p. 3 | APPLIED GOSPEL by Mrs. S. M. I. Henry

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 7, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 39.

APPLIED GOSPEL.

By Mrs. S. M. I. Henry

WE can not hope to reach the soul until we have first touched the body. In our work in Bethesda Mission, 406 South Clark Street, Chicago, we used to give the hungry men who came in something to eat, before we attempted to talk to them. We seasoned the food with song and prayer, however, passing it in connection with the praise service, often spicing it with testimonies, which they relished, because they were being made comfortable meanwhile. It is a wonderful privilege to be allowed to go to men and women who are degraded, and teach them that they shall be able to put on the divine nature, and so escape the corruption that is in the world through lust; and we can well afford any experience or training which will qualify us for it. There is no joy like that of being used to rescue a life from degradation.

A good many years ago I found a woman in a house of sin. I had heard of her as one who was altogether lost, and who was constantly leading astray those whom we were trying to help. She was called "Old Mag," and I saw her in imagination as an old hag, carrying the history of her degradation in every feature. I had often spoken of visiting her, but had been restrained from the effort by those who said, "You do not know what you are thinking about to propose such a thing." But at last I heard that she was ill, and determined to see her, even if I went alone. So, accompanied by one of our W. C. T. U. women, I went. We found her in a cottage, to which she had been moved to die, adjacent to the saloon and notorious house which she had managed so long.

As we entered, I was surprised to find a beautiful woman, of not more than thirty-five years, her face brilliant with the hectic flush, and her dark eyes with fever. She said, as we made known our errand:—

"What made you come to see me?"

"I came because I had to come; I had a special message to you; I had to come and deliver it."

"A message for me?"

"Yes, a message for you."

Then I began to repeat some of the gracious promises of the Gospel: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." "Whosoever will, let him come." "Come, let us reason together;" until at last she interrupted me by raising her hand and saying:—

"I have heard all those before. They are not for me."

"What makes you think they are not for you?"

"O, I am such a sinner! You don’t know what a sinner I am, or you wouldn’t come and say those words, and pretend they are a message to me."

"But they are to you," I said, "a direct message to you, because you are a sinner. These words were spoken to sinners, and if you were not a sinner, you could have no claim on them, nor on the Christ who spake them."

"But I am such a sinner; you don’t know!"

"He who sent the message knows. If you are a great sinner, you have a great Saviour. You can never be more than a sinner, and your Saviour can never be less than a Saviour. When you take a great sinner and a great Saviour and bring them together, you get a great salvation. And that is what you are to have,—a great salvation."

"But what could I do? Where would I go? No one but bad people would have me around," she said bitterly.

Then, as a part of the Gospel, we told her that she was to be taken up out of that house, to a home. She was to be lifted up by the power of God in every sense of the word,—taken up bodily out of that place of sin, and taken care of as a daughter of our Father, and a sister of our Lord.

"Can such a thing be possible?" she gasped. "Who will have me?"

"Somebody will; I know it, and will prove it," I answered out of the faith that was given me for her.

"If you can, I shall believe," she said, with despairing incredulity.

By the grace of God I was able to keep my word. She was taken out of that place to the home of one of our W. C. T. U. women, and there cared for as a loved and honored guest, rejoicing in a salvation that could reach her soul, through a body all diseased and polluted as it was with sin, until she died.

It is only by such a demonstration of the Gospel, that will be willing to first take hold of the material part, and provide a material salvation from material dangers and losses, that the poor sinner will be able to believe in the spiritual power by which salvation can be made to "strike in" to soul and spirit.

In teaching the Gospel always say "we." Just as soon as you remove your own personality to one side, as something apart from your congregation, you remove yourself from that fellowship which makes you one with them, and a barrier has sprung up between them and you which it is impossible to pass over. Jesus made himself one with us. "Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted." Heb. 2:17, 18. Christ, made like unto his brethren, entering into fellowship with their temptations, is invincible.

A drinking man said to me one day:—

"You talk about Christ being able to help such a man as I am, but I want you to tell me, do you think he was ever drunk? Do you think he ever knew the anguish of the appetite for strong drink?"

