Five Great Duties Of A Christian Life
I am to speak at this time on the subject, "The Five Great Duties of a Christian Life." The text is located in 1 Cor. 16:13, 14. It reads: "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong, let all that you do be done in love."
The writer of this language was the apostle Paul, but not Paul alone, for he says "which things we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth." So, we have here a text given by the Holy Spirit, through the apostle Paul. Those addressed, we are told, are the members of the church of Christ in the city of Corinth, but not they only, for the writer adds "to all who in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." So, this language is just as much for the Christians in this place as it was for the Christians in the city of Corinth, and if you will read the epistle through you will find it filled with just such teachings as Christians everywhere need. In the first chapter we find this: "I beseech you, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you speak the same things and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." Jesus taught this same thing when he prayed that all who believed on him might be one, even as he and the Father are one. Oh, how much need there is in some places today for this teaching. There are communities in which the professed followers of Jesus Christ are so divided and the religious tension is so tight that it seems those on both sides spend more time and energy in fighting each other than they do in fighting sin and Satan. There are homes divided on the subject of religion where the feeling is so strong that for the sake of peace both sides have agreed not even to mention religion. How Satan must rejoice when he gets a home in such a state that the members of it dare not even talk religion.
Not very long ago I stood on a prominent street corner in a good town and listened to a regular family quarrel between father and mother as to where their little daughter should attend Sunday school. How much better if God's people would be united as Jesus prayed they should, as the Holy Spirit teaches they ought to be. Perhaps the greatest stumbling block in the way of unbelievers today is the miserable division existing among the followers of Christ. The reason which Jesus gave for praying that all who believe on him might be one was that the world might believe on him.
Read on in the epistle and very soon you come to another subject upon which there is much need of teaching. The writer rebukes those who are puffed up in their own minds, who think they are better than others, and most fittingly says, "Let no man think of himself more highly than he ought to think." In harmony with that other verse which says, "He that exalteth himself shall be abased, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." In harmony with the further teaching "let each esteem others better than himself." Perhaps there are no Christians here who are puffed up in their minds, but back where I live there possibly are some of this kind.
Did you ever hear this statement? I have. If I could buy that man for what he is really worth and then sell him for what he thinks he is worth, I could make a fortune at one trade.
Read on and you find very soon where Christians are rebuked for going to law one with another. The Holy Spirit says, "Why not rather suffer wrong, why not rather be defrauded of your goods than for brother to go to law with brother and that before the unbelievers." He adds, "Is it possible that there are no wise men among you who might settle these disputes that arise between brethren?" Can there not be found any men of sufficient sense and principle among Christians to decide disputes that arise among themselves. Must they rush off to the law courts and fight each other with such bitterness as to make even outsiders sneer and say, "Watch those Christians fight each other." That's brotherly love, is it not? Better practice what they preach before they ask others to join them.
And so if you read on through the entire epistle you find it filled with just such teachings as Christians everywhere need. And in the last chapter and almost the very last words of that chapter the Holy Spirit sums up for us the Christian life under five great duties. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong, let all that you do be done in love," Are you willing to study with me for a time these great duties one by one? Each is as full of thought and meaning as an egg is full of meat. The first one "watch ye," what does that mean? It means keep your eyes open. See things. It means what Paul wrote in 1 Thess. 5:6: "Let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober." Christians are supposed to be wide awake. Sinners are represented as being asleep, having their eyes shut. Peter taught just like Paul, "Be sober, be vigilant" and "vigilant" means "watchful," and Peter tells why "because your adversary, the devil, goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." Do you understand what this language means? It does not say that Satan goes about roaring and breathing out fire and smoke like the old picture of him, which some of us saw in the old family Bible, but it does mean that he goes about seeking to get the advantage of Christians, as eager to get them in his power, as a hungry lion roaring for his prey.
