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THE NEW YEAR’S CALL
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. firoughton, D. D.
Stenojraphically reported for The Golden Age.- Copyright applied for.
Text: “The Master is come, and calleth for thee.”
DESIRE to use this text as the basis
of some suggestions on our New Year’s
call. The New Year is upon us, and
this is the first Sunday that we have
gathered together since its beginning,
and it is well for us, it seems to me,
that we should hear from the Master,
and see what He has to say to us along
the line of spiritual progress for the
I
year that is ahead of us. You remember the story
from which I take my text. Jesus had come at last
to raise Lazarus. He had left those two grieving sis
ters waiting for a period of four days, but now
He has come. Martha, learning that He was on
they way, went out to meet Him. Ido not wonder
that Martha was anxious to meet Jesus. Her heart
was heavy. Her brother had died and had been
buried, and she and her sister were lonely. There
w T as not about that home the same atmosphere that
formerly prevailed. And Jesus w’as their friend.
He had manifested His friendship to them. He
loved them, and they had loved Him, and now that
there is hanging over the home the pall of sadness
and sorrow, it w’as perfectly natural that Martha,
upon learning that Jesus was coming, should go out
to meet Him.
We are not told very much about the meeting.
Though we know very little about the conversation
that followed the greeting, we do know that it was
not very long before Jesus inquired about Mary,
and desired to see her. We now see Martha leaving
Jesus and hurriedly seeking her sister, who was at
home bow T ed in grief. And oh, what a glad inter
ruption this was to Mary when Martha said,
“Mary, the Master has come, and calleth for thee”!
WOULD HE CALL FOR YOU?
Neither do I wonder at Jesus’ calling for Mary.
It was she who, just a little while ago, had sat so
lovingly at His feet and worshiped Him. I do not
wonder that Jesus called for Mary, for He knew
well what her presence meant. In the first place,
it meant confidence. It meant love. It meant
worship, and that is what always pleases Jesus.
And it was a great thing for Mary to be sent
for by Jesus. I have often wondered, if Jesus
should come to our city, who it would be that He
would send for first. If He should come to our
church, I wonder who it would be that He would
send for first. For whom would He express pre
ference? For Jesus has preferences now just as
he had preferences when He lived here on earth.
But His preferences are not formed as are ours.
While here on earth, He had places to which He
most frequently went. He had friends to whom He
most confidentially gave Himself —and He has
them today, and if Jesus came to this church, I
wonder whom He would call first? In whose heart
beats most pronouncedly the love of Jesus? Who
of us "would give himself most unselfishly to Him,
that He might use us according to His will?
I wonder, if Jesus should come to our home, whom
in that home would He express preference for?
Would He call for the husband? Would He call
for the wife —the mother of the children?
Would He call for the children before He called
for the parents? Perhaps He would call for the
servant in the kitchen or for the servant at the
stable. Perhaps in that heart beats the most loyal,
loving spirit, and Jesus would call for him first.
If Jesus were to come to our Sunday school whom
would He call for? As I sat alone in my study,
thinking over my message, there came across me a
great burden, it was a burden of my own un
worthiness as I look at the goodness of Jesus.
A VITAL NEED.
Mary responded quickly to the call of Jesus and
went to Him in the road. Now, my brethren, just
as certainly as Jesus went to the home of Mary and
Martha and called for Mary, just so certainly He is
here and calling for us —every one of us. Jesus
The Golden Age for January 16, 1908.
is here. He does not have to come. He does not
have to be sent for. He is here. He is every
where. He is all wise, all powerful, and all present,
everywhere all the time. He is here now. I
would to God that we might realize this. That we
might have the awful feeling that came upon
A. J. Gordon as he sat in his own pulpit ready to
give his message for the morning, when he seemed
to hear someone ask this question: “If Jesus
should come to church this morning would you give
the message which you have prepared?” Oh, if
we could only feel that Jesus is here, and that He
knows our thoughts and our words at this very
minute!
But what is He here for? It seems to me that
He has a special mission this first Sabbath morning
of the year. I believe that He is profoundly con
cerned about this hour, not only for this people,
but for all the congregations of this country. Oh,
my brethren, the churches of Jesus Christ need to
look up to Jesus today and hear what He has to
say! It is high time this was being done. Things
are not as well in the church of God as we might
expect. Sometimes it seems to me that there is a
pall hanging over the church life of America. We
only have to look in upon the churches, many of
them, to find that this is true. I believe that Jesus
Christ, the Head of the church, is profoundly con
cerned about the way we start this year —profound-
ly concerned.