"We are told," I replied, "that he was tempted in all points like as we are. That ought to be enough. It means all that can possibly be in the appetite for alcoholic drink. He was never drunk, for he never sinned, but he was tempted in all points like as we are, and knows just what it means; for he carried our flesh,—yours, just as it is, with all the appetites and passions and diseases which affect it."

"Well," he said, "if I could just once believe that he felt what I feel when I want a drink, it would give me comfort."

"We will pray that you may come to see just how he entered into fellowship with you in this peculiar temptation."

And after many days of earnest seeking he found Christ just as he was, made of his own flesh, his brother in temptation, as well as his Saviour.

In Heb. 7:25 we learn the extent of this Gospel: "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." An uttermost salvation! It reaches away out beyond the outmost limits of sin. Men and women down in the depths know well enough that a salvation that is not to the uttermost is not worth anything. If it does not touch the outer and inner boundaries of sin, if it does not go beyond the man and leave a margin of Christ white and clear, it is not worth much to him. We must know it as uttermost for ourselves, or we can never teach it as such; and if we do so know it, we can never call it less.

In one Gospel meeting where this was the theme, the men took it up after the leader, each in his own way. Among those present was a half-drunken man, very ragged, very dirty, who had been persuaded to come in by one of his old companions, a recent convert. He sat listening as attentively as a man half drunken could, while many of his old friends gave their testimony. After a while he raised himself partly from his chair, and said:—

"Didn't you say anybody might speak?"

"Certainly, anybody can speak in this meeting," I said.

"Well, I have something to say, then. I don't know very much about your God—never heard very much about him—but I want to say, if he expects to do anything at all for such fellows as we be, he'd better make it uttermost. You're all right. Go ahead; tell them more of that sort."

When he sat down, another man arose, and said:—

"I appreciate what that man said. Sin can destroy to the uttermost, and if God does intend to save such fellows as we are, he must match an uttermost power to destroy with an uttermost power to save."

This from men just out of the saloon—the last speaker had been sober only about two weeks. It was to me a wonderful commentary on the Gospel.

One evening, as I was about to step into the pulpit, to conduct a Gospel service, a man came from the audience, and accosted me, saying:—

"I want to ask if you intended to say last evening that if we were born again we could not sin."

"Why do you ask me a question like that?" I said.

"Because of what you said. I want to know if you intended to say it; for it was a startling statement."

"Please tell me just what I said."

"You said that if we were truly converted, and born again, we could not sin."

I opened my Bible to 1 John 3:9 and said: "This is what I read, instead of said, 'Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he can not sin, because he is born of God.' You see those were not my words, they were the words which the Book spake; not I. I would not have dared say them; but since God said them, I do not dare keep them back. I am very glad, indeed, that he fastened them onto your memory, so that you have not been able to forget them. As you must remember them, remember that they were not my words, but God's. The Gospel is to the uttermost. It is not for me to explain these words; they do not need an explanation. They belong to those things which are so plainly told that it is not worth while to stop to talk about what they mean, but only to receive or reject them. Let God prove it to you for yourself, and then you will know it as he intended you to know it."

We will find people who need a Gospel which will touch the labor problem, that will help to settle the controversies which take root in the slum, and branch out all through avenue and palace. Every day we shall meet these vital questions in some form. People will come into the mission who would give anything for a job. They would almost be willing to buy a job, if they could. It is not true that none of them are willing to work, that they are idle because they are lazy. Some of them are, but many are not. Multitudes would work, but there is no work for them; and we must help to make practical to them the words of Christ, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Christ left those words for his people to verify. They are an essential part of the Gospel message. Christ came to make it possible that food and raiment should be provided to the needy. He cares for the fowls of the air, and feeds them. The young lions roar, and he hears their cry; he feeds every living thing. His ears are open to the cry of the hungry; but he employs human helpers for all this work for men, and he is asking for help from you and me, in applying his Gospel to the world's needy ones.

MRS. S. M. I. HENRY. Sanitarium, Battle Creek, Mich.