Chapter XV: A Man Named Matthew (2)

In the twenty-second Psalm we learn to understand a little of the anguish which made Him cry on the Cross: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" It was because "He bore our sins in His own Body on the tree."

"He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

But though all this came upon that beloved Son of God, in order that He might redeem the world, we have, in Isaiah liii. 10, a great and beautiful promise of the Resurrection, and of His afterwards reigning in glory as King:—

"When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand."

"He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death." This was fulfilled when rich Joseph of Arimathæa buried Him in beautiful fine linen in his own new grave in that garden near Calvary.

PROPHECY OF THE RESURRECTION.

Psalm xvi. 9, 10. Mark xvi. 6.

Jesus rose from the dead. It was impossible that the Son of God should be holden of death.

The angel came down and rolled away the stone, and then told the frightened women that Jesus was not there, but was risen, "as He said."

All through the whole of the Bible it is "As He said." As God has said—so it will surely be.

Jesus told the disciples that He would ascend to His Father; and He led them out to Bethany and went up to Heaven in their sight.

He told them that the Father would send the Holy Spirit down, and that they were to wait for Him.

They did wait, and at the appointed time the Holy Spirit came, and is with us still, though we cannot see Him; He is our Comforter and Guide.

All these things are very solemn realities.

We have been dwelling on some of the Prophecies that have been fulfilled. There are numbers more yet to be fulfilled hereafter.

PROPHECIES WHICH ARE NOT YET FULFILLED.

2 Peter i. 19.—Matt. xxiv. 14.

The central one of all is, Jesus Christ is coming again to take His people to be for ever with Him. He says: "Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me."

In the fiftieth Psalm we have a wonderful Prophecy and the promise: "The mighty God . . . hath spoken . . . Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence. Gather my saints together unto Me, those that have made a covenant with Me by Sacrifice."

And the last Prophecies in the Bible tell us about Heaven and the future life.

We read in Revelation xxi. 1-4 these words—

"I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.

"And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying—

"Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."

XI. Sowing and Reaping

Our Lord Jesus Christ was sitting on Jacob's Well, waiting for the return of the disciples, who had gone to the nearest village to buy food.

It was mid-day, and the Syrian sun had been beating down on the wearied Lord of all the earth.

At the bottom of the steps, travellers tell us, leading down to "Jacob's Well," there is a small excavation or shelter between some overhanging stones, and here the dear Lord may have found a little shade while He waited.

A woman had come down these steps to draw water, and the Lord had spoken of the Living Water which He would give her if she asked Him; and then, after they had been talking a little while, she had left Jesus sitting there, and had hurried into the town to tell her neighbours that she had found the Messiah—the Christ.

While she was gone, the disciples returned and quickly offered food to their Lord.

But His reply astonished them. He said: "I have food to eat that you do not know of. My food is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work!"

While they had been away, wearied and hungry as He was, He had brought a sinful soul to realize her sin, and to find in Him her Saviour!

And then He said to them: "Are there not four months before the harvest? But lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.

"He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit to life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together."

You may say: "What does He mean by sowing?" In the winter you see the fields, over which the plough has been pulled by the patient horses, and the patient farmer. Then comes the man with a basket of seed, and he puts the grains carefully into the furrows, and covers them over, and goes on his way. Have you seen that?

He is the sower.

Then comes the dew and the rain, the air and the sunshine, and the little seed grows and grows till, by and by, behold it is Harvest! And the golden grain is gathered into the safe garner!

This is the work God has given each one of us to do. To sow the Seed of the Word—to tell of the Love of Jesus!

Each one of us? Do you shrink, and say that you cannot—you so young and ignorant? Or you, perhaps, are too old and feeble to go into the world and spread His Word?

There are many ways of doing it. You can all pray, young or old, for the Seed to be blessed!

The children can work for the missionaries, and can save some of their pennies to put into the Missionary Box.

The old can spare some pennies, too—many or few, according to what they have—and can pray much, and encourage much, by showing ever a sure confidence that God will send the harvest by and by.

