The Life of Jesus Christ for the Young Part 10

_And the third is_--THE ILl.u.s.tRATIONS--_of this lesson_.

And then, when put into its shortest form, our present subject may be thus expressed--_the lesson of liberality; its proofs; and its ill.u.s.trations_.

And the lesson which Jesus here taught is all wrapped up in this little word--"_Give_." Here we learn what the will of Jesus is on this subject. This is not simply the expression of his opinion. It is not merely his advice; no, but it is his _command_. He is speaking here as our Master--our King--our G.o.d. He _commands_ us to--give.

And when we remember how he said to his disciples, "If ye love me, _keep my commandments_," we see plainly, that we have no right to consider ourselves as his disciples if we are neglecting this or any other of his plain commands.

And this command about giving is not intended for any _one_ cla.s.s of persons among the followers of Christ, but for _all_ of them. It is not a command designed for kings, or princes, or rich men only, but for the poor as well. It is not a command for grown persons alone, but for children also. As soon as we begin to _get_, G.o.d expects us to begin to _give_.

Jesus says nothing here about _how much_ he expects us to give. But, from other places in the Bible, we learn that he expects us to give _at least one-tenth_ of all that we have. If we have a thousand dollars he expects us to give one hundred out of the thousand. If we have a hundred he expects us to give ten. If we have ten dollars we must give one of them to G.o.d. If we have only one dollar we must give ten cents of it to Him. If we have but ten cents we must give one of them. If we have no money to give, G.o.d expects us to give kind words, and kind actions, our sympathy and love.

Jesus does not tell us here _how often_ we are to give, but simply--give. This means that we are to learn the lesson and form the habit of giving. His command is--give. And in giving us this command he is only asking us to imitate his own example. _He is giving all the time_. The apostle Paul tells us that Jesus is "exalted to the right hand of the Father to--give." He never tires of giving. "He giveth to all life, breath, and all things." And if we have not the Spirit of Christ in this respect, "we are none of his."

This, then, is the lesson of liberality that Jesus taught when he said--"give." And that _giving is G.o.d's rule for getting_ is what we are taught by our Saviour, when he said--"_Give, and it shall be given unto you_."

And now, having seen what this lesson of liberality is, which Jesus taught, _let us look at some of the Scripture proofs of it_. The same lesson is taught in other places in the Bible. Let us see what is said about it in some of these places.

In Ps. xli: 1 David says--"Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble." Considering the poor here, means being kind to them, and giving them such things as they need. And the blessing promised to those who do this means that G.o.d will reward them by giving to them good things in great abundance.

And, if this is so, then we have proof here that "giving is G.o.d's rule for getting."

We have another proof that "giving is G.o.d's rule for getting," in Prov. iii: 9, 10. Here Solomon says--"Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine."

When the Jewish farmers gathered in their harvests they were required to make an offering to G.o.d, of what had been gathered, before they used any part of it for themselves; and the offerings thus made were called "the first-fruits." G.o.d considered himself honored by his people when they did this, because they were keeping his commandments and doing what he wished them to do. And the meaning of this command, when we apply it to ourselves, is that we should give something to the cause of G.o.d from all the money, or property we have, and from all the gain, or increase that we make to the same. This is the Bible rule--the will or command of G.o.d for all his people. And then, in the other part of this pa.s.sage we have the promise of G.o.d to all who do this. "So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine."

This means that they shall be rich and prosperous. And so we see that this pa.s.sage from the book of Proverbs, teaches the same lesson of liberality that our Saviour taught when he said--"_Give and it shall be given unto you_." It proves that "giving is G.o.d's rule for getting."

And Solomon teaches the same, again, when he says, "The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself." Prov. xi: 25.

