HE DAWN

RALPH CONNOR

HE DAWN
BT GALILEE

HE
GALI LEE
A STORY OF
THECHRISt BY
RALPH
CONNOR

ll\K\A

NEW YORK: HODDER & STOUGHTON

Copyright, 1909
By George H. Doran Company

The University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A.

THE DAWN BY GALILEE

THE OWN BTTGALI LEE

" Jesus said unto them, Come and breakfast."
"Jesus said . . . Lovest thou Me?" JOHN XXI.

\N the Bible there is no sweeter, kindlier,
no more beautiful picture of God than
that which represents Him as the part
ner of man in all his experiences of toil,
of trouble, of sorrow, of defeat or of
success. It was God who came to Adam when he
had lost everything, found him in his sin and re
stored him to his place. It was God who came to
Abraham by night when his faith had run low and
his courage was almost gone, pointed him to the
stars and, by the stars, called up his faith again. It
was God who met His friend Jacob as he went out
from his mother's tent and faced the great, gaunt
wilderness, afraid of himself and afraid of the things
he might meet. It was God who came to him and
gave him courage to go on. When Moses, all but
broken-hearted by his people's faithlessness, pled
with God for help and guidance in the weary jour
ney, it was God who said, "My presence shall go
with thee, and I will give thee rest." When Joshua
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THEDiWN BVGALI LEE
stood before the promised land, a new general ap
pointed to God's army, looking into that land of
conflict, all unknown, full of terror, it was God who
said to him: " Be strong and of a good courage; be
not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord
thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest."
When Elijah was sick at heart, discouraged with
his life-work, driven out from his native country far
into the desert and wishing only to die, it was God
who sat beside him in the desert and prepared his
meal and rested him and fed him and rested him
again, before He sent him back. And wherever you
find the people of God in their hour of sorrow you
will always see God looming up and coming near
over the deserts, God coming through the dangers,
God making Himself known ; for God is the Partner
of man in his great life-enterprise.
Because people were slow to understand this, God
said: "I will make them know it." Because the
human heart finds it difficult to realize that God can
come on to the streets or into the house, or into a
tent, or out on the desert, God said one day, " I
will make them know." And so He came down in
human form, and by Jesus Christ, and in Jesus
Christ, He made us know that it is possible for God
to be the Partner of man in his great life-enterprise.
So I want you, for a little while, just to look, first
one way, then another, at our silent, unseen Part-
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[8]

to P

I

God w h i ! met his friend Jacob as he faced
reat gaunt wilderness." w*»

