I used at one time to read so many chapters of the Bible a day, and if I did not get through my usual quantity, I thought I was getting cold and backsliding. But, mind you, if a man had asked me two hours afterward what I had read, I could not tell him; I had forgotten it nearly all.
When I was a boy I used, among other things, to hoe corn on a farm; and I used to hoe it so badly, in order to get over so much ground, that at night I had to put down a stick in the ground, so as to know next morning where I had left off.
That was somewhat in the same fashion as running through so many chapters every day. A man will say, "Wife, did I read that chapter?"
"Well," says she, "I don't remember."
And neither of them can recollect. And perhaps he reads the same chapter over and over again; and they call that "studying the Bible." I do not think there is a book in the world we neglect so much as the Bible.
Getting On Splendidly
One man said to another, some time ago: "How are you getting on at your church?"
"Oh, splendid."
"Many conversions?"
"Well--well, on that side we are not getting on so well. But," he said, "we have rented all our pews and are able to pay all our running expenses. We are getting on splendidly."
That is what the godless call "getting on splendidly." They rent the pews, pay the minister, and meet all the running expenses.
A man was being shown through one of the cathedrals of Europe; he had come in from the country. One of the men belonging to the cathedral was showing him around, when he inquired:
"Do you have may conversions here?"
"Many what?"
"Many conversions here?"
"Ah, man, this is not a Wesleyan chapel."
The idea of there being conversions there! And you can go into a good many churches in this country and ask if they have many conversions there, and they would not know what it meant, they are so far away from the Lord; they are not looking for conversions, and don't expect them.
A Hundred Years Hence
Once, as I was walking down the street, I heard some people laughing and talking aloud. One of them said:
"Well, there will be no difference; it will be all the same a hundred years hence."
The thought flashed across my mind, "Will there be no difference? Where will you be a hundred years hence?"
Young man, just ask yourself the question, "Where shall I be?" Some of you who are getting on in years may be in eternity ten years hence. Where will you be, on the left or the right hand of God? I cannot tell your feelings, but I can my own. I ask you, "Where will you spend eternity? Where will you be a hundred years hence?"
A Free Gift
Remember, salvation is a free gift, and it is a free gift _for us_. Can you buy it? It is a free gift, presented to "whosoever" will accept it.
Suppose I were to say, I will give this Bible to "whosoever" will take it; what have you got to do? Why, nothing but take it. But a man comes forward, and says:
"I'd like that Bible very much."
"Well, didn't I say 'whosoever' will can have it?"
"Yes; but I'd like to have you mention my name."
"Well, here it is."
Still he keeps eyeing the Bible, and saying, "I'd like to have that Bible; but I'd like to give you something for it. I don't like to take it for nothing."
"But I am not here to sell Bibles; take it, if you want it."
"Well, I want it; but I'd like to give you something for it. Let me give you a cent for it; though, to be sure, it's worth about five dollars."
Suppose I accept the cent; the man takes up the Bible and marches away home with it.
His wife asks, "Where did you get that Bible?"
"Oh, I bought it."
Mark the point; when he gave the penny, it ceased to be a gift. So with salvation. If you were to pay ever so little, it would not be a gift.
What Seed Are You Sowing?
Suppose I meet a man who is sowing seed, and say, "Hello, stranger, what are you sowing?"
"Seed."
"What kind of seed?"
"I don't know."
"Don't you know whether it is good or bad?"
"No; I can't tell. But it is seed--that is all I want to know, and I am sowing it."
You would say that he was a first-class lunatic, wouldn't you? But he wouldn't be half so mad as the man who goes on sowing for time and eternity, and never asks himself what he is sowing or what the harvest will be.
Father, what seed are you sowing in your family? Are you setting your children a good or a bad example? Do you spend your time at the saloon or the club, until you have become almost a stranger to them? or are you training them for God and righteousness?
Bound Hand and Foot
When I was speaking to five thousand children in Glasgow some years ago, I took a spool of thread and said to one of the largest boys:
"Do you believe I can bind you with that thread?"
He laughed at the idea. I wound the thread around him a few times, and he broke it with a single jerk. Then I wound the thread around and around, and by and by I said:
"Now get free if you can."