent Nathan unto David.”  If we would know how to deal with our congregations, we must have the Lord’s commission.

Men may be on the Circuit Plan, and God leave them without appointments!

Let us never set off to preach without a message from God to the people, then we shall make folks say, what a plain Yorkshire Methodist said of Stoner, “Yon David’s varry thick with the Almighty.”

The charming story with which Nathan began his address is instructive to those who wish to succeed as preachers.  How interested the King became as he heard of the rich man’s greed and the poor man’s loss, until he was so stirred that he threatened the death of the tyrant!  May not we preachers learn something here, that is, to interest our hearers, in order that we may profit them?  Do we sufficiently care for this matter?  Would it not be well, in the preparation of our addresses and sermons, to make sure that we are so interesting that our hearers cannot fail but listen?  We should not be content with soundness of faith, or truthfulness of doctrine, but be so interesting as to command the attention of our audience.  It is a question whether any man, who cannot make the people listen, should not be content to take his place in a pew.  It is better to be able to heat or light the chapel well, than to wear out the patience of a congregation by prosy preaching, and it will be more to our eternal advantage to have been an industrious chapel-keeper than a dull preacher!

OLD FASHIONED DOCTRINE.
Jeremiah, viii. 21 to ix. 16.

I.—He who is loyal to God is the truest patriot.—ch. viii., v. 21, ch. ix., v. 10.

Jeremiah’s distress disfigured him, and he felt that tears were not sufficient to mark his sorrow for his country.  Sinners against God should never profess to be politicians; they are unworthy to be classed on either side.

II.—Idolatry is the mother of all other sins.

Count up the different crimes these Jewish idol-worshippers were guilty of—as lying, slander, adultery, &c.  He who breaks the first commandment has pulled down the fence, and can easily break the others.  What an argument for Missions!

III.—If God acts consistently, He must punish sin.—ch. ix., v. 9, 10, 15, 16.

Hell is as necessary as Heaven to a perfect God.  Queen Victoria could not be safe in her palace but for prisons, where felons are bound!

He who fears to preach future punishment is either an ignorant man or a coward.

“So Ahab went up to eat and to drink.  And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel, and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees.”—1 Kings xviii. 42.

What a Contrast!

And yet, both men were perfectly consistent.  It is in each case what you would expect, and yet how differently it might have been.  What a different story it would have been if only Ahab had listened to the teaching of God!  How often we see men having chances of turning round and beginning a new life; failing to do this, they seem to become the worse for the lesson of Providence and the advice of those who warn them!  Has it ever been so with you?  Can you remember a time when God stopped you, and made you think, thus giving you a chance of reformation?  Wretched Ahab! he had just seen which is Master.  How contemptible Baal seemed now!  The heavenly fire, which leaped in answer to Elijah’s prayer, disdained to notice the victims on the altar of the idol, while the blood of the false priests dyed the waters of the brook Kishon, a sacrifice to their own wickedness and deception.  One would have thought Ahab’s good sense would have prevailed, and that he would have said, “Elijah, I will go with thee, and on Carmel’s top will unite with thee in prayer.”  Alas for the history that might have been!

Denied himself and gone with Elijah to pray,

the rest of his life would have been different, he might have been converted then.  How often it happens that we hear a powerful sermon, perhaps on the first Sunday night of a Mission, but we have something to attend to on Monday, something that might be left without injury, or it may be a party or a concert, and so we do not go to the meeting next night.  If we had done so, our whole life might have been changed!

Eat and drink!  One wonders it did not choke him, for were not his subjects starving?  The famine was sore in the land; men and women pined, children died of hunger, cattle and sheep perished in the fields, but all this, what had it to do with the king?  He was hungry, and would eat and would be jolly, never mind about the poor people!  Remember, my hearers, you cannot turn your back on God and be the same man you have been.  Each time you say “No,” to God’s grace, you become less fit for His kingdom.  If men could but see their souls—

If some of you could have a Mirror that would shew your soul,

Look at the other man now.  He climbs the hill.  There is nothing to be won from heaven by laziness.  Climb to thy crown!  Never mind the steepness and ruggedness of the way.  God’s kings toil and sweat before their coronation.  How Elijah would laugh in his heart as he thought of the boon he was about to bring down on his country!

