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THE VALUE OT ENCOURAGEMENT
Tabernacle Sermon bj Reb. Len G. nroughton, D.D.
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
TEXT: “And from thence, when the brethren
heard of us, they came to meet us as far as Appii
forum, and The Three Taverns; whom when Paul
saw, he thanked God, and took courage.”
• xp
PURPOSE speaking to you on the
strength of encouragement. I want to
present it in a practical manner, in a
manner that will lay hold upon our
lives; in a manner that will enable us
to go out and practice it, and in order
that I may do this, I want to introduce
what I have to say with a story. Some
years ago I was delivering a course of
Bible lectures at a Bible assembly, in the North
western part of the State of New York. Thursday
was set apart as Grand Army of Republic Day.
Those days in the North are great occasions. In a
sense they are religious occasions, and most assem
blies of the character of the one I was addressing
have a day set apart as Grand Army of the Repub
lic day; a day for the coming together of old vet
erans under the flag; a day of fellowship, of flag
waving, and patriotic demonstrations of various
kinds. On this occasion about seven thousand old
veterans had come together. Many of these men
had fought in the battle of Atlanta. They presented
signs of the severity of that struggle. The speaker
of the morning was to be Col. Shaw, the head of
the Grand Army, but he was delayed somehow and
telegraphed he could not get there. The people
were coming in by every train and there was nobody
to speak to the great crowd.
TACTFUL ENCOURAGEMENT.
Finally one of them came to me just an hour be
fore the time, and said: “There is nothing left but
for you to speak to this crowd.” I said, “Great heav
ens, man! I am no Yankee.” He said, “Well, I know
that, but that is all right. It will be interesting to
the people to have a man from the South, and espe
cially from Atlanta, the great strategic center of
that great march through Georgia, to speak to
them.” I said, “I have no speech to make.” He
said, “You have an hour in which to make one.”
And there was nothing left to do, and so I said,
“Let me be alone for an hour.” My speech con
sisted of a few very antiquated yarns; antiquated
in this locality, but thoroughly fresh and invigorat
ing up there, and I wound up with a tribute to Abra
ham Lincoln. It was an honest tribute, for though
I am a Southerner, the son of a Confederate veteran,
I never saw the day when in passing Lincoln’s mon
ument I did not take off my hat.
When I wound up, the fellows were pretty much
wrought up. They did not expect that kind of talk
from a “reb,” and they were standing on their feet
and some almost on their heads, yelling and kicking
and cavorting in all sorts of unconventional ways,
and the band in the midst of the enthusiasm struck
up “Yankee Doodle.” When that was finished a
young fellow jumped up on a stump, he was the
leading cornet player of the band, and struck out
with “Dixie,” and they yelled until it seemed to
me they would shake the leaves off the trees over
their heads. The atmosphere was literally blistered
with their yells; more so than when they sang “Yan
kee Doodle.” When they finished yelling I stepped
up and threw my arms around that chap and said,
“I’ll bet you were born in the South.” He said, “I
' was born and raised in Richmond.
After it was all over a very impressive looking
man walked up to me and said: “I would like for
you to go to the hotel and take dinner with me.”
We went up and had a pleasant chat around the
table with some distinguished men of the G. A. R.
and finally my host said, “You seem to be fond of
Abraham Lincoln, and I am glad you are. My fa
ther was an intimate personal friend and school
mate of Abraham Lincoln, and I want to tell you a
story that I have heard my father tell about him.
“When they were boys in the district school, Abra
ham Lincoln was thought to be the dullest boy in
his class. On one occasion the superintendent of
the school district visited that school. It was dur-
The Golden Age for July 9, 1910.
ing the hour of recitation on mathematics, and Abra
ham Lincoln was called to the blackboard to solve
a problem, and, as usual, he failed, and the school
teacher criticised him in the presence of the vis
itors, saying, ‘You might as well stop mathematics;
you don’t seem to be able to do anything.’ The
district superintendent had his heart greatly touch
ed by the sorrowful attitude of the boy and man
aged to go home with him and spend the night in
his humble home. That night he said to him, I
want to see that example that you tried to work to
day; that was a hard example, but I believe both of
us together can do it.’ The boy brought the example,
and the superintendent looked at it and said, ‘lt is
mighty hard, but let’s tackle it again. I be
lieve we can do it.’ The boy got out his pencil
and his slate and started that example and with a
suggestion here and there from his new-found friend,
he worked it through without a hitch until he got the
answer.”
After telling this, the narrator continued: ‘I have
heard my father say that oftentimes Abraham Lin
coln said to the fellows that he knew as a boy, ‘I
attribute my presence in the White House to the
encouragement given me that night.” That was en
couragement which came just in the nick of time;
it started a lad to believing that there was hope
when everything else combined to make him feel
hopeless. It inspired him to try when he had begun
to think there was no use; and there has been many
a man that can date back his progress or his start
in his upward and onward career to some little
thing like that. I can remember just as well as if
it were yesterday when hope came to me. I was
walking down the street of the city of Raleigh, a
poor boy, longing for education. A man who did
not have much of this world’s goods, having a sal
ary of less than SIOO per month, overtook me and
put his hand on my shoulder, and said, “Len, would
you like to go to college?” My heart had just been
panting for that. I had lain awake at night dream
ing over that, but had never seen even a flickering
candle light of hope ahead, and I said, "Yes, I would
but I can’t.” He said, “Well, if you can get some
body to take care of your tuition, I will take care
of your board; it is ten dollars per month, but I
think I can manage it.” That was ten dollars a
month for nine months; that was just ninety dol
lars, but that ninety dollars then was a big thing
to that man, and it was an enormous thing to me.
