Chapter 18
david and his friends a series of revival sermons by louis albert banks lighting our candles at heaven's torch for thou wilt light my candle the lord my god will enlighten my darkness psalm eighteen verse twenty eight that which makes a candle what it is is its adaptation to receive light and by burning itself to transmit that light god is the great light of this universe and we know not of how many universes besides god is light and in him is no darkness at all that is the one great central fact which keeps mankind from despair the assurance that at its heart the universe is not dark but bright it is bright with wisdom bright with power and bright with love it is man's supreme glory that he has this kinship with god however dark his nature may have become through sin it is of such a kind that it can be lighted from heaven's torch
there has never yet been discovered any man or any tribe of men who did not have this power or capacity to receive divine illumination this is sure evidence that god has made of one blood all that dwell on the face of the earth and however marred or hurt or darkened by sin the souls of some may be there is yet that in their nature which may be lighted up by the spirit of god and show forth their brotherhood to jesus christ there was preaching in this country last year a very remarkable man known as timil david from salon india he has a very interesting story he was born in south india in eighteen fifty three his father was a mission agent his mother was a schoolmistress who when she was young had worshipped idols all his ancestors had been idol worshippers
his father died when he was only two years old and he was brought up by his mother till he was sixteen he was a very self-willed bad boy and at sixteen ran away from india and drifted to salon there this little black way fell in with the very worst of people and became an adept in every evil way he drank and gambled and ran riots he became a bartender and was a liquor-seller for several years he hardened his heart against everything he had known in his youth for years he would not answer his mother's letters but finally his mother with the wonderful tenacity of a mother's love got track of him and went to ceylon in search of him and persuaded him to go back to south india with her after a while he was married his wife had been converted to christianity a little while before she was a good woman and his love for her led him to salvation one day she gave him bunyan's pilgrim's progress and it got hold of his heart his wife kept praying for him and conviction seized upon his soul
one day he was walking along the street in colombo when suddenly his conscience spoke to him so sharply that it was almost as clear as if he had heard a voice david david you are wrong he tried to silence the impression and forget it but the conviction that he was wrong grew deeper and deeper he said to himself i am not wrong but all the while he knew better and it did not lift the burden from his heart He went home and told his wife and said, I am very, very sorry. My heart is breaking. What a wretched and miserable sinner I am.
She said, praise the Lord. He said, I tell you I am very miserable and you say, praise the Lord. What makes you say that? She replied, I know it is all right now. My Lord has answered my prayer.
David did not understand her, but said, What am I to do now? Tell me how I may get clear of this burden, this heavy load on my conscience. I can hardly breathe. I can't eat.
I can't sleep. Please tell me the way. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that, but what is it to believe? She did not know how to explain.
She had the blessed experience, but she did not know how to interpret it. David said, Is that all your creed? You don't know how to lead a poor sinner to Christ? She was very sorry and cried because she could not help him. He found some tracks, and in one of them he saw a verse of scripture which came home to his heart.
It was from Paul's letter to the Romans. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. The man who believes finds salvation. That was the message it brought to him. Then he got another verse from Isaiah.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. the word hath caught his eye hath the lord put this on his heart david on whom did the lord lay iniquity on jesus whose iniquity the iniquity of us all are you one of that all yes i am one of that all if you are where are your sins on jesus who put them there god put them there whose sins david's sins on whom
on jesus as soon as he saw that his sins could not be on him and on jesus at the same time the thought came to him if my hat is on the peg it cannot be on my head at the same time that made it clear at once and he said praise the lord god says it i believe it he went and told his wife he said i have got the truth i have got him then his mother was converted and afterwards his brother and others of the family were saved everybody that lived in the house was converted and they began to sing and pray and shout so much that the heathen man who lived next door said go and live somewhere else we can't stand your shouting but david was past making angry then he said gently but rapturously we may quit the house but we can't give up praising the lord and what god did for timil david he is ready and willing to do for you
now there is one thing to which i specially desire to call your attention and that is that the candle in order to receive the light from the match or the taper or the torch must yield itself to the light there is no way to shine except by burning ourselves though we were created as the candles of the lord we have the power to refuse to give our hearts up to be lighted by heaven's fire indeed we may if we are foolish and wicked enough to do it lend our hearts to be lighted by the devil's fire and give forth a baleful flame that will make the darkness deeper not only for ourselves but for every one who was influenced by us it is a solemn and awful reality that we have the power even to thwart almighty god in his efforts for our salvation god will not forcibly take our candle and light it at the heavenly fire we must yield it to his hands through our own decision i once heard mr moody relate that at the close of a meeting one evening in chicago he inquired
are there any here who would like to have me remember them in prayer i would like to have them rise a man arose and when he saw him stand up mr moody said his heart leaped in him for joy He had been anxious for this man for a long time. He went to him as soon as the meeting was over and took him by the hand and said, You are coming out for God, are you not? I want to, he replied, and I have made up my mind to be a Christian.
