The Golden age. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1906-1915, March 01, 1906, Page 3, Image 3

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® | | Io iAJMi ? oßHt' 11 O|j ißlrlm $S Sjrsj S j The Master’s Mission. “And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of cus tom; and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose and followed him. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many pub licans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”—Matt. 9: 9-13. Jesus had just healed the paralytic, consequently a great crowd had gathered about him and marvelled at his power. Like every other character, Jesus impressed him self more by what he did than by what he said. We are not to understand by this that his sayings were of less value than his work, on the contrary his sayings furnished the basis for his works. It is very important to keep this in mind. The Christian church has relied too much upon its teach ing. To get hold of the world’s heart, it is neces sary to live, as well as to teach. God could have taught this world without the incarnation, but to live he must become man, and move in the affairs of men. What we need today, in the church, is to get down to ordinary life. Joseph Parker, the great Lon don preacher, was once asked how he managed to draw his crowd. His reply was: “You would un derstand if you read my library.” “Is it such a good one?” “Oh, it’s good, bad, indifferent, grand and splen did,” answered the mighty talker preacher. “It is everything. It is in underground trains, on buss es, in tea-shops, restaurants, churches, stations, parties,- receptions, meetings, jubilees, sick beds, prisons and boudoirs. The fact is, you can never get away from it. We call it ‘human nature,’ for want of a better name. 1 study it—that is why I call it my library. Most men do not care anything about it; they prefer musty books. But that is why I am listened to, nevertheless.” I wish every church could have heard Mr. Par ker say this. I think there would be a little differ ent standard required of the pulpit. Usually the Reverend Doctor “Dry-as-Dust,” who talks well, but touches nothing, is selected when the pulpit is to be filled. I knew one man called to a very dis tinguished church because the pulpit committee got peep into his study and saw such a mass of beau tiful books. They at once decided that he must be a man of great power and learning, and such a man they wanted. If I had to advise such a committee, I would say, “Look well at the character of those books. Hear the man preach, and, above all, see his work.” A Man Named Matthew. Passing from the healing of the paralytic, Jesus calls Matthew to be a disciple. Notice the account of the call, and remember that it is Matthew’s ac count of himself: “As Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named*Matthew, sitting at the receipt of cus tom.” Jesus saw a man. How significant. The tendency is to ignore the man. Folks are now being The Tabernacle pulpit reckoned as numbers, mere tags, with one or more figures. The other day in one of our great factories, I heard the superintendent say he knew no man in that building. What he meant was this: Every man in the building surrendered his identity when he entered it. He ceased to be a man, and became a figure, a numeral. But we do not have to go io factories to find the crushing out of individuality, it is getting to be the common order of life. How few of us when we jostle along in the great crowd ever think of the man or the woman. Not infrquently we think or the clothes that the man or woman has on. The fact is, that seems to be about the greatest con cern of the present day. It is “that hat,” “that dress,” “that diamond,” or it may be the opposite. It may be the lack of proper clothing; that is the subject of comment. What we want is to keep in mind the individual ity of the man. Like Jesus beholding Matthew, we want to behold the man, not merely his physical ap pearance, but the man as he impresses us with pos sibilities. Oh, if everybody was out in search for this treasure we would soon have a new world. The man Matthew’ had two names. One seems to have been his Hebrew name, Levi, and the other his Christian name, Matthew. The latter he seems to have given himself. Doubtless it was taken as a sort of memorial of that change through which he passed when he got his new heart and life. It was not uncommon in those days to find such changes. Simon, son of Jonas, was transformed into Peter. Saul of Tarsus became Paul. Joses the Syp riot, was given the name of Barnabus. At the time of Matthew’s call he was the collec tor of customs at the port of Capernaum. This po sition, while from the standpoint of responsibility, was an important one, nevertheless, it was looked upon with contempt by the so-called better classes. It reminded them of their subjugation to Rome, a thing which was very unpleasant. Publicans, there fore, as these tax gatherers were called, were a very obnoxious set. Jesus was no stranger to Matthew. As collector of toll by the lakeside, he had often seen him. Doubtless, they had often talked together. I have no doubt but that his mind had been previously made up concerning Christ. It is not improbable that he had followed him before, and that this call was distinctly for discipleship. The Great Feast. We have been considering