A few years ago, a sweet story was told me of this Seed-sowing. It was about a little Japanese boy; and he lived in Hakodate, and I have a photograph of him, taken when he was about eighteen.

When the Missionaries first heard of him he was a miserable little crippled invalid, for he had no legs, lying in the corner of a hut, neglected, dirty, hopeless. Nobody loved him, and he hated everybody. He spent his time in throwing stones at all who came near him, and saying wicked words, which were shocking to hear.

After a while these Missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Nettleship, heard of this poor boy, and went to see him. They told him of Jesus our Saviour, and how He loved him, and had given His life for him.

By and by this living Seed sank into the heart of the poor child, and a change came over him. He ceased to throw stones, he ceased to swear; and when the dear Missionaries offered to take care of him, he gladly went to them, and was with them for years. They called him Samuel, and he learnt to read and write, then helped them afterwards in their work. He learnt to play the concertina, and used to lead the hymns in the Sunday School; and he was full of joy and brightness.

The kind Missionaries made a loose Japanese robe for him, in which he could move about, and which covered up his poor maimed body. He learned to move about, swinging himself on his hands and arms, so that he could cross a room quite quickly; and they told me that his face was full of Heaven's sunshine.

I used to send him a book every year till his death; and he painted several beautiful Japanese pictures for me, which I keep as great treasures.

On one of these, he outlined these words in Japanese: "When the Chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

Just before his loving friends had to leave Hakodate for a time, dear Samuel was taken "Home!" after a short but painless illness, so that he never missed the loving care he had had!

It seems to me that this simple story helps us to understand what "sowing" and "reaping" mean.

The "Sowing" was done in that dark and dirty hovel in Japan.

The full of joy of the "Reaping" will come by and by in Heaven; but a foretaste of it was surely in the hearts of those dear Missionaries who carried that Living Seed to that poor neglected child, and who saw him grow up into an earnest, devoted Christian!

XII. "There was no Room for Them in the Inn"

Luke ii. 3-20.

On the last Sunday before Christmas, a little girl sat at the back of a Church, holding in her hand a card which had just been given her, on which was a beautiful picture of a sweet young mother and a tiny babe.

It was a Children's Service, and the Clergyman was telling them about that card, and describing to them the Christmas story which we all love.

Presently he said: "Do any of you remember what my sermon was about this time last year?"

There was dead silence in the Church, and then the Clergyman saw in the very back, underneath the gallery, a hand raised up suddenly, in token that some one could answer his question.

"Well, dear, what was it?" he asked.

And in the surprised silence a little girl rose to her feet and said in a clear, distinct voice, which reached every part of the Church:

"You asked us to pray this little prayer—

"'O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee!'"

"Yes!" said the Clergyman. "That was it! And you are a very good little girl to have told us so nicely, and to have remembered it all this time!"

So to-day, with this sweet thought in our minds, we can remember that there is a place in the heart of each one of us which we can keep for Jesus. We can think of His love to us, we can love Him in return, and worship Him every day we live.

And if we make room for Jesus in our hearts here, we shall find by and by He will give us "a crown of glory that fadeth not away."

Now let us think about the picture which all the Children at the Service are holding in their hands, and looking at so earnestly.

They could see the Holy Babe and His mother. They could see some men, shepherds, bending down and worshipping this Holy Babe; and they see that this is not a beautiful Castle where a King would be born, with curtains, and bright carpet and pretty cradle; but instead it seems to be a sort of Cave, cut out of the side of a hill—a stable, with a manger for the food of the cattle, while straw is scattered on the ground, and there is an Eastern donkey, raising his head in wonder to see a babe lying in his manger!

How came those shepherds there? Do shepherds leave their sheep in the middle of the night to go to a stable more than a mile off to see a little new-born babe?

Ah! but it was something very wonderful that had happened in those dark fields at Bethlehem, which made the shepherds go.

They had been quietly watching their flocks, and perhaps looking out anxiously for the dawn, when suddenly, without any warning, an Angel came down to them from heaven, and the Glory of the Lord surrounded them with a great and wondrous light.

