5394 Little Word “Sola”
Joachin II was the elector of Brandenburg, who told his ambassadors, who were going to attend the religious disputation at Worms, “Bring back with you the little word “sola” or else dare not to come back.” Salvation is by faith alone.
—J. H. Bomberger
5395 Everything For Nothing
An aged saint, on being asked to describe salvation, aptly replied, “Something for nothing.” Another aged saint, who had weathered the storms for many a long year and was nearing the Heavenly harbor, on hearing this story related, exclaimed, “Yes, it’s even better than that. It’s everything for nothing.”
—Grace Robinson
5396 A Biblical Proposition
I was holding a meeting in St. Louis. At the close of a noon meeting a keen-appearing businessman approached me, saying, “You are speaking to the most ungodly man in St. Louis.” “Praise God!” I said. “Do you mean to say you are glad that I am bad?” “No,” I said, “but I am certainly glad to find a man that acknowledges that he is a sinner.”
“Mr. Newell, I have been coming to these meetings for four weeks. I did not sleep last night. I have had little sleep for three weeks. I have prayed. I have read the Bible. I have waited here today to have you tell me what I need to do.” “Now,” I said, “we will turn to the Bible, and I read, “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly—”” “That’s what I am—“ungodly”—but please tell me what to do.” “This verse tells you,” I said, “that you are to do nothing save one thing—“to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him. … his faith is counted for righteousness.””
He suddenly leaped to his feet and stretched forth his hand, and said, “Mr. Newell, I accept that proposition!” and off he went without another word. Next noonday I noticed his shining face and introduced him to the great audience. This was his response to my introduction: “I am a businessman, as you know. I know a good proposition. But I found one yesterday that so filled me with joy that I could not sleep a wink all night.”
—Triumphs of Faith
5397 Only Two Religions
While presenting the Gospel on the street of a California city, we were often interrupted about as follows: “Look here, sir! There are hundreds of religions in this country, and the followers of each sect think theirs the only right one. How can poor, plain men like us find out what really is the truth?” We generally replied something like this: “Hundreds of religions, you say? That’s strange; I’ve heard of only two.” “Oh, but you surely know there are more than that?”
“Not at all, sir, I find, I admit, many shades of difference in the opinions of those comprising the two great schools; but after all there are but two. The one covers all who expect salvation by doing; the other, all who have been saved by something done. So you see the whole question is very simple. Can you save yourself, or must you be saved by another? If you can be your own savior, you do not need my message. If you cannot, you may well listen to it.”
—H. A. Ironside
5398 Not A “Better Boy”
I remember shortly after I began to preach I had a large Sunday school. We had the regular Gospel lessons, and I always met my Sunday school teachers and went over the lesson with them. Whatever else I neglected, I never neglected that. Once I pointed out to them that it was a wonderful lesson for bringing the children to Christ, and I said to them, “Now do it.”
As I went about next Lord’s Day here and there, my heart almost broke. They were asking the children, “Don’t you think you ought to be a better boy?” A heathen philosopher could tell a child that. Our message is about a God who “so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.” Are we telling people, “Don’t you think you could be a better boy if you would join the church?”
—C. I. Scofield
5399 Artist Only Needed A Beggar
I have read of an artist who wanted to paint a picture of the Prodigal Son. He searched through the madhouses, and the poorhouses, and the prisons, to find a man wretched enough to represent the prodigal, but he could not find one. One day he was walking down the streets and met a man whom he thought would do. He told the poor beggar he would pay him well if he came to his room and sat for his portrait. The beggar agreed, and the day was appointed for him to come.
The day came, and a man put in his appearance at the artist’s room. “You made an appointment with me,” he said, when he was shown into the studio. The artist looked at him. “I never saw you before,” he said, “you cannot have an appointment with me.” “Yes,” he said, “I agreed to meet you today at ten o’clock.” “You must be mistaken; it must have been some other artist; I was to see a beggar here at this hour.”
“Well,” says the beggar, “I am he,” “You?” “Yes,” “Why, what have you been doing?” “Well, I thought I would dress myself up a bit before I got painted.” “Then,” said the artist, “I do not want you; I wanted you as you were: now, you are no use to me.”
—D. L. Moody
5400 Poor Gesture Of Thanks
An evangelist could not convince a lady that all the good things she did would not avail in God’s sight. Being very wealthy, she gave a supper to some poor people, and also provided clothes for them. An inspiration struck the evangelist, and he said to her: “If one of the guests thanked you very much for the clothes, but said: “I must make some small return,” and rolled up his old clothes in a parcel and asked you to accept them in return, would you be pleased?” At once she said, “No.” Then it dawned on her how useless were all her efforts to make herself better, and she accepted the Lord as her Saviour and King.
