THE OVERCOMING LIFE--By D. L. MOODY--PART III. Persecution.

 

Do you know, I don’t think we have enough persecution nowadays. Some people say we have persecution that is just as hard to bear as in the Dark Ages. Anyway, I think it would be a good thing if we had a little of the old-fashioned kind just now. It would bring out the strongest characters and make us all healthier. I have heard men get up in prayer-meeting, and say they were going to make a few remarks, and then keep on till you would think they were going to talk all week. If we had a little persecution, people of that kind wouldn’t talk so much. Spurgeon used to say some Christians would make good martyrs; they would burn well; they are so dry. If there were a few stakes for burning Christians, I think it would take all the piety out of some men. I admit they haven’t got much; but then if they are not willing to suffer a little persecution for Christ, they are not fit to be His disciples. We are told: “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Make up your mind to this: If the world has nothing to say against you, Jesus Christ will have nothing to say for you.

The most glorious triumphs of the Church have been won in times of persecution. The early church was persecuted for about three hundred years after the crucifixion, and they were years of growth and progress. But then, as Saint Augustine has said, the cross passed from the scene of public executions to the diadem of the Caesars, and the down-grade movement began. When the Church has joined hands with the State, it has invariably retrograded in spirituality and effectiveness; but the opposition of the State has only served to purify it of all dross. It was persecution that gave Scotland to Presbyterianism. It was persecution that gave this country to civil and religious freedom.

How are we to overcome in times of persecution? Hear the words of Christ: “In the world, ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.” Paul could testify that though persecuted, he was never forsaken; that the Lord stood by him, and strengthened him, and delivered him out of all his persecutions and afflictions.

A great many shrink from the Christian life because they will be sneered at. And then, sometimes when persecution won’t bring a man down, flattery will. Foolish persons often come up to a man after he has preached and flatter him. Sometimes ladies do that. Perhaps they will say to some worker in the church: “You talk a great deal better than so-and-so”; and he becomes proud, and begins to strut around as if he was the most important person in the town. I tell you, we have a wily devil to contend with. If he can’t overcome you with opposition, he will try flattery or ambition; and if that doesn’t serve his purpose, perhaps there will come some affliction or disappointment, and he will overcome in the way. But remember that anyone that has got Christ to help him can overcome every foe, and overcome them singly or collectively. Let them come. If we have got Christ within us, we will overthrow them all. Remember what Christ is able to do. In all the ages men have stood in greater temptations than you and I will ever have to meet.

Now, there is one more thing on this line: I have either got to overcome the world, or the world is going to overcome me. I have either got to conquer sin in me—or sin about me—and get it under my feet, or it is going to conquer me. A good many people are satisfied with one or two victories, and think that is all. I tell you, my dear friends, we have got to do something more than that. It is a battle all the time. We have this to encourage us: we are assured of victory at the end. We are promised a glorious triumph.

THE OVERCOMING LIFE--By D. L. MOODY--PART III. Business.

 

It may be that we have got to overcome in business. Perhaps it is business morning, noon and night, and Sundays, too. When a man will drive like Jehu all the week and like a snail on Sunday, isn’t there something wrong with him? Now, business is legitimate; and a man is not, I think, a good citizen that will not go out and earn his bread by the sweat of his brow; and he ought to be a good businessman, and whatever he does, do thoroughly. At the same time, if he lays his whole heart on his business, and makes a god of it, and thinks more of it than anything else, then the world has come in. It may be very legitimate in its place—like fire, which, in its place, is one of the best friends of man; out of place, is one of the worst enemies of man;—like water, which we cannot live without; and yet, when not in place, it becomes an enemy.

So my friends, that is the question for you and me to settle. Now, look at yourself. Are you getting the victory? Are you growing more even in your disposition? are you getting mastery over the world and the flesh?

And bear this in mind: Every temptation you overcome makes you stronger to overcome others, while every temptation that defeats you makes you weaker. You can become weaker and weaker, or you can become stronger and stronger. Sin takes the pith out of your sinews, but virtue makes you stronger. How many men have been overcome by some little thing? Turn a moment to the Song of Solomon, the second chapter, fifteenth verse: “Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.” A great many people seem to think these little things—getting out of patience, using little deceits, telling white lies (as they call them), and when somebody calls on you sending word by the servant you are not at home—all these are little things. Sometimes you can brace yourself up against a great temptation, and almost before you know it you fall before some little thing. A great many men are overcome by a little persecution.

