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SERVICE—Its Infinity, Universality, Immortality
TEXT:—Matt. 21:28-29-30: “But what think ye?
A certain man had two sons; and he came to the
first and said, Son, go work in my vineyard. He
answered and said, I will not; but afterward he
repented, and went. And he came to the second
and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go;
and went not.”
I—. i
N THIS text we have what strikes me
as being the most perfect picture of
anarchy that I know anything about. A
father with two children yet under his
control, subject to his authority, called
these two children and gave to them
each the command, “Go work today in
my vineyard.” The first replied, “I will
not.” Afterwards, be it said to his credit,
he repented, and went. The second said, “I will,”
and went not. I do not know in all my reading
of sacred or profane history a more perfect picture
of flagrant anarchy than this. What is anarchy?
It is nothing more nor less than rebellion against
authority; and my brethren, if I know anything
about the spirit of the present age, it is, to an ex
tent never before realized, the spirit of anarchy;
and it is a lamentable situation; it is a dangerous
situation. It is dangerous from any and every stand
point.
I see it, for example, in the home described in
this parable. It was doubtless appropriate at the
time of our Lord, or it would not have been given,
and it is certainly appropriate now. This present
age is in great need of this lesson that He gives
us concerning the rebellion of the family. It ought
to be true that children obey their parents; it is
getting more and more true that parents obey their
children.
But this spirit of anarchy is not only found in
the home circle. We find it in the state to an alarm
ing extent. The one most serious proposition ahead
of us is the enforcement of authority; the enforce
ment of law. Our country has, perhaps, surpass
ed all the rest of the world with the excellency of
its statutes. I believe that is true; and I think we,
in this state, perhapSj take the lead in our country
in the splendid and excellent statutes that we have
passed, and that are now upon our statute books.
The world is recognizing the splendid work that we
have done in this respect. The world is also look
ing upon us in amazement because of our failure
to live up to the laws that we have pass
ed, and because of our seming disregard of the
seriousness of our failure in this respect. We only
have to keep our eyes open to see illustrations of
this in our city. I was coming in recently on a
car just at night from a visit made to a very sick
member of my church. I found it impossible to get
a seat, and was glad I did, because I would have
felt my life in jeopardy, seated on that car with
the mob that was on board. The car was perhaps
half full of negroes, many of them standing in the
aisle, and I verily believe ninety per cent of them
were full of liquor; they were cursing and swear
ing and nobody was paying any attention to it.
It is against the law to sell intoxicating drinks, and
yet it is being done. Atlanta is full of officers of
the law and if they wanted to enforce the law, it
would not be hard for them to find where these
men got their whiskey.
This is a picture of the seriousness of the situa
tion in this country. We have splendid statutes, but
miserably poor execution. This is anarchy; it is
rebellion against authority, and, nobody seems
especially exercised about it.
We find the same thing true of the church. There
has somehow settled upon our people a kind of
disregard for law and authority. Our principles of lib
erty we have allowed to become license; we are
denying the right to anybody, even those in author
ity, to interfere with what we want to do. We
have somehow enthroned our desires; we act as if
they were ordered of God; as if they were infallible,
and no man should dare to molest us in the things
we want to do, whether right or wrong.
But it is not with respect to this phase of this para-
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. liroughton, D/D.
Stenograph!cally reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
ble that I desire to speak, as interesting and as essen
tial as it is. There is something more essential
than even this. What I want to address myself to
this morning is the more comforting and inspiring
side of the parable’s teaching. I want, if I can, to
bring to your conscience some thought concerning
the nature and the reward of faithful service. What
ever service it may be, faithful service has its re
ward, and to such an extent that I feel that if we
could properly have a realization of it grasp us today
it would lift us into a higher life in every phase of
our being.
INFINITY.
There are three words that I want to use descrip
tive of the boundlessness of faithful service. First,
infinity; second, universality; third, immortality.
These three words properly studied will reveal the
boundlessness of service faithfully rendered. I want
to bring them before you for study, separately. First,
the infinite nature of service. There is a law that
says that every force has within itself the power of
infinite multiplication. Take, for example, the force
of light. Light is a force. It has more to do than
simply to dispbl darkness. Light, when properly
analyzed and studied contains the elements of light,
of heat, of electricity, which produces power and
motion. Light enters therefore into every force that
we know anything about. Water is a force. It has
more to do than simply to allay thirst. Properly
treated, it produces heat, light and power. I believe
that the day will come in certain sections of the
world where fuel is so scarce that water, which is
now used to extinguish fire, will be used to make
fire. The hottest heat is what is known in chem
istry as the oxhydrogen flame, made by the passing
of an electric current through water, which disinte
grates it, breaking it up into its original gases which,
when brought together again and ignited, makes the
hottest flames that the world has ever seen. I men
tion this to show you the characteristic of every
force. Whatever it may be in itself, it has the ca
pacity of infinite multiplication.
