Chapter 2

'I will never leave thee, I am ever near, In My strength go forward, Cast away all fear.'" _E.C.O._

How natural it seems to make excuses. If we are found fault with, we have an excuse ready to our tongue. If we have to confess that we have been in the wrong, we do so with an excuse. Ever since the day when Adam and Eve fled from their Maker's Presence in the Garden of Eden, ever since Adam spoke those first words of excuse, "The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat," ever since then man has made one excuse after another, until excuses come so readily that it is difficult to speak without making one. We are all of us very fond of trying to shift the blame from our own shoulders on to those of others. If a railway accident takes place, it is most difficult to find out who is to blame for it. If an army is cut to pieces in battle, the blame is generally laid upon the dead. But if a praiseworthy action is done, and men talk about it, and it gets reported in the newspapers, there are always plenty of people quite ready to come forward and lay claim to having done the brave deed. And what is true of our earthly life, the life of the body, is true also of the life of the soul. When we fall into sin, when we come on our knees to confess the sin to Almighty God, how very often the confession is spoilt by excuses. Just as Adam laid the blame on Eve, and Eve in her turn blamed the Serpent, so we lay the blame on somebody else, and expect God will accept our excuses.

Now there are so many excuses that the devil teaches men, that it would be quite impossible for me to deal with nearly all of them; but there are one or two of the commonest, against which I can put you on your guard.

One of the excuses most frequently made for not coming to Christ is, "I am not good enough." Reader, which of us would be good enough for Christ, if He required us to be perfect? But He wants us to come just as we are, to come with our sins, and lay them upon Him, Who bore them long ago "in His own body on the tree."

I have read of an artist who wanted to paint a picture of the Prodigal Son. He searched through the mad-houses, and work-houses, and prisons, to find a man wretched enough to represent the Prodigal, but he could not find one. One day he was walking down the street and he met a beggar; he thought the man would do, and he told him he would pay him well, if he would come to his room, and sit for his picture. The day came, and the man appeared at the artist's door, and reminded him of his appointment with him. But the artist looked at him and said, "No, I have never seen you before. I made an appointment with a ragged beggar, not with you." But the man persisted, and named the place where they had first met; so the artist asked him what he had been doing. "Well," answered the beggar, "I thought I would dress myself up a bit before I got painted." "Then," said the artist, "I do not want you; I wanted you _as you were, not as you are now_." And, reader, Christ wants _you as you are_, when He first meets you. Without excuses, poor, sinful, and miserable; a broken and a contrite heart He will not despise.

"I came to Jesus as I was, Weary, and worn, and sad; I found in Him a resting-place, And He has made me glad."

Another very common excuse is, "There is no hurry." Men, and especially young men, think, "Oh! I've got life before me, why shouldn't I amuse myself a bit now? and then, when I'm old, too old for amusement, I'll give the days of my life to God." I have heard a story, that on one occasion Satan gathered his wicked spirits together, and they took counsel as to how they could best ruin mankind. And some said one thing and some another. One, for instance, stood up and said, "I'll go and tell them that there's no God." But Satan said, "No, that won't do; it's too old a story; it has been tried and failed." And another rose up and said, "I'll go and persuade them that the Bible is not true." And Satan replied again, "No, that won't do either; you might persuade a few, but you would not convince many. But," he added, "I'll tell you what to do, go and tell them that there's no hurry, they'll all believe that." And from that day to this Satan has been telling us that there's no hurry, and we all _do believe that_. Yes, the very best of us and the very wisest, as well as the worst and most ignorant, still think that there's no hurry. Morning after morning the sun rises, and every evening he sinks beyond the distant hills. Year by year, spring follows winter, and summer follows spring. Every year we gather in a new harvest, and then the winter evenings are with us once more; and because these things come so regularly and so naturally, we are apt to think that there's no hurry.

Reader, if you are still persuading yourself that there's no hurry _for you_, make the excuse no longer. Jesus invites you, saying, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." God's ministers invite you, preaching the Gospel of the Blessed God. The open church and the pealing bells invite you, "the gay green earth" and the open sky, the birds and beasts, all these invite you to look at them, in and beyond them, to their Maker's love.

I wish I had time to say more about these excuses. They are as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore. But I suppose if I did exhaust them all, Satan would be quite ready to give you fresh ones.

God "willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and _live_." Oh! think of that joyful life, immortal, everlasting, around the throne of Christ. Think of your dear friends who have gone before; think, it may be, of the pious mother, who first taught your infant lips to say "Our Father, which art in heaven." And she, too, is there! And then, reader, think of the punishment of sin; there's no escape from that! Our Lord Himself has told us what that will be--"Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth[#]."