THE OVERCOMING LIFE--By D. L. MOODY--PART III. Pleasure.

 

Another enemy is a worldly pleasure. A great many people are just drowned in pleasure. They have no time for any meditation at all. Many a man has been lost to society, and lost to his family, by giving himself up to the god of pleasure. God wants His children to be happy, but in a way that will help and not hinder them.

A lady came to me once and said: “Mr. Moody, I wish you would tell me how I can become a Christian.” The tears were rolling down her cheeks, and she was in a very favorable mood; “but,” she said, “I don’t want to be one of your kind.”

“Well,” I asked, “have I got any peculiar kind? What is the matter with my Christianity?”

“Well,” she said, “my father was a doctor, and had a large practice, and he used to get so tired that he used to take us to the theater. There was a large family of girls, and we had tickets for the theaters three or four times a week. I suppose we were there a good deal oftener than we were in church. I am married to a lawyer, and he has a large practice. He gets so tired that he takes us out to the theater,” and she said, “I am far better acquainted with the theater and theater people than with the church and church people, and I don’t want to give up the theater.”

“Well,” I said, “did you ever hear me say anything about theaters? There have been reporters here every day for all the different papers, and they are giving my sermons verbatim in one paper. Have you ever seen anything in the sermons against the theaters?”

She said, “No.”

“Well,” I said, “I have seen you in the audience every afternoon for several weeks and have you heard me say anything against theaters?”

No, she hadn’t.

“Well,” I said, “what made you bring them up?” “Why, I supposed you didn’t believe in theaters.” “What made you think that?”

“Why,” she said, “Do you ever go?”

“No.”

“Why don’t you go?”

“Because I have got something better. I would sooner go out into the street and eat dirt than do some of the things I used to do before I became a Christian.”

“Why!” she said, “I don’t understand.”

“Never mind,” I said. “When Jesus Christ has the pre-eminence, you will understand it all. He didn’t come down here and say we shouldn’t go here and we shouldn’t go there, and lay down a lot of rules; but He laid down great principles. Now, He says if you love Him you will take delight in pleasing Him.” And I began to preach Christ to her. The tears started again. She said:

“I tell you, Mr. Moody, that sermon on the indwelling Christ yesterday afternoon just broke my heart. I admire Him, and I want to be a Christian, but I don’t want to give up the theaters.”

I said, “Please don’t mention them again. I don’t want to talk about theaters. I want to talk to you about Christ.” So I took my Bible, and I read to her about Christ.

But she said again, “Mr. Moody, can I go to the theater if I become a Christian?”

“Yes,” I said, “you can go to the theater just as much as you like if you are a real, true Christian, and can go with His blessing.”

“Well,” she said, “I am glad you are not so narrow-minded as some.”

She felt quite relieved to think that she could go to the theaters and be a Christian. But I said,

“If you can go to the theater for the glory of God, keep on going; only be sure that you go for the glory of God. If you are a Christian you will be glad to do whatever will please Him.”

I really think she became a Christian that day. The burden had gone, there was joy; but just as she was leaving me at the door, she said,

“I am not going to give up the theater.”

In a few days she came back to me and said, “Mr. Moody, I understand all about that theater business now. I went the other night. There was a large party at our house, and my husband wanted us to go, and we went; but when the curtain lifted, everything looked so different. I said to my husband, ‘This is no place for me; this is horrible. I am not going to stay here, I am going home.’ He said, ‘Don’t make a fool of yourself. Everyone has heard that you have been converted in the Moody meetings, and if you go out, it will be all through fashionable society, I beg of you don’t make a fool of yourself by getting up and going out.’ But I said, ‘I have been making a fool of myself all of my life.’”

Now, the theater hadn’t changed, but she had got something better and she was going to overcome the world. “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” When Christ has the first place in your heart you are going to get victory. Just do whatever you know will please Him. The great objection I have to these things is that they get the mastery, and become a hindrance to spiritual growth.

THE OVERCOMING LIFE--By D. L. MOODY--PART III. Worldly Habits and Fashions.

 

For one thing, we must fight worldly habits and fashions. We must often go against the customs of the world. I have great respect for a man who can stand up for what he believes is right against all the world. He who can stand alone is a hero.

