C T. Studd Farewell Exeter Hall Address

Transcription

1 C T. Studd Farewell Exeter Hall Address I want to recommend you to-night to my Master. I have tried many ways of pleasure in my time; I have been running after the best Master, and, thank God, by His grace I have found Him. I wish to tell you how the Lord has sought and found me, and how He has led me back to Himself. It was seven years ago when I was converted saved when I knew the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour, and felt that He had forgiven me my sins. I knew ever since I was a little child for I had always been so taught that Christ was the Saviour of the whole world; but I had never known that He was my Saviour until then. When I did know it I was happy, and loved Jesus Christ with all my heart. But instead of going and telling others of the love of Christ, I was selfish and kept the knowledge all to myself. The result was that gradually my love began to grow cold, and as it began to grow cold, the love of the world began to come in. I spent six years in that unhappy backsliding state. God brought me back at the beginning of last year, and I then saw what the world was worth. It was due to what was thought to be the deathbed of my brother. As night after night I watched by his bedside as he was hovering between life and death, God showed me what the honour, what the pleasure, what the riches of this world were worth. All these things had become as nothing to my brother. He only cared about the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ, and GOD taught me the same lesson. In His love and goodness He restored my brother to health, and as soon as I could get away I went to hear Mr. Moody. There the Lord met me again and restored to me the joy of His salvation. Still further, and what was better than all, He set me to work 1

2 for Him, and I began to try and persuade my friends to read the Gospel, and to speak to them individually about their souls. The Lord was very loving, and He soon gave me the consolation of saving one of my nearest and dearest friends. The Joy of Winning A Soul I cannot tell you what joy it gave me to bring the first soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have tasted of most of the pleasures that this world can give. I do not suppose there was one that I had not experienced; but I can tell you that those pleasures were as nothing compared to the joy that the saving of that one soul gave me. I went on working for some time, and then the cricket season came round, and I thought I must go into the cricket-field and get the men there to know the Lord Jesus. A cricket match, you know, takes three days. I had formerly as much love for cricket as any man could have, but when the Lord Jesus Christ came into my heart I found that I had something infinitely better than cricket. My heart was no longer in the game; I wanted to win souls for the Lord. I knew that cricket would not last, and honour would not last, and nothing in this world would last; but it was worth while living for the world to come. One of my sincere friends was brought to know that his sins were forgiven during those meetings. Presently the mission came to an end. Mr. Moody left for America, and I then wanted to know what my life's work was to be for the Lord Jesus Christ. I wanted only to serve Him; and I prayed God to show me what my life's occupation was to be. But here I made another mistake; for instead of trusting entirely to God to show me what I was to do, I went to my 2

3 friends to know what was the will of GOD concerning myself. Thus I tried to find out by common sense what was the Lord's guidance; and instead of getting into the light I got into darkness. I became very restless and anxious, my health gave way, and I had to go into the country to recruit. Having spent three months in reading my Bible and praying to God that He might lead me, I came back much better, but still not knowing what I was to do. I decided to read for the bar until the LORD JESUS should show me what my life's work was to be for Him. I found, however, when I got back to town that it was absolutely impossible for me conscientiously to go into any business or any profession. It seemed so thoroughly inconsistent. God had given me far more than was sufficient to keep my body and soul together, and I thought, how could I spend the best hours of my life in working for myself and for the honour and pleasures of this world, while thousands and thousands of souls are perishing every day without having heard of the Lord Jesus Christ, going down to Christless and hopeless graves? I met with a tract about this time, written by an atheist. It read somewhat as follows : " If I were a thoroughly consistent Christian man, my whole life should be given up to going about the world preaching the Gospel. I should consider the pleasures, the honours, and the riches of this world as dross. I should count the sorrows and pains of this world as nothing. My whole life should be spent in pleading with men to be reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and warning them what they must suffer if they still persisted in rejecting Him. Í would be restless in season and out of season. I would not care what the world thought or did. As I went about my text should be, What shall it profit a man if he gain 3

4 the whole world and lose his own soul? I at once saw that this was the truly consistent Christian life. When I looked back on my own life I saw how inconsistent it was; how much I had worked for myself and the pleasures of this world. I therefore determined that from that time forth my life should be a consistent one; and I set myself to know what was God's will for me. I then began to read the Bible more earnestly, and to ask God what I was to do. But this time I determined not to consult with flesh and blood, but just wait until God should show me. It was not long before He did so. About three days afterwards a great friend of mine came back to town, and asked me to go to a Bible meeting with him. I went; and after we had read the Bible for some time and spoken about it among ourselves he said, "Have you heard of the extraordinary blessing that has received?" I said, "No, I had not." He then said, "Well, you know she has been an earnest Christian worker for nearly her whole life, and she has had a good deal of sorrow and trouble in this world, which has naturally influenced and weighed upon her. But somehow lately GOD has given her such a blessing that although she has had so much trial, it does not affect her at all now. Nothing, in fact, seems to trouble her. She lives a life of perfect peace. Her life is like one of heaven upon earth." We began looking at once into the Bible to see if God had promised such a blessing as this, and it was not long before he found GOD had promised it to believers; a peace that passeth all understanding, and a joy that was unspeakable. We then began & examine ourselves earnestly, and we found that we had not got peace that passeth understanding, or joy that was unspeakable. But we wanted the best thing that God could give us, so we knelt 4