[#] S. Matt. xxv. 30.

*POVERTY.*

"God sends us poverty or wealth, Whichever He thinks best; The best for earthly warfare here-- The best for heavenly rest. If God has sent you wealth, it is Not yours, but only lent. If He has sent you poverty, Then learn to be content." _R.D._

One of the questions, which men have wasted many weary hours in trying to answer, is the question of the uneven division of wealth in the world. Great men and clever men have tried, and all alike have failed; nay, some have gone further, and have declared that since an unseen Being has divided wealth so unevenly, it is for them to redistribute it. And these, too, have failed. And I suppose as long as the world lasts we shall never have an answer to the question--How is it that one man in this world is so rich that he really does not know what to do with his money: he buys horses and carriages, and stocks his house with lovely and costly treasures, and with wrought silver and gold? And how is it, on the other hand, that a man, living perhaps at the rich man's very gates, a man as religious, as honest, as straightforward as he, how is it that he must needs rise early and go late to rest to gain his daily bread? How is it that sometimes even with all his daily toil he feels an anxiety quite unknown to the other, as to where the next meal is to come from? Can you answer that question? I think not! And, reader, you are not alone in your ignorance; for I have never heard of anybody yet who could give any cause for this uneven division of wealth.

No, of all God's gifts to men, none are so unevenly distributed; and none cause so much bitterness between men, as His gift of riches. The great thing then to remember is, first, that both poverty and wealth come from Almighty God. If we have riches, God has given them, not to use them selfishly for our own purposes, but in order to benefit other people. While, if we are poor in this world's goods, we may be rich in heavenly treasure, and still look upon our poverty as the gift of God. "But," you may say, "it is all very well for you, with everything you can want, to talk to us about poverty being a blessed state, and a gift of God, but you can't know anything of the troubles of poverty." Now, there may be and there are certain troubles which a poor man necessarily feels, and which a rich man does not, and these of course I don't pretend to know. There may be moments in your life, in which you feel that God has forgotten you, that starvation must be very near! But do remember that God never _forgets_ His people. He never fails to help and govern those He has brought up in His steadfast fear and love. The same kind providence watches the poor man's humble cottage and the royal throne. The same God will mark what is done amiss in both cases, and will most surely punish it.

Our Lord and His Apostles were poor working men. He had made all men, and had only to speak the word, and the kings of the earth would gladly have flocked in eager to be His disciples; but no, He passes over all these, and He goes down to the seashore, and He finds some plain fishermen mending their nets, He bids them follow Him; and, just as if it was the most natural thing in the world, they get up, and leave behind them their few earthly possessions (probably little else than fishing-tackle), and they follow Him without delay. They know well that they are going after a poor man, but they never think of the poverty. They know that theirs will be no bed of down, when the toils of day are over, for He whom they follow has "not where to lay His head[#]." They know that the man they are following has no earthly home, and that when they leave their father and the ship, they leave all that they have and all they will ever have on earth. I wonder, reader, if you have ever thought of these Apostles of Jesus leaving _all_ to follow Him, and of their reason for doing so. And what was the reason--was it hope of worldly honour? I think not; if so they would very soon have been bitterly deceived. Or was it, think you, to have their names and history written down in the Bible, that all men might read of their self-denial? I hardly think that likely, for when they started to follow Jesus, they knew but little of Him, and nothing at all of a Bible, in which their names should appear. No, what these Apostles had is what we want so much, rich and poor alike. God's great gift of _faith_. Faith to believe God, as Abraham believed Him. Faith to take Christ at His word, as the Apostles did. Faith here, which shall guide us through this world of sin, and land us, whether rich or poor, on the eternal shore beyond it. To us, then, poverty or wealth alike would come as God's gifts, and we should thankfully accept them as such, and we should no longer complain of our hard lot and our little grievances, but should think more of Christ, and less of ourselves--more of His riches, and less of our poverty.

[#] S. Matt. viii. 20.

*OUT OF WORK.*

"Be it good or ill, Be it what you will, It must help me on my road, My rugged way to Heaven, please God." _C. Rossetti._

As this book is written specially for working men, it could hardly be complete without a few words on the above heading.

