Teaching of Christ.
In one of the public buildings in the United States there is to be seen a reproduction of the Declaration of Independence, the momentous document in which was set forth the hopes and ambitions of the States when they became united.
The visitor, as he reads the impressive words, notices some irregularities in the lettering which puzzle him. A friend suggests that he should stand back and read again. Then to his amazement he finds that he is looking on an outline of the face of the great George Washington.
It is sometimes like this with us. We find parts of the Bible hard to understand; we read and are perplexed. But when under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we see things in a new light, and find Christ there.
Hearing His voice in every, line
Making each faithful saying mine.
Tears in Sowing.
A captain of the Salvation Army found the town where he was working terribly hard. He wrote to headquarters saying he could make no impression at all. Old General Booth sent a message back “Try a tear, Captain!”
Tears—Voice of.
Two young fellows went out for a row on Sunday. One was the son of a Christian mother. Both were ill at ease, for they knew it was not the way to spend the Lord’s Day. Next time they met, one said: “I shall never go out on a pleasure trip again on Sunday. When I got home mother was there. She said nothing to me about where I had been, but the tear on her cheek nearly broke my heart.” That tear was more powerful than speech, it was used to save the friend of the son from spiritual drift.
Temptation—Avoiding.
A man asked an Eastern sage how to avoid temptation. “Take a vessel brimful of oil and carry it through the streets without spilling a drop.” When he returned, the wise man asked: “Whom did you meet?” “I noticed no one; I was only thinking of the oil.” “Then you have learned how.”
Test of Action.
A traveler remarked on the great number of spiders’ webs on the grass by the roadside. “Yes,” said his companion, “the dew brings them out.” How may I know whether there is harm in this or that. Let the dew (the Word of the Spirit) bring them out.
Testimony—Bad.
One night a motorist was run down by a train at a level crossing. The signalman in charge of the crossing had to appear in court. After a severe cross examination, he was still unshaken. He said he had waved his lantern frantically, but all to no avail. The following day a friend said to him: “You did wonderfully well yesterday, Tom. I was afraid at first that you might waver.”
“No,” replied Tom, “but I was afraid that old lawyer was going to ask me whether or not my lantern was lit!”
Testimony—Failure in.
A young married woman, having professed full allegiance to. Christ, had given up cinemas One evening her husband came home saying that he was going to see a good, clean film, and pressed her to come with him. His parents, with whom they were living, urged her on and at length she consented to go. On leaving the house she found that her husband was leading her in the wrong direction, and she said: “This is not the way to the pictures Where are you going?” “I don’t want to go to the pictures,” he replied, “I only wanted to test you and see if you were firm, and then I would have come to the Savior you profess to love. But you have failed, and everything looks black for me now. I thought you had a real Jesus.”
Testimony—Glorious.
A Colporteur in Central Chin was reading to a group about Jesus healing the blind and the sick. Suddenly, with smiling faces, they said: “Oh! we know him; he used to live here. We will show you his grave When the great plague came, he would not leave us. HE gave us things out of a bottle that made us well. We had babies that were blind; he washed their eyes and made then see. Oh, we know him well; he has often walked down on: streets.” The colporteur said: “That cannot be; He lived it a land far from here, hundreds of years ago.” But they showed him a grave, and on inquiry he found it was that of young doctor who had gone 600 miles up the Yangtze to the little town. He had lived among them after such a manner that when they heard the story of Jesus, they cried out: “We know Him; He lived here.”
Testimony—Glorious.
A little Jewish girl in Palestine had been to see two missionary ladies. She could not remember their names, nor where they lived, but said: “I’ve been to see the two ladies who live next door to God.”
Testimony—Poet Laureate’s.
An intimate friend of Lord Tennyson, the Poet Laureate, was walking with him through his beautiful grounds. He was anxious to know, after all the beautiful things the poet had written about Christ, how far he had a personal interest in the Savior. So he said: “What is the Lord Jesus to you?” The poet plucked a daisy from the lawn, and said: “All that the sun is to that flower, giving it life, strength, beauty and fragrance, the Lord Jesus is to me.”
Text—Framed.
Many homes we enter are adorned with framed texts. They remind me of an old lady in Devon, formerly Matron in a War Hospital, to whom a grateful French Officer presented a beautiful engraved paper as a memento. She had it framed, and hung up in her room. One day a friend saw it and explained that it was a French banknote worth £400. So she took it down and cashed it. I sometimes wonder if those beautiful framed texts have been cashed by their owners.
DR. A. T. SCHOFIELD
Thanks.
A father, whose boy was at College was found weeping by his daughter, who asked the cause. “Mary, look at these letters: ‘Send me $50.00 for this, $75.00 for that.’ Always begging, and never a word of thanks or appreciation of all I have done for him, or of all my love for him. It hurts me.”
Thanks—Giving.
There was once a good king of Spain called Alfonso XII. When it came to the ears of the king that the pages at his court neglected to ask God’s blessing on their daily meals, he determined to rebuke them. He invited them to a banquet. The table was spread with every kind of good thing, and the boys ate with evident relish; but none of them remembered to ask God’s blessing on the food.
During the feast a beggar entered, dirty and ill-clad. He seated himself at the royal table and ate and drank to his heart’s content. At first the pages were amazed, and they expected that the king would order him away. But Alfonso never said a word.