A "liberal soul" means a person who is in the habit of giving; and to be "made fat" means to be prospered and happy. If you undertake to water a garden, you are _giving_ to the thirsty plants that which they need to make them grow and thrive; and when it is promised that the person who does this shall "be watered also himself," the meaning is that he shall have given to him all that is most important to supply his wants, and make him happy. And this, we see, is only teaching what our Saviour taught when he said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you." It furnishes us with another proof that "giving is G.o.d's rule for getting."

In the nineteenth chapter of Proverbs and seventeenth verse we have a very clear proof of the lesson we are now considering. Here we find it said: "_He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay him again_." Having pity on the poor, as here spoken of, means giving them such things as they need. Whatever we use in this way G.o.d looks upon as so much money lent unto him; and we have his solemn promise that when we lend anything to him, in this way, "He will pay us again." And when he pays again what has been lent to him, it is always with interest. He pays back four, or five, or ten times as much as was lent: to him.

This proves that "giving is G.o.d's rule for getting."

One other pa.s.sage is all that need be referred to in order to prove that the lesson of liberality which our Saviour taught is the same lesson which the Bible teaches everywhere. In Eccles. xi: 1, G.o.d says, "_Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days_."

If we should see a man standing on the end of a wharf and throwing bread upon the waters, we should think that he was a foolish man, who was wasting his bread, or only feeding the fishes with it. But suppose that you and I were travelling through Egypt--the land of the celebrated pyramids and other great wonders. The famous river Nile is there. During our visit the inundation of that river takes place. It overflows its banks, and spreads its water over all the level plains that border on the river. This takes place every year. And when the fields are all overflowed with water, the farmers go out in boats, and scatter their grain over the surface of the water. The grain sinks to the bottom. The sediment in the water settles down on the grain, and covers it with mud. By and by the waters flow back into the river. The fields become dry. The grain springs up and grows. The mud that covered it is like rich manure, and makes it grow very plentifully, and yield a rich harvest. And here we see the meaning of this pa.s.sage. G.o.d makes use of this Egyptian custom to teach us the lesson of liberality that we are now considering. He tells us that the money which we give to the poor, or use to do good with, is like the grain which the Egyptian farmer casts upon the water, and which will surely yield a rich harvest by and by.

This teaches us the lesson of liberality. And when we think of all these pa.s.sages, we see very clearly that the Bible teaches the same lesson which Jesus taught when he said to his disciples, "Give, and it shall be given unto you." And what we learn, both from the teaching of Christ, and from the different pa.s.sages referred to, is--that "giving is G.o.d's rule for getting."

And now, having seen some of the Bible, proofs for this lesson of liberality, or for this rule about giving and getting, _let us go on to speak of some of the ill.u.s.trations of this rule_. These are very numerous.

And we may draw our ill.u.s.trations from three sources, viz.:--_from the Bible; from nature; and from everyday life_.

There are two ill.u.s.trations of which we may speak from the Bible. We find one of these in the history of the prophet Elijah. You remember that there was a great famine in the land of Israel during the lifetime of this prophet. For more than three years there was not a drop of rain all through the land. The fields, the vineyards, and gardens dried up, and withered, and yielded no fruit. During the first part of the time when this famine was prevailing, G.o.d sent Elijah to "the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan," I. Kings xvii: 7-17. There the ravens brought him food, and he drank of the water of the brook.

But after awhile the brook dried up. Then G.o.d told him to go to the city of Zarephath, or Sarepta, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and that he had commanded a widow woman there to sustain him. He did not tell him the name of the woman; nor the street she lived in; nor the number of her house. Elijah went. When he came near the place he met a woman, picking up some sticks of wood. I suppose G.o.d told him that this was the woman he was to stay with. Elijah spoke to her, and asked her if she would please give him a drink of water. When she was going to get it, he called to her again, and said he was hungry, and asked her to bring him a piece of bread. Then she told him that there was not a morsel of bread in her house. All she had in the world was a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, and that she was gathering a few sticks, that she might go and bake the last cake for herself and her son, that they might eat it and die. And Elijah said, "Fear not; go, and do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee, and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord G.o.d of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth."

