The Living Sacrifice

“Brethren”—that’s what God calls his true followers. No speaking from the loft. If there’s any lesson we need to learn it is that of being “brethren.”

Sinners are not called “brethren” in the Bible. God commands sinners. They are in rebellion. He entreats Christians. When Lincoln called for volunteers he addressed men as “citizens of the United States,” not as foreigners.

The man who is appreciative of God’s mercies will not have much mercy on himself. Don’t stand up and say: “I’ll do what Jesus bids me to do, and go where he bids me to go,” then go to bed. Present your bodies—not mine—not those of your wives; you must present your own. Present your bodies; not your neighbor’s; not your children’s; it is their duty to do that. Do you trust God enough to let him do what he wants to do?

Henry Varley said to Moody, when that great American was in England, that God is waiting to show this world what one man could do for him. Moody said: “Varley, by the grace of God I’ll be that man”; and God took hold of Moody and shook the world with him. God would shake the world with us today if only we would present our bodies as a living sacrifice to him, as Moody did. Are you willing to present yourself? I am tired of a church of five hundred or seven hundred members without power enough to bring one soul to Christ.

At the opening of the Civil War many a man was willing that the country should be saved by able-bodied male relatives of his wife, who made themselves bullet-men, but he didn’t go himself. God isn’t asking for other men’s bodies. He’s asking for yours. If you would all give to God what rightfully belongs to him, I tell you he would create a commotion on earth and in hell. If God had the feet of some of you he would point your toes in different ways from those you have been going for many years. If he had your feet he would never head you into a booze joint. If he had your feet he would never send you into a ball-room. If he had the feet of some of you he would make you wear out shoe leather lugging back what you’ve taken that doesn’t belong to you. If God had your feet he would take you to prayer-meeting. I’m afraid the preacher would have nervous prostration, for he hasn’t seen some of you there in years. If God had your feet you’d find it harder to follow the devil. Some of you preachers have your children going to dancing school and I hear some of you go to dances. He would make your daily walk conform to the Golden Rule and the Sermon on the Mount.

Some people work only with their mouths. God wants that part that’s on the ground. Some soldiers sit around and smell the coffee and watch the bacon frying.

If God had your hands he would make you let go a lot of things you hold on to with a death-like grip. If you don’t let go of some of the things you hold so tightly they will drag you down to hell. He would have you let go some of the things you pay taxes on, but don’t own, and he would make you let go of money to pay taxes on some that you do own. Some people are so busy muck-raking that they will lose a crown of glory hereafter. If God had your hands, how many countless tears you would wash away. A friend of mine bought a typewriter, and when he tried to use it his fingers seemed to be all sticks, but now he can write forty-five words a minute. Let God have your hands and he will make them do things that would make the angels wonder and applaud.

“BILLY” SUNDAY: THE MAN AND HIS MESSAGE. Ellis: 1914.