The Way to God and How to Find It Part 1
The Way to G.o.d and How to Find It.
by Dwight Moody.
TO THE READER
In this small volume I have endeavored to point out the Way to G.o.d.
I have embodied in the little book a considerable part of several addresses which have been delivered in different cities, both of Great Britain and my own country. G.o.d has graciously owned them when spoken from the pulpit, and I trust will none the less add his blessing now they have been put into the printed page with additional matter.
I have called attention first to the Love of G.o.d, the source of all Gifts of Grace; have then endeavored to present truths to meet the special needs of representative cla.s.ses, answering the question, "How man can be just with G.o.d," hoping thereby to lead souls to Him who is "the Way, the Truth and the Life."
The last chapter is specially addressed to Backsliders--a cla.s.s, alas, far too numerous amongst us.
With the earnest prayer and hope that by the blessing of G.o.d on these pages the reader may be strengthened, established and settled in the faith of Christ,
I am, yours in His service,
D. L. Moody
THE WAY TO G.o.d.
CHAPTER I.
"_LOVE THAT Pa.s.sETH KNOWLEDGE_."
"To know the love of Christ which pa.s.seth knowledge."
(Ephesians iii. 19.)
If I could only make men understand the real meaning of the words of the apostle John--"G.o.d is love," I would take that single text, and would go up and down the world proclaiming this glorious truth. If you can convince a man that you love him you have won his heart. If we really make people believe that G.o.d loves them, how we should find them crowding into the kingdom of heaven! The trouble is that men think G.o.d hates them; and so they are all the time running away from Him.
We built a church in Chicago some years ago; and were very anxious to teach the people the love of G.o.d. We thought if we could not preach it into their hearts we would try and burn it in; so we put right over the pulpit in gas-jets these words--G.o.d is Love. A man going along the streets one night glanced through the door, and saw the text. He was a poor prodigal. As he pa.s.sed on he thought to himself, "G.o.d is Love! No! He does not love me; for I am a poor miserable sinner." He tried to get rid of the text; but it seemed to stand out right before him in letters of fire. He went on a little further; then turned round, went back, and went into the meeting. He did not hear the sermon; but the words of that short text had got deeply lodged in his heart, and that was enough. It is of little account what men say if the Word of G.o.d only gets an entrance into the sinner's heart. He staid after the first meeting was over; and I found him there weeping like a child. As I unfolded the Scriptures and told him how G.o.d had loved him all the time, although he had wandered so far away, and how G.o.d was waiting to receive him and forgive him, the light of the Gospel broke into his mind, and he went away rejoicing.
There is nothing in this world that men prize so much us they do Love. Show me a person who has no one to care for or love him, and I will show you one of the most wretched beings on the face of the earth. Why do people commit suicide? Very often it is because this thought steals in upon them--that no one loves them; and they would rather die than live.
I know of no truth in the whole Bible that ought to come home to us with such power and tenderness as that of the Love of G.o.d; and there is no truth in the Bible that Satan would so much like to blot out.
For more than six thousand years he has been trying to persuade men that G.o.d does not love them. He succeeded in making our first parents believe this lie; and he too often succeeds with their children.
The idea that G.o.d does not love us often comes from false teaching.
Mothers make a mistake in teaching children that G.o.d does not love them when they do wrong; but only when they do right. That is not taught in Scripture. You do not teach your children that when they do wrong you hate them. Their wrong-doing does not change your love to hate; if it did, you would change your love a great many times.
Because your child is fretful, or has committed some act of disobedience, you do not cast him out as though he did not belong to you! No! he is still your child; and you love him. And if men have gone astray from G.o.d it does not follow that He hates _them_. It is the sin that He hates.
I believe the reason why a great many people think G.o.d does not love them is because they are measuring G.o.d by their own small rule, from their own standpoint. We love men as long as we consider them worthy of our love; when they are not we cast them off. It is not so with G.o.d. There is a vast difference between human love and Divine love.
