By Gipsy Smith
Hebrews 11:5 -- "By faith Enoch.. was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."
Please God and walk with Him.
In England there was a little girl who had heard her elders talk about Enoch being translated and although it wasn't all clear to the little child, she perceived the meaning plainly enough.
She said, "Mamma, he walked so far with Him that day that he forgot to come back and I expect God said to Enoch, You have come so far, just stay here. You have been there in the world long enough now; you must stay with me."
Had you known Enoch, you would have known God. I say that reverently. For to have walked with God as Enoch walked with Him is to interpret God to those about you. That is what spiritual religion means. So to take God into my life is to say, "Behold your God!"
Whether I speak or not, my life, if God gets His way with me, will reflect my Master, and yours will do that also. And if my life doesn't show Christ, it is wrong; and if your life doesn't do that, it is wrong. It breaks down somewhere. And why have you filled this building every day for three weeks? Why? Why are you here this morning? What has brought you? What has caused you to come through the rain, the inclement weather? What has aroused you? What has moved your city? What has arrested the attention of rich and poor alike?
What has made the topic of conversation throughout the city, the Revival? Is it Gipsy Smith? If you think that, you don't know anything about it. If Gipsy Smith stood on this platform and talked about any other subject in this world for six days, you couldn't fill this building. I might talk of things past, of things present, of things to come, and you might fill it once, but you couldn't fill it twice with any other subject than the Son of God. It is the gospel of the Son of God that has got hold of your heart. And somehow or other, you have a notion you have discerned a portion of His spirit in this poor body, and it is that which has brought you here, and nothing else in the world. Christ in me means hope for some one else.
It is the interpretation of God in human lives that is going to save the world, and you and I have got to learn how to interpret Him.
Abraham walked after God. And then we are told he walked before God. That is to say he followed his Lord and then walked so that the Lord watched him and could see his every movement. But Enoch walked with Him; walked side by side.
I wonder if you have walked after Him. I wonder if you have walked before Him. I wonder if you are walking with Him? I wonder if you have gone out of these services, during these past days, by His side, walking with a lighter step, with more joy in your soul, and with light in your eyes which never had been there before. I wonder if you have said, "I have seen the Lord." For that makes all the difference. When God comes into your life, my brother, my sister, Heaven won't seem far away. It will seem very close.
I tell you that from glad experience. Do you know anything about walking with God? Because if you do, your wife knows it. The first place it will be seen will be in your home.
A woman came to me not long ago and said, "Brother Smith, the Lord has revealed to me that I have to preach the gospel. I am a married woman and have twelve children." I took her hand and told her she ought to be the happiest woman in the world. She asked, "Why." I replied, "He told you that you have to preach the gospel and he has provided you with a congregation."
That is your place, Mother. Your place is in the home where your children are. That is your place, my brother, where your children are. Because if you can't preach Christ at home, on your doorstep, you can't preach Him anywhere else, with my permission. Right on your own hearth, that is the place, and I tell you, if you love Christ, you will understand what one of your own song-writers so beautifully expressed, when he wrote:
"And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share, as we tarry there,
None other has ever known."
I saw a mother here this morning, and her beautiful Christian girls were with her. They care for spiritual things. Why? Because their mother put those things into them when they were babies.
You walk with God, and your wife and children will be with you.
You dear, sweet people, you have got a kink somewhere. A twist somewhere. You would have won your family to Christ if it had not been for that. When everything smiles, and then breaks away, and becomes dark, and you do things which you learn to regret, then there is a kink somewhere. I had a person like that in my congregation when I held a pastorate. Well, that woman in my congregation used to pray for her husband at every prayer meeting. His name was John. I tried to get John into the Church. I made sermons for him. And I put nets around him. But, somehow or other I failed to get him. I had seen him deeply moved, and weep at the service, and I expected him to surrender next, but he never came. And I had conversions. There wasn't a Sunday in the four years of my pastorate that I didn't have conversions. And the people of my Church were on the lookout for converts. I had none of those people who sit on the back row and fly as soon as the Amen is pronounced. Some people do that, you know. She used to pray often and earnestly for John, but I didn't get him.
One Sunday night I saw him weeping and expected him to come to a decision, but he didn't. He did not surrender and my heart was disappointed and I couldn't sleep that night.
The next morning I went to his office (he was a business man) and requested to see him. "I am busy," was the answer sent out.
"Well, tell him," I said, "that I am also busy and will not go away until I see him."
And they told him and in a few moments out came the word, "Well, if you are in that mood, you'd better come in."
And when I got in, I said, "I want to talk with you in private. Please dismiss your stenographer." And when she had gone, I began:
"Now, then," I said, "last night God spoke to you, you didn't surrender to Christ, and I can't see why. I haven't been able to sleep because of your refusal. I was troubled because you didn't. I want to know if it is my fault, and if it is, I will get down on my knees and ask God to forgive me. I have seen you under the power of God and I have seen you go away without Christ. Is it my fault?"
"No," he said, "it is not. I love you. I respect you. I know I ought to come to Christ, but there are reasons."
It seemed as if ever a man was trying to be loyal to his wife, he was trying, that morning. I am going to know just what it is, I told him. "Well," he said, "Mary is a good wife, and a lovely woman, but she has got an awful temper. Last week she got into one of those tempers and that is what kept me out."
So that was it. Those are the stumbling blocks. You have to take people in this world as they are. The Devil will magnify the little things until they seem to block the path and you will keep people from salvation. It was his wife's temper, in that man's case.
"Oh, it is Mary," I said. "Very well, I will be ready for Mary next time."
And sure enough, that same week, Mary came to the prayer meeting and said, "Mr. Smith, when is my John going to be converted?"
"Whenever you get right with God," I replied. "You mean me?" "Yourself, Mary." "I know," she said, weeping. "It is my temper."
"Yes, that is the very thing that is hindering your husband."
Mary wasn't walking with God, when she was in a passion and looking ugly; and, you know, saying spiteful things is expensive.
"Boys flying kites, haul in their white-winged birds," but you can't do that when you are flying words. Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes seem as dead, But God cannot kill them, when once they are said. Some of you have broken hearts by cruel words and temper.
Scientists will tell you if you breathe into a glass tube when in a temper, you would find upon examination a sediment of poison in that tube that came out of you when you were in that temper. You are not like Jesus when in a temper.
Walk with Him; how blessed the way. May God help you! Enoch walked with God, and you and I can walk with Him in the same way.