Suppose it is the custom for young men to do certain things you wouldn’t like your mother to know of—things that your mother taught you are wrong. You may have to stand up alone among all your companions.

They will say: “You can’t get away from your mother, eh? Tied to your mother’s apron strings!”

But just you say: “Yes! I have some respect for my mother. She taught me what is right, and she is the best friend I have. I believe that is wrong, and I am going to stand for the right.” If you have to stand alone, stand. Enoch did it, and Joseph, and Elisha, and Paul. God has kept such men in all ages.

Someone says: “I move in society where they have wine parties. I know it is rather a dangerous thing because my son is apt to follow me. But I can stop just where I want to; perhaps my son hasn’t got the same power as I have, and he may go over the dam. But it is the custom in the society where I move.”

Once I got into a place where I had to get up and leave. I was invited into a home, and they had a late supper, and there were seven kinds of liquor on the table. I am ashamed to say they were Christian people. A deacon urged a young lady to drink until her face flushed. I rose from the table and went out; I felt that it was no place for me. They considered me very rude. That was going against custom; that was entering a protest against such an infernal thing. Let us go against custom when it leads astray.

I was told in a southern college, some years ago, that no man was considered a first-class gentleman who did not drink. Of course, it is not so now.

THE OVERCOMING LIFE--By D. L. MOODY--PART III. EXTERNAL FOES.

 

What are our enemies without? What does James say? “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” And John? “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Now, people want to know what is the world. When you talk with them they say:

“Well, when you say ‘the world,’ what do you mean?”

Here we have the answer in the next verse: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abides forever.”

“The world” does not mean nature around us. God nowhere tells us that the material world is an enemy to be overcome. On the contrary, we read: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showed His handiwork.”

It means “human life and society as far as alienated from God, through being centered on material aims and objects, and thus opposed to God’s Spirit and kingdom.” Christ said: “If the world hates you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you . . . the world hath hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Love of the world means the forgetfulness of the eternal future by reason of love for passing things.

How can the world be overcome? Not by education, not by experience; only by faith. “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”

THE OVERCOMING LIFE--By D. L. MOODY--PART II. Pride.

 

Then there is pride. This is another of those sins which the Bible so strongly condemns, but which the world hardly reckons as a sin at all. “A high look and a proud heart is sin.” “Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; though hand joins in hand, he shall not be unpunished.” Christ included pride among those evil things which, proceeding out of a man's heart, defile him.

People have an idea that it is just the wealthy who are proud. But go down on some of the back streets, and you will find that some of the very poorest are as proud as the richest. It is the heart, you know. People with no money are just as proud as those who have. We have got to crush it out. It is an enemy. You needn’t be proud of your face, for there is not one but that after ten days in the grave the worms would be eating your body. There is nothing to be proud of—is there? Let us ask God to deliver us from pride.

You can’t fold your arms and say, “Lord, take it out of me”; but just go and work with Him.

Mortify your pride by cultivating humility. “Put on, therefore,” says Paul, “as the elect of God, holy and beloved, . . . humbleness of mind.” “Be clothed with humility,” says Peter. “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

THE OVERCOMING LIFE--By D. L. MOODY--PART II. Are You Jealous, Envious?

 

Go and do a good turn for that person of whom you are jealous. That is the way to cure jealousy; it will kill it. Jealousy is a devil, it is a horrid monster. The poets imagined that Envy dwelt in a dark cave, being pale and thin, looking asquint, never rejoicing except in the misfortune of others, and hurting himself continually.

There is a fable of an eagle that could outfly another, and the other didn’t like it. The latter saw a sportsman one day, and said to him,

“I wish you would bring down that eagle.”

The sportsman replied that he would if he only had some feathers to put into the arrow. So the eagle pulled one out of his wing. The arrow was shot, but didn’t quite reach the rival eagle; it was flying too high. The envious eagle pulled out more feathers and kept pulling them out until he lost so many that he couldn’t fly, and then the sportsman turned around and killed him. My friend, if you are jealous, the only man you can hurt is yourself.

There were two businessmen—merchants—and there was great rivalry between them, a great deal of bitter feeling. One of them was converted. He went to his minister and said,

“I am still jealous of that man, and I do not know how to overcome it.”

“Well,” he said, “if a man comes into your store to buy goods, and you cannot supply him, just send him over to your neighbor.”

He said he wouldn’t like to do that.

“Well,” the minister said, “you do it and you will kill jealousy.”

