 Chapter 4 of LIFE AND DEATH LIFE AND DEATH by Catherine Booth Chapter 4 Halting Between Two Opinions First Kings 1821 And Eliah came unto all the people and said, How long healthy between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. You who are familiar with this history will remember that Ahab was one of the worst kings that ever sat on the throne of Israel. He was the son and the grandson of idolatrous kings and for fear he would not be able to carry out his wicked intentions sufficiently by himself. He married a hisanish and idolatrous woman and by her help he managed to spread the apostasy almost over the entire nation of Israel. We do not wonder we read in 2 Kings 1733 that they feared the Lord and served their own gods, for these were poor hisan colonists from Assyria. But Israel was a nation professedly worshipping Jehovah and although no doubt Ahab and his wife intended utterly to subvert the worship of the true God and to put that of Baal in its place they could not, they dare not aim to do this all at once and so they supplemented the worship of God by the worship of Baal. They built a house for Baal, planted a grove and established his worship alongside the worship of the God of Israel and they succeeded in inducing the majority of the nation to follow them. Alas, alas, this is generally the case when those in high places give their influence on the wrong side and against God. What an awful reckoning day is coming for wicked kings and rulers, in fact for all people, in places of influence and authority who use it against God. It will be bad enough for a man to have to answer for the damnation of his own soul, but oh, what will it be to have to answer for the damnation of thousands of others? You who are influencing others, your wives, your children, your husbands, your friends, your servants, those who live in the same house with you, there is a reckoning day coming and an awful reckoning day it will be. Well, this king and queen succeeded in instituting this heathen religion in Israel. They set up this idol Baal alongside the temple of the God of Israel and induced nearly the whole nation to bow down to it. They had got idolatry, as they thought, firmly established and were eating and drinking and making merry over the conquest, when down drops a lyre on the scene, as though he had fallen from heaven. This man, dressed in goat's hair, was a lesser girl about him, a true, courageous prophet of the Lord of Hosts, faces Ahab as none but one cent of God there, and he says, As the Lord liveth, mark the allusion, your Baal is a dead God. There shall be neither dew nor rain in Israel these years, but according to my word, and I stake the truth of my testimony on his life, if he lives it shall be accomplished. And then he disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared. The Lord had provided a hiding place for his servant. He sends him to the brook-chirith, there to be fed by a miracle, while he comes out of his place to chastise this idolatrous, backsliding, rebellious people. Perhaps the Lord wished to spare Illaia the scenes he would have had to witness, or he foresaw that this grim tyrant would be everlastingly harassing him and trying to slay him. Whichever way it was, God hid him. But when the famine began to make its appearance, then they began to search for Illaia. I wonder what Ahab wanted with Illaia. His guilty conscience told him that that man had the key of the clouds, that that man was nearly associated with his dread calamity, and so he sends out messengers to find him, as Obadiah tells Illaia, there is no nation or kingdom whether my Lord has not sent to seek thee, and when they said he is not there, he took an oath of the kingdom and nation that they found thee not. But he could not find him, the man whom God hides the devil will never find until God gives him permission, and then he will not be able to touch a hair of his head. How safe are they who are in the keeping of Illaia's God? How independent they are of man's opinions and threatenings. The famine spreads desolation all over the land until there is great scarcity of food for man and beast, and the king sends Obadiah to find out the little rivulets that might be left or the springs that are not dried up, so as if possible to find a little green stuff for the cattle. And as Obadiah proceeds on his way, Illaia meets him and says, Go tell thy Lord behold, Illaia is here. And Obadiah replies, though sayest go tell thy Lord behold Illaia is here, and it shall come to pass as soon as I am gone from thee, that the spirit of the Lord shall carry thee wither I know not, and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me. But Illaia gives him the assurance he needed, as the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him today. Here is courage, the true courage of one whom God has sent. I am not afraid of thy master, I am not afraid of his dungeons or his blocks, I am going to show myself to him. He says moreover, Go and tell him Illaia is here. Not that Illaia is coming but here, if he wants me he can come and find me, I shall not run away for fear of him. And so Obadiah goes and tells Ahab, what was it that drove Ahab to meet Illaia? It might be he was impelled by hope, it might be he was driven by fear, but he had to go and meet him. The famine had brought things to a climax, he must meet with this man of God, he must try either to wrench this power from him by threatening, or he must persuade and entreat him. He goes to meet him. Can you not imagine you see them? The one, the devil's representative, the other is the representative of the God of Israel. The moment Ahab's eyes fall on Illaia, he begins with a false accusation. Art though he that troubles Israel, it is always so with unrepenting, rebellious sinners, they charge the consequences of their sins upon God's faithful servants, who are sent to rebuke and reprove them. They say, oh let me alone, you're always foretelling evil things, you're always denouncing people, you are a traveler of Israel. But Illaia returns a charge and says, I have not troubled Israel, but though, and their father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and though hast followed Baalim, he puts the controversy on its true footing, he traces the calamity to its real source, their idolatry backsliding and rebellion. There he stands, uttering the truth, with all the courage and boldness of a lion, because he feels he has the signet of the king of kings to his utterance. It is thou and thy father's house that have troubled Israel. And then he assumes the part of the king turns the tables upon him and commands him, now go. Oh the authority which the possession of the Spirit of God gives to his servant, and what he dares do with that spirit in him. Now he says, send and gather to me all Israel and to Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal. What impudence Ahab might have said, do you suppose I am going to gather the prophets of my favorite God? Who are you that you should command this? But there is not a board of it. Poor trembling covered, his conscience echoed back the accusation of Elijah. He knew he was guilty, and that their sins and their iniquities were the cause of this visitation, and he wanted rain. He wanted the ground softened and made fruitful. He wanted crops for his household and people and cattle. And he dared not deny Elijah's word or resist his authority. So he went on a bade, and he gathered the backsliding nation together on the sides of Carmel. There was no building in Israel large enough to have contained that vast assembly. When dust gathered, Elijah comes and stands in the midst of them and says, How long healthy? There's a wire, the vast multitude, vacillating, halting between the service of God on the one hand, and the service of Baal on the other. Their king and queen, the favors of the court, and perhaps a great many of their earthly advantages and possessions, depended on their choice. They were looking at Baal on the left hand and at the claims of the God of Israel on the right and just as they were swaying to and fro like a field of corn in the wind, Elijah cries, Now then, choose ye whom ye will serve. How long healthy between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. I demand a decision. I demand a settlement of this controversy. I just want you to notice one or two things in the state here depicted as typical of the condition of many here today. Look at what is implied in halting because it is equally applicable to you as to idolatrous Israel. What does it mean, this halting between the service of God and of Baal or the service of God and of anything else, self, the world, or Satan in any form he may assume? It means to hesitate in any course of conduct which we have been pursuing to look at the reasons on the right hand and on the left, to debate in our minds the wisdom or rightness of two courses of conduct and to compare them one with other. Now these Israelites were called on to decide between the claims of God and the claims of Baal. You are called on to decide between the claims of God as established and put forth in the death of his son and the service of the world, the flesh and the devil, which is your Baal. And as Elijah came and demanded of these people to whom he had previously ministered and whose prophet he was, so I come and demand in the name of the Lord God of Elijah from you who have received my messages during the last three months whom the Spirit of God has made to look at them and ponder them. I demand of you a settlement of this controversy. Now how long healthy! Mind I am not speaking figuratively, God forbid! If I did not believe that I have as truly brought God's messages to you as Elijah did to the Jews, I should never have stood here. I fear, nay, I expect that the salvation of some souls depends on the way they decide with respect to the message this afternoon. Oh, may God the Spirit help you to decide the right way. To help you to this decision I want you to note, first, that there is a sense in which we never hold, never stand still. In fact, there is a sense in which nothing stands still. But this is specially true of the world of mind and spirit that once launched into being, sinner, you never stand still. You must increase, grow