THEDiWNBTGALILEE
ner, Jesus — Jesus our Partner, silent, unseen, but
always at hand, and always aware.
In John's story of the Dawn by Galilee we have
pictures by which Jesus reveals Himself to us as the
Partner of the disciples.
/. First, He stands on the shore at night while they
fish out in the deep. All night long, while they were
throwing the net and hauling it in, and being dis
appointed at every draw; all night long, as they
tossed up and down upon that heaving floor of Tibe
rias, He stood on the shore unseen, voiceless, but
very much aware of them, and very alert for them.
So it is appointed that we must live and work.
Every man has to row his own boat out to the fish
ing, every man must throw out his own net after
the fish, every man must do his own work, hoe his
own row, work his own ship, as if there were no
God at all. To him it seems as if he were all alone
upon this great life-sea, so far as any sight of God
is concerned. It is true there are others throwing
the net, others fighting the fight ; but, after all, it is
each man for himself, to each man his own work, to
each man his own anxiety, to each man his own dis
appointment, to each man his own heart-bitterness.
Every man lives and works by himself, no matter
how many stand round. That is the consciousness
that we have in regard to life, and that consciousness
does not distress us unduly while the fish are com-
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THE D.WN BY G ALI LEE
ing. We do not mind how much alone we are so
long as they bite. That is all right. While the sails
are filled with the favouring breeze we are all right,
we do not care whether we are alone or not. But
when the night comes down, and one by one the
lights go out, and the net comes back empty, and
the sail is flat on a dead sea ; when life is going hard
with us and business is bad, and when we feel that
the time for help has come and there is no helper —
then it is that the loneliness of life smites a chill to
our heart and sinks us down to discouragement.
I am glad that I am able to give you the assur
ance that you are never quite alone in your business
of life, that the Partner, silent and unseen, is stand
ing on the shore.
You say, "That is all very well for spiritual
things ; that is all right for religion, for the struggle
with temptations and sins."
But I think it is right for the daily duty of life,
whatever that may be. These disciples were not
fishing for men that night, but fishing for mere fish.
And so the farmer in his furrow, the business man
in his counting-house and his office, every man in his
place, doing his daily work, when things are going
badly, ought to remember that, silent and unseen,
but very sympathetic, stands his Master, his Part
ner, Jesus. How great the comfort is, how impos
sible for a man to be quite borne down, how impos-
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sible for the waves of failure to swamp him or the
non-success in life to daunt him, if he knows that to
go down he must pull God down with him ere he
sinks and is lost! There is a partnership between
you and God, and when you fail utterly — you, a
disciple of Jesus Christ — it is because God has
fallen down from His throne and the waves have en
gulfed Him too. I do not think the Atlantic Ocean
could drown Jesus Christ; do you? One would
think you did, because last week you know how you
worried about your business, you know how vexed
you were about this uncertainty and that, and you
thought you were the only person concerned, that
no one else knew or cared; but all the while Jesus
was standing, the silent Partner, alert and watchful,
and, mark you! sympathetic and planning. When
you meet Him again He will have a plan for you,
and the plan will mean success. Take heart, men.
One would think God had died overnight or last
year, the way some Christian people take life.
Think, ere you despair, that all through the toiling
night your Partner stands unseen and silent, but
observant, sympathetic, and planning.
2. Next, in the morning He speaks. He speaks IN
THE MORNING. Why then? Why? Because He
knows that in the morning you have reached the
limit of your endurance. The night before it would
not have been so important. But after a night's long
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THE D/WN BYG ALI LEE
fishing — and you know how discouraging it is to
fish without a catch, without a bite — how necessary
it is.
You know how discouraging it is to have all your
plans for success in your business come back at you
empty. Business men know it. Ministers know it.
Sabbath School workers know it. How heart-
depressing it is in the morning to find that the net
is still empty. That is a common experience. Then,
when you have reached the limit of your endurance,
your Partner will speak out, and He will say to you
this word, " My friend and brother, anything to eat?
Anything for your heart-hunger? Anything to stay
your body upon, your wearied, toil-worn body, or
mind, or heart? Any food in that boat?" That is
what He will say, and He will wait to hear the voice
come back out of the heart, sick with disappoint
ment, " No, there is none."
Whenever He speaks, wait for Him, because He
means to do something. He means to do something
with you, with your business, with your fishing, with
your life. He will do it as soon as He can get your
mind and your attention, and notice this — that He
cannot get our attention till we have thrown up
our hands. While we think we are going to get the
haul this time our minds will be — where? On the
net, on the business scheme. But when we have
done with it, when we throw up our hands, when
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THE DAXKTSr BYGALI LEE
