Thoghts
The Wanderer Received
Perhaps there is no subject in the Bible that takes hold of me with as great force as this subject of the wandering child. It enters deeply into my own life; it comes right home into our own family. The first thing I remember was the death of my father, I remember nothing about the funeral, but his death has made a lasting impression upon me.
After my mother’s subsequent sickness, my eldest brother to whom mother looked up to comfort her in her loneliness, and in her great affliction, became a wanderer; he left home. I need not tell you how that mother mourned for her boy, how she waited day by day and month by month for his return.
I need not say how night after night she watched, and wept, and prayed. Many a time we were told to go to the post-office to see if a letter had not come from him, but we had to bring back the sorrowful words, “No letter yet, mother.” Many a time as I walked up to the house, I have heard my mother pray, “O God, bring back my boy.” Many a time did she lift her heart up to God in prayer for her boy.
When the wintry gale would blow around the house, and the gale would rage without, her dear face would wear a terribly anxious look, and she would utter in piteous tones, “Oh, my dear boy; perhaps he is on the ocean this fearful night. O God, preserve him!”
We would sit around the fireside of an evening and ask her to tell us about our father, and she would talk for hours about him; but if the mention of my eldest brother should chance to come in, then all would be hushed; she never spoke of him but with tears.
Many a time did she try to conceal them, but all was in vain, and when Thanksgiving day came, a chair was set for him. Our friends and neighbors gave him up, but mother had faith that she would see him again. One day in the middle of summer, a stranger was seen approaching the house.
He came up on the east piazza and looked upon my mother through the window. The man had a long beard, and when mother first saw him, she did not start or rise, but when she saw the great tears trickling down his cheeks, she cried, “It’s my boy, my dear, dear boy,” and sprang to the window.
But there the boy stood, and said, “Mother, I will never cross the treshhold until you say you forgive me.” Do you think he had to stay there long? No, no, her arms were soon around him, and she wept upon his shoulder as did the father of the prodigal son when he returned home.
I heard of it when in a distant city, and what a thrill of joy shot through me! But what joy on earth can equal the joy in heaven when a wandering child comes home? The matchless parable of the Prodigal was recorded solely to show us the love and compassion of God who waits to receive into the relation of sonship every wandering soul.—MOODY.
Thoghts
Influence of a Mother on Youthinfluence-of-a-mother-on-youth
Take the history of Rehaboam. There is, in his life, just one short sentence which supplies the key, more perhaps than anything else, to his sin and folly,—“his mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess.” She was by blood an alien, and by religion a heathen.
Unhappy in many things, but unhappiest most in such a mother, he begins to be regarded more with pity than with astonishment. The letters written on water are hardly formed when they are filled up; on the other hand the finger that traces them on stone leaves no visible impression on its indurated service; but plastic clay, midway between what is hard and soft, offers to the gentlest finger a substance which both receives and retains an impression.
Such is the heart that youth and childhood offer to a mother’s influence. Hear how Cowper sings of the boy by a mother’s knee.—
“His heart, now passive, yields to thy command,
Secure it thine, its key is in thine hand.”
—GUTHRIE.
Thoghts
Advice to Young Christians
Now we want these young converts to serve Christ. It is not too much to expect that each of you should bring twelve more. One young man came to me and said he was converted on the 3d of February; he had a list of fifty-nine persons, with the residence of each, whom he had since that time been instrumental in leading to Christ; and if that young convert had led fifty-nine, every man, woman, and child ought to be able to reach some.
Let each one go to work. That is the way to grow in strength. “They that water others shall themselves be watered, and the liberal soul shall be fed. God is able to make all grace abound.” Let me give you a little advice.
Let your friends be those who are in the church. Select for your companions experienced Christians. Keep company with those who know a little more than you do yourselves.
Of course, you get the best of the bargain; but from my own experience I know it is the best way to make advances in religious life. And get in love with the Book, and the world will lose its hold on you.—MOODY.
An address to converts at the close of a great revival In New York.
Thoghts
The Deceitful Nature of Sin
The face of pleasure to the youthful imagination is the face of an angel, a paradise of smiles, a home of love; while the rugged face of industry, imbrowned by toil, is dull and repulsive; but at the end it is not so. These are harlot charms which pleasure wears. At last, when industry shall put on her beautiful garments, and rest in the palace which her own hands have built, pleasure, blotched and diseased with indulgence, shall lie down and die upon the dung-hill.—BEECHER.
Thoghts
Insidious Temptations
The young are seldom tempted to outright wickedness; evil comes to them as an enticement. The honest generosity and fresh heart of youth would refuse to embrace open meanness and undisguised vice. The adversary conforms his wiles to their nature. He tempts them to the basest deeds by beginning with innocent ones, gliding to more exceptionable, and, finally, to positively wicked ones. All our warnings therefore must be against the vernal beauty of vice! Its autumn and winter none wish.
Thoghts
Patience With Youth
As we get older, do not let us be affronted if young men and women crowd us a little. We will have had our day, and we must let them have theirs. When our voices get cracked, let us not snarl at those who can warble. When our knees are stiffened, let us have patience with those who go fleet as the deer. Because our leaf is fading, do not let us despise the unfrosted.—TALMAGE.
Thoghts
Negligence of the Church
The world comes to the child when it is in the April of life, and sows tares. The world comes along again when the child is in the May of life, and sows thistles. Again in the fair June it comes and sows nox vomica.
The church meanwhile folds its hands and waits until the April has gone, and the May has gone, and June and July have gone, and then at the close of August gets in earnest and says, “Now, now we have got a bag of good wheat here, and we must sow it in this fresh young soil, and we shall have a glorious harvest!” Will it? No, no! It is too late! Everlastingly too late! You should have sowed in April and in May the good seed of the kingdom.
-
Christian Quotes5 months ago
Steven Furtick Quotes
-
Christian Quotes5 months ago
John MacArthur Quotes
-
Christian Quotes5 months ago
Priscilla Shirer Quotes
-
OUR DAILY DEVOTIONAL | My Daily Bread5 months ago
God’s Power, Our Strength
-
Bible Dictionary4 months ago
BETHEL
-
Christian Quotes5 months ago
Anthony George Quotes