I stood in Beaumont, Texas, by the side of an oil
well, and saw them pumping crude oil out of the
ground. I learned that that oil was used to run the
locomotive engines through Texas, and to furnish
light for our houses through the kerosene oil, and
to run automobiles and airships, by its development
into gasoline, to make asphalt, and even to furnish
chewing gum. Through almost infinite directions we
find that this crude oil that comes out of the ground
is susceptible of multiplying itself.
It is exactly so with Christian service, and what I
want to do is to inspire you with the infiniteness
of Christian action when once put into motion.
There is a story told of a musician who, going down
the streets of this city, saw a beautiful painting. It
was the picture of a lost child, with its hand out
stretched and no one to take it. I have seen the pic
ture. It is beautiful; no man can look at it and
not feel an impulse to do something for the relief of
children. This musician loked at it and had his
heart and brain so aroused that he went back to his
room and sat down and wrote a piece of music. A
poet heard it and wrote a poem; a rich woman
read it and turned over her entire fortune to establish
a home for children —waifs of the streets. Here you
have a conception of the infiniteness of service. First
there was the painter who painted that picture; the
picture inspired the musician, he inspired the poem and
the poem inspired the endowment of the home. And
today every child trained in that home that goes out
to bless humanity touches other lives, blessing them,
and so it goes on, until the work of that painter liter
ally encircles the globe and touches millions of hu
man hearts.
Some years ago a man, a colporteur, was walking
through the mountains of Southwest Virginia, hav
ing a mighty hard time selling books. Night over
took him and he stopped and asked for lodging in a
log cabin, a most humble little cabin. There he
spent the nigh 1 The next morning he gave to a
child of fourteen years of age a tract entitled, “Chi
na’s Cry for the Gospel.” That colporteur went on
The Golden Age for December 22, 1910.
his way. Nobody knows what has become of him,
or who he was, and the people had forgotten that
ever such a man visited their community. But there
was one person that had not forgotten it. It was the
child to whom he gave that tract. She read that
tract and in the reading of it God spoke to her heart,
calling her to the mission field in China. For ten
years she prayed for an open door for preparation,
and for ten years it failed to open. At the end of ten
years, however, it opened, and, because God was
guiding, it opened at the right time and in the right
way, and she was taken and prepared, and today is
one of the very best of all the splendid mission
aries in China. Oh, the infiniteness of Christian
service! How far reaching; only the eye of God can
see.
A girl walking down the streets one night coming
from her church was met by a young man friend of
hers who said, “Where are you going?” “I am going
to church,” she said. “Church! What is there at
church tonight?” “Why this is prayer meeting night,”
she answered.” “Well, you don’t have to go to pray,
er-meeting; that is the place for the old deacons,” he
said. He evidently din’t know what he was talking
about, but he thought he did. “But I want to go to
prayer meeting,” she said; “I don’t go because I
have to. Won’t you come with me?” “Well,” he said,
“I was going to the show, but I had rather be with
you than go to the show, so I’ll go to prayer meet
ing.” That night the preacher unexpectedly asked
her to sing a little song that he had heard her sing
in the home. She had never sung in public, but was
willing to do the best she could. She sang it and
the singing brought that friend of hers to tears and
with his heart mellowed by the song, he was easily
led to Christ. He today is the pastor of a great met
ropolitan church. Oh, the infiniteness of service!
And yet, how easy it is for people to get discouraged.
We are forced to work perhaps in the nursery with
the children and can not go when we would like to
go, and we chafe under the thought that perhaps we
are criticised because we don’t go, and we spend our
time and our religion actually burdened; perhaps we
fret because we have to spend our time in the nur
sery between four walls working with the children;
we fret because we can not get out and work in the
Church, but who knows but what we are working
with a Spurgeon or a D. L. Moody? Who knows the
possibilities of that child that calls your attention?
You do not, and nobody else does but God. You may
be working upon a great financier; a man whose
mind God will touch with the genius of money-mak
ing, and in the years that lie in the future, there is
no limit to what he may accomplish if he may be
held in the right channel. You teach your class; but
you say, “Well, what of it? These girls and boys give
no attention; there is no seriousness; I am afraid I
am not accomplishing much.” Do you know that you
are holding together the children who will some day
make up the Church? Do you know that you are
working upon some spiritual giant that is to stand out
in the Kingdom of God? or some girl who is to be
a great and powerful worker? or a sweet mother
who is to endow the w r orld with a son that will be
to the world as a Paul? Oh, the infiniteness of Chris
tian service; how it should inspire us with faithful
ness in our work.
UNIVERSALITY.
Look at the other word —universality. The univer
sality of service. When I was in England there was
held a convention in behalf of forestry. I have for
the last two or three years found myself growing in
interest in that movement. And so I was careful to
read the proceeds of this Convention in behalf of the
preservation of the world’s forests, and I came upon
this statement by one of their greatest men, and it
impressed me. He said, “We in England talk about
the preservation of our English forests; that isn’t
the beginning of our work. We must give our atten
tion to the preservation of the forests of the world,
for in England we are indebted to the tiniest flower
that blooms in the farthest clime for the health and
sweetness of our atmosphere.” I was thinking of
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