Then into His hand went mine
And into my heart came He, And I walked in a light divine.
The path I had feared to see. ^
^ George Macdonald.
ST. MARK 143
III.
The Home Missionaey.
1. The man's first duty was to his own house. His tale was to be told first in his own circle. " Go home to thy friends and tell them." It is a great mistake to take recent converts, especially if they have been very profligate beforehand, and to hawk them about the country as trophies of God's converting power. Let them stop at home, and bethink themselves, and get sober and confirmed, and let their changed lives prove the reality of Christ's healing power. They can speak to some purpose after that.
^ Many years ago, a friend of mine was taking an evangelistic tour through the Highlands of Scotland in company with a young friend, recently converted. When they came to the young convert's native village, my friend said, " Samuel, you must speak to-night." " I can't," was the reply, " I never said half a dozen words in public in my life." " But you must ; God tells me you are to speak to-night." Accordingly, at the right moment, Samuel rose in the meeting and, in trembling awkward fashion, said, "Every one here knows me. Parents used to point their children to me, and tell them to be like me. They called me a model boy : but if I had died three months ago, I should have gone straight to hell." My friend told me afterwards he could never forget how the power of God came down upon that meeting. But this was only Samuel's first word for Christ. He has spoken many since. For a long period he has been a member of Parliament, and when a word needs to be said on behalf of the cause of God and truth in the House of Commons, Samuel is the man to say it. And, somehow, he makes people listen. But to-day he would trace the beginning of all that is useful in his public career to those few trembling words, falteringly spoken, in his native village.^
The fear was on the cattle, for the gale was on the sea. An' the pens broke up on the lower deck an' let the creatures
free — An' the lights went out on the lower deck, an' no one near
but me.
It is the story of a strong, regardless, ungodly man helpless among the cattle aboard ship in a fearful storm. He sees that
» W. 0. Sage.
144 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
he will certainly be horned or trod upon. And more pens broke at every roll — so he made his Contract with God.
An' by the terms of the Contract, as I have read the same, If He got me to port alive I would exalt His Name An' praise His Holy Majesty till further orders came.
So Mulholland was saved from the cattle and the sea, although sorely damaged by a stanchion, so that he lay seven weeks in hospital. Then when he was convalescing he spoke to God of the Contract, and this was the reply —
" I never puts on My ministers no more than they can bear. So back you go to the cattle-boats an' preach My Gospel there." "They must quit drinkin' and swearin,' they mustn't knife on
a blow, They must quit gamblin' their wages, and you must preach it so ; For now those boats are more like Hell than anything else I know." I didn't want to do it, for I knew what I should get, An' I wanted to preach Eeligion, handsome an' out of the wet, But the Word of the Lord were lain upon me an' I done what
I was set.
So the brave lad went on with his duty, turning his cheek to the smiter.
But following that, I knocked him down an' led him up to
Grace . . . The skippers say I'm crazy, but I can prove 'em wrong. For I am in charge of the lower deck with all that doth belong — Which they would not give to a lunatic, and the competition
so strong.^
2. This recovered demoniac was one of the first home missionaries. And in regarding him as a home missionary, let us consider first his mission, next his message, and then his motive.
(1) The Mission. — It was a modest commission that he received. He was not required like Moses to guide the nation ; he was not called with David to declare God's faithfulness in the great congregation ; he was not selected with Paul to confess Christ before kings. The Master set before him the open door of his own house. But we must not regard this domestic commission as less honourable than the wider vocation of evangelists and missionaries. Niagara makes a great noise ; it ^ Kipling, Seven Seas: " MulhoUand's Contract"
ST. MARK 145
is clothed with rainbows ; it is celebrated by painter and poet : yet the fruitfulness of a country does not depend upon a cataract ; the landscapes are kept green by ten thousand hidden streams which go softly.
(2) The Message. — "Tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee." Little good is done by way of disputation and controversy ; but to declare what God has done for our soul is a fruitful ministry anywhere. In the narrative of the demoniac as given by St. Luke, we read " Shew how great things God hath done for thee." Character is to sustain testimony ; those about us are to take knowledge that grace has cured our faults and infirmities, and enabled us to walk purely and graciously.