In Ephesians iii. 18, we are told of the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, of G.o.d's love. Many of us think we know something of G.o.d's love; but centuries hence we shall admit we have never found out much about it. Columbus discovered America; but what did he know about its great lakes, rivers, forests, and the Mississippi Valley?
He died, without knowing much about what he had discovered. So, many of us have discovered something of the love of G.o.d; but there are heights, depths and lengths of it we do not know. That Love is a great ocean; and we require to plunge into it before we really know anything of it. It is said of a Roman Catholic Archbishop of Paris, that when he was thrown into prison and condemned to be shot, a little while before he was led out to die, he saw a window in his cell in the shape of a cross. Upon the top of the cross he wrote "height," at the bottom "depth," and at the end of each arm "length."
He had experienced the truth conveyed in the hymn--
"When I survey the wondrous Cross, On which the Prince of Glory died."
When we wish to know the love of G.o.d we should go to Calvary. Can we look upon that scene, and say G.o.d did not love us? That cross speaks of the love of G.o.d. Greater love never has been taught than that which the cross teaches. What prompted G.o.d to give up Christ?--what prompted Christ to die?--if it were not love? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Christ laid down His life for His enemies; Christ laid down His life for His murderers; Christ laid down His life for them that hated Him; and the spirit of the cross, the spirit of Calvary, is love. When they were mocking Him and deriding Him, what did He say? "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." That is love. He did not call down fire from heaven to consume them; there was nothing but love in His heart.
If you study the Bible you will find that the love of G.o.d is _unchangeable_. Many who loved you at one time have perhaps grown cold in their affection, and turned away from you: it may be that their love is changed to hatred. It is not so with G.o.d. It is recorded of Jesus Christ, just when He was about to be parted from His disciples and led away to Calvary, that: "having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end" (John xiii. 1).
He knew that one of His disciples would betray Him; yet He loved Judas. He knew that another disciple would deny Him, and swear that he never knew Him; and yet He loved Peter. It was the love which Christ had for Peter that broke his heart, and brought him back in penitence to the feet of his Lord. For three years Jesus had been with the disciples trying to teach them His love, not only by His life and words, but by His works. And, on the night of His betrayal, He takes a basin of water, girds Himself with a towel, and taking the place of a servant, washes their feet; He wanted to convince them of His unchanging love.
There is no portion of Scripture I read so often as John xiv; and there is none that is more sweet to me. I never tire of reading it.
Hear what our Lord says, as He pours out His heart to His Disciples: "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and _he that loveth Me shall be loved by My Father_"
(xiv. 20,21). Think of the great G.o.d who created heaven and earth loving you and me! . . . "If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him; and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him" (v. 23).
Would to G.o.d that our puny minds could grasp this great truth, that the Father and the Son so love us that They desire to come and abide with us. Not to tarry for a night, but to come and _abide_ in our hearts.
We have another pa.s.sage more wonderful still in John xvii. 23. "I in them, and thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, _and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me_." I think that is one of the most remarkable sayings that ever fell from the lips of Jesus Christ. There is no reason why the Father should not love him. He was obedient unto death; He never transgressed the Father's law, or turned aside from the path of perfect obedience by one hair's breadth. It is very different with us; and yet, notwithstanding all our rebellion and foolishness, He says that if we are trusting in Christ, the Father loves us as He loves the Son. Marvellous love! Wonderful love! That G.o.d can possibly love us as He loves His own Son seems too good to be true. Yet that is the teaching of Jesus Christ.
It is hard to make a sinner believe in this unchangeable love of G.o.d.
When a man has wandered away from G.o.d he thinks that G.o.d hates him.
We must make a distinction between sin and the sinner. G.o.d loves the sinner; but He hates the sin. He hates sin, because it mars human life. It is just because G.o.d loves the sinner that He hates sin.
G.o.d's love is not only unchangeable, but _unfailing_. In Isaiah xlix.
15, 16 we read: "Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compa.s.sion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget; yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me."
Now the strongest human love that we know of is a _mother's love_.