Only there is one thing stands in my way. What is that? Well, I lack moral courage. Naming a friend of his, he said, If he had been here tonight, I should not have risen.
and i am afraid when he hears i have risen for prayer he will begin to laugh at me and i won't have the moral courage to stand up for christ moody said if christ is what he has represented in the bible he is worth standing up for and if heaven is what we are told it is in the bible it is worth our living for he said i lack moral courage and the man was trembling from head to foot moody thought that he was just at the threshold of the kingdom of heaven and that one step more was going to take him in and that he would take the step that night he talked and prayed with him and the spirit seemed to be striving mightily with him but he did not yield his candle to receive god's light night after night he came to the meetings and the spirit still strove with him but just that one thing kept him back he lacked moral courage at last the spirit of god who had striven with him so mightily seemed to leave him and there was no more striving he left off coming to the church was off among his old companions and would not meet moody in the street he was ashamed to do so
about six months afterward mr moody got a message from him and found him on what he thought to be his dying bed he wanted to know if there was any hope for him at the eleventh hour moody tried to tell him there was hope for any man who would accept christ he prayed with him and day after day he visited him contrary to all expectations he began to recover and when he was convalescent finding him one day sitting in front of his house he sat down by him and said you will soon be well enough to come up to the church and when you are you will come up and you are just going to confess christ boldly are you not well said he i promised god when i was on what we thought to be my dying bed i would serve him and i made up my mind to be a christian but i am not going to be one just now next spring i am going over to lake michigan and i am going to buy a farm and settle down and then i am going to be a christian moody said how dare you talk in that way how do you know you are going to live till next spring have you a lease of your life he said i was never better than i am now
i am a little weak but i will soon have my strength i have a fresh lease of my life and will be well for a good many years yet rudy said it seems to me you are tempting god and he pleaded with him to come out boldly No, he said. The fact is, I have not the courage to face my old companions, and I cannot serve God in Chicago. The evangelist said, if God has not grace enough to keep you in Chicago, he has not grace enough to keep you in Michigan. With all the energy of his soul, he urged him then and there to surrender himself completely to the Lord Jesus. But the more he
urged, the more irritated the man got. Till at last he said, well, you need not trouble yourself anymore about my soul. I will attend to that. If I am lost, it will be my own fault. I will take the risk. Moody left him. Within a week, a message came from the man's wife. Going to the house, he met her at the door, weeping. He said, what is the trouble? Oh, sir, I have just had a council of physicians here, and they have all given my husband up to die. They say he cannot live.
Moody asked, does he want to see me? She replied, no. Why did you send? Why, she said, I cannot bear to see him die in this terrible state of mind. What is his state of mind? Why, he says that his damnation is sealed, and he will be in hell in a little while. Mr. Moody went into the room. but when the sick man saw who it was he turned his head away woody gently inquired how is it with you not a word he was as silent as death he spoke the second time but the sick man made no response moody bent over him and looked him in the face and called him by name and said will you not tell me how it is with you he turned and fixed an awful deathly look upon him and pointing to the stove he said
my heart is as hard as the iron in that stove it is too late my damnation is sealed and i shall be in hell in a little while moody said don't talk so you can be saved now if you will he replied don't mock me i know better mr moody talked with him and quoted promise after promise from god's word but he said not one was for him said he christ has come knocking at the door of my heart many a time and the last time he came i promised to let him in and when i got well i turned away from him again and now i will have to perish without him when moody saw he could do no good talking he fell on his knees by the bed the sick man said you can pray for my wife and children you need not pray for me it is a waste of your time it is too late moody tried to pray but it seemed as if what the man said was true it seemed as if the heavens were brass over him he rose at last and took the man's hand and it seemed to him that he was bidding farewell to a friend that he never was to see again in time or in eternity
he lingered till the sun went down and with the day his life went out in darkness the wife told mr moody that the end was terrible all that he was heard to say after the evangelist left him were these fearful words the harvest is past the summer is ended and i am not saved there he lay and every little while he would take up again the awful lamentation the harvest is past the summer is ended and i am not saved and just as the sun was sinking behind those western prairies he was going into the arms of death as he was expiring his wife noticed that his lips were quivering he was trying to say something and she bent her ear down to catch the last whispered words and all she could hear was the harvest is past the summer is ended and i am not saved he died with those words on his lips god save any one here from making that awful mistake this man might have had the light of god
but he would not yield himself to be the candle of the lord the same precious opportunity comes to you to-night how are you going to deal with your opportunity and of section
