The Way to God and How to Find It by Dwight L. Moody (free reads txt) 📖

to put it on a pole in the middle of the camp; and He has declared that whosoever looks upon it shall live. The shout that you hear is the shout of the people when they see the serpent lifted up.” The mother goes back into the tent, and she says: “My boy, I have good news to tell you. You need not die! My boy, my boy, I have come with good tidings; you can live!” He is already getting stupefied; he is so weak he cannot walk to the door of the tent. She puts her strong arms under him and lifts him up. “Look yonder; look right there under the hill!” But the boy does not see anything; he says—“I do not see anything; what is it, mother?” And she says: “Keep looking, and you will see it.” At last he catches a glimpse of the glistening serpent; and lo, he is well! And thus it is with many a young convert. Some men say, “Oh, we do not believe in sudden conversions.” How long did it take to cure that boy? How long did it take to cure those serpent-bitten Israelites? It was just a look; and they were well.

That Hebrew boy is a young convert. I can fancy that I see him now calling on all those who were with him to praise God. He sees another young man bitten as he was; and he runs up to him and tells him, “You, need not die.” “Oh,” the young man replies, “I cannot live; it is not possible. There is not a physician in Israel who can cure me.” He does not know that he need not die. “Why, have you not heard the news? God has provided a remedy.” “What remedy?” “Why, God has told Moses to lift up a brazen serpent, and has said that none of those who look upon that serpent shall die.” I can just imagine the young man. He may be what you call an intellectual young man. He says to the young convert “You do not think I am going to believe anything like that? If the physicians in Israel cannot cure me, how do you think that an old brass serpent on a pole is going to cure me?” “Why, sir, I was as bad as yourself!” “You do not say so!” “Yes, I do.” “That is the most astonishing thing I ever heard,” says the young man: “I wish you would explain the philosophy of it.” “I cannot. I only know that I looked at that serpent, and I was cured: that did it. I just looked; that is all. My mother told me the reports that were being heard through the camp; and I just believed what my mother said, and I am perfectly well.” “Well, I do not believe you were bitten as badly as I have been.” The young man pulls up his sleeve. “Look there! That mark shows where I was bitten; and I tell you I was worse than you are.” “Well, if I understood the philosophy of it I would look and get well.” “Let your philosophy go: look and live.” “But, sir, you ask me to do an unreasonable thing. If God had said, Take the brass and rub it into the wound, there might be something in the brass that would cure the bite. Young man, explain the philosophy of it.” I have often seen people before me who have talked in that way. But the young man calls in another, and takes him into the tent, and says: “Just tell him how the Lord saved you;” and he tells just the same story; and he calls in others, and they all say the same thing.

The young man says it is a very strange thing. “If the Lord had told Moses to go and get some herbs, or roots, and stew them, and take the decoction as a medicine, there would be something in that. But it is so contrary to nature to do such a thing as look at the serpent, that I cannot do it.” At length his mother, who has been out in the camp, comes in, and she says, “My boy, I have just the best news in the world for you. I was in the camp, and I saw hundreds who were very far gone, and they are all perfectly well now.” The young man says: “I should like to get well; it is a very painful thought to die; I want to go into the promised land, and it is terrible to die here in this wilderness; but the fact is—I do not understand the remedy. It does not appeal to my reason. I cannot believe that I can get well in a moment.” And the young man dies in consequence of his own unbelief.

God provided a remedy for this bitten Israelite—“Look and live!” And there is eternal life for every poor sinner, Look, and you can be saved, my reader, this very hour. God has provided a remedy; and it is offered to all. The trouble is, a great many people are looking at the pole. Do not look at the pole; that is the church. You need not look at the church; the church is all right, but the church cannot save you. Look beyond the pole. Look at the Crucified One. Look to Calvary. Bear in mind, sinner, that Jesus died for all. You need not look at ministers; they are just God’s chosen instruments to hold up the Remedy, to hold up Christ. And so, my friends, take your eyes off from men; take your eyes off from the church. Lift them up to Jesus; who took away the sin of the world, and there will be life for you from this hour.

