Quiet Talks on Following the Christ

Quiet Talks on Following the
Christ

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Title: Quiet Talks on Following the Christ
Author: S. D. Gordon
Release Date: June 1, 2006 [EBook #18486]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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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.
Just so our Lord Jesus draws men, Oriental and Occidental alike. Just
so He drew men when He was down here. He had great drawing power.
Men came eagerly wherever they could find Him.

He drew all sorts of men. He drew the Jews, to whom He belonged
racially. He drew the aggressive, domineering Romans, and the gentler
cultured Greeks. He drew the half-breed Samaritans, who were
despised by both Jew and foreigner, as not being either one thing or the
other. The military men and the civilians, the cultured and the
unlettered, the official class and those in private life, all alike felt the
strong pull upon their hearts of His presence.
The pure of heart, like gentle Mary of Bethany, and the guileless
Nathanael, were drawn to Him. And the very opposite, those openly
bad in their life, couldn't resist His presence, and the call away from
their low, bad level, but eagerly took His hand and came up. Fisherfolk
and farmers, dwellers in the city and country, scholars and tradesmen,
crude and refined, richly clad and ragged,--all sorts contentedly rubbed
elbows and jostled each