BREAD UPON THE WATERS by Adoniram Judson Gordon

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 21, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 49.

"BREAD UPON THE WATERS."

By Adoniram Judson Gordon

JAMES BRAINERD TAYLOR was a graduate of Princeton, and only twenty-eight when he died, yet he did a work that any man might envy. He got hold of the idea that there was something in this doctrine of the enduement of the Spirit. Studying the subject, he became perfectly sure that the Holy Ghost might come upon him as upon the original disciples. So he prayed, and his prayers were answered. Whenever he went out he stirred all with whom he came in contact. Sinners used to fall before his preaching as grass before the scythe. It was spontaneous. He could not help speaking to men, and his words were mighty.

There is one very beautiful experience in his life. One day he was out driving, and he drew his horse up to a watering-trough. It so happened that another young man was doing the same thing. While the horses' heads met in the trough, he turned to the young man and said, "I hope you love the Lord. If you don't, I want to commend him to you as your best friend. Seek him with all your heart."

That was all. They turned and went their ways. But what was the result? The young man thus spoken to was converted, was educated for the ministry, and went as a missionary to Africa.

Said this missionary afterward: "Over and over again I wished I knew who that man was who spoke to me at the watering-trough. But I never knew till someone sent to me in Africa a box of books. I opened them, saw a little black-covered book, opened it, turned to the title-page, and there I saw a portrait—a beautiful face. Ah! said I, that is the man that preached the gospel to me at the watering-trough. To him I owe my salvation."

And that of how many more on the Dark Continent! What we want to-day is to be filled with the Spirit. We are filled with so many other things—pride, selfishness, ambition, and vainglory. May the Lord enable us to empty our hearts, and have them filled as by a mighty rushing wind!—Rev. A. J. Gordon, D. D.