Gift, A Love.
A Duke of Brittany, during a long imprisonment made a vow that if he regained his liberty he would give to the Church of Notre Dame his weight in gold. He placed himself in the scales clad in war armor, and had the opposite scale piled with gold till it had attained his weight.
But when Don Carlos, son of Philip II of Spain, lay ill, he vowed to give, on his recovery, his weight in gold to the Virgin. The restored prince placed himself in the scale clad in damask and fur.
Love never asks “How much must I do?” but “How much can I do?”
Giving Heartily.
When, in Queen Victoria’s time, the Punjab came under British rule, the young Maharajah, a mere boy, sent as an offering to his new Sovereign, who had been proclaimed as Empress of India, the Koh-i-noor diamond, and it was placed with the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. Some years later, the Maharajah, now a young man, came to England and went to Buckingham Palace to pay his respects to the Queen. He asked to see the diamond, and the Queen had it brought under armed guard. He took it with great reverence and carried it to the window. Then he knelt at the Queen’s feet and said: “I gave you this jewel when I was a child, too young to know what I was doing, and now, in the fulness of my strength, I give it to you again with all my heart.”
God—Character of.
A dying Mohammedan sheik cried: “O God, if Thou art just, I am lost; if Thou art merciful, I may be saved.”
God—Character of.
An atheist said if ever he were taken ill, he would rely on the mercy of God (if there were a God), as he had never done anything very bad. But, taken seriously ill, he began to think: “God must be just, as well as merciful; and what reason have I to think He will treat me with mercy rather than with justice?” A Christian visitor showed him that his is the very difficulty which the Gospel removes, as it shows how mercy can be exercised in perfect consistency with the strictest demands of justice. The atonement of Christ is the explanation. It was this that convinced the sceptic.
God—Character of.
A man was driving a team through the streets of an American town when the horses became frightened and ran wildly, endangering the lives of pedestrians, and especially the life of the driver. A judge was passing by at the time and being a man of great strength he dashed into the street and succeeded in grasping the horses bridles and bringing them to a standstill. The man in the wagon was deeply grateful, and thanked his deliverer most heartily, saying that he had in all probability saved his life.
Years passed, and in the course of the official duties of the judge, a man was brought before him for crime. The evidence was all against him, and the jury returned a verdict of guilty. A short time later the convicted man stood before the judge to receive his sentence. He was asked if he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him. He made several attempts to speak, and finally said: “For God’s sake, Judge, have mercy on me! You saved my life in a runaway years ago.”
The Judge himself was deeply moved, but with blanched face said: “Yes, I do recognize you now. That day I was your savior; today I am your judge and must do my duty.” He then pronounced the sentence of death upon the wretched man.
God—Character of.
“How can a God of love send a man to hell?” asked a fellow-traveler of John Seddon in the train.
“I will ask you another question by way of reply,” said he. “How can a God of righteousness take a sinner to heaven?”
God—Knowledge of.
“Johnny, don’t you think you have as much as you can carry?” said Frank to his small brother, who was standing with open arms, receiving the bundles placed on them. “You have more than you can carry now.”
“Never mind,” said Johnny, “Father knows how much I can carry.”
How long some of us take to learn that lesson!
God—In Touch with.
“You will have to be much with God in secret,” said a wise elder brother to a younger one who was going overseas for a period of ministry. “You will find much superficiality and worldliness among the children of God, and a tendency to make going to meetings the chief part of their Christianity. You will easily slip down to that level unless you keep in very close touch with God.”
ALAN REDPATH
God—Our Giving.
Once there was a poor woman standing before the window of a royal conservatory which looked into the public street. It was in the dead of winter, and no flower was to be seen in the gardens, and no fruit on the trees. But in the hothouse a splendid bunch of grapes hung from the glass ceiling, basking in the bright winter sun. And the poor woman gazed at it till the water came into her mouth, and she sighed: “Oh, I wish I could take it to my sick darling!” She went home and sat down to her spinning wheel, and wrought day and night until she had earned half-a-crown. Then she went to the king’s gardener and offered him that sum for the bunch of grapes; but the gardener received her unkindly, and told her not to come again. She returned home, and looked round her little cottage to see whether there was anything she could dispense with. It was a severe winter, yet she thought she could do without a blanket for a week or two, so she pawned it for half-a-crown, and went to the king’s gardener and now offered him five shillings. But the gardener scolded her, and took her by the arm roughly and turned her out. It just happened, however, that the king’s daughter was near at hand, and when she heard the angry words of the gardener and the crying of the woman, she came up and inquired into the matter. And when the woman had told her story, the noble princess said with a kindly smile: “My dear woman, you were mistaken. My father is not a merchant, but a king; his business is not to sell but to give,” whereupon she plucked the bunch from the vine and gently dropped it into the woman’s apron. So the woman obtained as a free gift what the labor of many days and nights had proved unable to procure her. So it is with the salvation of the soul. It is the gift of God as a King.
DR. GUTHRIE
Goodness—Proof of.
Picture a sower, flinging out his seed like a shower of gold upon the soil. One asks if he is qualified to sow; whether he knows all about the nature of the seed, the physiology of its growth and the process of its development.
“No, sir; I do not,” he replies.
“Then how do you know it is good seed?”
