edness in the world, and there are many sinful people.” The preacher made no immediate reply, but they soon passed a small boy making mud pies. The child was very dirty. It was then the preacher’s turn: “Soap hasn’t done much good in the world, I see; there is still much dirt and many dirty people." “Oh, well,” answered the manufac turer, “soap is effective only when it is applied.” * "Exactly,” the minister replied, “so it is with the gospel.” — The Ohio Independent Haptist Missionaries are called to feed the sheep, not to amuse the goats. —R. A. Torrey Spent Twenty-Seven Times An Illinois man took a dollar bill, and pinned a piece of paper to it, asking everybody who spent the money to write down the purpose for which it was paid out, and to send it back to him within two weeks from the date mentioned on, the paper. At the end of the specified time, the bill came back with the following story: It was spent five times for salary, five times for to bacco, five times for cigarettes, three times for candy, three times for meals, once for automobile parts, once for groceries, once for laundry, twice for shaves and once for tooth paste. God never had a chance with that dollar. There are millions of other dollars that never touch the offering plate in church. Who comes first in life, God or self? Christ has made of death a narrow sunlit strip between the companion ship of yesterday and the reunion of tomorrow. —William Jennings Bryan The Perfect Reason “The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” (John 18:11). To a severely afflicted man the question was put: “Do you see any special reason for this sore trial?” He answered confidently, “No, but I am as well satisfied as if I saw a thousand reasons, for my Father’s will is the perfection of reason.” PAGE THIRTY-FIVE
Defeating Sands A man who had walked all the way from San Francisco to New York, many years ago, said that the hard est part of his journey was not in climbing the Rockies, high and cold though they were, neither was it the desert, nor the crossing of swollen streams and rivers. The thing that almost defeated him was the sand in his shoes. The enemies that almost defeat us, are not the external hardships through which we have to fight our way, but the little things, like grains of sand, that irritate and distress us. — The Secret Place Reformation is putting a new shirt on a man. Regeneration is putting a new man in a shirt. Discerning Sheep A man was taking a large number of sheep on a ship to Australia. As the ship neared land a heavy fog settled, preventing further progress. On the second day the man in charge of the sheep said to the captain, “I don’t know what to do, for the sheep won’t touch the hay." On the third day the man said, “If we are not able to land soon my sheep will starve to death.” Presently the fog lifted, and there, spread in all their beauty, lay the wide green fields immediately be yond the shore. The sheep, with their keen scent, had known the grass was near; therefore the hay had no attraction for them. Even though we cannot see Him, can we so sense the presence of Christ that the interests of the world fail to charm us? —Sunday School Times To live a martyr is more difficult, requiring higher energies of the soul, than to die one. —Horace Mann To Be Applied A soap manufacturer, who was not a Christian, was walking with a minister. Said the soapmaker, “The gospel you preach hasn’t done much good, for there is still a lot of wick
We Must Preach Not human experience, but divine redemption. Not economic ideals, but the gospel of Christ. Not culture, but conversion. Not personal reforms, but libera tion from sin. Not laws of progress, but forgive ness of sin. Not social reform, but spiritual sal vation. Not a new organization, but a new creation. Not benefits of civilization, but the blessings of Christ. We are ambassadors, not diplo mats. —R. P. Richardson The man whose faith costs him nothing pays for all he gets. The Wise Appraisal Do not wade far out into the dangerous sea of this world’s com fort. Take the good that God provides for you, but say of it, “It passeth away,” for indeed, it is but a tempo rary supply for a temporary need. Never suffer your goods to become your god. —Charles Haddon Spurgeon We can never herd the world into the paths of righteousness with the dogs of war. —Herbert Hoover The Best From the Word Study it through. Never begin a day without mastering a verse from its pages. Pray it in. Never lay aside your Bible until the verse, or passage, you have studied has become a part of your being. Put it down. The thoughts that God gives you, put in the margin of your Bible, or in your notebook. Work it out. Live the truth you get in the morning through each hour of the day. Pass it on. Seek to tell somebody else what you have learned. —J. Wilbur Chapman The path of service is bought with blood and tears.
JULY, 1947
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