The Seven Great Promises of God for the Bible
I have turned over the matter in my mind for some weeks as to what subject I should speak upon this morning to the Graduating Class. I thought it was pretty well settled in my mind that I should speak on 2 Tim. 4:5, “Make full proof of thy ministry.” But not many days ago I was so stirred by reading a book entitled Modem Religious Liberalism’’ that I was strongly disposed to speak on *What to Do with the Bible,” and had the sermon outlined in my mind. But when I went to God in definite prayer about it last Monday afternoon. He gave me the subject “The Seven Great Promises of God for the Bible Student and Soul-winner.” For two years you have been diligently studying the Bible under the direction and encouragement of some of the best known students and teachers of the Bible in the world, and you have been studying it, not merely that you might get as complete an intellectual mastery of it as possible, but that you might find equipment for the most glorious work in the world, that of soul-winning. But you certainly are not foolish enough to think that your studies are now at an end. Only a hopeless fool could fancy for a moment that two years of study anywhere, or under any teachers that ever lived, could exhaust this Book in which are hidden the infinite and inexhaustible treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Your Bible studies are just begun. Bible study is to be your life-long employment, and you are going out to wear yourselves out in the great work for which you have been preparing — soul-winning. You are not all to be foreign missionaries, or ministers of the Grospel at home, but you are to be soul-winners all your days; some in the foreign field; some in large churches, some in small churches, and some in obscure and neglected unchurched fields at home; and some of you in that most hallowed of all fields of soul-winning, upon which the Bible lays so much emphasis, the Christian home. But all of you, by the good hand of God upon you, are to be soul-winners. So I can think of no more appropriate subject for this most joyous, and at the same time most solemn, occasion than that which I have announced, The Seven Great Promises of God for the Bible Student and Soul-winner.
7. The First Great Promise
The first Great Promise is from Psalm 1:1-3: ^’Blessed is the man that walJceth not in the coumsel of the v/ngodlyj nor stcmdeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth m the seat of the scornfvl. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall he like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that hringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.’’ Please look at that promise steadily and with open eyes and clear eyes until you take in its wonderful meaning, *’ Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.’’ God here promises to the Bible student and the would-be Soul-winner, that if he meets one of the fundamental conditions of profitable Bible study, thorough-going separation from the world, not walking in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standing in the way of sinners, nor sitting in the seat of the scornful, and then meditates in Gods own Law, the revealed will of God, as found in this Book, which is demonstrably “the Word of God” (Mark 7:13; 1 Thess. 2:13), meditates in it day and night, then he shall be a fruitful tree, a constantly, perpetually fruitful tree, a well-watered tree, watered by the streams of life that flow from the throne of God through the channels of this wonderful Book, and that **whatsoeveb he
DOETH SHALL PROSPER.” What an amazing promise! What a stupendous promise! And what an all-sufficient promise for the Bible student who is about to enter upon his life work. Young men and women, you certainly long for a good share of prosperity, but, oh! to think of it, that there is a way to make sure of it, that everything you may do in these coming days and years shall prosper. If any one in your position can face a promise like that and not have to put forth some effort to keep from shouting I can hardly understand it.
Be Sure You Meet the Conditions of the Fulfillment of the Promise.
1. The first condition is separation from the world in all your conduct, not walking “in the counsel’’ (or, advice) of those who are not fully surrendered to God, not standing in the way that sinners go, nor sitting down “in the seat of the scornful,” or “scoffers,’’ as the Revised Version translates, and this includes all “Higher Critics” and “New Theology” men and other infidels, whose chief stock in trade is making light of what God Himself says and of the most fundamental and precious doctrines of our faith. If you find yourseff located in some “seat’’ of learning where, as at the Chicago University, they make light of the precious truths of God (that is the exact force of the Hebrew word translated “scornful” in the Authorized Version and” scoffers” in the Revised
Version), get up out of that **seaf right off, do not ^’sit in the seat of scoffers.*’
2. And the second condition is, that you meditate in Gods Word day and night, that is, that you deeply, profoundly, continuously ponder the revelation God has made in this Book; that you not merely study the Bible for a quarter of an hour or a half hour or even an hour every day, but that you store up in your mind and heart what you there find and ponder it day and night. Young men and women, never forget that. There will be a great pressure of work upon you in the coming days, and many books and papers and magazines and reviews will clamor for your attention, but stoutly and steadfastly refuse to let either the demands of service or of other literature than the Bible crowd out the precious Word of God, meditation day and night upon which, and upon which alone, spells prosperity in everything you undertake.