bigger in the capacity and enjoyment of good or in the capacity for unrealization of evil forever and ever. It is a beautiful thought to the righteous that once launched on the wave of everlasting progress. We shall stand still no more, but go on growing and growing and growing until, said, we shall become us gods in our capacity for holiness and bliss forever. We know not indeed what we shall be. God himself could not explain it, but we shall be like him. Oh, how beautiful! It is worth holding on for, worth suffering for, worth fighting for, worth dying for. This path of eternal progress once gained, if you will but hold fast and endure to the end of this mortal strife, on you go forever. But, oh, it is an awful thought for the sinner. It is equally true of you. You will have to go on in spite of yourself. You will have to grow bigger in sin unlikeness to the devil. Ah, sinner, stop and think how true this has been for you in the past. Look back at yourself when you were a little boy of ten years old. You would say I was a naughty boy then. Very likely. But if anyone had told you that in five or ten years time you would have been as big a sinner as you are today, what would you have said? Oh, how you have grown! How the devil congratulates himself on your rapid and awful progress. You never thought you would get so big an evil. You never thought you would be such a sinner. You have no knowledge from the past to the future. Thus you must grow forever. There is no stopping place for you. Oh, yes, there is one, thank God. There was one for these Israelites, though they had entered on the downward path of backsliding rebellion and idolatry, and they would have gone on to utter destruction. But bless his name in his beneficence, he said, I will not let them go right without one effort. He steps down from heaven to earth onto the top of Carmel and puts his hand on them and says, halt, stand still, listen, think, reflect. And by the mouth of Elijah he made them consider. Then when he had convinced them, he said, How long will you be before you settle on the right side? For me, for righteousness, for salvation for heaven. How long healthy? Ah, there is one stopping place for you and only one. His infinite love could not let you go down everlasting damnation without giving you a chance. And so he reared the cross and stretched on it that broken, bleeding victim. And there is the stopping place for every poor sinner. And now, as Elijah called to those Jews from Mount Carmel, God calls you from Calvary and says, man, stop. Hold in your downward course. And from the broken, bleeding body of his son he cries aloud to you, turn ye, turn ye, for why will you die? Come unto me and live. There is then one stopping place. But if you get finally passed to that, there is no more stopping for you forever. The every law of your being will force you on and force you down. There will never come a time when you can turn round and say, well, now I think I'm bad enough. I think I have gone far enough in the practice of iniquity and rebellion against God. I think I shall turn round now and stop. Never. You will have to go on growing in the capacity for evil and enduring the consequence of evil till you become a very devil. You can never stop anymore. Is it not true? Does not your reason tell you it is true? Does not your conscience tell you it is true? Does not the spirit of God stand there in your ears, amen? You know it is true. No more stopping. O my sinful friend, you who are halting, you to whom the voice of God is raised in your wild career, stop and listen. What are you going to do this afternoon? How long halty? And coming out of the downward path, start on the everlasting course of growth in righteousness and blessing forever. Or will you go on halting until God settles the controversy for you? What will you do? How long halty? I want you to note secondly that the fact that you hold proves that God has put his hand upon you. The devil never lets men hold if he can help it. That is the last thing he would ever think of doing. He keeps them so fully occupied and so on the drive for the things of the world and of the flesh that they have no time to hold. You can hardly get them to listen to you a minute together. He says, if I let them hold I am done for. If I let them listen and take in the messages that woman is giving they may be saved. And so he pushes in business, pleasure, family, consequences, costs or anything at hand. You know he has tried to keep some of you away with all his might. You hold it up to the coming in at the door, whether you should come in or no. But the spirit of God had God hold of you and you know that as fast as I am pushing in truth at one ear he is pushing it out at the other with his infernal reasonings. He never lets men hold. You would never have pulled up a single moment on your way to perdition if the great almighty God had not come down and pulled you up. It is not in me. Don't give me the credit. It is not in this book. It is not in heaven. It is not in earth. It is not in hell. It is not in all the angels of God to make a sinner hold. He has pulled you up. He has faced you about. He has made you stop. He has startled and alarmed you. It is God and God alone who has done it. Therefore I beseech you. Mind. Allah's sinners deal with us and with our truth as if it were a fiction. All that we can do our varied tears and entreaties they treat as if it were a drama. They will not hear. They will not believe. They would not when he sent the son himself and they will not when he sends his Elias, his messengers. But oh my friend my soul for yours there is an hour coming when you will know that a prophet has been amongst you. There is an hour coming when you will know that it was God who pulled you up in this hall and that you had the chance for your soul and as the Lord God of Elias with you shall know that it was he whatever you say now. Oh that he may help you to know it in this your day of visitation. Oh that you may know it and listen and submit and get saved. Then the end will be answered and we shall have such a shout when we get to glory. But if you forget everything else don't forget that it is God who is crying how long haughty. If you forget him if you insult him and throw back his invitation and settle the wrong way in all probability you will never stop anymore. But you will drive harder and harder down to hell. I believe it is certain of some of you unless you settle at once to be saved. Then how long haughty how long will you risk damnation. Then ask yourself how has God stopped you from being affected. Oh he has opened your eyes and you are like Balam's ass you dare not go forward you would feign but you dare not there is a drone sword in the way God has opened your eyes he has made you see the horrors of a guilty soul upon a dying bed you see it ahead of you he has uncovered the pit and you have had a look down he shows what before you were and could not see you got up and shook yourself and said it is a nightmare but no it was God uncovering the pit he has made you look in he has opened your ears and the air has been sonorous with sounds from other worlds over and over again the dying exhortations and warnings of that Christian father and the last besieging entreaty of the sainted mother and the little childish accent of that flower that he took from your hearth you have heard it by night and by day and you have shaken yourself and said I will not hear it but it has come again and again why? because he has opened your ears six months ago you did not hear it for years it has been drowned with the din and strife of outer life and you have plucked your ears but God has opened them and made you hear ah some of you have heard the dying wailings of doomed companions you know where they are you know how far you went with them in the downward track and where you had to part and you know how they went over the brink now God has met you here it has not been my poor words it has not been anything you have read it has not been any friends you have met it is the Holy Ghost God who has opened your ears how much longer man healthy will nothing but the flames of hell do then I want to note lastly that the further you go the faster and the less possibility there is of your stopping like a stone down hill the momentum of the past will push you on in spite of yourself when you get near the bottom the weight of the goatee deeds of the past will come behind you like an incense strider pushing you down down down and the lower you go and the further you go the faster you go oh my young friends my dear lads listen there is many an old man here would say amen if he dare he would say it is true my lad you get out of the way of destruction then come to the cross early say the Lord he is God and I will serve him sinner every day you live you are heaping up the guilty deeds of the past to crush you lower and lower till you get into the pit that has no bottom don't believe the devil don't believe his agents don't believe evil books don't treat them don't have anything to do with anything that lessens sin in your estimation and makes it look a trifling thing keep out of its rapids it leads down to the chambers of death death's everlasting death my friend will you stop this afternoon the black flag of God's vengeance is waving over you night and day while you are out of the path that leads to life out of Christ he is a consuming fire oh I know but the namby-pamby religionists of this day have made him into a God like themselves winking at the iniquity but he will show them in that day that to all iniquity he is still a consuming fire he will have nothing to do with sin but will put it into the charnel house which he has prepared for the corrupt of his universe he is a pure and a holy God the flood of his wrath this is coming and if you don't make haste it will overwhelm you forever and all the bell of your doom may ring any moment how little those people in Percy Street knew what was in store for them that gentleman walking up Percy Street little expected that his doom was going to be pronounced in a moment how little those people in the railway carriage when the trains clashed in an instant when they looked not for it their doom would be fixed my friends how long haughty I just