Many things will separate a man from his wife. A father may turn his back on his child; brothers and sisters may become inveterate enemies; husbands may desert their wives; wives, their husbands. But a mother's love endures through all. In good repute, in bad repute, in the face of the world's condemnation, a mother loves on, and hopes that her child may turn from his evil ways and repent. She remembers the infant smiles, the merry laugh of childhood, the promise of youth; and she can never be brought to think him unworthy. Death cannot quench a mother's love; it is stronger than death.
You have seen a mother watching over her sick child. How willingly she would take the disease into her own body if she could thus relieve her child! Week after week she will keep watch; she will let no one else take care of that sick child.
A friend of mine, some time ago, was visiting in a beautiful home where he met a number of friends. After they had all gone away, having left something behind, he went back to get it. There he found the lady of the house, a wealthy lady, sitting behind a poor fellow who looked like a tramp. _He was her own son_. Like the prodigal, he had wandered far away: yet the mother said, "This is my boy; I love him still." Take a mother with nine or ten children, if one goes astray, she seems to love that one more than any of the rest.
A leading minister in the state of New York once told me of a father who was a very bad character. The mother did all she could to prevent the contamination of the boy; but the influence of the father was stronger, and he led his son into all kinds of sin until the lad became one of the worst of criminals. He committed murder, and was put on his trial. All through the trial, the widowed mother (for the father had died) sat in the court. When the witnesses testified against the boy it seemed to hurt the mother much more than the son.
When he was found guilty and sentenced to die, every one else feeling the justice of the verdict, seemed satisfied at the result. But the mother's love never faltered. She begged for a reprieve; but that was denied. After the execution she craved for the body; and this also was refused. According to custom, it was buried in the prison yard. A little while afterwards the mother herself died; but, before she was taken away, she expressed a desire to be buried by the side of her boy. She was not ashamed of being known as the mother of a murderer.
The story is told of a young woman in Scotland, who left her home, and became an outcast in Glasgow. Her mother sought her far and wide, but in vain. At last, she caused her picture to be hung upon the walls of the Midnight Mission rooms, where abandoned women resorted.
Many gave the picture a pa.s.sing glance. One lingered by the picture.
It is the same dear face that looked down upon her in her childhood.
She has not forgotten nor cast off her sinning child; or her picture would never have been hung upon those walls. The lips seemed to open, and whisper, "Come home; I forgive you, and love you still." The poor girl sank down overwhelmed with her feelings. She was the prodigal daughter. The sight of her mother's face had broken her heart. She became truly penitent for her sins, and with a heart full of sorrow and shame, returned to her forsaken home; and mother and daughter were once more united.
But let me tell you that no mother's love is to be compared with the love of G.o.d; it does not measure the height of the depth of G.o.d's love. No mother in this world ever loved her child as G.o.d loves you and me. Think of the love that G.o.d must have had when He gave His Son to die for the world. I used to think a good deal more of Christ than I did of the Father. Somehow or other I had the idea that G.o.d was a stern judge; that Christ came between me and G.o.d, and appeased the anger of G.o.d. But after I became a father, and for years had an only son, as I looked at my boy I thought of the Father giving His Son to die; and it seemed to me as if it required more love for the Father to give His Son than for the Son to die. Oh, the love that G.o.d must have had for the world when He gave His Son to die for it! "G.o.d so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John iii. 16). I have never been able to preach from that text. I have often thought I would; but it is so high that I can never climb to its height; I have just quoted it and pa.s.sed on. Who can fathom the depth of those words: "G.o.d so loved the world?" We can never scale the heights of His love or fathom its depths. Paul prayed that he might know the height, the depth, the length, and the breadth, of the love of G.o.d; but it was past his finding out. It "pa.s.seth knowledge"
(Eph. iii. 19).
Nothing speaks to us of the love of G.o.d, like the cross of Christ.
Come with me to Calvary, and look upon the Son of G.o.d as He hangs there. Can you hear that piercing cry from His dying lips: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do!" and say that He does not love you? "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John xv. 13). But Jesus Christ laid down His life _for his enemies_.