George H. Morrison's Old And Beautiful Devotions

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So Near and Yet So Far - Page 2
by George H. Morrison

He Was Intellectually Convinced That Christ Was Right

Again this scribe was very near the kingdom because he was intellectually convinced that Christ was right. With perfect frankness, and with full sincerity, he admitted that what Jesus said was truth. Nothing would have been easier for him than to challenge Jesus' answer to his question. It was a matter of endless debate among the scribes which was really the great commandment. And had he been seeking what so many seek in argument, not truth, but a dialectic triumph, he could easily have summoned his scholastic learning. But the scribe was not a disputer of this world; he was a genuine searcher for the truth. Weary with all his study of the law, he longed for a ray of light upon his darkness. And when he welcomed the doctrine of the Christ, and said, "Well, master, thou hast spoken truth," Christ recognized what was implied in that, and said "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." If he had flouted the answer of the Lord he would have been far away from the kingdom. If he had let the words sink down into his heart, that moment he would have been within it. But he gave them an intellectual acceptance— said "Yes, master, what you say is true"; and that, though it did not stamp as a citizen, was a mark that he was not far away.

Now I think that that very hopeful sign is one which meets us everywhere today. There is a greater respect for the teaching of Christ now than there has been for many generations. Men want to know what Jesus Christ has said on every relationship and every problem. There is a widespread feeling that in these words of His lies the true answer to a thousand questions. And so within the past twenty years we have had countless books upon the teaching of Jesus, and attempts innumerable to bring His words to bear on all the problems of our modern life. There is much that is hopeful in that deepening of interest. It is not everything, but it is much. It takes more than the intellect to make a Christian, for faith is something deeper than the intellect. Still, when a man comes back to the words of Christ, after a trial of the words of other masters— when he says to himself, "There are no words like these for none are proving themselves so true to me"— that man is not far from the kingdom of God.

He Was Near the Kingdom Because He Was Deeply Stirred by Jesus' Answer
And then, again, the scribe was near the kingdom because he was deeply stirred by Jesus' answer. Emotionally as well as intellectually he was very deeply impressed by Jesus Christ. You may often notice in the life of Jesus how deeply His hearers were moved by what He said. It was not cold truth they heard, but living, burning truth, and it profoundly moved them in sympathy or anger. So here there is emotional excitement; had you been present you would have seen a kindling eye. There is more than intellectual assent here; there is the stirring of a man's nature to its depths. It was a dangerous thing to acknowledge Jesus Christ, and the scribe would never have done it in cold blood. To admit in public thus that Christ was right was to expose himself to bitterest suspicion. And then the words that followed his confession are so torrent-like, and so intense, and so aglow, that you feel through them the excitement of the speaker, and realize how deeply he was moved. There is no sign that his conscience had been touched; there is every sign that his feelings had been touched. The crust of formalism had been broken through—he was no longer the cold and dry scholastic. And it was then, when he was so impressed— so ready for great action and decision— that Jesus looking at him said, "Thou art not far from the kingdom of God."

Now you have all heard it long ago that it is not our feelings which save us, but our faith. It is not by what we feel that we are saved; it is by laying our hand in that of Jesus Christ. It is the height of folly for one to trust his feelings when the Bible calls on him to trust his Savior. It takes more than emotion, as it takes more than intellect, to enter the glad kingdom of the Lord. But what I want you to realize is the value of our seasons of emotion in sweeping us forward to a great decision in a way that argument can rarely do. It may be that we come to church indifferent and a word is spoken which reaches to our hearts. It may be that a children's hymn is sung and its memories unlock the fount of tears. Or someone who is dear is called to suffer, or someone whom we love is called to die; or we have been ill, and are still weak and helpless, and a simple prayer is offered by our bed. In some such ways, and there are a thousand ways, we are brought to hours when we are deeply moved. And the crust is broken, and the deeps are stirred, and we cease to be indifferent and worldly. And I plead with you to seize these hours, and to seal them at once in personal decision, for in all your appointed journey through the world, you are never so near the kingdom as just then. I care not how deeply your feelings may be moved; I must tell you plainly that they will never save you. Could your tears forever flow you might still be an exile from the grace of Christ. But when your tears are flowing, and your heart is tender, you are so near the kingdom of the Lord that the pity is infinite if after all you miss it. There are times when a single step makes all the difference, as when a man is standing on the quay. One step, and he is on board the ocean vessel that will carry him over the deeps to other countries. But let him refuse that step and stand inactive, and all the feeling of which the heart is capable will not prevent his return to the old life, there to be haunted by a dull regret. Is it such an hour with anyone? Thou art not far, my brother, from the kingdom. It was never quite so near you in the past. It may never be quite so near you in the future. Take it by violence. Storm its walls now. Say, "I am thine, my Savior, in a full surrender." What a difference that will make in time, and what a difference through all eternity!

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George H. Morrison Devotions

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May 17

The Grace of Appreciation

She hath done what she could— Mar_14:8

Appreciation Alleviates Drudgery

Few gifts are more helpful than the gift of appreciation. It is like rain on the mown grass, or sunshine falling on the flowers. When one of our Scots ministers died, a very beautiful thing was said of him. It was said that there was no one left to appreciate the little triumphs of little men. Mrs. Oliphant, too, in her Life of Edward Irving, tells us that not a little of his influence sprang from the possession of this grace. "He addressed ordinary individuals as if they were heroes and princes; made poor astonished women in tiny London apartments feel themselves ladies in the light of his courtesy; and unconsciously elevated every man he talked with into the ideal man he ought to have been." A recent essayist has divided people into minus and plus people. The minus people are those who leave us poorer, and the plus those who leave us richer. Among the latter, in the common ways of life, where there is little applause and many a weary hour, are those who have appreciating grace. It helps folks wonderfully when things are difficult to know that somebody appreciates. It is always easier to march to music. A little word of appreciation now and then would make all the difference to thousands whose day's round is very largely drudgery.

Appreciation Is Different from Flattery and Praise

One must distinguish true appreciation both from flattery and praise. Flattery is veiled insult, and praise may be condescension in disguise. Newman has said that people shrink from praise, because the right to praise implies the right to blame, and Scripture warns us with no uncertain voice against coveting the praise of man. But genuine appreciation is different from praise or flattery, and for it every heart is hungering. A story is told of Robert Browning, how once at Oxford he got a great ovation, and when someone hinted that he must hate all this, he said, "Why, I've been waiting for it all my life." Men of genius, who would scorn to stoop to the passing fashions of the hour, are as eager for appreciation as the rest of us. Just as everybody yearns for love, so everybody yearns to be appreciated. The drudgeries of life are always lightened when there is somebody who understands. There are few nobler heroism's in the world than that of those who have to toil for years without a single appreciative word.