This was a hard thing to ask a mother to do. It was asking her to take the last morsel of bread she had, and that she needed for herself and for her hungry boy, and give it to a stranger. Yet she did it; because she believed G.o.d. I seem to see her turning the meal barrel up, to get the meal all out. Then she pours out the oil from the cruse, and drains out the last drop. She mixes the meal and the olive oil together, as is the custom in that country still, and makes a cake which can soon be baked. She takes it to the man of G.o.d, who eats it thankfully, and is refreshed. Then she returns to the empty barrel and cruse, and finds as much in them as she had lately taken out. She prepares some bread for herself and her son, and they eat it thankfully as bread sent from heaven. The next day it is the same, and the day after, and so on through all the days of the famine. We are not told how long it was after Elijah went to the widow's house before the days of the famine were over. But suppose we make a calculation about it. The famine lasted for three years. Now let us suppose, that the first half of this time was spent by the prophet at the brook Cherith. Then his stay at the widow's house must have been at least eighteen months. And, if this miracle of increasing the meal and the oil was repeated only once a day, there would be for the first twelve months, or for the year, three hundred and sixty-five miracles; and for the six months, or the half year, one hundred and eighty-two more; and adding these together we have the surprising number of _five hundred and forty-seven_ miracles, that were performed to reward this good widow for the kindness she showed to the prophet Elijah, when she gave him a piece of bread, and a drink of water! What an ill.u.s.tration we have here of the truth we are considering, that _giving is G.o.d's rule for getting_.

But the best ill.u.s.tration of this subject to be found in the Bible is given in our Saviour's own experience. He not only _preached_ the lesson of liberality, but _practised_ it. He is himself the greatest giver ever heard of. In becoming our Redeemer he showed himself the Prince of givers. He gave--not silver and gold; not all the wealth of the world, or of ten thousand worlds like ours; but "He gave _Himself_ for us." He can say indeed, to each of us, in the language of the hymn:

"I gave my life for thee, My precious blood I shed, That thou might'st ransomed be, And quickened from the dead."

And what is the result of this glorious giving to Jesus himself? St.

Paul answers this question when he says, "Wherefore G.o.d also hath highly exalted him; and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of G.o.d the Father," Phil, ii: 9-11. Because of what he gave "for us men, and for our salvation," he will be loved and praised and honored in heaven, on the earth, and through all the universe, above all other beings, for ever and ever. What a glorious ill.u.s.tration we have here of the truth of this statement, that "giving is G.o.d's rule for getting." These are some of the ill.u.s.trations of this lesson of liberality that we find in the Bible.

_And now, let us look at some ill.u.s.trations of this subject, that we have in nature_.

Solomon suggests one of these when he says, "_There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth_." Prov. xi: 26. He is evidently speaking here of a farmer sowing his fields with grain.

Now suppose that we had never seen a man sowing; and that we knew nothing at all about the growth of grain, or how wonderfully the seed sown in the spring is increased and multiplied when the harvest is reaped. Then, the first time we saw a farmer sowing his fields, we should have been ready to say, "What a foolish man that is! He is taking that precious grain by the handful, and deliberately throwing it away."

Of course, we should have expected that the grain thus thrown away, or scattered over the ground, would all be lost. But, if we could have come back to visit that farmer when he was gathering in his harvest, how surprised we should have been! Then we should have learned that for every handful of grain that the farmer had scattered, or, as we thought, thrown away, in the spring, when he was sowing, he had gained forty or fifty handfuls when he reaped in his harvest. Then we should have understood what Solomon meant when he said, "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth." And we should have here a good ill.u.s.tration of our Saviour's lesson of liberality, when he said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you;" and of the Bible truth we are now studying, that "giving is G.o.d's rule for getting."