He said he would, and when a customer came into his store for goods which he did not have, he would tell him to go across the street to his neighbor’s. By and by the other began to send his customers over to this man’s store, and the breach was healed.

THE OVERCOMING LIFE--By D. L. MOODY--PART II. Covetousness

 

Take the sin of covetousness. There is more said in the Bible against it than against drunkenness. I must get it out of me—destroy it, root and branch—and not let it have dominion over me. We think that a man who gets drunk is a horrid monster, but a covetous man will often be received into the church and put into office, who is as vile and black in the sight of God as any drunkard.

The most dangerous thing about this sin is that it is not generally regarded as very heinous. Of course we all have a contempt for misers, but all covetous men are not misers. Another thing to be noted about it is that it fastens upon the old rather than upon the young.

Let us see what the Bible says about covetousness: —

“Mortify therefore your members . . . covetousness, which is idolatry.”

“No covetous man hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of God.”

“They that will be (that is, desire to be) rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

“The wicked blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorred.”

Covetousness enticed Lot into Sodom. It caused the destruction of Achan and all his house. It was the iniquity of Balaam. It was the sin of Samuel’s sons. It left Gehazi a leper. It sent the rich young ruler away sorrowful. It led Judas to sell his Master and Lord. It brought about the death of Ananias and Sapphira. It was the blot in the character of Felix. What victims it has had in all ages!

Do you say: “How am I going to check covetousness?”

Well,—I don’t think there is any difficulty about that. If you find yourself getting very covetous—very miserly—wanting to get everything you can into your possession—just begin to scatter. Just say to covetousness that you will strangle it, and rid it out of your disposition.

A wealthy farmer in New York state, who had been a noted miser, a very selfish man, was converted. Soon after his conversion, a poor man came to him one day to ask for help. He had been burned out and had no provisions. This young convert thought he would be liberal and gave him a ham from his smokehouse. He started toward the smokehouse, and on the way the temper said,

“Give him the smallest one you have.”

He struggled all the way as to whether he would give a large or a small one. In order to overcome his selfishness, he took down the biggest ham and gave it to the man.

The tempter said, “You are a fool.”

But he replied, “If you don’t keep still, I will give him every ham I have in the smoke-house.”

If you find that you are selfish, give something. Determine to overcome that spirit of selfishness, and to keep your body under, no matter what it may cost.

Mr. Durant told me he was engaged by Goodyear to defend the rubber patent, and he was to have half of the money that came from the patent if he succeeded. One day he woke up to find that he was a rich man, and he said that the greatest struggle of his life then took place as to whether he would let money be his master, or he be master of money, whether he would be its slave, or make it a slave to him. At last he got the victory, and that is how Wellesley College was built.

THE OVERCOMING LIFE--By D. L. MOODY--PART II. Temper.

 

Then there is temper. I wouldn’t give much for a man that hasn’t a temper. Steel isn’t good for anything if it hasn’t got a temper. But when temper gets mastery over me, I am its slave, and it is a source of weakness. It may be made a great power for good all through my life and help me, or it may become my greatest enemy from within and rob me of power. The current in some rivers is so strong as to make them useless for navigation.

Someone has said that a preacher will never miss the people when he speaks of temper. It is astonishing how little mastery even professing Christians have over it. A friend of mine in England was out visiting, and while sitting in the parlor, heard an awful noise in the hall. He asked what it meant and was told that it was only the doctor throwing his boots downstairs because they were not adequately blacked. “Many Christians,” said an old divine, “who bore the loss of a child or of all their property with the most heroic Christian fortitude, are entirely vanquished by the breaking of a dish or the blunders of a servant.”

I have had people say to me, “Mr. Moody, how can I get control of my temper?”

If you really want to get control, I will tell you how, but you won’t like the medicine. Treat it as a sin and confess it. People look upon it as a sort of misfortune, and one lady told me she inherited it from her father and mother. Supposing she did. That is no excuse for her.

When you get angry again and speak unkindly to a person, and when you realize it, go and ask that person to forgive you. You won’t get mad with that person for the next twenty-four hours. You might do it in about forty-eight hours, but go the second time, and after you have done it about half-a-dozen times, you will get out of the business, because it makes the old flesh burn.

A lady said to me once, “I have got in the habit of exaggerating that my friends accuse me of exaggerating so that they don’t understand me.”