Some years ago my little boy and myself came into Cincinnati early one morning. Our train for home had gone when we reached the station and there was no other until late that afternoon. I had visited the zoological gardens several times, but my son had not. Cincinnati has one of the finest zoological gardens in the world. You can see there more animals for twenty-five cents than you would see in a dozen shows. I decided to take the boy out there for the day. Of course, we went to see the monkeys, fed them on peanuts and laughed at their tricks, saw the sea lion, the elephant and the giraffes. Yes, we visited the 34 great building where the lions and tigers were kept in the great iron cages. As we walked in those great animals were piled about sleeping quietly like great cats and dogs, not fierce looking at all. We noticed a sign in the building which said the animals will be fed at two o'clock. We went on our way, visiting many different parts of the grounds and seeing interesting things, and after a while we heard a great noise over in the direction of the building where the lions and tigers were kept. Looking at the watch we saw it was only ten minutes till the time for the animals to be fed. We hurried to the building and as we walked in this time, Were those animals lying asleep? Far from it. They were pacing restlessly back and forth in their cages, lashing their sides with their tails, and every little while a lion would almost shake the earth by his awful roar. They were hungry, eager for something to eat. Soon a man came in with a big basket of beef, cut up into pieces as big as a man's head. Did he set the basket down near the cage and with his bare hands push piece after piece through the iron grating? Not much. Setting the basket down some ten feet from the cage he took a pitch fork and hurled a piece of meat way up there at the side of the cage and that hungry lion sprang from the back of the cage and met it as it touched the grating, jerked it through and had it almost devoured by the time it reached the floor.
This is the picture that Peter had in mind when he warns Christians to be watchful, because their adversary, the devil, goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
And yet, how quietly some people seem to take the warning. They do not seem to feel uneasy at all. What if I should say to you this evening, "Be careful when you leave this building, there is a roaring lion out there in the street, seeking whom he may devour. Do not let him catch you." Do you think I should need to repeat the warning to make you careful? Some of you would not leave the building until you thought that beast was either killed or caught, and yet there is someone seeking you far more dangerous than any brute like that. Jesus says, "Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation." And again he says, "What I say unto you I say unto all, watch." So this great duty of watchfulness is enjoined upon all Christians everywhere by Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the apostles.
What shall we watch? Watch against the temptations of the wicked one, to see that he does not lead you into the practice of sin, for the wages of sin is death, and "the soul that sinneth it shall die." But I wonder if that is all it means to be a servant of God, just to keep out of mischief, just to keep Satan from leading us into wrong doing. How much would one of you men give me to go home with you and be your servant and just keep out of mischief? I stay with you a month. At the end of that time I come up and say, "I want my pay. I have not burned your home: I have not damaged any of your furniture. I have not hurt any of the family. I have not injured any of your stock. I want my pay." You say a servant who did nothing but keep out of mischief would not be worth the salt he ate, and you are right, whether he be a servant of men or a servant of God. Some professed Christians, if you ask them concerning their lives, will say, "I do not lie, I do not steal, I do not get drunk," as if the whole of a Christian's duty consisted simply in keeping out of mischief. Of course a good servant will do his master no harm, but the question is, What good does he do? And a servant of God must not only keep out of mischief, watching, against the temptations of the wicked one, but he must watch also for the opportunities that come to him to do all the good he can to all the people he can at all the times he can, in all the ways he can and just as long as he can.
In this same epistle we have this language: "Be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord." The Holy Spirit again says, "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God bath before ordained that we should walk in them." And the Holy Spirit says, "As we have therefore, opportunity, let us do good unto those who belong to our 36 church." I see some of you smile, and shake your heads, as if you thought it didn't read like that, but do you not know some people who act as if it read so? Oh, they do not belong to our church, and therefore we have nothing to do with them. If you never do any good except to those who think just like you do in religion, or who belong to your church, you may be a very good sectarian, but you are a mighty poor Christian.
Let's try that verse again. "As we have, therefore, opportunity, let us do good unto—those who do good unto us." Again I see some heads shaking and yet, does not that express the way some professed Christians live, doing good simply to those who do good to them? Jesus says, "Even sinners do good to those who do good to them." And if you never do good to any except those who do good to you, you are no better than sinners.
