John 1:40-41

One of the two which heard John speak

Andrew

I. THE EARNEST SEEKER AFTER SALVATION.

1. His mind had been prepared

(1) By the preaching of the Baptist

(2) By independent reflection and Bible study.

2. He came to Jesus with an openheartedness worthy of imitation. He had his own notions, doubtless, about the grandeur of Israel’s Messiah; but was not offended when the solitary, unattended man was pointed out to him. Some, in the hasty revulsion of feeling, would have turned away in disdain. But Andrew’s faith mastered his prejudice.

3. His search was marked by indomitable earnestness. He followed Jesus, and by addressing Him as Rabbi, puts himself under His teaching, and follows Him home.

II. THE SATISFIED BELIEVER IN JESUS.

1. The openheartedness of Christianity. “Behold the Lamb!” “Come and see.” There is no disguise, for none is needed. Christianity requires intelligence, reliance, not blind credulity. Ancient mythology and modern superstitions at Delphos, or Mecca, or Rome, had and have their reserve and mystery; but Christianity has light in herself, and studies no concealment.

2. The satisfactoriness of Christianity. When you come and see, there is always something to be seen. The search for Christ yields an intellectual and emotional satisfaction. The charge is warmly felt as well as intelligently realized. “We have found the Messiah.”

III. THE ENERGETIC MISSIONARY.

1. He proclaims the truth to his brother.

2. He resumes his secular duties. It was a great soul that could bear to be with Jesus at night, and to be fishing in the morning.

3. What a contrast between the first two brothers in the New Testament and the first two brothers of the Old. (W. M. Punshon, LL. D.)

The conduct of Andrew

illustrates

I. The general duty of ENDEAVOURING TO IMPART TO OTHERS THE SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS ENJOYED BY OURSELVES. There is all the difference here between natural and Spiritual things. The discovery of a hidden treasure would beget no anxiety that others should know of it. The discovery of a remedy for a direful disease would inspire eagerness in most men to give it a wide notoriety; but not necessarily in all cases, inasmuch as the discovery involves no change in the character. But the man who has lighted on heavenly treasure has found that, the direct tendency of which is to the overcoming of selfishness. A man renewed by God’s Spirit, who does not desire and seek the renewal of others, is a contradiction in terms. The wealth acquired by the believer is kept through being dispersed; the cure accomplished through the blood of the Redeemer is a cure which is radical only in proportion as it seeks its own extension. Let, then, men take it as a test by which to try their own spiritual condition. Andrew findeth his brother Simon. He felt at once the communicative and diffusive nature of religion.

II. The special duty of BEGINNING WITH THOSE WITH WHOM WE ARE MORE IMMEDIATELY CONNECTED.

1. Our own household and relatives have the first claim upon us; parents and masters are bound, if they would imitate Andrew, to provide first for their own children and servants; or parishioners or citizens are bound to provide for their own poor, before they attempt the relief of other parishes and other cities. To Englishmen, their necessitous countrymen especially come first, before they turn their attention to the African or New Zealander. There is nothing of selfishness in this. We must enlarge our operations with the enlargement of our ability. But God may be said to have parcelled out mankind into concentric circles, and he hath made it incumbent upon us that we go carefully round the inner circle before we pass on to the outer; so that, while benevolence is not to be churlishly limited, she is not to leave waste ground here, in her eagerness to spread culture over some remote and savage section of the earth.

2. But as Andrew did not stop short at his brother, so home missions must expand into foreign.

3. The great lesson, however, is that we should care for the conversion of those with whom we were associated when unconverted. The merchant, who nearly lost his soul in hunting after gain, but who is now seeking treasure above--is he doing his best to cause those who were one with him in the struggle after perishable wealth to be one with him in labouring for the incorruptible? The young man who was the slave of vice, driven headlong by his passions, and who has now forsaken the haunts of licentiousness--is he striving to withdraw from those pleasures his former associates, and to lead them to take delight in heavenly things? The young woman whose whole mind was engaged in frivolous amusements, but who now seems awake to the solemnities of eternity--is it her endeavour to teach the thoughtless With whom she squandered away life that there is something more to be cared for than dress, and something more communicative of happiness than the dance? All such cases may be gathered under the “first” of our text. The converted man’s first care will be for those with whom he has been intimately associated, either in relationship, or friendship, or business. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Andrew’s ministry

I. WHATEVER THERE IS IN FAMILY RELATIONSHIP THAT CAN BRING MEN TO JESUS SHOULD HAVE ITS FULL AND FAIR PLACE. Many people who ought not only be more useful, but more happy and healthy, by sharing as far as possible their new found light and joy with those who are near and dear to them, have become the merest religious recluses. Sometimes it is difficult to bring any direct influence to bear. How important, therefore, that every indirect influence should be wisely employed. And all have this.

II. THE VALUE OF THIS UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE. Let the fountain of our inner life be pure, and its manifold streams entering the most arid wastes will promote verdure and blessing in a hundred unforeseen forms.

III. THE DIRECT INFLUENCE OF A PERSONAL TESTIMONY. Men need to be told of the source of blessing, and the burden of the testimony rests with those who have heard. There are some things, the knowledge of which would brighten men’s lives, and these things you know. Tell them. God takes hold of the natural love of communicating, and uses it for the good of humanity. You are ready enough with your advice on most matters, be ready with these good news of God.

IV. THE QUESTION OF PERSONAL CONVICTION AND EXPERIENCE. An inward intelligent experience will ever be the first demand of the Church. If we felt the power of the indwelling Christ, He would speak in us and work by us. If we have no light we cannot let it shine; but if we have we must not put it under a bushel, or it will go out.