The shepherds were very frightened at first, but the Angel quickly reassured them by saying that he had brought very good news, which would be great joy to all people! For a Holy Babe was born in Bethlehem that night, Who had come to this earth to be the Saviour of the World!

Then the Angel told them that they would know his words were true, by finding the little Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger.

And, suddenly, a multitude of the heavenly host were with the Angel who had been sent first; and they all praised God, and said, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Then the angels all went back to heaven, and the shepherds turned to each other in solemn awe, and they said, "The Lord has made known to us a wonderful thing—let us go to Bethlehem and see for ourselves what has come to pass."

So they left their flocks and hurried to the town.

And there, in a lowly stable, they saw the Holy Babe who was sent to Mary on the morning of Christmas-day!

Months before this, the Angel Gabriel had been sent from heaven to tell Mary that she was to be the most blessed of all women, for the Holy Child who was to be given to her was to be called the Son of God.

Now He had come! And she laid Him—the Son of God—in the manger, because there was no room for Him in the Inn.

Why did Jesus come to earth? How could His Heavenly Father spare Him? He was very rich in heaven! But for our sakes He became poor, that we might be rich! That was why He came—for our sakes!

Many years ago, just after a very happy Christmas, one of my little girls came to me and said earnestly, "I love Jesus, Mother!"

I clasped her in my arms and said, "When did you find that out, darling?"

"I was looking over my Christmas cards this morning," she said, "and it was this one—and, as I read the words, all at once I knew that He had come to save me!"

And the words were—

"God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life."

XIII. After His Resurrection

For forty days after the Lord Jesus Christ had risen from the dead, He appeared to His disciples numbers of times.

St. Paul, in the fifteenth chapter of the First of Corinthians, gives us a list of the times that Jesus appeared. And the list is very wonderful. He says: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures: and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures: and that He was seen of Cephas (Peter), then of the twelve: after that, He was seen of about five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also."

St. Paul referred to the time when he had seen Jesus, and He had spoken to him on the way to Damascus.

The Lord did not live on this earth in those forty days as He had done before, but He was "the same Jesus" Who had been with them throughout His ministry. The same, and yet different. Now in His blessed hands and feet were the marks of the cruel nails of the cross. In His side was the wound which the soldier's wanton spear had made! And the Lord now came in and out among them with a Presence which was quite different from what they had known before, for He came to them when doors were shut and fastened, and He left them without passing through those doors; He simply vanished out of their sight.

The first evening of that Resurrection Day, when the disciples were assembled with closed doors for fear of the Jews, suddenly the Lord stood in their midst and said "Peace be unto you." And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side.

How very glad the disciples must have been when they saw that their Lord was alive!

But Thomas was not with them when Jesus came that time; and when, afterwards, the others told him that they had seen the Lord, he said to them: "Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe!"

Jesus was not present when Thomas said all that, but He knew all about it, as you will see.

Eight days after, the disciples were again together in that upper room where they assembled, and Thomas was with them.

Then, though the doors were fast shut, Jesus came again and stood in the midst of them, and again He said "Peace be unto you."

Then He turned at once to Thomas, and said to him: "Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing.

"And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God!

"Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

And the Apostle John ends that wonderful account with these words: "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, ye might have life through His Name."

The forty days that the Lord was going in and out among His disciples was nearly over. We read in the first chapter of the Acts the account of the last talk that the Lord had with them.

He had been explaining many things to them about the Kingdom of God, and telling them that they were to stay in Jerusalem till the Holy Spirit was sent down to them, which God the Father had promised when Jesus went back to Heaven.

The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, and He is here with God's people now. It is He who whispers in our hearts and checks us if we do wrong. It is He who tells us about Jesus, and helps us to understand His forgiving love, and all He has done for us by His life and death.

We should pray earnestly that God would give us more of the Holy Spirit's presence and comfort.

The Lord told them that they were to be His witnesses all over the world, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins were to be preached in His Name among all nations.

Then He led them out as far as Bethany, which is just over the brow of the hill called the Mount of Olives.

And as they stood together there, He blessed them, and while He blessed them and they were looking at Him He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

"And while they looked stedfastly towards heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven."