"But," some professed Christians say, "You invite me to your home, I will invite you to mine. You compliment me, I will compliment you. You send me a present, I will send you one. Or you tickle me and I will tickle you." Is that what this verse teaches? Is that what our duty means, simply to do good to those who do good to us? I can quote that old verse just as it reads, and this time I will do so. Listen: "As we have, therefore, opportunity, let us do good unto all men." There is nothing little nor sectarian about that, just as full and free as God's sunshine or sweet, pure air.
Jesus said, "Bless those that curse you, do good to those that hate you, pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven." And yet, there are people all the time whining about not having opportunity to display their wonderful talents. They say, "Oh, if I just had his opportunity, or her chance, I would do something great" Do you remember that Jesus said, "He that is faithful in a very little will be faithful in much, and he that is unjust in a very little will be unjust also in much." If you do not improve the little opportunities that come your way, you would not 37 improve- the great ones, should they come. This duty says, "watch ye," watch for the opportunities that come your way and they will come thick and fast along the pathway of life, giving you a chance to do good unto all men.
The old Greeks had peculiar ways, though striking, of representing many things. They pictured opportunity as a woman, they represented her as having the bottom of her feet covered with wool. What did they mean by this? Opportunity does not come blustering, making a great noise with her footsteps, as we men and boys do with our heavy shoes. Her tread is noiseless. You have to watch carefully or she will get by without your seeing her. They represented that she had hanging down in front of her face a long lock of hair, while the back of her head had not a hair on it. What did they mean by this? You must catch opportunity as she comes, for when she gets by there is nothing to catch to. Oh, how true is this representation. "Of all sad words of tongue or pen the saddest are these, It might have been." Some of the keenest regrets that will come to lost souls will be the remembrance of neglected opportunities of what they might have been.
God grant that the ghosts of neglected opportunities may not haunt any of us who are here.
You say that you have never had an opportunity. Perhaps you do not follow the teaching given here "watch ye," keep your eyes open. Did you ever hear the story of the two old farmers who met at the village post office and got to discussing which one had the most rats at his house? Each one maintained stoutly that he had more rats on his farm than anyone else in all the community. Finally one of them said, "If you will go home with me I can show you that I have more rats than you have." The other answered, "I will go home with you, if after that you will go home with me, for I can show you that I have more rats than you have." They went to the first farmhouse, and the old man took his friend out to the crib where the corn was stored, placed him on one side and said, "Now you stay here and watch, while I go round to the other side 38 and rattle this pole under there and run them out." He did so, and came back and said, as the rats ran out all round about, "Now what do you say?" And the other said, "Well you do have a good many, but I have more than you; now, you come and go home with me." He did so, and his friend placed him on one side of the crib and said, "Watch while I go round to the other side and rattle this pole under the crib and make them run out." He did so, and the rats ran out thick all around the crib, and he called out to his neighbor, "See any rats?" The other answered back, "Do not see a rat." The old man thought this was strange, but again he rattled the pole under the crib and they ran out thicker than ever. Again, he called, "See any rats?" And the answer came back, "Do not see a rat." The other decided to investigate. He slipped to the corner of the crib, peeping around where the other was stationed to watch, and he saw the old man standing there with both eyes shut. He did not see any rats because he did not want to see any. So it is, with some loud talkers today who are all the time whining and complaining about having no opportunities to do things for God and for humanity. They see no opportunities because they have their eyes shut. They are afraid they will see them.
The second great duty: "Stand fast in the faith." What does this mean? It means, when once you have taken your stand under the banner of Jesus Christ, stand there, do not be first in and then out, first hot and then cold, but let people know where to find you. Seven days in the week, twenty-four hours out of the day, and as long as life shall last.
What would you think of a horse if you placed him in a pasture where he was literally up to his knees in clover, and instead of staying in the pasture, he spent his time jumping the fence out into the road and back into the pasture? How long would it take him to get fat? You say, he never would get fat. He would soon lose all the fat he had and get so poor that he could not even jump the fence.