V. A WONDERFUL ENCOURAGEMENT TO MEN OF RETIRING DISPOSITION OR LIMITED CAPABILITIES. We never read much of Andrew; and since we cannot tell the possible result of any act or influence, however insignificant, it becomes us not to disparage anyone. And who shall call an action insignificant? Like a winged seed carried by the wind to some barren islet, bearing in its bosom the germs of all future loveliness and verdure; so blessed oft is the deed of a good man. (G. J. Procter.)

Coming to Jesus, a motive for bringing others to Him

I. TRUE RELIGION IS THE RESULT OF PERSONAL CONVICTION RESPECTING THE CLAIMS OF JESUS CHRIST. You must possess that religion or you can never impart it. “I will bless thee and thou shalt be a blessing.” “He that believeth on Me shall never thirst, and from within him shall flow rivers of living water.” The truth of Christ must first be known, and the knowledge of Christ is essentially connected with the love of Christ as the medium and material of that knowledge. We have in the narrative an illustration of the way in which personal religion commences. When directed to Christ, the first disciples were not satisfied with a passing glance, but they looked to Jesus and followed Him. Then commenced their friendship with Christ. There is an immense diversity in the operations of the Spirit. Some are brought at once outer darkness into light. Others by a gradual method: but the results are the same. They are brought to Jesus as the result of inquiry marked by prayer and solicitude. And there is everything in the character and religion of Christ to deserve and challenge inquiry. These things were not done in a corner; everything will bear the light.

II. THOSE WHO HAVE BECOME THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST WILL BE ANXIOUSLY CONCERNED TO BRING OTHERS TO HIM. Everything in religion is gloriously expansive.

1. Our object in all our Church operations is not sectarian, but to bring men to Christ. Keep this object before you in your families, neighbourhood, communities. If you aim at anything short of this you will fail to reach even your subordinate object. While, on the other hand, in enlarging our minds to the amplitude and sublimity of this higher object, we shall lay the most enduring basis for the accomplishment of even the minor object.

2. Contemplate your responsibility. You have the great remedy for the world’s moral diseases; you dare not keep it to yourselves.

3. Your opportunities. No man was ever disposed to do good who did not find ample opportunities as the member of a family, as a master or a servant, as a Church member.

4. Your encouragement: The command of Christ, the assurance of His presence, the success already secured, and the certainty of final success. (J. Fletcher, D. D.)

The magnet and the turning-point

No literature is more interesting or instructive than biography. Sacred biography has peculiar demands upon us. There is no part of the life of an individual which possesses more interest than its turning-point in the case of a statesman, soldier, merchant, but above all a Christian. Our text describes the turning-point of a man who stands conspicuous in sacred biography, the spiritual first moment of Peter. Notice

I. THE BEING WHO IS THE OBJECT OF ATTRACTION.

1. His name: Jesus, Saviour, who was perfect God and perfect man.

2. His title, Messias: inclusive of all His offices, Prophet, Priest, King, Lamb of God, Baptizer with the Spirit.

II. THE WORK WROUGHT. “He brought him to Jesus.”

1. Andrew was the instrument, and the means he used was the proclamation of Christ. Have you a brother? Bring him to Jesus.

2. God was the efficient agent (1 Corinthians 2:14; John 6:44).

III. THE CONSEQUENCES RESULTING FROM THIS WORK. The Christian Church. (J. T. Whitestone, A. B.)

The Sunday-school teacher

I. THE GREAT OBJECT SOUGHT TO BE ACCOMPLISHED.

1. Introduction to Jesus.

2. Interest in Jesus.

3. Instruction from Jesus.

4. Intimacy with Jesus.

II. THE QUALIFICATIONS WHICH TEACHERS OUGHT TO POSSESS TO SECURE THIS GREAT OBJECT.

1. Sincere and ardent piety.

2. An enlightened knowledge of Christ and the method of salvation by Him.

3. An adaptation in the mode of instruction to the disposition of the child.

4. An exhibition of the practical effects of the knowledge of Christ in your conduct.

III. THE SPECIAL EFFECTS RESULTING FROM THE ATTAINMENT OF THIS GREAT OBJECT.

1. Christ will be glorified.

2. The Church will be enlarged.

3. The world will be benefited.

4. Your labours will be rewarded.

Conclusion: Notice

1. The importance of looking out for souls to bring them to Jesus.

2. The value of union. (J. Sherman.)

Simon Peter brought by his brother to Jesus

I. JESUS IS THE BEING TO WHOM MEN SHOULD COME.

1. What is it for men to come? Andrew and his brother came corporeally. The corporeal was the sign of a mental state which is equivalent to believing.

2. Why men should come to Christ for salvation.

II. WHEN MEN HAVE COME TO JESUS THEY SHOULD ENDEAVOUR TO BRING OTHERS TO HIM.

1. The argument by which this duty is confirmed. Christ has committed His cause into their hands. They are His property. He appeals to their love to Him and their tender concern for souls, to bring the world to Him.

2. The manner in which that duty must be performed.

(1) By the exhibition of the truth in the exercise of the ministry, the circulation of the Bible, the spread of good literature, education, visitation, and the ordinary intercourse of domestic and social life.

(2) By supplicating the influence of the Divine Spirit to sanction and bless the means employed.

III. IN ENDEAVOURING TO BRING OTHERS TO CHRIST, MEN SHOULD CHERISH ESPECIAL ANXIETY AND EFFORT ON BEHALF OF THEIR OWN CONNECTIONS AND FRIENDS. This is beautifully illustrated in the New Testament. Andrew, the woman of Samaria, Cornelius, etc.

1. In justification of this principle, notice that

(1) The relationships of kindred or affection are formed under the physical or moral providence of God.

(2) God has implanted or inspired in connection with these relationships certain affections which grow out of them and are appropriate to them.

(3) The due culture of these affections issue in important results, and neglect and failure are fraught with great evils.

(4) The solicitude ought to operate in matters which affect the interest and happiness of the soul.

2. The order of exertion will not disqualify or prevent from the larger and more expanded sphere of operation as regards the general welfare of mankind.