Now I am not going to enter into the question of why it is that so many people are constantly out of work. In some cases, it may be the fault of the master: in some cases, that of the men. There may be, again, hard times in which it is difficult to get work, and for some perhaps quite impossible. But what I want to do is to offer a few kindly words of advice to such as may be out of work. And, first of all, if you have ever been so, you must have felt, and I hope have felt keenly, the blessing of practising habits of saving. We all know what is meant by putting aside something against a rainy day; and those of us to whom the rainy day of wanting work has come, have probably had cause to regret a good deal of wasted money, spent in the public house, before that evil day came. We have felt that if we had kept the money we had wasted in this way, it would have greatly helped in keeping the wolf away from the door.

But the great point for Christian men to remember is that whether they are out of work or not in a worldly sense, they are always, or ought always to be hard at work in a heavenly sense. If we are out of work, it may be our master's fault, or it may be our own. But if we are out of work for Christ it is never His fault, and so it must always be ours. Our work for Jesus begins as soon as we enter this world, and ceases not till we leave it. If you were to go to a far-off country, where there was no other human being near you, you would still have to be working for Jesus. There is always the battle with self, the daily self-denials, the oft-repeated doubts to be silenced; and this we shall find quite enough work for us to do. Each Christian has his own separate work to do for God; and we may be quite sure of this, that God will not take us out of this world until that work be done. Some time ago, in an English dockyard, a great ship was to be launched. An immense multitude of people came to see it glide down the slides that were to carry it into the water. The blocks and wedges were knocked away; but the massive hull did not stir. Just then a little boy ran forward, and began to push the ship with all his might. The crowd broke out into a laugh of ridicule; but it so happened that the vessel was just ready to move; the little push the boy gave it was all that was needed to start it, and away it went into the water.

Now we have each of us got some work to do for the Master. It may be great, or it may be small; but if we will but look for it, there it is. It may be our business to speak a word to a friend who is living in sin, or it may be we may have to speak to multitudes. It is certain that we all have to set a good example, and to live a Christian life. Yes, even when we are out of work, we can show that we are working for the Master. We can try and be content with our hard lot, and God only knows how very hard that lot sometimes is. We can refrain from speaking against our employer, or saying anything unjust or untrue of him. You know it is always easier to say an unkind word, or to think a hard thought of one who has done us harm, than to speak or think kindly of him; and because it is easier we generally do so. You may say this is but natural. So it is. But there are a great many things which come quite naturally to us, which are wrong, and forbidden in the Bible; and if we would go to heaven, nay more, if we would please God, we must deny ourselves in some of these very things which come so naturally to us. And do remember, reader, that though masters may be, and certainly often are unkind to their servants, and unfaithful to their trust, it is not for us to judge them. God has told us that vengeance is His, and He will repay. Masters and men alike have hard times: and though the masters may have more money, they have more calls upon their purse and heavier expenses than the poor. For failing crops do make hard times for the farmers, and loss of wealth means hard times for the merchant, just as hard in its own way as any the poor have to suffer when they are out of work.

*DISCONTENT.*

"Some murmur if their sky is clear And wholly bright to view, If one small speck of dark appear In their bright Heaven of blue; And some, with deepest love are filled If but one ray of light, One star of God's good mercy gild The blackness of their night." _Trench._

Discontent in any form, and among any class of people, is indeed a disagreeable, and a wicked thing. It is disagreeable, because it makes one's neighbours uncomfortable. It is wicked, because it is a sin against God. It is bad enough and wrong enough when we find it amongst the poor. It is worse than wrong when we meet with it among the rich. "Godliness with contentment is great gain[#];" and so often do these two go hand in hand, that they have come to be looked upon as almost inseparable. A discontented man is always an unhappy one, and we may say, too, generally manages to render those about him unhappy. We have given us in the Bible, for our warning, an example of discontent in the person of Jonah. Jonah, as you will remember, was sent to a city called Nineveh, to warn its sinful inhabitants of the wrath of God. So he went, and preached throughout her streets that after forty days the city should be overthrown. But, contrary to the expectation of Jonah, the King of Nineveh and his people humbled themselves before God, and repented of their evil ways. And Almighty God, with that forbearing love which He is wont to show to His repentant children, heard the prayer of the people of Nineveh, and they and their city were saved. But, strange as it may seem to us, this forbearance "displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry[#]." He was angry because Nineveh was saved, and because it seemed to him that his was now a false position. And so this discontented man went out of the city, and there he made himself a booth, or tent, to keep off the hot rays of the noonday sun, and he wished that he might die. And then Almighty God taught Jonah a lesson--such a lesson as it would be well for each one of us to learn. He caused a gourd to grow, to ward off the heat from Jonah; and when Jonah began to be glad because of this tree, God sent a worm to its roots, and one after another the leaves fell off, and the tree died; and discontent again prevailed in Jonah's heart. Then God called him, and said, "Thou hast had pity on the gourd for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; and should not I spare Nineveh, wherein are more than six score thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and their left[#]?" How many houses there are in England, which would be happy ones were it not for this demon form of discontent. How many families have been made wretched, and homes broken up, all through discontent. There are people, who enjoy the best of health, the fruits of the earth in their season, and many other gifts of God Almighty's providence, and who yet amongst it all lack His great gift of contentment. And there are others who lie upon beds of sickness, or beds of pain, in our crowded hospitals, or in loathsome dens in the back streets of our great cities, and these have that gift of contentment which the world never gave them, and can never take away. There are little children, who play happily and contentedly in our great thoroughfares, who have never seen a country lane, a cornfield, or wild flower. And there are many grown-up people, to whom these are sights of every day, and who fail to recognise the hand of the great Giver.

