Broken Bread Part 10

"Offer it to thy Governor." If the Reverend Gentleman would not accept the congregation that meets for an audience with G.o.d, can it be expected that the Lord of heaven will be well pleased with those who care not to come when prayer is made?

We shall be glad if these plain words cause some of our readers to look at the sacrifice before they offer it, and ask, would this kind of thing be acceptable to man? If not good enough for my equal, will my Superior look with favour on it? Listen once more to the rough, but sensible words of the Hebrew prophet:--

"IF YE OFFER THE BLIND FOR SACRIFICE, IS IT NOT EVIL?

AND IF YE OFFER THE LAME AND SICK, IS IT NOT EVIL?

OFFER IT NOW UNTO THY GOVERNOR; WILL HE BE PLEASED WITH THEE, OR ACCEPT THY PERSON?

SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS."

FAITH MAKES THE GRAVE A CRADLE.

XXIX. "WHAT MEAN THESE STONES?"

JOSH. iv. 21.

[_Preached at a Sunday School Anniversary_.]

This is a children's question. G.o.d does not wish the boy to be snubbed when he wants to know. There is a kind of curiosity which is like the scent in a hound--a Divine instinct--and must not be checked, for that is waste. If you chill your child when he comes to ask, you may break the link which binds him to you, and never be able to weld it again. There will be a time come when you will long to have the lad come to your side, but it will be too late. "When your children shall ask their fathers . .

. Then ye shall let your children know" (21-22.)

OBEDIENCE TO G.o.d'S COMMANDMENTS WILL CAUSE OUR CHILDREN TO ASK QUESTIONS WHICH WILL BE A BLESSING TO THEIR LIFE.

This is very different to what is called "questionable conduct." We don't want your son to say "I cannot understand how my father makes his ledger square with the Bible;" or the girl to say, "How does mother make this love of display harmonise with the cla.s.s-meeting?" No, no! this is not it; but, "What mean these stones?" As the little girl said to her sister, "What is it makes mother's face s.h.i.+ne so after she has been in her chamber so long?" That mother had been praying to her Father which seeth in secret, and He had rewarded her openly. If we live lives of cheerful obedience, the children will say, "What is the Sacrament? What do you do at the Cla.s.s-meeting? &c. Why cannot I go with you?"

These stones are very suggestive. There are sermons in them. Some lessons which will occur to every one; others that need to be thought over again and again. For instance, there are twelve,

A STONE FOR EACH TRIBE.

They all came out of the bed of Jordan, and yet, there are no two alike!

Judah's is not like Napthali's, and yet both came from the same place, and are in the same heap. We are not alike, though we be the children of the same Father. You and I are very different, yet it is "Our Father."

Yours as much as mine. John Bunyan knew this, for he makes his pilgrim band to consist of very great contrasts. Mr. Valiant for-the-truth, as well as Mr. Despondency. And they all get across the stream.

It has been a favourite dream, in all ages, to have a church of one pattern. Uniformity, that is, all of one shape. G.o.d does not make the trees which bear the same kind of fruit of one shape. You can make artificial flowers by the s.h.i.+pload, all one tint, but the bees won't come round your s.h.i.+p when you unload it! In a town where I have preached many a time, there is a place of wors.h.i.+p at each end. As you come from the railway station, there is one which begins the town--a Baptist Chapel, plain and convenient, but right on the street, with the busy traffic all round; while at the other end of the town there is a church with a spire that makes you look up and think it is an anthem in stone! All around are old-fas.h.i.+oned houses, with gardens filled with flowers, and green lawns, while beyond there is a real country lane, with May in the hedges, and the music of larks and blackbirds. What a contrast! Yet if the ark of G.o.d were in danger, there would be brave hearts come from both places to die for the truth. No! let us have done with this wish to have all the same. It will become monotony. Go down into the Jordan and fetch your stone! Aye, aye, and one will pick the heaviest, one that will make his knees totter; and another will choose the squarest, and yet another the smoothest, but each man lays his in the heap, and it is well done!

"What mean these stones?"

WHY, THAT IT IS SAFE TO GO WHERE THE ARK GOES.

That chest is the sign of G.o.d's presence. There is the blood on the mercy-seat, and there are the angels of gold looking at that spot of blood. All the time the ark stood still in the bed of the river, the people could pa.s.s in safety. There are many Jordans for some of us to pa.s.s, but we need not to fear if G.o.d is there. There is the Jordan of POVERTY. It is a deep stream, and the water runs fast: yes, but if the ark goes first, thou shalt not be overcome. Does Providence call on thee to go down in the world? Never fear! the Ark is there. "I will never leave thee." We are thinking now of a friend of ours, not sainted, but saintly, who has seen great reverses of fortune, yet her life has been a psalm. She reminds me of a robin, for, like him, her song has been sweeter than ever in the dark days. You may have to cross the river of PERSECUTION, but the Ark is there. When the three brave men preferred the furnace to idolatry, they found the Son of Man in the flames waiting for them, and so shall you.

And when it comes to the Jordan of DEATH, we shall know the Ark has gone on before. Some of you lame ones will step it out bravely when you see the Ark. Don't you remember, that good old "Ready to Halt" left his crutches on the bank? It was because he could see the Ark in the bed of the river.