3. Inquire how you who have been brought to Jesus have fulfilled your obligations.

IV. ENDEAVOURS TO BRING OTHERS TO JESUS, WHEN RIGHTLY CONDUCTED, ARE MUCH ENCOURAGED BY THE HOPE AND PROSPECT OF SUCCESS.

1. Success does frequently attend such endeavours, as is seen in the cases of Andrew and the Samaritan woman. And many a preacher, Sunday-school teacher, tract distributer, etc., could tell a similar tale; and so could parents and brothers.

2. Success in these endeavours is eminently and surpassingly delightful, because

(1) Of the value of the soul.

(2) Of the opening up of channels of usefulness in connection with the cross of Christ. Who can tell where a single conversion will terminate? Think of Doddridge, Whitefield, Morison.

(3) Of the connection of success with our everlasting reward. (J. Parsons.)

Simon Peter

I. THE WITNESS OF THE DISCIPLES. We see

1. How instinctive and natural the impulse is when a man has found Jesus Christ to tell someone else about Him. Nobody said to Andrew, “Go and look for your brother!” If a man has a real conviction, he cannot rest until he has shared it with some one else. Even a dog that has had its leg mended will bring other limping dogs to the mender. How is it in the world? And are Christians to be dumb when worldlings are in earnest? This man before he was four and twenty hours a disciple had made another. Have you made one in the same number of years?

2. He first findeth his own brother. There was a second, then, that found somebody. Andrew found Peter before John found James. Each of the original pair of disciples brought the nearest to him in blood and affection to Christ.

(1) Home, then, presents the natural channel for Christian work. It is a poor affair if all your philanthropy and Christian energy go off noisily in Sunday-schools and mission stations, and if the people at your own fireside never hear anything of Him whom you say you love.

(2) But the principle has a wider application. Why has God placed you where you are? For business and personal ends? Yes, partly. But where a man who knows and loves Christ is brought into neighbourly contact with thousands who do not, he is thereby constituted his brother’s keeper. If you live in luxury in your own ventilated and well-drained villa, and take no heed to the typhoid fever or cholera in the slums at the back, the chances are that the disease will find its way to your wife and children. And Christians who, living among godless people, do not try to heal them will be infected by them.

3. The simple Word, which is the most powerful means of influencing most men. Andrew did not argue. Some of us cannot do that, and some of us are not influenced by argument. The mightiest argument is, “We have found the Messias”; and if you have you can say so. Never mind how; anyhow.

4. Remember the beginnings of the Christian Church; two men, each of whom found his brother. Two snowflakes on the top of the mountain are an avalanche by the time they reach the valley.

II. THE SELF-REVELATION OF THE MASTER.

1. He shows Himself possessed of supernatural and thorough knowledge.

(1) The look described by an unusual word was a penetrating gaze which regarded Peter with fixed attention. It must have been remarkable to have lived in John’s memory for all those years.

(2) The saying was meant to imply more than natural knowledge. “Thou art Simon.” “Thou God seest me,” an unwelcome thought to many and to us unless, through Christ.

2. He changes Simon’s name, and so

(1) reveals His absolute possession of him. Jehovah changed the names of Abraham and Jacob. Babylonian kings changed the names of their vassal princes; masters those of their slaves; husbands those of their wives. We belong to Him altogether because He has given Himself altogether for us.

(2) Reveals His power and promise to bestow a new character, new functions, new honours. Peter was by no means Peter then. Like the granite, all fluid and hot, he needed to cool in order to solidify into rock. But he eventually became all that Christ here meant him to be. No man’s character is so obstinately rooted in evil but Christ can change its set and direction. He will not make Peter into a John, but He will deliver Peter from the defects of his qualities, and lead them up into a nobler region. The process may be long and painful, but it will be sure. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

“Introductor to Christ”

This is the appropriate name given by Bede to Andrew, who brought his brother and the Greeks (John 12:20) to Christ.

I. SPIRITUAL USEFULNESS BEGINS IN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. Before we can introduce any one to the Saviour we must have found Him ourselves.

II. SPIRITUAL USEFULNESS OFTEN WORKS BY PERSONAL TESTIMONY. The prevalence of a blatant religionism should not hinder the Christian man or woman giving the witness not only of life, but also of lip, on all right occasions.

III. SPIRITUAL USEFULNESS MAY BEGIN WITH THE MEMBERS OF OUR OWN HOUSEHOLDS. Sometimes the influence to be exerted must be indirect and quiet, rather than by appeal and word; but even then the time comes to speak, in order to lead others nearer to the truth who are of our own kith and kin.

IV. SPIRITUAL USEFULNESS DOES NOT DEMAND OUTSHINING ABILITIES. St. Andrew, of whom we read little, led St. Peter, of whom we read much. (Family Churchman.)

Finding and following

(cf. Matthew 4:19)

I. FOLLOWING TO FIND. Christ was found

1. By association with the godly.

2. By listening attentively.

3. By unhesitating action.

4. By reverential inquiry.

II. FINDING TO FOLLOW.

1. The first to become a disciple is the first to be selected as an apostle.

2. After the definite summons he followed to serve. (Tertius.)

Christian service

I. Andrew FINDING Peter.

1. Andrew sought his brother at once.

(1) John and Andrew set out to find their brothers. Andrew was the first to find his.

(2) Andrew found his brother first and others subsequently.

2. Andrew was not specially gifted; but what gift he had he used for Christ.

3. Andrew was not specially commissioned to go and convert others. The authorization was given later on.

II. Andrew SPEAKING TO Simon.

1. Andrew did not preach or argue; he simply talked to him.

2. He talked earnestly. You have no fine language, or polished phrases, or balanced periods, but a few brief words coming hot from the heart. Intense earnestness has no leisure to indulge in the luxury of elocutionary flourishes.

