Students are accustomed to answering questions, so let me ask one. What are we here for? Did you ever ask yourself, “Why am I here on Earth? Why is it that God did not take me home to heaven after He saved me?” God saved you to make you a missionary. If you are not a missionary there is something the matter with your Christian experience.
You may ask, “Do you mean that we all ought to go to the foreign field?” No, but you all should go out into “the field.” God saved you to use you in service. …
“Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing; nevertheless, at Thy word I will let down the net.”—Luke 5:5
If you have ever climbed a very high mountain, you have, for many miles before reaching it, gone up hills and down into valleys. From the hilltop you have a good view; in the valley you are among the shadows. Such is the road to success in life. Success followed by failure, followed again by success; day following night, night following day; sunshine after shadow, and shadow after sunshine.
“How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”—Hebrews 2:3
Good News is the “good news” of salvation affected by the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation. The message I bring to you this evening is a message that will apply to all of us. It will apply to Christians, to those earnest Christians, and it will apply to Christians who are neglecting their Saviour, their ministry, their worship. It will apply to those who are not Christians, to those who are hesitating, to those who are neglecting the doing of that which they know …
“For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved the present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica.”—2 Timothy 4:10
This is about all we know of this man, Demas, but here, in a sense, a spiritual biography is recorded. You do find him mentioned in Philemon and in the epistle to the Colossians. For instance, in that letter to Colosse, Paul says, “Luke the beloved physician salutes thee, so does Demas,” and in that little classic, Paul calls Demas a fellow-laborer, but here, the only other place he is mentioned, we note a spiritual tragedy. “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved …
“And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom; and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him.”—Matthew 9:9
That is Matthew’s modest way of telling about his conversion. He did not tell anything about having a nice big house. He did not say anything about being rich. He left that for the other fellow to say.
I want to read to you what Mark’s Gospel has to say about the call of Matthew, second chapter, verses 13 through 17.
I am a Christian because I am a theist, and I am a theist because I am a thinker. Not necessarily a profound thinker, but my thinking machine is so constructed that if I will let it work it compels me to believe in a God who reigns in His world. A few weeks ago in an Arizona desert I saw the leaves of the greasewood covered with an oily substance designed, evidently, to prevent evaporation of sap during the long drought. I saw the mesquite bush with its large long roots evidently designed to store sap during the brief …
“And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me.”—Exodus 33:21
What God’s people might be and what they really are are two different things. Our interpretation of the truth, and our unbelief have fixed a great gulf between the two. This is not only true of the “higher critics” but also of multitudes who profess to believe the whole Book and stand for it in theory. They see their privileges and contend that they may be enjoyed, but how very few are they who really practice them.
Naboth was struck down with stones and dogs licked up his blood, but God was watching in displeasure. He took a hand in the matter and paid the instigator of the crime and all who were connected with him, in their own coin. 1 Kings 21:19 reads: “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood.” That was God’s promise to pay. Needless to say it was fulfilled to the letter. In a word, Naboth refused to give up his inherited vineyard to Ahab. Jezebel had Naboth stoned on a charge of blasphemy, so …
“Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the highways; who passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well.”—Psalm 84:5-6
The desert usually lacks but one thing to make it a garden. In southern climes it has light, heat and often very fertile soil. Water is the one need. And frequently there is abundance of water a few feet beneath the surface, rivers that flow through their hidden channels. The thirsty traveler has only to dig deep enough and he will find the cool, refreshing stream.
Address delivered by Mel Trotter at Fellowship meeting of the Sunday School Officers and Teachers, April 27, 1922.
In this end of the city you are but touching the border. Really the work you do here is just marvelous, but you are only just touching the great field all around you. You ought to be out after the unsaved boys and girls all the while. Take your class out and put them to work. We used to think that to do open air work we had to go out on the streets and preach. We are doing street work in …