remember one more thought that the halting of the soul is not like the halting of the body in this respect really and truly you never stand still though God has pulled you up in the way to destruction and made you listen and is arguing with you and you as it were you shall go you are going going going all the time oh it would be well for some of you to look back and think it does people good to stop and realize how old they are and think when God first pulled them up and how long it is since they began to haught angels are frightened to look at it devils are glad to look at it and if you look at it perhaps you will get frightened like the angels how long me thinks the angel is sounding it over this congregation this afternoon how long haughty in a physical halting as at the junction of two roads for instance a man may stand and argue which he shall take but while he does so he is making no progress on either he is not going in the wrong direction and thus going further away from the right he is simply standing still but it is not so spiritually would God it were I was going to say it would not be so serious but while you are halting spiritually you are being hurried on as fast to destruction as ever time is carrying you on you are like a man in a boat on a placid stream at the end of which the rapids are falling you lie on your oars and the boat is gliding down so gently that you do not perceive the motion and you are saying all the time shall I pull up the stream or down and the flowers are blooming on the banks and it may be a gay companions are calling to you and you are whistling and singing and it is like a mayday as you glide down but you are going down down all the while and the rapids are just below ah there is many a poor soul drifting to damnation thus there is many a poor soul allows itself just carelessly to drift down to the rapids of eternal death that never meant it oh there are some old men in this hall and old women who have been drifting drifting drifting till they are nearly gone and there are some young ones too who perchance are just as near the rapids for in this race it does not go by age they are simply sitting on their oars drifting oh they say I don't intend to go down not likely me I had a Christian father and a praying mother and I have been hearing sermons all my life me not likely I don't intend to go down I shall turn round and pull by and by in the right direction and while the words are in his mouth he is on the rapids an accident a fever the breaking of a blood vessel or he drops down of heart disease and he is gone and his friends lift up their hands in horror and say why have you not heard the news what news Mr. So-and-so was found dead in his bed yesterday morning or Mr. So-and-so was walking down Percy Street and there was an explosion and all I saw him was that he was lifted some 14 feet in the air and he fell down speechless dead don't such cases reach us by almost every post don't the newspapers chronicle them almost every day in an hour these poor souls were in the rapids and before they knew it they were gone now how long how long the Lord help you to turn the prowl of your boat this afternoon and take to your oars while there is a chance to help you to turn right round not to Carmel but to Calvary and go down at his bleeding feet and give yourself to him leave the world the flesh and the devil and commit yourself to him who died for you and who has a right to every particle of your body and soul come along here is the stopping place the cross you have not got past it yet thank God you might have gone past it and come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely will you come and drink amen end of chapter 4 chapter 5 of life and death this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Paul Bryan Stewart life and death by Catherine Booth chapter 5 the protocol Luke 15 verse 13 and not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living this parable we may regard as a word picture painted by Jesus Christ to show a world of rebels their heavenly fathers love for them it is so beautiful that one is afraid to touch it at least one should spoil it it is like adding another shade to some master piece of art one fears to mar the whole yet there are points of instruction and lessons which may lead to the most blessed results and lessons that we cannot learn so well anywhere else doubtless this parable had reference to the Jewish and Gentile worlds by the returning of the younger son has prefigured the restoration of the Gentile nations while the proud self righteousness and rejection of the younger son by the elder refers to the Pharisee of the Jews but the primary and most important lesson is doubtless the misery and wretchedness of man while alienated and wandering from God and the welcome and blessedness there is in store for him on returning to his father's house this parable does not refer to any particular class of men but belongs to our race it shows the desperate condition of man and the wonderful love and benevolence of God I want to point out the analogy between the condition of this prodigal and that of unregenerate men universally the first point I want you to notice that this young man demanded his portion taking advantage of the law of his country which allowed him to do this irrespective of his father's purposes or convenience he simply isolated himself from the family interests and set up on his own account that he might use a substance for his own gratification without reference to his future welfare or the control of his father just so sinners choose their portion in this life they know that God requires them to live soberly, righteously and godly denying worldly lusts and to lay up treasure in heaven but they prefer their treasure here they want their heaven now present gratification is what they are intent upon and this they pursue without respect to the will or purpose of God further this young man not only demanded his portion but he made off with it he wanted to use it as he liked he was tired of the discipline and restraints of home he could not work out as wicked purposes there so he gathered together his goods and went as far away as he could where he could live as he liked unrestrained by his father's authority or grief so sinners willfully depart from God for although all men are born in sin they said to belong to God's spiritual family there is a time in the history of every sinner certainly of everyone who hears the gospel when he chooses to remain away from God and the choice to remain away is equivalent to positive departure thus sinners choose to keep away from God and to live without the restraint of his law perhaps you ask but how do they do this of course they cannot literally get away from God for he spies out all their ways and compasses their path but they get away from him spiritually by forgetting him they reject his ministry his bible his spirit shutting up their spiritual eyes and closing their spiritual years the remembrance of God frightens them in their sins it terrifies them in their rebellion therefore their whole effort is to forget him and say we will not have the terrain over us we desire not the knowledge of their ways in this respect all men are alike concluded under sin they differ largely in the manner of disposing of themselves while absent from God but they are all away in a far country without his consent contrary to his wish and in defiance of his authority they may possess many good qualities and amiable traits they may be very generous and good natured to their fellow prodigals but in setting at nought their fathers will and law they are prodigals still notwithstanding imagine a family of sons conspiring together to get their fathers fortune they find a place where they may live comfortably and have a merry time together independent of their father but before they start they say though we have done with the old man yet we won't fight and put out each other's eyes we will draw up a moral code for ourselves and live respectably and decently we will not waste our substance and rioters living but we will make the best of our talents opportunities and means nobody shall have any just cause and complaint about us very good but what about the father no claims is it nothing to trample underfoot his laws frustrate his purpose grieve his heart and bring his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave can their generosity or morality one towards another atone for their flagrant want of fidelity love and obedience to their father just so sinner you may live ever so morally and dispose of your substance and yet be a prodigal just as much as though you spent your substance and rioters living your father has the first claim and until you return to him in repentance and submission you are a rebel further this young man spent all he wasted his substance and rioters living the substance given by his father his time talents and education as well as his wealth all were wasted thrown away on mere self and animal gratification bringing no profit that injury both through himself and others thus sinners waste their substance all the blessings they possess come from God he gives them life, health talents, influence, substance to be used in his service but they waste them perhaps someone says I will have you doorway to not waste mine I am very economical and worked very hard for my family I should like you to see my houses and I am building more or I have a good sum in the bank I am not a spin thrift nor an extravagant man my friend the very fact that you are away from God blights it all and therefore every far thing is wasted there is no eternal profit you have nothing to carry into eternity Christian have you ever stood by the death bed of a prodigal in anguish bewailing a life squandered in vain those around ushering but you have not lived in vain you have bought up a family look at your toil for them and the lands you leave them and the reputation you have acquired oh he says there is a curse on it all it will not endure the judgment bar I have gathered much but it is all in the far country it will all be lost burnt up sunk man only begins to live when he returns to God we Christians never reckon our lives anything before our conversion we look upon them as thrown