3. His conversation was inspired by brotherly love. “His own brother,” indicative of close, warm friendship.

4. His announcement was marked by incompleteness. Had he been asked to explain he would have been embarrassed. But imperfect teaching is often blessed. If you cannot speak the whole truth, speak half of it. Potato planters are never afraid of splitting the seed if they can only secure an eye in each half. See that your fragment of truth has an eye in it.

5. His talk was characterized by much assurance. “We have found,” not, I think, or I hope. Religious dogmatism is much deprecated in certain quarters. You may dogmatize as much as you like against theology, but you are warned under heavy penalties not to dogmatize in its favour. But the dogmatists are the successful evangelists after all.

III. Andrew BRINGING Simon to Christ.

1. Our chief aim should be to lead men to Christ, not to any particular sect. Proselytization is not conversion.

2. Creeds and theologies should be subordinated to Christ. Men should be brought to Christ, not to our own system of divinity. If creeds stand in the way of Christ, then away with creeds. They are for edification, not conversion.

3. Christ should be placed above the Bible itself. It is possible for men to read it diligently and yet stop with it, instead of making their way to the interior court to contemplate the inner radiance. There is not a town or house in Great Britain but there is a way from it to London; so there is not a subject named in the Bible but it is directly or indirectly connected with Jesus.

IV. Christ RECEIVING Simon.

1. Jesus beheld him, took stock of him, formed a correct estimate of him; looked, as the word implies, with the eyes of the mind as much as with the eyes of the body.

2. Christ saw that possibilities of good lay in Simon; doubtless the possibilities of evil also. But the Saviour estimates character not by the evil but by the good. God singles out every grain of virtue that may be hid in our deepest nature. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)

The first home mission

We cannot tell certainly who was the first foreign missionary. But we know who was the first home missionary--Andrew.

I. THE SPRING of all true home mission work. Andrew had himself made acquaintance with the Lord Jesus Christ. We must come into personal contact with Christ, be in the house with Him, learn to know Him as the Lamb of God. In the degree in which men have been in the house with Christ, and have learned to know Him, will they be ready to go out with the message to others.

II. THE OBJECT of the first home mission. It was not enough for Andrew to speak to his brother about Christ, his aim is to bring him as close to Christ as he himself had been. We should be satisfied with nothing less. Here is a lesson for parents with their children, for a teacher with his scholars, for a minister with his hearers. We must neither begin nor end with ourselves. In this object of Andrew, notice

1. He was perfectly sure that Christ was willing to receive his brother. It does not appear that Christ had said anything about this. And Andrew does not seem to have thought it needful to ask Christ. He knew it from the way in which He had welcomed him.

2. Andrew is sure that he himself can have his own share in no way diminished. There would not be less of truth and love falling to his lot when Peter came to have his part. If a man covets land or wealth or power, the more he gives away the less he possesses. But let a man bring others to the treasures of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his own share will be increased.

III. THE PLACE of this mission.

1. There are some who say we should have no foreign missions till our own country is redeemed. But these people forget that when Christ said, “Preach the Gospel among all nations,” etc. He did not say stopping at Jerusalem. They forget that if the apostles had acted on this principle we should have been heathen still. They forget, moreover, that it was only when the Church of Christ began to think seriously of the foreign heathen that she had her thoughts turned to the home heathen. We generally find that those who are always talking of confining our attention to the home heathen are those who do least for them.

2. But this surely we may say, that in our zeal for the foreign heathen we are not to forget our own kinsfolk; and here are some reasons

(1) They have not the only claim upon us, but they have the first claim. “Go home to thy friends,” etc.

(2) And even for our own sakes we must think of home. We cannot let masses of ignorance and sin and wretchedness fester and grow, without bringing a blight on our own Christianity. It is like having an unwholesome marsh beside our house; it spreads malaria and fever and ague. Think of your children living in this atmosphere, and of the danger to them in the sights and sounds and associations around them.

(3) In the home mission field there is opportunity for every one of us to do something personally, Few of us can go to the foreign field. But there is always a sphere not far from our own door.

(4) It seems to be part of the Divine plan that this opportunity should be given to Christians for the benefit it brings to themselves. It is thus we are to be like our Master, “going about doing good,” and to grow always more like Him in the work of doing it. As the Church labours for the world around her, she would feel the duty of arising and shaking herself from the dust and putting on her beautiful garments.

IV. THE TIME. Andrew did not wait till he had been made an apostle, or even a regular disciple. He began at once. If we never think about doing good to the souls of men till we are licensed, we should think seriously if we ought to be licensed at all; and if, when we are licensed or ordained, we look upon our work as a task, and measure carefully what we have to do and what we have not to do, we should ask ourselves, “Is this not the place of a hireling.” And the same lesson comes home to all. A man may never think of being a minister or missionary; but he is not thereby freed from the duty of beginning at once to speak a word to his brother about the Gospel of Christ. And it is not necessary to wait for a great deal of knowledge; let us use the knowledge we have, not pretending to more. All cannot speak in public, teach in the Sabbath-school, go from house to house and influence strangers, but what one is there who has not some neighbour, by whom his word will be regarded? Like that of Andrew, it may be simply “We have found the Christ.” But it will serve the purpose if it leads the man to where he will learn more. This is, indeed, all that any of us, if we are true speakers, need to say, “We have found the Christ; He has met our need, answered our desire. He will meet yours; will you not come and see?”

V. THE SPIRIT of the first home mission. Andrew went to his brother from his interest in him. Ha did this naturally, not from calculation, but because he had it in his heart. It is in this spirit we must go to our fellow-men, whether they be closely related or not. They are our brethren, with the same nature, needs, sins, sorrows, destinies. It is love to Christ and love to men that are the secret of power in Christian persuasion. We shall never have great success otherwise. Andrew did not say to his brother, “Go;” he took him by the hand and led him.

