Quiet Talks on Following the Christ
By S. D. Gordon
Author of "_Quiet Talks On Power_," "_Quiet Talks on Prayer_," "_Quiet Talks On Our Lord's Return_," etc.
New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh
Copyright, 1913, by Fleming H. Revell Company
New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street
Contents
Introduction
I. The Lone Man Who Went Before II. The Long, Rough Road He Trod III. The Pleading Call To Follow IV. What Following Means 1. A Look Ahead 2. The Main Road 3. The Valleys 4. The Hilltops V. Shall We Go? VI. Finger-Posts VII. Fellow-Followers VIII. The Glory of the Goal,--face To Face
Introduction
These talks have been given, in substance, at various gatherings in Great Britain, Continental Europe, and parts of the Far East, during the past four years. The simple directness of the spoken word has been allowed to stand. Portions of chapters three, four, six, and eight have appeared at various times in "The Sunday School Times."
If any who read may find some practical help through the Master's gracious touch upon these simple words, they are earnestly asked to add their prayers that that same gracious touch may be felt by others wherever these talks may go.
The Lone Man Who Went Before
A Call to Friendship.
One day I watched two young men, a Japanese and an American, pacing the deck of a Japanese liner bound for San Francisco. Their heads were close together and bent down, and they were talking earnestly. The Japanese was saying, "Oh, yes, I believe all that as a theory, but is there _power_ to make a man _live_ it?"
He was an officer of the ship, one of the finest boats on the Pacific. The American was a young fellow who had gone out to Japan as a government teacher, and when his earnest sort of Christianity led to his dismissal he remained, and still remains, as a volunteer missionary. With his rare gift in personal touch he had won the young officer's confidence, and was explaining what Christianity stood for, when the Japanese politely interrupted him with his question about power. The tense eagerness of his manner and voice let one see the hunger of his heart. He had high ideals of life, but confessed that every time he was in port, the shore temptations proved too much, and he always came back on board with a feeling of bitter defeat. He had read about Christianity and believed it good in theory. But he knew nothing of its power.
Through his new American friend he came into personal touch with Christ, then and there. And up to the day we docked he put in his spare time bringing other Japanese to his friend's stateroom, and there more than one of them knelt, and came into warm touch of heart with the Lord Jesus.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: Quiet Talks on Following the Christ by Gordon
- 2: Just so our Lord Jesus draws men
- 3: Our Lord Jesus climbed the hilltops
- 4: Humility is a matter of relationship
- 5: As indeed it is natural to man unhurt by sin
- 6: It reveals wondrously His love
- 7: It is both pitiable and laughable
- 8: This was the foundation trait in His character
- 9: Consecrated to His Father's emergency plan for His world
- 10: The touchstone was not men's needs
- 11: 13 His sinlessness meant a decision
- 12: Purity and goodness together purity and holiness
- 13: It was the never absent undertone of His life
- 14: Get new depths of meaning at Calvary
- 15: It not only greatly simplifies one's outlook
- 16: I think He must be very lonesome
- 17: Harrying warfare against Him throughout Galilee
- 18: That blends their action into rarest harmony
- 19: He came to woo us back into close touch again
- 20: She had mistaken her neighbour for Jesus
- 21: Follow Me meant a radical change of life
- 22: But now Peter baulks no longer
- 23: This is an etching of the road Peter actually went
- 24: But there are two parts to that redemption
- 25: His hand is reached out beckoning
- 26: It was not the effigy they burned
- 27: The character of that salted with saltless salt
- 28: Hoping to get rid of the unsaltiness
- 29: He belonged to the weakly fellowship of the saltless ones
- 30: There followed the Galilean Ministry
- 31: Then within a week of the end came the Gethsemane Agony
- 32: The shuttle threads running crosswise
- 33: At the very beginning came the Bethlehem Birth
- 34: The Holy Spirit as a gentle dove came
- 35: That is the supernatural birth
- 36: Our Lord Jesus lived the Nazareth Life
- 37: Nazareth lies under the Galilean ministry
- 38: And solemnly covenanted to follow the Lord Jesus
- 39: The people want the Bible bound in shoe leather
- 40: This is the meaning of the Nazareth life
- 41: So needy for what only this Lord Jesus can give
- 42: Except indeed it be the slums of our western world cities
- 43: The others were woven into these
- 44: The getting of music where there is discord
- 45: Innocence resisting temptation becomes virtue
- 46: On the night of the betrayal came the Gethsemane Agony
- 47: This is the Gethsemane experience
- 48: This is the Gethsemane experience
- 49: This is the Calvary experience
- 50: And hard following this came the Burial in Joseph's Tomb
- 51: Sacrifice means doing something
- 52: It is sin that makes sacrifice
- 53: This nobleman had a large inheritance
- 54: Take a look through your wardrobe
- 55: But on calculating longitude and latitude again
- 56: He yielded to the grafting knife
- 57: Have you ever tramped to Georgy
- 58: A confirmed but honest sceptic
- 59: The transfiguring peace was upon her face
- 60: The Ascension Life Power in Possession
- 61: Our Lord's ascension life at the Father's right hand
- 62: The Father had an overwhelming compassion for us
- 63: Fellowship friends may be many
- 64: He is expectantly waiting our response
- 65: They turn the knife into a tuning fork
- 66: This it was that held that young Indian aristocrat steady
- 67: You may flinch within your feelings
- 68: This was Simon Peter's specialty
- 69: And love at once begets obedience
- 70: The great illustration of this is Judas
- 71: There may be obedience without clear vision
- 72: 105 Paul's clearer light helped
- 73: Full vision of Christ Jesus is Olivet
- 74: Olivet is to know a second pressure of those feet
- 75: And obedience itself is not true obedience
- 76: The sight of the Lord Jesus' face begets love
- 77: That so they might not be accursed
- 78: And Finney in both America and England
- 79: And is a workable book for daily problems and needs
- 80: One of the earliest of these followers was Enoch
- 81: It meant believing God against the unlikeliest circumstances
- 82: Isaiah had just such peculiar experiences
- 83: Thereafter Ezekiel was the leader
- 84: And through his unbending faithfulness and purity of life
- 85: And she said Yes to all His wooings
- 86: What my impurity forced upon Him
- 87: You begin to be caught all anew with how lovable He is
- 88: There is still the outer presence
- 89: It may be by that goal coming nearer
- 90: Are giving a picture of the heart of God toward all men
- 91: Zwemer's Unoccupied Fields of the World