Yonder is the great ocean; it is one of the grandest of nature's works. And the ocean gives us a good ill.u.s.tration of the lesson of liberality which our Saviour taught. The waters of the ocean are spread out for thousands of miles. As the sun s.h.i.+nes on the surface of the ocean, it makes the water warm, and turns it into vapor, like the steam that comes from the boiling kettle. This vapor rises into the air, and helps to form the clouds that are floating there. These clouds sail over the land, and pour out the water that is in them, in refres.h.i.+ng and fertilizing showers of rain. This rain makes the rills start from the sides of the mountains. The rills run down into the rivers, and the rivers flow back into the sea again. In this way the ocean is a great giver. It has been giving away its water for hundreds and thousands of years, ever since the day when G.o.d made it.

Now, let us suppose that the ocean could think, or speak; and that it had power to control its own motions. And suppose that the ocean should say:--"Well, I think I have been giving away water long enough. I am going to turn over a new leaf. The sun may s.h.i.+ne as much as it pleases. I won't let another drop of water go out from my surface. I am tired of giving, and I mean to stop doing it, any longer." Let us pause for a moment here, and see what the effect of this would be upon the ocean itself.

We know that all the water in the ocean is salt water. But when the sun takes water from the ocean, in the form of vapor, it is always taken out as fresh water. It leaves the salt behind it. Then the water on the surface of the ocean, from which this vapor has been taken, has more salt in it than the water underneath it. This makes it heavier than the other water. The consequence of this, is that this heavier water, on the top of the ocean, sinks to the bottom; and at the same time the lighter water at the bottom rises to the top.

And so a constant change is taking place all over the ocean. The water from the top is sinking to the bottom, and the water from the bottom is rising to the top. And this is one of the means which G.o.d employs to keep the waters of the ocean always pure and wholesome.

But if the ocean should stop giving away its water, as it has always been doing, then this constant change of its waters would cease. The ocean would be left still and stagnant. It would become a great ma.s.s of corruption; and the breezes from the ocean, that now carry health and life to those who breathe them, would carry only disease and death. And the thousands of people who now love the ocean and seek its sh.o.r.es every summer, to get strong and well by breathing the air that sweeps over its surface, and by bathing in its foaming surf, would all be afraid of the ocean; and would keep as far away from its sh.o.r.es as they could. And so we see how the ocean stands before us as a grand ill.u.s.tration of the lesson of liberality which our Saviour taught when he said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you." The ocean gives away its water continually, and, in return for this, G.o.d gives it freshness and purity, and makes it a blessing to the world.

And so the ocean ill.u.s.trates the truth of the lesson we are now studying, that "giving is G.o.d's rule for getting."

And yonder is the great sun, s.h.i.+ning up in the sky. We do not know as much about the sun as we do about the ocean, because it is so far away from us. The ocean is very near us. We can walk along its sh.o.r.es, and plunge into its waters, and sail over its surface. We can study out all about the laws that govern it, and what the effect of those laws is upon it. But it is very different with the sun. It is about ninety millions of miles away from us. This is too far off for us to know much about it. And yet, we know enough about the sun to get from it a good ill.u.s.tration of G.o.d's rule about giving and getting. The sun, like the ocean, is a great giver. It is giving away light all the time. It was made for this purpose; and for this purpose it is preserved. If the sun should stop giving, and should try to keep all its light and heat for itself, the effect would be its ruin. By ceasing to give it would be burnt up and destroyed. And so, when we see the sower sowing his seed, or the reaper gathering in his harvest; when we look upon the ocean, and see the clouds formed from its waters, as they go sailing through the sky; or when we see the sun rising in the morning, going forth again to his appointed work of giving light to a dark world; let us remember that these are nature's ill.u.s.trations of the lesson of liberality which Jesus taught when he said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you." They all help to show how true it is, that "giving is G.o.d's rule of getting."

_And now we may go on to look for our ill.u.s.trations of this subject from everyday life_.

