After our Civil War, George Peabody, one of our noblest Americans, gave
his fortune for schools in the desolated south. He visited the White
Sulphur Springs. No king ever received so heart-felt a welcome. The
south laid the homage of grateful hearts at his feet. An aged bishop,
now in Paradise--Bishop Wilmer, of Louisiana, came to see him, and said:
"Mr. Peabody, I am a southern man, and my heart goes out in love for the
man who has been our benefactor. But, Mr. Peabody, if you are saved, it
will not be because you gave your fortune to the needy. You will be
saved, as the poorest laborer, for your faith in Jesus Christ." Mr.
Peabody said, "I know that. I do believe in Him; I do pray to Him."
"But," said Bishop Wilmer, "Mr. Peabody, the night before the Saviour
died for you, He instituted the sacrament of the Holy Communion, and He
left a request for you to come and receive it. He has a gift for you.
Have you ever come to His table?" Mr. Peabody said, "I never knew that.
No one ever told me. I knew about the Holy Communion, but I thought it
was for saints--men who felt sure they were going to heaven. I never
knew it was a place to come and receive a gift the Saviour had for me."
That day Mr. Peabody left the White Sulphur Springs. He knew that the
Holy Communion was to be celebrated in his mother's church, at Danvers,
the next Sunday. He reached Danvers Saturday, and at once called on the
pastor and said, "I am coming to the Holy Communion tomorrow. I did not
know it was my duty till a few days ago." And he did come. That was
royal faith. Not faith in water, not faith in bread and wine, not faith
in priestly hands, but faith in Christ. Such faith as little children
have who take the words just as they read and for all they mean, and
then are safe in the everlasting arms.
So let us to-day consecrate every thought and all we have to Him, and
giving Him the will go out to do His work. And He will do the rest. We
may fall in battle; we may sow the seed and die; but it will fall into
the ground and God will give the harvest. When we reach the other home--
not a place of bodiless shades; not a confused throng of nameless
spirits, but a home of brothers in our Father's house--next to seeing the
Saviour, next to having the old times re-united, will be the comfort of
meeting some one that we have helped home.
And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all
might, majesty, dominion and power, world without end. Amen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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