Appreciation Is a Mark of a Noble, Generous Nature

This gift of appreciation is always the mark of a noble, generous nature, just as the constant habit of depreciating is the sign-manual of littleness. To depreciate is not to criticize, for true criticism has an eye for beauty. To depreciate is to betray an uneasy feeling of inferiority. But generous natures are always self-forgetful, and are touched with a certain sweet serenity, and so have the heart at leisure from itself. "See," said Nelson, "how that gallant fellow Collingwood takes his ship into action." There is nothing harder than to appreciate richly the men who are doing the same work as we are. The noble nature of Sir Walter Scott is never more beautifully evident than in the appreciation which he lavished on the efforts of his inferior fellow-craftsmen. When I went as assistant to Dr. Alexander Whyte, Professor Lindsay laid his hand upon my shoulder. "Never forget," he said to me, "that all Whyte's geese are swans." It was a playful warning not to lose my head when I found that the least service I could render was appreciated with amazing generosity. Little souls delight in faultfinding; big ones in appreciating. Mean folk are always minus folk; it is the great hearts who are the plus ones. They add to life and make it richer; they call out all that is best within us by the sunshine of their appreciation.

Christ Appreciated What He Saw in Others

Then one turns to the story of the Master, and sees how gloriously Christ appreciated. That was why life blossomed in His company. When the woman broke the alabaster box, He alone appreciated what it meant. When the widow cast her mite into the treasury, He saw in a flash the splendor of her giving. Others appreciated a cup of wine; He a cup of water, and that was characteristic of His life. Hating sin as no man ever hated it, because He knew the Father with such perfect intimacy, the wonderful thing about our Lord is how He appreciated the common heart. He saw the worshipping woman in the harlot, the disciple in the despised tax-gatherer, the rock in the unstable will of Simon. Common things were beautiful to Him— the lily was more wonderful than Solomon. Sparrows, of little value on the market, were in His eyes fed by the catering of God. The love of woman, the wonder of the child, the fine things lurking in the pagan breast, our Lord appreciated them all. No wonder folk came to their very best with One who could appreciate like that, and so they are doing to this hour.

Love Is the Secret of Appreciation

It only remains to add that love is the secret of appreciation. Love is not really blind; it has the most generous of eyes. Professor Henry Drummond used to say that if you buy a box, it must be flawless. But if your little son with his rough tools makes you a box, very probably it has a hundred faults. Yet you appreciate that clumsy workmanship far more than what you purchased in the market, because it's the work of the little chap you love. Love wildflowers, and you come to appreciate what to other people are but weeds. Love the hills, and you find beauties in them that other eyes are powerless to see. When love reigns, as it is going to reign when God's Kingdom is established on the earth, there will be such appreciative grace abroad that life and labor will be set to music.

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

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May 18

The Blessing of the Unexpected - Page 1
by George H. Morrison

And they compel one Simon a Cyrenian, who passed by, coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross— Mar_15:21

His Physical Weakness Speaks of His Humanity

I want you, please, to note the words that are employed in Mar_15:20-22. In this, the greatest hour of history, every word is of supreme significance; thus we read in Mar_15:20, "They led him out to crucify him." And then we read in the Mar_15:22, "They bring him unto Golgotha." These two words are just a little window on to the supreme physical exhaustion of the Savior in this the greatest hour of His agony. You see, when He left the Praetorian they were leading Him; when they came to Golgotha they were bearing Him. He had started walking; He had stumbled; He had needed the support of these strong hands, and I think nothing could more eloquently speak to us of the full true humanity of Christ than just the awful physical weakness of that hour. For fifteen hours, since the hour of the Last Supper, our Lord had suffered the most awful strain, strain of body, agony of mind. "My soul is sorrowful, even unto death." Now, He was so utterly forspent that He staggered and stumbled in the way. "He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief." All this, my brother, He bore for you and me when He might have had hosts of angels at His bidding. Here, as at the outset of His mission, He refused to turn stones into bread, refused to avail Himself of anything that might break the bond between Him and us when He was dying in our room and stead.

The Romans and Jews Were Not Anxious to Alleviate Jesus But to Keep Time

It was the custom of these Roman soldiers to make the criminal carry his own cross, but in this instance that was quite impossible. What were they to do? No Roman would have touched the horrid thing—Roman shoulders were not meant for that. To have made a home-born Jew bear it would have been to court uproar; and just then, coming down the way that probably led from the uplands about Bethany, they saw the very person that they wanted. Others were travelling in companies, this man was travelling alone. His dark skin showed that he was a foreigner; his costume showed he was an African; he was a stranger who had no kith or kin, he was far from home, probably friendless. This was the very person that they wanted. I don't suppose these soldiers pitied Christ; half an hour before they had been mocking Him; they were irritated at the loss of time, things were not going according to their program, and they cried, "You, you, Cyrene come here!" (He was known afterwards as Simeon Niger.) And him they compelled to bear the cross. This Gospel is very rich in vivid touches; is there a touch so vivid as this one?—the sinking Savior, the irritated soldiers, the dark-skinned foreigner coming from the country, and over everything the blue heaven, and the birds singing as they used to sing when Jesus was a happy boy at home.

A Man Can Serve Christ Although He May Be Ignorant as to Who He Is

I want for a little while just to try and show you some of the teaching of that story, and in the first place, will you notice how a man can serve Christ though he is utterly ignorant who He is. I don't imagine for a single moment that Simon had ever seen the Lord before. Possibly, and indeed probably, he had never even heard His name, for the Lord's name had not penetrated Africa, and it was in Africa Simon had his home. Probably he had just arrived the other day. Then, you observe, he was coming from the country; that means he had his lodging in the country. At Passover the city was so full that many had to get lodgings in the country, and therefore that morning, coming to the city, he had no idea who the prisoner was— he was doing something for somebody he did not know. The strange thing is that he was called to serve somebody whom he had never heard of; called to help in a great hour which was going to change the future of the world; called not to a little service, but to a great service, so splendid and unique that any of Jesus' disciples might have envied him. Mary broke the spikenard on His head; Martha made Him a supper in the evening; Joseph served by giving Him a grave, Lazarus by giving Him a cottage; but all these services, however beautiful, are not to be matched with this of Simon when he relieved the Lord of the burden of His cross. To him and to him alone was it given to help our Savior in His deepest need, to him to relieve Him of His cross when all the others forsook Him and fled. And how profoundly significant it is that this service, such a glorious service, was rendered to the Christ he did not know. And then one thinks of the parable of Jesus about the Last Judgment of the world: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom that is prepared for you; for I was hungry and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink," and then the blessed are going to say in frank astonishment, "Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or thirsty?" You see, evidently in the mind of Christ thousands are serving Him who never knew Him— in little actions, in the kindly loving deeds, in the little offices of courtesy and love; and what is to hinder us widening out that thought to the great services of men written in the history of the world? The men who built these highways across continents— they were serving Christ although they never knew it; the men who constructed railways across Africa— they were serving Christ although they never knew it; the man who invented printing, though he may never have thought about the Lord, he too has been a magnificent evangelist. So was it with Simon; he knew nothing of the prisoner, he had not the least idea whom he served when he carried the cross up the hill, but he was serving the Lord Christ, he was helping on the coming of His kingdom. He has got his reward.

