854 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



passing away. He told those aspiring for heavenly 

 thrones, that to be great is to be servant of all, and 

 then illustrated his meaning by washing the feet of 

 his disciples. Humble service it is, that triumphs 

 over all else, and wins for a man the only greatness 

 true and enduring. It is loving the Lord thy God 

 with all thy heart, and thy neighbor— thj' poor 

 neighbor; thy ignorant and wretched neighbor; 

 thy hateful hackbitlno neighbor, with a love so 

 strong that one will do wliiitevei- lies in one's power 

 for his welfare— f/if(^ brings out a man and makes 

 him great I* 



This law ot si'niice does away with all contention 

 and strife, and in a state of society where it rules 

 you will find no romplaining, no mourning, no bit- 

 terness, no standing on each other's shoulders, for 

 each man is looking out for his neighbor's welfare 

 and not his own. Here each can be ambitious, but 

 the ambition is to raise a fallen brother and not to 

 beat him down; the ambition is to cheer the de- 

 sponding with kind words and helpful deeds; to 

 ease suffering by providing for the needy and to 

 promote progress in the W(.rld at large by extend- 

 ing the laws of love as laid down by Christ. I know 

 .iust how the world looks upon this genuine great- 

 ness. Self-seeking men sneer at it and think it not 

 worth noticing. The historians of Chi-ist's day are 

 all but silent on the words and works of the Son of 

 man. They thought him hardly worth noticing. 

 What was he but a carpenter and stirrer-up of sedi- 

 tions? Rewrote no literature, hebuill no showy man- 

 sions. Today when a man who has won renown on 

 the battlefield dies, the nation wears crape, and the 

 newspapers devote columns to his history; but 

 some such man as the venerable missionary Bishop 

 Taylor, the secular newspapers will scarcely notice, 

 at his death. The world will not take notice of 

 great self-sacriflce, or if it does it imputes false mo- 

 tives to the man exercising it. The urnid can never 

 quite satisfy itself that there is such a thing as 

 goodness, pure and simple; but in the words of 

 Victor Hugo, "When they see such a servant mak- 

 ing money they say, ' He is a man of business;' 

 when they see hiui scattei-ing his money about they 

 say, ' He is an ambitious man;' when they see him 

 decline honors they say, ' He is an adventurer;' 

 when they see him repulse society they say, ' He is 

 a brute.'" But what of all this? Did not .Tesus say, 

 Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and per- 

 secute you, and shall say all manner of evil against 

 you falsely fur my sakeV We must remember when 

 we give up ourselves to service true and loyal, that, 

 though we have cut away from all hope of being 

 lauded by the world, we have thrown ourselves into 

 the eternal and right order of things, and that in 

 losing ourselves we shall truly y(?id ourselves. But 

 after all, in the long run there is more genuine 

 power, and that which will provoke admiration in 

 genuine goodness, than in all the glories of the 

 world combined. Although historians of Christ's 

 day thought liim not worth noticing, he neverthe- 

 less shines in the life of the world with ten million 

 times the brightness of Pliny, Josephus, and Taci- 



* 1 did not say amen out loud to this last exhor- 

 tation to a Cliristlike life. 1 was almost afraid to 

 say amen. 1 have not lived up to it as truly as I did 

 to the point made when I said amen in the opening 

 of the sermon; but I do nowsay amen; and notonly 

 that, my little prayer wells up. Lord, help. Help 

 me that I may in time get up with the high degree 

 of Christian living, that 1 may love my neighbor, 

 no matter who he is. so long as he is a fellow-being. 



tus. True greatness must shine in the end: it can 

 not be hid. 



Men of the brightest genius stand baffled before 

 it, and can only fall down and worship at its foot- 

 stool. Surely, as the world judges, a more brilliant 

 man, or a man more awe-inspiring, has never lived 

 than Napoleon; yet Napoleon, in comparing his own 

 greatness with that of .Jesus Christ, said this: 

 "Alexander, Ciesar, Charlemagne, and I myself, 

 have founded great empires; but upon what did 

 these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. 

 .Tesus alone founded his empire upon love, and to 

 this very day millions would die for him. Across a 

 chasm of eighteen hundred years .Tesus Christ 

 makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult 

 to satisfy. He asks for the human heart; he will 

 have it entirely to himself; he demands it uncondi- 

 tionally; and forthwith his demand is granted. 

 Wonderful ! In defiance of time and space, the soul 

 of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes 

 an annexation to the empire of Christ. "+ Is not 

 that genuine greatness which can wring from a 

 man like Napoleon such words of praise? Napoleon 

 in gaining his renown made countless thousands 

 miserable. Jesus has never invaded any district 

 without leaving it purer and happier. Service, 

 self sacrificing, humble ser\ice! oh how grandly did 

 Jesus exemplify this corner-stone of his kingdom! 

 Through life he healed the diseased, fed the hungry, 

 and raised the dead for bleeding hearts. His life 

 was only one continual aerince. And to whom? To 

 the world, to the world of degraded sinners utterly 

 unworthy such service. And why did he serve 

 them? To ransom them from sin and eternal death. 

 "For even the Son of man came not to be minister- 

 ed unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ran- 

 som for many." Ah, there was the culmination of 

 his service, the giving of his life. He laid down his 

 life for his enemies, and greater love hath no man 

 than that! We wish that there were time and space 

 to dwell upon this greatest of all services; but we 

 must let it pass with one observation. In our ser- 

 vice for our fellow-men we shall not win that 

 greatness which God wishes to give us; we shall not 

 benefit our brethren greatly until we foo, like our 

 Master, become so thoroughly consecrated and 

 deeply devoted to his blessed cavise as to lay down 

 our very lives for those who are perishing. Breth- 

 ren, the great atonement was completed on the 

 cross of Calvary, yet we have that atonement in 

 charge. The inexhaustible power of it we must 

 take into our hearts, and then shall we be able to 

 get down, down to the very secret sprtni/g of eternal 

 success, and a greatness that shall dim and hide all 

 worldly glory as the rising sun causes the stars to 

 pale and hide themselves. And this leads me to the 

 last remark: That only one motive is strong enough 

 to procure for us this greatness. That motive is to 

 be found in the cross of Christ, in the ransoming 

 Lamb. There are too many mixed motives in this 



t Napoleon was probably a heartless man; but 

 from the above quotation, I gather that few men 

 have lived who have had a better conception of 

 what it is to be a Christian than he; and that one 

 thought he has given us, that the Christian finally 

 becomes himself an annexation to the empire of 

 Christ, is one of the brightest and most beautiful 

 expressions that to my mind have ever before ap- 

 peared in the English language. The word " an- 

 nexation " expresses it as no other word does that 

 has ever been coined. When we are an annexation 

 to this empire, then we as neighbors are one, and 

 strife and selfishness are gone for ever. 