the last haul brings nothing, then He says to us,
" I '11 tell you how to sell, I '11 tell you how to buy.
I '11 tell you where to fish. Throw the net down
here on the right-hand side."
Here is the surprising thing — every time you
take the Partner's advice the fish begin to come, the
business goes right. I know what you are thinking,
but I am not going to stop to argue with you. I am
too busy. I say this now: I don't care what your
business is, when you are listening to Christ He will
give you success, and all the success you want, right
in your business; that is, if it is a business He is a
Partner in. Of course, if it is a business He can
not take part in you will have to fight it out your
self. But if He is a Partner with you — and He is
in all legitimate business — when He gives the word
and gives the direction and you follow, the fish will
come. The word of Christ indicates the line of suc
cess, success as He understands it, success not
merely because you must eat to live, but success be
cause He wants successful men for further service.
Therefore He stands all night on the shore watch
ing, listening to the splashing, knowing the empti
ness, planning. Then in the morning, when the limit
of endurance is reached, He throws the word that
arrests your attention. Perhaps you cannot go
down in the morning to business — He lays you up
with a headache or some sickness. You have worn
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THEDASKTSr BYGALI LEE
yourself right out, and still you won't listen to Him,
so He sends you to bed for a few days. When He
has got you listening quietly He says, " There is the
spot where the fish are. That is where you are
wrong, and here is where you can get right. Now
get right, and take hold of your work and you will
succeed." 3. Jlfter He has filled their boat With fish, He calls
them to breakfast. He calls them from their fishing
to breakfast with Himself. What does that mean?
For us it means that He not only teaches us to suc
ceed in life, as He interprets success and as success
bears upon the larger life, but He calls us away from
the fish and away from the boat and away from all
toil and worry and discouragement; calls us from
success, calls us to some place where we can have
a time of fellowship with Him, to breakfast. It is
good to be a fisherman. It is a good thing to have
the courage to toil all night, to keep throwing that
net and hauling it in although there is not a fish in
sight. It is a good thing to meet your day's toil and
your day's battle, to play the man. That is good.
It is a good thing, too, when fish come your way.
God gives success to every man that can stand it.
But He does more. He says, " Now, My partner,
here is something better than fish. Come, let us sit
down and have breakfast together." The disciples
forgot their fish when they went to breakfast with
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THE DASffTJ BY GALI LEE
their Lord. The man who can be entrusted with
loads of gold is the man who loves something better
than gold. The man to whom Christ gives success,
as the world counts it, is the man to whom fellow
ship with Christ is more than the success the world
gives. This was the second time He did this thing.
When first He called these men to serve Him, you
remember He found them busy fishing. He did n't
say, " You have n't got fish there, your boat is
empty, come with Me." No ! He said, " Go out and
throw the net yonder, where it is good deep sea,"
and He filled up their boat; and then He said,
" Come now, leave your fish. I have something bet
ter for you — fishing for men." I believe the man
who is successful in business is the man God wants
to follow to greater success in the King's Business.
" Come and eat with Me." Where did He get
that breakfast, I wonder? Where did He ever learn
to cook the food? Where did He get the bread?
Not one of us knows, and it is better so. If we knew
the place we would go and hunt it up for ourselves,
and leave Him alone. But because He keeps His
storehouse hid away, we, when we are hungry,
come to Him, and He spreads before us the bread
and the fish. Is it not pathetic that we come to the
Lord Jesus Christ only when we have to come?
And is not it wise of Him, and very loving, that He
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THED.WN BYGALI LEE
will not tell us where to get things unless we come
right to Him? Jesus is far more anxious to have
our friendship than our fish, and Jesus is far more
anxious that we should have His fellowship than
all the fish in Tiberias. He puts a large value upon
a breakfast with Him. What does it mean?
. . I was invited once in Edinburgh to breakfast. It
was during the General Assembly, and dinners and
teas were all taken up. It was pretty early. *' I
did n't care very much about going. But I went —
not for the buns and coffee which they always give
you in Scotland: I went for the talk there would
be. I met some of the brightest men in Scotland;
some of the brightest men in the world were there.
When they were through the preliminary of buns
and coffee and fish, they went at the real breakfast
— interchange of thought. When you ask people
to dinner you often make the mistake of feeding'
them so well that they forget you and your friends.
I want my friends to come to see me ; not to see my
turkey, but myself.
Now Jesus wants people to come to Him, not for
the fish breakfast or for the bread, but for the con
versation with Himself. Breakfast will pass away,
but the thoughts will remain. I shall never forget
the things I heard at certain dinners and breakfasts
and teas. I shall never forget some of the things
I heard over a lunch-table in Philadelphia with some
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THEDAS^N BYGALI LEE

