“Christ Sent Me to Preach the Gospel”

It is an acknowledged fact that some sermons are more powerful in print than when delivered. The reverse, however, is even more true, for many really great sermons with far-reaching results would make but a poor show on paper. The desire has been expressed in several quarters for the sermons of Sadhu Sundar. Singh to appear in book form, and a Tamil edition of such a book has been published. But. those who know him best, and the true value of his work, feel doubtful as to whether such a book can possibly do him justice. Sadhu Sundar Singh is a good preacher; he loses no time in figures of speech, wastes no words on fine phrases. He is direct, clear, concise. Needless to say, he is in dead earnest, and leaves no single hearer in doubt as to the object he has in view. No hesitation in delivery or haziness of expression mars the effect of what he has to say. He never appears without a message straight from God, and his clear voice carries that message to the remotest limits of his audience, however large that audience may be. A tense silence and strained attention witness to the power with which he speaks. His calm and yet humble dignity of manner, as he stands

SADHU SUNDAR SINGIT with his small Urdu Testament in his clasped hands, is strangely at variance with his impassioned language and vigour of delivery. Not for one moment does any dulness creep in to give opportunity to heedless hearers to stare about.

Constantly in parable or from actual personal experience, Sadhu’ Sundar Singh illustrates what he has to say, and always aptly and strikingly. In lecturing to non-Christians he contends that religion is not a matter of argument but of experience, and proves very conclusively before he has done that this is so. However mixed his audience may be, none can go away without the deep impression of having heard the truth. Lovers of Jesus Christ are fortified in their faith, the careless are brought suddenly to a standstill and made to reconsider their position. Thoughtful non-Christians are brought face to face with the question whether Christ has any claim on them, and as a result many have been brought to the feet of the Saviour.

The real significance of the preaching of the Sadhu lies in his triumphant reaffirmation of the eternal things of spiritual life. The charm of the message has brought new life to many Christians who before his coming had scarcely felt the vital power of Christ in their own lives, and to whom religion was more or less a lifeless thing. For many of these the first flush of zeal and devotion for Christ had passed away, and the pressure of the world had blurred the heavenly vision.

But Sadhu Sundar Singh, coming fresh from the continual communion he holds with his Lord, stands amongst men in his Saédhu’s robes, filled with a message so persuasive, so insistent, so attractive, that once again is felt the power and the sweetness of a Saviour wellnigh forgotten. He draws his life, from God’s unfailing springs of joy, and communicates something of that joy to those who see and hear him, until they too are fired with desire to drink at the same fountain and share the same bliss.

His message to Christians is strong and impressive. It is urgent and compelling, pointing to higher and nobler ideals of living, which his hearers must heed or be left worse off than before he came.

In preaching to non-Christians he never attacks their religion or uses unbrotherly terms of reproach. But he fearlessly testifies to his own failure after long and painful search to find peace, joy, and satisfaction, apart. from God’s great revelation in Jesus Christ. Neither argument nor philosophy, but the inspiration which comes from the simple yet powerful testimony to the power of God to redeem from sin, is his method of drawing non-Christians to the feet of Christ.

The Sadhu goes back to foundation things: God’s love ; Christ’s witness in life and death to that love; the unfailing power of that love to save all who accept it ; and supremely Christ and His cross are his theme. He speaks of One he intimately knows; One whose power he has never ceased to experience from the hour when that One appeared to him as a boy; One who is his companion day and night, and for whom he has given up everything that life can offer. His hearers are conscious that before them stands a man who is LIVING © Christ as well as preaching Him.

Sadhu Sundar Singh’s own personality carries weight with his message. At one of his early meetings in the South, when his address was over, he sat down before the translation was completed, and it then became most difficult for the good translator to keep the attention of the audience to the end. At later meetings he remained standing until the translation was finished, when not an eye was turned away for a moment. It is nimself and his message combined that is powerful to influence those who receive that message from his lips.

The writer of Ecce Homo says :—

The first step towards a good disposition is for a man to form a strong personal attachment. Let the object of that attachment be a person of striking and conspicuous goodness. He will ever have before his eyes an ideal of what he himself may become. Example is a personal influence.

The Sadhu wherever he goes is able te awaken this feeling of strong personal attachment, and this power he © uses entirely to draw men to Christ. The crowds that constantly linger round that they may catch sight of him, and the honourable titles often accorded him voluntarily in places where he goes (such as Mahatma and Swami, indicating a partaker of the Divine nature), witness to this spirit of personal devotion. Devout Christians realize that if the Sadhu can awaken such feelings, how much greater loyalty and devotion may spring from the appeal of Jesus Christ Himself. And thus by his personality he leads men upwards to the one source of spiritual life.

Many young men in the South have desired to become his disciples ; but the advice of the Sadhu to all such is that they should serve God where they are and amongst those around them.

His chief work, the work he recognizes as that specially given him by God, lies beyond the limit of ordinary churches, amongst those inaccessible to their influence and suasion. ‘To the churches he comes to impart a deeper glow and sterner purpose, but he passes on his way without tabulating results, only leaving behind a burning message and an inspiring memory. His simplicity is a rebuke to all selfish love of the world, and his presentation of Christianity is caleulated to correct the erroneous idea that it is only a religion suited ae westerners in which India can have no share.”’

In Tibet, amidst a hostile people and in constant danger, this humble servant of Christ is carrying “ the message which is the heart of his own life.” Alone, in cold and hunger, without a place to lay his head, but filled with an absorbing passion for his Master and for the souls “sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death,” Sundar Singh toils over the snow-strewn wastes. That.solitary figure does not pass from His sight as it does from ours, for assuredly Christ walks beside him, works and suffers with him.

From those lonely heights comes back the echo of his own words, “‘ How ashamed we shall be when we meet in the presence of God and before saints and martyrs, if we do not live real Christian lives here!” These are not new words, but as Mr. Stokes once said, ““When they come from the lips of one who has long suffered hunger, cold, imprisonment, and persecution for his Master, they fall upon our ears with an awful authority and power.”

O God, O kinsman loved, but not enough! O Man, with eyes majestic after death,

Whose feet have toiled along our pathways rough, Whose lips drawn human breath!

Come, lest this heart should, cold and cast away, Die, ere the guest adored she entertain—

Lest eyes which never saw Thine earthly day ‘Should miss Thy heavenly reign.