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The Blessing of the Unexpected - Page 2
by George H. Morrison

The Unexpectedness of Life

And then, another thought embodied in our story is just the unexpectedness of life. This was the great hour in Simon's history, and it just came to him like a bolt out of the blue. You have got to picture him that beautiful spring morning leaving the cottage where he had had his bed, crossing the fields brilliant with anemones, going up the pathway to the city, meditating on the goodness of the Lord in bringing him to the city of his dreams and allowing him to see the holy place. He had come there to celebrate the Passover, and that done, he was going home again to his wife and his two boys in Africa who had been praying for him every day; and just then, dreaming his own dreams and meditating upon the God of Jacob, he was gripped and brought into the presence of the Lord. And one feels how it would come to him all in a moment that he was present at the greatest hour of history, the hour for which the world had been waiting, the hour that the Psalmist had foreseen, the hour that the prophets had foretold, and it just came to him without any sound of trumpets. Simon dreaming his own dreams, his greatest hour met him by the way. And I scarcely need to tell you how true that is of life. Have not we a proverb in almost every language that it is the unexpected thing that happens? Joseph came out to see how his brothers fare, and Joseph is never going to see his home again. David in the morning is king, and when night falls he is flying from his son. Matthew is sitting at the receipt of custom; somebody speaks to him and calls him, and the future is never to be the same again. How often our sorrows take us unexpectedly! How often our joys take us unexpectedly! How often the things we have looked for never come, the things that we never looked for have arrived: all of which should teach us not that life is chance, but that our highest wisdom is to trust Him when we know not what an hour may bring forth. How often Jesus meets us unexpectedly when our thoughts are busy upon something else! And I beg of you never to forget that that is how the Lord is going to come, in an hour when you never think of it. If you and I were in the hands of fate, life's unexpectedness would be its tragedy; but we are not, thank God, in the hands of fate. We are in the hands of One who loves us and who knows us; One who sees the fall of every sparrow, in whose eternal love is no tomorrow, whose everlasting purposes embrace, as Wordsworth says:

"Whose everlasting purposes embrace all accidents, converting them to good."
"Almost by the merest chance I met the Lord." I dare say Simon spoke like that. "Had I overslept myself by half an hour I never would have stumbled on the Savior." He did not oversleep himself, because the Lord God is merciful and gracious and loved him from the foundation of the world.

We Are Blessed by the Things We Are Compelled to Do

Then the last lesson which I want to touch on is this, how men are blessed by the things they are compelled to. As the years went by and Simon's hair grew white, I am perfectly certain he often thought of that. Will you please observe he was compelled; his wishes were not consulted in the matter. Very probably he was rebellious; this was degrading to an honest Jew, and then, was not he due in the Temple at that hour, and was not this interfering with his plans? But it was no use struggling; he was one, the might of Imperial Rome legion; better to yield to the inevitable, although he did it with a curse within his heart. And the beautiful thing is that just that bitter task to which he was compelled proved the glory of his life. There is no question that he became a Christian. Alexander and Rufus were members of the Church. Mark talks as if everybody knew them; they were familiar figures in the Church at Rome, and all the blessing and the altered home, and the new deepened spiritual relationships came from something to which he was compelled. If he had had his way that morning, if nobody had interfered with him, if he had been allowed to do just as he pleased, he would have gone back to Africa, and we would never have heard of him. But the bitter thing he had to do, doing it perhaps with a curse within his heart, was just what proved his blessing. There are things in your life you are compelled to do; there are things in your life you are compelled to bear. Sometimes you think that if you were only free from them life would become sunshine and music, but one of the deepest lessons of this life is that things we are compelled to are the road to character and heaven. Accept that task you have got to do; accept that burden you are compelled to bear. The wonderful thing is how often it proves the very cross of Christ; it brings you into His fellowship; it deepens your character; it steadies you; it gives you the kingdom and the patience of the Lord; it draws you into sympathy with others. Simon became quite a noble character through the bitter thing he was compelled to. Has not it been the same with you and me?

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

Dist. Worldwide in the Great Freeware Bible Study package called
e-Sword by Rick Meyer: http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html
Full Featured - Outstanding - Completely FREE - No Strings Attached

(The goal of Rick Meyer is to distribute excellent Bible Study
Software to every country on earth in their own language FREE
of charge, and that goal gets closer by the day.)
____________________

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May 19

Misunderstood - Page 1
by George H. Morrison

Behold, he calleth Elias— Mar_15:35

Christ's Life Began and Ended in Misunderstanding

We are here in the center of the Gospel mystery. It is the closing scene in the earthly life of Jesus. Jesus has been betrayed, He has been scourged and crucified, and in a little while the sorrow will be over. It is then that in His unutterable agony He cries, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani"—and some of them that stood by when they heard it said, "Behold, He calleth Elias." They misinterpreted that last dear cry. They thought He was speaking to Elias and not to God. So at the very end, and on the cross itself, Jesus was misunderstood.

The strange thing is that what happened in this last scene of the life of Jesus had happened also in the first of which we read. It had happened on that memorable occasion when Jesus was a lad of twelve years old, and had gone up with Mary and Joseph to Jerusalem. There they had lost Him—you recall the story—and they hurried back to Jerusalem to find Him; and all the time they thought it was childish wantonness—the careless wandering of a happy boy. "Son," said Mary, "why hast Thou thus dealt with us? Behold thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing": and He said unto them, "How is it that ye sought me: wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" His nearest and His dearest misconstrued Him. There were purposes of heaven in His waiting, and they thought at the best it was a boyish frolic. So Christ began by being misunderstood, and ended misunderstood on Calvary.

The Way in Which Jesus Was Misunderstood

On that subject I wish to speak tonight— the way in which Jesus was misunderstood. And the very fact that He was so misunderstood is a tribute to the greatness of our Lord. There is, it is true, a very real sense in which we are all of us misapprehended. Even the shallowest heart is far too deep ever to utter itself aright to any man. Yet in large measure we understand each other when we are moving on the same lines and levels; it is when a man is transcendently original, that he is certain to be misunderstood. Men did not misinterpret John the Baptist; they recognized him as a prophet and they honored him. And I feel that Jesus must be greater than John when the whole nation misunderstood Him so.

You will observe, too, that if Christ was misunderstood it was not from any subtlety of character. If He was supremely great, do not forget that He was supremely simple— His life is transparent as the finest glass. It is hard to say how high the mountain is when the mists hang round it and it is wrapped in cloud; and there are men like that— men who never reveal themselves, and such men are certain to be misinterpreted. If you have not the courage to be a clear, straight man, you must not wonder if we all misjudge you. It is part of the penalty which every hypocrite pays that he is involved in perpetual misunderstandings. But Christ? He was sincerity incarnate! filled with one passion and pressing for one goal. There was never such a simplicity on earth as that of the character of Jesus; yet for all that there never was a character which was so hopelessly misunderstood. Is not that very strange? I think it is. It sharpens the thorn in my Redeemer's crown. Great Savior! who wast so true and open— it was Thou who wert misunderstood!