VI. ITS SUCCESS. Andrew gained his brother--a great encouragement. Perhaps we may see much fruit, even here. In any case, if our work be sincere and loving and prayerful, if we go out from Christ to men that we may bring men to Christ, the work will not be in vain. We may touch one who will touch many more. A humble soldier may draw in some young recruit who may become a leader among thousands and subdue kingdoms. Conclusion: If the work is to be well and perseveringly done, there should be common counsel and co-operation. Many are afraid to commit themselves. Andrew, indeed, went alone--he could do nothing else; but our Lord sent them out two and two, and brought them together again to speak and hear about their work. (J. Ker, D. D.)

Christian missions

We have here the first step in the history of the Gospel, and an indication that it was to survive the ministry of its founder.

I. THE PREPARATION OF THE MEN.

1. In the wilderness was the first missionary college.

2. John was the teacher.

3. His lesson was the atonement of Christ.

II. THEIR CALL BY CHRIST.

1. The seed sown in the wilderness bore fruit, when Christ by His invitation quickened it into life.

2. They obeyed the call and followed Jesus.

3. They attached themselves to the higher Master and became pupils in the higher school.

III. THEIR USEFULNESS IN THE CAUSE OF CHRIST.

1. The fruit now become seed to develop in other hearts and lives.

2. Andrew brought his brother to Christ: only one man, but had the Church gone on at that rate the world would long since have been converted.

3. We have no right to expect that Christ should spread His Church. That is our work in co-operation with Himself.

Conclusion: Pleas on behalf of the missionary effort here exemplified.

1. Christ’s commission: “Go ye into all the world,” etc.

2. Christ’s example. Christ never asked us to do what He has not done.

3. The purpose of the Christian Church as set forth in the parables and prophecies. It is a living growing body to spread by its inherent Divine vitality.

4. The nature of our call to the work.

(1) The call of Christ, “Come follow me,” “Go ye into all the world.” This call reaches modern counting-houses and workshops as well as ancient custom houses and fishing stations, to spread the gospel at home, in the town, in the country, in the world.

(2) The call from within--the call of conscience impelling us to rescue others from the danger from which we have been saved--the call of Divinely-kindled love.

(3) The call of the heathen unconscious of their darkness and sin.

5. The extent of the investments already made. An investment makes a man a partner in the concern, and the greater the investment the more difficult or dishonourable is it to try to get out of it. During the past 1,800 years the Church has been investing her men, her energy, her money. We must not, we dare not draw back. By the blood that has been shed and successes attained we are pledged to go on with this work. (R. Maguire, D. D.)

Gospel propagation

I. THE KIND OF WORK TO BE DONE.

1. Not to swell denominational ranks, although that may be a consequence.

2. But to

(1) “Find,”

(2) “Tell,”

(3) “Bring.”

II. THIS WORK CAN ONLY BE DONE BY THOSE WHO HAVE FOUND CHRIST THEMSELVES.

1. Not unbelievers

2. Not worldly professors.

3. But those who love and are in union with Christ.

III. THE SPECIAL DIRECTION OF EFFORT. Our brother:

1. Literally.

2. Socially.

3. Nationally.

4. Universally, for “God hath made of one blood all the nations of men.”

IV. THE ULTIMATE AIM. To bring our brother to Jesus.

V. THE SPECIFIC MEANS--individual personal effort.

1. Subscription to a missionary society does not relieve us from this. If you were to see a man drowning it would be a poor excuse for not helping that you gave a sum to the Royal Humane Society.

2. Andrew himself brought his brother to Christ.

3. Andrew brought his brother to Christ before he was commissioned to do so. The grand weakness of our Church membership is the failure to realize that every man who is made a Christian is made a missionary. (J. Culross, D. D.)

The aim and methods of Christian work

The ambition of every Christian is to leave the world better than he found it. The instincts of Christian life, the example of the Master, the needs of the world, and the blessedness of doing good strengthen its ambition. Various methods are open to us--education, philanthropy, hospitals, civil and religious liberty, civilization: all of which are sanctioned by Christ, but were subordinate with Him to the great work of preaching the gospel. And what He did Himself is set forth in the earliest labours of His disciples.

I. THE AIM OF ALL CHRISTIAN WORK IS TO BRING MEN TO CHRIST. Other methods of usefulness are to be honoured, but they fail to reach man’s deeper needs, and at best only secure present happiness, and leave moral character unrenewed and eternity unprovided for. But even here the highest happiness is not to be secured by temporal means. This is only to be had by union with Christ. Therefore, God Himself sets us the example of evangelism (Titus 3:4), and now sends the Holy Spirit to reveal the things of Christ.

II. THE METHODS BY WHICH THIS END IS TO BE EARNED.

1. We must try it with the members of our own families. The charity of the gospel begins, but does not end, at home. The healed man was commissioned to tell his friends what great things had been done for him. The apostles were commissioned to begin at Jerusalem.

(1) What more fitting than this.

(2) What more profitable.

(3) Yet what more neglected.

2. We must make the office and work and teaching of Christ our chief theme. “Messias”

(1) Prophet;

(2) Priest;

(3) King.

3. The quiet talk of private men may effect our purpose as well as the preaching of public teachers. Andrew was not in office.

(1) We must not undervalue the ministry, only it is not substitutionary but supplemental. It does not set aside individual effort: it trains, guides, and completes it.

(2) Public preaching has disadvantages of its own: it is necessarily general and indiscriminate; its hearers pass on the message to the next pew. Preaching scatters the seed, but talk afterwards presses it into the soil; and in this talk the private Christian has the advantage over the public minister.

4. It will be more easily done by simple announcement than by discussion. There are exceptions, but as a rule arguments only raise objections to shield the conscience and to gain time. What we want is fewer appeals to the reason and more to the heart.

