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JUVEKILE GLEANINGS. 



549 



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The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, 

 but to minister. —Matt. 20 : 28. 



BID you ever think of it, friends, that 

 there are just two things to work for 

 in this world V You can devote your 

 whole life to working for yourself, or you 

 can devote it to worl\.ing for other people. 

 Working for yourself is, of course, selfish- 

 ness; and I have sometimes thought that 

 selfishness swallowed up all other sins. The 

 whole spirit of the Bible, and of the religion 

 of our Savior, seems to be against selfish- 

 ness, and prompts us to work for others. 

 You know the golden rule gives a big clip 

 right in the other direction — "Thou shalt 

 love thy neighbor as thyself." It is not 

 readily apparent to us that serving Christ is 

 really serving our fellow-men — or, at least, 

 we seem to forget it. Jesus made it very 

 plain in those beautiful verses about being 

 hungry and thirsty and in prison, and with- 

 out clothing, and sick. And then he says 

 that everybody who gives relief and help and 

 encouragement to somebody else in this sit- 

 uation does it to him. When you forget self, 

 you remember Jesus; when you help some- 

 body else, you help Jesus. You remember 

 the time he was at the well. lie came there 

 thirsty, and asked a woman for drink. On 

 account of a foolish prejudice she refused 

 his request. Did it ever occur to you what 

 a pleasant thing it would be to minister to 

 the wants of our beloved Savior ? Suppose 

 he had passed by your door ; suppose it had 

 been your privilege to me^ t with the Son of 

 God in human form — to behold him in his 

 matchless innocence and simplicity of char- 

 acter. Who has not felt his heart bound al- 

 most at the simple thought of the privilege 

 they enjoyed in those days, of following him? 

 And yet, friends, we can follow him now. 

 The question often comes up, " Why, I do 

 not know how to follow him, unless I see 

 him." We feel something as poor Thomas 

 did when he was all the while asking to have 

 it made plainer. lie wanted to see God with 

 his own eyes ; and then when Christ was 

 raised he "demanded proof that would be 

 satisfactory to his own senses and to him- 

 self. We often think if we knew just exact- 

 ly what to do — if the way could be pointed 

 out very plainly, as it was to poor 'i homas — 

 we would go right to work without hesitat- 

 ing a minute. Well, let us see if the way is 

 not plain. What does following Christ 

 meanV What did he doV Why, our little text 

 tells us exactly what he did. He ministered 

 to humanity ; to the multitudes. Minister- 

 ing means waiting on Jesus was a waiter. 

 Were you ever a waiter, my friend V Some- 

 times at picnics there are a great many 

 hungry ones to be fed. You may be hungry 

 and faint. Perhaps you are in poor health, 

 and it gives you a headache to pass the usual 

 hour of mealtime. The healthy, eager mul- 

 titude do not know this, and you do not want 

 to explain it to them. Will you be a waiter, 

 or sit down and have somebody else bring 

 things to you ? I think the first time I ever 

 volunteered to act as waiter at such a place, 



it at once occurred to me that Jesus was 

 once a waiter, and I decided I would be a 

 waiter too, if they w^ould let me help. I 

 would minister to the wants of the eager 

 crowd for his sake. Do you think I enjoyed 

 it? Yes, I did. I thought of the time when 

 the loaves and fishes were passed about ; and 

 as 1 made it a point to see who there was 

 that had been passed or neglected (perhaps 

 by accident), I watched to see if I could 

 catch any kindly gleam from their faces, in 

 response to my proffers of food and drink, 

 or to bring them something that had not 

 been passed their way yet. Do you know 

 how it turned out, friends ? Why, it made 

 me very happy, and I enjoyed it more than I 

 ever enjoyed a picnic before. Jiven though I 

 felt faint, and 1 had a headache, just from 

 the lack of my accustomed food, I thought 

 perhaps some of those I waited on were need- 

 ing food just as much as I needed it; and 

 this thought made me happy. After we got 

 through 1 enjoyed having my dinner with 

 the rest of the waiters, and I felt kindlier 

 toward them than 1 had ever done before. 

 Now, friends, is it not so all through life ? 

 There are almost always opportunities to be 

 waiter, if you want to be waiter. You can 

 almost always find places to be ministered 

 unto, or you can find places to minister to 

 somebody else. Let me give you two little 

 pictures from real life. 



The first one is of the young friend in jail, 

 about whom I have told you. He told me a 

 few weeks ago he presumed they would send 

 him to the penitentiary for three or four 

 years; and he also said, in a sort of com- 

 plaining way, that he had been told that no 

 boy of sixteen was ever any better after hav- 

 ing served a term in the penitentiary. I 

 could have told him I was sure they would 

 not send him for even so much as three 

 years, as his offense was the first one, and he 

 was only sixteen years of age ; but I did not 

 do this, because I thought it would be better 

 to prepare him for a full term as well as I 

 could ; and then if the sentence were a mild 

 one, he would be more likely to feel thank- 

 ful rather than to feel bitter if it turned out 

 to be more than he expected. 



He was sentenced for only one year. I 

 asked him if he was not thankful. He at 

 first said he was ; but he said it with such a 

 poor grace that I felt sure he was not very 

 thankful at heart. Finally he came out with 

 it, and said he thought the laws were unjust 

 and cruel, to condemn a boy of his age to the 

 bad societiy of the penitentiary for so trivial 

 an offense. I labored nearly an hour with 

 him, trying to show him how much better it 

 would te to thank God, and to thank the offi- 

 cers of the law for so mild a sentence, while, 

 by his own confession, he was a deliberate 

 and willful transgressor. He finally said 

 that he ought to be thankful, but these ugly, 

 rebellious feelings would come up, and he 

 could not help it. How is it, friends V Could 

 he help it V I asked if he always had been 

 in the habit of paying all his honest debts. 

 He replied at once that he had, and I think 

 he told the truth. I asked him if he did not 

 think it was always the best plan to pay all 

 debts fully and squarely, even though it 

 seemed sometimes as though they were hard- 



