His Love

For peace I had great bitterness; hut thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” — Is. xxxviii. 17.

THIS text of Scripture has to do with Hezekiah, the king. The word of the Lord came to him saying, “Set thy house in order, for thou shalt die,” and then in the providence of God his life was spared and the text is a cry of joy because of his merciful deliverance.

Hezekiah was a great man. He was a distinguished king of Judah, and yet the word of the Lord came to him that he was to face death. Greatness is no barrier to trouble, and death has ever loved a shining mark.

Hezekiah was a good man. He was genuinely good. For twenty-nine years he reigned as king. Under his administration the Mosaic institutions were restored to honour, idol worship was abolished, the high places were brought down, the brazen serpent of Moses was destroyed lest it become an object of idolatrous affection, and the temple was repaired. He was a thoroughly good man, and yet goodness is no pledge that sorrow may not stand knocking at the door and demand admission, for since Job’s day it has been proven that the best of God’s people may suffer and be true.

The text is one of those gems of Scripture of which the Bible is so full, which seeing once you never can forget, iand which hearing once, the music of heaven begins to ring in ypur soul. Yet I was amazed in turning over the pages of all the commentaries I possessed to find that only one commentator mentioned this text at all, and this seemed to me remarkable, for it is really the gospel in epitome. The pit of corruption, the sinking sinner, the strong arm of the restorer, the motive which prompted the deliverance, the sins forgiven and forgotten and cast behind God’s back; all these but foreshadowed the work of Him who found men in pits of dejection, humiliation, and despair, and gave up His life that they might have freedom and the promise of immortality.

There is a great difference between the Old Testament and the New in many ways. There is no difference in the story of love, for it is the same from Genesis to Revelation, and there is not the slightest difference in the matter of sacrifice, for the Old Testament sacrifices but foreshadowed the supreme sacrifice of the Son of God in His earthly life and ministry, which culminated upon the cross, in his sacrificial death for sinful men. But what I mean is this. In the Old Testament the law was proclaimed in the midst of rolling thunder, while in the New Testament the gospel was announced to the accompaniment of angel’s music. In the Old Testament, if a son were disobedient to his father he was stoned with stones until he was dead. But in the New Testament he could break his mother’s heart, and bring down his father’s name in shame and leave his home in wilfulness, but the father continues to love him and to wait for his return, and then goes forth to meet him with kiss sind robe and ring and iKoes, and receives him at home with the gladdest welcome, calling in all the neighbours to rejoice with him. In the Old Testament, when Hezekiah faces death, he thinks of it as the pit of corruption, and counts his escape from it as a deliverance so great as to provoke a shout of victory. He says,

Ib the noontide of my days I shall go into the gates of Sheol:’ I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not see Jehovah even Jehovah in the land of

the living: I shall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world,”

But in the New Testament, when St. Paul faces deatK^ he says, “I am in a strait betwixt two, for I have at desire to depart and to be with Christ,” and yet think-’ ing of those who are dependent upon him, he decides that to tarry with them is more needful, and it seems to me that we find this difference between Hezekiah and St. Paul because of the victory won by Christ over death, so that now, while still an enemy, it is a conquered enemy, and God uses it to hold His children in close embrace until the resurrection morning comes. There is a marginal reading for a portion of the text which makes it to me all the more impressive. It is this: “Thou hast loved my soul from the pit,” and this is the spirit of this message. This text is really the Rosetta stone of Scripture, and the man who discovered that famous stone, which unlocked the mystery of many an ancient hieroglyphic upon the old-time obelisk, rendered no greater service to Egyptologists than the humblest servant of God who has caused the people to understand that the very spirit of the Bible is simply this — “God is love.”

In that 3elightful book of Dr. Dawson’s, entitled “The Empire of Lpve,” which has well been described as a classic, I read the following:

‘*I lived with pride; the house was hung
With tapestries of rich design.
Of many houses this among
Them all was richest, and ’twas mine, r
But in the chamber burned no fire
Tho’ all the furniture was gold;
I sickened of fulfilled desire — The House of Pride was very cold.”y)

But in this poetry of Dr. Dawson’s there came another verse in which there is a significant change in the spirit, for here love prevails.

“I lived with love; all she possessed
iWas but a tent beside a stream;
She warmed my cold hands in her breast,
She wove around my sleep a dream.
And One there was with face divine,
iWho softly came when day was spent,
•And turned our water into wine
And made our life a sacrament”,

