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Representing Christ.
Sermon preached by Dr. Broughton in his Taber
nacle to a great crowd, Sunday morning, June 19th.
4 ‘Ye are the light of the world: Even so let your
light so shine before men, that they may see your
good works and glorify your Father which is in
Heaven.” Matt. 5:14;16.
My special purpose to-day is to speak on “The
Christian’s place in the world.” Everything that is
worth anything has a place. Take for example this
yhurch: this church, if it is the church of Jesus
Christ, has a place in the world; not only a place,
but a distinct place, a specific place, a place which
if it does not fill will not be filled, and so with re
spect to everyone of us holding membership in the
church; we have our place.
Our Place in the Church.
It may be a very humble place, it may be a more
exalted place—it may be the most exalted place, but
whether it be an humble place, or an exalted place,
if we are the children of God and entitled to mem
beiship in the church at all, that place is for us to
fill, and if it is not filled by us, will not be filled at
all. If God has favored us with great favor, then
the responsibility is correspondingly great. What
ever the degree of our place is God holds us re
sponsible, sacredly and righteously for the fulfill
ment of that place. That, you can at once see makes
Christian living a great responsibility; makes
church membership a responsibility; makes your
place in the church a place of great responsibility
and concern. And so my brethren it is with re
spect to “the Christian’s place in the W’orld” at
large.
The Christian is for a Specific Purpose.
God never saved man just for the sake of saving
him; the first man who was ever saved was saved
for himself and for the rest of mankind with whom
he might come in contact, and over whom he might
exercise an influence; and so on from that time
down to the present hour. Every man that is saved
is saved for himself and for what he may do in
helping to save the rest of mankind. What now is
the Christian’s place in the world? Our text it
seems to me answers the question. The Christian’s
place in the world, as we are told in the first part
of the text is—to be light for the world of mankind.
“Ye are the light of the world.” But not only light
to the world is the Christian to be, but he is to be
that light in proportion to the way he gives the light
a chance £o shine. “Ye are the light of the world;
let your light so shine before men that others see
ing your good works will glorify your Father which
is in Heaven.” In other words, the Christian’s
place in the world, is to represent Jesus Christ;
nothing more, nothing less.
But How Represent Jesus Christ?
Can we make that question sufficiently personal
to answer it for ourselves today?
What is he to do that he may represent Jesus
Christ? j I answer in the first place, the Christian
is to represent Jesus Christ in his Love. There is
no use talking about it—Love is the greatest thing
in this world. We see it operating every day anc!
JEWS TOTmCACTLIk mOjWO a I
we see its power as it operates. We see Love con
quering where nothing else in the world can conquer.
I stepped into the Sunday school of a church once, —
I saw a little, feeble woman standing talking to a
class of one hundred young men. I did not see any
thing especially great in what she was saying to
them; there certainly was nothing attractive in t' e
appearance of the woman herself, but yet she was
holding that magnificent body of young men, and
holding them spell-bound, and she did it every Sun
day. I asked the Superintendent of the Sunday
school to explain the mystery—for it was a mys
tery: he said, “there is no explanation to it, but
■this, she loves those men and they know it.” I
said, “that is explanation enough, for when you
have said that you have said about that woman the
greatest thing that could be said about any man or
woman.” We have all heard that little story Mr.
Moody used to tell. One day a boy was found by
a policeman hurrying across the streets of Chicaw
and the policeman stopped him and said, “where
are you going this cold, shivering day?” the boy
said, “I am going to Sunday school,” the police
man said, “Where?” he said, “over to Mr.
Moody’s,” which was about two and one-half miles
away. The policeman said to the boy, “why an
you going so far, you are passing by scores of Sun
day schols,” he said, “Oh! well they love a fellow r
over there.” There isn’t a man here, - however
hard hearted he is, however much engrossed in busi
ness; however important a factor in the great worn
of business, but that is vulnerable at that point;
you can touch him at the point of love when you
could never touch him in any other way. A man
may go ever so far down in sin, but love will reach
him. You let a mother’s boy go down to the depths
of sin and degradation,—does she think of with
holding her hand from him? She thinks a great
deal more about going down there after him, and
why? Because she loves him. When I lived in Roa
noke, I was sent for to go to the police barracks.
