"The Word That Stoops,"
Samuel Logan Brengle was an accomplished orator who had been
offered a highly prestigious position in a large Methodist church. So when he
traveled to England to offer his services to William Booth, the founder of the
Salvation Army, Brengle was surprised that Booth expressed reservations. “You
belong to the ‘dangerous classes,’ ” Booth said. “You’ve been your own boss so
long that I don’t think you’ll want to submit to Salvation Army discipline.”
Worse, on his second day at the Salvation Army’s training college, Brengle was
assigned to polish the boots of the other cadets in training:
The devil came at me, and reminded me that I had graduated
from a university, had attended a leading theological school, had been pastor
of a metropolitan church, had just left evangelistic work in which I saw
hundreds seeking the Savior, and that now I was only blacking boots for a lot
of ignorant lads. But I reminded my old enemy of the example of my Lord, and he
left me, and that little cellar was changed into one of heaven’s anterooms, and
my Lord visited me there.
Serve. It is a word easily forgotten. And it is not enough
to say, “Oh, sure, I would scrub floors for my brother,” or “I wouldn’t
hesitate to serve others.” Jesus didn’t say, “I have set you an example that
you should be willing to do as I have done for you.” He didn’t say, “I have set
you an example that you should agree in theory with what I have done for you.”
He said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for
you" (John 13:15, NIV).
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