away and so it is with every sinner supposing a man had decided in years to go to Australia and that by an act of parliament he would have to sacrifice and leave behind him all that he had possessed when he set foot upon the ship what would you think of him knowing this and yet slaving so that he had no time to be with his family toiling early and late not giving himself time so much as to eat and when you ask him why do you work so hard he answers I am saving I am gathering my substance I am getting all I can you would say my dear fellow do you not know that you must off it if you tittle of it you must leave it all behind when you set sail for Australia and suppose you were to reply yes I know that but still I must spend the intervening years in gathering nevertheless you would say the man is insane but for an asylum sinner behold yourself you are slaving for learning fame, wealth, power or what else you have set your heart upon but do you not know that you will have to leave all these at the edge of the river and that naked and empty with nothing left but your character you will have to step into the eternal world nothing will stand you in any steed there but that which has referenced to God is concerning you oh you know not but that today the sentence may go forth they fool this night their soul should be required of thee then who shall these things be further I want to glance at the consequences of this young man's sin his conduct was calculated to throw great discredit on his father's character in government suspicions would be excited that he was unkind, a stare and exacting, unworthy of the affection and obedience of his son so every sinner by his rebellion against God says to his fellow men God is not worthy of being served he is a hard master his commands are grievous and his yoke burdens him he may not say this in words but we all know how much now to action speak them words this young man's conduct was also injurious to his family by taking his portion prematurely and wasting and prostituting it he prevented the increase which would have resulted from his father's wise and judicious management of it and thus injured the whole family so every sinner takes the portion which God has given him and instead of improving it for the general good wastes it on self or desecrates it to the injury of others one sinner destroyeth much good and this good is not his own it is his father's oh how many souls are ruined especially amongst the young through the evil example of somewhat older, more intelligent or wealthy than themselves sinner you cannot avoid the consequences of a sinful life your conduct is a daily curse to those around you your spirit is a moral beasma wherever you go but as in all such cases the most disastrous consequence of this young man's sin fell upon himself we read that he came to be in want the natural and inevitable consequences of having spent all the spending time was soon over it yielded little pleasure and that transitory it was doubtless and goodly positioned youth took away from his father's house but it was soon gone and no sooner was it gone then there arose a famine in that land as the old adage says troubles never come alone and something generally happens when the substance is gone how terrible this young man's circumstances alone in a strange land forsaken by his merry companions of whom doubtless he had plenty while the substance lasted but when the money goes away he goes such companions like rats from a sinking ship then the poor prodigal has to turn to the despised salvationist for help and comfort there is many a poor forlorn wretch tonight dying in an addict or seller without a single friend or companion near him except it be poor chance of missionary on whom he would formally have looked down with contempt a man's all is soon spent his life privileges talents opportunities soon lost and lost forever and then how long and bitter and dreadful the want which ensues we read that to this young man's want no man ministered no man gave unto him alas no creatures can if they would ministered to the sinner's spiritual destitution in vain must he cry to the world the flesh or the devil to satisfy the wants of his hungry soul the one in all reply it is not in me there is nothing in the pleasures of sense or the antidotes of satan that will meet the wants of famishing souls how strange that in the midst of all this poverty and destitution this youth did not at once remember his father's house perhaps he did but was yet too proud to return so he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country hoping by this expedient to be able to sustain life and avoid the humiliation of going back to his father so there are times in the history of all men wandering from God when they wake up to feel that they are in want they want peace purity, happiness hope for death and eternity they feel that they possess nothing which they dare take with them into the presence of their judge and yet, like this young man they will try any expedient rather than return to their father's house they will take any service of the devil and submit to any humiliating drunchery even worse in feeding of swine rather than given happy is it for this sinner when a sense of his poverty and misery leads him to consideration and repentance as it did in the case of this youth his situation proved utterly inadequate to meet his wants and when driven to the last extremity of misery not only having to feed swine but being glad to feed with them we read that he came to himself madness is said to be in the heart of sinners a deceived heart gift them astray and so inveterate is this madness that with those who are brought to repentance it frequently happens that nothing short of the most heart-rending afflictions will bring them to their right minds sickness bereavement loss, poverty are among the means God uses for this end but with many so deep and inveterate is their insanity that even these means fail and they go down to death with deceit on their tongues and a lie in their right hand oh how many in the day of judgment who now consider themselves very sensible and judicious people will look back upon their career on earth as one of unmitigated madness what insanity will it then appear to a barred away pardon purity an everlasting bliss for the empty husks of carnal gratification a gentleman said to me at the railway station the other day you were right in what you said last night I asked him in what respect he answered in saying that the Lord has to inflict the heaviest chest dicemen in order to bring sinners to himself I know it he said it has been so in my case I asked has it answered the purpose no he said shaking his head then I said look out you are not bad enough yet God will strip you of every blessing and every comfort you possess rather than let you go to hell in this state oh he said I have not much left the Lord took away from me three years ago a loving precious life the idol of my soul then a little while ago I lost 30,000 pounds and I have had other trouble since in fact he has been knocking me about in my circumstances for years I said yes because he loves you too well to let you go to hell without trying to save you and if you would not let him do it without stripping you naked as the prodigal you must expect this chastisement till like him you are willing to leave the far country and return to your father but I repeat happy the sinner who sorrows and sufferings lead to repentance the first step in the right direction was reflection this young man began to think at length he lost sight of everything but his own destitution and the plenty of his father's home then he said to himself how many hired servants of my fathers have bred enough and to spare and I perish with hunger what better reflections must have filled his mind can you not imagine that you see him sitting on a stone imbed the husks and filth of the swineyard ruminating on his past life thinking of his folly and wickedness and wondering whether if he were to go back his father would receive him happily these reflections led him to resolution how many take the first step they think and ponder and promise and intend but they don't make up their minds not so this young man he says I will arise he asserts his manhood he is conscious of moral freedom he knows he can return if he likes he does not sit down whining I can't, I should not be able to get there I can't contend with the difficulties of the road if he had done that he might have sat there until now if he had lived as long and been no nearer alas how many of God's protocols go as far as this they think and ponder and resolve and re-resolve but they never act your resolutions will not help you unless you put them into practice this young man puts his resolution into action he starts on his journey no doubt he had many a struggle with himself on the road and many a struggle with the devil who there was a devil then just as there is one now he thinks as he got half way hungry and weary I see him leaning his back against a tree going through one of those mental conflicts the possibility of his father being dead or if alive unwilling to receive him angrily and reproachfully would rise before him Satan would suggest what impudence for you to think of going home after being treated the old man as you had done breaking his law, wasting his money and bringing yourself into this disgraceful and dilapidated condition how dare you think of it it is adding insult to injury you had better turn back or try and get a situation somewhere up in this neighborhood but the prodigal's eyes were opened he believed that his father still loved him he was looking towards his father's house and his heart was melting with repentance and longing to be reinstated in his father's love and so plucking up his carriage he starts again supporting himself as best he can on his weary route as he comes within view of the old homestead the familiar scenes of his childhood were too much for him and he stands almost paralyzed with grief we'll leave him there for a minute and go to seek his father I don't suppose the father was looking out for him but as was customary in the east he was probably walking on the roof of his house in the cool of the day and as on many a former occasion he