One day a leading man of the town arose in the tent meeting and confessed Christ and began to exhort his neighbors to believe. There was joy on earth, in our hearts, and in heaven, but not in Satin's camps. After a while this man went to his house, but long before he reached there his family had heard of his break with his past deluded life. His wife was in a rage, and when he came in the door she gave him a hard blow on the face with her hand. Mr Wang, in speaking of this later, said, "The time was when I would have beaten her sorely for having done this." But now there was another man in control. Yes, and he won that wife and the family to Christ.
This same Mr. Wang Yu Ling, whose wife slapped him when he believed, became a very interesting preacher. One evening when he was with me in the tent work, I preached first on "Calvary." After I was through I asked Mr Wang, as usual, to take his turn. I noticed he was weeping. He got up and through sobs and tears said, "I cannot preach tonight. Pastor Blalock has preached the cross as I never heard it before." Then he sat down and kept on weeping and did not attempt to speak that night.
Calvary is the nearest way to the heart of a true disciple, and the nearest way to the hearts of lost men, for it always expresses that love-beat of the heart of God. It is the lack of the heart-beat of God's love in our preachers that grieves me more than any of their other failures. Dear fellow preacher, what about you and me? Do we know the deep meaning of the cross, of His love? Has this throbbing heart of God's love filled our souls?
This reminds me of another experience when away north of the Yellow River with the tent. For a time no hearts were moved by our messages, and I went to bed with a heavy heart. Next morning, when I began to read a lesson for meditation and prayer I opened at the second chapter of 2nd Corinthians. In the fourth verse I was struck by the words, "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears." It was hard to get further than this verse. Then I called to mind Acts 20:31 and read it, "Therefore watch and remember that by a space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day with tears." An inexpressible feeling of condemnation came over me. I knew I had known no such love in my preaching to the Chinese. So deep was my sense of guilt that I felt I should resign as a missionary to this people. Worse than this, it seemed impossible for me to have such love. I prayed, "Lord, the people hate me, call me a foreign devil and other names. They hate Thy Word, too. How can I love them?" As I hesitated it came to me, "All things are possible with God." Ask Him. What He did for Paul He is waiting to do for you. Then He lead me to remember Romans 5:5, "And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us." Now the truth began to take hold of me that this was from above--Divine Love, and is not of our old nature, but a precious gift of God-like wisdom. If any man lack it "Let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not." So with love, it is of God. "The love of Christ constraineth us." Yes the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and the love of God who gave His only begotten Son is ours for the asking. From that hour I began to look away to the source of love, believing that He would surely give it.
I went back that day to the tent with a lighter heart, waiting on God for Divine Love. Soon after this, one day as I stood before people preaching this Calvary love, my heart began to overflow with a yearning, not my own, for these people. My eyes were full, too, and overflowing. I no longer saw people who hated and cursed me and rejected my message of life. Before me were men, precious men, for whom Christ died, I saw these immortal souls in the light of Calvary. Yes, it is one thing to know and eloquently preach the cross and the love of Christ, but it is another thing for this Calvary love to pour through us by faith like a great river overflowing its banks. That blessed love. It is for all of us in its fullness. (John 7:38) This was a great mountain top experience that has done much to keep me in the valley of humility, low at His feet, that I might see all men through Calvary's Rugged Cross.
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