If we are only watchful we shall meet with ill.u.s.trations of this kind continually. It would not be difficult to fill a volume with them.

Here are a few out of many that might be given.

"The Travellers in the Snow." Two travellers were on a journey in a sleigh during a very severe winter. It was snowing fast as they drove along. One of the travellers was a liberal, generous-hearted man, who believed in giving; and was always ready to share whatever he had with others. His companion was a selfish ungenerous man. He did _not_ believe in giving; and liked to keep whatever he had for himself. As they drove along, they saw something covered up in the snow that looked like the figure of a man. "Look there," said the generous man to his friend, "that must be some poor fellow overcome by the cold.

Let's stop and see what we can do for him."

"You can get out, if you like," was his reply, "but it's too cold for me. I intend to stay where I am;" and he wrapped his furs closely round him.

The other traveller threw aside his furs and jumped out of the sleigh. He found it was a poor man, who had sunk down in the snow a short time before, overcome by the cold. He shook the snow from him, and began to rub his hands and face and feet. He kept on rubbing for a good while. At last the man began to get warm again and was saved from death. Then the generous-hearted traveller helped him into the sleigh, and shared his wrappings with him. The exertion he had made in doing this kind act put him all in a glow of warmth. He made the rest of the journey in comfort. But when they stopped at the end of their journey, the selfish man, who was not willing to do anything for the help of another, had his fingers, and toes, and nose, and ears frozen. This ill.u.s.trates the lesson of liberality; and shows that "giving is G.o.d's rule for getting."

Here we see the truth of the lines which someone has written:

"Numb and weary on the mountain Wouldst thou sleep amidst the snow?

Chafe the frozen form beside thee, And together both shall glow.

Art thou stricken in life's battle?

Many wounded round thee moan; Lavish on their wounds thy balsams, And that balm shall heal thine own."

"The Officer and the Soldier." In one of the terrible battles in Virginia, during the late war, a Union officer fell wounded in front of the Confederate breastwork, which had been attacked. His wounds brought on a raging fever, and he lay on the ground crying piteously for water. A kind-hearted Confederate soldier heard the touching cry, and leaping over the fortifications, with his canteen in his hand, he crawled up to the poor fellow and gave him a drink of water. O, what a comfort this was to the wounded man! His heart was filled with grat.i.tude towards this generous and n.o.ble soldier. He pulled out his gold watch from his pocket, and cheerfully offered it to his benefactor; but he refused to take it. Then he asked the soldier's name and residence. He said his name was James Moore, and that he lived in Burke County, North Carolina. Then they parted. This n.o.ble soldier afterwards lost a limb in one of the Virginia battles, and returned to his home as a cripple.

The officer recovered from his wounds; but he never forgot the kindness of that Confederate soldier. And when the war was over, and he was engaged in his business again, he wrote to James Moore, telling him that he intended to send him the sum of ten thousand dollars in four quarterly installments of twenty-five hundred dollars each; and that he wished him to receive the same in token of the heartfelt grat.i.tude with which his generous kindness on the battle-field was remembered. Certainly these were two n.o.ble men. It is hard to tell which was the more n.o.ble of the two. But when the crippled soldier thought of the drink of water which he gave to the wounded officer, and of the ten thousand dollars which he received for the same, he must have felt how true our Saviour's words were, when he said: "Give, and it shall be given unto you." And he must have felt sure of the lesson we are now considering, that "Giving is G.o.d's rule for getting."

"The Secret of Success." Some time ago a Christian gentleman was visiting a large paper mill that belonged to a friend of his, who was a very rich man. The owner of the mill took him all through it, and showed him the machinery, and told him how the paper was made. When they were through the visitor said to his friend, "I have one question to ask you; and if you will answer it, I shall feel very much obliged to you. I am told that you started in life very poor, and now you are one of the richest men in this part of the country.

My question is _this_: will you please tell me the _secret_ of your success in business?"