LOVE’S RECORD

The whole Bible is a record of God’s love. When Adam and Eve had sinned and God went walking in the garden in the cool of the day saying, “Where art thou?” this was love seeking. When the world was steeped in wickedness and the flood cannot but come, and Noah stands proclaiming righteousness, this is love as a barrier in the way of judgment. When Israel wanders and God with every entreaty seeks to turn them back, this is love crying witH a breaking heart for the wanderer’s return. There are special illustrations of this spirit, as for example, the Shunamite. It was love that sent the mother, to Elisha. Or again, the story of Absalom, It was love that sent the old father to the gates saying, “O, Absalom, my son, myj son.” Or in the story of Jacob as an aged man grieving for his children. It was love which wrung from him the cry: “Me ye have bereft of my children. Joseph is not; Simeon is not, and now you will take Benjamin from me.” And as for the New Testament, love dictated the parables, love worked the miracles, love dealt with sinners, love drove the Saviour to the cross, love sent Him to the shore of the sea in the early morning, love sent Him back to represent us in the skies, and love will one day bring Him back again in all His power and might. It is this spirit which must win in the church, and when we have it victory is sure. The frail daughter of General and Mrs. Booth had sung her hymns and told her story in the crowded meeting in Paris, France. Fallen men and women had only mocked her, but this provoked her to a new pathos. She told her story once more. .When they still refused to yield to her, she walked through the crowd to the rear where a fallen girl with dishevelled hair and sin-marked face was jeering at her. Bending over her she took the poor face in both hands and kissed her, saying, “My dear sister, I would to God I could love you to Christ.” The girl was startled. Pure lips like those had not touched her cheek in many a year. She rose to her feet and staggered to the front, dropped at the penitent form and rose up saved. 5h?

is to-day a Salvation Army officer. If you were to ask her how she came to Christ she would answer, “I was loved up from the pit.”

LOVE’S CALL

The “very nature of our religion is a call to love. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” and Jesus so loved to do His will that He cried, saying, “Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will.” St. Paul so loved the service of Grod and the souls of men that he cotmted it a joy to suffer and die if only men could know Him. I read recently the statement of a great author in which he said, “When selfish interests are followed solely by either individual or corporation disaster will surely come.” He said, “Have you noticed the Lord’s prayer? In it the words * I ’ and * my ’ and * me ’ do not occur. The individual praying for himself apart from others has no part in this prayer of Jesus. It is * our Father,’ * give us our daily bread.’” The petitioner casts his lot in with the rest and wins his blessing. There never has been such a call as to-day for service. Ask Jane Addams of Chicago with reference to the suffering poor of that city. Consult Jacob Riis as to the heart-broken men and women in New York. Talk with General Booth about the down-trodden in London. There never has been such poverty as to-day and never such a time to show the spirit of Jesus. Children denied the comforts of life, men of middle age worn out with increasing toil, wonen old before their time because of the burdens they have borne, young girls with pinched faces and hurt lives toiling for the support of themselves and others — all of these are calling to us for a ministry which should be extended in the name of Jesus. There never has been such a time to live and to love as to-day.

LOVE’S EXAMPLE

It has been said that Christianity as we find it to-day is a misrepresentation and misinterpretation of Christ. I can hardly believe that this is true, but the one who states it says that it is not consciously so. If so the remedy would be easy. If it is unconsciously so the remedy is difficult Being a Christian, after one has accepted the divine plan which culminates in regeneration, implies that sort of living in which the spirit and the method of Jesus are reproduced as accurately as possible.

His ideals were the highest; His desire for men was not that which is good but that which is best, and His constant aim was to present to them in His own living that life which it is possible for us all to attain unto did we but walk with Him and become united to Him by faith. He adapted Himself to everybody with infinite skill. He entered the homes of the rich with blessing and tarried in the homes of poverty with the same benediction. He saw the need of woman and His treatment of her was infinitely beautiful, whether she came to Him with riches or clothed in poverty, whether she poured out precious ointment upon him or bowed at his feet as a guilty sinner, and He was really at His best when the woman taken in her sin tremblingly awaited either His condemnation or His forgiveness. But you will notice that while the world stoned her and the law condemned her, Jesus forgave her.

He loved little children, and indeed all classes of people felt the touch of His power. Blind beggars received their sight; rich Zaccheus secured salvation for his entire household; Nicodemus was born again; Peter had a changed nature and a new name. By day He was moved with compassion and by night He prayed; and always and everywhere He loved.

It was my privilege during the Christmas season of 1907 to tarry in New York with my children. I had heard of the Salvation Army’s distribution of gifts to the poor, and because I wanted my children to see another side of Christian work I sent a special request to headquarters asking that if possible a special place be reserved for them that we might plainly witness the bestowal of these gifts to the unfortunate. Almost as far as the eye could reach the lines of poor were stretched along the street. Then they filed into the armoury made ready for their coming and walked down a pathway divided by board rails on either side. Piled up to the ceiling were the baskets for the poor. The Salvation Army band played stirring music. The Salvation Army officers stood ready to pass out the baskets while the Commander of the army, Eva Booth, waited after coming from a sick-bed to do what she could to make the occasion memorable. Car-fare was given to the aged and warm clothing to the needy, but when the baskets were passed out on which the hands of the Commander had been placed and as the poor received them, the sight was never to be forgotten. One great burljr negro kissed her baud; another aged man bowed to kiss the hem of her dress, and at last there came a woman, beautiful of face but bent of form, her grey hair waved away from her temples, all the marks of refinement in her bearing, and all the evidences of poverty in her clothing. She addressed the Commander in French, and from her received a response in the same language, and then overcome with emotion she dropped upon her knees to kiss the foot of the Commander, as she stood raised above hen Every eye that witnessed it was full of tears. The impression made was profound. And this was but the expression of love on the part of these servants of Jesus. It is the spirit which the Church must have and above all it is the spirit which the ministers of the gospel must have if we are to win. When I was but a lad, in the State of Indiana, there was sent out a challenge from the city of Indianapolis asking for the most hopeless imbecile to be sent to the capital city. Finally a subject was secured and a distinguished doctor took the little boy into his room, placed him on the floor and then lay down by his side, in such a position that the light would strike on his face. Over and over he repeated the letters of the alphabet, but there was no sign of awakening intelligence. At last, however, after weeks and weeks of toil had been given, there came the faintest sign, and then another, and still another, and later I actually saw the child stand upon a pulpit platform in the city where I lived and I heard him recite the twenty-third psalm, and sing a hymn, and it was one of the influences that led me to the ministry, for I said if a physician with only an ambition to exhibit his skill could do this for an imbecile child, what yS ANOTHER MILE