—Christian Herald
5401 God Selling Heaven For … ?
Mr. Latrobe, visiting an Irish nobleman, was shown an elegant church which he had built, and was asked, “Do you not think that that will merit heaven?” Said Mr. Latrobe, “Pray, my Lord, what may your estate be worth in a year?”—”About thirteen or fourteen thousand pounds,” was the answer. “And so you think God would sell heaven even for thirteen or fourteen thousand pounds?” said the minister.
5402 Half-Century Learning 3 Things
D. L. Moody told: “An old man got up in one of our meetings and said, “I have been forty-two years learning three things.” I pricked up my ears at that. I thought if I could find out in three minutes what a man had taken forty-two years to learn, I should like to do it. The first thing he said he had learned was that he could do nothing toward his own salvation. “Well,” I said to myself, “that is worth learning.” The second thing he found out was that God did not require him to do anything. Well, that was worth finding out, too. And the third thing was that the Lord Jesus Christ had done it all, that salvation was finished, and that all he had to do was to take it. Dear friends, let us learn this lesson. Let us give up struggling and striving, and accept salvation at once.”
—Moody Monthly
5403 Stop Trying To Save Selves
I remember a lady in the north of England who became quite angry when I made this statement: “None in this congregation will be saved until they stop trying to save themselves.” Down she came from the gallery, and said to me, “You have made me perfectly miserable.” “Indeed,” I said, “how is that.” “Why, I always thought that if I kept on trying, God would save me at some time; and now you tell me to stop trying. What then am I to do?” “Why, let the Lord save you.”—D. L. Moody
5404 Needed: Example Or Saviour
At the close of a religious service a gentleman approached Dr. D. M. Stearns with a criticism. “I don’t like your way of preaching,” he said. “I do not care for all this talk about Christ dying for the lost. Instead of preaching the death of Christ on the cross, it’s better to be up-to-date. Preach Jesus, the teacher and example.” “Would you then be willing to follow Him if I preach Christ as the great example?” asked Dr. Stearns, “I would,” said the gentleman, “I will follow in His steps.”
“Then,” said Dr. Stearns, “let us take the first step. “Who did no sin,” as we read in I Peter 2:22. Can you take this step?” The critic seemed confused. “No,” he said, “I do sin, I must admit.” “Well, then,” said Dr. Stearns, “your first need of Christ is not as an example but as a Savior.”
—Clarence Jones
5405 Too Late To Do It
I remember hearing of a young man who went to a minister in great distress about his spiritual state. He said to the minister, “Sir, can you tell me what I must do to find peace?”
The minister replied, “Young man, you are too late.”
“Oh,” said the young man, “You don’t mean to say I am too late to be saved?”
“Oh, no,” was the reply, “but you are too late to do something. Jesus did everything that needed to be done twenty centuries ago.”
—Pastor’s Manual
5406 Unnecessary Egg In Mix
A food processing firm marketed a cake mix which required that the housewife add only water to produce a creamy batter and fine cake. The company could not understand why the mix would not sell, until special research revealed the public felt uneasy about a mix that required only water. It seemed too simple. They felt they themselves had to do something to a cake mix. So the company changed the formula and required the housewife to add an egg. Immediately, the mix achieved great success.
5407 King’s Business Is To Give
Once there was a poor woman who greatly desired a bunch of grapes from the king’s conservatory for her sick child. She took half a crown, and went to the king’s gardener, and tried to purchase the grapes, but was rudely repulsed. A second effort, with more money, met like results.
It happened that the king’s daughter heard the angry words of the gardener, and the crying of the woman, and inquired into the matter. When the poor woman had told her story, the princess said, “My dear woman, you are mistaken. My father is not a merchant, but a king; his business is not to sell, but to give.” Whereupon she plucked the bunch from the vine, and gently dropped it into the woman’s apron.
—Foster
5408 Col. Roosevelt’s Simple Request
During the Spanish War the late President Roosevelt, then a colonel, commanded a regiment of rough-riders in Cuba. He became much attached to his men and was greatly concerned when a number of them fell sick.
Hearing that Miss Clara Barton (the lady who devoted herself to the work of nursing wounded soldiers) had received a supply of delicacies for the invalids under her care, Colonel Roosevelt requested her to sell a portion of them for the sick men of his regiment. His request was refused. The Colonel was very troubled; he cared for his men and was willing to pay for supplies out of his own pocket.