Why is it that so many missionaries and ministers and other Christian workers are so little prospered? The answer is found right here, because they give so little time to actually meditating upon the Word of God; because they let work or other lines of study crowd out the Word of God, or else they ponder it without that clearness of vision that comes from clear-cut separation from the world and from all “modernists” and other scoffers.
9S VALUE OF PROPER BIBLE STUDY
II. The Second Great Promise
The second Great Promise of God for the Bible Student and Soul-winner is Daniel 12:3: ‘^ And they that he wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn m<my to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever/* This is a great promise for Bible students as well as for Soul-winners, for it is only the Bible student who is really “wise.’^ It is the “entrance of Grod’s words’’ that “giveth light;’* that “giveth understanding unto the simple” (Psalm 119:130). No one can be truly wise, wise with real wisdom, the wisdom that counts for eternity, as well as time, unless he is a Bible student. So Grod tells us in this striking promise that the Bible student shall “shine as the brightness of the firmament” and the Soul-urinner “as the stars forever and ever.” Every red-blooded man and every woman who is worth while longs to shine. If you did not wish to shine for your own sake, you ought to have a great ambition to shine for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake. He Himself bids us shine. He says in Matt. 5 :14, 16, “Ye are the light of the world.... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven,*’ Well, this promise tells us how to shine, how to gloriously shine, how to shine, not for the few brief days of this fleeting life that now is, but “forever and ever.*’ Be a Bible student, a Real Bible Student, and be a Soul- winner; for *Hhey that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.’* Oh, that large but foolish company of men and women, including not a few ministers and theological teachers and writers, who wish to shine down here, to have a cheap reputation for “advanced scholarship,’’ forgetting that the history of the world and the church is forever demonstrating that the “advanced scholarship” of to-day is the ridiculous nonsense of to-morrow. Young men and women, listen, it is not worth while to shine down here, to get all sorts of degrees and titles attached to your name because you are untrue to God and His inspired Word. Look back and see how the shores of past time are strewed with the whitened wrecks of men who shone in an apostate church. No, do not care a fig to shine as a great “pulpit orator,” or “pulpit humorist,” or pulpit mountebank, or a pulpit comforter by holding out false hopes to those who desire to live careless and worldly and pleasure-seeking lives; it does not pay to shine down here, even as a “goldentongued pulpit orator.” It does pay to shine up yonder, to shine as the stars forever and ever.” And there is only one way to shine up yonder, by being a Real Bible Student and a Soul-winner.
///. The Third Great Promise
The third Great Promise of God for the Bible Student and Soul-winner you will find in Psalm 126:6: “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him,” Here is another promise that stirs the alert and intelligent soul to its very depths. What intelligent harvester does not long to come home laden down with mighty sheaves of golden grain? But what other harvest is so desirable as the harvest of precious souls 1 This, too, is a promise, as we shall see shortly, for both the Bible Student and Soul-winner, a Soul-winner just because he is a Bible student. It tells us how to come, when our brief but laborious harvest time is over, bringing our golden sheaves with us. Listen, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him.” Just three conditions of a bountiful harvest: “goeth forth,” “weepeth,” “bearing precious seed.” Let me change the order.
1. First, “Bearing precious seed.” What the “precious seed” is that must be borne if we are to reap an abundant harvest of the right sort, our Lord Jesus Himself tells us in Luke 8:11, * * The seed is the Word of God.” That is the only seed that is worth sowing, or that will bring a harvest of souls. Men are born again, Peter tells us, “not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.’* (1 Pet. 1 :23.) To sow the Word, we must know the Word; so you can see how this is a promise for the Bible student as well as for the Soul- winner. The Revised Version reads in place of ‘precious seed,’’ “seed for sowing,” and the Hebrew words mean just that or “a sowing of seed;” and the only seed that is fit for “sowing” in the prepared soil of the human heart is god’s WORD. Here, too, we see why it is so many preachers and missionaries and personal workers gather such scant harvests; they are sowing something beside the Word of God. Go listen to many sermons and note how little there is of the unmixed seed of the Word of God in them, so much bull’s-eye daisies and chess and Canada thistles of man’s notions and vagaries and speculations and conceits mixed in, until their churches look like some alleged “wheat fields” that we see, full of daisies, mustard, “the devil’s paint-brush,” Canada thistles and bull thistles and nettles. Oh, young men and women, always bear the “precious seed” of God’s Word and only that. If some one tells you it won’t draw like poetry and moonshine and “advanced thought” and movies, think of Moody and Spurgeon and some of the things your own eyes have seen these past months in this very building and elsewhere.