Men Misunderstood Christ's Motives

I want to follow that misinterpretation into one or two spheres of the earthly life of Jesus: and I notice first that men misunderstood His motives. Think for example of His healing miracles— "He casteth out devils by Beelzebub," they said. There was no gainsaying that the devils were routed, and that the sick were healed, and that the dead were raised. It was all part and parcel of Christ's gracious ministry. It was the kingdom of God coming with power among them. That was the motive of it— let God's kingdom come. That was the meaning of it— let sin be overthrown. And "He casteth out devils by Beelzebub," they said. Or think of His eating with publicans and sinners. You know the motive of that condescension? It was love— it was love unutterable for mankind— that shattered the barriers and made Christ a brother. But "He is a gluttonous man and a winebibber," they said. "He feels at home with sinners, and so He eats with them." That condescension spelled out love divine, and they thought it was proof positive of guilt.

If you are Christ's you must expect that too, for the servant is not greater than his Lord. If you are truly in earnest about the kingdom, and striving to live along the lines of Jesus, be sure your motives may be misconstrued. There is not a deed you do but men may question it, and run it back into your secret thought, and if there be two possible motives for it, you may be certain that the world will choose the worse. Tell me what are you really thinking in the very moment when you are praising so and so? Ah, if we could only read your thoughts sometimes, I fear we might think little of your praise. It is that knowledge which keeps a Christian steadfast through the world's censure and the world's applause. In the light of Christ he has learned to expect his motives to be misunderstood. And so he takes the world's praise very lightly, detects the fester at the roots of it, lifts his brow heavenward, goes forward to his duty, and leaves his final judgment to God.

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[nChrist]

Misunderstood - Page 2
by George H. Morrison

Christ's Speech Misunderstood

Again I remark that men misunderstood the mystical and poetic speech of Jesus. They took Him very prosaically and literally when He only meant to suggest as music does, and so time and again they misconstrued Him. Take for example one of His early words, "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again." And as He spake, I doubt not, He would wave His hand toward His own body. That was the Temple, the home of the living God, a thousand times greater than these mighty stones; but they were literalists— the Temple? There it was— and not one Jew in all the circle caught the rich suggestion of the Lord. So, too, in the sad sweet story of the home at Bethany you recall how Jesus said to His disciples, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." And they all loved Jesus— that little band of followers— and love gives a man eyes to understand. Yet they answered at once, "Lord if he sleep, he shall do well," and Jesus, with a touch of pity at their dullness, had to tell them plainly that Lazarus was dead. They had not grasped the sweet suggestion of the word. They took Christ literally and misunderstood Him— and yet they were His disciples, and they loved Him.

I think that Jesus is still misunderstood that way. There are men who love Him as these disciples did, and who are striving to serve Him in a life of duty, but they have taken the music of His speech, that was meant to suggest and to lead into the infinite, and they have built their arguments upon the letter of it, forgetting that it is the spirit that giveth life. Believe in the possibilities of Jesus' speech. No creed or commentary can ever exhaust it. It may have been interpreted a thousand times, but there is some new gleam of heaven in it for me. Take all the words of Jesus at their largest. Be not afraid: expand them infinitely. In everything He ever said there is far more than has ever yet been grasped by Christendom.

The Silence of Jesus Misunderstood

The world, then, misunderstood the speech of Jesus; but it also misunderstood His silence. There is no clearer instance of that in the four Gospels than in the scene we read from the Gospel of Luke tonight. Christ had been sent by Pilate to Herod, and Herod when he saw Him was exceeding glad. He plied his prisoner with ceaseless questions, and he hoped to have seen some miracle at last. But Christ would do no miracle and would answer nothing. Silent and unresponsive, He stood still. And if ever the silence of Jesus was misunderstood, it was that day by Herod. He took it as a confession of His impotence. It was because Christ was powerless, that He was speechless. The dignity of it, and all the royalty of it, was lost on Herod. He misunderstood the silence of the Christ.

Is not Christ's silence still misunderstood? There is nothing harder for many a mind to grapple with than the apparent silence of our ascended Lord. It is not what God does, it is what He fails to do; it is not what Christ says, it is what He fails to say, that puzzles and perplexes many an earnest soul. Has He no word of answer when we cry to Him? Does He not hear the moaning of the world? Why are the heavens of brass, when such things happen? Is there no eye to pity this poor earth? Until we are tempted to say, He does not know: until we are tempted to cry, He does not care: and all the time, like Herod in the Gospel, we have misunderstood the silence of the King. Not that I can explain that silence. It is inscrutable and mysterious and dark. But I am determined not to misinterpret it; I shall suspend my judgment till the glory. And then, I take it, it will so shine with meaning and will be so bright with patience and with love, that at last I shall begin to understand the mysterious silence of my Lord.

Misconstruing the Part as the Whole

One word and I have done. Come back to our text again before we close. "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani," and when they heard it they said He calleth Elias. Do you see the reason why they misunderstood Him? They had only caught a fragment of His speech. They had only heard a syllable or two. Had they caught the whole of it— let the whole sentence sink into their hearts— they would have known that He was calling upon God.

There never was a time when Christ was more misunderstood than now, for the very reason that we find at Calvary. There was never a time when fragments of the Gospel were proclaimed with such assurance as the whole round truth. One man will take the Sermon on the Mount, and neglecting everything else say, This is Christianity. Another can think of nothing but the sacrifice: the whole of the Gospel is in that for him. They are like the men who heard "Eloi Eloi," and said at once, "He is calling for Elias." It is wonderful, I grant you, what a single word— what a mere fragment will do for any soul. A few stray syllables, like a strand of rope, may save a sinner and bring him to the shore. But for you who are Christians that is not enough. You must study and strive to have a full rich Gospel. To take a part and think it is the whole is the sure way of misunderstanding Christ. Therefore reject not uncongenial truths. Embrace the whole: come like a child to it. Believe that wherever God Almighty works, there must be infinite compass and unfathomable depth. So slowly, and amid many things you cannot reconcile, you will draw nearer to the truth as it is in Jesus, until at last in the land where there are no misunderstandings any more, you will know even as also you are known.

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

Dist. Worldwide in the Great Freeware Bible Study package called
e-Sword by Rick Meyer: http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html
Full Featured - Outstanding - Completely FREE - No Strings Attached

(The goal of Rick Meyer is to distribute excellent Bible Study
Software to every country on earth in their own language FREE
of charge, and that goal gets closer by the day.)
____________________

[nChrist]

May 20

Behold the Place: an Easter Message - Page 1
by George H. Morrison

Behold the place where they laid him— Mar_16:6

The Angel Kindly Compelled Them to Come and See

It was a kindly compulsion of the angel that bade the women come and see that place. They would bless him for it in the after-days. The story shows us that they were affrighted, a great dread fell upon their hearts. In hours when the unseen draws very near, such dread is natural to men and women. And these women, when they descried the angel, would be tempted to turn away and flee, in a kind of panic we can understand. It was to such affrighted souls the angel cried, "Come, behold the place where the Lord lay." They must know for a certainty the place was empty. They must see with their own eyes He was not there. And we can well imagine how in the after-days, when they had to stand the brunt of cross-examination, they would be grateful for that compulsion of the angel. He was not gratifying their curiosity. He was giving them solid ground to rest on. He was giving them something definite and positive wherewith to face the questionings of others. Had they fled affrighted they could have borne no testimony save that the stone was rolled away. Now they could proclaim that He was risen. That was the import of the command for them. Has it any significance for us? Let us meditate a little upon that.

