The Golden age. [volume], February 18, 1909, Page 3, Image 3

About The Golden age. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1920

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faithful friends of His. When they made the prayer
Jesus answered it in His own heart, but He knew
that it would be infinitely better for them and for
the world for Lazarus to die. Their prayer was
answered. What they wanted was their brother
spared to them, and though He carried them to the
grave yard to answer it, the prayer of His friends
was answered.
If there is one thing in the world that I am sure
of it, is that of Jesus Christ’s friendship for me.
Were it not for that I would not now be preach
ing. I sometimes think of the things that I have
given up for Jesus sake. I sometimes think of the
things 1 would like to do.but for the love of Jesus
restraining me. Oh, that friendship that guides and
protects and directs! I thank God for it.
Again, the salvation of Jesus brings to us the
possibility of prayer. How much would we take
for our privilege of prayer"? We do not use it as
we should. Sometimes we neglect it; sometimes we
neglect it so long that we are ashamed to go to
Him again. But listen, my brother, however far
from God you may be, 1 ask you, what would you
take for your opportunity to pray"? To know that
you can go on your knees any time, under any cir
cumstances, and pray. I was talking with a woman
some time ago about her privileges in religion 'and
she said, “Well, of all the privileges that I have,
the one privilege that I appreciate most and practice
less, is prayer.” The very next day I got a mes
sage from that woman, asking me to go off right
then and pray. She said that her husband, who
was an engineer, had just been in a collision, and
she did not know how badlv he was hurt. That
woman wanted everybody whom she believed to have
the ear of God to pray for her husband, and that
was one time when she did not neglect to pray her
self.
Prayer is well illustrated by the telephone. If
you want to speak to a friend who has the same
’phone you have, just pick up the receiver, tell the
central office what number you want, then there will
be a response at the other end of the line, and you
have the privilege of talking to your friend. God
has a system that the telephone does not hold a
candle to. Yonder is a friend in China, laboring
with the benighted heathen. I cannot call her over
Pie telephone and talk to her, because science has
never yet succeeded in putting telephone connec
tions from continent to continent. Yonder is another
missionary in India. Yonder are some warm hearted
loving friends in England. Yonder are others in
Australia. Yonder are some friends in Canada and
scattered over this country. I should love to see
and commune with those friends, and it has come to
me that God has arranged a mode of communica
tion for us through Him. I have connection with
Him and they have connection with Him, and so we
have connection with each other. Many a mother
has that connection perpetually made and is talking
through God to that son.
Oh, the salvation of Jesus. No wonder that the
wise man said, “He that winneth souls is wise” for
he is at work upon the wisest and deepest and the
broadest scheme that ever beat in the heart of God
or throbbed in the brain of man.
THE LIFE TO COME.
I have been talking of salvation simply as it re
lates to this present life. I have said nothing about
the life that is to come; the great hereafter. We
all believe that there is only the choice betwen two
places for the hereafter. One is hell with all its
hideousness, with all its suffering, with all its com
bined sorrows apart from God; the other is heaven,
the glories of which beggar even the faintest de
scription. And this salvation of which we are
speaking is a salvation that guarantees the friend
ship and the personal association and co-operation
of Jesus in this life and all that is good and holy
and blessed 'and happy in the life to come.
With this one word I want to close. My friend,
if there has settled over us the faintest conception
ot what it means to be lost or what it means to
have a lost friend or a lost loved one, there would
go out from this building such a restlessness, an
agony, an eagerness to grapple with the problem of
the unsaved about us that would bring things to
pass. The great trouble with us is that we never
really have had a conception of what it means to
The Golden Age for February 11, 1909.
be lost. We talk about the love of God until we
forget there is any such thing as the justice of oGd.
I have a friend, a woman, who was the wife of a
minister before he died, and who spent her day and
generation well in Christian life and service, and
who now is laid on the shelf because of old age.
Some years ago she told me this story of her own
personal experience. In her husband’s church there
was at one time an evangelist holding revival ser
vices. The attendance was poor. The church itself
was not aroused. One afternoon when there were
only about seventeen present, the man of God who
was conducting the services, said: “My friends, ev
ery one of you sitting before me today has a lost
soul hanging upon your influence and that soul will
at last either go to heaven or to hell. It may be
your child. It may be your brother, your sister,
your mother or your father.”
My friend said that when he said that the door of
her heart opened. She thought of her children at
home, none of whom were saved. She thought of
that boy of fourteen years, a bright, promising lad.
That boy especially seemed to step in through that
open door, and her heart was nearly crushed as she
thought of him. She said she never had such a
feeling before or since. When the service was over
she went home and straight to her room. She fell
upon her knees and began to pray. Her husband
came in directly and she said to him, “I want you
to join with me in prayer. I must have that boy
saved. ’ ’
Her husband said, “Yes, I have preached all
those years endeavoring to save other people’s boys
and it has never really occurred to me that mine
were lost.”