You may take the finest young fruit tree that can be bought in any nursery; you may find an ideal spot in which to set it; you may take every pains to see that it is set just as it ought to be, and if you move it, every week into another spot just as good, How long will it take it to bear fruit? You say, It never would bear any fruit. It would not even grow. It would die. You must give it time to take root downward and to grow upward. You must let it stand fast in one place, if it is ever to bear any fruit. So it is with Christians. They must learn how to stand fast in the faith, if they are to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Steadfastness is necessary to success in any line of life. The old saying, "A rolling stone gathers no moss," is true, both in religion and in business.
Another old saying, "Three moves are as bad as a fire." This also is true. You cannot succeed in any line of life unless you stand fast by your work. There lived on a farm adjoining my father's a man about whom the first thing I ever heard was that he would not work at the same thing two hours in succession. When that man's father died, he left him a good farm, well stocked and in good condition. After the man became its owner, if he started to work in his corn, in a little while he would stop and go to see about his potatoes. After a little time he would quit that and go to fix the fence—all the time changing from pillar to post. I lived there long enough to see that farm go to rack and that man come to poverty. You can't succeed in anything, even farming, unless you stand fast by your work. I was in that community three summers ago. Where do you suppose this man was living? He was an inmate of the county poor house. Stand fast in the faith if you ever hope to accomplish anything as a Christian.
Some children had a Sunday school picnic. When they had eaten their dinners under the cool, shady trees, and quenched their thirst with the sparkling waters of the spring they climbed over a fence into a great pasture where they were supposed to pick blackberries to take home with them. Each had his basket or bucket. The berries were plentiful and they began eagerly picking 40 the fruit. But you know how children are. Someone looked over yonder and cried out, "Oh, just look what big ones over yonder," and they rushed over there, and someone looked on ahead, and said, "Oh, look what fine ones over yonder" and they went rushing over there, and the big berries were always just ahead. All acted thus but one little boy, who had the biggest bucket of all. He climbed the fence and found a brier that had some ripe berries on it. He never stopped until he got every ripe berry on the bush, and then he looked around for the nearest bush that had other ripe berries on it, and so he continued his work. He knew how to stick to his bush. I do not need to tell you that he had his bucket piled up full before the others hardly had the bottom covered. You cannot succeed picking berries, unless you stick to your bush.
Some of you have read of Stonewall Jackson. Some think he was the greatest of Southern Generals, and that God in his providence had to take him away that he might save the Union. You young people know that his name was not "Stonewall," his name was "Thomas Jefferson Jackson." How did he obtain the. name "Stonewall?" It was at the great battle of Manassas. The boys in gray had turned their backs and were actually running off the field of battle. General Bee was trying to rally his fleeing troops. Look-ing to one side he saw Jackson standing there alone, with his face toward the foe, ready if need be to fight the whole army of blue coats singlehanded and alone. Pointing toward Jackson, he called to his men, "Boys, look yonder at Jackson standing like a stone wall." Those fleeing gray coats, seeing that one man stand there so brave and bold, got ashamed to run, they turned around, re-formed those broken lines, raised that terrible rebel yell, came back in the face of the foe and the greatest victory of the war up to that time was won, because one man knew how to stand fast in the face of the foe.
In how many places do we find the soldiers of the cross giving back before the oncoming hosts of sin?
How we need soldiers of the cross with courage like that of Jackson, to stand fast in the face of the foe, and change seeming defeat into victory, for "if God be for us, who can be against us?"
But, maybe some of you here are Northern people, and you do not think as much of Stonewall Jackson as we Southern people do. Well, what do you think of U. S. Grant? You say, now, there is a General worth talking about. We Southern people think so too. We could not help it. He made us. Do you remember when they gave General Grant that splendid army, perfectly equipped and he started to Richmond and met that little band of ragged, half-.starved gray coats, who tore his splendid army into fragments until you could hardly find a piece? Did Grant quit? No! He said, "I'm going to Richmond." They gave him another army bigger and better than the first. Again they met that little band of half-starved ragged gray coats, who tore his second army into fragments as they had the first. Did he quit? Grant said, "I'm going to Richmond." They gave him a third army bigger and better than either of the others, and he said, "We will fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer. I'm going to Richmond," and he went to Richmond, and that is what stopped the rebellion, and saved the Union, and we Southern people are just as glad of it as any of you Northern folks can be.
