Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good… (children's sermon): — When we hear of any great man we always want to know how he lived, and what he used to do — General Washington, e.g., Benjamin Franklin, Christopher Columbus, Alfred the Great, etc. But you may put all great men together, and, compared with Jesus, they are only like stars compared with the sun. "Jesus went about doing good" because He was so able to do it. He hadn't much money; for though He made the world, when He was here, He said, "The foxes have holes," etc. But though He had no money to give away, He could do good in hundreds of other ways. Then, again, He went about doing good to show us how to live (1 Peter 2:21). And this is what I wish to talk to you about, viz., four ways in which we should all try to do good. I. BY BECOMING CHRISTIANS OURSELVES. True Christians are the most useful people in the world. Many of our houses have iron rods running from above the top of the chimney down into the ground. Those lightning rods carry the lightning off and prevent it from doing any harm. And true Christians are like lightning rods. When God is angry with the wicked, He is often kept from punishing them on account of the good Christians who live among them. You see this in Abraham's prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah. You know how useful the light is. Well, Jesus said to His disciples, "Ye are the light of the world." If we were travelling along a dangerous road, the light would show us the road, and how we might keep out of the pits. Now, this world is a road full of dangers. But true Christians see them and know how to avoid them. And if we would be lights in the world, showing people their danger and how they may escape, we must become true Christians. Here is a watch, a very useful thing. The inside is full of works, and in the midst is the mainspring: that makes the watch go and keep good time. But suppose the mainspring is broken, will it keep time? No. So I must take it to the watchmaker, and get a new mainspring. Now, our hearts are like a broken mainspring, and we must take our heart to Jesus, and ask Him to change it; to put a new mainspring in the broken watch of your soul. Then it will be ready to keep time, to do good. II. BY TRYING TO MAKE OTHERS CHRISTIANS. Suppose you were travelling through a desert with a company of friends. You have no water, and are almost perishing from "thirst. You separate and go in different directions searching for water. Presently you find a spring. You kneel down and take nice long drink. And then of course at the top of your voice you would cry out — "Come this way; where is water!" And this is just the way we should feel when we become Christians. A little heathen girl was taken from New Zealand to England to be educated. She became a Christian. Before this she was so pleased with England that she didn't care about going back. But as soon as she learned to love Jesus, she said: "Do you think I can keep the good news to myself? No; I want to go home and tell my friends there about Jesus." Some time ago an old man became a Christian, and asked himself how he could be doing good. He made out a list of his old associates, which contained one hundred and sixteen names. Some of these were the worst men in the town. He began to pray for these. He talked to them and gave them good books to read. Some refused to listen, and others made fun; but still he went on praying and working for them. And what was the result? Why, within two years, one hundred of them had become Christians too! That was doing good indeed! A Christian gentleman while travelling on a steamboat, distributed some tracts. Many read them carefully. But one gentleman took one of the tracks and doubled it up, and then cut it into little pieces and scattered them over the side of the boat. But one of the pieces stuck to his coat. He looked at it a moment before throwing it away, and found on one side only the word "God," on the other the word "Eternity." He threw it away; but these two solemn words — "God" and "Eternity" — he could not get rid of. They haunted him wherever he went, and he never had any comfort till he became a Christian. III. BY HELPING THE SICK AND POOR. Jesus was always especially ready to help the poor. He told His disciples that whenever they did a kindness to one of His poor He would consider it as done to Himself. And James tells us that true religion consists in "visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction." We find poor people everywhere, and children can do good in this way as well as grown-up people. Mary Parsons was a bright, happy little girl, because she was always trying to do good. One day a lady called in to see her mother. This lady had just been visiting a poor old woman eighty-six years old, who lived by herself in a dark, damp cellar. Mary listened with great interest while the lady was speaking, and then she said, "Oh, mother, please let me carry her over some breakfast and dinner every day: we have so much left." Mary was so earnest about it that her mother said she might do it. No matter how anxious her little sisters were for Mary to play with them; no matter whether it was hot or cold, wet or dry, Mary never got tired. Sometimes she would read the Bible and sometimes take her doll's frocks and sit down by her side, and chat away merrily to amuse her. And the poor old woman speaking about her one day, her eyes filled with tears, said, "Oh, she brings a ray of sunshine with her every time she comes, and it seems to brighten my dark room long after she is gone. God bless her! She is one of the dear lambs of Jesus, I am sure." Now Mary was only eight years old when she began to do this. Is there no poor old woman, or sick and hungry child, in your neighbourhood to whom you can take food from your table that would not be missed? IV. BY BEING KIND TO ALL. Jesus was all the time speaking kind words and doing kind things. Read what He said to the widow of Nain, and what He did for her. Two ragged barefooted boys were going along one of the streets of New York. One was perfectly happy over a half-withered bunch of flowers which he had just picked up. "I say, Billy," said he, "wasn't somebody real good to drop these 'ere posies just where I could find them — and they're so pooty and nice? Look sharp, Billy, mebby you'll find something bime-by." Presently the boy exclaimed, "Oh jolly, Billy, if here ain't 'most half a peach, and 'tain't mush dirty neither. 'Cause you hain't found nothin' you may bite first." Billy was just going to take a very little taste of it, when his companion said, "Bite bigger, Billy, mebby we'll find another 'fore long." What a noble heart that poor boy had in spite of his rags and dirt! He was "doing good" in the fourth way that we are speaking of. (R. Newton, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. |
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