In the first place, Jesus is here calling because
He needs us. The Master has undertaken the
most stupendous work that ever was undertaken in
the history of the world. Two thousand years ago
Jesus came to this world, and He came burdened
with a problem the like of which the angels of
heaven never before looked upon. It was the
problem of redeeming lost men —of saving the
world, and upon that problem He has been working
for these two thousand years, hindered only by the
slowness with which the people who profess to be
His, co-operate with Him in the carrying out of
His work. Jesus is here calling for help, and the
man who really loves Him feels the force of that
call. If today we were passing along the streets
of Atlanta and should hear that sad call from some
alley, “Help,” “Help,” we would turn aside from
everything and give ourselves to it. Jesus wants
help —He wants men to carry on His work, and I
would that I could ring that cry out so loud that
it could be heard by every professed child of God.
But help for what? Help in the work of redeem
ing a lost world. Help in saving men. Help in
evangelizing this world. Help in getting men to
bow at the feet of Jesus and be saved. But that
isn’t all. If that were all, the problem would be
immense, it would be far too great for us to compre
hend, but that is not half of it. Jesus is here to
work upon the problem of human good in every
matter that pertains to man’s condition. My
brethren, there is not a burdened heart that does
not appeal to Jesus Christ today, and He wants to
go to that burdened heart and lift its load, and give
it His peace and love, but the method of Jesus for
the lifting of the loads that rest upon the hearts
of the people has ever had by the co-operation
of His people. There is not a tired, careworn, dis
couraged mother that does not appeal to the tender
heart of Jesus. He wants to comfort her, He wants
to help her. There isn’t a single wandering and
homeless girl without father and mother and home
that does not draw upon the heart-strings of Jesus.
He wants to help her. There isn’t a single sick
and suffering soul, however steeped in sin and sor
row, however laden with shame and suffering, that
does not appeal to Jesus. He wants to help them.
Oh, can I help you to see it? There is not a
single solitary thing that pertains to us, whether of
great interest or small, that isn’t a part of the
interest of Jesus Christ. He was once a man as
we are, with our infirmities and our tendencies
and our desires, only he was free from sin.
CO-OPERATION WITH HIM.
But He wants to help us to help others also.
The Master has come, and calleth for thee to help
Him look after those sorrowing ones, and to help
Him save the world; to help Him bless the world;
to help Him encourage the discouraged; to help
Him to house the homeless; to help Him to care
for the sick and the needy. He wants to help,
but that He may help, he must have help. In all
the history of the church we find that it has been
God’s plan to work by the co-operation of men,
and, my brethren, if our Christian civilization is not
meaning to this world what it should mean, what
you think it ought to mean, don’t blame Him; I
know enough of Him to know that His tender
heart is grieving at the slowness of the progress of
things. It is not His fault. It is ours in not re
sponding with readiness to help Him do His work.
But that isn’t all. He is here that He may help
us. His call is a call that needs to be taken in
two ways. First, it is a call that we may help Him,
and second, it is a call that He may help us. There
is not one of us that has not problems, some of
them great problems, and we have big problems
as a church, and Jesus is calling us that we may let
Him help us to work out those problems. He
wants to help us by giving us courage. There are
three kinds of courage. There is the physical
courage that we see exhibited in the brute or the
brutish man. There is the moral courage that "we
see exhibited in the moralist, the man who stands
up for his convictions, and there is the courage of
faith, which we all so much need. Jesus wants to
give us moral courage—the courage to dare for the
right. Nothing can more please the heart of God
than to see His people filled with the right kind of
moral courage, with the courage to dare and to die
for conviction.
Jesus wants to give that and He wants to give
us the courage of faith. Oh, how little of faith
we have after all! Some are so easily discouraged.
In looking out over the sea of life, when they see the
waves of difficulty coming they get their eyes off
the Source of help and begin to sink. What we
want this morning is to get from Jesus the power
to do what Peter did —we want to get our eyes off
the waves and the clouds and keep them on Jesus,
walking the waves in triumphant faith. That is
what I want, and that is what Jesus wants to give.
Shall we respond to His call? We need this. We
need it as individuals. Some of us are now dis
couraged. Some of us have almost given up in
some of our undertakings. Shame be upon us!
God wants that we shall keep our eyes on Him and
not on the storm. I tell you, brethren, the God
that managed the sea; the God that allowed Peter
to walk on the sea and kept him from sinking is
the God of the church today.
God wants to give us courage, but that is not all.
He calls us that He may put us into the place where
He wants us to serve. There is not a saved man in
the world that Jesus Christ has not a place for him
to fill. There is not a man of you in this church
if you are saved that has not a divine place in this
church work. What we need is to hear His call
and present ourselves to Him and let Him take us
and place us where He wants us to be and when
we have done that we will have a membership,
every one of which will be at the place of duty,
and the church itself will be a moving chariot of
glory.
THE TEST OF CHRISTIANITY.
But that is not all. Jesus calls us that He may
help us by a gift of His grace, and this I wish
especially to lay on your hearts—the gift of the
grace of Jesus, and I hope you will pardon me if I
epeak personally of my own needs —my own
conscious needs —at this point. The gift of the
grace of Jesus—what does that involve? It in
volves three things which I wish especially to
impress. First, it involves the grace of patience.
Oh, how much we need this! In one of our staff