thought of his long lost son for though he was a prodigal he was his lad still it might be that he had some strange presentment or foreboding as we sometimes have when anything uncommon is about to happen how natural that he should gaze over the expanse of the country across which his son had gone and as he looks he sees a speck in the distance a vague curiosity compels his glaze he looks as if into vacancy until the figure draws nearer when something in the form or the gate strikes him and he says to himself can this be my boy coming back then he chides himself and says what a foolish old man I am because I dreamed of him last night or have felt this strange foreboding should I expect him to come and he takes his eyes away and breathes another prayer added to hundreds of it before Lord my God grant that I may see my prodigal boy before I die he takes another round on the roof and returns to the same spot and as he looks again he perceives the figure has come nearer and his eyes are glued as it were to that form the eye of affection is quick of recognition he says can it be it is like him it must be God is going to answer my prayers it is my long lost boy he makes the best of his way down and then as fast as his age limbs will carry him he runs to assure himself it is years since he ran like that but love inspires him with strength and makes his feet like Hain's feet away he goes over the lawn and through their joining meadow the prodigal too has been thinking and as he is drawn nearer and when he lifts up his eyes and beholds his father he runs to meet him they rush into each other's arms and his father falls upon his neck with the kiss of reconciliation he waits not to hear the boy's confession the best proof of his repentance is that he is here at home again but the sobs will come the prodigal must confess and he breaks out father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and I am not worthy to be called thy son that was true repentance he cares not he will black the boots will groom the horses or sit in the kitchen anything so that he may be in his father's house and enjoy his pardoning smile here are no excuses no palliations no wholehearted honest confession of his guilt the father accepts it and in proof of his forgiveness he orders the ring and the best robe and the shoes to be put upon and says kill the fat and calf and let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found what says the great word painter who gives us this wonderful picture likewise I say unto you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth sinner will you be that one oh wanderer knowing not the smile of Jesus' lovely face in darkness living all the while rejecting offered grace to thee Jehovah's voice doth sound thy soul he waits to free thy Saviour hath the ransom found there's mercy still for thee there's mercy still for thee there's mercy still for thee poor trembling soul he'll make thee whole there's mercy still for thee long in the darkness thou hast strayed away from joy in peace thou hast these worldly pleasures tried but found them soon to cease without one lingering ray of hope in anguish thou mayest be oh listen to the joyful sound there's mercy still for thee for thee though sunk in deep despair thy Saviour's blood was shared he for thy sins was as a lamb true cruel slaughter led that thou mayest find poor sin sick soul a pardon full and free what boundless grace what wondrous love there's mercy still for thee those sins of years rise mountains high and would thy hopes destroy thy Saviour's blood can wash away the stains and bring thee joy now lift thy heart in earnest prayer to him for safety flee while still the angels chant the strain there's mercy still for thee End of Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Of Life and Death This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Life and Death by Katherine Booth Chapter A True and False Faith Galatians 5 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love James 2.20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Romans 3.31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yay, we established the law. You are aware my subject this afternoon is to be the difference between a true and false faith and oh, lift up your hearts to God for the light and power of the Holy Spirit I feel intensely the importance of the subject for I cannot help fearing that there is a comparatively little of the real life of faith notwithstanding that there is so much talk and writing and preaching about faith I'm afraid that faith is awfully misunderstood and I know that it is vile misrepresented These convictions have been forced upon me by actual contact with the people I believe that multitudes upon multitudes are deceived on this vital point and God knows I do not say this without realizing the terrible import of my words. Pamphlets and tracks are often sent to me which I look through for the sake of the senders but frequently they make my blood run cold and I cry Lord is it time for thee to work for not only are the righteous perishing but righteousness itself seems to be perishing and these blind guides seem to be making haste to extinguish the last faint barriers between right and wrong and to set open the floodgates of antinomianism and iniquity whom the gods intend to destroy they first deceive and certainly Satan seems to have succeeded in deceiving many who pass for the elect that through them he may drown the people in deception and perdition while I've prayed for ten years especially that God would raise up a people who would unfurl once more the standard and practical holiness and show what God's religion really is everybody in these days is setting up to be a theologian we get the most weak and contemptible contradictions and interpretations of scripture possible to imagine I have often felt almost in despair as I have seen how the enemy has got over to his side the very strongholds of the church and turned the weapons of God's warfare to serve his own purposes how I have seen him dispensing the untempted mortar until its slime is everywhere you cannot take up a book or a periodical but the grossest antinomianism meets you clothed in a new dress it is time somebody spoke out and thank God seeing that his professing people will not he is raising up a people from the slums to come out and tell the world that God is not dead and that justice and judgment are still the habitation of his throne that he still can save his people from their sins it was meeting with numbers of deceived people that first led me to consider saving faith as a separate subject on one occasion when I was walking down a large music hall after a service a respectable woman grasped my hand and said oh Mrs. Booth tell me where I am wrong I believe all that you have been saying I have believed it for years and I pray and strive and believe and yet I am not saved I am just as big a slave to my sins as anybody else I shall never forget the light that seemed to strike from heaven as that woman spoke I said oh Lord here is a specimen of thousands show me where is the missing link give me the message of truth and this point I will give it to them and I believe God did give it to me and has helped me to show thousands since then what is true saving faith we will now try to show it to you and if there is a thought in our minds not of his conception may he blot it out and what is of his conception oh may he give it light and willingness and confidence and humility to receive and thus may we all be blessed together I am going to speak of faith this afternoon in the evangelical or saving sense not faith as used sometimes to denote Christianity or to represent a system of truth but faith when it is used to set forth the act of the soul which translates it out to the kingdom of Satan and to the kingdom of God that living powerful transforming principle in the soul of the believer which enables him to live in obedience to God the faith that saves now what is faith God help us because on this hinges our salvation or damnation for he who the embodiment of truth has said he that believeth shall be saved and he that believeth not shall be damned they are not my words therefore I dare not mince them then what is faith first we will note one or two things which it is not and here you will see some of the great delusions of the church in the present day one it is not a mere mental perception of or conviction of the truth there may be this and not one atom of saving faith saving faith is not an intellectual perception of the truth wilt thou know o vain man that faith without works is dead and circumcision availeth nothing nor uncircumcision but faith that worketh by love do we make void the law through faith God forbid yay we established the law now there are tens of thousands of merely intellectual believers in this country just as your son has been trained in the belief that is the reception into his mind of certain facts in astronomy he has been taught that the earth moves around the sun and there that fact is so to speak laid away on the shelf of his intellect but he goes to his office 365 days a year and perhaps never once thinks of it it is no practical effect upon his life again he has been taught that there was such a person as William the Conqueror he's read all about his life in history and has received the facts into his mind and if anybody were to set up an opposite theory he would be valiant for the truth of history and yet he has perhaps never thought of William the Conqueror for a whole year neither his life nor death has any practical effect on the young man's life again there are hundreds of drunkards who believe thoroughly in sobriety I have known many who have protested that they hated drinking and believe that abstinence was the finest thing in the world and then drunk every Saturday night just the same their faith and sobriety had no practical effect on their lives these are illustrations of a dead faith of a mere intellectual perception and approval of a truth without any corresponding effect upon the heart now there are tens of thousands of people in this country who are just this and in no other way believers in Christianity and in Jesus Christ and alas they have been taught that because they have received the facts