of my friends and fellow workers there. You will
never forget some of the things you heard at some
dinner-table. You will forget what you ate, but will
you forget the thing your friend said to you? will
you forget how your heart warmed up? Will you
forget this feeling — how good it is to have a friend
like that? And so when Jesus Christ invites us,
calling us from our business to fellowship, He
means that we should get hold of the thoughts in
His heart by listening to Him talking to us, that we
should understand some of the big thoughts in His
mind, the big joys in His heart. What did He talk
to them about, I wonder? I know. He talked to
them about the great triumph of the cross. He said
to them, " You remember that night when you all
forsook Me because you were afraid of the cross?
Do you know that cross is the most glorious thing
in history? Do you remember, Peter, James, and
John, that night in the garden? I was afraid that
night, but I shall never be afraid again. Do you
remember when I came back from the olive-trees,
with streaks of blood down My face ? John, do you
remember when you stood there, just when the blood
was dropping at the foot of the cross, when I gave
My mother to you? My heart was breaking then
because I could not see quite clearly through that
awful gloom. But the cross is glory now. There
will never be for Me any more tears or blood. I will
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THEDASTN BYGALI LEE
never be separated from My beloved disciples or
mother or brother." These are the things He would
talk about until the bread-and-fish breakfast were
forgotten. What great thoughts ! How He opened
to them His great heart, told them of the great joys
that were thrilling Him through and through, and
then how He told them of what He meant them to
do ! How He laid out for them His plans, until not
a man of them would go back to Tiberias to fish any
more! When Jesus bids us breakfast with Him, when
He invites us to His house and seats us at His table,
what does He feed us on? He feeds us on His own
great thoughts, the thoughts of how He, the Son
of God, became man, and how He, for love of men,
the sinful, sorrowing hosts of men, broke His
mighty heart, and by dying for them won a way to
glory. He talks to us about such themes as these
until we see what God's love means and feel how
good it is to have a part with Him in the salvation
of the world. That is how the Master lifts men out
of the mean and sordid and base things of life up to
the larger life, and the more glorious life, and the
more splendid service He. has for those who are
partners with Him in His kingdom and glory.