5 down and asked Him to give us this blessing. Then we separated. My Peace I Give Unto You I was very much in earnest about it, and when I went up to my own room I again asked God to give me this peace and joy. That very day I met with a book entitled, " The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life." In this book it was stated that this blessing was nothing more nor less than God gave to every one of those who were ready and willing to receive it. I found that the reason why I had not received it was just this, that I had not made room for it. It was such a great blessing that you wanted room for it. And I found as I sat there alone thinking, that I had been keeping back from God what belonged to Him. I found that I had been bought with the price of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus; but that I had kept back myself from Him, and had not wholly yielded. As soon as I found this out I went down on my knees and gave myself up to God, in the words of Frances Ridley Havergal's consecration hymn "Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee; Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in ceaseless praise. I found the next step was to have simple, childlike faith; to believe that what I had committed to God, He was also willing to take and to keep. I knew I had committed my soul 5

6 to His keeping, and He was able to keep that; and how much more was He able to keep me and what belonged to me in this world? I realised that my life was to be one of simple, childlike faith, and that my part was to trust, not to do. I was to trust in Him that He would work in me to do His good pleasure. I saw that He was my loving Father, and that He would guide me, and keep me, and moreover that He was well able to do it. From the time I thus trusted Him with all my heart my life has been different, and He has given me that peace that passeth understanding and that joy which is unspeakable. From that time there has been no more sorrow, or trouble, or care in my life. I had many joys before I gave myself fully to God, but since that time has been the happiest part of my life by far. It was not very long before God led me to go to China. I had never thought of going out of the country before. I felt that England was big enough for me, but now my mind seemed constantly to run in the direction of the Lord's work abroad. I went one day with my friend Mr. Stanley Smith to Mr. McCarthy's farewell, and I never shall forget the earnest and solemn way in which he told us of how the LORD had led him to go out to China, and the need there was there for earnest workers to preach the Gospel how thousands of souls were perishing every day and night without even the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Then we sung "He leadeth me, He leadeth me, By His own hand He leadeth me; His faithful follower I would be, 6

7 For by His hand He leadeth me." And I felt He was indeed leading me to go to China. I thought, however, I would not decide at once, because people would say I was led by impulse. I therefore resolved I would go after the meeting and ask God. I prayed to God to guide me by His Word. I felt that there was one thing alone that could keep me from going, and that was the love of my mother; but I read that passage, "He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me," after which I knew it was God's wish, and I decided to go. My brother and I had earnest prayer over the matter; and God brought home to my mind in a very remarkable manner this text: "Ask of Me, and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession;" and it was not long before I was off to Mr. Hudson Taylor, to tell him, if he was ready to take me, I was willing to go From that hour to this the Lord has convinced me more and more that it is His will that I should go to China. I cannot tell you how much He has blessed me, and filled me with happiness. "Following Fully." I should not like in the future to look back and say that long, long ago God told me to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and I did not go. It comes so easy when we yield ourselves to God. I would like to put to you this question, How long are you going to halt between two opinions? If God be God, follow Him fully; but if the pleasures of this world, riches and honour, be your god, you had better follow them. Choose who is to be your God! 7

8 Is God Almighty to be your Sovereign Lord or is He not? Are you going to follow Him? If so, yield to Him, and let Him direct you. Or are you going to be bound by this world, by the opinion of men, and by the pleasures of this life? I wonder what you would say of me if, now that I am going out to China, I bought a large outfit of things absolutely useless out there. You would say I had gone mad. But what are you doing? You are only going to be on this earth for a short time, and there is eternity to come. And which are you really living for? Are you living for the day, or are you living for the life eternal? Are you going to care for the opinion of men here, or for the opinion of God? The opinion of men won't avail us much when we get before the judgment throne. But the opinion of God will. Had we not, then, better take His Word, and implicitly obey it? Thoughts by C. T. Studd at the Farewell Exeter Hall meeting in Cambridge February 4, 1885, prior to his leaving with the other students from Cambridge who surrendered their lives to God to serve as missionaries in China. c=toc&source=gbs_v2_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=&f =false 8