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living? Why did you attach yourself to such and such a church? Was it merely that you might be counted or thodox? Can you say in your heart of hearts, "I would leave this ministry if I did not find bread in it. I would join another church if I should not lose social and ecclesiastical status. My limits chafe me, _ and I want some broader place, but dare not go forward, because I should leave behind me friends and patronage, personal and social ease and comfort” ? If so, I will not pray that your church may be empty, and that your wages night by night may be the keenest disappoint ment. God will see to it that your teeth are broken with gravel-stones, and that the issue of your hypocrisy will be as a candle blown out, a name hated; when you are buried, it will not he in the sepulchre of the kings, and God will see that Gehazi does not play tricks with Elisha’s staff; but he shall be un veiled, self-revealed, openly condemned, and die a leper without cure. BENEVOLENCE” “ Is it not distinctly affirmed in Scripture that we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the deeds done in his body? Why then, should Christians so indus triously plan that their good deeds should be done after they get out of this body? Is there any promise of recompense for this extra-corpus benevolence? “ And, after all, these benevo-. lences of the dead hand are usually nullified. By a strange irony of custom we call a man’s legacy his ‘will’ ; it is really too frequently an ingenious contrivance for getting one’s will defeated.” A. J. GORDON, D. D. “ EXTRA-CORPUS
The prosperous man—who has never had a day’s real sorrow in his life; who Jives in the temple of prosperity and in the home of ease; whose water is daily turned into wine; who touches dust and it becomes fine gold; who makes every bargain a success— cannot read the twenty-second Psalm, cannot under stand the twenty-third Psalm, does not know the meaning of the fourteenth chapter of John. He calls such Psalms and chapters sentimental, soft, wanting in practicalness; he thinks he can find something better in other literature. But let him be broken on the cross; let him just see once into the valley of the shadow of death; let him once know the meaning of the sandy wilderness, and the rocky desert, and the place where there are no poois of water; let once his heart be shattered in every hope, and the whole sky drape itself in appalling gloom; then let the Psalms be read and the chapter be uttered in his hearing, and he will say, “ This is the music I love, this is the voice 1 needed, this is the tender strain; read on, and on, for ever; for there is com fort in every tone, there is inspiration in every word; this is the balm of Gilead, this is as my Father’s house.” When the child is not awaked do not blame the staff; when the neighborhood is unaware of your spiritual presence do not blame the neighborhood or the Word, but seriously say to yourself, “ Am I Gehazi? Am I the wrong man with the right staff? Have I got the right book, but am myself the wrong reader? Is the blame in me? Search me, and try me, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and God be merciful to me a sinner.” When there is more of such self-inquisition, and self-searching, and self-immolation, we shall awake to a nobler earnestness and give ourselves to a broader and deeper devotedness. Why did you take the staff? Was it only to see a miracle? Why did you turn preacher? Was it only to get á
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