5. We must rest largely on our own experience. “We have found” this does not require genius or learning. If we have been to Christ ourselves we can tell others the way.

6. We must make it our chief business to bring men to Christ

(1) Directly. Not to this teacher or that Church;

(2) Promptly. There is no time to lose. (J. Angus, D. D.)

Finding the Messiah

I. HOW GREAT MAY BE THE EFFECTS WHICH FOLLOW IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD FROM WHAT WOULD APPEAR TO BE A VERY TRIVIAL CAUSE. It was a passing remark of the Baptist, to all appearance, which was the means of Andrew’s conversion.

1. But we must remember that that remark fell on prepared minds. The severe life of the Baptist, and his lofty teaching--recalling the great Elijah--must have made a profound impression on them. They were presentwhen John denied before the agents of the Sanhedrim that he was the Messiah, and declared that he was only the forerunner of One who was of a higher order of Being than himself. On the following day Jesus presents Himself; and then John solemnly refers to Him, and explains that this was the Person of whom he had spoken on the day before--the Son of God. Then, on the third day, John said much less, but his short sentence crowned the preparatory work.

2. All this seems to show that outward circumstances, persons, language are only a part of a complex providential agency. The deepest causes are unseen, and wait like the tinder for the spark, the passing word or influence which shall set them in motion.

II. THE COMPARATIVELY SMALL STOCK OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE UPON THE STRENGTH OF WHICH ANDREW SETS TO WORK TO BRING ANOTHER INTO THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST.

1. He had heard of the Messiah all his life; but there was, and there continued, up to the hour of the Ascension an earthly and mistaken element in his idea of Him. A meaning had been read into Jewish prophecy for generations which did not belong to it. The Messiah was to be a rival to

Caesar on a more splendid scale. He also failed to grasp the vast consequences to the world of Christ’s coming.

2. But the one simple truth that he did grasp sufficed to kind!e every affection and power of his Spirit; to concentrate in its analysis every ray of his understanding. He had seen enough of Jesus in a few hours to know that John was right; that Christ was one whom he could perfectly love and trust; and that the best thing he could do for his brother was to bring him to Jesus.

3. Here St. Andrew reads an important lesson. There is no doubt a great deal of forward ignorance in religious questions which is willing to set the Church and the world to rights on subjects the first elements of which have not been mastered. But there is also a great deal of false modesty which declines plain and practical duties on the ground of insuifficient knowledge. But the great truths which moved Andrew and move us are the simple truths about which, amongst Christians, there is no controversy, and which are learned by experience. No Christian need delay to testify to Christ because he is not a theologian. He may at least do as well as Andrew.

III. RELIGIOUS TRUTH CANNOT BE HOARDED LIKE MONEY, like a discovery for which a man wishes to take out a patent. It belongs to the race, and in the first instance to those who stand by the appointment of providence nearest to its possessors. Andrew found his own brother. Go thou and do likewise. Conclusion:

1. Consider the untold capacities which lie buried in men who as yet know nothing of grace and truth. Peter takes precedence of Andrew.

2. The reflex blessing of every sincere effort for Christ and His kingdom. Every teacher knows more of his subject after he has taught it. He that watereth is watered himself. (Canon Liddon.)

Christian fraternity

Andrew was before all else a good brother. In the great church at Rome, which is dedicated to him, no other inscription could be found suitable, except “Andrew, the brother of Peter.” Before casting his nets on Jew or Gentile, he first bethought him of the one fellow-creature who was near to him by the ties of home and family. “Blood is thicker than water” in sacred as well as in social life. “If a man loves not his brother,” etc. This is a principle which needs to be asserted as a corrective of the excesses of the missionary or proselytis-ing spirit; but it also contains within itself some of the best methods of the true conversion of the world.

I. It exemplifies the undoubted truth that THE BEST MODE OF DIFFUSING CHRISTIANITY IN THE WORLD is by converting our own brethren who have settled abroad. The chiefest missionary, who was especially the Apostle of the Gentiles, in every case made his own Jewish countrymen the nucleus round which the heathen converts were to be gathered. This is a practical lesson for all of us in respect of foreign missions. Every English settler in a distant land is already, by his good or evil conduct, a missionary for God or for the devil; nay, every country in Europe, according as it holds up Christianity in a repulsive or an attractive form, repels or attracts the outside world from the light of the Gospel. It is said that some of the Japanese envoys who lately visited the nations of Europe and America had come with the predisposition to establish Christianity on their return, but that after witnessing its actual fruits they in disappointment relinquished the project. Let us first find and convert our own brethren, and we shall then go with clean hands to convert the Jew, the Turk, the heretic, and the infidel. This is a missionary enterprise in which every man, woman, and child can bear a part. In this way the Home Mission becomes the mother of all missions.

II. But the same principle also points out to us THE BEST ACCESS TO THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE UNKNOWN STRANGERS OF HEATHEN LANDS. In every heathen country there are those whom we may call our own brothers, for the nobler qualities which raise them above their fellows, and bring them nearer to the civilized and the Christian type. Often, indeed, this fraternal sympathy has been rendered impossible on the one hand by the impurities, the cruelties, the follies of heathen nations, on the other hand by the pitying scorn, or the iniquitous dealing, with which the European has looked down on what are called the inferior races of mankind. But happy are those Englishmen and missionaries who have made it a point first to find their own brothers in those strange faces. Livingstone was never tired of repeating that he found amongst the native races of Africa the same feelings of right and wrong that he found in his own conscience, and that needed only to be enlightened and developed to make the perfect Christian. Bishop Patteson won the hearts of his simple converts by treating them as his brothers, detecting the Christian beneath the heathen.