could not be done by one filled with the spirit of Christ in his effort to help suffering humanity.

LOVE’S FIELD

It is a great thing to be a Christian, not simply to sing psalms and pray prayers, but to live Christ. And I can conceive how it would be possible for any Christian man to gather men about him in a great organisation in either store or factory and, just because he was controlled by the spirit of Christ, lead them to think of God. I can conceive how a physician would be unwilling to begin his operation without prayer or make his visit without a word of heavenly counsel where the case was critical, and thus become a mighty preacher of righteousness. I can conceive of how a father on the one side could be like a man who stood on the Colorado Railroad, blinded with drink, holding his two little boys by the hand, in the way of an approaching express train, and the train struck him and killed him and his boys, for many a father like that is holding his boys by his life and his sinful career in the way of destruction. Or like a father, on the other side, who drove into a North Carolina town with a spirited team and a covered wagon. Leaving the team for a moment, he entered a store. They shouted to him, “Your team is running away.” He rushed out and grasping the lines he was thrown to the ground. He laid hold upon the spokes of the wheel and was thrown again, but springing up he caught the end of the wagon, and bleeding and bruised he drew himself in. When the team was stopped they chided him for attempting to stop the runaway horses and said, “Why did you do it?” He gathered up in his arms a little child who had been sleeping in the wagon and said, “I have saved my boy.” Oh, for fathers like that desperately in earnest to save their boys. This is being a Christian. Or it is like a mother whose every thought is for her children after she has found Christ; whose every desire is to make them ready for heaven as well as ready for here.

‘’How many cares does the mother heart know?
Nobody knows but mother.
How many joys from her mother love flow?
Nobody knows but mother.
How many prayers by each little white bed?
How many tears for her babes has she shed?
How many kisses for each curly head?
Nobody laiows but mother.”

Or it is like a sister who is so true and kind, so Christlike in all that she does, who bears her burdens without knowing that they are burdens — like the sister and her brother who followed the procession in the streets until the boy grew tired, too tired to walk home, and she gathered him up in her arms and started back, staggering under the load, when somebody stopped her and said: “He’s heavy for you, isn’t he? “and she replied with a smile,” No, sir; he’s my brother.’*

Or it is like the son who would scorn to do evil because he would hurt others, who loves to be true because he could bring blessing to others, who in his pleasures and in his business seeks to be like Christ. All this is in the true sense being a Christian.

How I wish I could tell with more pathos this story of Jesus, that I might win you to Him who would fill your soul with love and make your life its best expression. They tell in the south the story of Sam Davis, a Confederate scout who suffered death as a spy. It was in November, 1863, that he was captured. He was taken to Pulaski, Tenn., and thrown into jail. Then he was taken before General Dodge and was searched and valuable papers were found upon him. He was told that this was a serious charge and that he must tell where he got his information. He said, “I know it is serious, but I will take the consequences.” He had a chstnce to escape, but he would not tell. He said to General Dodge, “You are doing your duty. I will do mine, and if I die I will die like a soldier.” When the morning came they gave him fifteen minutes to change his mind, but he said, “If I had a dozen lives I would give them all rather than betray my trust,” and so Sam Davis died. He wore an old overcoat, which he gave to the chaplain and asked to have it sent to his home. When I was holding meetings in Nashville, Tenn., and the Daughters of the Confederacy were in session, a gentleman took the old overcoat of Sam Davis and, unwrapping it in the presence of the Southern women, he said, “Ladies, this overcoat belonged to Sam Davis. He wore it the last morning of his life.” One woman who knew him came forward, ran her fingers over the coat and burst into tears. Soon everyone was sobbing in memory of a noble life, and the coat had to be taken away, for the emotion at the sight of it was too great.

But this story of Jesus is infinitely more pathetic. For us He was cradled in a manger and wripped in swaddling clothes; for us He lived at Nazareth and suffered the reproaches of those who 3id not understand Him; for us He preached in Galilee and brutal men assailed Him; for us He suffered in Gethsemane and sweat drops of blood; for us He hung in agony upon Calvary and His heart broke. And I tell you His story that I may win you to Him and that He may send you forth to love in His name and thus to win back the lost to Himself.