The Greatest Thing In the World and Other AddressesDrummond, Henry
ReligionComparative
The Greatest Thing In the World and Other Addresses
Drummond, Henry
Christian life; Christianity; Love -- Religious aspects
An old woman came out; seeing her rope broken and the clothes all
soiled, thought the boy was drunk, shook him, scolded him, and went
for the policeman. The boy with the shaking came back to
consciousness, rubbed his eyes, and got upon his feet. What do you
think he did? He staggered, half-blind, up the stairs. He climbed the
ladder. He got on to the roof of the house. He gathered up his tools,
put them into his basket, took them down, and when he got to the
ground again fainted dead away.
Just then the policeman came, saw there was something seriously wrong,
and carried him away to the hospital, where he lay for some time. I am
glad to say he got better.
What was his first thought at that terrible moment? His duty. He was
not thinking of himself; he was thinking about his master. First, the
Kingdom of God.
But there is another arithmetic word. What is it? "Added."
You know the difference between _addition_ and _subtraction_. Now,
that is
A VERY IMPORTANT DIFFERENCE
in religion, because--and it is a very strange thing--very few people
know the difference when they begin to talk about religion. They often
tell boys that if they seek the Kingdom of God, everything else is
going to be _subtracted_ from them. They tell them that they are going
to become gloomy, miserable, and will lose everything that makes a
boy's life worth living--that they will have to stop baseball and
story-books, and become little old men, and spend all their time in
going to meetings and in singing hymns.
Now, that is not true. Christ never said anything like that. Christ
said we are to "Seek first the Kingdom of God," and
EVERYTHING ELSE WORTH HAVING
is to be _added_ unto us. If there is anything I would like you to
remember, it is these two arithmetic words--"first" and "added."
I do not mean by "added" that if you become religious you are all
going to become _rich_. Here is a boy, who, in sweeping out the shop
tomorrow, finds a quarter lying among the orange boxes. Well, nobody
has missed it. He puts it in his pocket, and it begins to burn a hole
there. By breakfast time he wishes that money were in his master's
pocket. And by-and-by he goes to his master. He says (to _himself_,
and not to his master), "I was at the Boys' Brigade yesterday, and I
was told to seek _first_ that which was right." Then he says to his
master:
"Please, sir, here is a quarter that I found upon the floor."
The master puts it in the till. What has the boy got in his pocket?
Nothing; _but he has got the Kingdom of God in his heart_. He has laid
up treasure in heaven, which is of infinitely more worth than the
quarter.
Now, that boy does not find a dollar on his way home. I have known
that happen, but that is not what is meant by "adding." It does not
mean that God is going to pay him in his own coin, for He pays in
better coin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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