Sunday Service - 3 Mar 1946

There is a story of a widow and her only son whose name was James. James was a student in a public school many miles away from home and came to his mother only for the vacation. His mother was ill and bedridden for many years. One day when he came home for his vacation, he found his mother rather ill. He attended on her with all the devotion and love of a son. He gave up the company of his friends in order to spend his time with his mother. He ran errands for his mother and sat by her side nursing her with great care. The vacation came to an end and the time came for James to go back to his school. When the son came to say goodbye, she knew that she would be seeing him for the last time, for she knew her days were coming to an end. She kissed him fondly and expressed her gratitude to him for the love and devotion with which he had attended on her when he was at home. She praised him for the skill with which he had nursed her during her illness. James was very pleased and he said, “Mother if I do not succeed in life, I will at least be a nurse.” The mother replied, “James, success in life does not depend on what we get out of the world, but in what we give to the world. Remember James, in all your life put God first, others second , and yourself third.” Then she gave him her blessing and bade him farewell. James went back to school, but he did not know that he would not see his mother again. After some days he received the news of his mother’s death and was filled with sorrow. The parting words of his mother were always in his mind; they were a consolation to him. He was determined to keep those words always before him. He took a card and wrote on it ‘James the Third’ and kept it on his table in a prominent place. His friends who visited him wondered what the card meant. They asked him what interest he had in English royalty. He told them of the parting message of his mother and of what those words meant to him. ‘Success in life depends on what we give to the world and not on what we get out of the world. Remember, James, to always put God first, others second and yourself third.’ All of us want to be successful in life, but all of us do not have the correct idea as to what success is or how to get it. We are living in a competitive world. Many of us think that our success can be measured by the amount we can get out of the world. By fair or foul means get as much as you can get. Wealth, position, rank, influence – these are the things that make for success. It does not matter what happens to others, we must get what we can for ourselves. We think that the man who gets the most of these is the successful man. But when we consider carefully the men and women of the past who are truly counted successful, those who influenced the world for good and left a mark behind them, they are those whose attitude to life was to give

themselves to the world rather than to get anything by way of name, fame or power. They are the people who are remembered today. They are the people whose lives can be said to be truly successful. Others may have made a noise in the world for a time, but they are soon forgotten. They leave no mark behind them. They may have wielded great power during their life time; they may have had all the comfort wealth could command, but all for a time, and they leave no lasting benefits to the world. Surely, they were not successful men. Many names come to our minds – names of men and women who by their self-giving have made a deep impression in the hearts of men, whose work lives even after their death. Gandhi was such a person. The supreme example of self giving was found in our Lord. When we read the Gospel records we find how he spent his whole life in the service of his fellowmen. The one dominant desire in his life was to serve. The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life as a ransom for many. His self giving was even unto death. He knew what his life work was, and in order to make a success of it he was prepared to spend Himself to the utmost even unto death. His work was to bring man to a knowledge of God and to bring them into his fellowship. He called the whole nation to repent, to turn with disgust from their old ways and to walk in a new way. This was a dangerous message for him to get across to the people at the time. He was not content with mere words. He was determined to see things done. The result was that all the evil in the land and all the comfortable people, who were content with things as they were, combined against him. If he had thought of himself and his popularity and fame he might have come to a compromise with the leaders in the land. But he thought of his mission on earth and not of his safety. Two attempts were made to murder him. Even his followers deserted him. His mission seemed to fail. For a time he withdrew from danger, not because he thought of his safety, but because he found it necessary to do so in the interests of his work. It was the success of his work that was uppermost in his mind. He returned to the mountains on the other side of the Jordan and devoted himself to the training of his disciples, for he had work to do with them. He could not permanently live as a fugitive. That would have been to accept defeat and acknowledge that his mission was impossible. He had come to call the masses back to God. His message was for the common people. He must get back where the masses were, even though it meant death. So he chose the road to Jerusalem. On Palm Sunday he entered the city in the most public manner possible and received a tremendous welcome. For the moment his enemies were bewildered. But his popularity was only for a time. His enemies were too strong for him. They plotted against him and managed to have him arrested, tried and condemned to death. That was the end of his life on earth. It looked as if his mission had failed. But today, nearly 2,000 years later, we are able to say whether his work has failed or not. We know what change has been brought about in the world as a result of his life and death. We know what change came over the disciples themselves after his death. Men who had been fighting for places of honour, were ready for sacrifice. Like their master they too were ready to spend themselves in the service of God. All through the ages countless numbers of men and women inspired by the life of Christ have given their lives to the service of God and man. The most perfect example of a successful life is the life of Christ.