2. Then note the words, ‘’goeth forth,’’ ‘’He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” It is not enough to have the seed, go sow it. Sow it far and wide, throughout America, not forgetting the neglected fields, through China, through Japan, through Africa, through India, everywhere. It is not the seed the farmer has in his granary that brings a harvest, but the seed he sows in his field; and it is not the truth you know, hut the truth you sow that will hear a harvest. Remember it is “seed for sowing’’ (R. V.), and the truth you have learned from the study of Gods Word here and the truth you shall learn in your future study of the Word is ‘’seed for sowing.” Never forget that. Many a man who knows little gathers a far more abundant harvest than many who know much, for what little he knows he assiduously sows.
3. And once more in regard to this promise: Note the words, “and weepeth.” It is not enough to know the Word of God and it is not enough to sow the Word of God: if you would have a bounteous harvest, if you would come “bringing your sheaves with’’ you, you must as you sow the seed, water it with your tears. Not only does the Word of God teach, but experience also abundantly proves that it is the Word of God that is given with a heart full of love for sinners, a love that shows itself in tears of sympathy for the sinner’s sorrows and tears of pain over the sinner’s sin and stubbornness, that bears fruit in souls saved. Here is where many missionaries in the foreign field fail and many preachers at home fail; they have no deep heartfelt love that leads to tears for those to whom they preach and with whom they work. One of the mightiest Soul-winners among the outcast that this country ever saw was Col. George Clark, the founder of the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago. Col. Clark worked faithfully at his business six days of the week that he might preach the Gospel without pay seven nights in the week. Every night they would gather in the Pacific Garden Mission, four or five hundred men, mostly of the down-and-out class. They would hang upon every word Col. Clark spoke, though he was not an interesting speaker, indeed a very ordinary and commonplace speaker. I never heard him give an original thought in all my life, and yet those outcasts would sit all the evening and hang upon his words. Some of the most brilliant speakers in America would go there, but could not hold that crowd, but Col. Clark always could. I studied these strange phenomena and finally found the explanation of them. They knew that Col. Clark loved them, that he would give his last penny for them, that he would wear his life out for them, as he actually did. Col. Clark was a man much given to tears as he spoke. He was a large, powerful man, weighing perhaps 250 pounds, and tears from such a man seemed out of place, and after a while he became ashamed of his many tears and held them back. But he found that with the drying up of his tears he lost his power; and he went to God and cried, *^0h, God, give me back my tears,” and God gave him back his tears and gave him back his power. Young men and women, cultivate a real, heartfelt love for those among whom you work. Ask the Holy Spirit to make real to you their lost condition and to make vivid to you their coming doom if they are not saved. It is not the one who knows the
MOST BUT THE ONE WHO LOVES THE MOST WHO WINS
THE MOST. I think I would make a good missionary to the Chinese, for I love the Chinese; I confess I love them more than I do any other people. But look to God to give you a tear-bringing love for any people among whom you work.
IV. The Fourth Great Promise
The fourth Great Promise of God for the Bible Student and Soul-winner you will find in James 1:5, R. v.: ‘’If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him,” This, too, is a great promise for the Bible student and Soul-winner. To be a successful student of the Word one needs ‘’wisdom” and to be a successful Soul-winner, one needs great “wisdom” and tact. This promise tells how to get this wisdom, ash for it, ‘*If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall he given him,” What to do is put in one word, ‘’ask;’’ definite, believing prayer. The next two verses say, * * But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting; for he that doubteth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.’* Our promise tells us very clearly of Whom to ask. It is put in two words, “of God.” Be very clear about that. There is much asking that is not really ‘’of God.” Men pray, but they do not really get into the presence of God, and ‘’ask of Him.’* Be sure you do every time you pray.