It is good to see the sower then! His face lights up with a smile.
“Why! I have been feeding upon it for months past! I had my breakfast off it today, as fine a bit of wheaten bread as ever I wish to eat.”
MARK GUY PEARSE
Gospel—Application of the.
A pill vendor, in one of our busy marketplaces, declared with the greatest possible assurance that his pills would cure any and every disease from which mortal bodies can suffer. Near to him stood an open-air preacher, whose powerful voice evidently annoyed the purveyor of medicines, who turned sharply upon the preacher and said: “What’s the good of your preaching or your religion? After nineteen centuries and more, they are played out, and people are not converted—or saved, as you call it.”
Replying to this attack, the preacher said: “Well, friend, what about your pills? You say they cure all manner of diseases and complaints, and yet I know scores of people who are still suffering from these very things. According to your argument, your pills must be a failure!”
“My pills a failure!” retorted the indignant professed physician, “it’s plain enough why people are not cured. It’s because they won’t buy my medicines, and take them.”
“That’s the reason they are still suffering!” was the preacher’s answer. “I understand. It’s all in the application. And that, my friend, is just the case with the Gospel. It has not failed, for it is ‘the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.’ The reason why men and women are still unsaved is because they have failed in the application.”
Gospel—Application of the.
A soap manufacturer, not a Christian, was walking with a minister. Said the soap maker: “The Gospel you preach hasn’t done much good, for there’s still a lot of wickedness, and preaching hasn’t prevented war.” The preacher made no immediate reply, but they soon passed a child making mud pies. He was exceedingly dirty. It was then the preacher’s turn and he said: “Soap hasn’t done much good in the world, I see; for there’s still much dirt and many dirty people.”
“Oh, well,” answered the manufacturer, “soap is useful only when it’s applied.” “Exactly,” was the minister’s reply, “so it is with the Gospel we proclaim.”
Gospel—Attitudes to the.
The strange tale of a man then known as ‘Mr. X’ was told in an issue of the Toronto Globe and Mail. Two days previously he had swept through a military hospital in that city showering $100 bills on the astonished patients and attendants. He came unannounced and at once began his fairy-like bestowals, spending only a few minutes to visit the wards and leaving in his wake, a group of men, happy to the tune of about $5,000. A newspaper reporter visited the hospital later and related some interesting incidents.
One patient told how the generous visitor went through his ward while he and some of the other inmates were gambling for pennies. The patient had won thirty-five cents and was just about to pick them up when one of the players swept them to the floor, exclaiming: “Whee! Let’s not worry about chicken feed. We don’t need it!” for just at that moment he noticed the stranger approaching, distributing the big bills. When the reporter asked the winner of the thirty-five cents what happened to the pennies, he remarked, “Why, we forgot all about them.”
Another patient told how he slept all through the visit of the kind stranger and confessed it was “my most expensive sleep.” That sleep cost him $100 at least, but many today who are spiritually sleeping are risking the loss of their precious souls for all eternity.
It was also reported that ‘Mr. X’ accosted a nurse in the corridor and proffered her a handful of money, but, treating the whole matter as a joke and thinking the money was ‘phoney,’ she exclaimed, rather petulantly, “Oh, go away.” Well, he did, and shortly after the nurse learned that she had missed what the newspapers called a ‘Golden Opportunity.’
Gospel, Power of the.
Have you ever heard anyone say, “I was an unhappy drunkard, the shame of my family and a disgrace to society, but I set myself to the study of mathematics, botany, or a book of morals, since then I have been a changed man?” Well, I can show you not one, nor ten, nor one hundred, but thousands of men, who say: “I was miserable, without peace and without hope until the day on which I came to know the marvelous power of the Gospel. It has changed my life, I have been delivered from my sins, and peace has entered my heart and my home.” Such are the miracles that the Gospel performs daily!
Growth—Continual and Fruitful.
Longfellow, at the age of eighty, was asked how he kept so vigorous mentally. Pointing to an apple tree, he said: “That tree is very old, but it grows a little new wood every year, and out of the new wood the blossoms and fruit come.”
Growth—Hindrances to Spiritual.
Columbus was sorely tried by his seamen. Even when the ship was at the threshold of the New World his mutinous crew sought to steer back again, and the peril was only averted by the great captain’s resolution. So, within each voyage to heaven is a mutinous crew, a set of cowardly unbeliefs and perfidious lusts.
Growth in Christ.
A farmer has seed in his granary. Though making no present use of it, he will on no consideration part with it. He intends to sow it in a certain field, and only waits for the harvesting of another crop, one of very peculiar interest, growing in the same field. He has a stake in both, and both he will preserve. But it is the growing crop that engages his special attention for the time being.
GEO. CUTTING
Guidance.
A business man thought of moving to a city where prospects seemed brighter. He prayed for guidance and went. The result was financial impoverishment. A man who knew about it taunted him. He was brought low, but an opportunity opened out of service for Christ of a kind for which he was specially fitted. It was greatly blessed, and though he never regained material prosperity, he was cheered and blessed of God.
Guidance.
The difference between a God-guided life and the haphazard kind of life that some people seem to lead is like the difference between a beautiful mosaic, where all the stones fit in with one another, and a mere heap of stones.