Past victories encouraged him.

He had prayed that it might not rain, and for many months the heavens had been cloudless.  Day by day the sun had scorched and burned on, as though there was to be no more verdure, the trees are but the skeletons of their former selves, and the ground is cracked, and gapes for drink.  Ah! it is soon to alter!  The God who has answered by fire is about to speak in the shower, and all nature is to put on a new suit of green at the bidding of prayer.

Why should not the church of God climb the hill to bring down on the earth a shower of blessing?  God had said to Elijah, “I send rain upon the earth,” and therefore the man of God said, “I will call upon the name of the Lord.”  Have we no promise?  What do these words mean—

“Whatsoever ye ask in My Name, that will I do?”

Past success has humbled him.

It is well when it is so.  We always tremble when we see a church elated over its success.  A year or two ago, we Methodists saw a great ingathering of souls, and because we had harvest we have let our plough rust.  Is there any wonder that we fear a decrease?  It is sure to follow elation, and then we shall be told, “There is always a reaction after so much excitement.”  That is a text from the devil’s bible.  On the same hill top where Elijah won the fight, he falls down, to pray, with his face between his knees, and so is most humbled when most triumphant.

And now his servant is sent to look for the sign of success.  Mark you, he sends him to

Look in the right direction,

“Toward the sea.”  Do not go towards the dry land if you want rain, or in other words, if you want success in soul-saving, look not for it from those who get up entertainments and seek to make money by gambling in bazaars.  Do not expect conversions from mere eloquence or rhetoric.  Large congregations do not always mean abiding success.  Beautiful chapels are not always remarkable for attracting those who need a Saviour.  Look at the place from whence Wesley, Whitfield, and the others who were to win souls derived their power.

Do not let faith be chilled by waiting!

I can praise Him for the smallest sign.

Only “a man’s hand,” sayest thou? but what Man?  It is the same Hand that wrote on the wall the sentence of Belshazzar.  It is the Hand of which David sang “Thou openest Thine Hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.”  We who look for Jesus remember that when He left us He did not clench His fist at the world that had treated Him so ill.  “He lifted up his hands and blessed them.”  He has not closed them yet, but sends blessings on even the rebellious.  Faith sees in the open hand of Jesus the promise of great gifts for those who wait upon Him.  We read, directly, “the heaven was black, and there was a great rain.”

If we pass over a few years we see the end of these men, the end so far as this world is concerned.  They both ride in chariots.  He who rose up to eat and drink, rides disguised, but is not able to deceive the winged messengers of death.  The murderer is found out, and dies in his chariot.

Goes to Hell in his Chariot!

So perish those who prefer to eat when others starve, though they might unite with those who bring blessings on the perishing!

A year afterwards, the man who prayed walks along the road; there is one by his side who watches him with eager glance, and now comes the chariot of heaven.

the man who climbed the hill to pray, and soon he is parted from his young friend; but see! his mantle falls.  Which of us will pick it up and wear it?  Elijah’s garment will fit any of us, and will always be new if we pray.  It grows threadbare and shabby when worn by those who prefer the table to the altar, and love the pleasures of the world better than the companionship of angels.

My brothers, shall we not become mighty in prayer?  This is a talent all have received, put it out to interest at once.  Lose no time in its use.  Satan will gladly lend you a napkin, but then he will have your soul as the pledge.  To cease to pray is to drift towards hell.  Is there not a needs be for crying mightily to God?  Can we look around our congregations and not feel that it is high time we went up the hill to cry to God for the rain that means revival?  Let us each ask the question, Am I most like the man who lived to gratify his desires, or the man who lived to pray for others?

With whom shall I spend my Eternity, with Elijah of Ahab?

If the angels see us on our face, crying for rain, they will know that some day they will have to meet us and take us home in the chariot of fire.  If they see that we are those who eat and drink when they should pray, they will know that our possessions, like Ahab’s chariot, will become a hearse, and that we are riding to hell in that which we have chosen for comfort.