And note carefully of what God to ask, the “God, Who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not.” There is only one God who does that, the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. There is much that is called praying in these days that is not unto Him. Prof. Theodore Gerald Soares, Professor of Homiletics and Religious Education and Head of the Department of Practical Theology at the University of Chicago, says, “The mental state of peace, exultation and resolution which issue upon the exercise of prayer are due to the release of conscious tension.” That certainly is not praying to the” God, Who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not,” even if the writer is a theological professor. President
Gr. Stanley Hall, of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., says that prayer is ‘* communion with the deeper racial self within ns.” That certainly is not asking of the “God, Who giveth to all men liberally and npbraideth not.” Prof. George Burman Foster, who was for a while professor in the theological department of Chicago University, and then Professor of Philosophy of Religion in another department in the University up to the time of his death, said, “the only prayer which we have a moral right to pray is precisely the prayer which after all we ourselves must answer.” That certainly is not asking of the “God, Who giveth to all men liberally and npbraideth not.’’ Prof. Edward Scribner Ames, Associate Professor of Chicago University, and Pastor of Hyde Park Church of Disciples of Christ, in his book, “The New Orthodoxy,” says, “For the modern man standing erect in his pride of power, the old ceremony full of passivity and surrender is a symbol of a dyimg age J’ That certainly is not asking of the “God, Who giveth to all men liberally and npbraideth not.” Prof. Gerald Bimey Smith, at the present time “Professor of Christian Theology’^ at the Chicago University, says, ‘’the worship of God in a democracy will consist in reverence for those human values which democracy makes supreme.’^ That certainly is not asking of the “God, Who giveth to all liberally and npbraideth not.” I would as soon think of sending a son of mine to a smallpox hospital as a health resort as to send him to a theological Seminary or University where such blasphemous folly as that is taught, as a preparation for an efficient ministry or for missionary work. Are our Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians gone mad that they send their children to institutions where such wicked, blasphemous and practically atheistic things are taught f But real Prayer to a Real. God, the only true God, the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, brings wondrous wisdom in the study of the Word of God and in Soul-winning. No other shovel digs so deep into the gold mine of God’s Word and throws out such nuggets of pure gold as prayer, real prayer to a real God. No other rain-maker will so operate upon the clouds of God’s abundant grace that always overhang us and bring down such mighty outpourings of the Holy Spirit manifesting themselves in a multitude of souls won as real prayer to a real God. Never forget that. Never, never,
NEVER FORGET THAT.
F. The Fifth Great Promise
This naturally and inevitably brings us to the Fifth Great Promise of God for the Bible Student and Soul-vAnner. You will find it in Acts 1:8: ^’Ye shall receive power, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall he witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’’ The great need of missionary, minister and personal worker, and father and mother, when they study God’s Word and when they go out to win souls, is power, power to penetrate the sacred cloisters of Grod’s Word where such abundant treasures of truth are stored and power to present to others the truth discovered in such a way as to convict of sin and reveal Jesus Christ and to bring men to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and thus be born again. This verse reveals the great secret of that power: “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’’ We need power, a power not from this earth, not from human culture, not the power learned in schools of oratory, nor the power that comes from the tricks of the world, baptized with Christian names, as in the * Inter church World Movement,” not the power to draw crowds learned from Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford or Charlie Chaplin, and crystallized in the introduction of the movies into the Sunday evening service, turning the sacred house of God into a third-class Sunday theatrical performance. No! No!! No!!! “POWER FROM ON HIGH” (Luke 24:49). This promise tells us how to get it. It tells us how any graduate of the Bible Institute, or any child of God, can get it. Listen again, Ye shall receive power, after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth;’’ the definite baptism with THE Holy Spirit, of which Peter said on the day of Pentecost, immediately after he himself had been ‘* baptized with the Holy Spirit,” “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him.”
VI, The Sixth Great Promise
This then leads us directly to the Sixth Great Promise of God for the Bible Student and Soul-unnner. You will find it in Luke 11:13: ‘^If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him,” The fifth promise tells us, that “power from on High,’’ power right from God, God’s own power, will be upon us after the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and the sixth promise tells us how to make sure of the Holy Spirit coming upon you, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.” The way is very simple, just ‘’ask,” ‘ask him,” that is, God, the only true God, the “Heavenly Father,” not the God that ‘’is imminent in humanity” of which these wise New Theologists prate, but “the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” “Who is in Heaven, ‘^ the Real God, the God who actually isj and not the God of man’s mad imaginings. Prof. Walter Rauschenbusch, now dead (died in 1918), formerly Professor of Church History in Rochester Theological Seminary, a Baptist institution, said, ^Hhe old conception that God ... is distinct from our human life” must give way to “the religious belief that He is immanent in humanity.” Do not ask for the Holy Spirit of such a God as that, ask of the Real God, your “Father in heaven.” Prof. Royce, late of Harvard University, says, ^Hhe divine is no more separate and aloof. It is within and organic with the human.” The same thought is elsewhere put in these words, “God is considered as the soul of the world, the spirit animating nature, the universal force which takes the myriad forms of heat, light, gravitation, electricity and the like.” Do not ask any such God as that to give you the Holy Spirit. You might as well pray to a Hindoo or Chinese idol or an Alaskan totem. Prof. Gerald Birney Smith, Professor of Christian Theology at the present time in Chicago University, speaks of God as *Vthe spiritual forces of the world in which we live, the unseen forces of the universe.” Do not ask that God for the Holy Spirit. Prof. Royce defines God as the immanent * * spirit of the community.” Do not ask that God for the Holy Spirit. No, do not pray to the God of any of this sort of theological Seminary and University professors who, “professing themselves to be wise,” have ‘become fools.’’ (Rom. 1:22.) Pray to the eeal God the God Whom the Lord Jesus revealed in His words and in His Person, our “Heavenly Father,” the God Who really is and really answers prayer, and if you really are His child, He will answer and He will baptize you and fill you with His Holy Spirit, and you will have power, and no man will be “able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which (you) speak.” (Acts 6:10.)