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THE DASTN BYG ALI LEE

n
We have come back with the men from their fish
ing; we have gathered about the fire on the sea
shore, and, with awe in our hearts and yet with a
feeling of comradeship, have sat down on the sands
to take what the Master provided for our morning
meal. Now let us rise .and follow Peter and the
Master up the beach a little and stand over here and
talk. This is really the restoring of the disciple to his
place in the ranks of the workers. Not very long
ago he had read himself out of those ranks by
shamefully denying this his Lord; disowned Him
when there was none to own Him. Afraid for his
life, he denied his Lord when his Lord was being
done to death by His foes. It was a cruel thing. It
was a base thing. It was a mean, cowardly thing.
As Peter thought it over, his heart penetrated by
that look that flashed from his Master's eye across
the little fire in the courtyard, he went out into the
night and he wept bitterly. Those tears of his were
the beginning of his return. No man can easily deny
his Lord. No man can deny, without following
tears, who comes back to Him. Where he spent the
night I know not, but next day, strange to say, you
find him once more haunting the places where the
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THE DASTN BYG ALI LEE
other disciples are. There are those, when they do
wrong and are guilty of some mean sin, who think
the only course for them is to avoid the company of
the honourable and the pure and the loyal-hearted.
If they do so, they do so to their loss and their de
struction. The only hope for the man who denies
his Lord is that he haunt the places where Jesus is
wont to be and the people who are Jesus' friends.
Where Peter met the risen Lord first none of us
know. There is an exquisite reserve now and then
appearing in the story of Jesus Christ, but none
more exquisite than this that draws the curtain over
the meeting of the Master and the man who failed
Him in the hour of His need. They met somewhere
alone. They had their talk out together. I do not
know what Peter did. I like to think of him with
his face in the dust and his arms around those
wounded feet. I like to think of the passion of self-
reproach and the agony of shame and tears that
broke his heart as he confessed his sin to his Lord.
But I like more to think of the kingly word of grace
that lifted the sinner up and said to him, " Be at
peace ; it is all forgiven," I like to think of Christ
that day who would not lay it up against this
man that he had been so base. For behind Peter I
come creeping, hoping for forgiveness, for Peter's
mercy. This scene, then, is the restoring of Peter to the
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^eter'went out into the night and wept bitterly."