Do not these stones teach that

G.o.d HONOURS FAITH?

Brave Levites! Who can help admiring them, to carry that Ark right into the stream; for the waters were not divided till their feet dipped in the water (ver. 15.) G.o.d had not promised aught else. This is what is needed--what Jabez Bunting was wont to call "Obstinate faith," that the PROMISE sees and "looks to that alone." You can fancy how the people would watch these holy men march on, and some of the by-standers would be saying, "You would not catch me running the risk. Why, man, the ark will be carried away?" Not so, "the priests stood firm on dry ground."

We must not overlook the fact that Faith on our part helps G.o.d to carry out His plans. "Come up to the help of the Lord." The Ark had staves for the shoulders. Even the Ark did not move of itself, it was carried.

When G.o.d is the architect, men are the masons and labourers. Faith a.s.sists G.o.d. It can stop the mouth of lions and quench the violence of fire. It yet honours G.o.d, and G.o.d honours it. O for this faith that will go on, leaving G.o.d to fulfil His promise when He sees fit! Fellow- Levites, let us shoulder our load, and do not let us look as if we were carrying G.o.d's coffin. It is the Ark of the living G.o.d. Sing as you march towards the flood.

These stones we can see, remind us of other stones we cannot see (verse 9.) "And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests which bare the Ark of the Covenant stood, and they are there unto this day." Will these stones ever be found? More unlikely things have happened. Any way, they serve us as a lesson. There are things unseen as real as things we look on every day.

ORDINANCES ARE SIGNS AS WELL AS REMEMBRANCERS.

What do you call that piece of wood there? Why, the communion rail, to be sure. Communion? what does that mean? It is only a piece of wood, and yet it makes us think of Him Who, the same night that He was betrayed, took bread, saying, "Do this in remembrance of Me." Kneeling at that rail, we may, by faith, take hold of the Man who died for us.

Rightly used, the Lord's Supper may be manna--angels' food.

What is this day? The Sabbath. The Rest Day. The toils of life are o'er for a little time. Ah! this is another of the stones we see, which tell of stones we cannot see. There is a Sabbath that has no week-day; there is a world where there is no toil, no anxiety, no tears!

"O, long expected day begin!"

What do you call that sweet noise? Music? And what is that but another of these stones we can see, which tell of others we see not as yet. Dr.

Watts said of sacred music--

"Thus, Lord, while we remember Thee, We, blest and pious grow; By hymns of praise we learn to be Triumphant here below."

While I hear those children's voices I seem to catch the sweeter strains of my children in heaven, singing their joy. Those deep, manly ba.s.s voices remind me of the psalms up yonder--like the sound of many waters.

Why, the very c.r.a.pe some of you wear reminds me of some who sat by your side, and who are now clad in garments "whiter than snow."

x.x.x. "HE THAT SLEEPETH IN HARVEST IS A SON THAT CAUSETH SHAME."

PROVERBS x. 5.

We shall always be in debt to Solomon for these wise sayings, and for the pains he took to have them preserved. The words which head this form a picture. It is harvest-time, and the old folks have been depending on their able-bodied son getting in all their corn, but they are doomed to disappointment. He sleeps when he should work. When others are toiling he is snoring, and his corn rots in the field because he does not carry it while he has fine weather. How ashamed his father is! Other men have got their corn well housed, but his is still where it grew, because the son he has reared is lazy and self-indulgent. One feels that no language is too strong for this indolent young man.

But what has this to do with us? some will ask. We reply--Is not this the harvest time of the church, when the days are closing and the nights lengthening? Have we not been used to hear of special efforts being made for the rescue of peris.h.i.+ng souls, and ingathering of those who are in danger of dying unready?

ARE YOU ASLEEP IN HARVEST?

Let every Methodist who reads this ask--What am I doing? Am I sleeping or harvesting? What am I doing to gather in the ripe corn? If I am indolent I shall cause shame to the people who count me one of themselves. If we sleep now that we should work, at the March Quarterly Meeting our place will be down in numbers, and as there are others of the same indolent sort, our circuit will be down at the District Meeting, and perhaps the District be down, and there will be the shame among the churches if Methodism is down.

Other churches are used to look to us to shew them how to do the reaping.

O, let us be up and doing! How shall we dare to meet our Lord if we sleep when we should sweat? How shall we bear it, if the members of other religious societies tell us that our bad example corrupted them?

What will be our shame, if we find that those who expected us to gather them in accuse us of slothfulness, and destroying their souls by our neglect?

CAN WE EXPECT TO KEEP OUR CHILDREN, IF THEY SEE OUR FARM POINTED OUT AS THE FIELD OF THE SLUGGARD?

Will not very shame drive them from their own home to find one among those whom we once taught the way to reap?

We wish that we could do with all drowsy Methodists what Jonah's captain did with him. We should dearly like to give them a good shake and say, "Awake, O sleeper!" We think of towns and villages, where, not very long ago, there was the song of the reaper, but now, alas! he has gone fast asleep. Shame will be the inheritance of those who are drowsy when they ought to be at work. Why have contempt poured on thee, when glory is to be won by work? Grasp the sickle and go out among the standing corn, or the rust on thy reaping hook shall eat into thy soul for ever!