When the beggar had finished, he rose and left without a word of thanks. Then the boys could keep silence no longer. “What a miserable, despicably mean fellow!” they cried. But the king silenced them, and in clear, calm tones he said: “Boys, bolder and more audacious than this beggar have you all been. Every day you sit down to a table supplied by the bounty of your heavenly Father, yet you ask not His blessing nor express to Him your gratitude.”
Theology—Humanistic.
Emil Brunner does not disdain the homely and familiar—a proof that weds scholarship to wisdom! He likened a cheap optimistic and humanistic theology that ignored righteousness and penalty to a woman diligently sewing but with no knot in the thread! Nothing to hold, nothing permanent.
Time for Recovery.
When Napoleon went on to the field of Marengo it was late in the afternoon. He saw the battle was as good as lost, but, looking at the westering sun, he said: “There is just time to win the day.” And giving his orders with characteristic rapidity, he turned defeat into victory.
“Touch Not!”
“Isn’t that lovely!” exclaimed a girl, holding up a most elaborately worked table center. “Very pretty indeed,” said her friend. “It must have taken you a long time to make.”
“Indeed it did,” replied the girl; “I kept an exact account of the time that I spent on it, and it amounted to four weeks, allowing eight hours to each day.” Later in the conversation, it came out that this young lady had given up her class in the Sunday School on the ground that she “simply had not time to prepare the lessons.”
Tradition—Foolishness of.
A Czar of Russia once posted a sentinel where none was needed. For two centuries afterward the spot was guarded because no order came to stop guarding it.
Tradition—Foolishness of.
On the coast of Maine, U.S.A., is an island that used to have a hotel and a post office. The hotel was burned down, and not a single person remained on the island. But the post office survived, and still (for all I know) survives. The steamer stops, at the deserted wharf every day, and the postmaster rows over from his home to meet it. Then he, and a man from the steamer gravely hand to one another an empty mail sack!
Trial Controlled.
A sheep dog, being of a wolfish nature, takes delight in pursuing sheep. The shepherd knows how to make good use of it, and what it imagines it is doing for its own pleasure is really for the welfare of the flock. But the shepherd keeps a keen eye; and should the dog be inclined to bite or harass, he instantly and energetically over-rules.
GEO. CUTTING
Tried in the Fire.
King George V visited some china works to see some special china being made for use at Buckingham Palace. A girl was painting some cups black. She explained that under the black was gold, and when the cups passed through the fire, the black would be burned off, and the gold would be burned in.
RUSSELL ELLIOTT
Tried in the Fire.
Two vases in the same works were shown to the King. Both were of the same material, and both painted in the same manner. But one was a beautiful ornament, and the other burned and unsightly. One had “taken the fire”; the other had not.
RUSSELL ELLIOTT
Trifles—Quarrels over.
A few Christmases ago our children received a few parcels and toys as gifts. In less than half an hour after opening the packages, they fell to quarreling among themselves over the wrappings, ribbons, and seals. Toys were forgotten in the dispute that arose over the tissue paper, etc.!
Trinity—The.
It is said of Augustine, the great saint of God, that he was once walking upon the seashore, while he was greatly perplexed about the doctrine of the trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in wisdom, power, and glory, yet three in one. As he meditated, he observed a little boy with a sea shell running to the water, filling his shell and then pouring it into a hole which he had made in the sand. “What are you doing, my little man?” asked Augustine. “Oh!” replied the boy, “I am trying to put the ocean in this hole.” Augustine had learned his lesson, as he passed on he said: “That is what I am trying to do; I see it now. Standing on the shores of time I am trying to get into this little finite mind things which are infinite.”
Trust—Simple.
A poor colored woman, who earned a precarious living by daily labor, was a joyous, triumphant Christian. “Ah, Nancy,” said a gloomy Christian lady, who almost disapproved of her constant cheerfulness, and yet envied it, “it is all very well to be happy now, but I think that thoughts of your future would sober you. Suppose you should have a spell of illness, and not be able to work; or suppose your present employers should move away, and no one else should give you any work; or suppose—” “stop” cried Nancy, “I never suppose. De Lord is my Shepherd: and knows I shall not want. It’s all them supposes that is making you so miserable. Better give them all up, and just trust in the Lord.”
Truth Tested.
A boy has gone to bed. Father comes home, and goes up to say “Goodnight” and show him a new mechanical toy. The boy wants the morning to come to see how it works. If we get blessing or new light, tomorrow will test how it works.
Tuned in to Distant Fields.
Many have heard of the sinking of the great ship the Titanic when hundreds of lives were lost. There was a vessel within a few miles of the disaster, near enough to rescue every passenger, but it never went to the rescue. The explanation was given later that the instruments on board the vessel for receiving calls were so keyed as to receive only calls from a distance of 100 miles or more, and the S.O.S. that went out through the fog was unheard and unheeded by a vessel close at hand. Surely, we ought to be ‘tuned in’ to hear the call from lands near to our own. Just across the narrow waters there are countries where the Gospel is almost unknown. We are conscious of the need of far off lands, but, perchance, we have almost forgotten the needs of people of countries that lie almost at our doors.