III. There is one further application of the principle, viz., THE DUTY, obvious, though often neglected, OF SEEKING FOR OUR CO-OPERATORS IN THIS, as in all good works, NOT THOSE WHO ARE FAR AWAY, BUT THOSE WHO ARE CLOSE AT HAND. Let us cultivate by all means a friendly intercourse with all Christian people throughout the world. But an intimate, organic union can only be with those who are near at hand, or of the same race and nation and culture as ourselves. It is because the work of evangelizing the heathen has a direct tendency to bring all English Chris tians together that this (St. Andrew’s) day is doubly blessed; blessed alike in what it gives and in what it receives. Let us first find those of our own communion. But next to our own Church, and before any combinations with foreign Christians, however estimable, let us find out our own brethren in the British Islands, who, however parted from us, are yet heirs of the same national traditions and of the same inspiring future. Such are our brethren amongst the Nonconforming communions of England, whose praise for their missionary zeal is in all the Churches. (Dean Stanley.)

Our brother

You are wealthy, and that poor man who lives near you is your brother. Or you are poor, and your brother is that wealthy neighbour of whom you think with envy and anger. Our brethren are not confined to those who can enter into our thoughts and sympathies; they are also those whose narrowness and ignorance make mutual sympathy and intelligence impossible. They are not only those who are honest and respectable, but they are those who are under the ban of society, outside the frontiers of decent and civilized life. Our brethren, they are not only our near relatives by blood; nor our fellow-townsmen or countrymen; they are not confined to the races which are now in the van of civilization, or have played a great part in the world’s affairs. They are also the races on whose rights civilization is apt to trample with heartless selfishness. They are the natives of Australia and America; they are the Maories of New Zealand; they are the islanders of the Pacific. Our brethren are everywhere. (Canon Liddon.)

The difficulty of bringing a brother to Christ

It would seem the most natural thing in the world to urge one’s own brother to share in one’s faith before looking elsewhere for a new believer. Yet, as a matter of fact, one is more likely to shrink from speaking on the subject of personal religion to a brother who is out of Christ than to one who is a comparative stranger. A reason for this is that one’s own shortcomings and failures are so well known to a brother, that one often hesitates to urge the importance of a truth he is supposed to illustrate, but which he feels he represents unworthily. Andrew seems to have avoided this difficulty by saying nothing about himself to Peter. If Jesus were more prominent in the thoughts and words of believers, there would be less thought of self, and less embarrassment on that score, in pleading His cause with those who are yet aloof from Him. (H. C. Trumbull, D. D.)

Christ the inspiration of Christian effort

The Egyptian Memnon is represented as keeping silence all the dark hours of the night, but bursting forth into mystic strains of weird like music every morning just as the first rays of the sun kiss his lips. Like that idol, John and Andrew and Philip lived mute and inactive; but when the first beams of the Sun of Righteousness began to play around their hearts they began immediately to speak. The flowers require not to be sternly told to grow and blossom and make themselves beautiful; let the sun but shine and they will do it out of the gladness of their own hearts. Birds need not an almanack to apprize them that the month of May, the season for open-air concerts, has arrived. And once men have been in the presence of Christ they require he elaborate certificate to empower them to go and tell others of His beauties--the fire burns, and speak they must. Commission or no commission, be not ashamed to tell others that you have found the Saviour. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

Personal testimony

I was reading the other day about a minister who preached an elaborate course of lectures in refutation of infidelity for the special benefit of a man who attended his church. Soon after the man came and declared himself a Christian. The minister said to him, “Which of my discourses was it that removed your doubts?” The reply was, “Oh, it was not any of your sermons that influenced me. The thing that set me thinking was that a poor woman came out of the chapel beside me and stumbled on the steps, and I stretched out my hand to help her, and she said, ‘Thank you.’ Then she looked at me and said, ‘Do you love Jesus Christ, my blessed Saviour? And I did not; and I went home arid thought about it; and now I can say I love Jesus.” The poor woman’s word, and her frank confession of her experience, was all the transforming power. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The value of private Christian effort

The Niagara excites our wonder, fills us with amazement, perhaps with awe; but one Niagara is enough for a continent. That continent, however, requires tens of thousands of silver fountains and lucid brooks; and let me tell you--those clear springs and busy streams, whose names have never been registered in any geography, prove an inestimably greater blessing to America than the mighty Falls, whose fame fills the world. And God, now and again, once or twice in a century, raises a man great and gifted, a Niagara of a man, in whose presence the world trembles and admires. Yet the Church depends more for its prosperity upon the ten thousand happy souls who quietly and unobtrusively scatter blessings broadcast in every neighbourhood and throughout the length and breadth of our beloved country. Though you be but slender rills, yet let not the slender rills think they may as well cease flowing. God fructifies the world by small rivers; He saves the world by private Christians. (J. C. Jones, D. D.)

What is a missionary

The term comes from the associations of olden times, when tyrants ruled and made sport of human life. In those days when the world was not gladdened by the “glad tidings of great joy,” and upon the occasion of the gladiatorial combats, when one of the antagonists had smitten his opponent to the dust, he then had the right of life or death over that man. But the conquered man had one source of appeal, and by the lifting up of his finger he could appeal to the prince, and that prince had the power, if he chose, to send a courtier from his side down to the dust of the arena to separate the combatants and deliver from death the man who was appointed to death. The sending of that message was called in the Latin a mission, and the person sent a missionary. So down in the dust of the arena of this world are Satan and man. It is a deadly conflict. Man is smitten and undermost. He appeals to the King of all; yea, before he appeal the King of all anticipates. His only Son comes on a mission, and rescues man’s prostrate soul from Satan’s power. (R. Maguire, D. D.)