THE DAX^N BYG ALI LEE
ranks of the disciples, to the Tanks of the workers for
Christ. And these two words are synonyms, " dis
ciple " and " worker," " disciple " and " servant."
These two words are the same in Christ's vocabu
lary, but not with us. We have the disciples, the
Christians, and we have the Christian workers. Oh,
if we had a Church made up, not of Christians, but
of workers, where every man felt himself bound to
be a worker! Oh, if the rest of us would go out, if
we would just leave the Church, if we would just
depart ! " Oh," says the Christ, " oh, if thou wert
only cold ! " If they were only cold, how much
better! If the merely Christian of us would take
our names off the roll how much better the Church
would be !
When Christ restores a man who has sinned
grievously He restores him for work, not to get him
to heaven. If anyone who reads these words has
denied his Lord, and is not yet restored to the ranks
of the disciples, when he comes back it will be not
for heaven's sake, but for work's sake. Christ is
anxious for one thing, He is anxious for one thing
only, and that is that those He calls His sheep or
lambs should be attended and fed. He has no other
ambition, He has no other aim, no other, at least,
that we know of. As far as we read, His heart is
filled with this ancient longing and yearning for
those He calls His sheep and His lambs. And He
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THE DASTN BYG ALI LEE
looks amid the ranks of the sinners like us, the de-
niers like us, who come creeping back for pardon.
He looks among us for those to whom He may safely
give the care of His lambs and of His sheep. And
the lesson we learn from His talk with Peter in the
morning by the lake, is that the only equipment for
service to Christ is love for Christ.
If I had the opportunity I should like to take out
of my congregation, and out of other congregations,
half a dozen men, men who can think clearly and
practical men, and ask them, if I dared, " Do you
really love Christ? " I wonder if the thing is known
among us. Is it known? Are there in our Chris
tian Churches large companies of men and women
who can, with true, full meaning, say, one by one,
" I love Jesus Christ " ? I believe that those who
kept the faith in the past, some of them whom I have
known, could say it. I am coming to feel, more and
more, that the religion of Jesus Christ is to be tested
in this generation as it has never yet been tested.
I believe this : that one generation dies for its faith,
the next generation lives upon the faith of its fathers,
and the next generation begins to die for its faith
again. Where we are I am not quite sure. Thank
God, in every generation there are those who keep
the faith, and to whom Christ is very real and very
precious ; but in some of the generations these are
not the many, but the few.
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Looking back over the history of the Church, we
make this startling discovery — that in the mind of
the apostles, in the mind of the early Christian
Church, in the mind of those who in every age re
vived the Christian religion, there existed, as a very
great reality, a passion of love for Christ. Think
for a moment. Let us begin with the apostles.
Peter cannot write a letter without his pen slipping
on to this word — love for Jesus Christ, " whom,"
he says, " having not seen, ye love." And he knew
them well. Again he said, " Unto you who believe,
He is precious." When we come to Paul, of course
Paul's great heart is one living flame. It is like a
fountain of love in his hot passion for the Christ
who redeemed him. " The love of Christ," he says,
explaining how it was that people counted him mad,
" the love of Christ constraineth me. I am content
to be counted mad." " To me," he said, another
time, " to live is Christ." And again he said, nearing
the end of his life, " I know not which to do. I
would like to remain with you, but to go away and
be with Christ is far better." There are maidens
who will go from the old land to meet their lovers
in the new world, so great is their love. And they
leave home and father and mother and kindred and
beloved Scotland, or Ireland, or England, and come
all the way across the sea under this mysterious
passion of love. To Paul, dear as were his friends,
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THE DJSSTN BYGALI LEE
it was dearer to him to be with Christ. Whatever
may be true of you or me, let us write it down as
true of this great typical man of Christ that the
passion of his heart was love for Christ; so much
so that one day he broke forth in this terrific curs
ing : " If any man love not my Lord Christ, let God
curse him." How terrific must be the love that
speaks in words like these!
We are not surprised to find that Christ expected
such love. He said one day to those who were gath
ering about Him nibbling at His religion, hoping to
get something good from it, hanging on to the
fringe of His new faith, not willing to bear the cross
after Him ; to those He said, " He that loveth father
or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. He
that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not
worthy of Me." Let us pause a moment. Let us
ask, as fathers and mothers, " Do we love Christ
that way, more than our children, our boys and
girls? " Let us ask the young man, " Do you love
Christ more than your mother? " That is what
Jesus meant. Now it may be — I take comfort out
of this — it may be that, though at the first blush
we would be inclined to say, " No, I love my boy
more than I love my Saviour " ; " No," the young
man may say, " I love my mother more than all the
world " — it may be that, pushed by life and life's
strenuous demands, and driven back against the ex-
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perience of our sins and our sorrows, we would
come one by one to confess, " Yes, more than son
or daughter, more than husband, more than wife, I
love my Saviour." That is the ideal that Christ has
of His disciple. And it is when a man comes to
that ideal that Christ puts His hand upon him and
says, " Now then, do My work."
You ask why this is. Why is it other things will
not do in the service? Why cannot a man be a ser
vant, a worker for Christ, and yet not be a lover of
Christ? The answer is that service follows loving.
If you love yourself you will serve your sweet and
beautiful self. If you love your wife, your joy is to
serve your wife. Love is the thing that conquers
self, and nothing else will. Love is the most potent
of all the passions that sweep over our hearts — this
kingly, godly, mighty thing that is like to God Him
self. So Christ attaches service to the regnant pas
sion of love, and lovers only know how to serve
man, woman, or God. Yet, and because love is so
terrific a master and so kingly a passion, when we
are asked to attach it to our religious service, we
hesitate. We like to substitute, to buy ourselves
off from loving with something else; and the man
will work for his Christ and his faith, will fight for
his Christ and his faith, will pour out his money for
his religion and his Church and his God, will give
himself to arduous toil and self-denial, if he may be
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THE DJWTK BYG ALI LEE
excused from loving his Christ with all his heart.
But work will not do, and suffering will not do,
unless work and wealth and suffering mean to ex
press to Christ this all-compelling, all-absorbing
passion of love to Him.
Well, are we satisfied that, whatever else we can
do, we cannot work for Christ unless we love Him?
You can build churches, you can keep laws, you can
engage in forms of Christian work ; you can be kind
and loving and just and true in many things and
many ways; but you are denied a part in what
Christ calls this service of His unless you be a lover
of your Lord. If you want anything else the choice
is wide for you to take. But if there should be in
any heart a yearning really to do the work that
Jesus wants His disciples to do, the one work He
has in this world; if you have any desire to rank
there, there is only one equipment for it: it is that
you become a lover of the Christ. I wonder if that
is possible for us in this twentieth century; I won
der if it is possible for us who have inherited our
religion, which has not cost us one pang. How
easily we have come to follow Christ, and how we
have somehow avoided the cross ! But is it possible
still to us to be real lovers of Christ? I would like
to think it was. I would like to think it possible for
us who call ourselves by His sacred name, who do
His work, imitate His example, and are following
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THEDAXX^N BYGALI LEE
Him; I would like to think it possible for us to ex
perience this love. I would like to think that hearts
that are loyal would also be full of love. Let this
come to pass and your service would be spontaneous
and you would be a delight to the Lord you are seek
ing to serve. All that dragging of you by the neck
of your conscience would go; all that lashing of
you by the terrors of your conscience would disap
pear. You would be eagerly seeking opportunities
of service, your money would be flowing where
Christ pointed the way. I would like to think that;'
it is possible for people like us to fall into love with
Christ. Think of what we are trying to do. Did anybody
ever hear of Him being seen? Did anybody ever
touch Him? Is He anywhere? Is He real at all?
That is the first thing. He is in the Book. So is
Napoleon, and so is Wilberforce, and so is John
Knox, and so is many another great man. Do we
love John Knox? We revere his memory. Did the
Old Guard love Napoleon after he had passed from
their sight? Yes, they died for him. Do we to-day
love those great names with whom we are person
ally associated in the history of our faith? We revere
their memory, and in a sense we love them. Is lov
ing Christ the same thing? Yes, it is that; but it
must be more than that, because if Christ is to us
real — and if we are to love Him He must be real —
A STORY OF THE CHRIST
[*7]