[#] 1 Tim. vi. 6.

[#] Jonah iv. 1.

[#] Jonah iv. 11.

The dew of heaven only falls on those parts of the earth which most need it--gardens, grasslands, and cornfields. Little, if any, is wasted on the barren rocks, or on the unthankful sea. So, too, is it with contentment. God does not lavish it where it will not be gratefully and thankfully received; but where few of His good things come, in hospitals, in orphanages, and very often among the poorest of the poor, there He rains down His great gift in rich abundance, that all men who see it may wonder, and thank the great Giver of all.

*"I WANT TO BETTER MYSELF."*

"We've no abiding city here: This may distress the worldling's mind, But should not cost the saint a tear, Who hopes a better rest to find." _Kelly._

"I want to better myself!" How often we hear those words. A man has a very comfortable place, he has a kind master, a good home, pleasant companions, and yet he throws up everything and makes a fresh start in a new place, and all because he says he wants to better himself. Now I am not going to say one word against a man's trying to better himself. Not only is there no harm in it, but it is everybody's duty to try and do so as far as he can. But I hope to shew you, before you put down this book, that there is more than one way of bettering yourself; that it is quite possible to change your place, and to get more money by the change, and yet not to better yourself at all. Do try, first of all, to get out of your head the idea that money is the great thing. It is not. It is, of course, necessary to have money, but it is not good for any body to have too much. You generally find that an increase of wages means fresh disappointment, while if a man has just enough to live on he learns to be content. Oh! I know it is the same with all classes. The rich are quite as bad as the poor; nobody ever has enough.

Now undoubtedly the first thing we ought to look out for, though very few do so, when trying to better ourselves, is a greater opportunity of practising our religion. Ask yourself the question, "In changing my village, am I likely to be any nearer to my God? Shall I read my Bible more often? Shall I get more time for prayer?" Be sure that the time thus spent in the service and worship of Almighty God will not be wasted, for He will make it good.

Again, another question to ask is, "Shall I find as comfortable a home, and as nice companions, as I have here?" For, I trust, we all know the influence companions have upon each other. Man was never made to be alone always, and therefore it is most necessary that his companions should be good and pleasant men. And who can rightly estimate the value of a good home. A place to which a man can go at night, instead of the public-house. A place to which the angels love to come, and bring down stores of happiness from the presence of God.

And then there is one way more in which a man may better himself; and that is what most people put first instead of last on the list; I mean, by money.

Your wages may not be sufficiently high, and you may know of a place where they are higher. But don't be deceived by the pay given for work being higher, for other things may be higher too. For instance, in some country places the wages are twelve shillings a week, while in London they may be one pound. But in London, clothes are dearer, and you would want more of them. Lodgings are dearer and harder to get, and, reader, people are harder too!

But perhaps you will say, "How is it that so many men leave their work in a place to better themselves, and return without having bettered themselves at all?" The answer to that question is plain and simple enough. They thought it was only a question of money, and they looked no further, and so failed. But if you really wish to better yourself, ask yourself the questions I have asked above, and don't be satisfied until you get an answer. Ask God to help you to better yourself, and He certainly will help you to do so. If He sees it would be good for you, He will allow you to better yourself in this world; and if not, then He will take you away, in His own good time, that you may better yourself in the world to come.

*MASTERS AND MEN.*

"God has given each his station, Some have riches and high place, Some have lowly homes and labour, _All_ may have His precious grace.

And God loveth all His children, Rich and poor, and high and low, And they all shall meet in heaven, Who have served Him here below." _Mrs. Alexander._