The joy of finding the Messiah

There was joy in the breast of the geometrician of Syracuse when he uttered his glad “Eureka” in the hearing of people who deemed him mad; there was joy in the soul of Newton when the first thought of gravitation burst upon his wondering view; there was joy in the spirit of Columbus in that moment of serene triumph over doubt and mutiny, when the tiny land birds settled upon the shrouds of his vessel, bearing upon their timid wings the welcomes of a new world; there is joy for the gold-finder when the rich ore glistens in his cradle; joy for the emigrant when after years of absence and hardship he first glimpses his boyhood’s home again; joy for the child when he is let into another and yet another of the marvels of the world, and claps his hands for very joy and wonder; joy for the poet when he sends a glad thought careering through the world and stirring the pulses of mankind; but oh I of all the joys that human hearts can be thrilled by, commend me to that when the glad disciple clasps a brother’s hand and says, “We have found the Messiah.” Then all doubt ceases, and fear is banished from the mind, and condemnation lifts its shadow from the spirit, and sweet peace nestles in the breast, and holy love throws itself upon the believing heart, and a newfound sense of reconciliation pulsing through the veins makes all creation more beautiful and brings a rarer melody than the music of the spheres, and throws a brighter azure upon the opening heavens. Is this joy yours? (W. M.Punshon, LL. D.)

What would happen if the example of Andrew were followed

If every disciple to-day were to call only one other person to Christ in each year, and that one were to call one other, how swiftly the world would be wholly converted! There are to-day millions of true believers in the world. But if there were only one hundred, see how quickly the work would grow. In less than twenty-five years the world would be converted, for this would double the number of disciples each year. First year, 100; second year, 200; third year, 400; fourth year, 800; fifth year, 1,600; sixth year, 3,200; seventh year, 6,400; eighth year, 12,800; ninth year, 25,600; tenth year, 51,200 (“Well,” says some one, just here, “that is rather slow progress, only 51,200 in ten whole years.” Go on, however, ten years more, and see how your numbers will look then); eleventh year, 102,400; twelfth year, 204,800; thirteenth year, 409,600; fourteenth year, 817,200; fifteenth year, 1,634,400; sixteenth year, 3,268,800; seventeenth year, 6,537,600 (it’s growing now); eighteenth year, 13,075,200; nineteenth year, 26,150,400; twentieth year, 52,300,800; twenty-first year, 104,601,600; twenty-second year, over 209,000,000; twenty-third year, over 418,000,000; twenty-fourth year, over 836,000,000; and in the twenty-fifth year, over 1,600,000,000, or more than the population of the whole earth. This shows the power of “ones” multiplied. (A. F. Schauffler.)

One convert wins another

Some time ago one of our people, who had herself been a drunkard, was standing at one of the open-air services on the waste, when she observed a woman who had formerly been one of her bad companions suddenly leave the crowd and walk quickly away. Hurrying after her, she found this poor drunkard in great distress about her soul. “Oh!” she said, “I listened to the speakers; but when I saw you standing there so wonderfully changed from what you used to be, I could stand it no longer.” She was induced, however, to return to the meeting, and then to attend the service in the hall, where she found salvation. She is now another living witness of the power of Christ to save the drunkard. May God preserve her faithful unto death! (General Booth.)

Dealing with individuals

Richard Baxter adopted the method of individual dealing with the parishioners of Kidderminster, bringing them to his house, and taking them apart one by one. He tells us that, because of it, he had reason to believe that more than a third of the grown-up inhabitants of the place were converted to God. The late Mr. Grant of Arndilly was so intent upon this habit of individual intercourse that in three months he had dealt with fifteen hundred souls, while the refrain of all his letters was “Speak a word for Jesus.”

Those who have found Christ must speak of Him to others

“I was visiting at my brother’s one time,” says a lady, “when Richard, his little boy, stopped suddenly in his play, and looked steadily at me for a minute. ‘What are you thinking about?’ I asked. ‘Are you a Christian, auntie?’ ‘I hope so, dear.’ ‘But you never speak of Jesus; if you loved Him very much, would you not talk about Him sometimes?’ ‘We may love a person without speaking of him,’ I replied. ‘May we! I did not know that. You love to talk of your brothers and sisters, and your papa and mamma, don’t you, auntie?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘And then you speak of other people and things you like; but you speak no word for Jesus. Don’t you love Him, auntie?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Then I should think you could not help speaking of Him sometimes.’” (Sunday School Union.)

Mission work must begin at home

You will never make a missionary of the person who does no good at home. If you do not seek souls in your own street, you will not do so in Hindostan. If you are of no use in Whitechapel, you will be of no use on the Congo. He that will not serve the Lord in the Sunday-school at home, will not win children to Christ in China. Distance lends no real enchantment to Christian service. You who do nothing now are not fit for the war, for you are in sad health. The Lord give you spiritual health and vigour, and then you will want no pressing, but you will cry at once, “Here am I; send me!” Oh, my friends, go at once to your families, to your workshops, and declare the name of Jesus I Oh, for more spiritual life! This is the root of the matter. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

A word in season

On Thursday last I picked up some “bread” which I had “scattered on the waters” more than ten years ago. I was preaching in Essex, and at the close of the service a gentleman came up and said, “Do you remember preaching a sermon on the 14th February, 1869, on the text, ‘Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed’“? “Oh, yes,” I said, “I do remember the subject and the occasion.” “That was the sermon that changed this heart, Mine has been another life from that night.” Ten and a half years that bread was floating on the waters!” Thou shalt find it after many days.” (J. Thain Davidson, D. D.)

Speak earnestly

There was a dying man upon his death-bed, and he was visited by his Christian brother. The dying man said, “I am dying. I know that I am lost, but I cannot help putting some of my ruin at your door. I believe you to be a Christian, I know you to be a Christian, but I do not recollect that you ever solemnly addressed me about my soul. You believed I was perishing, and yet you did not speak to me; therefore, as I cannot conceive you to be inhuman--for you were always a kind brother--I suspect you do not believe, as you say you do.” His brother said--“Iwas afraid of offending you. I did speak to you once or twice.” The brother replied, “You ought to have taken me by the shoulders. You ought not to have let me be lost. I cannot acquit you.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)