“How can I get these things?” he asked. “I must have proper food for my sick men.”
“Just ask for them, Colonel.”
“Oh!” said Roosevelt, his face breaking into a smile, “that’s the way, is it? Then I do ask for them.” And he got them at once.
—Indian Christian
5409 Key Was Beyond Reach
The destruction of the city of Pompeii by a volcano is one of the major tragedies of history. One incident concerns four prisoners whose feet were fastened in stocks when the flood of hot stones, molten lava, and death-dealing pumice rained down upon their prison. They heard the deafening roar; they yelled for safety. Nobody heard their agonized cries. The door of escape was wide open, just as their keeper had left it. At the very threshold lay the key to their cell, but they could not reach it.
They struggled and strained but the key was just beyond their fingers. They fought and shrieked and tore their flesh in madness, until the fumes from the distant volcano reached their cell and put an end to it all.
—Arthur Tonne
5410 No One Was Qualified
A prominent United states shoe manufacturer was asked to subscribe to a fund for supplying food to the suffering poor. He entered as his subscription one hundred sacks of flour and one hundred bushels of meal, to be used for the relief of every man in the district that could be found in need of bread, who neither kept a dog, drank intoxicating drink, nor used tobacco.
The committee of the poor fund have not been able to claim a single cent from him yet, as their most persistent efforts have failed to find such a one.
5411 The Key … After 29 Floors
Three men, John Newton, Louis Weatherford, and Samuel Preston, were out to find the best that this life had to offer. Willing to try anything, they were now on their way to New York City to “paint the town red.” With a whole week ahead of them, they were anticipating some high times. They had money, position and culture. The only thing they wanted was action and they were now ready to get it.
As the “Silver Star” glided to a stop at Grand Central, three men, full of excitement and frivolity, stepped off the train into a busy world. Amidst the confusion the three jovial men were able to hail a cab and direct the driver to the Ambassador Hotel where they wanted to board. The cabby promptly took them to their destination, received his tip and disappeared into the throng of cars. As the cab drove off, the three men just stood on the pavement staring up the side of this twenty-nine floor building. They were amazed at the sight of such a tall structure.
Upon entering the hotel, they were greeted by a bellhop who took their bags and led them to the main desk. At the desk the clerk asked them what type of room they wanted and the three men replied, “Give us the best you have!” The clerk looked at the register and then told the men that the only one of this type left was on the top floor. It had a TV, two cushioned chairs, four beds with innermen said a few words to each other and quickly decided to take it. The key was handed over and the bellhop led them to the elevator.
After arranging their belongings in the proper order, the three men put on their tweed suits, left the key at the desk and were off to see New York City’s high spots. Hours went by and the three began to get weary; so they headed back to the hotel. At the lobby desk they were told the elevator had developed some complications and was not able to take them upstairs. They were given the alternative of either walking up twenty-nine flights of steps or sleeping in a small, less luxurious room on the second floor. The three huddled together and decided to take the long walk upstairs and enjoy the comforts of their own room; so up they started.
The first few flights went quickly and easily and the three companions were joking and having a good time. Each flight seemed a little bit longer but the men kept pressing on. Five, six, seven floors were passed and each one meant that they were one flight closer to the top. The men, already weary from a hard night, began to slow down and the floors dragged by slower each time. The eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth floor was passed. “Almost halfway there,” said Louis. The other just grunted and they pushed on. Seventeen, eighteen. … they wondered if they would ever reach the top. On the twentieth floor Sam sat down and said he couldn’t go on. After resting a few moments the others finally persuaded him to try it. … after all only nine floors left and then those nice, soft mattresses, and fried chicken and. … , so on they went.
Each flight seemed like a mile and it seemed as if it took an eternity to get there. All three men were now on their knees, crawling step by step in hopes of reaching the twenty-ninth floor. Just one more to go. Slowly they proceeded, inch by inch until John shouted out that he could see the room, only eight more steps and then about fifteen feet down the hall. With his added inspiration each fellow put all the energy into it that he had and to their relief they were all on the last floor. They had reached their goal now. As soon as the door would be opened, they would enjoy all the luxuries which had spurred them on during their climb.
Sam was the first to come to the door; so he reached down into his pocket for the key. To Sam’s amazement the key wasn’t there. He asked John if he had it but John said that Louis must have it. They both looked at Louis but all he had were several empty pockets. Here they were on the twenty-ninth floor just inches from what they considered “Heaven” and yet they could not get in. They had forgotten to get the key.
—The Bible Friend