They prayed together until time came for the
service, and the wife would not go. She said, “No,
I can never face the people again until my boy is
saved. Our boy is lost. If he should die tonight
his soul would be lost forever.”
She went to the boy and urged him to go to church
with his father, but he said, “No, I have my ex
aminations tomorrow, and I can not go.”
But that night just as the invitation was being
given that boy was seen to step inside the church
door. But just as the service ended he hurried out.
The father went home and again joined his wife in
prayer. All the night they prayed until just about
sun-up the wife said, “I think you had better lie
down and get as much sleep as possible before time
to get up.” He thought he would, but he felt his
loving father heart throbbing so for his boy that
he thought he must go to his room before he could
sleep. So, leaving the mother down-stairs still in
prayer, he climbed the stairs to the boy’s room,
gently pushed open the door, and there by the early
morning light he saw that boy kneeling by his bed
with his head buried in his hands. As the father
entered, the boy got up and impulsively threw his
arms around his father’s neck saying, “Father, I
have given my heart to Jesus.”
Later in the morning at family devotions, that boy
led in prayer, and he prayed for the conversion of
his sister, and she gave her heart to God before they
left the house.
Oh, that God would baptise His church with such
a desire for lost souls! Such a revival would break
out in our midst that would startle the world and
set all the angels in heaven to shouting with joy.
n *
Preparing Tor Heaben.
The good are preparing for heaven. No one goes
home on earth who cares nothing for home, takes
no thought of it, does not plan with ardent longing
for the home-coming. The very life good people
live on earth is a preparation for heaven and an
unfitting of them for any other future. Each soul
will go “to his own place.” There is a legend of
an Indian chieftain who, migrating with his tribe,
journeyed over the high mountains and through dis
mal swamps, and at last, having reached a valley
fair to behold and good to dwell in, threw down his
burdens, exclaiming, “Alabama!” meaning “Here
we rest.” The true Christian is journeying toward
the real “Alabama,” the valley home of the redeem
ed, where they lay down their burdens and rest.
“They rest from their labors, and their works do
follow them.” There is such a “home for the soul.”
—G. B. F. Hallock.
Old Letters.
Fold them up tenderly, lay them away;
Dreams that have blossomed and died
Sleep in their folds, while time and decay
Seek 'their fair faces to hide.
Sweet was the birth of those beautiful dreams!
Sweet as the promise of heaven.
Surely, we thought, resting in their fond beams,
Nothing more sweet could be given.
Years! can it be that Time in his flight,
Has passed by the mile-stone of years
Since these letter's came, with promises bright,
Hushing our heart’s deepest fears"?
From their now faded lines so fondly we seek
The perfume of comfort to breathe;
So keen is the anguish that lips cannot speak,
O’er their loss we so bitterly grieve.
We could not believe did not the deep lines
That furrow our wan cheeks to-day,
Prove beyond doubt that the architect Time
Has chiselled their smoothness away.
I
i
es, years it has been since those letters were
penned;
And hope blossomed fair as a lily.
Now through the heart’s glen, where music flowed
then,
Wail autumn winds lonely and chilly.
The dear hands that penned them are still fondly
dear,
Tho ’ some ’neath the damp mold are sleeping;
While others have ceased their missives of cheer
To give to our heart’s sacred keeping.
Fold them up tenderly, lay them away,
Hopes to be realized, never
In this sad world of change and decay —
Lost to our earth-life forever.
Tenderly, lovingly, lay them away.
Who knows in the mansions of heaven,
Clad in the robes of reality they
Back to our heart may be given.
Mobile, Ala. S. BURTON LUCAS.
* *
A Year At His Teet.
What will be the result of a year’s tuition under
the Spirit"? A year with the wonderful Teacher will
so change you that you will hardly know yourself.
In one year of following the voice, with all your life
conformed to Him, what developments in love, in
humility, in patience, in spiritual discernment, in
faith, in wisdom, in light on God’s Word, what
change in outward life, what increase of power for
service may be yours!
1 hink what we might learn in one year in heaven
by talking with God, hearing Him speak, being under
the influence of His presence. But here under trial
is the place to be changed into His image. Our as
sociation with Him, and the degree of His power
over our lives, are limited only by the degree to
which we yield to him.
“The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you
all thing-s.” Great sums are paid for the most com
petent instructors, but who can estimate the value
of such a teacher? The poorest may have the best.
—Preface to the Morning Watch Calendar for 1909.
The lesson is for all. None can know what may
be God’s purpose in His discipline; but all may be
certain that faithfulness in little things is the evi
dence of fitness for greater responsibilities. Every
act of life is a revelation of character, and he only
who in small duties proves himself “a workman
that needeth not to he ashamed,” will be honored
by God with weightier trusts. —“Education.”
Why should one be content with being half a
Christian, devoted partly to God and partly to the
world? He hath bought, hath redeemed the whole,
and let Him take the purchase of His blood.
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