Of course she was.  All God’s trains meet at the junction.  They don’t have to wait for one another.  Elijah had left Cherith because the brook had dried up, and his first request shewed that he was in need of water.  The poor widow seems to have been relieved that water was all the prophet asked, but he called to her to fetch a bit of bread as well.  This broke her down.  “Ah, Master, we have not so much as a cake.  I have only a handful of meal, and I had come out to gather some sticks that I might bake a little cake for me and the lad, and then we shall have to die of hunger!”

“Never fear, God has sent me, and with His servant there shall come a blessing.

make me a cake first,

and then make for thyself, and God will keep on supplying our wants.”

The woman did so, and never wanted.  If she had gone on the principle of

Take care of Number One,

she would soon have been in her grave, and the lad too, but the way to live is to care for others.  “He that loseth his life shall save it.”  While we are writing this, we are thinking of the great number who all through these bad times have fed the Preachers and their horses.  God will see to it that they do not lose by their unselfishness.

“IT IS THE BLOOD THAT SAVES.”
Exodus xii.

The Israelites were not saved because they were children of Abraham, but because they followed the plan of salvation.  Even Moses “kept the passover and the sprinkling of blood,” or there would have been a dead man in the house.  If you and I are saved, it must be by the blood of the Lamb.  The father who put the blood on his door posts was not ashamed to own his need of Divine protection, or that he trusted the word of God.

There is a false sentimentality that is abroad to-day, which would make us ashamed to speak of the atonement.  We are told that it is sickening to hear of such terms as “The Blood of Jesus.”

What is the standard of taste?

We know of nothing higher than the word of God, and he whose fine feelings are shocked by Bible language, would find heaven not sufficiently æsthetic.  May not such be said to count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing?  When the destroyer is abroad, we shall be safe who hide behind the blood.  We rejoice in the blood of sprinkling, when we believe there is wrath for the sinner.  The giving God the lie, when He declares He will punish His enemies, fits the mouth of him who is too refined to speak of the precious blood of Jesus.

This question was asked by a man who knew more than any one else, and he knew very well what the answer would be.  We should suspect a man of insanity who looked for grapes on a thorn bush.  And yet we see numbers of both men and women looking for happiness and comfort in the Public House, and judging from their appearance afterwards, we feel sure they went for grapes and found festering thorns!

It was our duty, some time ago, to be part of a deputation to support a memorial to the Magistrates at what is called “The Brewster Sessions.”  There was a number of Ministers and others who represent the Temperance movement, with some ladies like-minded, and we took our places in the same court where the publicans and their friends were.  Some of these had come to transfer licenses, others to seek to have in-beershops, and power to sell other kinds of drink.  The Magistrates, however, refused both of the applications for new licenses, nor did we wonder, when we saw those who were waiting to be punished or pardoned, as the case might be.

The mistake many good people make is looking on drinking as a failing, and not as a crime.  It must be a sin for any one to make himself eligible for doing all sorts of mischief and wrong, as men do who take, as they say, “a sup of drink.”  It is this sup of drink that gives them the impetus towards cruelty and lust, and we must insist upon it that for a man to prepare himself for wickedness is a sin against himself and his God.  If this be so, the social element in drinking makes it all the more dangerous.  Men and women drink often because it is considered a kind and hospitable thing to offer it, and an ungenerous and churlish thing to refuse it.  What is this but calling a thorn a vine?

While we were in the court, several cases came before the Magistrates—“Drunk and Disorderly,” varied by obscenity and quarrelling.  One woman told the Bench that she had been teetotal for five and a half years, till she came into the town to pay a debt, and then she had a glass, “and it will be twenty years before I have any more.”  “Ah!” said “His Worship,”

“Listen to no Friend that wants you to take Drink.”

We wonder how long it will take to make the English people see that so long as we allow drinking shops to abound, there will be a necessity for police and lock-ups, and that it is as easy to gather grapes of thorns as to expect peace and quietness and facilities for drinking to exist together?

GOD’S ANGER IS A FIRE THAT
IS AS DIFFICULT
TO STOP AS TO START.