The Message of the Empty Grave: God Had Not Forsaken Jesus

When we behold the place where the Lord lay we realize that God had not forsaken Him. We recognize the faithfulness of God in the mysterious darkness of the tomb. On the Cross our blessed Lord had cried, "My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?" There was a darkness on His Father's face as He endured the agonies of Calvary. And then the shadows deepened, and the night encompassed Him, and they removed His body from the Cross, and laid it in the house appointed for all living. Was this the end of all that perfect fellowship? Had God forgotten to be gracious? Was He suffering His Holy One to see corruption, even though the grave was in a garden? Come, says the angel to our questioning hearts, behold the place where they laid Him. Had it been tenanted we might have cried, "It was a beautiful dream, but it is over now." All that He lived for, all that He came to do, has been flouted by the irony of death. But if the place be empty, when men have done their worst, and carried Him from Calvary to the tomb, then God is present even in the darkness. He has not forsaken His beloved Son. He has justified His claims and sealed His testimony. He has crowned with His divine approval that life of beauty and that death of sacrifice. We hear God saying in that empty grave, as clearly as at the hour of baptism, "This is my beloved Son."

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[nChrist]

Behold the Place: an Easter Message - Page 2
by George H. Morrison

Death Is Conquered

Again, when we behold the place where the Lord lay we realize that death is conquered. The last great enemy is overcome, and the power of the grave is broken. Still death has a dark and awful shadow. Sooner or later it knocks at every door. It touches the fairest flowers and they wither. It robs us of dear ones who made life like music. But the empire of death is now a broken empire, one day to be finally destroyed, because Christ our representative is risen. He is the second Adam. He is the Son of Man. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He wore a crown of thorns as we all do. He passed into the silence of the grave. And if death was powerless to hold Him, and had to give Him up and let Him go, there steals on the ear the distant triumph song. What a victory it would have been for death if he could have held in his grip that second Adam! How he must have summoned all his powers to keep watch and ward over that peerless Prisoner. And then the angel, sitting in calm confidence, says to our shadowed human hearts, "Come, behold the place where the Lord lay." He is not here; He is risen. The tyranny of death is broken. The Son of Man has proved too mighty for him, because the Son of Man is Son of God. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We Have a Living Friend

Lastly, when we behold the place where the Lord lay we realize that we have a living friend. He meets us as He met Mary in the garden, and as He joined the two on the Emmaus road. Memories are exquisitely precious. They enrich and deepen every life. They touch with beauty the commonest of scenes and set their hallowing on homeliest places. But for the battle of life and for our daily guidance we need more than the most sacred memories: we need the presence of a living friend. We need somebody who understands us, who has been tempted in all points like as we are, who has traveled the rough road our feet must take, who is ready to sympathize and to forgive. And it is then that the angel shines on us, as he shone on the women in the garden, saying, "Come, behold the place where the Lord lay." Look at it. It is empty. Life is going to have more than memories. He who lay in the grave has left the grave, to be the very same Jesus to the end. Closer than breathing, nearer than hands or feet; with us, living, to share our very life. "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

Dist. Worldwide in the Great Freeware Bible Study package called
e-Sword by Rick Meyer: http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html
Full Featured - Outstanding - Completely FREE - No Strings Attached

(The goal of Rick Meyer is to distribute excellent Bible Study
Software to every country on earth in their own language FREE
of charge, and that goal gets closer by the day.)
____________________

[nChrist]

May 21

In Another Form - Page 1
by George H. Morrison

After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country— Mar_16:12

We Are Not Told What Form

This is all that St. Mark has got to tell us of our Lord's appearance on the Emmaus road. It is in the Gospel of St. Luke that we have the exquisite story in detail. St. Luke tells us that when He joined the wayfarers their eyes were holden and they did not know Him. Although when He spoke to them their hearts began to burn, something interfered with recognition. And St. Mark tells us what that something was which kept them from recognizing Jesus— He appeared unto them in another form. What that form was we do not know. This is one of the silences of Scripture. The Bible can be magnificently eloquent, and the Bible can be magnificently silent. It was another; it was different; it was not any form they were familiar with; and then (as in the play) the rest is silence.

What God Gives Is Not Static as What Man Makes

I should like to say that if Jesus be of God this is exactly what I should expect. The work of God differs from that of man in the beautiful varying of form. Man builds a bridge, and it remains a bridge: it is still a bridge when fifty years have gone. Man constructs the engine for the liner, and that engine never varies till it is scrapped. And then God comes, and begins building, and one great mark of His handiwork is this, that it is always appearing in another form. He makes the oak— it is barren in November. It appears in another form in July. He makes the seed, intricate in mystery. It appears in another form upon the harvest field. He makes the hawthorn, flowering in May and burning with scarlet berries in the autumn. It is the same bush, but in another form. That is particularly true of sunshine, and our Savior is the sun of righteousness. One of the mysteries of sunlight is how it is always appearing in another form— in health, in countless energies, in the coal-fire burning in the grate, in the colors of the lilies of the field. Now, according to my Gospel, He who gave the sunshine gave the Lord. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. And I should expect, if Jesus be of God, as the sunshine and all the lilies are, that He would appear in another form.

Christ Is the Same and Yet Changing

One thinks, for instance, how very true that is of Christ in succeeding generations— He is the same, yet the form is ever changing. Suppose that some preacher of a hundred years ago were to "revisit the glimpses of the moon"—an able man, born of the Holy Ghost, consecrated to his heavenly calling— suppose he were to preach one of his sermons to an audience of our more thoughtful young people: does not everyone know what they would say? They would say, "That is an able man, and we recognize him as perfectly sincere. We admire his logic and we enjoy his eloquence, and we wish we had more of it today. But the Christ he preaches— dogmatic, theological— seems to be out of contact with our lives, and his message (to put it frankly) leaves us cold." Then folk talk of this degenerate age— as if Christ were a man-constructed thing; as if He were like that engine of the liner that can never vary till it is scrapped. While all the time the glorious thing is this, that to every succeeding generation Christ is appearing in another form. Always the same— always the Son of Man— always (as I believe) the Son of God; able to save as no one else can do, for He is able to save unto the uttermost— yet, like the lily and the hawthorn and the sunshine (these glorious but lesser gifts of heaven), too wonderful to be tied to one epiphany.

