Setting The Right Example

    Do you remember that time when it did not go as smoothly as it might over some little thing that occurred. It was at a time when you became a little careless in prayer. That night, about tow or three o'clock, you and your wife were suddenly awakened by the cries of your little child. It was near death. You had to get hold of God or the child would die. Do you remember that when you knelt by the bedside of the child everything was dark around you; you could not pray through it? The Spirit of God began to point you to those harsh words. Then what? If you did the right thing, this is what you did: You said, "Do you remember, dear, that little misunderstanding we had the other day? I spoke too sharply. Will you please forgive me?" By that time she got her arms around you and said, "I wasn't as submissive as I should have been. Lord, help us be more humble and submissive." Then the mists and clouds disappeared, faith took hold, and the child was healed instantly. Say, that is the way to live; only it is better not to wait until the child has to be stricken. Live close enough to God that you can make your mistakes right at once. If such things do not occasionally occur in your life, one of two things is true of you: either you are living to a higher standard than most people, or you are living so far away from God that your conscience cannot talk to you. Holy men and women will frequently have occasion to submit to one another. Be "tenderhearted; forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." This was not written to sinners, but to saints.

Some people are more of a nervous temperament than others. Some have trials on one line, and some on another; but God help us to correct every mistake, to profit by the past, and to do better in the future. I do not lower the standard in preaching this way. Respect and honor each other. Love one another. Your honeymoon can continue when you grow old and gray. Some people's honeymoon lasts only a few months, but mine is going on yet. Live right in the home, be an example; be submissive; live to please each other. In a little while this journey of life will be over, and you will have to look into each other's face for the last time. One of you will follow the other to the grave. The casket will be lowered, and you will cast your bunches of flowers upon it and strew them on the grave. My Lord, help us! It would be a good deal better to strew the flowers of kindness in this life.

Parents, set the right example before your children. The greatest revival needed today is the revival at home, around the family fireside. This is where it needs to begin. If you want a revival in your community, start it at home. Begin to bring your dear ones to Christ. My God, help us to feel this responsibility! What an awful thing it will be to look into the faces of our own dear children and know that they died without Christ. Some of these days you will see some of your loved ones carried to the grave. It will be too late then. We ought to spend time while they are living, and do what we can to bring them to Jesus. Sometimes children think that we are harsh, when we hold them in check; but, brethren, I pray God to put it on our hearts to use every effort in our power to restrain them from going into the ways of sin, and to help to live so before them that they will be won to Jesus. Mothers, let me say something for your encouragement. Sometimes mothers spend a whole lifetime toiling from early morn till late at night to raise a large family. They never get away from their cares and work. But in that busy home the mother lives a Christian life. Often she feels discouraged, seeing no fruit from her prayers. Her children go out in sin. But the mother lives a Christian life before them. Maybe she passes into eternity without seeing the fruit of her faithful life. Years afterwards a wayward son gets into trouble. The first thing that comes to him is the prayers of a Christian mother, and he gives his heart to God. The daughter likewise. God calls them into the gospel field; and as they labor, many are saved and some are called to the ministry. Thus the influence spreads wider and wider until thousands are won to the truth. This all had its beginning in the quiet home of a sainted mother. That mother who lived and died without seeing the result of her godly life will reap golden sheaves in the great eternity. God help us to live right at home! Your conduct will reproduce itself in the life of your offspring. Then train up a child in the way he should go.

I wish that I could dwell longer on this subject, but I must pass on to the consideration of our being ---

EXAMPLES TO THE CHURCH.

First, the ministry. The ministers should be examples to the flock. A preacher should by example lead his congregation to a higher life. He should be humble. A preacher that rules with a rod of iron, will not be loved by his congregation; but he that his humble and gives his life as a sacrifice, going to the homes of the brethren and in tears laboring for their welfare, will endear himself to them, will win their confidence and respect. Like priest, like people. Fellow minister, your congregation will be very much like you. Paul said to Timothy, "Be thou an example to the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." Says one, "I wish my congregation would be more liberal." Be more liberal yourself. Brother Cole said to the congregation at Chicago, when the work first started there, "Brethren, I am willing to lose my reward in heaven on the line of giving, by telling what I give, if I can thereby stir you up to do something."

God wants us to be an example in holy living. A preacher that is all the time out of harmony with God and his flock is no example. "The things that ye hear and see in me, do." That is the way to live. Every preacher should be able to say to his congregation, "Follow me as I follow Christ." "Well," says one, "I should not think people would pattern after me." Yes, people follow in one another's ways. It is the easiest thing in the world to pattern after one another. There is no use to deny it; it is a fact. We do pattern after each other more or less, and it seems unavoidable. Hence the importance of setting a right example. Just to give you an idea. Some, instead of addressing the Deity in reverential terms, as "thou," "thee," and "thine," address him in everyday terms, as "you," "your," and "yours." Someone set it forth as bringing God down closer to us. Do you know it was not long until that spread all over the states? We should address God reverentially. God is not a man. Of course, to use the common pronouns is not a sin in prayer, but to me they do not sound just proper. It is so easy to follow in each other's ways. God help us to set the right example.