My step quickened; hope lifted its head; after’ talk
ing a few minutes, I walked straight down and call
ed on another man, and told him about my friend’s
offer, and he said, “I will take care of the tuition.”
It was all done in less than three hours, and the
whole trend of a life was wrapped up in just those
few fast fleeting moments.
THE TIE THAT BINDS.
It was so in the work of the Apostle Paul. He
was arrested and was put in prison; he appealed to
Caesar over in Rome and they had to grant his appeal
because he was a Roman citizen, so they took him
across the Mediterranean, where they met with
many hardships and sad experiences; finally they
landed at the little port of Puteoli. There he caught
a vision of the first group of European saints. He
found a little company of them there. They were
the first that he had seen since leaving home; they
remained there seven days. At the end of the sev
enth day, they struck out over the Appian way, the
public highway between Rome and the sea. They
were probably walking; they came finally to the
Three Taverns on this Appian way, on one of the
high hills surrounding Rome, from which point they
could see the great city with its steeples and domes
lying in the valley, and they could hear the hum of
its people as they went about their vocations.
At that time there was a church in Rome. How
it got there nobody knows, but there was a band
of humble Christians, and they formed a little
church. Somehow they heard that Paul, the great
Apostle, was on his way in chains to appear at
Caesar’s court, and a number of them started out to
meet him, not with any expectation of using vio-
lence to get those chains off, or to free him, but sim
ply to greet him; to encourage him; they knew his
heart must be heavy, and so they walked up to the
place of the Three Taverns, and there met Paul,
and his guard. And the record says: “When he saw
them, he thanked God and took courage.” Here is
Paul, one of the best taught men in all the world;
Paul, who was once a member of the Great Jewish
Sanhedrin; Paul, a man who had been educated at
the feet of the greatest teacher of the world, Paul
an apostle, and yet finding encouragement from the
contact of this humble flock.
I would like for you to stop long enough here to
think for yourself of what that something is that
was in him that made him take courage from this
contact. There was no community between them
that the world could see; there was no mental fel
lowship; there was no financial fellowship, for while
Paul had nothing now it had not always been so.
What is that something which is in us that makes
us sing “Blest be the tie that binds?” It was the
cross, and wherever the cross is seen there is a
tie that binds. Whenever Christians come together
there is a kindred feeling; there is something which
the world could not explain, could not understand;
could not believe. How much we mean to each
other then, and how anxious we should be to meet
the oncoming pilgrim with hope and cheer. This
is the Christian’s privilege, to cause men to look
up and hope. He alone has something that can
bring that encouragement; how great is his respon
sibility then. If he fails, the world goes plodding on
downward, enslaved by sin and the miseries it
brings, with no hope of throwing off the shackles.
Encouragement has to be given, hope has to be
born before an effort will be made to get free. This
is our responsibility to the world, but our respon
sibility to each other is equally binding. Like Paul
many are walking, the Appian Way of duty and God
has wonderfully blessed us by giving us natures
that are cheered and comforted by contact with fel
low pilgrims. It is easy to see then where our re
sponsibility lies as we travel upward. Each of us,
no matter how distinguished, or how humble, can
receive help and cheer from every other.
You will pardon me if I make a somewhat local
application of this. I have been traveling over the
Appian Road. Like Paul I have been going toward
the culmination of my dreams. For Paul had long
wanted to preach the Gospel in Rome, but he had
not thought of going there in chains. He does not
see how he can do his best work with the galling
of these chains. He knows little if anything about
these Roman Christians; he feels that he will be
there alone, and possibly confined to a cell. Like
Paul I have felt the binding of the fetters; I have
felt my helplessness to alone accomplish the work
which I believe God had put before me. It was en
tirely because of this that I allowed myself in the
past to think about laying my aspirations aside and
taking up work elsewhere. It has’been not because
of the fading of the picture. It has been because
of the binding of the chain, but God Gave me the
grace to see that, despite the chains, my work was
here and since I have been convinced of that, I
have had as perfect assurance as ever a man had
that I am in His will. I come to you without the
slightest shadow of regret, without the faintest doubt
but feeling, as I face my God and the vision of my
whole past life, as happy and as satisfied as one can
feel when he is in his Father’s will. I say this
because I want to use as an illustration of my text,
the line along which my encouragement today is
coming.
REASONS FOR ENCOURAGEMENT.
First, I feel encouraged because of the abiding
affection of my own people. I have never had a
doubt about this, but as the days have passed and
as I have seen proof after proof of the abiding af
fection of my people, my heart has leaped in joy
because I realize that with such affection and confi
dence we can pull together until our aim is reached.
As I have looked out and seen the renewal of these
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