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[nChrist]

In Another Form - Page 2
by George H. Morrison

Christ Is Different in Various Individuals

One thinks again how very true that is of Christ in different individuals. That is where He differs from the creed or catechism, however indispensable they be. Your creed or catechism never varies, whether a man be a blackguard or a saint. It meets you with the same form of words when the bells are ringing and when the heart is breaking. But Christ, living, infinitely sensitive to the secret lodged in every separate heart, is always appearing in another form. How different the Christ of the converted criminal from the Christ of the philosophic thinker! How different the Christ of one of Cromwell's Ironsides from the Christ of the delicate and shrinking woman! Right down the ages, in our varying lives, you have the transcript of resurrection morning, when Mary supposed He was the gardener, and the two saw Him in another form. He came to Paul as the righteousness he craved for. He came to Justin Martyr as the truth. He came to St. Francis as the radiant Comrade. He came to Spurgeon as rest and satisfaction. Always the same— always the Son of Man— always (as I believe) the Son of God, yet in differing form to different personalities, and every form most exquisitely chosen.

Christ Different in the Advancing Years of Life

One thinks lastly how very true this is of Christ in the advancing years of life He is the "very same Jesus" to the end, yet different, in form, with every mile. That is where He is so like the Bible, for this is one of the wonders of the Bible. The Bible we cherish when we are growing old is identical with the Bible of our childhood: yet how different— how rich in new significance— how melodious with notes of heavenly music that we never had ears to hear when we were young. With every trial met and temptation mastered, the Bible appears in another form— with every illness, and every hour of heartbreak, and every cross that we are called to carry. And the wonder of the written word is just the wonder of the Word Incarnate: He is always appearing in another form. In ardent youth, the Lord of high endeavor; in the years of stress and strain, the Lord of rest; in the evening when the first stars come out, the Way that leads us home. And when we waken, in the brighter morning, there He will be just the same— and yet we shall see Him in another form.

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

Dist. Worldwide in the Great Freeware Bible Study package called
e-Sword by Rick Meyer: http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html
Full Featured - Outstanding - Completely FREE - No Strings Attached

(The goal of Rick Meyer is to distribute excellent Bible Study
Software to every country on earth in their own language FREE
of charge, and that goal gets closer by the day.)
____________________

[nChrist]

May 22

The Worldwide Gospel - Page 1
by George H. Morrison

Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature— Mar_16:15

The Gospel Deep and Wide

There are two directions in which the sway of Jesus is without any parallel in human history. The one of them is that of depth; the other that of breadth. All great movements may be judged extensively— that is, by the area which they cover; or, on the other hand, they may be judged intensively by their power of influence over the individual, and in both respects the Gospel of our Lord stands quite alone upon the page of history— in its depth and in its breadth it is unequalled. The one name for the followers of Socrates was the name of disciple, or of learner. That name was often on the lips of Christ, and is familiar on the Gospel page. But it is very significant that, as the days went by, and men perceived all that they owed to Christ, the name of disciple (for all its tender memories) gave place to that of servant or slave. That indicates with what a perfect mastery Jesus Christ controls the individual. His influence reaches to the depths of being, and possesses every power and every passion. Yet not less notable than that complete control is the area over which it is to reach: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." The two remarkable things about the Gospel are that it is deep as life and wide as all the world. It is a message of redeeming power for the whole man; it is a message of redeeming power for every man. And on that latter subject I wish to speak— on the worldwide message of the Gospel. First, let us look at it in its conception; next, in its accomplishment; and, lastly, in its obligation.

The Gospel in Its Conception

First, then, the worldwide message of the Gospel, viewed in the light of its conception: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
These words were uttered by the risen Lord when the agony of Calvary was over; it was when He was soon to leave His own that He commanded them to go into the world. It has been argued hence that this idea was only present with Jesus at the end. Had he succeeded in converting Israel, this destiny would never have emerged. It was His failure, we are told, with His own people, and the reaction of a brave spirit from that failure, that led Him to think that all might not be lost though Israel refused Him for its King. In other words, it has been argued that the worldwide message was an afterthought. It was not part— if I may put it so— of the original program of the Christ. It was the child of disappointed hope born of His failure with unbelieving Israel; the last dream, if not the last infirmity, of a noble mind. Now, brethren, there are certain of Christ's thoughts of which you can trace the development. You can see them forming with the passing days into the fullness of our Christian heritage. But the thought of the worldwide mission of the Gospel can never be included in that number, for from the first hour of His public ministry it was present to the mind of Christ.

Think, for instance, of that mysterious hour when Christ was tempted in the wilderness. The last temptation was the sorest one, and you recall what that last temptation was: "Then the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain and showeth to Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and saith to Him, 'All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.'" Now, how do our bitterest temptations reach us? They reach us along the line of our desires; they offer us immediately and in forbidden ways the things we covet and hunger for and crave for. And if in the desert the bitterest temptation was couched in dreams of universal empire, you may be sure that universal empire was the ruling passion in the Savior's heart. It was not in the sovereignty that the temptation lay. It was in the way suggested to achieve the sovereignty. It was in the prompting to take the nearest road instead of the blood-stained path that led by Calvary. And the very fact that Christ was tempted so when He was fresh from His mother's home at Nazareth shows us that even then there burned within Him the hope and the vision of a worldwide kingdom.

Or, again, take the Sermon on the Mount, which is the charter and the program of His kingdom. That it was spoken early in His ministry is not a matter open to dispute. Well, now, in the 37th Psalm you read that the meek shall inherit the land. It is not so translated in our version, but that is the only meaning of the Hebrew. The Psalmist is thinking of the land of Palestine, and thinking of nothing but the land of Palestine, and he looks for a day when pride shall disappear, and every dweller in the land be lowly. And now comes Christ, and strikes out that word "land," and in its stead He places the word "earth"— "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"— the bounds of Palestine have been submerged. And then, as if to confirm that spacious thought, He says to those who follow Him, "Ye are the salt of the earth; ye are the light of the world." Clearly, then, at the outset of His ministry our Lord had His eyes fixed upon the world. The worldwide mission of His Gospel message was not the late-born child of disappointment. In all its grandeur it possessed His heart when first He opened his lips upon the hill, and it abode with Him unaltered until the end, when he said, "Go ye into all the world."