She said, “Can you help me? What can I do to overcome it?”

“Well,” I said, “the next time you catch yourself lying, go right to that party and say you have lied, and tell him you are sorry. Say it is a lie; stamp it out, root and branch; that is what you want to do.”

“Oh,” she said, “I wouldn’t like to call it lying.” But that is what it was.

Christianity isn’t worth a snap of your finger if it doesn’t straighten out your character. I have got tired of all mere gush and sentiment. If people can’t tell when you are telling the truth, there is something radically wrong, and you had better straighten it out right away. Now, are you ready to do it? Bring yourself to it whether you want to or not. Do you find someone who has been offended by something you have done? Go right to them and tell them you are sorry. You say you are not to blame. Never mind, go right to them, and tell them you are sorry.

 I have had to do it a good many times. An impulsive man like myself has to do it often, but I sleep all the sweeter at night when I get things straightened out. Confession never fails to bring a blessing. I have sometimes had to get off the platform and go down and ask a man’s forgiveness before I could go on preaching. A Christian man ought to be a gentleman every time; but if he is not, and he finds he has wounded or hurt someone, he ought to go and straighten it out at once. You know there are a great many people who want just Christianity enough to make them respectable. They don’t think about this overcoming life that gets the victory all the time. They have their blue days and their cross days, and the children say,

“Mother is cross today, and you will have to be very careful.”

We don’t want any of these touchy blue days, these ups and downs. If we are overcoming, that is the effect our life is going to have on others, they will have confidence in our Christianity. The reason that many a man has no power, is that there is some cursed sin covered up. There will not be a drop of dew until that sin is brought to light. Get right inside. Then we can go out like giants and conquer the world if everything is right within.

Paul says we are to be sound in faith, patience, and love. If a man is unsound in his faith, the clergy take the ecclesiastical sword and cut him off at once. But he may be ever so unsound in charity, in patience, and nothing is said about that. We must be sound in faith, in love, and in patience if we are to be true to God.

How delightful it is to meet a man who can control his temper! It is said of Wilberforce that a friend once found him in the greatest agitation, looking for a dispatch he had mislaid, for which one of the royal family was waiting. Just then, as if to make it still more trying, a disturbance was heard in the nursery.

“Now,” thought the friend, “surely his temper will give way.”

The thought had hardly passed through his mind when Wilberforce turned to him and said:

“What a blessing it is to hear those dear children! Only think what a relief, among other hurries, to hear their voices and know they are well.”

THE OVERCOMING LIFE--By D. L. MOODY--PART II. Appetite

 

Now take appetite. That is an enemy inside. How many young men are ruined by the appetite for strong drink! Many a young man has grown up to be a curse to his father and mother, instead of a blessing. Not long ago the body of a young suicide was discovered in one of our large cities. In his pocket was found a paper on which he had written: “I have done this myself. Don’t tell anyone. It is all through drink.” An intimation of these facts in the public press drew two hundred and forty-six letters from two hundred and forty-six families, each of whom had a prodigal son who, it was feared, might be the suicide.

Strong drink is an enemy, both to body and soul. It is reported that Sir Andrew Clarke, the celebrated London physician, once made the following statement: “Now let me say that I am speaking solemnly and carefully when I tell you that I am considerably within the mark in saying that within the rounds of my hospital wards today, seven out of every ten that lie there in their beds owe their ill health to alcohol. I do not say that seventy in every hundred are drunkards; I do not know that one of them is; but they use alcohol. So soon as a man begins to take one drop, then the desire begotten in him becomes a part of his nature, and that nature, formed by his acts, inflicts curses inexpressible when handed down to the generations that are to follow him as part and parcel of their being. When I think of this, I am disposed to give up my profession—to give up everything—and to go forth upon a holy crusade to preach to all men, ‘Beware of this enemy of the race!’”

It is the most destructive agency in the world today. It kills more than the bloodiest wars. It is the fruitful parent of crime and idleness and poverty and disease. It spoils a man for this world and damns him for the next. The Word of God has declared it: “Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, . . . nor drunkards. . . shall inherit the Kingdom of God.”

How can we overcome this enemy? Bitter experience proves that man is not powerful enough in his own strength. The only cure for the accursed appetite is regeneration—a new life—the power of the risen Christ within us. Let a man that is given to strong drink look to God for help, and He will give him victory over his appetite. Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and He will take away that appetite if you will let Him.