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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Personal Problems (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 62. A Picture of the True Family.
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A Picture of the True Family.
Through the long years this church family has grown very large, and become very widely scattered over the earth. Its members are different in many ways. They speak many languages. Some are rich and some poor, some educated and some ignorant, with all degrees between. And sometimes differences of opinion have occurred. That is not surprising, considering the great differences of other sorts. And sometimes, it must be confessed, bad disputes have broken out. The very success attending the effort to bring in all others has led indirectly to things of this sort. For these men are not all perfect in love, nor in mental discipline, nor in self-control.
And so there are many branches of the church family, with their gatherings conducted in many different ways. There are some members of the great church family, members through the birthmark, of the Spirit's presence in their hearts, who do not attend any of these gatherings. That is always unfortunate, for they cannot help so well in carrying out the Father's plan for the world, and they miss the fellowship and help, and are missed too. And then there are quite a good many who do not have that birth-mark who have come into the membership of these branches. But wherever there is a man in whom the Spirit is he will be drawn to meet the others with that same Spirit. The Spirit of God in a man draws him into contact with the other members of the family.
Now a family is peculiar in this: here are gathered into one, persons of very marked differences. There are extreme differences of age, of maturity, of knowledge, of wisdom, of health and strength, and even of temperament in children of the same parents. The true family is both a school and a hospital; a place of growth, of the disciplining of the powers, and of sweetest friendships; with the zest and stimulus of constant contact, and all pervaded with the atmosphere of unselfish love.
And this is the true conception of the Church, especially of the particular group that is bound together in one place of gathering, by ties of agreement, as well as by the fundamental tie of the Holy Spirit's presence in each. A man does not enter here because he understands the doctrines and creed of the Church, but that he may understand. He does not come in because he is good, but to become good and better; not because he is in sound health spiritually, but to be helped into spiritual vigor.
The one essential thing is that he has admitted Jesus into his life as Saviour and Master. He does not attend the meetings simply to get, but to give too. His presence in an earnest, devout spirit is a great gift to the gathering. He should not go to get his torch lighted, but to take a lit torch and let it touch other lit torches, that so there may be better light and warmth. He ought to carry a live coal in so that others may be warmed, though he is not conscious of that.
The preaching may not always be to his liking, nor the music; and some people may not be as agreeable as they might be; but these things should be thought of as incidentals to be prayed over or, may be, forgotten. They are important. We cannot help being affected by them. But we should be careful not to let our possible dislike or dissatisfaction affect our conduct or speech. A man should aim to keep his boat in the current, and not let it be swept to one side by little eddies, and maybe get stuck in the mud.
The earnest desire to meet with the other members of the great church family, even though personally unknown, to worship the Father, and listen for a message either outer or inner, and help through gift towards the great world-service of the Church, will always find a blessing coming into the heart, and a bit of uplift into the life. A man may always find in the church service what he needs.
I have been in all sorts of Churches and church services, in many parts of the world, and have found that it is always possible to get a fresh touch with God. Even amid possible distractions of a strange language, or something uncongenial, there can come the deep, quiet glow into the heart that tells of the Spirit's touch. God meets with the man who goes to the place of worship to be met. There is a blessing waiting for each of us in the gathering together in the church service, and we may get it if we will.