In business, in battle, in religion, there is no success except to those who stand fast.
The third great Christian duty, "quit you like men." What does this mean? Quit means not "stop that," as some of you children may think, because when you were doing something you ought not, mother said, "Quit." Look in the dictionary and see. Quit means "behave yourself." And quit you like men, means behave yourselves like men. Do not act like babies. There is a big difference between the way a man, a real man, and a baby behaves. I have had some experience with babies. We have had five of our own. Babies have to be petted. Babies like to have their own way, and if they do not, you often hear from them, but I would rather care for a half dozen little fellows 18 inches or two feet long than to undertake to care for just one great big six foot church baby, who wants to be petted, who wants to have his way, and you hear from him if he does not get it. Unfortunately we cannot treat him like we can the little fellows, but I have thought sometimes it would be splendid if we could. God's word says to a Christian, "Behave yourself like a man." Do not go about playing the baby act, whining and fretting because you cannot have your way about everything. There are some other people in the world besides you, and they have just about as much right to their preference and wishes as you have to yours. and it takes someone with a baby mind and a spoiled disposition to be all the time wanting his way and his preferences, when other people have as much right to their preferences as he has to his.
Did you ever see the little boy, mother's darling, who has always been petted and spoiled by mother, who has had his way about everything, when he starts to school? Out there with that band of little fellows who have learned to play the man as they play with each other, and watch mother's spoiled darling when something goes differently from what he wishes as he tunes up, turns away and says, "I will not play unless you play my way." Sometimes he weighs two hundred pounds, and is playing what we call the game of religion. Shame on such a travesty of a Christian. There is a big difference between the way a man and a boy behaves. A boy was out at the wood pile one day cutting wood. He cut off a big stick that had a knot in it. He knew the stick was too large to go into the stove, that it must be split, but he thought it would be too hard to split through the knot, and so he tried to split around it. You know what that means, if you know anything about splitting wood. He would have to chop all the way round, and while he was standing there wearing himself out, trying to find an easy way to split around the knot, his father came and he said, "What are you doing, son?" The boy said, "I am trying to split this stick of wood." His father said, "You will never split it like that. Strike at the knot, right through the middle of it." The boy raised up his axe and came down with two or three heavy blows right in the middle of the knot and open it came. I think I know a good many people even in the church, among them some preachers, who are trying to split around the knot, who do not seem to have the courage to face difficulties and hard problems like men, but try to play the baby act, when God says, "Quit you like men." It is the brave heart that always wins. The old saying is true: "Faint heart never won fair lady." I spent three years in New England, one year at Yale and two at Harvard. I visited Plymouth, the place where the Pilgrims landed. I stood on Plymouth Rock, on which the Pilgrims stepped when they got off the boat on to the bleak New England shore. I saw many interesting relics that have come down from those pioneer days. They are kept safely in the museum built there for the purpose. I saw the first cradle ever made in America, in which a white child was rocked, but I believe that most of all I enjoyed looking across the arm of the bay into the little village of Ducksbury and seeing the monument that has been built there in honor of Miles Standish, the Puritan captain. Some of you young people know the history of Captain Standish. It was his part, with a few soldiers, to fight the Indians and keep them off while the other settlers cleared the ground, planted the crops and made a living for the others. Miles was not afraid of any band of Indians that ever walked, but there was one thing of which he was afraid. There was a sweet faced, fair haired, blue eyed girl that lived in the village, and Miles loved her, but he was afraid to tell her so, and I suspect that Miles is not the only man that ever feared under such circumstances. Now, Miles was a plain, blunt spoken man who could not use flowery language, and the poor fellow had not learned that the girl does not care whether the old story is told in flowery language or plain, just so the man has the courage to look her in the eye and tell her plainly just what he thinks of her. Miles thought that the story should be told in flowery language, and he knew that he could never do this He could never say it either with flowers or in flowers, but Miles had a friend, John Alden, who was not afraid of the girls, and who could say anything, or nothing, in beautiful language, and Miles went to John and asked him if he would not go to see the girl for him, and John said, Yes, he would go, he would be glad to go, and he did, and you know the result. John Alden married the girl and poor old Miles was left, and he said, "One thing I have learned: if you want a thing well done, do it yourself."