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[nChrist]

The Worldwide Gospel - Page 2
by George H. Morrison

The Overwhelming Boldness of the Gospel in Its Conception

Now, there are two features in this conception to which I desire to direct your thoughts, and the first is its overwhelming boldness. If you would but reflect for a moment on the facts and on the circumstances that surround the facts, there is not one of you but would be amazed at the unparalleled boldness of the Lord. We have read of an Alexander conquering the world and then weeping that there were not other worlds to conquer, but Alexander was born in king's estate, and had a mighty army to obey him. We have read of Napoleon, with his vast ambition and his dreams of a mighty empire in the East, but Napoleon also had his hardy veterans, and his ambition rose with his success. How different from all this is Jesus Christ, who had not a single sword to back His claims, and who, in the quiet glory of His faith, believed in His worldwide empire from the first. Had He been born in Rome of Latin ancestry we might have better understood His outlook. For Rome was stretching her power into far distances, and widening the horizon of her children. But Jesus Christ was born after the flesh, of the narrowest and most exclusive race that ever lived. Yet out of the heart of that most jealous heritage He looked with equal eyes upon the whole world. In every land His Gospel would be preached; in every tongue His name would be proclaimed; the heavens and the earth might pass away, but His word would never pass away, and He— who was He to make these mighty claims?-He was the meek and lowly man of Nazareth, whose mother had never heard the name of Plato, and whose brethren moved about a village street. Note, too, in what a natural way our Savior talked about His worldwide mission. He did not dwell on it as one might dwell on something stupendous that was overwhelming Him. But He spoke of it as quietly and simply as you and I might talk about our work, without the slightest trace of any feeling that He had taken on Him a task that was too great. Think of Him as He sat in Simon's house when the woman broke the alabaster box. "She hath done it for My burial," He said. And then He added, in the same quiet voice, that wherever this Gospel should be preached in the whole world, there also what this woman had done should be told for a memorial of her. It is easy to say that the world to Jesus must have meant far less than it means today for us. I question if it did not mean far more than it does now, when you can telegraph to Africa. (Editor's note: And today when we can travel to the moon!) But at least to one who had seen the Roman soldiers drafted from strange regions of the empire, to one who had moved amid the crowds at Passover, drawn from the towns and cities of far lands, there must always have been a grandeur and a breadth in the conception of a worldwide mission.

The Originality of the Conception of the Gospel of Christ

The other feature is its originality. I question if we think enough on that. The program of a universal empire was as original as it was daring. There was nothing like it in the Jewish creed; the Jewish religion was rigidly exclusive. There was nothing like it in the Pagan world, where religion and the State were almost one. It was a thought transcendently original, and original because it was Divine, that now there was to be neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. It is not from particular promises that we learn the originality of Jesus. There is scarcely a beatitude whose germ, at any rate, you may not find in a page of the Old Testament. Christ is most deeply indebted to the past, and to those who sang and sorrowed in the past, but it is His glory that sets the past in a light that never was on land or sea. Take, for example, the thought of the Kingdom of Heaven, an expression that was often on His lips. It was a word familiar to the Jews, and its coming was proclaimed by John the Baptist. Yet between the kingdom of Jewish aspiration and the Kingdom as announced by Jesus Christ there was a world of spiritual difference. The one was earthly, and the other heavenly. The one was national; the other universal. The one had its seat and center in Jerusalem; the other had its bond of unity in Christ. The marching order of the one was this, "Come ye, and worship in the holy temple," while these were the marching orders of the other, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel." Remember, then, that we owe to Jesus Christ our familiar thought of a worldwide religion. It is one of the grandest and most sublime ideas that has ever been granted to the human race. And not to Greeks do we owe it, nor to Rome; we owe it to Jesus Christ our Savior, to whom it was given, not from the past of Israel, but from the Father with whom He was one.

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[nChrist]

The Worldwide Gospel - Page 3
by George H. Morrison

The Accomplishments of Preaching the Gospel

In the second place, let us view this worldwide mission in the light of its accomplishment.

Now it is one thing to cherish great ideas, and quite another to see these ideas fulfilled. We know what a gulf there is between a great conception and its actual achievement upon the stage of history. Sometimes the great idea proves impractical, and takes its place among Utopian dreams. Sometimes, in contact with the rude reality, it is so crushed and bruised that none would recognize it. I may recall to your memory two great conceptions that have fared in these two ways in history. One of the best-known works of Plato the philosopher is the treatise that pictures his ideal Republic. It is a pattern of what a State should be when ruled by the wisest and for the wisest ends. Yet this— this Kingdom of Heaven of philosophy— has had so little power in touch with fact that to this day, in spite of its moral grandeur, it is an impractical and unsubstantial dream. On the other hand, in the time of the French Revolution, there rose the conception of an ideal kingdom. Its watchwords were Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, and it was to inaugurate a golden age. So big with promise did that conception seem, and so like to be the dawn of the millennium, that for enthusiasts and generous hearts "bliss was it in that dawn to be alive." I need hardly tell you what actually happened— how hopes were dashed and aspirations shattered. The prisons were crowded, guillotines were busy, the streets ran red with the blood of slaughtered men. Here was a great conception of a kingdom within whose bounds there would be peace and liberty, yet, in actual contact with the brutal fact, it turned itself into a scene of carnage. Now think, in contradistinction from all this, of the worldwide Kingdom announced by Jesus Christ. Slowly and silently it made its way from nation to nation and from land to land. It was no impractical and unsubstantial dream, as could be witnessed by a thousand lives; and in the peace and power which it brought, it was true to the first design of its one Lord. As an actual fact, from the moment of its birth, the Gospel has been steadily advancing. It has broken down the barriers of class; it has survived the changes of the centuries. Nations have risen and perished in the world since Jesus moved along the ways of Galilee; ancient empires have crumbled into dust; new continents have swung within our ken, but still the Gospel message is proclaimed, still men are going forth with its glad news, still Christ is proving Himself in distant lands the wisdom and the power of God.

Now, not only is this an actual fact, but we must remember it is also a unique fact. There is not another religion in the world of which the same assertion can be made. If you can point to any other faith that has traveled far from the region of its birth, then one might think, on purely natural grounds, to explain the wonderful spread of Christianity. But such a faith is nowhere to be found in all the great historical regions, though some of them have had the aid of allies that Christianity would scorn to own. Think, for example, of Mohammedanism. With its consecration of sensual indulgence, with its sword of steel and with its heaven of sense, well fitted might it seem to win the world. Yet Mohammedanism has never touched the West, and, however powerful with its own people, it has never succeeded in laying its hands on peoples who are remote from its first home. Or think of Buddhism, with its so gentle touch and all the soothing of its voice for weary men, for two thousand years and more its spell has lain on the unnumbered millions of the East; yet in all these centuries it has never crossed the boundary that separates the Orient from the Occident; never wooed the nations of the West with its dreamy gospel of despair. Now, with both these, contrast the Christian Gospel. It was cradled in a little Eastern land, and within a hundred years it was in Spain; within a hundred years it was in Scotland; and now, when but eighteen centuries are gone, in the remotest East and furthest West, men, on fire with love for Jesus Christ, are preaching the glad news of the Evangel. There is nothing like this in the history of the nations; nothing like it in the story of religion. It is unparalleled; it is unique. I do not hesitate to say it is Divine. The steady progress of the Christian faith for him who has eyes to see and ears to hear, is one of the strongest of all arguments for the divinity of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel Is Triumphant in Spite of Forces against It

And this impression is singularly deepened when we think of the forces allied against the Gospel. It had against it the power of the State, and, still more powerful, the heart of man. I shall not dwell upon persecutions which fell with such terrific force upon the Church. Other religions have been persecuted too, and they, like the Gospel of Jesus, have survived. Far more remarkable than that survival from the bitter persecution of the State is its survival from these deadlier evils that lay in their infancy on its own bosom. When I think of the heresies which rent the early Church, of her gradual decline from spirituality, of the superstition of the Middle Ages, and the widespread skepticism it engendered; when I think how the Church has been rent into divisions, and how Protestant and Catholic stand apart, to me it is wonderful that men should ever dream now of carrying the Gospel to the world. As a matter of fact, not only do they dream it; every day they actually do it. Never before, in all the Christian centuries, has there been such eagerness to evangelize the world. And, when you think of the story of the past, with all its division and all its degradation, that glowing zeal of the Christian Church today is a mighty witness to the living Christ. Every power that could wreck the Gospel has been brought to bear on it since it was born. It has been persecuted, ridiculed, degraded; it has been wounded by foes and by its friends. Why, brethren, if Christ be not alive, I tell you that all that is inexplicable. I pity with all my heart the man or woman who says he does not believe in Foreign Missions; he is shutting his heart to such a splendid proof of the divinity of Jesus Christ. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature," and men are doing it to this very hour. To me, knowing the past, that is inexplicable unless the speaker was the Son of God.