Matthew’s own account of his call. Now let us consider his account of the great feast. It is not called by him a great feast; modestly prevents that. He simply says, “at meat.” Luke, however, describes it as a “great feast.” It was entirely proper that the new disciple should take his Lord to his house. I know of no better thing for a young Christian to do. A young lady some time ago, who had just been converted, asked me how and where she could do some Christian work. I said: “Begin at home.” “But,” said she, “I have no home.” “Well,” said I, “take Jesus to your boarding house.” Matthew did the right thing. The tendency of the home today is to crowd Jesus out. All other guests are given a place but Jesus. We have got to have a revival of home religion in this country. We are never going to get the church very much higher than the home. A home consecrated to Jesus Christ means more in the uplifting of a community than any one will ever be able to tell. We have got to come to this, or our business, the very thing which now pre vents Christ in the home, will be crushed. It was also right and proper that Matthew should give this feast. 1. It showed his appreciation of Jesus. In those days certainly it was not customary to invite one to dine unless he was welcome in every sense. Jesus had called Matthew to accompany him in his cam paign of salvation. Matthew unquestionably appre ciated the opportunity, though it carried with it hardship and self-denial. The Golden Age for March 1, 190(>. By Le n G . Broughton I am glad to see a new Christian happy in service for Jesus. It is so much better than to go moping and mourning about what has been given up, and how hard it is to live right. 2. It marked the beginning of his new life. It is good to have some distinct mark at the end of the life of unbelief and at the beginning of the life of belief. I like to see a man who is able to go back to the time when he first knew the Lord. 3. It furnished a good opportunity to show his for mer friends and companions that his call had not turned his head. He was the same old Levi in his love and interest for his companions. He was even more so, because he had gotten a new love from Him who loved as never man loved. It is a very easy thing for a man to get his head turned when he enters a position of promotion. I have known preachers and preachers’ wives and their children to forget the crowd that they once loved, and go after those that move in the upper circle. I have often thought of Spurgeon in this connection. A distinguished member of Parliament once said to him: “Mr. Spurgeon, why do you continue to preach and do your work on the southside? If you were on the northside you might be preaching to lords, whereas, now you preach to the common people.” Mr. Spurgeon’s reply was: “God, forbid that I should turn my back upon the people that have made me.” It took a great man to say this. At the same time no man will become great who does not feel it. 4. It furnished an opportunity to introduce Jesus. How wisely this was planned. Matthew is really an example for soul-winners of much more experience, iiow many of us ever planned for such a meeting? 1 was preaching in New York, and a woman be came much exercised over the fact that she had never won a soul to Christ. She decided to invite certain unsaved friends to dine with her and go to church. In this way she led six of them to Christ in six days. Oh! that every professed Christian would set to work some plan to introduce his un saved friends to Christ. The Critic Around. But in spite of all Matthew’s planning, the critic was abroad in the land. When the self-seeking, common-people haling Pharisees heard of the feast, they set themselves to the work of criticising. There are always plenty of such around. It is the easiest thing in the world to criticise work, especially if it is live work. Nobody ever criticises a thing that moves after the fashion of a funeral. But they were not after Matthew in their criticisms; they cared nothing for him. What they were after was Jesus. Matthew could eat with all the publicans in town, and nothing would be said. What they were after was finding some fault with Jesus. It is just so now. Do we realize it like we ought? lam sure we do not. When a Christian goes wrong, it is Jesus who suffers the criticism of the world. Ofttimes this.very fact has been my greatest stay. I cannot afford to bring reproach upon Jesus. He does not deserve that kind of treatment. He de serves the very best that my life can do for Him. The criticism which they passed upon the occa sion was this: ‘ ‘ Why eateth your master with pub licans and sinners?” Observe that this question was asked of Matthew, but answered by Jesus. It is very important that it is so. It involves the issue of his kingdom. From his answer we get his own conception of his mission. Had Matthew answered the question, it would have had less weight; indeed, he might not have properly answered it if left to himself without the inspiration of Jesus. Jesus’ answer forever settles the question. Oh, how signi ficant; how little they knew about him and his mission to men. Jesus Talks. Let us now consider his answer. It may be divid ed into three parts: an argument, an appeal and a declaration. 1. The Argument. “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” There is (Continued on page 4.) 3