What a wonderful thing to have a teacher sent from heaven. “If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James i. 5).
“If any lack wisdom”: I am afraid there are a great many of us who lack wisdom, and even the best of us at times will be in perplexity. There are moments in the life of us all when we seem in a fix; we just stand still, and say, “What shall I do? I don’t know what is the best way.” Oh, leave it with God, He will Himself be our teacher!
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.” Here is a wonderful teacher. He has had a school for many thousand years; He has had the best men in His school; but still there’s room for another scholar there. His college is not too full yet, and the teacher is the One sent from heaven. Any one, every one in this assembly may join this school. Jesus will welcome you there. Are you in doubt about anything? ask Jesus; He will tell you.
Anxious sinner, seek the good teacher, as Nicodemus did: “Master, we know thou art a teacher sent from God.” If you seek Him thus He will direct you. He will keep you, and lead you into green pastures and by the still waters. I met a woman the other day who was full of infidel doubts and fancies. She could not believe. Reading for some time infidel works had thrown a dark and gloomy pall over her mind. It made me sad to see her in such a case. Some of you may be like her. I wish you would take Christ as your teacher, and then all darkness would flee away.
Christ is able to teach us. See how He taught the disciples. He never wearied of their learning from Him. So He will teach us if we will only listen to Him.
THE OLD JUDGE CONVERTED.
I remember, as I was coming out of the daily prayer meeting in one of our American cities a few years ago, a lady said she wished to speak to me; her voice trembled with emotion, and I saw at once that she was heavily burdened by something or other. She said she had long been praying for her husband, and she wanted to know if I would go to see him; she thought it might do him some good. What is his name? “Judge---,” and she mentioned one of the most eminent politicians in the State. “I have heard of him,” I said; “I am afraid I need not go, he is a booked infidel; I cannot argue with him.” “That is not what he wants,” said the lady. “He has had too much argument already. Go and speak to him about his soul.” I said I would, although I was not very hopeful. I went to his house, was admitted to his room, and introduced myself as having come to speak to him about salvation. “Then you have come on a very foolish errand,” said he; “there’s no use in attacking me, I tell you that. I am proof against all these things, I don’t believe in them.”
Well, I saw it was no use arguing with him; so I said, “I’ll pray for you, and I want you to promise me that when you are converted you’ll let me know.” “Oh, yes, I’ll let you know,” he said in a tone of sarcasm. “Oh, yes, I’ll let you know when I’m converted!” I left him, but I continued to pray for him. Some time subsequently I heard that the old judge was converted. I was again preaching in that city a while after that, and when I had done talking the judge himself came to me, and said: “I promised I’d let you know when I was converted; I have come to tell you of it. Have you not heard of it?” “Yes; but I would like to hear from you how it happened.”
“Well,” said the judge, “one night, some time after you called on me, my wife had gone to the meeting; there was no one in the house but the servants. I sat by the drawing-room fire, and I began to think: Suppose my wife is right, that there is a heaven and a hell; and suppose she is on the right way to heaven, where am I going? I just dismissed the thought. But a second thought came: Surely He who created me is able to teach me. Yes, I thought, that is so. Then why not ask Him? I struggled against it, but at last, though I was too proud to get down on my knees, I just said, ‘Father, all is dark; Thou who created me canst teach me.’
Somehow, the more I prayed the worse I felt. I was very sad. I did not wish my wife to come home and find me thus, so I slipped away to bed, and when she came into the room I pretended to be asleep. She got down on her knees and prayed. I knew she was praying for me, and that for many long years she had been doing so. I felt as if I could have jumped up and knelt beside her; but no, my proud heart would not let me, so I lay still, pretending to be asleep. But I didn’t sleep that night. I soon changed my prayer; it was now, ‘O God, save me; take away this terrible burden.’