Follow Thou Me!
“Ttthat a motto for every-day use our dear Master gave us all when he said to Peter: “What is that to thee? Follow thou me!” It fits so many cases. Here, for example, is an obscure, hard-working pastor, who reads in his religious journal of the wonderful successes of a Moody or a Spurgeon: how one of them preaches every Sunday to six or seven thousand auditors, and how the other is blessed to the conversion of several thousands of souls in a single year. He throws down the paper in a sort of envious despair, and feels that he is an absolute nobody in the viney7ard of Christ. “What is all that to thee?” whispers the Shepherd’s voice. “Follow thou me!” Ashamed of himself, the humble country pastor turns to his Bible and his unfinished sermon again, determined that he will do his little best, even though his name never figures in the bulletins. If the Master smiles on him, it is enough. To save even one soul is reward for a lifetime’s toil.
How often a self-distrustful Christian tries to excuse himself from active labors in the church or Sunday-school with the stereotyped apology: “If I were gifted like A or B, I would be as active as they are in teaching or in public prayer or speech.” Friend, the way to attain to larger gifts is to employ the gifts you have. Give Jesus thy one talent, and then he may trust thee with two. If you can not speak glibly in a prayer-meeting, then stammer out your heart’s thanks in the best fashion you can. It may be that your few broken words may accomplish more than another man’s fluent harangue. I had an old disciple once in my church I would rather hear stutter out ten sentences than hear some others expatiate for an hour. He was a man who lived in “close grups” with Jesus. If you have no brilliant or thrilling experience to relate in the social meeting, then tell the honest story of how you do feel and what you are striving after. It is always a satisfaction to hear a man speak the truth. Christ judges his servants according to what they have; never according to what they have not.
There is a gentle rebuke, too, of our murmuring discontent in those words of our Lord. Perhaps some poverty-stricken brother who reads this paragraph has an uprising of the old Adam in him every time he goes to church. He sees Judge A drive up in his fine carriage, or Elder B come in with his richly-dressed wife and daughters, and mutters to himself: “How is it that other people get up in ‘the world so, while I can hardly keep a coarse coat on my back?” What is all that to thee, brother? Follow thou Him who had not where to lay his weary head. If thou art not rich, thou hast not the temptations of wealth and never will be called to give account of a large stewardship. It is hard to be poor; it is hard to fall behind in life’s race and see others pull up triumphantly to the goal; it is hard to lose our only wee lamb, while our neighbor has his table crowded with a group of rosy-cheeked children; it is hard to drink the bitter cup of disappointment. But methinks the Elder Brother draws up very close to such, and puts the arm of his love about them, and says very sweetly: “What is all this to thee, my child? Thou art mine. If mine, then an heir of Heaven’s glory. Where I am thou shalt be. Let not thy heart be troubled. Whom I love I chasten. What is this poverty, or failure, or bereavement to thee? Follow thou me, and thou shalt have treasures in Heaven. If thy feet are sore, follow me, and the green pastures will be all the softer by and by. If thy cross is heavy, let me share it with thee.”
“Patience, my child. Thy Saviour’s feet were worn, Thy Saviour’s heart and hands were weary here, His garments stained and travel-worn and old, His vision blinded with the pitying tear.”
Shall the disciple be above his Master or the servant expect to be above his Lord?
This passage has its application also to all those unfavorable surroundings in which we are often placed. It is not an easy thing to be an out-and-out Christian in certain families or in certain social circles. It was not an easy thing for Daniel to be a God-fearing Puritan in voluptuous Babylon, or for Paul to stand up for Jesus at the Court of Felix. Perhaps some of you say: “My ‘set’ are worldly and fashionable. They go to theatres oftener than to prayer -meetings. My relatives are irreligious. The current is against me.” Yery well. What is that to thee? Follow thou Christ. If your associates are possessed with the delusion that happiness is only to be found in sensual pleasures, then prove to them how cheerful you can be while denying ungodly lusts. If they aniong whom your lot is cast are frivolous, do you be sober. If they are extravagant, do you be frugal, “as becometh the saints.’7 If they live for self-indulgence, do you set the example of living for Christ and for others’ welfare. If they choose death, do you choose life, and then prove to them the wisdom of your choice. “Be ye holy as I am holy” is a command you can not shirk or defy but at a terrible cost. Oh! it is a shame to us who profess Christ that we so often ask: “What will this one say? or how do others do?” Follow Me! This is the true “higher life,” this perpetual endeavor to find Christ’s footsteps and to walk therein.
When the grand old missionary, Judson, was one day laid aside from work, his wife thought to divert him by reading to him some newspaper sketches of himself. One compared him to Paul, another to John, etc. The modest old hero was annoyed, and exclaimed: “I do not want to be like Paul, or Apollo, or any other man. I want to be like Christ. We have only One who was tried in all points as we are and yet was without sin. I want to drink in his spirit, to place my feet in his footprints and to measure their smallness and shortcomings by Christ’s footsteps only. Oh! if I could only be more like Jesus!”
If our churches are to be quickened and advanced, then the marching orders to which we must keep step is: “Follow me!” The only safe counsel for the inquiry-room is to point every awakened sinner to the atoning Jesus. The two words which Jesus probably uttered oftener than any other were: “Follow me!” They are the essence of all true creeds. They are the test and touchstone of true Christianity.