p. 11 | The Tiger or the Lamb by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 28, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 21.

The Tiger or the Lamb

By Editor

A MODERN revivalist, a few years ago, gave a lecture on “The Tiger or the Lamb.” A masterly talk it was, on the relative value of love versus brute force in saving souls. He illustrated this by his own experience in the Five Points Mission in New York City. He found, on going there, a neat little chapel, carpeted, cozy, and convenient as a building; but few came to the meetings. Those who needed saving were driven away. The rough element would destroy the carpet and deface the furniture.

In this vicinity was the headquarters of what the gang of disreputables composing it called themselves, “The Devil’s Nine;” and the name was honest in intent and true in fact. One of the rules regarding their headquarters was that nothing should be brought in or used that was got honestly. It must be obtained through robbery or theft. The gang was a terror to that part of the city.

But the young minister, believing that Jesus Christ died to save souls who needed saving, and that the mission was founded and supported that the Master might so use it, meeting several of the “Devil’s Nine” in a group one day, asked them to his meetings at the mission. The leader of the gang queried, “Do you mean it, domine?” “Surely I do,” replied the minister. “We’ll be there,” was the response. And they came, “horse, foot, and dragoons.”

It is needless to recount all their disorder. The respectable missionaries were horrified. The neat carpet was taken up. The gang talked, laughed, badgered the minister, played cards, chewed tobacco, spit on the floor, indulged in rough horse-play; and all this during service, while the minister was preaching. Again and again, the young man of God tells us, he was tempted, as the tiger rose within him, to eject them by force, but the thought would persist and dominate that Christ’s mission is to save. So, dispirited and almost discouraged, he would give at the close of each service the cheery invitation, “Come again, boys.” And the response always was, “We will, domine.” He almost wished sometimes that they would say, “We will not come again.”

It seemed the purpose of the devil to wear out the patience and love of Christ in His servant. Their actions grew worse. Seemingly there was no impression made. One night their devilishness seemed to reach the climax. All the tiger within this strong, athletic minister burned to act. But again came a vision of the cross: Christ died for these; and the strong man broke and wept like a child. One of the boys said something disrespectful, and the leader of the gang took his slouch-hat and struck him over the head, and told him to shut up,—the first sign of encouragement the minister had received from the time they first entered the little mission chapel. When he told them at the close of the service to “come again, boys,” the answer was in a different tone. The daredevil of it was gone, and in a subdued and quiet manner the leader responded, “We will.” And they came, came to listen, to think, to receive. And the result of it all was that every one of the “Devil’s Nine” became the Lord’s own—all won not by force, not by compulsion, but by the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Would that all ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ might know the strength of the love of the Lamb. John, in holy vision, was told to look for the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He looked, and saw a Lamb slain. The love and the sacrifice are stronger than the power and terror of the lion. If Christians could see that, they would not be asking for legislation to further the cause of the Master; they would be pleading on their knees for more of the love of Christ.