Here is a working man who goes home on Saturday from the place where he works. His wife meets him at the door, expecting him to hand over the week’s wages—very happy at the end of another week’s work. As she opens the door she sees a very anxious look in his face. She says, “John, what is the matter?” “Mary, I am discharged. The place is shutting down. We are all discharged. There are thousands of men out of employment in London. I don’t know of anything I can find to do. I have no money in the bank, and I don’t know how I am going to take care of you and the children till work begins again.” And the man sits down and buries his face in his hands, and is filled with utter despair.
Another man goes home from the same mill. His wife meets him at the door, but there is no anxious look. There is a serious look. She says, “John, what is the matter?” and he tells her the same story up to a certain point. “The place is shut down; we are all out of work. I have no money put away for a rainy day, and I don’t know where to find employment. I don’t know how to keep you and the children from starvation, but, Mary, we believe in God and we believe in the Bible.” He hangs up his overcoat, takes out the family Bible, opens it at the twenty-third Psalm, and reads, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want”; turns to the sixth chapter of Matthew, the thirty-third verse, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you”; turns to Philippians, fourth chapter and the nineteenth verse, “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” “Mary,” he says, “these are promises of God. I don’t know how we shall be taken care of, but I know we shall, for these promises are sure.” I had rather have that in a world of change such as you and I live in, where a man is a millionaire today and a pauper tomorrow than to have the biggest bank account in England.
Take another illustration. The man goes home this time light-hearted, his week’s wages in his pocket, thinking how it will gladden his wife as he hands it over. As he reaches the door, his wife hurries to the door. The anxious look is on her face now. He says, “Mary, what has happened?” “Oh,” she says, “John, little Minnie is very ill. She has a high fever. You know they are having scarlet fever around the corner. I am afraid she has it.”
He hurries in, lays his hand upon the fevered brow, looks at those parched lips and that curious looking skin. He says, “Mary, you are right; she has the scarlet fever.” He sits down crushed. He has nowhere to turn, for a man who is godless cannot turn to God.
The other man—the Christian man—goes home. His wife meets him at the door. He sees an earnest look in her face. He asks the same question and gets the same answer up to a certain point—that she is afraid the little daughter has the scarlet fever. He goes in, lays his hand upon the fevered brow, looks at the symptoms, and sees beyond a doubt that his little child has the terrible plague. He says, “Mary, she has the scarlet fever, but we believe in a God that answers prayer, and I believe that if we pray He will raise up our child. But, if in His infinite wisdom, He sees fit to take her from us, we have brought her up to be a Christian, and for her to die will simply be to depart and be with Christ, where we shall meet her again.” He opens his Bible and reads Psalm 50:1515And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. (Psalm 50:15): “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” He kneels down and prays; arises and opens his Bible again at John 14:11Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1) and reads, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also.”
That is something worth having in a world such as you and I live in, and I would rather have that than the biggest bank account on earth.