Face of Christ.
There is a well-known picture, “The Death Sentence.” A doctor has just told a young fellow he is in the grip of an incurable disease. The look of despair on the young man’s face is not the most noticeable feature, but that on the face of the kindly doctor, who knew what was wrong, but was unable to deal with it. You never see that look on the face of Christ!
Faith in Father.
Botanists, collecting rare specimens in the Alps, saw through their glasses one they wanted down a precipice. They offered £5 to a boy if he would consent to be lowered with a rope. The boy ran off and returned shortly with his father. “I’ll go down if my father holds the rope.”
Faithfulness—Reward for.
When Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great, expressed a wish that Caligula might someday sit on the Roman throne, Tiberius was angered. He threw Agrippa into a loathsome dungeon. There he languished, month after month. But when at length Caligula ascended the throne, he went in person and opened the gates of the dungeon. He robed Agrippa in royal purple, and gave him a palace in which to live. He had his heavy iron chains weighed, and for every heavy link of iron he gave him a heavy link of gold.
Father Knows.
A child sat in a bus. When the conductor came for fares, he said: “I haven’t any money.”
“Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. But father’s on top; he has the money, and knows all about where I am going.”
Feet Shod with. . . the Gospel of Peace (Eph. 6).
A lawyer in America, tired, sat down on a bench in a park and slipped off his shoes. He dozed off, and on waking found they were gone. So he had to walk back to his office, nearly a mile, ‘pussy-footing,’ as he described it. A writer, recording this, says many Christians seem to have nothing to say about the Gospel, The devil seems to have stolen their shoes while they were asleep, and now they are just ‘pussy-footing’ along.
Fellow-laborers.
The first man who dug a shovelful of earth for the foundations of Cologne Cathedral and he who fixed the last stone on the topmost pinnacle a thousand years later (for the Cathedral took 1,000 years to complete) were fellow-laborers.
Fellowship in Church.
A certain minister preached on “The Recognition of Friends in Heaven.” During the following week a letter came to him: “Dear Sir, I should be much obliged if you would make it convenient to preach to your congregation on the recognition of friends on earth, for I have been coming to your church for nearly six months, and nobody has taken any notice of me.”
Flower without Fruit.
I saw a tree laden with beautiful blossom, and asked the owner what it was. “A flowering cherry tree,” she answered.
“A flowering cherry tree!” I said, in my ignorance, “and what is the difference between a flowering cherry tree and an ordinary cherry tree?”
“This one only flowers,” she replied, “but the other also fruits.”
And how like some of us that is! During some special services, or under the influence of a good sermon, the blossom bursts forth rapidly.
Fool for Christ.
A man stood in Piccadilly Circus with a bag in his hand. On one side were painted the words “A fool for Christ.” Before long he had a big crowd round him, making fun of him. Then he suddenly turned the bag round, showing the other side, on which was painted: “Whose fool are you?” (I had rather be a fool for Christ’s sake than a fool of the devil).
Forgiveness.
In a Scottish town a doctor had died, leaving in his books certain accounts across which he had written in red ink: “Forgiven; too poor to pay.” His widow, finding these accounts unpaid, sued the debtors. The judge asked if the words in red ink were in her husband’s handwriting.
“Yes.”
“Then,” said the judge, “there is not a court in the world that would uphold your claim, since your husband, to whom the money was owing, has himself written ‘Forgiven’.”
Forgiveness.
On New Year’s Eve a Headmaster invited the boys to a party and had a huge bonfire in the playground. He produced a book, “The Detention Book,” where the names were put of all who had failed to do their lessons, or in their behavior. He cast it into the flames, saying: “This is the last day of the year; all the past is going to be forgiven and blotted out.”
Formalism—Curse of.
Ghandi told the story of how he was exercised as to Christianity, and attended a Methodist church in South Africa. Services and sermons seemed very lifeless; congregations just a lot of worldly people, going there out of conformity to custom, and many were doing nothing. So he wanted no more.
Freedom From Law of Sin and Death.
When the time comes for the fledglings to leave the nest and enter upon true bird life, the mother bird rises and hovers above them, giving them a peculiar call. They see her there, the one on whom they had hitherto been dependent, and affection for her, or instinct, or whatever it may be, makes them want to be with her. And lo, without a thought of it, a new power works in them, their newly-feathered wings begin to flutter, and they are where she is. Thus are we set free from the law of sin and death.
Fulness of God—Filled With the.
Stand on the wall of a lock on a river leading from one of the great American lakes. At your feet, lies the empty lock, waiting to be filled. Yonder lies the great lake, with its abundance of supply, also waiting, waiting for something to be done at the lock before it can pour its fulness into it. The lock-keeper touches a lever, and the gates are opened. The water rises and rises, and soon the lock is full and a huge ship floats in. Here are God’s children, alas, often empty and dry. And there is the abundance of God—of life, of joy, of power, of blessing. All waiting, as the lake waited; waited for something to be done by us. Nay; waiting for two things to be done. First, waiting for the gates to be closed that would let the water run away; then, for the gates to be opened that we may receive of all the fulness that waits to flow in.