about Jesus Christ into their minds they are Christians and oh whatever lasting confusion condemnation and shame this theory has brought about the world is full of liars and cheats and rogues who believe these facts quite as much as I do oh yes and they would be valiant for the truth if attacked but they are unbelievers still in the bible sense and in danger of hellfire the devils believe and tremble oh say the deceived guides salvation is not by works it is by faith only believe and you are saved without adding the qualifying passages and the explanations of the correlative text which the inspired writers never lost sight of for a moment so it has come to pass that we have lying believers, cheating believers deceiving believers and unclean believers and all manner of sinful believers of course they are head believers but they are deceived and it is time that somebody sounded the trumpet of alarm as John did little children let no man deceive you he that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous he that commit a sin is of the devil John and James live to see the creeping up of the deadly heresy through the resting of scriptures from their explanatory connections especially in the writings of Paul which heresy would have been quite as valuable to the soul of this apostle as it is to our souls making him teach unrighteousness instead of righteousness hence James is warning for as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without the works is dead also and you know what comes after death corruption like the body when the spirit is gone stinketh in the nostrils of God if a mere intellectual perception of the truth were saving faith the devil would have been saved long ago for he is one of the profoundest intellectual believers in the universe you remember in the days of Christ flesh when the Pharisees were ifing and budding as to his origin the devil had none of these difficulties he comes boldly out and says I know thee who thou art the Holy One of God but that faith did not change his character he remains a devil still well might the apostle James and Paul urge us to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith for there is a faith that damns as well as a faith that saves my friend which of you got further saving faith is not mere feeling on the subject of religion people go out and hear finally wrought sermons about the sufferings of Christ and the triumph of Christianity and because they weep or are wrought up to gladness at the extension of Christ's kingdom they reason I should not feel this if I were not a Christian if I am not a Christian I am pretty near being one I am not far wrong or I should not feel like this a most delusive test suppose a man reading a romance he has feelings excited in the soul in accordance with the sentiment that passes through his mind but he lays down the book and goes his way and is the same as before and so the apostle says to hearing and not doing he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass for he beholdeth himself and goeth this way and straight way forgeteth what manner a man he was the truth has no practical effect upon him he lives the next day just the same can that be the faith which Hebrews 11 sets forth as the very power of God and the souls of men and women leading them to be the prey of lions to be sawn asunder separating from all they loved suffering a martyrdom in life and a martyrdom in death for the kingdom and glory of God can it? oh no you say a thousand times no then if it is neither intellectual perception nor conviction of the truth nor mere feeling about the truth what is it? may God the Holy Ghost help us to find out I like to let one scripture explain another so I want to remark the word translated faith or believe as used in the saving senses in several other places in the New Testament translated commit or committal the giving oneself over to another Luke 16 11 if therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon who will commit to the trust the true riches now that is the same word as in the place it's translated faith or belief now you see the apostolic idea of faith it is the committal the giving over of the soul and of the whole being to God it means such a giving himself up to God as constitutes him henceforth God's man or woman again the same word occurs in John 2 24 but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men he did not give himself over to their power or keeping because he could see into their wicked hearts what they would do with him if he did here is the same word as it is translated faith or belief when used in the saving sense these will suffice then what is faith if it is giving myself up to God risking myself if we may use such a term then there is no risk about it risking my all for this life and for the next on the truthfulness and the goodness of God and daring to live and act contrary to everybody around me as if all that God has said were true now Mark there is no getting away from the fact that this is a scriptural idea of faith and I hope you will go and compare the scriptures and examine for yourselves because faith is all through the scriptures represented as a voluntary thing here is encouragement for intellectual doubters I think I have met with some sincere and honest souls in my life who have been tormented almost out of their minds by intellectual doubts yet whose hearts have been honestly inquiring after God's truth I have a great deal more sympathy with such people than with those who profess all and do nothing God believes as we do in a man's honesty and sincerity of heart and if you have a sincere heart and want to know God and obey him don't be afraid that he will leave you because the devil is always shooting his hella starts through your intellect faith is a voluntary thing it is a thing you can do or leave alone or God must have been unjust to have made a man's everlasting salvation or damnation to depend on what he has no power to do you have not absolute power over your intellect but you have power over your will you can say here Lord I am troubled on this subject and on that but I am not going to wait until I can clear up all these difficulties I will take my stand on thy declaration and I will pledge myself to follow thee and I work thy righteousness and I do thy will as thou shall reveal it unto me you do that and see if God won't send you light I know he will he will bring you into a large place and flood your soul with his light and those doubts like birds of prey will take their flight forever and you will know to a demonstration that God is light and in him is no darkness at all but it must be a voluntary committal of your heart to him God wants your heart then he will enlighten your intellect he wants you to come and take your stand alongside his throne and the cross of his son and commit yourself once and forever into his hands he wants you to say now Lord I am poor, guilty helpless sinner all the guilt of my past life is open to you but you have promised to receive and save me you say that if I come the blood of your son shall atone for me and cleanse me from all sin that if I come putting away my idols and forsaking my sins that you will receive and forgive me and that if I will come and put my neck under your yoke you will take me to be your own here I come weary and heavy laden enough but with all the choice of my heart with all the power of my will with all the purpose of my soul and I have an M I come and put myself at the foot of the cross to be yours, holy and forever I never knew a soul come to that in my life and I have known some terrible cases of conflict who did not soon get flooded with light you see he only wants you as you want one another when a young man woos a young woman and I use this illustration because I can't find a better what does he want? he wants her he does not want to hear her say I believe all you say about yourself about your father and mother your position and prospects oh yes I quite believe all that she may say all that but that is not enough what does he want? he wants her heart he wants her to say yes I am willing to accept you as my bridegroom my love my husband and that is what God wants your heart and you may bring to him your gifts and your head faith and your church creeds and your dead formal services or whatever else you like but he will not accept them and in the day of judgment he will say you never gave me your heart faith is the thing of the heart hence the philosophy of the scriptures which says that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness the head can believe facts abides in unrighteousness in hypocritical professions and outside performances but it is only with the heart that we believe unto righteousness bring your heart then and the Holy Spirit will help you to commit it to God and then you shall know what this means being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ come and commit yourself trust him what can harm you what has you in his hand as it is trust him for your body if you are in a land that you must go out of as Abraham did go out of it and he will find you another land flowing with milk and honey and another father's house with brothers and sisters and friends far more dear and precious than those you left for he will enable you to look around on his own and say whosoever doeth the will of my father the same is my mother my sister and brother come out he will take care of you if you come out and seek the country that hath foundation you shall have a seed to serve him when your heads are laid in the grave he will be your friend all the way through life and glory to his name he will be with you when you are dying he shall not go trembling and shrinking out of the time you shall not go trembling out of time into eternity like a thief and a robber but like a victorious warrior you shall go sweeping through the gates oh he loves you but he cannot save you if you will not commit yourself to him he cannot in the nature of the case save you in any other way than this Paul was saved in this way hear him saying for I know whom not in what I have believed and then persuaded he is able to keep the which I have committed unto him against that day sin and the devil have severed you from God now he wants you back and