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[nChrist]

The Worldwide Gospel - Page 4
by George H. Morrison

The Accomplishments of the Gospel Put Us under Obligation

And now, in closing, and in a word or two, this worldwide mission in its obligation. And, first, it is the duty of us all to realize what we owe to this command, "Go ye into all the world, and preach." Why, that has been the charter of our liberty; without it there would have been no Gospel here. I hear of some who believe in Home Missions, but have no interest in Foreign Missions. That attitude, I believe, is often due to lack of imagination rather than of heart. But remember, if a thousand years ago the Church had taken a standpoint of that kind, we should still have been living in a heathen country, and without a single hope in Jesus Christ. It is to the Foreign Missions of the past that we owe our highest life today. It is to men who left their home and country that we are indebted for the Christian faith. In spite of all that disgraces our profession, and all the indifference that fills our land, no patriot has ever done for our nation a thousandth part of what has been done by Christ. It is not fair to judge of Foreign Missions merely by what you see or hear today. Even that, when it is rightly read, is full of argument and inspiration. The Foreign Missions are as old as Christendom; it is they which started Europe on her course, and rightly to know the worth of Foreign Missions you must include that story of the past. But not alone must we strive to realize all that the worldwide faith has done for us; each one of us must make the text our own if we are truly disciples of the Lord. To some there has come the call to go abroad, and they have opened their hearts to hear that call. God grant that even today there may be others who will be drawn to dedicate their lives to this great service; but everyone of us, whether old or young, can play his part in this unequalled labor, and help on more powerfully than we know the promised evangelization of the world. Read, I pray you, with attention the story of that service in our missionary journals; take an intelligent interest in the matter, as I know so many of you already do; give it a large place in daily prayer, and be not content with general petitions, but, with a mind enriched by information, intercede for particular localities. It is in such ways that we can take our place, though we may not stand in the forefront of the battle. By prayer, by interest, by thoughtful giving, we can help the worldwide triumph of the Gospel. For that great victory will surely come, when the knowledge of Christ shall cover the whole earth, and happy shall he be who, in that crowning hour, shall be found to have hastened on its coming.

____________________

George H. Morrison Devotions

Dist. Worldwide in the Great Freeware Bible Study package called
e-Sword by Rick Meyer: http://www.e-sword.net/downloads.html
Full Featured - Outstanding - Completely FREE - No Strings Attached

(The goal of Rick Meyer is to distribute excellent Bible Study
Software to every country on earth in their own language FREE
of charge, and that goal gets closer by the day.)
____________________

[nChrist]

May 23

The Angels and the Babe

And, Lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them; and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid— Luk_2:9

God Speaks Your language

One of the messages of this beautiful story is that God speaks in ways we understand. That is part of His fatherly compassion. The wise men from the East had spent their nights observing the stars, it was no chance, then, that it was by a star that they were led to the feet of the Redeemer. But the shepherds, devout and humble Jews, had been familiar since childhood with the angels, and it was through angels that God drew near to them. I believe that the divine voice has a different accent for every differing heart. His voice is as the sound of many waters. There are things He says to every separate child which probably no one else could under-stand—His secret is with them that fear Him. That was so with the voice of the Good Shepherd. in what different ways He spoke to different people. He never dealt upon the scale of thousands; He always dealt upon the scale of one. And today He is on the throne, the very same Jesus, still touched with a feeling of our infirmities.

Vision Comes Along the Line of Duty

Another lesson of this story is that vision comes along the line of duty. it was when they were busy in their lowly toil that the shepherds heard the music of the skies. I wonder if any of them had stayed at home, leaving the work to be done by someone else. I wonder if any of them had slipped away to spend an hour in the tavern of the village. Then for such there was no music, nor any glorious singing of angels. That was given on the line of duty. There is an old story of a monastic porter, who in his cell had a vision of the Lord. Then came the clanging of the monastery bell. Must he leave the vision to go in answer? He went, and returning, the vision was still there, saying, "Hadst thou remained, I should have vanished; but thou wert faithful, and lo! I am still here." We are all tempted to flee away sometimes. We crave for liberty from common drudgery. We seem to be missing so much in the routine. We long for a larger life. But the angel music never comes that way. Heaven has never a song for those who shirk. It was on men who were faithful to their appointed task that there broke the glory of the Lord.

What Interests Heaven, Earth Disregards

One notes, too, that what interested heaven was something which all the village disregarded, it is a strange contrast to pass from the hillside to the crowded caravansary of Bethlehem. There were men from every neighboring village, and some who had traveled from long distances. One subject alone was on their lips; they were all talking of Caesar and his tax. But I do not think that the sharpest shepherd's ear, listening to the singing of the angels, caught a single whisper of the topic which was absorbing the travelers in the inn. The theme which was agitating everybody was not the theme which agitated heaven. Nobody gave a thought to Jesus' birth, and heaven that night thought of nothing else. So are we taught, that what the world makes much of may be insignificant in heaven, and what the world neglects may be supreme. To grasp that is one secret of fine living, it helps us to readjust our scale of values. The relative magnitude of things is altered when we live under the aspect of eternity. Some unnoticed and interior victory may be like the birth in Bethlehem, and set the angels singing in their courses.

Angels May Go but Jesus Remains

And then this exquisite story teaches us that angels may go, but Jesus Christ remains, in a little while the hillside was all dark again, but the Baby was still lying in the manger. The angels went, but Jesus did not go. The glory departed, but the Lord remained. He grew in wisdom, and lived within their borders, and toiled as the Carpenter of Nazareth. The vision of the angels was a memory, but the Babe they heralded was more than that—He was a living power in their midst. Now, for many, Christmas is a sad time. it is a season when memories awaken. We cannot help thinking of those angel faces that we have loved long since and lost awhile. But for us, as for the shepherds, Christ remains, a living presence, a Savior and a friend, the same yesterday, today, forever. He offers us His peace. He wants us to be sharers in His joy. He is here to break the tyranny of things, and in life and death to make us more than conquerors. With such a Savior, pardoning and powerful, who will never leave us nor forsake us, cannot we all enjoy a happy Christmas?

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George H. Morrison Devotions

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