F7Z. The Seventh Great Promise
Now we come to the seventh and last Great Promise of God for the Bible Student and Soul-winner a/nd in some respects it is the best of alL It is the direct outcome of the sixth promise and closely related to the fifth and fourth promises. You mil find it in Matt, 28:19, 20, R. V.: ‘’Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I a/m with you always, even unto the end of the world,’’ Oh, what a promise! The promise of the personal presence of our Lord Jesus Himself with us all the time, “until the consummation of the age,” when He will come visibly and bodily to take us to be with Himself forever. He is now our unseen Lord (1 Pet. 1:8) up yonder in the glory, interceding for us (Heb. 7 :25), taking up our case, and advocating it and carrying it through. But He is also, even now, our peesent lord. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, when He comes to us, to form within us an indwelling Christ. The Lord Jesus Himself said to His disciples the night before He left them, in John 14:15-23, R. V.: ^^If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you desolate: 1 come unto you: Yet a little while, and the world beholdeth me no more; but ye behold me: because I live, ye shall live also. In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself unto him. Judas (not Iscariot) saith unto him. Lord, what is come to pass that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and malie our abode with him.^’ Yes, He is really with us, not visibly as in that glad coming day
He will be, but nonetheless, really and consciously with us. Young men and women, as you leave these halls and these friendships with the Faculty and your fellow-students that have become so precious to you, you will have many lonely hours and lonely days and lonely weeks. I think the loneliest day I ever saw up to that time was the day I graduated at Yale and left the city on a late boat for New York. Most of my class took earlier trains. It seemed as if I would almost die of loneliness. Forty-six years have passed, but the memory of the misery of that night lingers with me yet. And you will have lonely days. And when you get into the heart of China and into the heart of Africa and into Indian jungles, you will see lonely days. But you need not see lonely days, you need not see a lonely hour, or a lonely minute. By day and by night, you may have the dearest and best and most satisfying of all companions, our glorious Lord Jesus Himself. Listen again to this crowning promise of all: “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you: and lo, I am with you always even unto the consummation of the age.” Ah, this coming summer when some night I am up alone on the Yangtze or elsewhere, out in some lonely mountain or desert plain, I might be lonely, but I won’t, Jesus will be there and He will be with you too if you meet the conditions.
Note these conditions well, “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded yon: and lo, I am with yon always, even unto the consummation of the age.’’ If you go out into all the world making disciples, going as far as your line may extend, be it eighteen miles or eighteen thousand miles. He will go with you. But if you do not listen sharply for His call, and go as far as He bids you go. He will not go with you. If we go His way. He will go ours; but if we do not go His way, He will not go ours. If Grod says Africa, and your foolish heart says Southern California, He will not go with you: and amid the dearest friends on earth, you will be supremely lonely. But if you say with Isaiah of old when the Lord Jesus calls, and He is calling now, “Here am I; send me’’ (Isa. 6:8) He will send and He will go along. You may be alone beneath the silent stars on some African table-land, but you will not be alone. He, our glorious Lord will walk by your side. And He is enough. And you will walk with Him forever; for He hath said, “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant he: if any man serve me, him will the Father honor.” (John 12:26.)
Young men and women of the Graduating Class:
You have been here at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles two years. You have worked hard. You have done well. You have made satisfactory progress in your study of the Word of God, in your Christian character and in your work for Christ. You have won the confidence and respect and love of every member of the Faculty, and I think we can rest confident that we have won your love, as well as your confidence. You are about to leave us, we are sorry to have you go, we shall greatly miss you. When I come back next November and look out over the seats in the lecture room, my first impulse will be to look for the faces that I know so well and to listen for the voices that I have learned to distinguish from one another, and I shall miss you and every member of the Faculty will miss you. But we are glad you are going. There was never in all this world’s history such a crying demand for men and women who know God, who know Jesus Christ, who know the Holy Spirit, who know their Bibles and how to use them in winning souls for Christ, as in the day in which you and I live. We shall follow you with our prayers. We expect you to do credit, both by your holy living and your effective service, to the Institute that sends you forth, but what is infinitely more important, to our God and Father and to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. God bless you.