he has done all he can to win you by the death of his blood and by the enlightening of his spirit but it is for you to come and give yourself to him won't you do it won't you trust such a father won't you pledge yourself to love and serve him inside in preference to a poor rotten godless world dare you not pledge yourself to his throne and link yourself on to his almightiness come along he waits still for your choice he knocks still at the door of your heart he asks your confidence he woos your love come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest end of chapter 6 chapter 7 of life and death this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Andy Glover Life and Death by Catherine Booth chapter 7 Sewing and Reaping Galatians chapter 6 verse 7 and 8 be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting I presume that the principle or the law which the apostle lays down in this text will be admitted to be one universally received and acted upon with respect to this life that men in general have learned by observation and experience that there is an exact correspondence between the seed sown and the harvest reaped that they do not expect to gather grapes off thorns nor figs off thistles but they expect that just as they sow in this physical world so they will reap on this principle parents instruct and counsel their children they teach their children that according to their industry application to their studies their virtue and care to improve their opportunities and youth will be their prosperity health and honor in mature years and you will all say that is right counsel masters teach their servants that according to their punctuality and attention to business will be their success and prosperity in worldly things while on the other hand that to be idle and indifferent to the interests of their employers to waste their time and throw away their opportunities will bring disgrace and poverty in old age and I suppose that everybody approves of such counsel they say yes that is too manifest to be contradicted and if I were to leave the operation of this law with its application to this life there would not be a dissentient voice in my audience everybody whether they acted upon it or no would say amen but you see the apostle does not leave it here but takes hold of this law and follows it on its operation into the moral and spiritual world and into eternity and so I want as far as may be this afternoon to follow with Paul in tracing this law of moral fruit bearing with respect to the soul and into eternity and first I want you to note that the apostle lays down in this text the principle that just is in natural things so in spiritual things men reap according as they so he asserts that God has made a fundamental principle of his government that men shall reap morally and spiritually as they do physically according as they so you can set at not this law but that will not deliver you from the sad and terrible consequences of his operation God has settled it the decree has gone out of his mouth that whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap the decree he has energized so to speak every moral action with the awful power of reproducing itself with increase in other words God has so made me in my body my soul and my spirit that I cannot help reaping tomorrow according as I so today not withstanding the intervening night's sleep God has so made me from that because it is the law of my being if God were to die tomorrow and if heaven were to be extinguished and hell were to be extinguished if I remained what I am I should go on reaping as I have sowed the operation of this law does not depend on anything outside of myself let us just look in the second place at the development or working out of this law in actual experience we will take for illustration the case of a little child we will suppose that this child has arrived at the point of intelligence sufficient to define for himself right and wrong now then comes temptation circumstances combine and Satan presents a temptation to commit some sin perhaps to tell a lie or to appropriate something that is not his own responsibility of the child is shocked he shrinks so to speak back from evil and yet there is a perverse inclination in him which leads him in that direction not for the sake mind of committing sin but for the sake of the self gratification which the sin will bring nobody sins for the sake of committing sin except he is become a demon when you do something which your conscience condemns and which you know that the holy god disapproves it is not because you want your conscience to condemn you and god to disapprove you oh no it is because you like that thing you want the gratification which the indulgence will bring you are sorry perhaps that it is sinful but you do it for the gratification of yourself and thus commit sin in doing it it is so with the child it does not want to sin perhaps he has had a praying mother and has been warned and cautioned and he stands trembling as it were on the brink of fate Satan urges the temptation shows the desirableness of the object pushes the child so to speak onto it while conscience and the spirit of god exhibit the consequence of the sin persuade and lure the child in the opposite direction who shall settle what that child will do god will not invade the freedom of the will even of a child of seven years old no one can decide for him no one in heaven earth or hell but himself now we will suppose the child gives himself over to this temptation gives his will over the side of evil he says yes I will have that thing I don't care about the consequences I will have it and he commits the sin sows his first seed to the flesh now wherein is the child in a worse position than he was before how does the harvest of corruption begin to spring up the very first effect of sin is to darken the understanding and harden the heart accordingly instead of the shame and remorse which always follows a guilty act leading the child as it ought to repentance and confession the evil seed having conceived in the child's soul brings forth falsehood and deception to his darkened understanding and blunted moral perception it appears indispensable that the sin should be hidden accordingly he commits perhaps 10 more sins in order to hide the first and these in their turn produce a still more abundant harvest of corruption of course the next time temptation is presented the fall is easier the child suffers fewer qualms of conscience and if he be placed in circumstances of temptation continually 10 to 1 he will become a confirmed liar or a confirmed thief as it may be if God do not interpose by some extraneous agency to prevent it sowing to the flesh naturally brings forth corruption this would be a fortunate congregation if there were not some illustrations of this experience here ah perhaps there is a young man in this hall who left his father's house 10 or 5 years ago a comparatively pure and innocent youth with his parents noble principles and with the desire and intention to serve God he kissed his mother and sister and bade them goodbye with the heart bounding with anticipations of future prosperity and progress and he intended to be good but soon some fiend in human shape crossed his path and perhaps lent him some insidious venomous hellish book asking him to read it and he appeared to hesitate laughed at him and said oh you are not tied to your mother's apron strings now you know you are going to be a man on your own account you can surely read this the first questionable book here just let me say to you who are parents whatever else you leave undone train your children in moral courage teach them from 5 years old to be bold enough to say no to the tempter teach them to despise the man that can't bear to be laughed at teach them to stand in the light of God and to say no to hell and to all hell's emissaries oh that you would you do not know what could be done in this direction with the Holy Spirit's help but I am afraid a great many persons never try to do this as that young man went home looking over the first three or four pages of that book he saw what it was and what it was likely to do and his conscience and the spirit of God said shut it up and put it in the fire but he thought he would have to meet his so called friend and he did not like the idea of being laughed at and so he let his will go over on the side of evil he read it and thus brought the breath of impurity over his being he sowed his first seed to the flesh and that young man would rather shrink into hell than tell this congregation what the crop has been ah if an angel had told some of you three, five ten years ago that you would become what you are today you would have laughed him to scorn whence has come this change this harvest of corruption from your own sowing you have sown to the flesh conscience protested the spirit warned but you followed your inclinations gratified your senses and thus have benumbed your moral nature and scathed your soul you remember the first questionable place you visited how the spirit thundered in the ears of your soul that house is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death but you stifled the voice of conscience and yielded your will to unlawful gratification and ever since you have been sowing to the flesh I ask you what are you reaping for with some here the reaping has begun already ah you are reaping a seared conscience a blasted character blighted prospects a diseased body and in hours of solitude and sickness yet to come hurricanes of anguish and despair verily God is not mocked but I beseech you to remember that you are your own destroyer God has not done it angels have not done it your parents have not done it the devil has not done it he has only tempted you whereas a whole legion of devils could not have forced you no you yourself have done it you are your own executioner oh young men who have not yet entered the snare of the fowler beware shut your ears and your eyes to evil insinuations never read an evil book if you chance on one the moment you suspect its character put it in the fire and thus prevent it becoming a minister of death to any other soul do not let your soul be soiled with evil keep clean as far as you are clean it is an infinite