Not only ought ministers to be examples, but each believer ought to be an example to his brethren and sisters. We should be a pattern to one another in prayer. If every brother in the church prayed as much in secret as you do, would the church be noted for spending much time in secret prayer? If everybody prayed as much in public and family worship as you do, would your congregation be a praying congregation? Think of it.

We should be an example also in spirituality. If all the brethren in your assembly were as spiritual as you are, would you have a spiritual assembly? If everybody took hold as much in the public services as you do, in testimony and devotion, would your meetings be spiritual and lively? If everybody were as instant as you are in testimony meeting, would it be more lively? I tell you, the man that is spiritual comes into an assembly full of glory and life, and his influence is felt. When a man who is not spiritual comes in contact with a spiritual people, he will feel it. It will stir his heart to get the same experience. Says one, "Our meetings are dead." Do you know why they are dead? There is a dead meeting in the graveyard, also, and the reason is, there are dead people there. It takes dead people to have dead meetings. If you want a good Holy Ghost meeting, get filled with the Holy Ghost yourself. The very condition you are in will make your meetings. Are you an example in spirituality?

Are you an example in liberality? Says one, "Do not touch that. Preach anything else, but do not preach that. That is like Babylon." If it hurts you, you are like Babylon. It does not offend when people are spiritual. Spirituality is conducive to liberality, and liberality is conducive to spirituality. Are you can example in liberality? If everybody gave as much as you do, how much would the missionaries get? Would our missionaries get along well and have plenty, or would they go on half rations? How is it? If everybody had given just as much as you have in the last year, how would the financial end of the work prosper? If everybody had given the same amount as you have during this meeting, would the expenses of the campmeeting be met? If everybody gave as much as you do for the support of your home pastor, who preaches to you the word of God, would his family have plenty to eat? If everybody went over to the pastor's home just as often as you do with a sack of flour, a ham of meat, a basket of groceries, a dollar bill, a sack of feed, or a load of hay, how would your pastor fare? If he were no more faithful in preaching to you the word of God than you are in supplying his temporal needs, how many sermons would you hear? Let me talk to you preachers. If everybody had given as much to the cause as you have during the past year, how much would the cause of Christ spread in the earth? I find the more liberal I am toward the cause of Christ, (and I give all my time besides), the more God helps me. He will do it for you. Are you an example? If not, I pray God to stir you up. God wants us individually to be an example in dress also. If everybody dressed as plainly as you do and kept as separate from the world as you do, what would the church be? Are you an example? Brother and sister, I want to say to you that to the end, when the blazing light of heaven will reveal the coming of Christ, God is going to have a clean people. Let us each be an example in dress.

When the inside gets all right, the outside will be all right, too. The greatest sin in the world today is pride. It is sending more souls to hell than liquor. Pride is taking its millions down to perdition. God help us to stand out against it! When you get real Bible salvation, your pride will be gone. I like to see penitents at the altar strip the rings off their fingers, and take the plumes off their hats - act as if they meant business for God. If people are taught right, that is the way they will often do.

Are you an example in these things? Could you say to the brethren and sisters, "Follow me as I follow Christ"? I have never stopped preaching this straight way since I began, and I expect to continue so to the end. Someone reported that all the saints in the East have drifted under a great compromise. I wish to clear myself from that report. Not a word of it is true. There is not a congregation, so far as I know, of which a single saint wears plumes or flowers. You will find the people in my state (Pennsylvania) as clean and straight as they are anywhere else. I want the people to know that we are standing by the old landmarks. If you hear anything contrary to that, do not believe it. God wants his people to be examples. The course of this old world is downward; we must go up.

Be an example in spirituality, in prayer, in temperance, in fact, in every Christian virtue and duty. Let us stand together for the faith of the gospel, for the good old-time religion, as it was in the apostles' days. When the Free Methodists speak of the "old-time religion," they allude to Wesley's time. When we speak of "the old-time religion," we go back to the time of Christ and the apostles. There is where we stand - where Christ and the apostles stood. That is where the stream was clean. I thank God this afternoon for the old-time salvation.

EXAMPLES TO THE WORLD

You are "a spectacle unto the world, to angels, and to men." On the stage persons are expected to perform their part of the drama in a way to attract man. We are a public theater. God help us so to live before men that they can see Christ in us. Let us practice what we profess, so that when they see in us the life of Jesus and the doctrine of the gospel demonstrated, they will be won to Christ. That is what I desire to do. The greatest desire of my life and heart this afternoon is to be a good minister of Jesus Christ. I am not talking just to fill up time; I want you to know that I feel just as I have preached to you. Life is too short, eternity too long, to spend our days in any other way.

The importance of right living will be fully realized when the shadows of death are gathering about us; when the sun of life is setting, and the scenes of earth are fading from our view; when the realities of eternity are breaking upon us. Yes, right living will bring consolation and sweet assurance in the hour of death. Death will not be a cold, sullen stream, whose turbulent waters will splash at your feet. No; it will be but the "valley of a shadow," through which Christ will lead you to the bright realms beyond. I look up the shining pathway of my Christian life, and this afternoon I can see clear through to the end. I see a beautiful gateway with a wreath of flowers around it and angels singing on the other side and waiting to carry my spirit into the paradise of God. There is nothing like living a Christian life. In the great day of judgment, when with the millions of the ages assembled before the tribunal bar of God, right living in this world will give us boldness to stand. Amen.