THEDJSKTJ BYGALI LEE
then He must be alive, must be moving among us,
must be touching our lives, must be with every live
man. So it is imperative, if we are to love the
Christ, that we conceive Him to be alive. Can we
work back from our experience to the possession of
this faith? Can we work back through our own
experience to this position that the Christ is as
much alive and as truly among us as our nearest
friend? In my despair at this business I worked it out
like this : I started from the point of having the con
viction in my head, but an absolute and utter want
of the conviction in my heart, that Christ was and
that I could touch Him with anything like affection.
I worked at it from my latest experience of failure
and of sin. That was my point of departure. That
was my gateway to a new conviction, which I now
have, that Jesus is. I looked at sin, and the horror
of it made me look around for a Saviour. I knew
better than to try to gain self-respect and a sense of
purity by promises of amendment. Most men know
better than that. I knew that there must be some
thing to make God say to me, " You have sinned,
but you are forgiven." I looked around at the hori
zon of my experience. I looked in every direction.
The whole world was blank, and I said : " There is
none to whom I can appeal, unless this figure that
moves toward me from that ancient history, this
A STORY OF THE CHRIST

fSTJt? ^"^here is none in « intm 1 can appeal, unless this
y '-~t^' v_^ figure that moves toward me from thai ancient
history, this figure ofthe Sri-Bearer is real.''

THE OWN BYG ALI LEE
figure of the Sin-bearer, is real. If He is alive, if
He can come to me and take my hand and turn my
face up to God and say to God, ' This is My brother,
he is not to be condemned,' then I can stand before
God unafraid." This was where I found the Christ,
living and to be loved, and it dawned upon me that
this was where that greater man than I found Him.
This was the spot where the apostle who loved Him
so passionately found Him who loved me and gave
Himself for me. This was the spot where Peter
found Him. This is where the Christian Church
finds Christ, at the spot where guilt is lifted off and
a sense of cleanness comes in. If you don't know
that you never really loved Christ. You may pay
your money out for His cause. For your father's
and mother's sake, for the sake of all that have gone
before you, or for sheer honour's sake, you may
serve truly and long, but you have never known the
glad service that comes from love until, in the hour
of your self-condemnation, there moves to your side
the Bearer of men's sins and you feel that He has
borne away your sin too. So I believe it is possible
even for those who are called hard, shrewd, level
headed, twentieth-century, business Christians, who
give their money so freely, I believe it is possible
even for them to be turned into lovers of the Christ ;
and if you dig down into their hearts, where they
keep the secrets of their lives, you will discover that,
A STORY OF THE CHRIST
[29]

THEDASTN BYGALI LEE
close by every sin, there is a little spring of flowing
love to Christ.
Why is it that love is so important in this service ?
Don't you see? Why won't money do? Oh, don't
you know? You are trying to help the poor with
money — you are hurting them. You are trying to
help the sick by gifts — no good. You are trying
to make the world better by everything but love;
and only love can feed the hearts of men, only love
can feed the lambs and feed the sheep. So, because
they are dying for love, yearning for love, forsaken
for love, departing from God for want of love, lovers
are sent to them, lovers feed them, lovers tenderly
heal their wounds. " Lovest thou Me, Peter? "
" Yes, my Lord." " Then I can trust you with the
broken hearts of the world." " Lovest thou Me,
thou son of John?" "Lord, Thou knowest I love
Thee." " Then I can trust the deniers with you,
all these poor sheep of mine with you, because you
have a tender, loving heart." You can do much with
your gifts, with your powers, with your other things.
I would not despise them; but you will not touch
one of the sheep or one of the lambs, you will not
help any broken hearts, unless you have in you the
heart of a lover of Jesus Christ.

A STORY OFTHE CHRIST

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