428 a kind of hydropathic, where life has to be carefully nu rtu red . The church is filled w ith sickly, anaem ic, crippled spir itu al lives, instead of Christians full of h ealth and vigor, w arrio rs on th e b a t tlefield, and we have tu rn ed th e m in ister into a kind of sp iritu al doctor instead of a fighter or general in the army. The church is an army, not a hos p ital; it should abound in soldiers and no t abound in cripples and hospital patients. The m inister is a fighter, a leader of soldiers, no t a hospital a tten d a n t caring for sickly patients. My friends, th e re are to be no excep tions; we are everyone to be fighters; we are every one to be soldiers, “ en during hardness as good soldiers of Jesu s,” b u t th e sad th ing about it is th a t so few of us are w illing to stand up again st th e enemy. The least b it of tem ptation, or th e least b it of perse cution, and we are all down in the dumps and our feelings are h u rt and we go to th e m inister and tell him we are no t feeling ju s t righ t, and th e poor man, h e’s a doctor, instead of a general. This is altog ether con trary to the L o rd ’s ideal of th e th ing ; He w ants His people to have overflowing, abounding lives. I am very glad th e Lord didn’t say we are to be like the pool of Siloam; I am very glad the Lord didn’t say we are to be like th e pool of Bethesda. The pool of Siloam was a stag n an t pool; th e pool of B ethesda was an in te rm it te n t pool; an angel came and stirred up th e w ater a t intervals. There are a g reat many Christians ju st like th a t; they are eith er stagnant, stale, sapless, nothing fresh; or they are in term itten t. They spring up quickly during a season or revival and as quickly w ither away. Their lives are never steady, b u t spasmodic. F u ll of fads and fram es and feelings. Up and down, and more down th a n up. The Lord didn’t say our lives are to
THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S be like these, pools. He said th a t our lives were to be like an overflowing riv er of living w ater, Well, th en in w hat are we to be over flowing? I w ant you to tak e your Bibles and see w hat we are to overflow with. 2 Corinthians 8:7. “Therefore as ye abound in everything, in faith , and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see th a t ye abound in th is grace also.” ( “This grace”— th e grace of liber ality, as indicated in th e second verse of th is chapter.) We are to overflow first of all in faith. There are some who have no t got enough faith to warm th e ir souls, and they have little com fort in th is life and no t a very lively assurance and hope for th e life to come. My! b u t it is a grand th ing to m eet a Christian over flowing w ith faith. W hat a rebuke it is to our own lack of faith and w h at an inspiration to us! We are to abound, we are to overflow in faith. And it is no t to be a dummy’s faith. There m ust be utterance. Of course, th e m ajo rity of ladies are overflowing in th a t line, b u t it is no t th is kind of utterance. It is not talk ing about dress— society gossip— b u t it is talk ing about th e Lord, and th e th ing s of the Lord. I t is marvelous how many dum mies th e re are in God’s fam ily and how many dumb people are in God’s house. They will ta lk abou t politics, they will ta lk about base ball, and they will talk about baby un til they w eary you. Ju st get a company of ladies together and p u t a baby among them . Before many m inutes they’ll be talk ing all kinds of things, in all kinds of languages, and th ey ’ll ta lk and ta lk and ta lk ; but, dear, me, how little th e re is of th e over flowing utterance of the things of the Lord. Some will say, “ Oh, I ’m so retirin g ,” or “ I’m tim id and shy.” If you would
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