The man who will try to get his grandmother or some friend to do his courting for him will fail every time, for any sensible girl despises the man that has not the courage to speak for himself.
The same is true in religion, in business, or in love. If you would make a success, behave yourself like a man.
The fourth duty, "Be strong." God wants strong Christians, because he has heavy burdens which require broad shoulders. He had dangerous missions, missions which require brave hearts, and so he says, "Be strong." But someone says, "Can I just be strong, do I not have to be born that way, specially gifted with strength?" No. Strength is largely a matter of our own making. You can be just about as strong physically or spiritually as you are willing to pay the price of being. The strongest man I ever saw physically would not weigh as much as I do by fifty pounds. And yet he could handle me and you and two more like us, and I doubt if any of you could handle me. I am afraid to tell you what I saw that man do. I do not want you to lose confidence in my veracity as I tell you the unreasonable feats which I saw him perform. I asked him to tell me the secret of his strength. He said, "It is very simple. When I was a boy, I was about like other boys." Great muscles stood out on his limbs and arms, showing the wonderful strength that he had attained, and he said, "You see these muscles, you could not buy them with all the money that John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford together possess, and nobody can give them to you. You must build them up yourself. Three things are essential: proper food, proper exercise, and freedom from disease. I was careful what I ate, simple food, in moderate quantities, at regular times. 45 Vigorous exercise, regularly taken. Mere eating will not make a muscle grow. It may furnish the material, but it takes exercise to grow the muscle. Another essential to physical strength is freedom from disease. If I should contract typhoid fever, pneumonia, tuberculosis, or some other like disease, I would soon lose my appetite for food, my desire for exercise, and whatever strength I might possess." This man did not know it but in giving the secret of physical strength, he also stated truly the secret of spiritual strength. Proper spiritual food, proper spiritual exercise and freedom from spiritual disease, which is sin, are absolutely necessary. No other food will develop spiritual strength, except to feed the soul regularly, either upon the sincere milk of the word, or the strong meat which belongs to those of full age. No amount of modern fiction, or current history, or magazine articles, can be substituted for this God appointed food. Spiritual exercise, the doing of the things that God enjoins, is as necessary to spiritual strength as physical exercise is necessary to physical strength. You will never be strong in prayer unless you practice yourself in praying. You will never be strong in teaching the Bible unless you exercise yourself in teaching. Some years ago when Colonel Francis W. Parker announced the pedagogical principle that the way to learn to do anything, was to do that thing, his statement was hailed as a great modern discovery, and yet the principle in-volved is as old as the human race. We can never be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might unless we keep ourselves free from sin. That old besetting sin which so many people keep carefully covered up and hidden from every eye but that of God is enough to prevent one from never becoming spiritually strong. We never can know the delights of spiritual strength until all on the altar we lay.
And the last of these great duties is perhaps the best of all, "Let all that you do be done in love." There is no room in a Christian's heart for hatred of any human being. Love is the very spirit of Christianity. Jesus taught "thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart." "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." He 46 declared these to be the greatest commandments in the law, and he said, "A new commandment I give unto you, that you, my followers, love one another as I have loved you." He said, "Love your enemies, bless those that curse you and do good to those that hate you." What a world this would be if all Christians so lived—every thought must be a love thought, every feeling a love feeling, every purpose a love purpose, every word a love word, every deed a love deed, for all the law is fulfilled in the one word "love."