We see that certain politicians are busy trying to convince those who have any fear upon the matter, that it is easy for them to vote in such a way that no one can possibly find out for which side they have given in their vote.  It is positively secret voting.  Very likely this is as it should be, still it is a sad disgrace that such a thing should be at all necessary, and does not speak well for human nature.  Why should it not be possible for men to vote openly?  Because some who have done so have had to suffer loss.  Is not this a blot upon our civilization, to say nothing of our Christianity?

But while it may be right that men should have the chance of voting secretly in Parliamentary matters, whether they be Conservatives or Liberals, we contend there should be no ballot-box for the election in which men settle whether Jesus or Satan should govern the world.  There are sadly too many, who are like Joseph of Arimathæa, disciples, but secretly for fear.

We want no Secret Votes.

“Stand up, stand up for Jesus!”

we often sing in our meetings, and yet some who sing these words are craven in the presence of the foe.  We should do well to take the advice of the same song when it says,

“Let Courage rise with Danger,”

We should think that man unfit for a soldier’s life who was not ready to unfurl his country’s flag, and let it be known for whom he is fighting.  What is the position of those who read this paper?  Do you, in your heart, believe that Jesus has the right to reign?  Then shew it!  Lose no time to put on Christ!  Let all men see that you believe in the righteousness of our cause.  Do not hide the love you have for Jesus.  Let not your chance of being honourably wounded pass by.  In heaven, should you reach it, there will be no opportunity of suffering for Him who loved you to the death.

Give your vote in public,

then, when we have won the election, you will not have to regret that you came out too late to be of use.

Many a time, during an election, we have wished that we could see the church of God as much in earnest to send men to heaven as they are to send those they vote for to Parliament.  It must strike some of the ungodly, when they have Christian men at them day and night

Canvassing,

not taking No as an answer, but doing their utmost to win them—How is it that this Christian, who knows that I never attend a place of worship, has not shown one-hundredth part of this zeal to get me to go to chapel or to begin to pray?  Is he not likely to think;—after all, he does not believe his Bible, or he could not be as careless about my soul as he is?

Men of business have no time to seek the souls of the lost; that is parson’s work; that must be left to Sunday;—and yet, we have seen, during the election, keen, clever business men, up and down stairs, calling on their neighbours, and making sure that they have given their vote on the right side, and this in addition to many a visit paid since the candidates were selected, and the time drew nigh for getting them returned.

We should like to know what the election has cost for

Printing.

Many thousands of pounds have been spent, and spent freely, without a grudge, for placards and cartoons.  Any man who had a new idea in the shape of a striking advertisement could have it adopted by his party, regardless of cost.  All this, too, we don’t object to, but we say that if any of us Evangelists wanted to spend a small proportion of this amount in trying to get men and women to come to God’s house during a Mission, there would be a tremendous outcry against his

Extravagance!

One interesting feature in this matter is the large number of

Private Carriages

used to convey voters to the poll.  It was very amusing to see some of the men riding in state, in the custody of the owner of the carriage!  It was good to tell they had not been used to it, and felt that they were on their good behaviour.  What struck some of us was the readiness of ladies and gentlemen to lend their vehicles for this purpose.  We can have no possible objection to this, but we wonder what would be said to us if we counselled them to send their carriages to bring the aged and feeble to the house of God?  We should be told that we had no idea of the fitness of things.  This would be true if heaven were less than earth, and politics of more importance than religion.

When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?

DON’T FLATTER THE DEVIL!
Acts, xvii.

We read that the Apostle “was grieved” to hear this possessed woman speaking favourably of him and his companion.  He could not bear for it to be even suspected that his mission was tolerated by the devil.  Her masters made money by her wrongdoing, and he would not have their patronage.  He and Silas were happier in the cell, sore and hungry as they were, than in listening to the praise given by the evil one!

It is better to have frowns than favour from those who are opposed to truth and righteousness.  Let Evangelists and such like,

beware of the favour of the wicked.

Do not seek the smiles of those who live by wrong doing.  We shall never cast out the devil while conniving at his crimes.  It is not by popularity that we win our greatest victories.  Paul had no converts he prized more than those who formed the Church in the town where he had been in jail.  Let those of us who love an easy and painless life think of his words—

“If we suffer we shall also reign with Him.”