And it is this promise which should cheer us all in these dark days. St. Paul calls it "that blessed Hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ!"

May we all be ready to welcome Him when He comes!

XIV. "Consider the Lilies"

Nazareth is a place of many flowers and of lovely views. From the hills around, those who go there can see peeps of the blue Mediterranean; and travellers tell us that the fields and hillsides are carpeted with countless flowers.

Here Jesus, our Lord, lived for thirty years. Here He wandered as a child, and grew up as a young man.

When at length the time came for Him to fulfil His great Mission, He came down to the cities round the Lake of Galilee.

For He had come from Heaven to preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the sick and brokenhearted.

But more than all these things, He had come down from His home in Heaven to save sinners!

This was why Jesus, the Lord of Glory, came to earth.

So when He came from Nazareth to the busy cities round the Lake, He began at once to heal the sick people, and to teach them about God and the Kingdom of Heaven.

One day He told the crowds who listened to Him about the little corn seeds growing up, and bearing numbers of seeds which would make the harvest by and by.

Another day He told them all about the lilies of the field, which they could see around them, but which they had never thought of "considering."

What do you think "considering" means?

It means thinking about something; turning the matter over in our minds, till we understand its full meaning.

So Jesus said, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow."

Who makes them grow? How do they get those delicate roots, those graceful green leaves, those sweet-smelling lovely flowers?

Every spring we see the daisies and the buttercups, the wild geraniums, the primroses and bluebells, and hundreds of other flowers, which come up in the fields and hedges, without our knowing that they were there!

Who kept them all the winter? Who made them bloom out in the spring?

Do you guess the answer? You know the answer; it is God who makes them grow, and come up for our joy.

And this wonderful thought helps us to understand the Resurrection; for by God's power the bodies of those who love Him, and who are lying in their graves, will rise to meet Jesus when He comes, and will bloom for ever in the lovely Paradise of God's Home.

But some people do not believe in the Resurrection: they put away the thought, and say they cannot see how it can be! And I am going to tell you a true story of a very curious thing that happened some few years ago.

A man who lived on the Continent—I do not remember the name of the town—was a great infidel; one who did not believe in God's power, or that there would be a resurrection of the dead by and by.

This man knew he must die some day, so he bought a grave in a certain spot, and he gave orders that when he died he was to be buried in that grave, and that a great stone was to be put over it. This stone was to be "clamped" at the corners with strong iron bands and bars, so that it could not be moved or taken away; and he ordered that certain words were to be cut on the stone deep and legible.

He left instructions, and money, to carry out all these plans; so that when he died there should be no mistake.

At length he did die, and was buried in that grave. All his instructions were carried out. The great stone was laid over him, bound with iron, and the stonemason cut words in the stone, just as he had said.

And these were the words—so sad, because they were spoken to defy God.

"THIS GRAVE IS NOT TO BE OPENED FOR EVER."

And now comes the sequel to that story.

One day a gentleman came into my husband's office and laid a photograph down on his desk.

He said he had just returned from the Continent, and had bought this photograph there. And then he told my husband the story that I have told you about the iron-bound grave.

Ah! There was the photograph, but it showed the grave all broken to pieces!

The iron bars were there, but they were bent and twisted in every direction; and the great stone was all broken to pieces, and lifted quite out of its place!

Do you ask how? Was it a miracle?

Yes, just the miracle of one of God's little living seeds, which He had allowed to be thrown into that grave!

For a seed-pod of a silver-birch tree had been shovelled in with the earth which was used to fill up the infidel's grave when he was buried.

The seed had taken root in the earth, and had grown and grown in the grave, till at last it became a strong silver-birch tree; and gradually the branches had burst the iron bars, and raised up the stones, and there was the infidel's grave laid open for everyone to see.

A photographer had heard of it and came among the sight-seers, and had taken the wonderful photograph, which my husband saw, and held in his own hand!

Let this Resurrection Story remind us of one great truth.

If we have Jesus for our Saviour, He is the Living Seed in our hearts; and when the time of the Resurrection comes for us, we shall rise, because His Life will be in us: and we shall go to be with Him, in joy, for ever.