advantage not to have known the devil's dirtiness not to have had anything to do with the unfruitful works of darkness of which it is a shame even to speak or to think keep your hearts with all diligence for out of them are the issues of life keep your imaginations and don't allow polluting thoughts to gain access by any preventable mediums resist the devil and he will flee from you further I want you to observe that the most terrible penalties of this law are spiritual even in this world though the body the character and the circumstances as a rule partake in the corruption it is the soul that reaps the principal harvest of woe go ask that poor emaciated prodigal dying of the rotten is implanted in his bones by a career of intemperance and vice ask him what constitutes his severest suffering his direst misery he will not tell you of the prostration the fever and anguish of his body but of the remorse the agony and apprehension of his soul he cries oh never mind my body it is my soul my poor soul if anybody here has ever stood by the side of such a bed have you not read in the more than mortal agony of such a face the words be not deceived God is not mocked there are some cases in which it seems as though God lifted the curtain of mortality before the soul passes out of time so that those around may see as far as possible the future heritage of woe is consequent on a life of sin alas we in the salvation army get many awful illustrations of this I will give you one or two which rise before me at the moment one of our officers was fetched late one night to visit a young man said to be dying in relating the story he says I shall never forget the scene I could not get it out of my mind for many days and nights I found the relic of a fine young fellow of about 28 or 30 years of age with beautiful black eyes almost standing out of his head his hands clenched in agony and he crying out in awful tones curse them curse them where are they they have helped me to this and now they have left me to die alone he referred to his evil companions our officer drew near and tried to calm and comfort him by inspiring hope of mercy and pardon but he could produce no effect the young man's rage and vengeance at the realization of his desperate state and of the villainy of those who had lured him onto it could not be restrained but continued to vent itself in wild denunciations and curses until the one friend he had with him was obliged to retire and leave him to die with our officer only in the room he died in a perfect frenzy of rage and despair surely on his coffin lid there should have been inscribed he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption that young man was a minister's son and had been trained at college alas I fear this fact might have something to do with his downfall if it be true which I fear it is that our colleges are much more prolific of infidelity and debauchery than of godliness and self-discipline another case which I had also from the lips of a devoted officer was that of a young woman who had allowed herself to be drawn from the paths of virtue into the vortex of impurity and corruption our visitor was sent for by a neighbor who had been alarmed by the shrieks of the dying girl when he got to her bedside he found her fingers so fast locked in the tresses of her hair that it was vain to try to disentangle them and she was screaming my soul is murdered, murdered it's too late, too late I'm lost, lost, lost and thus she died I might go on to multiply illustrations but these are surely sufficient, sinner I'll show you what the harvest must be of a life of sowing to the flesh truly god has made sin to be its own punishment if the soul be immortal there is only one thing necessary to its everlasting misery and that is that it remains sinful I want you to note further that we have no reason to suppose that death in any way changes or annulls the action of this law the philosophy and scripture assert that death is powerless to destroy or alter the nature of the soul except, indeed, it be to quicken and intensify its faculties by removing the fleshly coil none of its faculties will be destroyed or suspended it will simply change worlds enter on a new sphere of existence and it will be amenable to the same law and the same god as in this life the reason as well as scripture pronounces at the death of every sinner let him that is filthy be filthy still if this be true it follows that so far from death repealing this law of moral reproduction it will greatly facilitate its operation by removing those barriers which exist in this life hear the worst of men reap only partially as they sow this is a state of probation not of retribution and therefore god has ordained many alleviating circumstances and ministries of mercy to palliate, or if men would let him to turn away the bitter fruits of their evil sowing and induce them to begin to sow to the spirit but, after death the sowing time will be ended and there will be no further hindrance to the full harvest of woe and corruption from the evil seed sown in this life oh sinner, what will you do then? all the enchantments of sinful sowing will have passed away forever and there will be nothing left but the doleful reaping, forever and ever be not deceived do not let Satan lull you to sleep again for as surely as you reap today according as you sowed yesterday notwithstanding the night's sleep which has intervened so surely must you reap in eternity as you have sown in time further, the text and many other passages seem to indicate an analogy in kind as well as in degree between the character of the seed sown and the harvest to be reaped this may be as literally true as that like begets like the world over and therefore each soul may find its particular sins to have in them the germ of their principal punishment the worm that dyeth not has often been supposed to be the knowings of conscience finally awakened on account of the sins of time alas, we know that this terrible imagery of our savior cannot be worse than the things signified we know also that it may be fitly applied to the cravings of sinful passion and the pangs of remorse even in this life how much more when all the sources of gratification are eternally dry all the alleviations withdrawn all hope of relief dead ask the wretched slave of any sinful appetite what is his highest misery and he will tell you the suffering consequent upon the cravings of his passion when he has no means to gratify it oh, cry to poor dying drunkard a while ago with frantic and maniacal shouts give me brandy I will have brandy I can't die without brandy give me brandy now suppose the soul given up to the complete mastership of any sinful passion forever without one solitary source of gratification and you have a being who may fitly appropriate the language which Milton puts into the mouth of Satan oh, could I flee myself myself am hell sinner do you see that you are sowing a seed of corruption whose hellish brood will sting your naked soul through all eternity you are sowing to the flesh but do you see what the harvest must be must be for God has so made you that if there were no material hell while you exist and remain guilty you must be a hell to yourself do you see you have no choice you must go on eating the bitter fruit of your own doings forever what will you do you cannot kill your soul it is made of material on which you cannot lay violent hands it will live in spite of you what will you do you have been sowing to the flesh all your life you say I have no power to sow to the spirit to righteousness and to God do you say woe is me, I am undone there is no hope are you tired of sowing to the flesh are you willing to begin to sow to the spirit if so, oh, joyful news there is help desperate as your case may be help is laid upon one that is mighty only a God could meet your case and lo, a God has met it Jesus Christ the righteous has not destroyed this law but he has found a way by which to deliver those who come to him from its awful consequences by letting its invinimed tail so to speak sink into his own bosom and himself bearing the punishment due to your deadly sowing in his own body on the tree he who knew no sin has been made a curse for you that you might be made a partaker of the righteousness of God in him if you will only come to him and cast your guilty soul on his sacrifice he will free you from the bitter consequences of your past evil ways and he will, better still renew your mind and put a new spirit within you so that henceforth you shall be able to sow to the spirit and then this terrible law of which we have been speaking will become your friend and you shall of the spirit reap life everlasting he has done this for some of us we once sowed to the flesh more or less an outward axe but all alike in heart we lived unto ourselves and are now ashamed of the fruits of our evil sowing but he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the holy ghost and he will save you if you will let him oh said a young man the other day but the marks, the stain can never be got off oh yes we replied they can there is one medium and only one that can wash the blood red hand and the blood red conscience too and that is the precious blood of Christ we could show you thousands in the ranks of the salvation army once as bad as you most likely a great deal worse men and women, some of them who have been favored with every advantage in youth wept over and untreated by Christian parents loved and labored for by teachers and ministers who not withstanding had wandered to the ends of the earth and committed every sin that human nature is capable of hardened, besotted brutalized, sunk to the lowest level of debauchery and yet now they are washed they are sanctified and restored to favor with God and man, all through the blood will you try it will you put your foot down and say this afternoon by the grace of God I will never sow another seed to the flesh will you let go all your miserable provision for the gratification of the flesh and will you come and pledge yourself to be the lords in righteousness and in true holiness if you will be sure you shall know the blessing of sowing to the spirit in this life and in the next you shall reap life everlasting may God help you Amen End of Chapter 7