Thank God, we do not require an education to teach us how to look. That little girl, that little boy, only four years old, who cannot read, can look. When the father is coming home, the mother says to her little boy, “Look! look! look!” and the little child learns to look long before he is a year old. And that is the way to be saved. It is to look at the Lamb of God “who taketh away the sin of the world;” and there is life this moment for every one who is willing to look.

Some men say, “I wish I knew how to be saved.” Just take God at His word and trust His Son this very day—this very hour—this very moment. He will save you, if you will trust Him. I imagine I hear some one saying, “I do not feel the bite as much as I wish I did. I know I am a sinner, and all that; but I do not feel the bite enough.” How much does God want you to feel it?

When I was in Belfast I knew a doctor who had a friend, a leading surgeon there; and he told me that the surgeon’s custom was, before performing any operation, to say to the patient, “Take a good look at the wound, and then fix your eyes on me; and do not take them off till I get through.” I thought at the time that was a good illustration. Sinner, take a good look at your wound; and then fix your eyes on Christ, and do not take them off. It is better to look at the Remedy than at the wound. See what a poor wretched sinner you are; and then look at the Lamb of God who “taketh away the sin of the world.” He died for the ungodly and the sinner. Say “I will take Him!” And may God help you to lift your eye to the Man on Calvary. And as the Israelites looked upon the serpent and were healed, so may you look and live.

After the battle of Pittsburgh Landing I was in a hospital at Murfreesbro. In the middle of the night I was aroused and told that a man in one of the wards wanted to see me. I went to him and he called me “chaplain”—I was not the chaplain—and said he wanted me to help him die. And I said, “I would take you right up in my arms and carry you into the kingdom of God if I could; but I cannot do it: I cannot help you die!” And he said, “Who can?” I said, “The Lord Jesus Christ can—He came for that purpose.” He shook his head, and said, “He cannot save me; I have sinned all my life.” And I said, “But He came to save sinners.” I thought of his mother in the north, and I was sure that she was anxious that he should die in peace; so I resolved I would stay with him. I prayed two or three times, and repeated all the promises I could; for it was evident that in a few hours he would be gone. I said I wanted to read him a conversation that Christ had with a man who was anxious about his soul. I turned to the third chapter of John. His eyes were riveted on me; and when I came to the 14th and 15th verses—the passage before us—he caught up the words, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” He stopped me and said, “Is that there?” I said “Yes.” He asked me to read it again; and I did so. He leant his elbows on the cot and clasping his hands together, said, “That’s good; won’t you read it again?” I read it the third time; and then went on with the rest of the chapter. When I had finished, his eyes were closed, his hands were folded, and there was a smile on his face. Oh, how it was lit up! What change had come over it! I saw his lips quivering, and leaning over him I heard in a faint whisper, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” He opened his eyes and said, “That’s enough; don’t read any more.” He lingered a few hours, pillowing his head on those two verses; and then went up in one of Christ’s chariots, to take his seat in the kingdom of God.

Christ said to Nicodemus: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” You may see many countries; but there is one country—the land of Beulah, which John Bunyan saw in vision—you shall never behold, unless you are born again—regenerated by Christ. You can look abroad and see many beautiful trees; but the tree of life, you shall never behold, unless your eyes are made clear by faith in the Saviour. You may see the beautiful rivers of the earth—you may ride upon their bosoms; but bear in mind that your eye will never rest upon the river which bursts out from the Throne of God and flows through the upper Kingdom, unless you are born again. God has said it; and not man. You will never see the kingdom of God except you are born again. You may see the kings and lords of the earth; but the King of kings and Lord of lords you will never see except you are born again. When you are in London you may go to the Tower and see the crown of England, which is worth thousands of dollars, and is guarded there by soldiers; but bear in mind that your eye will never rest upon the crown of life except you are born again.

You may hear the songs