When I got there I found a young man, a splendid
young fellow incarcerated, and I said, “what are
you here for?” he replied, “I am sorry to tell you,
but I am here for stealing;” I said, “you here for
stealing?” and after talking with him for a while
I said, “I guess we had better send a telegram to
your mother.” “Oh! don’t send for mother, sh
would not think of coming, she would feel so dis
graced.” I said, “you don’t know a mother’s
love.” I sent the telegram to his mother and she
was there on the first train and I was present when
she came to the barracks; she hardly spoke to the
Chief of police; just as soon as she found out when
that boy was she rushed right up to the cell, and
rapped upon the door as if to knock it down, until
finally they unlocked it and let hei- in, and though
he was a thief, she rushed to him and kissed him
and hugged him as if he was the greatest man in
the world.
Now this old world needs just that kind of love,
and Jesus Christ had just that kind of love. The
lower down a man got it seems to me the better
Jesus loved him, and the lower down a woman got
the better Jesus seemed to love her, for when the
rest of the world would stone her and put her to
death Jesus was her friend and extended a helping
hand to her and showed her the better way. But to
day Jesus Christ is not on the earth. He has gone
back to Heaven and the only way He has of impress
ing Himself upon the world is through His disciples
who are left behind Him and He wants that His
people should have hearts in tune with His heart.
Oh! how we might stir up this town for Christ if
we had Christ’s love for men; oh! how we might
shake this community if we had the love Jesus had,
The Golden Age for July 5, 1906.
Le n G . Broughton
“the heart of love.” If every Sunday school teach
er we have in this church had that kind of love, we
would break this house down with folks; it would
not hold them, they would be packed in here tighter
than sardines in a can; you could not keep them
away; you might stand at the corner with a club
and they would come, because people do not care
anything about obstacles when there is a great love
magnet that draws.
God’s people have got to become charged with the
Spirit of Jesus Christ to the extent that their hearts
are mellow, and tender and gracious to lost men and
women about it, and when they see that, you will
not have to have runners running about the streets
with cards asking people to come to church. If half
the energy that is spent wearing out shoe leather in
inviting people to come to church, was spent on
our knees drinking in the love Spirit of Jesus we
would accomplish ten thousand times more.
Then we are
To Represent Jesus in His Sympathy.
Sympathy is the next best thing in the world to
love; indeed it is closely akin to it. It is the meth
od which love has of expressing itself. I have
recently read one of the best little stories that I
have ever seen, entitled “The Withered Lily,” writ
ten by a young man in prison. When he was in
prison and all hope fled and there was nothing ahead
of him but, “I’ll be sentenced;” one day he got
a little box from the girl who had once been his
teacher in Sunday school, and in that box was a
little white lily with some other flowers packed
around it, and that lily was all faded, but it was
an expression of “heart and of sympathy,” and that
young man, as he says of himself, bowed down be
fore that lily, gave his heart to his teacher’s Christ,
and remained true. Now, my brethren, you think
that is a little thing, that kind of talk is for women
and children; that is where the trouble about our
Christian service comes in, we men get so stuck on
ourselves that we think a thing like that is belittling
to our dignity and position and we turn over to
the women and a few weak silly men the methods
of expression of sympathy and heart that God
w’ould have us ourselves show. There isn’t a man
in this house that is too big to do that. The bigger
you are in the estimation of men the more power
there is in your expression of sympathy. I know
what I am talking about. When ’our little baby
girl died many years ago, I got a letter from the
Governor of our State, a man upon whom I had no
special claims of sympathy. I kept that letter for
a long time; I kept it because it was such a sur
prise to me to think that a man occupying his po
sition was regardful of me. But, my brethren, if
Jesus Christ was here in our place how much more
He would do to bind up broken hearts ,and dry
weeping eyes than we do. And if Jesus would do
it, He expects us to do it.
Represent Jesus in His Fidelity to the Right.
The one thing that this world appreciates after
all more than anything else, is an uncompromising
man or woman. The fact is, until the church wakes
up to realize the force of that, it will be to a
great extent shorn of its power.
During the Torrey meetings I spoke to a man, a
prominent business man in Atlanta, about becom
ing a Christian, and he said, “Dr. Broughton, ex
cuse me for frankness, but let me say what is in
my heart.” I said, “Say it.” He said, “When
Christianity goes to making men true and honest,
business men will not have to be sought.” Did
you catch that? Let me repeat it: “When Chris
tianity goes to making a man true and honest, then
business men will not have to be sought.” Now,